Partner – Executive Advisory — Speciality-Materials Portfolio

The mandate

Speciality-materials companies redesigning global supply frequently discover that procurement structure is not the main constraint. Technical teams own specifications, business leaders own margin, plants own qualification and procurement owns suppliers, while no executive can resolve the trade-off among them. Committees accumulate and critical changes depend on informal sponsorship. This advisory partnership needs a Partner who can help boards create the executive system behind sourcing transformation.

The role influences approximately 2,750 employees and material partners through organisation, executive assessment, strategy, supply-chain and operations practices. The Partner will advise chairs, CEOs and executive teams on decision rights, role design, leadership selection and transition. It must remain separate from any executive-search service unless informed consent, information barriers and professional rules are explicit.

The work is consequential. Moving a critical raw material or changing specification can affect product performance, customer approval, plant yield and supply risk. Executive authority should be assigned to leaders who can integrate that evidence, not simply to the function with the largest spend. The adviser needs enough process-industry knowledge to test whether a proposed structure fits actual decisions.

Global sourcing also changes regional power. A central category leader may negotiate leverage, while plant and business leaders carry failure. The target model must state reserved matters, exception authority, technical approval and supplier-relationship ownership. It should be tested on live categories before an organisation chart is declared complete.

Leadership assessment must be fair to incumbents whose former roles were designed differently. Evidence should cover future decisions and transitions, with transparent board ownership of appointment and departure.

Reward and career systems can quietly defeat governance. Category leaders measured only on savings may escalate around technical approval; plant leaders measured only on output may block qualification trials. The Partner will help boards align a small set of shared outcomes while preserving independent quality and safety authority. Incentives must not make respectful disagreement financially irrational.

Global roles also require legitimate local voice. Time zone, language, supplier-market and regulatory knowledge cannot be represented solely through a central council. The adviser will define how regions contribute evidence and which decisions can remain local, avoiding a model where headquarters owns authority but plants retain unacknowledged operational risk.

Why this seat is open

The previous executive-advisory Partner became unavailable unexpectedly during a client portfolio handover. Interim partners protect relationships, but a permanent urgent replacement is required before several organisation decisions. The appointee will independently review inherited recommendations and conflicts rather than act as a continuation mechanism.

What you will own

• Diagnose sourcing decisions, interfaces and escalation before recommending roles or structure.
• Advise boards on central, business, plant and technical authority for critical categories.
• Design and conduct role-specific executive assessment with documented evidence and recusal.
• Facilitate difficult appointment, founder, succession and departure decisions.
• Test the operating model on actual specification, qualification, supplier and disruption cases.
• Protect confidential personal and supplier information across advisory practices.
• Coach appointed leaders through early decisions without creating adviser dependency.
• Build principals and directors capable of sensitive board and manufacturing work.

The first 12 months

In 90 days, review inherited clients, validate conflicts and lead one live decision-authority diagnostic across plants and corporate functions. Establish assessment and data safeguards. Present a practice plan and correct recommendations that were made before future roles or sourcing strategy were sufficiently clear.

By month six, complete one executive selection and one governance redesign, testing each through a live category or disruption. Train a small team in structured assessment and industrial decision mapping. Track whether board decisions are understood by plant and supplier-facing leaders.

At twelve months, at least four assignments should show implemented role or governance decisions and measurable reduction in sourcing decision time or escalation. Every case should pass confidentiality and conflict review, no assessment should lack board-owned criteria and two non-partner leaders should run substantial workstreams. Advisory revenue and contribution should meet target without generic assessment volume.

What the board will measure

• Executive and governance decisions implemented and sustained.
• Faster, clearer specification, qualification and supplier choices.
• Fair, evidence-led assessment and respectful transition.
• Confidentiality and professional boundaries across connected services.
• Commercial quality, collections and responsible case acceptance.
• Leadership depth beyond the Partner.

The person

You have 22–28 years in board advisory, organisation, procurement leadership or process-manufacturing management. You have helped select or served executives responsible for technical and commercial sourcing trade-offs. Pure assessment experience without operating-model and manufacturing depth will not meet the role.

Your work should have influenced organisations of at least 1,800 people and sourcing or business scope above ₹4,500 crore. You can describe a reporting line you rejected, an incumbent you supported into a different role and how decision speed changed. References will focus on discretion and willingness to resist politically convenient conclusions.

The hybrid Pune advisory appointment entails substantial client travel and reports to global and regional partnership governance.

Compensation and terms

The fixed range is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable calibrated to partnership level, client business and advisory evidence. Implemented client decisions, revenue quality, confidentiality, collaboration and talent will shape reward. This hybrid Pune advisory role reports to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council and requires extensive travel.

Confidentiality

The firm, boards, individuals, categories and client decisions are confidential. Detailed access follows suitability, conflict review and a signed undertaking. Scale and circumstances are deliberately blended; candidates must not contact executives, search firms, suppliers or employees to identify cases.