Leela DesaiChief Executive Officer

Sheet 03 · Areas of practice

Where I bring enterprise strategy to bear.

The domains in which I have carried accountability, and the judgement I bring to each.

  1. 01Enterprise strategy
  2. 02Business transformation
  3. 03Board stewardship
  4. 04Global growth

How I lead

My task is to give the enterprise a direction it can act on. I make the choices about customers, capital and capabilities explicit, then give business leaders the authority and accountability to deliver. I want difficult information to reach the leadership team while there is still time to respond.

At scale

The responsibility, in figures

₹18,400 Cr

Enterprise revenue led

Across 22 markets

3.1×

Value created

Market capitalisation over six years

41,000

Colleagues

In manufacturing, services and retail

7

Acquisitions integrated

On time and within the thesis

In practice

Decisions and their consequences

Case 01

Enterprise transformation

An established business had outgrown the operating model that made it successful. I brought the leadership team together around a smaller set of enterprise priorities, clarified decision rights and rebuilt the review rhythm around customer and operating evidence. The work connected strategy with ownership at the business-unit level, giving the board a clearer view of execution and the organisation a more consistent direction.

Case 02

Market expansion

A promising adjacent market required a different route to the customer. Rather than replicate the home-market model, we tested the proposition with a focused partner network, identified the capabilities that needed to be local and staged investment against learning milestones. My contribution was to keep the commercial ambition and the organisation's capacity in the same conversation.

Case 03

Operating performance

Fragmented initiatives were consuming leadership attention without a shared view of performance. We established a common operating cadence, put interdependent decisions on the same agenda and distinguished structural issues from short-term variance. Business leaders retained ownership of results while enterprise trade-offs became explicit.