Committed To Finding Excellence

Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram once said, “If you’ve got an idea, start today.” Well, back home, this seems to be the underlying mantra for most entrepreneurs. The most influential young leaders for the year under the age of 40 have built new businesses or are making a difference in the success of their companies and, in many cases, are making positive and lasting contributions to the communities. Some have created something disruptive in this world influencing and benefiting a large section of businesses, community, and the overall economy.

In its first year, BW Disrupt 40Under40 was presented by ICFAI University, which instituted a rigorous process of selection with the jury, BW’s editorial team and knowledge partner Grant Thornton (GT). GT reviewed and evaluated each application in detail to understand the business dynamics of the entrepreneur’s company, the role played by them and whether they fit the objectives of BWDisrupt 40Under40.

A systematic assessment was carried out on the long list using criteria predefined by the jury, focusing on areas such as business impact, contribution to the ecosystem, relative position in the industry and exceptional achievements. Rounds of discussions culminated in the selection of dynamic leaders through a special event held at Nasscom headquarters in Noida where the winners were felicitated by Anurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of BW Businessworld and exchange4media Group; Sudhakar Rao, Director, Branding & Communications ICFAI Group; Vikas Gambhir, Director, Grant Thornton; Murugavel Janakiraman, founder & CEO, Matrimony.com who spoke on business practices and how the startup ecosystem has evolved.

Here, we unveil details on the selected 40 entrepreneurs. Though not part of the top 40 list, this year, BW has introduced three additional top performing entrepreneurs of 2017 for their outstanding contribution. We interviewed all of them to find out their personal work preferences apart from business aspects, economic reforms and the current scenario on the ease of doing business. We discovered that perseverance is key to a majority of the entrepreneurs and some even laid emphasis on the risk taking ability as an important trait to be successful. Read on to know more.

Vaishali Dar

BW Reporters Vaishali Dar is a Senior Associate Editor with BW Businessworld and Editorial Head with BW Disrupt. She writes on corporates, start-ups, hospitality and travel