Managing Partner – Sector Advisory — Passenger-Vehicle Business

The mandate

A passenger-vehicle manufacturer is reviewing a plant footprint built around model families and demand assumptions that no longer hold. Some sites possess valuable supplier ecosystems and labour capability but lack flexible tooling; others have space for electric assembly while carrying weak utilisation. The board needs advice that compares conversion, specialisation, consolidation, partnership and closure without treating a spreadsheet utilisation rate as the whole answer.

The new Managing Partner – Sector Advisory will lead counsel affecting approximately 1,725 employees and material partners and an automotive perimeter near ₹7,100 crore. The partner owns advisory hypotheses, board relationships, sector evidence, case quality, economics and multidisciplinary mobilisation. The client owns every plant, workforce and capital decision. The adviser must maintain that boundary while helping leaders confront options they may prefer to postpone.

Plant decisions cascade through suppliers, dealers, logistics, product launches, employee communities and incentives. The case must model transition, stranded tooling, working capital, quality ramp and continuity, not only steady-state savings. Local commitments and labour process should enter before the recommendation, not as implementation caveats.

Uncertain propulsion and model demand require choices with options. The partner should show where flexible capacity earns its premium, where delay has value and where indecision compounds loss. Recommendations must state trigger points and reversal cost rather than pretend one forecast is certain.

Why this seat is open

The partnership approved planned new hiring because the footprint programme requires a dedicated senior automotive adviser beyond current case capacity. There is no predecessor or disguised client appointment. A four-to-six-month process permits conflict checks and comparison of sector partners and former operators before the next capital cycle.

What you will own

• Establish a fact base on plant economics, capability, tooling, quality, suppliers, labour and product dependency.
• Build comparable conversion, specialisation, consolidation, partnership and closure cases.
• Model transition cash, stranded assets, incentives, inventory, launch and continuity effects.
• Design demand scenarios and decision triggers by product and technology.
• Facilitate board choices while recording assumptions, dissent and accountable client ownership.
• Integrate workforce and community obligations with capital and operating evidence.
• Govern advisory independence, quality, commercial performance and conflicts.
• Develop a senior team able to challenge automotive engineering, operations and finance leaders.

The engagement must expose which capabilities are genuinely tied to place. Press-shop capacity, paint constraints, battery handling, proving access, supplier tooling, launch expertise and labour accreditation will be mapped separately rather than bundled into a site label. Product scenarios will include launch overlap and end-of-series service demand, preventing an attractive consolidation case from relying on simultaneous transfers that operations cannot execute. The partner will require management to nominate owners for demand, yield, incentive and restructuring assumptions, then subject them to downside ranges. Advice to the board will make irreversible choices explicit: land disposal, specialist attrition, tooling scrappage and supplier exit can remove future options even when near-term savings appear compelling. Conversely, keeping every option open will be priced as a deliberate investment, not treated as a neutral delay.

The first 12 months

In the first 75 days, the partner will verify plant and programme data, identify commitments that reduce options and establish scenario assumptions with client owners. The board will receive an independent view of decisions that cannot wait and those where staged evidence has value.

By month eight, priority plant dispositions should be approved with workforce, supplier and product transition plans. At least one apparently obvious consolidation case should be challenged through quality, launch or flexibility evidence. Advisory work will move from modelling into client-owned execution governance.

At year-end, approved footprint choices should remain within 10% of transition cash, protect scheduled customer launches and release at least ₹425 crore of capital or annualised capacity value. Employee and supplier actions should follow agreed process, and the client should independently run decision gates without routine partner facilitation.

What the board will measure

• Plant recommendations supported by full transition and ecosystem consequences.
• Decisions timed to preserve value and strategic options.
• Client ownership and advisory independence through difficult workforce choices.
• Verified value after implementation rather than announced footprint savings.
• Partner and case-team capability beyond the appointee.

The person

You are a Managing Partner, automotive sector adviser or former manufacturing executive who has led board-level footprint decisions. You understand product launches, tooling, supplier localisation and labour obligations and can translate technical evidence into capital choices. Pure real-estate or cost-reduction experience is insufficient.

At least 28 years of experience is required, including influence above ₹4,050 crore and operations involving 1,200 employees or more. The council will test a closure you opposed, a conversion you staged and a value claim you corrected after transition cost emerged.

The role is onsite in Gurugram with extensive plant and board travel.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹5.0–7.5 crore plus performance variable and long-term incentives under the partnership model. Measures include verified client value, independence, case economics and team development. Recommended savings alone do not determine reward. Final terms follow conflict review and current partnership standing.

Confidentiality

The client, plants, products and workforce scenarios remain confidential. More detail follows candidate qualification, conflict clearance and an undertaking. Gurugram and the rounded perimeter must not be used to identify the engagement.