They were all finalists at the CNBC Complete Manager, a contest that tests top brains from management institutes across the country for knowledge, analytical skills, communication skills, presence of mind and sense of humour.

Raghav Bahl, managing director, Television Eighteen India Ltd and spokesman for CNBC Asia, says that contemporary managers are very different from the managers of the 1980s. ``The skill-set, attitudes and professional training for people who manage knowledge workers have all evolved over the past five years,'' says Bahl.

One big change, he says, is the integration of technology with business decisions. Earlier, a manager did not have to cope with so much technology, as business decisions were seldom technology-driven. Today, technology hasbecome intrinsic to management processes. From information systems to appraisal systems to planning to projections, technology has come to play a major role in business processes.

Increased involvement of people in managerial situations is another big change, says Bahl.

Earlier, companies were in a familial (not exactly feudal) set-up where people worked for a lifetime. ``The manager would have known the name of the employees' kids. Today, with the arrival of the knowledge worker, the competitive pressures are much more. Moreover, with more brands in the market, the responsibilities of managers have increased exponentially. The ability to manage knowledge workers, keep them happy, understand their aspirations and give them a challenging career path are the key responsibilities of the modern manager. It's a far more complex task now,'' says Bahl.

But Rajiv Karwal, former vice-president (sales and marketing), LG Electronics, feels that the complete manager has to take technological changes in his stride.``To me, the complete manager is someone who can survive time, technology and geography. He or she can't afford to procrastinate with the pace of technological changes around him. They needs to be much more dynamic than their predecessors,'' says Karwal, who is on the jury for the contest along with industry leaders like NIIT's Rajendra Pawar, Kumarmangalam Birla, P Chidambaram, Shunu Sen and Paul France. The preliminary rounds of this year's complete manager contest has begun in the Capital. In the weeks to come, the CNBC Complete Manager will be going to the campuses of FMS, IIFT, MDI, IMT, IMI, Fore School, to name a few. Simultaneously, preliminary rounds will be conducted at B-schools in Lucknow, Indore, Calcutta, Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune.

The selection process at every B-school begins with a written test on topics as diverse as finance, marketing, technology, personalities, realpolitik, sports or music. Ten candidates are then shortlisted, followedby a `rapid-fire round' narrowing down contestants to the best five. The winner is then chosen on the basis of each finalist's analysis of a given business situation in just three minutes.

The winners from each business school proceed to the regional finals where they are tested for communication skills, vocabulary, slogan-writing and again, analysis of a business situation. The final choice is made after they take on questions from a judge. The top 3 from each region qualify for the national finals.

The national finals held in Delhi judges contestants on the parameters of confidence (as reflected in communication and way of dressing), goals (determined by their role models and future plans), presence of mind (in a rapid-fire round of 10 questions) and a question from the jury.The winner takes home an LG 29-inch colour television, a 330-litre refrigerator, a multi-wave microwave oven, a washing machine and a HP notebook. The runner up gets a round trip to Singapore sponsored by Seagate.Instituted for thefirst time in 1998, the CNBC Complete Manager received a good response with over 8,000 participants competing for the title.

When asked what he was looking for in a complete manager, Karwal said: ``I was looking at general awareness, clarity of thinking, sense of humour and an ability to maintain calm in tight situations. A manager need not have all the answers, but he should be able to manage a given situation,'' he said.Bahl's definition is almost an echo of Karwal's. Says he: ``He is someone who is a problem-solver in an extremely complex business environment.

Management is all about solving problems continually. Whether it is efficiency in costs and production processes, employee morale or interpersonal relationships in HR, it is a mind-set that allows you to solve complex business problems. If you are able to do that, or at least begin to address yourself in a manner to do that, you are moving toward being the complete manager,'' he says.

For CNBC, the only business news channel in the country,the objective of this exercise was to catch the attention of business leaders of tomorrow. ``They are a potential life-long audience for us. So we are trying to get the CNBC habit inculcated in them early on. The managers will be our prime audience as they go up the career path as business leaders,'' says Bahl.For the students, it was a platform to showcase their managerial skills and a pedestal to a high-growth career. ``All the participants will feature in an exclusive national MBA placement directory, to be circulated to HR managers of 500 companies,'' says Bahl.

The corporate response has been good, too. ``Corporate leaders like Kumarmangalam Birla and Rajendra Pawar have been judges. NIIT has come forward to be a sponsor this year. LG has offered pre-placement offers to all finalists for both the years and Seagate are repeat sponsors. The corporate world is obviously keeping a watch on the managers of tomorrow,'' concludes Bahl.