Tycoons 2009 saw participation by over two lakh college students from all over the country competing for the desired title. From first year students to the ones in their final year, the event attracted a number of young leaders in the making. It showcased talent which is spilled all around us; the need was just to tap it. “The core of Career Launcher is leadership. We try to inculcate this aspect in all our endeavours. Tycoons is an outreach programme for the Indian youth to engage in a very meaningful exercise. The experience of CL that these youngsters would have in terms of developing their leadership potential, is what we think is the right experience”, said Satya Narayan R, chairman and founder, Career Launcher, the company which organised the event.

The second edition of Tycoons spanned for more than two months. The idea was to judge the all-round personality of the participants and they were made to perform various tasks. It started with college level events which had written quiz for first round of selection. The selected ones reached the city level where verbal quiz and extempore became means of elimination. As the level increased, so did the competition. At the regional level participants had to go through group discussions, talent hunt round and debates. 32 finalists came for the national finals which started from March 15. The finalists were taken on outbound to Maldevta near Dehradun where they were evaluated on various traits like confidence, team-work, initiative etc. In one of the events the participants were divided into groups of 11. Three studetns in each group were blindfolded and the entire group was supposed to complete the uphill trek, guiding the blind folded team mates. It called for some bruises, but the participants felt that it was all worth it. “In the outbound I had two days of unlimited fun. We had to do many activites in a group which brought out our leadership skills. We had adventure sports like rappelling, river swimming, dragon tail etc,” said Harneet Singh, the winner of Tycoons’09.

There was also a social contribution round. The participants went to a project site of NGO Deepalaya, which educates slum children, and spent two days there. It was an eye-opener for many as the under-privileged hardly find a mention in our day to day lives. This was followed by an ad-making competition with Deepalaya as the theme, to see the conceptual clarity and creativity of the participants. “Basically we wanted to see how conceptually clear are the participants of the theme and aim. Do they know what to do and how to do? Do they know how to communicate effectively? It is about stimulus-response,” said Vijay Sharma, president-marketing, Career Launcher and one of the judges at the ad making competition. The experiences of the participants with the slum children dominated the whole session and many moving tales went on to find expression in the creativity. Then were the personal interviews. On the final day the six short listed finalists were asked to make a presentation on vision for India. “My vision for India is where air is clean, there is hygiene and people go to vote,” summed up Rajat Shetty, the second runner-up. Rajat was a wild card entry and it was a split-second decision for him to come to Delhi for the finals. The 32 finalists attended the leadership summit which had many sessions in which experts of different walks of life shared their experiences and views which act as pre-requisites to becoming a real-life leader. The question and answer session saw the bright leaders giving a run for life to these specialists.

The summit also saw last year’s winners giving useful tips to their successors for life. Abhishek Humbad, first runner-up, Tycoons 2008 said that the event’s experience changed him a lot. “There was a life before Tycoons and there is a life after that,” he said which received huge applaud from the audience. Sharing last year’s experience, he said that during outbound he was made to look down from a steep hill many a times and he was “totally freaked out”. Countering all those morally high ideals held by the humankind, he asked the youngsters not to feel contended in life. “Once I was in the final list I was sure of getting a laptop. But that was not enough. I think we should not be satisfied with what we have. We should ask for more and desire to be on the top all the time,” he said. Exuberating similar energy were this time’s winners. When their names were announced, they showed solidarity with the whole group and called out “cute” which was the code word of the 32 finalists. Harneet Singh from CBS, Delhi emerged as the winner of all-India Tycoons 2009 event. The first runner-up was Rohit Nair from UVCE, Bangalore and the second runner-up award went to Rajat Shetty from NMAMIT, Mangalore.

The cheer from the group was an indication that they were all well accepted winners, and hence truly leaders. Harneet’s parents were also present at the ceremony and had tears in their eyes seeing their 18-year-old son becoming a big name at such a young age. Harneet went till the regional level last year but could not qualify further. This time he was determined to make it to the final, and he became the final selection. “The feeling within me that I need to do something made me apply yet again,” said Harneet. The event was not only about winning and losing. It was about bonding too. Harneet and Rohit said that they were more happy for each other than themselves. Bani, one of the six finalists said that apart from laptop, mobile and a watch, the biggest take-away from Tycoons for her is the number of good friends that she made in the whole process. And mind you, they are tycoons too.

The two months saga had a preparation of many more months gone into it. If for Madhur Goswami, Tycoons co-ordinator, Career Launcher, there were many sleepless nights, then for Nishal Joseph, assistant manager, marketing, Career Launcher, it was a hard work of five months on his first project in the company. Right from taking care of operations to planning each and every detail of the events, they worked tirelessly with the whole team. “Our efforts were towards ensuring maximum participation,” said Joseph. Well, that worked!