Discreet, mapped search for CXO, VP, director and board-level roles across India and the UAE, including confidential replacements where the incumbent is still in seat.
Overview
Executive search is how a CXO, VP, director or board appointment is made when the people worth hiring are not applying to anything. Instead of advertising the role, we map the market, identify who sits where, and approach those people directly and in confidence. Mars Consultancy has run search work since 2015.
The boundary with leadership hiring matters, because the two are often confused. Leadership hiring is the open, competitive process for senior and mid-senior mandates, department heads, functional leads, regional and business unit managers, where a role can be posted, candidates apply, and a wide slate is compared. Executive search starts from the opposite premise: the appointment sits at the top of the organisation, the pool is small enough to name individually, and the strongest candidates are performing well where they are and have no reason to look. If your role can be advertised without cost to you, you probably want leadership hiring and should not pay for the machinery of a search.
The second defining feature is confidentiality. A large share of search mandates cannot be visible, a replacement while the incumbent is still in seat, a function being built before it is announced, a role tied to funding or a transaction that has not closed. Confidentiality is not a promise we make in a paragraph; it is a set of decisions about what is written down, who is told what and when, and in what order. The method below is built around that.
Briefing to closure, depending on role, seniority and location.
From first conversation through to the joining date.
For clients in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and other Indian cities, and in the UAE.
The right fit
When it isn't
If the role is senior but can be run in the open (a department head, a functional lead, a regional or business unit manager where nothing is lost by the market knowing you are hiring) a search is slower and heavier than you need. An open, competitive process reaches more people, moves faster and lets you compare a wider slate. The honest test is not seniority, it is exposure: ask whether it would cost you anything if a competitor, your own team, or the person currently doing the job saw the role advertised tomorrow. If the answer is no, run it as leadership hiring.
Look at Leadership Hiring insteadHow it runs
Week 1
We agree what the role is, who it reports to, what it must fix in the first year, and separately, what may be disclosed and at what point. Whether your name is withheld in first contact, who inside your organisation knows, and what a candidate is told before they are told everything, are all decided here, not improvised later.
Weeks 1–3
Before anyone is contacted, we build a picture of the market: which organisations hold this function, who runs it in each, at what level, how long they have been there and who sits directly beneath them. The output is a written map of names and positions, the universe the appointment will come from, agreed with you before a single approach is made.
Weeks 2–6
Mapped individuals are contacted directly and one at a time, on a personal line rather than a work address, with a conversation rather than a job description. Nothing is posted, circulated or shared with a database. Each person hears enough to decide whether to have a real conversation, and no more until they have agreed to be treated as a candidate.
Weeks 4–8
At this level the CV is the least useful document in the file. We assess what the person actually owned (P&L, headcount, the state the function was in when they took it and when they left it), and test that against market reputation and references from people who have worked alongside them, taken with their consent and at a stage that does not expose their current position.
You are presented with a small number of genuinely appointable people, each with a written view of what they bring, what they do not, and what it would take to move them. A long list at this level is a sign the brief was never narrowed. Three well-matched candidates you would be comfortable appointing beat twenty you have to sift.
A sitting CXO weighing a move is making a decision their whole industry will see. We manage that conversation through offer, counter-offer, the notice period, often three months at this level, and the joining date, keeping the reasons for the move on the table and telling you early when someone is wavering rather than at the end.
What goes wrong
The defining constraint of search is that the pool and the applicant pool barely overlap. Someone running a function well, paid properly and three years into a mandate has no reason to answer an advertisement. They will take one careful conversation about a specific opportunity. That is why the work is front-loaded into mapping and approach rather than into sourcing volume.
If your search becomes visible, your incumbent hears it from the market, your team draws conclusions and your competitors read your plans. If a candidate's interest becomes visible, their own position is put at risk. We protect both by limiting what is written down, avoiding job portals and mass mailers entirely, contacting people on personal channels, withholding your identity in first contact where the brief requires it, and naming candidates to only the people on your side who need to know.
