Mandate intelligence
Informational briefs & CMO market context — not an offer of employment.
Assessments & AI fit
Psychometric, leadership, and role qualification — Navigator+.
Whisper & platform
Whisper market signals plus Symphony, comp & resume modules — intelligence only.
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Mandate overview
Key facts for this role. Fields left blank in Studio are omitted here.
- Job Title
- India CMO — Telecom (Regional Leadership)
- Job Location
- India
- Experience Range
- 28+ years (senior executive)
- Industry
- Telecommunications
- Job Function
- CMO
Position overview
Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Telecommunications on a senior CMO leadership mandate anchored in India.
This is a sector or practice-head mandate combining deep domain credibility with commercial ownership of a vertical P&L or global practice line.
The role suits an operator who treats integration, culture, and capital allocation as one system — not three separate programmes.
Context you will inherit
- Market & sector: TechCo transformation — reorienting a network-centric organisation into a technology and digital services company requires leaders who can disrupt from within
- Geographic spine: Primary hub India with reporting lines into global / regional matrix partners.
- Organisation stage: Working capital, liquidity, and funding mix are under scrutiny alongside headline revenue growth.
- Stakeholders: Stakeholders span board or regional executive committee, global functional heads, JV partners, and strategic account buyers.
- Secondary lens: Talent retention — telecom companies struggle to compete with technology sector compensation packages for engineering and digital talent
The mandate (12–24 month arc)
- Category narrative: Reframe how the firm is discussed in the market — move from vendor to partner / platform where credible.
- Account-based motion: Align marketing and key account teams on bespoke programmes for strategic buyers.
- Lifecycle marketing: Reduce leakage post-pilot or post-sale — onboarding, adoption, and expansion storytelling.
- Creative & brand governance: One source of truth for visual and verbal identity; cut off-brand exceptions.
- Events & field: Rebalance physical and digital presence for ROI, not habit.
- Privacy-first personalisation: Improve relevance within consent and regulatory constraints.
Responsibilities (representative)
- Own brand architecture, positioning, and major campaign investment decisions.
- Align marketing and sales on pipeline definitions, targets, and hand-offs.
- Sponsor customer research and segmentation used in S&OP and strategy conversations.
- Rationalise MarTech spend; enforce governance on data and consent.
- Lead executive communications and high-stakes external messaging as needed.
Leadership profile
- Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
- Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
- Growth leadership: Demonstrated impact on pipeline, win rate, or brand strength in Telecommunications.
- Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
- Geographic muscle: Deep experience leading in or from India with credible local stakeholder judgment.
Team & culture
Silos are real. Your job is to design forums and incentives so product, technology, risk, and commercial leaders solve problems together instead of optimising local KPIs.
Success measures (examples)
- Financial: Revenue and margin vs. plan; cash conversion; capital efficiency.
- Strategic: Share in priority segments; customer retention in anchor accounts; milestone delivery on transformation.
- People: Engagement trends; regrettable attrition in critical roles; diversity of succession slate.
- Risk: Audit and regulatory outcomes; conduct events; operational resilience metrics.
First 90 days (orientation arc)
- Days 1–30: Shadow key customer journeys or operations — paper over slides where reality diverges.
- Days 30–60: Cut or pause low-value projects freeing capacity for strategic work.
- Days 60–90: Publish first integrated forecast or plan under your ownership — even if directional.
- Build trust with risk, legal, and audit through transparency — surprises erode licence to move fast.
- Pick one cultural signal (e.g. meeting hygiene, promotion criteria) and model it relentlessly.
Stakeholder map (illustrative)
- Internal: Matrix of global product houses and local P&L; tension is normal — your role is to broker trade-offs with data.
- External: Customers who influence reference deals; government or industry bodies in regulated sectors.
- Capital providers: Banks, sponsors, or minority investors — each needs a slightly different narrative on risk.
Travel & mobility
Role requires face-to-face presence in the primary hub with regular regional travel; remote-only not viable.
Compensation
Competitive CMO compensation for Telecommunications leadership: cash, incentive, benefits, and potential equity or carry (case-dependent). Discussed with finalists only.
Application process
Gladwin International is managing this search confidentially. Shortlisted candidates will engage in structured conversations with the firm’s partners before client introduction. Please apply through the careers portal with a concise note on why this geography, sector, and remit fit your trajectory.
We review every submission personally; unsolicited outreach to the end client is discouraged and may disqualify candidacy.
Reference: telecommunications · CMO · India · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors