Advisory Chair — Operating Model and Delivery (Logistics and Infrastructure)

Picture month 18

Picture the board at month 18. It has reviewed its operating model and delivery cadence against what it set out to achieve, and issues are reaching it through a route that works without the adviser carrying them. That is the measure of this seat.

Getting there begins in the first ninety days, when the Advisory Chair's advice on the operating model, the rules for who decides what, and the delivery cadence the board will oversee should be on the table and debated. Around month nine, recommendations on inherited commitments should have been made, and delivery discipline should have been tested through the board's own reporting rhythm, not just discussed in principle.

What the board keeps, and what you bring

Advisory is the operative word. The board keeps every decision. The Advisory Chair helps it agree how decisions are made and where country heads' own authority should stop; advises on the evidence the board uses when it allocates capital, commits capacity and checks controls; and advises on which inherited commitments should carry on, wait or stop. You will challenge any proposal that leaves cost or risk unowned, and investment cases that skip take-up, the work they depend on or downside. You will counsel the board on its leadership arrangements and on how issues should rise, help directors and business heads settle disagreements before money is committed, and help decide how often delivery progress and pending choices come before the board.

The value of a good advisory chair lies in timing. Advice offered after a commitment is made is commentary. Advice offered as the commitment takes shape, with the operating consequences spelled out, is the counsel a board needs from someone who has run comparable businesses.

The adviser the board wants beside it

You have made general management choices in logistics and infrastructure services where delay had a measurable cost, in organisations of no less than $270 million in revenue and 1,400 people, operating in two countries or more. The directors will weigh your M&A buy-side, cost transformation and turnaround work, and expect strategy formation at level 4 with level 3 in risk judgement, in operating cadence and in P&L ownership. Your record should include moments when the evidence led you to move money, people or leadership focus. You should be able to describe a popular commitment you ended, what the evidence showed and what capacity it released. You also expect to remain accountable for your counsel across all 18 months, rather than offering influence without consequence.

Three weeks with the board and its audit chair

Everything happens inside three weeks. First, during week one, the Board of Directors meets you privately by video. Then, in week two, you work through a case set by the Audit Committee Chair. Finally, in week three, the board directors meet you in person. Our written response follows within three working days of each.