Brands
Play ‘N’ Learn wants a two-year-old as its next chief executive
The edutainment brand is hunting for a chief excitement officer, aged between two and seven, to tell it whether its play zones are actually any fun
SINGAPORE: Never mind the MBA. Play ‘N’ Learn, one of India’s leading indoor edutainment chains for children, has thrown open the doors to its boardroom and is inviting candidates aged between two and seven to apply for the role of chief excitement officer. The only qualification required: an unshakeable commitment to having a good time.
The campaign, launched on 1st June, is a cheerful broadside at an industry that has long designed children’s entertainment in adult meeting rooms. Play ‘N’ Learn, which operates under the TEEG India umbrella alongside the Timezone chain, says it wants unfiltered, instinctive feedback from the people who actually use its spaces, not the ones who commission them.
“At Play ‘N’ Learn, we build spaces for children and have always believed that the best people to evaluate them are children themselves,” said Abbas Jabalpurwala, chief executive of TEEG India. “We’re not looking for the most articulate candidate or the most impressive resume. We’re looking for someone who lights up the moment they walk into a room.”
The selected chief excitement officer will get to road-test play zones, pass judgment on new formats and deliver verdicts on what qualifies as “amazing” or, damningly, “boring.” The role carries a compensation package to match its grand title: a family holiday to Singapore worth up to Rs 3 lakhs, including a visit to Universal Studios, plus a one-year play pass across all Play ‘N’ Learn centres.
The campaign has already drawn unsolicited endorsements from brands including Timezone and parenting platform Emomee, whose founder Pooja Jauhari argued that the traits Play ‘N’ Learn is scouting for, curiosity, confidence, imagination and the capacity to fill a room with joy, are precisely the leadership qualities that conventional systems tend to overlook.
To apply, parents or guardians must post a short video on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #YoungestCEO and tagging the brand’s official handles. Entries close on 29th June and the appointed officer will be unveiled on 1st July 2026.
In a country where the edutainment sector is growing fast and the competition for young eyeballs is fierce, Play ‘N’ Learn has found a disarmingly simple way to cut through the noise. Sometimes the sharpest market research comes in dungarees and cannot yet read a PowerPoint.
