The Budding Leaders Contest 2020 is a multi-tiered, rigorous selection process with each step serving as an elimination round / filter.

Selection Rounds :-

Step 1 :- Apply via this “Preliminary Application Form” (Free).

Action Timeline :- Day 1.

Step 2 :- If your application is being considered for a “Shortlist” you may also be contacted telephonically (If needed) by our Talent Curation & Admissions Team representative to :-

• Seek clarifications on your application (If needed).
• Set clear expectations on what this program is & is not.
• Address / Clarify any queries you may have.

Within three working days of submitting your application, you will be notified by email / sms on your application status for the next round(s).
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Action Timeline :- Within Day 7. 

Step 3 :- If shortlisted, within the next three working days, you will be asked to submit your detailed responses to our specific queries via “Budding Leaders Foundation Assessment Form”. This will take you about 3-4 hours to properly complete.

Action Timeline :- Within Day 12. 

Step 4 :- If shortlisted, within the next three days, you will be asked to authenticate your credentials (Submit proof of your Academic, Extra-Curricular, Co-Curricular statements made in the form) & Submit a ~5 minute Video of yourself presenting your response to 5 specific questions. (This video can be shot on your mobile & is shared only with us to our official email via a Google Drive / Dropbox link & need NOT be uploaded anywhere publicly).

Action Timeline :- Within Day 20.

Step 5 :- If shortlisted, within the next three working days, you will be invited for a detailed telephonic assessment round.

‍Action Timeline :- Within Day 25. 

Fees :- Participating in the Telephonic round involves payment of a NON-Refundable, Non-Transferable Fee of INR 3000/-(Indian Rupees Three Thousand Only) to be paid by you EXCEPT if you are being considered for a 100% Scholarship (For Exceptional Performers), in which case there is NO fee due from you.

At this stage, our Talent Curation & Admission Team will let you know if you are being considered for a 100% scholarship, so that you can decide on taking this further / otherwise. 

This fee is levied to ensure that we invest our assessment efforts ONLY with students serious about our program. 

Also, kindly note that if you are selected after the Telephonic round & you decide to join our program, this fee paid is Adjusted against the payable fee (So that you don’t lose this fee, if you are serious about our program & match our expectations).

To illustrate, if you receive a 25% scholarship, since you would have already paid INR 3000/- (Before your telephonic assessment round), your total payable to join the program will be INR 40000 (Program Fees) – INR 10000 (25% Scholarship)– INR 3000/- (Paid before the telephonic round), i.e. Total payable by you for the Budding Leaders Foundation program will be INR 27000/- (Indian Rupees Twenty Seven Thousand Only).

However, kindly note that if you are NOT selected after the telephonic round (For any reason) or after being selected, you decide NOT to join the program within a week (For any reason), the fee paid will NOT be refunded / adjusted / transferred to anything / anyone else, for any reason whatsoever. 

You should apply to this round if & only if you are truly committed to this program & believe that you will be able to match / exceed our expectations. The payment (INR 3000/- Indian Rupees Three Thousand Only) can be paid by you via Credit Cards / Debit Cards / Net Banking / PayTM / UPI ( GPay, BHIM, PhonePe, etc), via our secure online payment gateway link that will be shared with you by our Talent Curation & Admissions Team, once you let us know your interest in taking this further. 

If you have any other queries in this regard, feel free to clarify the same with our Talent Curation & Admissions Team representative by submitting your queries via our “Enquiry Form”, so that there is clarity on expectations before progressing.

While your performance in the telephonic interview may give you clear indications of why you were shortlisted / otherwise & in the spirit of transparency / helping you become better, we will strive to share the reasons for shortlisting/ otherwise, like in any other professional interview (Employer / Business School / Any other Higher Education Admissions Team), kindly note that we reserve the right to reject any applicant for any reason we deem fit / necessary, without stating the reasons.

‍Step 6 :- Within three days of your telephonic interview, in most cases, your final shortlist / otherwise & the quantum of scholarship offered will be communicated to you. In some cases, we may also insist on having one more telephonic interview round, with our Founder CEO, if we feel the need to do so. In such a case, we will do the needful at the earliest mutually convenient time. 

Action Timeline :- Within Day 30. 

Step 7 :- If selected, we will invite you to join the program by paying the remaining dues in full, within 5 working days of our notification to you. 

