South Asia Finance Decision Rights Advisory Director

The mandate

The adviser will help finance leaders resolve persistent ambiguity between country, South Asia regional and group decisions. The standing question is where authority should sit for forecast challenge, investment recommendation, controls, process variation, cash, talent and exception acceptance when accountability and information are distributed.

Two days each week will support a fortnightly decision clinic, review of disputed cases and one monthly regional council. The adviser will observe actual decisions, not only formal matrices, and help leaders distinguish consultation, concurrence, escalation and final authority. Advice is intended to improve judgement and speed without centralising every choice.

The work will test decisions using consequence, reversibility, information proximity, cross-border externality and formal obligation. Country control or statutory ownership will not be diluted for convenience; equally, local preference will not be represented as mandatory variation without evidence.

The adviser will use recent choices to expose the cost of ambiguity: repeated analysis, parallel approval, delayed market action, inconsistent control treatment and decisions reopened without new facts. That case history will show where greater regional clarity creates value and where proximity to country information remains essential.

The appointment has no line authority, approval rights or power to direct country teams. Management retains all decisions and implementation. The adviser must disclose board, investor, provider or professional relationships that could affect recommendations on governance or resource location.

By month seven, finance should operate a tested decision architecture, a transparent exception route and a record showing whether choices are made at the intended level. The final advice will identify unresolved authority collisions and areas where management has accepted slower decisions to preserve independence or obligation.

What you will own

• Map observed decisions across country, regional and group finance and compare them with formal accountability.
• Define placement criteria using consequence, reversibility, information proximity, externality and legal responsibility.
• Clarify authority for performance challenge, capital recommendations, controls, cash, process variation and senior talent.
• Establish exception escalation with evidence, final owner, expiry and review date.
• Coach leaders to distinguish genuine consultation from consensus-seeking that obscures accountability.
• Test the architecture against live disputed cases and record time, quality and ownership outcomes.
• Recommend governance changes while leaving formal authority conferral with management.
• Deliver an independent effectiveness assessment and owner-led continuation agenda.

Candidate qualifications

• Show advisory or executive work resolving cross-border finance decision-right conflicts.
• Provide an example where a formal authority matrix differed materially from observed behaviour.
• Demonstrate preservation of local statutory ownership alongside stronger regional challenge.
• Evidence influence across senior country and group leaders without line control.
• Describe a decision moved closer to information, or upward because of enterprise externality, with measurable benefit.
• Bring precise governance writing and sensitivity to different market obligations.
• Disclose current interests that could affect recommendations on structure or resource location.

Working terms and boundaries

• The retainer covers two days a week, a fortnightly clinic, monthly council and agreed case review.
• Additional workshops, organisation implementation or travel requires separate written approval.
• The adviser has no line authority and cannot confer authority, approve exceptions, direct teams or commit resources.
• Management owns decision changes, implementation and statutory accountability.
• Relevant board, investor and provider relationships require continuing disclosure.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 7 October 2026. Mandate reference RHF-ADV-2026-BOM-89.