Assortment and Strategic Brand Partnership Adviser

The mandate

The commercial committee's standing question is whether to deepen existing strategic-brand relationships or expand assortment breadth when attention and support capacity are limited. The adviser will challenge the portfolio tradeoff through customer relevance and contribution. The remit is not to broker brands or make selection decisions on behalf of the category team.

Three reserved days monthly cover assortment and partner evidence, a targeted sponsor discussion and committee attendance. The meeting is included. A partnership question receives acknowledgement within two working days, with a documented opinion within four once the agreed evidence is supplied. Continuous negotiation and daily category trading are outside the retainer.

Assortment and partnership challenge is reserved from 19 October 2026 for six months. The commercial chair will renew only if the next selection agenda still benefits from independent evidence testing. The adviser has no line authority over category teams and carries no executive responsibility for P&L or partner execution. Authorised commercial leaders retain budgets, selection decisions and binding signatures.

The sponsor provides anonymised assortment performance, partner economics and customer evidence. Advice must distinguish selection breadth that meets an unmet need from breadth that duplicates existing demand and consumes scarce support. Strategic-brand value should be tested against dependency, obligations and incremental contribution rather than assumed from the brand's visibility.

Concurrent work outside directly competing category portfolios is permitted. Commercial interests in a reviewed brand, brokerage remuneration or advice to a competing marketplace create a conflict requiring disclosure or recusal. Partner introduction fees, campaign execution and enterprise merchandise planning are excluded. The committee is buying a seasoned category perspective without turning the adviser into a shadow buyer or an advocate paid by a brand.

What you will own

• Challenge assortment expansion using unmet customer need and net contribution, pressing sponsors to distinguish useful choice from duplication that absorbs support without durable value.
• Test strategic-brand cases for incremental economics after promotional and operating obligations, advising where brand visibility has been mistaken for financial benefit.
• Shape breadth-versus-depth options that preserve learning and flexibility, identifying what evidence justifies a stronger commitment to one partnership or selection direction.
• Examine concentration and dependency in joint plans, highlighting where one partner's requirements constrain future assortment or consume disproportionate category capacity.
• Press owners to retain measurable support obligations and benefit ownership, so a partnership is reviewed against its actual economics after the initial agreement.
• Review customer and return evidence for differences hidden by aggregate brand performance, advising where category relevance requires a more specific product or cohort view.
• Record independent advice and recusal limits in a commercial note, leaving partner negotiation, buying decisions and P&L execution with authorised internal leaders.

Candidate qualifications

• Evidence senior category or commercial leadership in fashion ecommerce or omnichannel retail. Explain a breadth-versus-depth decision, the customer need tested and how contribution changed the preferred assortment route.
• Demonstrate strategic partnership judgement beyond negotiating headline commercial terms. Candidates should describe support obligations, dependency and incremental benefit, including a case where a visible brand did not justify the proposed commitment.
• Provide an example of interpreting customer and return evidence at a useful product or cohort level. Explain what aggregate reporting concealed and how the recommendation changed without overclaiming causality.
• Show independence from brands, brokers and competing platforms. Describe conflict disclosure or recusal, how confidential commercial material stayed separated and why your opinion did not become an unauthorised negotiating position.
• Be able to sustain three reserved days monthly and produce a source-linked tradeoff a committee can use. The role values demonstrated category scope rather than assumed board authority. Candidates should show an advice note with a clear evidence gap, a reversible learning step and the condition under which a deeper partner commitment would become justified. Explain how you handled a partner case where incremental customer demand was plausible but not yet measured. The advice should identify the controlled test, the support commitment that remained premature and the evidence needed before a deeper joint plan could responsibly be recommended.

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 10 October 2026. Mandate reference PCT-ADV-2026-IND-15.