A confidential replacement is a different exercise from a vacancy. Interviews happen off-site or by video and outside office hours, no reference is taken anywhere near the incumbent's network, the internal circle is agreed and kept small, and the sequence of who is told what (incumbent, team, candidate, market) is planned before the first approach, because it cannot be corrected afterwards.
Search timelines run longer than open hiring, and the mapping stage produces nothing you can look at for a few weeks. That is the method working, not stalling. Compressed searches produce whoever was available rather than whoever was right, and a wrong appointment at this level costs a year of the function's momentum. We report progress as coverage of the map, not as CVs sent.
Counter-offers at this level are aggressive and personal, equity, title, a board seat, a direct appeal from a promoter. Long notice periods leave months for a candidate's resolve to soften. We keep contact through the notice period, revisit the reasons for the move rather than the number, and give you an honest read on the risk instead of a clean pipeline that collapses on the joining date.
Your side
A search stalls on the client side at least as often as on ours. These are the things that keep it moving.
A decision on confidentiality up front: whether your name is withheld at first contact, who inside your organisation knows, and when that circle widens.
A named decision-maker (usually the promoter, MD or board member) who will take the shortlist conversations personally and can commit without a committee.
An honest CTC and structure band, including any variable, ESOP or equity component, before the approach begins. Nothing kills a senior conversation faster than a number introduced late.
A list of organisations that are off-limits, and any individuals already known to you or approached by someone else.
Availability that respects the candidate's position: off-site or evening interviews, video where travel would be noticed, and feedback within days rather than weeks.
By sector
The method is the same; what changes is who you are hiring and where they drop out. Each sector page covers the roles, the qualification floors and the locations that matter for it.
Other services
Executive search is for CXO, VP, director and board appointments: the market is mapped, candidates are approached directly rather than advertised, the process is frequently confidential, and the shortlist is deliberately short. Leadership hiring is the open, competitive process for senior and mid-senior mandates such as department heads, functional leads and regional managers, where the role can be posted and a wider slate compared. The test is exposure, not seniority.
Yes, confidential replacements are a routine part of executive search. The role is never advertised, your identity can be withheld at first contact, interviews are held off-site or by video and outside office hours, references are taken only with the candidate's consent and away from the incumbent's network, and the internal circle who know about the search is agreed with you before the first approach.
Market mapping means building a written picture of who holds this role across the relevant market before anyone is contacted, which organisations have the function, who runs it in each, at what level, how long they have been there and who sits beneath them. You see and agree that map first. It defines the universe the appointment will come from, and progress in a search is measured as coverage of it.
Longer than open hiring, and deliberately so. Mapping alone takes several weeks before any approach begins, senior candidates need time to consider a move, and notice periods at this level are commonly three months. Speed is the wrong measure for a search, a compressed process returns whoever was available rather than whoever was right, and a wrong appointment at CXO level costs a year of momentum.
Because at this level a long list means the brief was never narrowed. A search should end with a small number of genuinely appointable people, each presented with a written view of what they bring, what they do not, and what it would take to move them. Three well-matched candidates you would be comfortable appointing are more useful than twenty profiles you have to sift.
By what they actually owned rather than what the CV claims (P&L, headcount, the state of the function when they took it and when they left it), tested against market reputation and references from people who have worked alongside them. References are taken with the candidate's consent and at a stage that does not put their current position at risk.
Nothing about a search is posted, circulated or shared with a database. Individuals are contacted directly on a personal channel, told enough to decide whether to talk and no more until they agree to be treated as a candidate, and named to only the people on your side who need to know. Interviews and referencing are scheduled so that no absence or enquiry is visible to their employer.
Engagement terms for search mandates are agreed case by case. Send us the requirement at info@marsconsultancy.in and we will come back with the commercial terms alongside an honest view of what the search will take. Candidates are never charged anything.
Get started
Tell us the role, the numbers and the deadline. We'll come back within one business day with questions and an honest view of what it will take.
Start hiring