Along with colleague Stuart Hart, C.K Prahalad is widely thought of as a godfather of the base of the pyramid hypothesis. We've noted before that both Hart and Prahalad are garnering much-deserved recognition for their work in this field (full disclosure: C.K. Prahalad is a member of WRI's Board of Directors.)

Not surprisingly, the accolades continue. BusinessWeek has put out a "Best of 2005" feature, including a "Best Leaders" slideshow featuring - among others - Prahalad's profile:

Getting perspective on how we make decisions is useful, but to delve more deeply into the art and science of leadership, Big Business turns to strategic thinker C.K. Prahalad. Prahalad, with a partner, coined the term “core competence” in 1989. His new mission, laid out in his recent book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits, is to get multinational companies to realize that the world’s 5 billion poor represent a huge growth market for the right business model—and make up a huge pool of future innovators.

(Via loyal BusinessWeek reader and NextBillion fan David Katz)