MC Insider | Fishing for secrets, family office shift, and a Shivaji-inspired birthday bash

Corporate espionage has taken a new disguise: recruitment interviews.

Word is that some large companies are quietly hiring top-tier consulting firms, which in turn lean on recruiters to “interview” former employees of rival firms. The lure is a promising job offer, but the real goal is to extract intel.

The information is then fed back to their rivals, helping them shape their strategy on pricing, ops, and market expansion. With the tactic catching on, companies are making senior executives sign ironclad NDAs that forbid sharing even a hint of proprietary info.

Caveat: your job pitch, alas, is nothing but a fishing expedition for secrets.

There have been murmurs around this private banker lately. Not that he’s losing any sleep, having cashed a few hundred crores by selling part of his stake in the firm. But the chatter now is about where his attention is shifting. It’s not uncommon for the rich to run their own family offices, but the word is, this seems to have become the banker's focus lately. So, is he now spending more time with his family office than at his day job? That’s what many are wondering.

Last week, we tipped you off about a birthday bash of a prominent founder, and it seems the event lived up to the occasion. The evening opened with heartfelt tributes by the founder’s parents in front of a guest list that included marquee investors, top bankers, founders, renowned authors, and more.

The highlight? A high-voltage performance by Shankar Mahadevan that had the guests dancing to hit numbers from movies such as Dil Chahta Hai. The party struck all the right notes.

One memorable moment, we hear, was a session on the legendary Maratha king Shivaji, whose fearless battles and strategic conquests pushed back foreign invasions and expanded his dominion.
On a personal note, we hear this founder would now only be celebrating birthdays based on the Hindu calendar.