Managing Director – India Platform — Aftermarket Franchise

The mandate

Warranty cost across an Indian aftermarket franchise has risen while customer repair time and dealer confidence have become uneven. Claims, parts, technical assistance and customer care are managed through separate targets, causing dealers to replace assemblies before diagnosis and customers to repeat visits while internal teams debate ownership. The board needs one executive to run recovery as an integrated business.

The MD will lead approximately 2,225 employees and material partners and a franchise perimeter near ₹6,600 crore spanning parts, warranty, service engineering, dealer operations, technical training, customer care and remanufacturing. Product quality owns root-cause and vehicle engineering owns design remedy. The MD owns field containment, repair delivery, dealer economics, parts flow, customer outcome and the commercial consequences of the installed fleet.

The assignment is not blanket claims rejection or workshop cost cutting. The executive must distinguish genuine product defects, poor diagnosis, parts substitution, operating misuse and process leakage, then align repair authority to evidence. Customers should receive consistent treatment while emerging safety or reliability patterns reach engineering without commercial suppression.

Parts and capacity add another constraint. Stock can protect repair time or conceal weak forecasting; remanufacturing can improve cost but requires validated quality and traceability. The MD will balance availability, obsolescence, logistics and dealer working capital by vehicle cohort and geography.

Why this seat is open

The incumbent has accepted an external role on an accelerated timetable. Interim operating cover protects claims and parts decisions but cannot make portfolio, dealer and leadership choices. This is an urgent replacement targeted for six to eight weeks. The departure is unrelated to an undisclosed recall, control finding or conduct issue.

What you will own

• Establish one warranty and customer-recovery system from complaint through diagnosis, repair, claim and engineering feedback.
• Segment claims by causal evidence and assign decision authority appropriate to safety, cost and uncertainty.
• Improve parts planning, repair kits, remanufacturing and logistics by vehicle cohort and regional need.
• Reset dealer incentives around first-time repair, customer outcome and honest diagnosis.
• Govern goodwill and customer treatment consistently, with explicit escalation for exceptional cases.
• Feed validated field patterns into quality and product decisions quickly.
• Build franchise economics across warranty, parts, labour, repeat repair and retention.
• Develop successors across service, parts, warranty and customer leadership.

The operating rhythm must begin with the vehicle on the road, not the claim in a queue. Weekly field reviews will join repeat repair, technical hotline demand, parts back-order, roadside assistance and detractor evidence by model and repair operation. The MD will insist that uncertain cases remain visible until engineering, service and supply agree a disposition. Where a design remedy is pending, the franchise must still define safe customer mobility, interim repair authority and dealer reimbursement. Commercial reviews will separate avoidable claim leakage from expenditure that protects trust, because suppressing valid repairs merely transfers cost into breakdown, attrition and reputation. Dealer segmentation should recognise diagnostic capability and local operating conditions, with targeted equipment, training and audit rather than a uniform compliance campaign.

The first 12 months

Within 45 days, the MD will reconcile high-cost cohorts, repeat visits, repair times, parts gaps and dealer practices. By day 90, the board should approve recovery priorities, interim claim authority and customer treatment for affected populations. Emerging safety signals will follow a protected escalation route.

By month eight, selected model families should use revised diagnostic, parts and claim workflows, dealer reviews should incorporate first-time repair and remanufactured components should have transparent quality acceptance. Chronic parts shortages and low-quality volume replacement will have root-cause plans.

At year-end, avoidable warranty cost should fall by 18%, repeat repair by 25% and median vehicle-off-road time by 20%. Dealer service satisfaction should improve by 12 points and pivotal parts availability exceed 95%, with no material safety signal delayed or customer remedy weakened to produce savings.

What the board will measure

• Warranty recovery grounded in causal evidence and sustained repair quality.
• Customer and dealer outcomes improving alongside cost.
• Parts, remanufacturing and inventory economics made transparent.
• Field evidence changing product and engineering action early.
• Leadership depth across the aftermarket franchise.

The person

You are an automotive aftermarket MD, service-business president or customer-operations executive who has recovered warranty and dealer performance at scale. You understand vehicle diagnosis, parts and field quality without substituting your judgement for accountable engineers. Experience across India’s varied dealer and logistics environment is strongly preferred.

At least 28 years of experience is expected, including accountability above ₹3,800 crore and leadership of 1,550 employees and partners or more. The board will examine a claim policy you changed, a repair pattern you escalated and a cost action you rejected because it harmed customers or safety.

The role is Pune-based and hybrid with substantial dealer, warehouse and field travel.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹5.0–7.5 crore plus performance variable and long-term incentives. Measures combine customer recovery, warranty, parts, dealer economics and succession. Claims rejection alone cannot create reward. Final terms reflect current mix and the agreed franchise perimeter, with standard vesting and malus.

Confidentiality

The manufacturer, models, dealer network and warranty cohorts are confidential. Further information follows candidate qualification and an undertaking. Pune and the rounded franchise scale must not be used to identify the business.