High-power jury eye leadership in crisis for Forbes Award

A high-powered jury of top industry leaders met to discuss the nominations for the third Forbes India Leadership Awards 2013, reports CNBC-TV18's Gopika Gopakumar.

The awards will be presented in at a glittering event on September 25.

KV Kamath, Non-Executive Chairman, ICICI Bank was the jury chair, ably supported by Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, McKinsey India, Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Blackstone Advisors, Zia Mody, Senior Partner at AZB & Partners, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, Indian School Of Business and Raghav Bahl, Founder and Group Editor Network18, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of 52 contenders. The awards in ten categories span the breadth of corporate India from Start Ups to the established big guns in industry. The jury was looking for transformational leaders that have built a sustainable business.

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Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman (India), McKinsey & Co says, "When things are steady the need for transformational leadership is low. When things are volatile and the nature of opposition and threat is high that's when the need for transformational leadership is higher. Nobody can say that the next few years will be lees volatile than the last few."

KV Kamath, Non-Executive Chairman, ICICI Bank says, "Everything around us is in a state of flux as it were. The leadership should also be transformational, by which I mean a leadership which is able to understand the various forces that are at play and then deciding a path which is most appropriate."

The awards celebrate entrepreneurship, which is at the heart of the Forbes’ DNA. However, the ethical dimension of the nominee was key to the decision process. In the category Social entrepreneur for the year, the jury considered five outstanding nominations of business people who were doing well as well as doing good. Conscious Capitalist Company of the Year, was a category where five companies vied for the top spot. The nominations were short listed by the Forbes India editors and KPMG, the knowledge partners to the awards.