Action Timeline :- Within Day 35.
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The selection process is designed to identify & evaluate potential members, comprehensively on multiple parameters including :-

I. Assessment of Future Potential :-

• Ambition levels & the Willingness to work hard & strategically for several years by investing adequate time, effort & resources to develop themselves to achieve their goals.
• Attitude, Intellectual Humility & the Openness to perpetually learn, un-learn & re-learn to excel in their career journey.
• Self Awareness – Assessed on multiple dimensions.
• Analytical Skills, with the ability to see the “BIG” picture whenever needed.
• Interpersonal Competencies – The ability to build relationships, influence & trust.
• Decisiveness – The ability to take well thought through decisions swiftly & honour the min letter & spirit.
• Communication Skills – Both Verbal & Written, with emphasis on clarity of thought & coherence.

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II. Evaluation of past track record :-

• Demonstrated Excellence – In Academics, Extra-Curriculars & Co-Curriculars at School & College.
• Leadership Roles & Responsibilities Held at School & College.
• Actual efforts invested at College / University so far in developing oneself including Initiatives undertaken, Projects Worked On, Internships Completed, Research Papers submitted, Blogs / Magazines / Books read, Extra-Courses completed, Workshops / Conferences attended etc, in their areas of passion & focus.
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Kindly note that while we value & respect academic excellence & believe that it strongly reflects the ability of a person to work hard & excel, our assessment goes much beyond this metric & evaluates our potential members on ALL the above said parameters to arrive at a decision of offering them our membership. 

The goal of the program is to select a group of highly talented, ambitious members & facilitate their strategic mentorship to evolve them on the fast track to excellence in their areas of passion & focus, by catalyzing their structured growth. 

‍Given this goal, we believe that our assessment should not be just on past track record, but atleast equally, if not more, on future potential, as potential program participants are young minds with a great advantage of time / youth on their side & hence can achieve literally anything, if given the right guidance, mentorship & support. 

LeaderClasses looks forward to providing this fresh approach to building awesome leaders.
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Timelines for Action for Budding Leaders Contest 2020 is outlined below :-

Preliminary Application Forms – To be processed in Two Groups :- 

a) Group One – Submission Deadline – Fri, 17th Jan 2020.

b) Group Two - Submission Deadline – Fri, 24th Jan 2020. Kindly note that our scholarships are limited & offered on a first cum first served basis. Hence, you are advised to swiftly complete your process.
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Entire Process ( 35 Days of action timelines outlined above) to be completed on / before :- Sat, 29th Feb 2020.

Budding Leaders Foundation Program 2020 Starts from :- Wed, 1st April 2020.
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LeaderClasses leverages :-

• Our Founder CEO’s experience of 20+ years in running multiple ventures at Chennai, India, New York USA & San Francisco, USA , after graduating from the Full Time, Post Graduate Program in Management from the Class of 2001, IIM Lucknow.
• Our Founder CEO’s experience of being a Retained Executive Recruiter for 15+ years ,strategically partnering with 35+ Top Tier Organizations (Including 15 of the Fortune 500) helping them access & successfully hire some of the finest Senior Management & Executive Level Leaders at the C-Suite & beyond, typically for roles offering an Annual Gross Compensation of > INR 2.5 Crores p.a in India and > US $500k p.a in the United States, in the process strategically guiding & learning from detailed executive career progression & strategic career management conversations with 10000+professionals from India, Singapore, HK, USA & Europe at these levels.
• Our extensive access to some of the world’s finest resources in the areas of Talent Management, Leadership Development & Strategic Career Management.
• Our extensive access to & intimate understanding of 2000+ of the world’s finest Organizations of diverse sizes, at a highly granular level – With detailed understanding of their Organization Culture, Growth propelling roles, Compensation Levels & Career Progression Assessment Models – Across Industries, Functions & Geographies.
• The Insights, Experience & Wisdom of 500+ of the world’s finest Pioneers, Visionaries, Business Legends, Futurists, Distinguished Entrepreneurs, Chairpersons & CEOs, Thought Leaders, Investors, Eminent Professors, etc distilled from various sources including Books, Magazines, Journals, Articles, Podcasts, Videos, Blogs, etc from Online & Offline Media,

to make this possible.

