EVP – Strategy and Portfolio — Multi-Function Shared-Services Network

The mandate

A Bengaluru shared-services network is entering planning season and needs a defensible portfolio view. Finance, procurement, analytics, technology and operations each carry transformation commitments, but benefits are counted differently and many depend on the same scarce architects and change leaders. The group cannot responsibly approve another annual plan by adding together unreconciled function submissions.

The EVP – Strategy and Portfolio will immediately take responsibility for choices across an approximately ₹4,450 crore annual services portfolio and a network of about 2,900 employees and partners. This role does not run each service line. Its authority lies in creating the enterprise facts, sequencing interdependent commitments and placing explicit recommendations before the executive committee. Functional EVPs will remain accountable for delivery and cannot outsource difficult outcomes to the portfolio office.

The urgent question is where to concentrate limited transformation capacity during the coming year. Some programmes protect control obligations; others promise labour savings, better experience or business growth. Several have already incurred sunk cost. The appointee must define comparable decision evidence without pretending that every value case reduces to one financial ratio. The output should be a smaller, fundable portfolio with named dependencies and deliberate capacity reserves for operational shocks.

Why this seat is open

The position was not part of the approved succession plan. The previous coordinating executive became unavailable during a critical planning window, and no current functional leader can assume independent portfolio authority without a conflict of interest. The CEO has therefore opened an urgent, unplanned search. Interim support can assemble data, but a permanent executive is required within six to eight weeks to make recommendations and own their consequences.

What you will own

• Reconstruct the active portfolio from contracts, financial ledgers, capacity allocations and benefit commitments rather than accepting programme-office labels.
• Define decision tests for mandatory, growth, productivity and resilience investments, showing the assumptions that cannot be compared directly.
• Recommend what to continue, pause, combine or stop, including programmes with influential sponsors or substantial sunk cost.
• Resolve collisions for architects, data specialists, change leaders and operational subject-matter experts before delivery dates are promised.
• Create an enterprise dependency map linking technology releases, policy changes, workforce moves and vendor exits across functions.
• Rebuild the portfolio team around analytical challenge and decision support, not status collection; retain critical knowledge while recruiting missing expertise.
• Institute quarterly reallocation so funding and people can move when evidence changes without relitigating the entire strategy.
• Provide the CEO and board with a concise view of committed value, risk, capacity and optionality, including downside decisions triggered by variance.

The first 12 months

In the opening 30 days, the EVP will establish a verified inventory and freeze new discretionary starts unless they pass an agreed exception test. By day 90, the executive committee should decide a revised portfolio with identified resource collisions removed and at least 10% of transformation capacity uncommitted for recovery or regulatory demand. Every surviving initiative will have one accountable benefit owner outside the portfolio office.

Months four to eight will reveal whether choices hold. The leader will implement dependency reviews for the 20 most consequential commitments, introduce common forecast dates and recruit the core strategy team. At least three redundant or low-confidence initiatives should be stopped or combined, releasing people and vendor spend into higher-priority work.

By the close of year one, 85% of portfolio expenditure should trace to an approved strategic or mandatory outcome; quarterly forecast variance should remain below 8%; and at least ₹250 crore of spend or capacity should have been redirected from weak cases. The board will expect a two-year portfolio showing genuine options, not a list in which every proposal is priority one.

What the board will measure

• Quality and speed of consequential portfolio decisions, including transparent recording of dissent, assumptions and trigger points.
• Real release of funding or skilled capacity from stopped work, independently reconciled rather than reported as theoretical avoidance.
• Reduction in missed milestones caused by known cross-programme dependencies or double-booked specialists.
• Stability of the rebuilt portfolio team and succession coverage for its analytical and governance roles.
• Sponsor confidence that the process is impartial, alongside evidence that popularity does not determine capital allocation.

The person

You are a strategy, portfolio or transformation executive who has made enterprise allocation choices across several functions. You have operated inside a global capability centre, multinational business-services network or similarly interdependent institution. Pure corporate-planning experience is insufficient: you must have stopped funded work, released real resources and remained accountable when the chosen portfolio encountered delivery pressure.

The role requires 22–28 years of progressive experience. You should have governed at least ₹2,550 crore of capital, operating spend or accountable portfolio and influenced an organisation of 2,000 people or more. Strong candidates will combine financial literacy, operating judgement and the political independence to challenge sponsors without becoming performatively adversarial. Your references must distinguish decisions you made from recommendations you merely facilitated.

The position is based in Bengaluru with a hybrid pattern and regular attendance at enterprise decision forums.

Compensation and terms

The anticipated fixed package is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. The offer will be calibrated to the successful executive’s current mix and demonstrated portfolio scale. Measures will focus on realised reallocation, decision quality, forecast integrity and capability recovery rather than the volume of programmes declared complete. Joining timing will be balanced with legitimate notice obligations.

Confidentiality

The specific functions, parent identity and investment programme are not published because planning decisions are active. More detail will be made available to qualified candidates under a mutual undertaking. Rounded figures are included to convey executive scale only and should not be correlated with market information to infer the employer.