Managing Partner – Growth Advisory — Vehicle-Software Programme

The mandate

A Japanese advisory practice has built respected work around a small number of automotive anchor clients. Those relationships generate substantial activity but expose the partnership to concentration, narrow its market perspective and absorb senior capacity through recurring extensions. Vehicle manufacturers and suppliers are now asking different questions: how to monetise software, where to place engineering, which capabilities to own and how to scale without multiplying variants. The partner council is creating a Managing Partner seat to turn those questions into an independent growth franchise.

The role will lead advice touching approximately ¥12,150 billion in client revenue and programme activity and influencing 1,150 client employees and material partners. The Managing Partner owns market thesis, client development, case selection, senior relationships, multidisciplinary mobilisation, engagement economics, quality and succession. Clients retain every capital, footprint and product decision. The adviser is accountable for evidence and challenge, not for creating dependency or representing counsel as executive authority.

The distinctive proposition will connect growth to the engineering footprint. A new software revenue stream may require cloud operations, cybersecurity response, vehicle-integration laboratories, regional homologation and years of installed-fleet support. Conversely, a distributed engineering network may provide customer proximity while duplicating architecture and toolchains. The practice must show clients how customer value, intellectual property, talent location and lifecycle economics fit together.

This cannot become a generic digital-growth offering. Sector credibility requires understanding vehicle release, safety evidence, embedded-cloud boundaries, supplier rights and dealer or fleet adoption. Market development will focus on situations where these constraints materially change the answer. The Managing Partner will decline work that asks the firm to validate a predetermined facility, transaction or product narrative without access to the facts.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned new appointment under the next partnership model; there is no predecessor. A four-to-six-month process permits conflicts review, client referencing and assessment of candidates who can diversify revenue without weakening current commitments. Existing partners maintain anchor relationships until the new practice is formally activated.

What you will own

• Define a vehicle-software growth thesis by client problem, decision event and evidence advantage.
• Develop relationships beyond the current anchor-client base without creating conflicts or channel tension.
• Lead cases joining proposition, engineering footprint, operating model, capital and value realisation.
• Set engagement selection, staffing, quality and commercial discipline.
• Build reusable intellectual capital from sanitised case evidence rather than client-specific templates.
• Develop partners and directors capable of originating and delivering independently.

Client development will begin with informed hypotheses. For a vehicle manufacturer, the discussion may concern paid functions, data services or common software platforms; for a supplier, it may concern productisation, licensing or regional engineering. Each pursuit will name the executive decision, evidence required, likely value mechanism and reason this practice is qualified. Hospitality, borrowed relationships and speculative proposal volume are not a growth system.

Engagement economics will protect quality. The partner will price scarce technical expertise, travel, data work and senior challenge explicitly. Outcome-linked elements may be used only where baselines, client authority and external factors are sufficiently clear. Work will pause when evidence is withheld or the sponsor cannot mobilise accountable leaders. The partnership will measure collected contribution and durable client value, not signed revenue alone.

Footprint advice will compare centralisation, regional hubs, partnerships and distributed product teams. Talent supply, language, customer access, cyber controls, laboratories, knowledge flow and exit flexibility will accompany cost. The team will model transition capacity and dual running before recommending site closure or consolidation. A lower-cost location that fragments architecture or loses vehicle-integration skill will not be presented as productivity.

The first 12 months

During the first 90 days, the Managing Partner will test the market thesis with 20 qualified executives, review current conflicts and anchor concentration, and select three propositions for development. The regional council will receive a hiring plan, pursuit gates and engagement-quality model.

By month eight, at least two new clients outside the largest anchor relationship should have commissioned material work, and one multidisciplinary case should progress from growth choice into footprint or operating design. A director and two senior specialists will be operating with defined advancement paths.

At year-end, new-client work should represent at least 25% of the practice’s booked revenue, collected contribution meet the approved case, and no single relationship exceed the council’s revised concentration threshold. Client sponsors should verify measurable movement in at least three decisions, while quality reviews show zero significant independence or evidence failures.

What the partner council will measure

• Diversification built on relevant sector insight rather than proposal volume.
• Advice connecting revenue ambition to engineering and support reality.
• Strong case economics without compromised independence.
• New senior talent and credible partner succession.
• Clients able to sustain decisions after the engagement closes.

The person

You are a Managing Partner, senior strategy adviser or former automotive technology executive with 28+ years of experience. You have held responsibility above ¥7,050 billion and led at least 800 people, or carried equivalent client-value and multidisciplinary advisory ownership. Your evidence must include a practice built beyond anchor clients, a vehicle-software growth decision and an engineering-footprint recommendation that survived implementation.

The position is hybrid in Tokyo with frequent client and regional travel. Candidates must combine Japanese-market trust with international automotive and technology perspective.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is ¥75–105 million plus annual incentive and LTI. Measures include diversified collected revenue, client outcomes, case contribution, quality, senior talent and succession. Final terms reflect partnership scope; notice up to six months can be considered.

Confidentiality

The partnership, clients, pursuits, economics and footprint situations remain confidential. Controlled information follows qualification, conflict clearance and an undertaking. Tokyo and the approximate perimeter do not identify any client.