India’s Hottest Young Executives.doc

India?s Hottest Young Executives Humans are wired to be more interested in young people. “Hypothetically, if your grandmother wrote the best song in the world, no one would care,?blogs workplace satirist Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. Provocative as that sounds, it is difficult to deny the fascination the world has for young achievers. Given India?s demographic tilt in favour of youth, combined with the threatening skill shortage that companies face, the onus of spotting achievers early is becoming a survival strategy for most organisations. As Business Today unfolds its seventh edition of India?s Hottest Young Executives, or HYEs, it becomes clear that what began as a project to record the change in Corporate India?s leadership profile – that was opening up to younger leaders in 2002 – is today turning out to be a definitive list. Fast movers such as Salil Parekh (now a member of Capgemini Group?s Executive Committee) or Nirvik Singh(now CEO, Grey Group, Asia Pacific) featured in our first list have gone on to take global mandates (see Past HYEs Forge Ahead on page 52). Manisha Girotra has become CEO of the banking operations of UBS from being the head of UBS Securities in India. Thanks to a fairly constant set of counsellors (see The Panelists) who help us unearth young achievers every year, we have been able to include people from diverse sectors and companies outside the comfort zones such as Hindustan Unilever, Tata Group and GE, or even companies in investment banking and financial services or information technology. So, how do we do it? It is a good question to ask, given that companies are paranoid about revealing their gems for competitive reasons. Luckily, with the best headhunters on our side, we have been able to at least identify candidates. We have Kalyani S., Associate Director at Stanton Chase International, Toral Patel, a Senior Director at Accord Group India, Hastha Krishnan, Director President of Ma Foi/Randstad, and Purvi Sheth,