Business school students across the country are getting an opportunity to shadow a CEO for a day. The ‘Shadow a CEO’ event, currently in its 7th year, is a philanthropic initiative organized by the Indian School of Business, in collaboration with the Give India Foundation, as a part of Daan Utsav (formerly the Joy of Giving Week).
The programme is open to current students of ISB and a few select top business schools such as IIM-A, IIM-B, IIM-C, IIM-L and XLRI. The students will participate in an online auction to be held from October 6 to 9, 2016 during Daan Utsav. The students bid for the CEO of their choice in a live auction, which is followed by the CEO contributing an equal amount, if not more. The collective corpus goes to a charity of the CEO’s choice.
The objective of this programme is twofold – engage B-SchooI students in the act of giving and provide them with an opportunity of spending a day with a CEO, to imbibe valuable leadership lessons. The number of CEOs participating in this initiative has steadily increased over the past several years, and has helped in raising awareness about the concept of social responsibility in corporate India.
The anticipation and excitement associated with this event has reached peak levels at campuses across the country. Shivangi Singh, a student at ISB, said, “I’m really excited at the prospect of shadowing a CEO! I would love to see how C-level executives go about their day and make their decisions while managing a wide spectrum of tasks throughout.”
This year, some CEOs who have agreed to participate include Kumar Mangalam Birla of the Aditya Birla group, Ajay Piramal of the Piramal group, Sudhanshu Vats of Viacom 18, Uday Shankar of the Star India group, Shaheen Mistri of Teach for India, Umang Bedi of Facebook India, Rahul Khosla of the Max Group, Keki Misy of HDFC, Saugata Gupta of Marico, and many more.
Meghna Uttamchandani, a student at ISB and marketing coordinator of the programme, said, “The interest shown by students this year has been unparalleled. We are looking forward to a very exciting bidding window ahead. Spending a day with a CEO is not only inspiring but also a hands-on lesson in leadership & decision making. This event has grown significantly over the past three years, and we hope to make it bigger than before.”