India Inc debates the big question and lauds the performers of the year
On Wednesday, the Forbes India Leadership Awards at the Trident in Mumbai was a celebration of all-weather leadership – the men and women who held firm, even grew stronger, against the odds. The awards were interspersed with zippy, Oxford-style debates that were moderated by Adil Zainulbhai, chairman of McKinsey India. Anand Mahindra, who won the flagship Entrepreneur of the Year award, summed up the evening in his tweet today: “Grateful for all the good wishes on the Leadership Award. Kudos to @forbes_india for an entertaining and unconventional event format.”
The evening began with Phanindra Sama, co-founder and CEO of redBus.in, getting awarded in the outstanding start-up category. In his acceptance speech, the 32-year-old spoke about the Ibibo Group’s acquisition of his company, saying it wasn’t a tough emotional exit as they were happy to have been able to raise capital. The spotlight moved to Tarang Jain next; the 51-year-old MD of Varroc Engineering was named Nextgen Entrepreneur of the Year. Jain, who stressed on sustainable growth in times of super-normal growth, thanked his mother (Rahul Bajaj’s sister) and wife and accepted the award on behalf of his 11,000 employees.
Next in line was IKSL’s Ranjan Sharma, who won the coveted Entrepreneur with a Social Impact award, for bridging the information divide in rural India and building a network to provide valuable information to farmers through voice messages. Will the farmers be ready to pay for such services? Sharma was positive. “…when farmers see that it is making a difference to their lives, they will,” he said.
After the first three awards, it was time for the opening debate of the evening, featuring Mohandas Pai (speaking for the motion), chairman of Manipal Global Education, and Marico’s Harsh Mariwala (against), on whether it made more sense to invest in India than abroad. When queried later, Mahindra struck the middle path by saying we should do both, the audience, with remote controls at their desk, overwhelmingly voted for Pai (77 percent).
The scene shifted back to the awards with Hindustan Unilever winning the Conscious Capitalist of the Year award for its focus on reducing the environmental footprint and trying to engage the local producers in a sustainable manner. Collecting the award on the company’s behalf, R Sridhar, chief financial officer, explained why consumer is the king. “If you do the right thing by our consumers, all the stakeholders will get properly rewarded,” he said.