How Godfathers of CEO hire the best candidate

In September 2013, when Diageo wooed Anand Kripalu away from Mondelez to lead a company it had bought in India, it was a search firm that opened and closed the hiring. But in the industrious middle, it was the informal conversations that Ivan Menezes, global CEO of Diageo, had with three thought leaders of India Inc—Deepak Parekh, MA Alagappan and Ashok Ganguly—about Kripalu's suitability to head United Spirits that sealed this CEO search, say two officials in the know, requesting anonymity.

Read the Economic Times news report here.