Senior Partner – Transformation — Powertrain Division

The mandate

A powertrain division has accelerated review of plants producing combustion components as electric and hybrid capacity is added. Site economics are obscured by internal transfers, shared utilities and tooling written for demand that may not return. Some plants can convert; others possess supplier and workforce capability that remains valuable during run-off. The advisory partnership has created an urgent Senior Partner role to give the board an integrated transformation case.

The role will lead counsel affecting approximately 1,225 employees and material partners and a powertrain perimeter near ₹4,600 crore. Scope includes plant disposition, conversion, technology capacity, supplier ecosystem, labour, capital, transition cash and implementation governance. Client executives own decisions and employee process. The Senior Partner owns advisory evidence, quality, multidisciplinary staffing, economics and independent challenge.

The reset must separate accounting underutilisation from strategic capability. A plant with weak current absorption may hold testing, metallurgy or supplier skills needed for electric components; a modern line may remain unsuitable for conversion. Each option requires a product, process, asset and capability case rather than a generic utilisation threshold.

Transition sequencing is critical. Closure or conversion can interrupt customer programmes and supplier cash before replacement capability is validated. Recommendations need safe launch, inventory, tooling, workforce and recovery gates and must show the cost of delay alongside the cost of action.

Why this seat is open

This is urgent new advisory hiring with no predecessor. The client accelerated the footprint decision after revised technology demand and the current partnership lacks an unconflicted leader at the required level. Appointment will follow rapid conflict and reference review while existing advisers preserve the fact base.

What you will own

• Establish site economics, capability, assets, suppliers, workforce and programme dependencies.
• Compare conversion, specialisation, run-off, partnership and closure on equivalent lifecycle assumptions.
• Identify capabilities worth preserving even where current utilisation is weak.
• Build transition cash and capital cases including inventory, tooling, restructuring and incentives.
• Design implementation gates around replacement capability and customer continuity.
• Advise on workforce and supplier process without taking client management authority.
• Govern advisory quality, independence, case economics and conflicts.
• Develop client and advisory leaders able to sustain the transformation.

Plant archetypes will drive the work. A machining site with ageing dedicated assets, a flexible assembly operation and a testing centre embedded in a larger campus require different exit and conversion logic. For each, the Senior Partner will trace customer approvals, replacement qualification, environmental remediation, utilities, tooling ownership, supplier dependency and the time needed to rebuild scarce competence elsewhere. Electric and hybrid opportunities will be screened at process level: clean-room condition, tolerance, thermal control, traceability and quality-system demands cannot be inferred from available floor area. The client will receive a sequencing map showing which moves can run in parallel, which need inventory buffers and which are gated by workforce consultation or statutory consent.

The advisory team must also examine the declining combustion tail without assuming a smooth curve. Export demand, service parts and regulation can produce volatile late-life requirements that punish premature capacity removal. Run-off cases will specify minimum economic batch, maintenance, obsolescence stock and single-source protections. If external partnership or asset sale is proposed, the case must address intellectual property, customer warranty, continuing supply and counterparty resilience. The Senior Partner will keep implementation choices connected to the original board thesis, forcing re-approval when demand, technology timing or transition cost moves beyond agreed tolerances.

The first 12 months

The first 75 days will produce a verified plant and capability map, surface commitments that narrow options and recommend decisions requiring immediate action. The client board will receive scenarios with triggers, reversal cost and clear owners of assumptions.

By month eight, priority plant dispositions should be approved, with employee, supplier and customer transition plans. At least one conversion thesis will be proved through process and product evidence before major capital, and run-off sites will carry explicit continuity and cash gates.

At year-end, approved actions should release or redirect at least ₹325 crore of capital or annualised value, remain within 10% of transition cash and protect scheduled programmes. Workforce actions will follow agreed process, and client leaders should independently run implementation governance.

What the board will measure

• Footprint choices that preserve valuable capability and remove stranded capacity.
• Transition cash, continuity and supplier consequences made explicit.
• Client-owned implementation under independent advisory challenge.
• Verified value rather than announced plant actions.
• Strong partner succession and case-team capability.

The person

You are a Senior Partner, manufacturing-transformation adviser or former powertrain operator who has led plant conversion and closure decisions. You understand process capability, tooling, supplier ecosystems and workforce obligations. The council seeks someone who can challenge both blanket preservation and simplistic closure.

You bring 18–22 years of experience and have influenced at least ₹2,650 crore across 850 employees or more. Evidence should include a plant you recommended retaining for capability, a conversion you stopped and a transition whose customer continuity you measured.

The position is onsite in Sanand with extensive plant and supplier travel.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. Measures include verified client value, transition quality, independence and team development. Site actions alone are not outcomes. Final terms reflect advisory standing, current mix and completed conflict review.

Confidentiality

The client, plants, technologies and workforce scenarios are confidential. More detail follows qualification and a signed undertaking. Sanand and the rounded perimeter are not identifying clues.