FILA winners: Model leaders

The Forbes India Leadership Awards (FILA), now in their eighth year, have come to be trusted as among India’s most prestigious business honours, with an emphasis on excellence, innovation and transformational leadership.

Our distinguished jury members have raised the bar of our selection processes over the years, through meticulous feedback, relentless rigour and unyielding adherence to criteria beyond vanity metrics. Besides the quantitative data, such as operating performance, efficiency measures, management metrics, capital market performance, evaluation against peers, it also lays great emphasis on qualitative parameters such as effective management of all key stakeholders.

A perfect epitome of such accomplishment is our Lifetime Achievement Award winner this year, Azim Premji, who has not only built a world-class technology services corporation, but also pledged much of his personal wealth to philanthropy. Energy Efficiency Services Limited, which bags the Best Company—Public Sector award, has been impacting the lives of millions of Indians by revolutionising the country’s energy savings sector.

Equally illustrious achievers are HUL’s Sanjiv Mehta (Best CEO–MNC), Bajaj Finance’s Rajeev Jain (Best CEO—Private Sector) and Entrepreneur of the Year, Vivek Chaand Sehgal of Motherson Sumi, who have not only maintained enviable growth rates but are also leaving an enduring influence on their businesses and industries, and inevitably on wider societies.

Our awards across nine categories seek to acknowledge the outstanding contributions of CEOs, entrepreneurs and business leaders of diverse backgrounds—from startups and mid-sized firms to more mature organisations of global scale—many of whom have braved economic headwinds over the past year, including currency and commodity rate fluctuations, global economic slowdown and international trade frictions.   

Methodology
The process started almost six months ago, with extensive research on qualitative and quantitative parameters. The long-list of names for each category was whittled down by August and narrowed down to a strong set of three to five nominees for each category. In September, a high-powered jury headed by Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico Ltd, examined the nominations and came up with the set of winners. The other members of the jury were Ashu Suyash, MD and CEO, Crisil; Noshir Kaka, director (senior partner), McKinsey & Company; Ronnie Screwvala, serial entrepreneur and co-founder and chairman of UpGrad; Sanjay Nayar, CEO, KKR India; and Saurabh Mukherjea, founder, Marcellus Investment Managers. Together, they bring years of experience in the corporate sector to the jury. KPMG, Forbes India’s knowledge partner for the event, helped with the number crunching which is so vital to the process.