HERO’S WELCOME. Fan frenzy at TVK leader Vijay’s poll rally | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B

Did voters in Tamil Nadu see actor Vijay as an agent of change, or were they simply starstruck? Enterprises are no different; they have a penchant for hiring leaders with aura. “I want resumes from Google, Apple, Amazon,” is something you will frequently hear if you are in the technology industry. When hiring, organisations are often enamoured by qualifications, brands, and persona, and tend to throw caution to the winds. The usual filters applied when recruiting or promoting take a back seat due to the star allure and lead to wrong appointments.

If you are of my era and follow cricket, you wouldn’t forget how the experiment of appointing the once-in-a-generation batter Sachin Tendulkar as captain and India’s possibly best all-rounder Kapil Dev as coach went.

Star tantrums

A senior sales head of a Fortune 100 company was being assessed for a rival firm, and he kept posturing in different ways during the interviews as though he wasn’t even interested in this career move. He would say things like “you know I travel only business class” when he had to meet the board members in another city. For the next round of interviews, he made sure the chairman got invited to the golf club he was part of, to show off his peer network there. But then his demeanour, pedigree, the brand he was employed with, and his social status influenced all the people who processed him. The HR team struggled to manage him through the offer process, as he would deny them easy access. However, he had managed to charm the board and the CEO so much that all the enabling functions had to put up with his tantrums during his onboarding.

The brand

When I joined the recruiting industry a couple of decades ago, the craving to hire leaders from GE was rampant as there was a big aura around its leadership development. Whether it’s Microsoft, Meta, and Nvidia in the tech world, or Unilever, P&G, and Britannia in the consumer industry, every segment has a set of marquee brands. The innovation, the product range and their longevity have come from the quality of the people they have hired and developed over decades. The adulation by their rivals and the aspiration to hire them is definitely understandable. I once had a huge argument with a client as to why she was so biased about hiring from big brands. She said, “Look, these Fortune 500 enterprises have evolved processes to hire, train, and develop employees. So, when someone has long tenures in such reputed companies, I believe they imbibe many of the qualities those companies have institutionalised.”

I could relate to it. When I quit my first job at Eli Lilly, many competitors interviewed me and that feeling was special, even though none offered me a job. Remember the expectations shareholders had when Starbucks hired its CEO from McKinsey. Alongside BCG and Bain & Company, the Big Three consulting companies are a huge draw with students at campuses too.

The pedigree

Try slipping in the resume of your favourite nephew who has great grades from a non-IIT engineering college in a FAAMNG — Meta (formerly Facebook), Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and Google (Alphabet) — company. You may be told that they only go to IITs and BITS for internships and campuses. Though we keep hearing that skills matter more than pedigree for graduate recruitment, large enterprises are quite hardwired to favour premium institutes. How can we ever deny our biases towards people from IITs and IIMs? I know of leaders who have interviewed Stanford and Wharton graduates, even though they didn’t have any matching roles. I am sure you’ve seen people flaunting their Harvard alumni status on LinkedIn even if they were there for just a five-day course. If your kids want to study abroad, wouldn’t you want them to go to an Oxford, Yale or NYU?

Devil wears Prada

One of my bosses had a habit of walking up to the gate to see off the jobseekers he interviewed. Many of us, including the candidates, thought of him admiringly: “What a gesture and a humble leader”. But turns out he was merely observing people, to find out which vehicle they drove and, in turn, their taste. Sounds crazy, right? But when hiring CXOs in service industries, their look, manner of speaking and behaviour become crucial.

Many years ago, during a merger, we had a new boss from Australia. Our thoughts were on the new plans for the region and our career growth after the acquisition. However, the post-town hall discussions were about the Tiffany’s bag she carried, the branded jewellery she wore, and the Range Rover she arrived in. It wasn’t her fault that she dressed stylishly; she possibly knew by then the importance of first impressions, and she was right.

The reality is that enterprises like to hire leaders who have the gift of the gab, an executive presence, and a pedigree from marquee brands, if they can get all in one. Even if this hack has failed many times, the pedigree and the brand of the company you hire from act as insurance.

“Your bag, your scarf, your umbrella tell the world who you are, what you care about” — Emily (Devil Wears Prada 2)

(Kamal Karanth is the Co-Founder of Xpheno, a specialist staffing company)

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Published on May 11, 2026