Our Budding Leaders Foundation Program provides a single, upto 12 month membership to our online portal (One unique user per membership. Sharing login credentials strictly prohibited) that enables participants to :-

• Access~60 Exclusive Videos on various topics of strategic importance (~15 Hours of high quality video content) presented by our Founder CEO (LinkedIn profile) online (One hour, every fortnight starting Feb 2020).
• Access & ~10 Exclusive Videos (~5 Hours of Video Content) covering our detailed response to specific member questions.
• Attend one live Online Class followed by a Q&A session to clear any doubts you may have, will be scheduled every 3 months for about 60 - 120 minutes.
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Budding Leaders Foundation Program Coverage

Part I :- Practical exposure to :-

• Organizational Levels & Designations across Companies, Industries & Geographies & what they really mean.
• Compensation Levels & How compensation levels increase - Across various roles, industries, geographies, companies, etc.
• Career Propelling roles & proven approaches to access & transition into them.
• Career Paths in various industries, organizations & geographies & ways to decide the best path for you.
• Opportunity Identification & Career Growth -Proven steps & Best practices to accelerate your career growth within/outside your current organization.
• Ways to build Fast track careers – The careers of that less than 1% of your peers build.
• Organizations, Industries, Technologies of the future being built worldwide (Especially USA, Israel, Germany, Japan, UK, India & Singapore).
• Myths & Realities of Startup Careers & Entrepreneurship.
• Learnings from the lives / experience of Business Executives, Entrepreneurs & Industry Fast Trackers to catalyze your growth.
• Industry Trends & Future growth areas in the industries of the future.

Part II :- Strategic Guidance & Structured Mentorship :-

• Creating an “Ambition Plan“ -Personal Vision & Long term goal creation with actionable milestones & short term goals.
• Actionable learnings fromFast trackers including possibly several of yourown Alumni.
• Addressing doubts,Clarifying uncertainties & trade-offs that arise while navigating Career & Higher education choices, globally.
• Approaches to building career paths you would love.
• Help build your profile & stature to position for success – Making informed choices in various areas including Internships, Projects, Paper Presentations, Contests, Event participations, etc.
• Effective networking to build meaningful relationships that matter – With Academia, Industry Executives & other ambitious students.
• Learning to learn Forever - Winning the career marathon.

Our Program Coverage, Videos , Assignments / Tasks & Online Live Classes aim to help you (Our Program Participant) clearly answer questions responses to which are extremely crucial determinants of your long term success.

An illustrative list of questions you will be able to answer clearly after completing this program, is appended.
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At this stage of my Career & Life :-

• How capable am I ?
• What should I aim for ? Why ? How to decide this ?
• What to achieve & How to decide this ?
• How to achieve what I want to achieve ? (For example, build / fast track a career I love & grow my business to the next level(s)).
• Who to Learn / seek guidance from & on What areas ?
• How to do this in the most efficient way saving my Time, Effort while significantly increasing my chances of success, without “Reinventing the wheel” ?
• What are my finest peers worldwide doing ? How are they accelerating their Careers & Success ? What & How can I learn from them ?
• What kind of mistakes have my peers made ? How & What can I learn from this ?
• How can I access the Leaders / create the opportunities, I want for my Career / Business ?
• How can I make others help me succeed ?
• What are the biggest trends shaping my world ? How can I leverage them for my success ?

While many people can respond to these questions, Insightful Guidance, responses to these & other crucial questions, with tacit, experientially learnt, expert knowledge from the world’s finest minds, can be very valuable & game changing in significantly enhancing the probabilities of your long term success.

In the absence of this Insightful guidance :-

a) Many end up NOT being successful ,
b) A few sub-optimally successful – After a LOT of effort, time & perseverance.

This success, AFTER “reinventing the wheel” is an extremely inefficient approach that takes consumes one of the MOST expensive & valuable things in a person’s life – HIS / HER Time & Youthful phase of life.

Simply put, our Budding Leaders Foundation program is designed to help you evolve into a Future Leader, in your areas of passion & focus, at a pace you set for yourself.
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At the end of the program, all program participants will be re-assessed via a Telephonic / In person interview with our Founder CEO & Possibly severa lother C-Level business leaders as well.

Subject to your performance in the interview meeting the bar of the Interviewer(s), you will be given an authenticated certificate (With a Certificate number) that can be checked for authenticity by any employer or Higher Education Institution, by connecting with us. 

