Under Forty The Go-Getters

IMPACT makes another new beginning, with the inaugural edition of IMPACT 40 Under Forty to recognise extraordinary achievers who are 40 years of age and below in the Indian Media, Marketing and Advertising industry. Here, we outline the process of selection in brief and present the distinguished jury that met and deliberated to finalize the list.

As an industry, there are multiple awards that felicitate the individual achievements of young talent, as well as super-achievers with decades of experience, who are the stalwarts of the industry. But, there is a level of achievers in between – people who have significantly made their mark and are still below 40 years of age. These are people who have experience under their belt and are already emerging as leaders, either heading their organisations or being in the senior management. They are clearly on the trajectory of stepping into the category of the industry’s top leaders. Many among them are young entrepreneurs, as the growth of Digital has seen a spurt of entrepreneurship with new age companies being headed by people in their 20s and 30s. Therefore, the IMPACT 40 Under Forty list.

THE JURY DELIBERATIONS

A shortlist of 114 names was presented to the jury and this comprised comprehensive profiles of each nominee on the list.

While deliberating on the nominees, the jury members looked at people who went beyond what was their job profile. For instance, while a great campaign was applauded, the jury members looked to understand whether it was just a part of the normal job profile or whether the person was innovative, had taken a well-calculated and educated risk and done something out of the box. The jury also took into account the differentiator - how had the person’s work added back to the industry? Explains Jury Chair Apurva Purohit, President, Jagran Prakashan, “We didn’t reward people who are excellent at their jobs because that is very much the expectation. We rewarded people who have done something beyond being excellent at their job, which is either developing a new way of working, being innovative in the creative or media space or even being entrepreneurs and setting up a new business.”