Independent Director — Industrial Technology Channel Strategy

Route-to-market judgement

This appointment is suited to a senior industrial commercial leader who can assess channel strategy as an enterprise issue rather than a sales coverage exercise. The role includes wider board responsibilities and requires constructive engagement with finance, risk and technology perspectives.

Applicants need substantial experience leading industrial technology sales, channel development or commercial strategy across complex enterprise markets. Evidence of redesigning partner arrangements, improving commercial transparency or resolving channel conflict is particularly relevant. Financial literacy and an understanding of industrial product lifecycles are required.

Partner economics and customer ownership

Evaluate which customer segments require direct relationships and where partners create genuine economic advantage. Examine how commercial incentives influence product selection, implementation quality and after-sales behaviour. Ask whether channel performance measures reflect end-customer outcomes or merely transfers of inventory and risk.

Review concentration in critical partners, rights to customer information and the practical consequences of changing a route to market. Challenge expansion plans that rely on partners without sufficient technical capability or financial resilience. Consider conflicts where partners also sell competing products or control access to essential service relationships.

Changing the channel without losing accountability

The director should help ensure that digital channels complement the commercial model rather than fragment accountability. Board papers must explain what happens to existing contracts, installed customers and service obligations when routes to market change.

The director will scrutinise strategic channel decisions, monitor agreed outcomes and escalate concerns through board processes. Management retains authority over appointments, negotiations and customer relationships within its delegation. The contribution sought is stronger governance of market access, reduced hidden dependency and a more credible view of profitable growth. Appointment eligibility, time commitment and conflicts with commercial relationships will be assessed individually.

Evidence of independent commercial judgement

Candidates should demonstrate independent judgement, including an occasion when they rejected apparent volume growth because the underlying economics or customer consequences were unsound. Personal networks alone are not a qualification for this seat.