As you can see, this ensures that :-

• Only deserving students receive our certificate.
• Our certificate has significant credibility (Since it is assessed by a national level process& with C-Level business leaders participating in your assessment).
• Our certificate becomes a valuable addition to your credentials, distinguishing your candidacy in the eyes of potential employers, Higher Education Institutions, etc.
• The Certificate cannot be faked / forged by others (As all of them have a unique number & can be authenticated with us by future employers, Higher Education institutions, etc).

a) Application Fees for the Budding Leaders Contest 2020 :- 

There are NO fees to apply for / participate in the first 4 Steps of the Budding Leaders Program,

Steps are detailed earlier under “Budding Leaders Contest & Scholarships 2020” FAQ while responding to

1. Can you provide more details of the Budding Leaders Contest 2020 ?

As detailed earlier, if you are shortlisted to Step 5, your participation in Step 5 of the Budding Leaders Contest 2020, requires payment of a NON-Refundable,Non-Transferable Fee of INR 3000/- (Indian Rupees Three Thousand Only) to be paid by you EXCEPT if you are being considered for a 100% Scholarship (For Exceptional Performers), in which case there is NO fee due from you. 

At this stage, our Talent Curation & Admission Team will let you know if you are being considered for a 100% scholarship, so that you can decide on taking this further / otherwise. 

This fee is levied to ensure that we invest our assessment efforts ONLY with students serious about our program. 

Also, kindly note that if you are selected after the Telephonic round & you decide to join our program, this fee paid is adjusted against the payable fee (So that you don’t lose this fee, if you are serious about our program & match our expectations).

To illustrate, if you receive a 25% scholarship, since you would have already paid INR 3000/- (Before your telephonic assessment round), your total payable to join the program will be INR 40000 (Program Fees) – INR 10000 (25% Scholarship)– INR 3000/- (Paid before the telephonic round), i.e. Total payable by you for the Budding Leaders Foundation program will be INR 27000/- (Indian Rupees Twenty Seven Thousand Only).

However, kindly note that if you are NOT selected after the telephonic round (For any reason) or after being selected, you decide NOT to join the program within 5 working days (For any reason), the fee paid will NOT be refunded / adjusted / transferred to anything / anyone else, for any reason whatsoever. 

You should apply to this round if & only if you are truly committed to this program & believe that you will be able to match / exceed our expectations. 

The payment (INR 3000/- Indian Rupees Three Thousand Only) can be paid by you via Credit Cards / Debit Cards / Net Banking / PayTM / UPI (GPay, BHIM, PhonePe, etc), via our secure online payment gateway link that will be shared with you by our Talent Curation & Admissions Team, once you let us know your interest in taking this further.

If you have any other queries in this regard, feel free to clarify the same with our Talent Curation & Admissions Team representative by submitting your queries via our “Enquiry Form”, so that there is clarity on expectations before progressing.

While your performance in the telephonic interview may give you clear indications of why you were shortlisted / otherwise & in the spirit of transparency / helping you become better, we will strive to share the reasons for shortlisting / otherwise, like in any other professional interview (Employer / Business School / Any other Higher Education Admissions Team), kindly note that we reserve the right to reject any applicant for any reason we deem fit / necessary, without stating the reasons.

b) Program Fees for the Budding Leaders Foundation Program 2020 :- 

As mentioned earlier, the fees for the Budding Leaders Program 2020 is INR 40000/-(Indian Rupees Forty Thousand Only) inclusive of all taxes. 

The fee is the same for residents within/outside India. 

After our selection process, if you are selected, upon receiving our notification to you on your selection & the quantum of scholarship offered to you (If any), you will be asked to pay the remaining fees in within 5 working days, if you would like to be a part of the Budding Leaders Program 2020. 

If you have been offered a 100% scholarship, then NO fees are payable by you to join the program. 

If you have any other queries in this regard, feel free to clarify the same with our Talent Curation & Admissions Team representative by submitting your queries via our “Enquiry Form”, so that there is clarity on expectations before progressing.
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If you are selected & join the program, you will also be eligible to attend exclusive member only events (Conferences / Seminars / Workshops etc) typically once / twice a year, to be held at specific locations within / outside India.

While these events are optional, they provide :-

• An opportunity to interact & learn firsthand from the research & experience of our Founder CEO.
• Build valuable relationships with your peers, equally committed to their excellence.

The fees for these events are NOT included in our Program Fees / Scholarship. 

Should you choose to attend these events, additional fees (For these events) as well as Travel & Stay expenses may be incurred by you. 

‍Other than these there are no other fees currently envisaged for this program.