Senior Partner – Transformation — Water And Utilities Business

The mandate

Water and utility clients are entering concession renewals with asset condition, service performance and tariff pressures that cannot be resolved through negotiation advice alone. Boards need a transformation fact base before accepting future commitments, yet the advisory partnership lacks a scaled senior proposition connecting network operations, customer service, capital and contract. A new Senior Partner will build that capability.

The role will lead counsel affecting approximately ₹19,700 crore in client projects and operating assets and 875 client employees and partners. Scope includes case origination, concession diagnostics, service and operating transformation, asset plans, commercial scenarios, implementation governance, quality and economics. Clients own renewal and workforce decisions. The adviser owns independent evidence and the coherence between transformation and negotiated obligation.

Renewal begins with current performance. Water loss, quality, pressure, continuity, response, billing, collection and asset failures must be understood by network and customer cohort. Aggregate averages can hide vulnerable zones and unfunded deterioration. The team will reconcile operating data to sampling, maintenance and customer evidence before modelling a future service baseline.

Contract economics will reflect lifecycle capital and affordability. Tariff, subsidy, demand, energy, chemical cost, labour, debt and renewal capital interact. The partner will distinguish efficiency that can be delivered from assumptions requiring authority, customer or investor action. No proposal will depend on indefinite maintenance deferral or unsupported collection improvement.

Why this seat is open

The partnership approved planned new hiring because board demand exceeds its existing senior capacity. There is no predecessor. A four-to-six-month process permits conflict review and comparison of advisers with genuine water operating and concession experience.

What you will own

• Build a board-level concession-transformation proposition for water and utilities.
• Establish service, asset, customer, cash and contract baselines.
• Design transformation pathways that can support renewal commitments.
• Integrate operations, engineering, finance, digital and stakeholder expertise.
• Govern case selection, independence, quality and collected economics.
• Develop directors able to lead implementation and client capability transfer.

Case selection will identify whether the client has authority and time to act. A renewal six weeks from decision cannot credibly absorb a multi-year transformation; advice must focus on immediate protections and staged commitments. Proposals will state source access, board decisions and limitations rather than imply certainty from compressed review.

Operating recommendations will be tested in representative zones and assets. Leak reduction, pressure management, meter correction, field dispatch and billing redesign may have different benefits and community consequences. Pilots need measurement, seasonal context and a route to scale. Advisers will stop measures that improve one metric while worsening continuity or vulnerable-customer outcomes.

Renewal negotiation will use clear walk-away and reopen triggers. Authority commitments, performance regimes, capital recovery, change mechanisms and handback will be modelled together. The Senior Partner will preserve a decision record and prohibit informal commitments that cannot survive governance.

Client capability will be built through observed management. Executives will chair transformation reviews, internal analysts will own models and asset teams will retain data products. Adviser intensity reduces only after the client can handle a service disruption or forecast challenge without recreating dependency.

Customer affordability and equity will enter the transformation case. Collection improvement may require accurate bills, accessible dispute routes and targeted support rather than aggressive enforcement. Service standards will be segmented to reveal whether vulnerable or peripheral communities carry disproportionate interruption. The Senior Partner will require clients to state the legal and public-interest basis for differential treatment and to track remedy. Political sensitivity will not justify hiding the operational evidence.

The first 12 months

During the first 90 days, the Senior Partner will review target renewals, conflicts and capability gaps, then present a proposition and team plan to the council. One live case will test the integrated method.

By month eight, two clients should operate board-approved transformation and renewal pathways, with service and asset baselines accepted by finance and operations. Two directors will lead client forums, and one repeatable analytical capability will serve several cases.

At year-end, 80% of contracted near-term benefits should be independently verified, collected contribution meet plan and no significant independence or service-quality issue arise. Client governance should sustain for three months after intensive support, while new relationships contribute 20% of practice revenue.

What the partner council will measure

• Renewal commitments grounded in service and asset truth.
• Transformation benefits compatible with affordability and resilience.
• Independent counsel under political or timetable pressure.
• Profitable client development and durable capability.
• Strong directors and succession.

The person

You are a Senior Partner, water-transformation leader or former utility executive with 18–22 years of experience. You have governed at least ₹11,450 crore and 625 employees, or equivalent multidisciplinary client-value ownership. Evidence must include a concession renewal, an operating transformation and a board recommendation that narrowed an unsupported service promise.

This onsite Ahmedabad role requires extensive client, network and authority travel. You combine engineering curiosity with customer, finance and governance judgement.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. Measures include client outcomes, collected economics, concession quality, independence, talent and succession. Final calibration will follow advisory standing and the water-transformation remit.

Confidentiality

The partnership, clients, concessions, networks and renewal evidence remain confidential. Further information follows qualification, conflict clearance and an undertaking. Ahmedabad and rounded figures are non-identifying.