95 articles
Leadership often carries two origins: training within institutions, or the legacy of inheritance. Monieka Khanna was shaped by neither. Her journey began not in boardrooms or policy schools but in a dance studio, an arena where rhythm, silence, and presence mattered more than titles.
Jeevika Tyagi walked away from a prestigious global career to build companies grounded in truth rather than theatrics. Through Honestly One and aastey, she has built systems that prioritize transparency, purpose, and emotional resonance over shortcuts or hype. Her leadership blends resilience, discipline, and radical honesty, facing setbacks, public scrutiny, and structural bias without ever masking vulnerability. Her journey shows that authenticity isn’t a tactic but a long-term architecture, and businesses built on it may bend under pressure but rarely break.
Sanjeev Sahgal’s leadership story is defined by quiet power, deep sincerity, and systems that prioritize trust over control. From selling fax machines to leading people strategy across Motorola, Genpact, Target, the World Bank Group, Mercy Corps, and now Assurant, he has built a career grounded in presence, clarity, and curiosity, not charisma. His philosophy centers on designing cultures where people feel safe, supported, and seen, using trust as infrastructure and humility as strategy. Across continents and crises, his impact has remained the same: he reshapes organizations by reshaping how they treat their people.
Vaibhav Srivastava’s path is defined not by the opportunities he took, but by the ones he walked away from with clarity, dignity, and an unwavering sense of alignment. His philosophy centers on absorption over adoption, ROE over hustle, and leadership rooted in trust, patience, and systems that outlast individuals. Across two decades, he has shown that real transformation begins in quiet rooms, with honest intent, thoughtful design, and the courage to build slowly but sustainably.
Murali Bukkapatnam champions a founder’s inner architecture discipline, truth, and emotional strength long before capital enters the room. His vision reimagines mentorship as public infrastructure and entrepreneurship as a slow, steady craft built on systems, not shortcuts. Through models like 1x10x100, he’s shaping a distributed, dignified startup culture where confidence and capability rise from every district, not just the loudest hubs.
Dr. Neeta Bali is a four-decade education leader who transforms schools by listening first, aligning people before policy, and leading with empathy rather than authority. She champions resilience, life skills, and emotional well-being over marks, believing the true impact of education is measured in lives shaped, not grades earned. Her philosophy is simple but profound: protect the child, empower the teacher, and build schools that prepare young people not just for exams but for life.
Rimjhim Ray builds with intention, choosing substance over buzz and solving real problems for real people. Her journey from engineer to strategist to founder anchors a philosophy of meaningful innovation, resilient pivots, and service to overlooked communities. At the core is her belief that consistency, ethics, and quiet, steady progress create impact that outlasts trends.
Chandni Jafri is a systems-builder who has repeatedly shaped industries before they were even named, digital media, financial content, angel investing, sustainability, and cultural intelligence. Her leadership is rooted in intuition, pattern recognition, and a deep ability to sense what the market is ignoring rather than what it is celebrating. Whether monetizing early digital platforms, professionalizing angel investing, or designing sustainability pilots, she consistently builds architecture where no playbook exists. Her work proves that the real frontier is not disruption for visibility, but disciplined, context-driven creation that aligns people, purpose, and systems with lasting clarity.
Rajeev Krishnan’s journey shows how real leadership is shaped not by titles or milestones but by modulation, self-awareness and a deep belief in people. From turning around a failing store to leading large organisations with clarity and compassion, he built cultures that breathe and systems that endure. His story is a quiet reminder that growth begins within and leadership is a daily choice, not a moment of recognition.
Sunny Nagpal blends neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and identity work to help leaders stop performing leadership and start embodying it. His frameworks ALIGN, DIAMOND, and BREATH recalibrate the nervous system so clarity, confidence, and purpose become natural states rather than forced behaviors. He teaches that sustainable leadership isn’t built through charisma or hustle, but through inner coherence, emotional hygiene, and the courage to lead from the soul outward.
Aditya Sandhu leads with a quiet strength shaped by years spent moving from rural markets to global boardrooms, learning to listen deeply before acting. His career across ITC, Udaan, Nykaa, and now VLCC shows a consistent pattern: build fast, but never at the cost of clarity or culture. He turns messy problems into coherent systems, modernizes legacy businesses with respect, and leads teams through pressure with honesty and intent. His story is a reminder that real leadership isn’t loud or dramatic, it’s steady, grounded, and earned through presence, patience, and precision.
Zaran Bhagwagar is redefining India’s venture landscape by choosing depth over noise backing just three high-conviction startups a year and co-building them with disciplined attention. His philosophy, shaped by shop-floor lessons and years of deliberate grit, rejects vanity metrics in favor of alignment, value creation, and long-term resilience. In an ecosystem obsessed with speed and scale, he’s building habitats where meaningful ventures not momentary headlines can actually endure.