Geographic Market-Exit Decision Director

The mandate

Two country businesses report positive revenue growth, yet licence and compliance cost, customer concentration, local cash restrictions and central-platform support make their strategic contribution uncertain. One market depends on a single enterprise contract due for renewal; the other requires investment before service quality can meet group standards. Country leaders argue for time, while headquarters models immediate closure without customer and regulatory dependencies. The board needs evidence for exit, partner, narrow or reinvest choices before another annual commitment.

The deliverables are a country economic baseline, customer-and-obligation map, strategic option book, exit and continuity risk assessment, stakeholder pathway, implementation scenarios and board decision package. The work must include true platform and leadership cost, cash convertibility, tax and legal inputs, licence conditions, customer termination, data, employees, suppliers, brand, regulator communication and stranded technology. It must distinguish economic exit, legal-entity closure, service withdrawal and commercial narrowing.

Four milestones govern four months: week three accepts country economics and obligations; week seven completes customer, regulatory and operating dependencies; week twelve accepts tested exit, partner, narrow and reinvest cases; and week seventeen delivers board papers, implementation conditions and sequencing. Billing follows those milestones. Interviews require sponsor approval, and no stakeholder will receive a promise about continued service, employment or transaction.

Acceptance requires finance to reconcile standalone and group-supported economics, country teams to validate obligations, technology to identify platform and data consequences and counsel to mark legal dependencies. Each option must show customer continuity, cash release, cost-to-achieve, decision reversibility and earliest credible timing. The sponsor returns one consolidated variance list within six working days of each milestone.

The client provides country financials, licence records, contracts, cash positions, customer and supplier data, platform costs, people information, tax and legal advice, strategy and controlled access. The consultant does not negotiate transactions, contact regulators independently, terminate contracts, select employees, direct closure, give legal or tax advice, value entities or represent a partner as available without evidence.

Why this is external work

Country teams defend local option value, functions see allocated cost and headquarters wants portfolio simplicity, making each internal case partial. Potential partners will also describe appetite through their own strategy. External market-exit expertise can reconcile true obligations and choices without earning a transaction fee or treating closure as the default answer.

What you will own

• Reconstruct country economics including central platform, leadership, compliance, cash restriction, customer concentration, stranded cost and opportunity cost.
• Map licences, contracts, data, employees, suppliers, tax, customer continuity and regulatory dependencies for each option.
• Distinguish commercial narrowing, service withdrawal, partnership, economic exit and legal-entity closure with timing explicit.
• Test reinvest, partner, narrow and exit cases for value, cash, risk, reversibility, cost-to-achieve and capability.
• Conduct approved customer, regulator and partner research without signalling unauthorised decisions or commitments.
• Frame board choices, decision conditions, trigger dates, stakeholder impacts and residual obligations.
• Deliver country cases, implementation scenarios, dependency register, governance and sequencing roadmap.

Candidate qualifications

• Has led geographic portfolio and market-exit decisions for digital, telecom or regulated service businesses under board scrutiny.
• Understands licences, customer continuity, restricted cash, data, people, central platforms, contracts and closure dependencies.
• Can distinguish weak reported margin from group-supported economics and strategic option value.
• Has tested partnership appetite without misrepresenting authority or converting informal interest into transaction certainty.
• Brings credible engagement with boards, country leaders, customers, regulators, technology, finance and counsel.
• Is independent of M&A, liquidation, partner broking, restructuring and success-fee transaction incentives.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend monthly Lagos decision rooms and approved customer, regulator and partner interviews.
• Brings direct geographic exit strategy; market-entry research or cost reduction alone is insufficient.
• Will not signal closure, promise employment or service, contact regulators privately or invent partner capacity.
• Will disclose ties to country competitors, regulators, customers, partners, buyers and transaction advisers.

1. 49 words maximum. Which allocated cost should not automatically justify a country exit?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you distinguish commercial narrowing from economic exit?
3. 49 words maximum. What stakeholder dependency could make the fastest closure option least credible?