Talent code at this year's ET Awards for Corporate Excellence: I, AI & ChatIND
economictimes.indiatimes.comIndia Inc's brightest, heftiest and edgiest. Last week, they were seated at a long table in their avatars as jury members.
Their job: to brainstorm, nitpick and cherry-pick winners of this year's ET Awards for Corporate Excellence.
«It's good to be back,» said N 'Chandra' Chandrasekaran, chairman not just of Tata Sons, but also of the day's jury, who had earlier been chair for the 2017 ET Awards jury. Bringing an extra shade of colour to the table and the room were Prabha Narasimhan, CEO, Colgate-Palmolive India, in ultramarine and Lakshmi Venu, joint MD, Sundaram Clayton, in burgundy.
During a deep dive on what comprises 'conflict' in a jury — in this case, Chandra recusing himself during the discussion and voting of the Business Leader of the Year since one contender (and ultimate winner) was Titan managing director CK Venkataraman — the ever-wisecracking Uday Kotak, founder, Kotak Mahindra Bank, wondered whether the chairman should recuse himself from every vote and discussion since he «pretty much knew details about everyone in industry».
This wasn't before Chandra, with his trademark smile, semi-quipped that he also knew the other top contender for the Business Leader of the Year category «very well».
Tieless and tireless, Cred CEO Kunal Shah and Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath brought a tech rizz to the table, Shah peering over the nominee dossier as if he was deciding where to put his next round of investments.
