Mayan Verma and Rashmi Mandloi founded Leadup Universe in 2021. The company offers a range of executive education solutions that have been carefully chosen in association with leading academic institutions and corporate groups around the world. It helps senior leaders advance their careers and become C-Suite players. Through the trifecta of coaching, competence, and personal branding, its products and services assist Senior Leaders in advancing their careers. These solutions provide insightful information and assist prospective CXOs in developing skills specific to their industry so they may make wise business decisions. The company also provides a playbook platform for aspiring CXOs, which is essential for developing tomorrow’s leaders’ capabilities, know-how, and networks.
Talking about its inception, Ms Mandloi shared, “The market environment has changed significantly, necessitating that executives learn faster, use new tools and techniques to create value, and move through the organisation in new ways. The majority of mid-level to senior-level working executives do not have access to a strong network, coaching on crucial leadership behaviours, or a personal brand that would enable them to compete on the C-Suite level. We therefore believed that we could serve as a channel for senior executives and their career objectives as no one is doing so in an organised manner. Leadup Universe was created to overcome this skills gap by giving middle- and senior-level executives the information and skills they need through its executive learning flagship programmes and the Playbook platform”.
Leadup Universe’s primary distinguishing aspect includes its hybrid model of engagement, mentoring by top-level CXOs, and curated exposure to networks of top echelons. Senior executives can advance their careers through partnerships with global academic institutions, practitioners, career specialists, and coaches. All these features help the company to carve a niche for itself and explain the highish 95% completion rate for its courses compared to an average of 50% for self-study courses in the industry.
‘The future landscape will demand that leaders behave differently; to do this, they must go through a structured competence development process, and this will be possible by Leadup Universe.’
Leadup Universe has many industry firsts to its credit, including the tie-up with XLRI, which lead to the launch of Asia’s first diploma program for CHROs. The company has also successfully curated CXO Club with 100+ CXOs who are committed to coaching and mentoring aspiring CXOs to the path of success. The “Aspiring CXOs playbook” of Leadup Universe is a success story in itself. The platform has a waiting list of leaders in the pipeline and offers curated content for building capabilities and competencies among the next-gen CXOs. The playbook also provides a cohort-based learning experience facilitated by international experts and academicians from top-ranked universities. In addition, the platform has career services and networking opportunities on offer to aspiring C-suite executives.
In terms of challenges, value creation for a premium offering in the Indian market is tough, said Mandloi, “Especially in covid and post covid time. India’s capability development system requires stepping up and competing with international standards. Leadup Universe is constantly working on this challenge in partnership with leading agencies in India and abroad”.
Envision Leadup Universe as a leading brand in the senior leader career acceleration space across APAC in the next five years.