For management students of the Indian School of Business (ISB), spending a day with a corporate honcho of their choice like N. R. Narayana Murthy and K. V. Kamath is just a few bids away.
Providing an opportunity for the students to be with the country’s renowned business personalities, the Hyderabad-based ISB has come up with the ‘Shadow the CEO’ programme, where one can bid for a person of their choice.
As of now, a total of 17 people can be bid for, apart from Infosys chief mentor Murthy and veteran banker and ICICI Bank’s Non-Executive Chairman Kamath. Other prominent names in the list include HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh and Godrej Group’s Chairman Adi Godrej.
Besides, Chairman of Piramal Group Ajay Piramal, Biocon’s Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar, GV Prasad of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Indu Projects Chairman and Managing Director Syam Prasad Reddy are also participating in the bidding process.
“This initiative will help in raising awareness in corporate India about social responsibility. It also drives home the fact that the focus of B-schools is to lay emphasis not only on academics and research but also on building social responsibility,” ISB Manager Marketing and Communications Varshaa Ratnaparke said.
Students can bid for their favourite leaders through an open auction and the winner would be able to spend a day shadowing that person.
Moreover, the funds raised would be donated to an NGO of the person’s choice. The online auction would begin from September 21 to 23.
For the bidding process, Ms. Ratnaparke said that 20 corporate honchos have confirmed their participation and many more are expected.
Once the auction is complete, the top three bidders for each CEO would be shortlisted. The selected ones would then be asked to give a ‘Letter of Intent’ on why they are bidding for a particular person.
A panel comprising ISB faculty and administrative members would review these letters and decide collectively on the “most deserving student” to shadow the individual, Ms. Ratnaparke said.
Once the announcement of the successful bidder is made, the particular corporate honcho can match the amount raised by the students with equal or more. The funds would then be donated to an NGO of his choice.
