At a certain level, leadership gives you influence; it also makes honest thinking more precious.
You become the person others look to for answers. The one who must hold the room, make the call, and appear certain while the questions are still forming. Most leadership spaces ask you to perform. Few allow you to be unguarded.
The Circle of Ten exists for that missing room.
A private, invitation-only table for India’s senior design, product and business leaders. Ten people. One evening. Chatham House Rule. No pitches. No spectators. Just the rare privilege of sitting among equals and saying what you actually think.
Every leader who sits at this table walks away with something they cannot get from another public panel or dinner invite. The evening is social in shape, but the centre of it is practical: one live dilemma, nine careful perspectives, and the trust to speak plainly.
The Hot Seat is yours when you need it;bring your live dilemma and leave with nine battle-tested perspectives from leaders who carry the same weight you do.
Test an idea, admit what is not working, pressure-test a strategy;without it becoming a signal inside your company or a headline outside it.
Not a room of strangers exchanging cards. A circle that reconvenes, deepens, and becomes the peer group you can call on between sessions;the people who understand the exact weight of your role.
Every session closes with The Takeaway: one useful idea per leader, captured and distilled. You leave with a sharper lens on the problem you walked in with.
Before the community reads the non-attributed insights report, the leaders at the table receive the full distilled version: your thinking, refined and returned to you.
The Brief lets the room contribute to the wider community without exposing who said what. It is recognition without performance.
Your name on The Legacy Wall;the private archive of every leader who has ever sat at this table. The list itself becomes the credential.
A seat here is a marker of having arrived, and a place to keep growing after you have. The bar is seniority, but the value is candour.
When you accept a seat, you know only one thing for certain: you are one of ten. The other nine are revealed only in the room. You say yes to the table, not to a name on a list, and the evening begins with a genuine moment of discovery, with every introduction fresh and every leader an equal.
The theme is public. The people never are. The room is the reveal.
Roughly three hours, early evening, in a private dining room. Casual in feel; carefully moderated underneath.
Welcome drinks;the moment the Unknown Nine become known, and the circle sees itself for the first time. First names only.
The host restates the Chatham House Rule, the no-pitch promise, and the evening’s single theme. Five minutes, then out of the way.
Each leader takes two to three minutes on the theme from their own seat;a live challenge, not a credential.
Moderated open conversation. The host steers, draws out the quiet voices, and keeps any one person from dominating.
One leader brings a live dilemma; the table solves it together. Rotates each month;a standing reason to return.
The formal session ends; dinner continues. The unstructured hour where the real relationships form.
Some seats are confirmed. The rest remain part of the Unknown Nine;revealed only in the room.
The full circle is never published in advance. To sit at the table is to trust the curation, and to discover the other nine the moment you arrive.
After each session, the distilled thinking of ten leaders becomes a non-attributed report for the wider community. The room stays private. The useful ideas travel.
The first theme, answered behind closed doors by the founding ten. Published to the community after the July 11 launch table.
Each month’s theme is revealed publicly one week ahead. The community debates it; the circle answers it.
Every leader who has ever sat at the table, and every idea worth keeping. The list itself becomes the credential.
A seat that costs nothing is given away lightly. The commitment is a filter for seriousness, and it returns as the evening itself: a private room, a hosted discussion, drinks, and dinner with the circle.
If you lead design, product or business at the highest level, this seat exists for you: a room of equals, a confidential sounding board, and the peer circle your seniority took away. The waitlist is expected to open around 15 June 2026. The first table meets on 11 July 2026.
Ten of India’s most accomplished design, product and business leaders, typically with a decade or more leading teams, functions, or organisations. Curation is guarded carefully: the bar is seniority, judgment, and the ability to add something real to the room.
No, and that is intentional. You accept knowing only that you are one of ten. The other nine are revealed in the room. You say yes to the table, and trust the curation.
Participants are free to use what is said, but may never reveal who said it or which organisation they represent. It is what allows genuine candour among senior leaders.
A confirmed seat is secured with a ₹3,500 commitment, redeemed in full on the evening. It goes toward the private room, the hosted discussion, welcome drinks, and dinner. It is not a ticket or a fee for access; it is a filter for seriousness that guarantees everyone who holds a seat actually arrives. The most expensive thing at the table is an empty chair.
Personally, from the host. Joining the waitlist is the first step. An invitation follows when there is a seat and a theme that fits you. A nomination from an existing member moves an application forward faster.