Partner – Organisation and Leadership — Omnichannel Retail Network

The mandate

Omnichannel retailers frequently assign fulfilment work to stores while retaining digital promise, inventory, labour and cost authority in different functions. A store leader may be held to pickup readiness without control of order release or staffing assumptions; a digital team can launch faster delivery without owning the additional pick and parcel cost; supply chain controls routing but not the customer communication after failure. Organisations add coordination forums, yet the underlying decisions remain unresolved.

The advisory partnership is appointing a Partner – Organisation and Leadership to help clients redesign that accountability. The remit spans operating model, governance, role and forum design, leadership assessment, workforce implications, incentives and implementation. The Partner must begin with the fulfilment decisions that create customer and economic outcomes, then design an organisation capable of making them. A new chart unsupported by measures, capability and authority will not qualify as an answer.

This planned replacement follows the retirement or transition of an established adviser. The incoming Partner will inherit relationships and an experienced team but is expected to refresh the proposition for retailers whose physical and digital models have converged unevenly. They must respect the history of store and supply operations while challenging structures built around channel ownership rather than the complete order.

Scope and operating context

Based in Seattle on a hybrid arrangement, the Partner reports to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council. They can draw on approximately 1,375 employees and material partners across organisation, retail strategy, operations, digital, analytics, rewards, workforce and implementation. Direct ownership will centre on a specialist leadership group; multidisciplinary work will depend on collaboration across the partnership.

Clients range from large-format and specialist chains to grocers, premium retailers and digitally originated brands adding stores. Their order, labour and property economics vary. Some need stronger central orchestration; others have over-centralised and stripped store leaders of the authority to resolve local service. The Partner must distinguish decisions that benefit from network scale from those that require proximity to customer and inventory.

Organisation choices have material people consequences. Store and distribution roles may absorb work without recognition, central teams may duplicate market or site expertise, and senior careers can be defined by channel silos that the new model seeks to remove. Assessment and selection must be fair, evidence-led and separate from structural advocacy.

First-year agenda

The first quarter will review client relationships, credentials, live opportunities and the delivery bench. The Partner will identify which past designs changed decisions and fulfilment economics and which stalled because incentives, data, systems or leaders did not follow. This evidence will shape a clear market proposition and several priority executive dialogues.

On client work, the team will map decision episodes such as promise setting, order routing, capacity release, inventory allocation, substitution, pickup readiness, return disposition and service remedy. Each episode will show the information used, authority held, delay, escalation and cost consequence. That map will reveal where role duplication or missing ownership—not span alone—is creating loss.

Design options will make trade-offs explicit. A central fulfilment leader may improve network optimisation but weaken connection to merchandising or stores. Giving stores more authority can accelerate remedy while increasing inconsistency. Shared metrics may reduce channel conflict, but too many can obscure individual ownership. The Partner will test options against realistic peak, outage and customer scenarios before recommendation.

Leadership, incentive and workforce implications will be designed alongside structure. Pivotal roles will have clear outcomes, interfaces, evidence-based selection criteria and manageable spans. Reward should balance completed-order contribution, customer promise and safety without asking every leader to own the same result. Consultation and position changes will be led lawfully by client management with appropriate specialist support.

Within twelve months, the Partner should have taken a major organisation redesign through mobilisation, grown a senior client portfolio and developed colleagues able to lead decision-mapping and implementation independently. Tools and case learning may be reused, but client strategy, work and people evidence must determine every answer.

Leadership responsibilities

The Partner will own senior client relationships, scope, quality, commercial management and risk. They must ensure an organisation engagement has access to operating and people evidence, a chief executive willing to decide and implementation capacity. Requests to use structural work as cover for preselected individual outcomes will be challenged or declined.

Assessment will follow documented role criteria, multiple evidence sources and appropriate confidentiality. The Partner must differentiate observation, inference and decision, and ensure client leaders understand limitations. They may not conduct covert selection through informal interviews or present cultural similarity as leadership fit.

Within the firm, the appointee will mentor directors and emerging partners, share client ownership and contribute to quality governance. External relationships with legal, reward, technology and executive-search specialists will be managed with defined responsibilities and conflict controls.

Measures of success

Client outcomes will include clearer authority, faster fulfilment decisions, reduced escalation, better completed-order economics and adoption of the intended forums and roles. Workforce outcomes include successful placement of pivotal leaders, manageable spans, retention of critical operators and fair implementation. Headcount reduction alone will not establish organisation effectiveness.

The partnership will assess trusted origination, engagement contribution, repeat work earned through impact, executive references, collaboration and senior-team growth. Risk indicators include assessment disputes, implementation harm, confidentiality failures and benefits claimed without operating evidence. The new model should remain functional after advisers withdraw.

Candidate profile

Candidates should bring 22–28 years of organisation and leadership advisory in retail, e-commerce, logistics, consumer or another network operating environment. A senior industry executive may be considered if they have advised multiple boards and built external client relationships. Direct experience with omnichannel fulfilment organisation is essential.

The board will seek examples where decision mapping changed an initially proposed chart, where a channel leader's remit was redesigned around the complete order, and where incentives reduced cost transfer without diffusing responsibility. Candidates should understand store labour, supply networks, digital product and customer service well enough to test organisation assumptions.

The successful Partner will combine analytical discipline with respect for front-line knowledge. They must challenge chief executives, handle career consequences fairly and stay close to adoption. Commercial confidence, credit sharing and development of successors are required.

Compensation and appointment terms

The anticipated base is USD 360,000–480,000, with annual incentive and long-term participation reflecting partnership contribution. Entry terms will consider verified client outcomes, responsible origination and leadership of senior talent. Mobility, deferred remuneration and access to broader partnership economics will be addressed during final negotiations.

Confidentiality

The firm is unnamed because the succession and several client redesigns remain sensitive. Detailed governance and opportunity information will be shared only after identity, conflict and confidentiality review. Applicants must not provide identifiable assessments, organisation charts or protected client economics from other work.