Conglomerate Cross-Subsidy Board Adviser

The mandate

Operating companies share land, brands, leadership, procurement, treasury facilities, technology and relationship access through arrangements that evolved faster than formal portfolio policy. Reported business-unit profit excludes some guarantees and management attention while transfer charges allocate cost through broad revenue keys. A struggling unit may still protect a valuable licence or route to market, while a profitable unit may consume scarce group capital and executive time. The board needs to see intentional strategic support separately from accidental cross-subsidy.

The adviser will challenge an economic-and-capacity map covering cash transfers, guarantees, shared assets, service charges, customer referrals, executive attention, talent, capital expenditure, risk absorption and opportunity cost. The review must distinguish incubation, strategic option, temporary recovery support, structural subsidy and genuinely shared advantage. It should also test what would change if each business faced standalone funding, service and governance conditions without assuming separation is the preferred answer.

The cadence comprises fortnightly work with group strategy and finance, monthly board-committee attendance and two operating-company evidence reviews. The adviser will examine management cases, transfer logic and reserved decisions, then present choices with assumptions and dissent visible. Tax, accounting, legal and valuation conclusions remain with appointed specialists; the advice concerns strategic resource allocation and governance rather than formal pricing opinions.

The adviser has no line authority and carries no executive responsibility for capital allocation, operating-company management, treasury, transfer pricing, restructuring or investment. The role cannot order service changes, amend guarantees, direct executives, value businesses, negotiate transactions or approve funding. Boards and shareholders retain reserved decisions; executives own business plans; specialists own formal opinions. Advice will not be used as a disguised disposal or tax recommendation.

The appointment runs ten months. Renewal requires a new minuted portfolio decision after current cross-subsidy choices close. Relationships with portfolio companies, lenders, customers, suppliers, advisers, potential buyers and shareholder representatives must be disclosed. Relevant interests require recusal, and no financing, transaction, valuation or operating mandate may generate contingent compensation.

Why the board wants this voice

Operating leaders naturally defend resources they control, shared functions defend scale and group finance sees booked transfers rather than all capacity consumed. Historic support therefore survives without explicit strategic renewal. An independent portfolio adviser can expose economic and management cross-subsidy without seeking a transaction or assuming every business should stand alone.

What you will own

• Challenge cash, guarantee, asset, service, customer, leadership, talent, risk and capital flows between operating companies.
• Reconstruct standalone and group-supported economics with transfer assumptions, capacity consumption and opportunity cost visible.
• Classify support as incubation, strategic option, temporary recovery, shared advantage or structural subsidy using evidence.
• Test each unit against withdrawal, repricing, funding, leadership scarcity and loss of shared relationship scenarios.
• Frame board choices covering continue, condition, reprice, cap, recover, combine or exit support without transaction advocacy.
• Maintain assumptions, specialist dependencies, conflicts, recusals, dissents and reserved board decisions.
• Deliver a portfolio support charter, review calendar, capacity indicators and unresolved strategic option map.

Candidate qualifications

• Has advised conglomerate or family-holding boards on portfolio economics, shared resources and cross-subsidy decisions under capital scarcity.
• Understands guarantees, shared services, transfer charges, capital allocation, management capacity and strategic option value.
• Can distinguish intentional incubation from persistent support hidden inside group reporting and relationships.
• Has challenged powerful operating-company leaders without taking line control or promoting a preselected transaction.
• Brings credible experience with boards, shareholders, strategy, finance, treasury, risk and independent specialists.
• Is independent of transaction, financing, valuation, tax-structuring and operating-management success fees.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend monthly Abu Dhabi sessions and both operating-company evidence reviews under restricted access.
• Brings direct multi-business portfolio governance; cost allocation or finance planning alone is insufficient.
• Will not value businesses, direct capital, negotiate transactions or present strategic advice as transfer-pricing opinion.
• Will disclose ties to portfolio companies, shareholders, lenders, buyers, advisers, customers and suppliers.

1. 49 words maximum. Which non-cash resource most often hides a conglomerate cross-subsidy?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you distinguish a strategic option from a structurally subsidised business?
3. 49 words maximum. What standalone assumption would you refuse to treat as objective fact?