Ralph Coverdale (1918–1975) was a British soldier, psychologist and business consultant. He established The Coverdale Organization and the Coverdale Training method. He has been credited as a founder of coaching as a business practice in British industry. Coverdale worked for years with experimental psychologist Bernard Babington Smith to develop the Coverdale Training method, a method of learning through action—later termed 'action learning' or 'inductive learning'. Ralph Coverdale died in 1975 at 56 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.