Roles worked one at a time rather than in a batch, specialists, managers, functional leads and business unit heads, run as an open, competitive process where the assessment matters more than the CV.
Overview
Leadership hiring is how Mars Consultancy fills roles that are worked individually rather than in a batch: specialists and mid-level managers whose replacement is not interchangeable, and the department heads, functional leads, regional managers and business unit heads above them. It is run openly and competitively, with several assessed candidates on the table, rather than as a confidential approach to one or two names.
That is the line between this service and executive search, and it is worth stating plainly because the two get used interchangeably. Leadership hiring is an advertised, multi-candidate process for the layer below the top table, people who run teams and own numbers, and whose move does not need to be kept quiet. Executive search is for CXO, VP, director and board appointments: those candidates are mapped and approached directly, are usually not applying anywhere, and the mandate is frequently confidential, so the shortlist is deliberately short. If your role sits at the boundary, the deciding question is not the salary band. It is whether the search can be visible in the market.
What changes at this level is that the CV stops deciding. Below it, a CV plus a competent screen tells you most of what you need. Here, two people with the same designation, the same industry and a similar CTC can be entirely different hires, and nothing on paper separates them. The work of a leadership search is building the evidence that does.
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 mandate is CXO, VP, director or board level, or if it cannot be visible in the market (the incumbent is still in seat, the restructure is not announced, a funding round or an acquisition is in progress), this is the wrong process. An open, advertised search puts the role in front of people who will talk about it, and at that level the market is small enough that word travels. Those mandates should be mapped and approached directly instead.
Look at Executive Search insteadHow it runs
Week 1
We go past the job description to the things that actually decide the hire: how many people report in and at what levels, what the budget and the number look like, who this person has to work alongside, and what specifically is not working today. You will be asked what a good first year looks like. If your leadership team does not agree on that answer, the search will surface the disagreement, better now than at offer stage.
Week 1–2
We map who is doing a comparable job at comparable scale in the market you are hiring in, and bring back an honest read on what that profile costs today. This is where a mandate gets fixed or fails, a CTC band set from the last hire two years ago, or a title expectation the market prices differently, is far cheaper to correct here than after six rejected offers.
Week 2–4
Sourcing runs across our database, referrals and direct approach. Screening then interrogates what the person has actually run: headcount and its shape, budget owned, whether they inherited a working function or built one, what they were accountable for versus what they influenced. A title is an artefact of one employer's grading. Scope travels between employers; titles do not.
Week 3–5
At this level, achievements arrive as headline numbers (a book grown, a plant turned around, attrition halved), and they are rarely untrue, but they are often only partly theirs. We ask for the mechanics: what the starting position was, who else moved the number, what they would do differently. Claims that survive that questioning are worth putting in front of your panel; ones that dissolve on the second question are caught before your panel spends an hour on them.
Week 4–8
Senior processes involve more people on your side, the function head, a cross-functional peer, HR, often a founder or the MD. We coordinate scheduling, collect and consolidate feedback after every round, and keep candidates informed between them. Scheduling is treated as a deliverable here, not administration, because it is the most common reason a good senior candidate walks away.
Offer to joining
We handle the offer conversation, then meaningful reference checks with people who actually saw the person operate, and BGV alongside it rather than after. Senior notice periods are commonly 90 days, so we stay in contact through it (resignation, counter-offer, buyout discussions, the joining date), and flag hesitation while there is still time to act on it.
What goes wrong
A 'Head of Operations' might have run 400 people across four sites, or six people in one office. Both are honest descriptions of the title and neither is on the CV. We establish headcount, the number of layers below the person, budget owned and geographic spread before a profile reaches you, because a scale mismatch is the single most common reason a leadership hire looks right and fails in year one.
Someone who ran a well-oiled department for five years may have never hired a team, written a process, or operated without support functions around them. Someone who built one from four people may not have run anything at scale. Neither is better. They are answers to different briefs. We ask which one your role actually is, and screen for it explicitly rather than treating years of experience as a proxy.
Senior candidates present outcomes, and outcomes at this level are almost always shared with a market tailwind, a predecessor's groundwork or a colleague's team. We do not treat that as dishonesty. We do ask what the baseline was, which levers they personally pulled and what they would change, the answers separate the person who drove the result from the person who was present for it.
Strong senior candidates are not desperate, are usually employed, and read a slow process as a signal about how the company is run. Two weeks of silence between rounds is enough to lose one. We push for scheduled panel slots up front and consolidated feedback within a defined window, and we will tell you when a delay is costing you a specific person rather than reporting it afterwards.
At this level a 90-day notice period is normal, and buyout is not always possible. That means a leadership seat can be four to five months from briefing to joining even when the search itself goes well. We say that at the brief so the plan is built around it (interim cover, a phased handover, or an earlier start to the search), rather than it arriving as a surprise after the offer is signed.
Your side
A search stalls on the client side at least as often as on ours. These are the things that keep it moving.
An honest account of what is not working in the function today, including anything you would not put in a job description
The real reporting structure, headcount below the role, who it reports to, which peers it has to work with
A CTC band that has been checked against the current market, and clarity on what is flexible in it
A named decision-maker and panel members with interview slots blocked in advance, plus feedback within an agreed window
Agreement across your leadership on what this person is expected to have achieved in twelve months
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
Leadership hiring covers senior and mid-senior mandates (department heads, functional leads, regional and business unit managers), and is run openly and competitively, with several assessed candidates. Executive search covers CXO, VP, director and board appointments, is mapped and approached directly rather than advertised, is often confidential, and produces a deliberately short shortlist. The deciding question is not the salary band but whether the search can be visible in the market.
Longer than a mid-level hire, and the notice period is usually the largest part of it. The search and assessment run over several weeks because multi-stakeholder panels take time to convene, and senior notice periods are commonly 90 days. Plan for months rather than weeks from briefing to the joining date, and build interim cover into the plan at the brief.
By establishing scope rather than reading titles. We confirm the headcount someone actually ran and its shape, the budget they owned, whether they inherited a working function or built one, and what they were accountable for as opposed to what they influenced. Achievement claims are triangulated (the baseline, the levers they personally pulled, what they would do differently), because at this level results are usually shared.
Yes, and they are meant to be useful rather than ceremonial. References are taken with people who actually saw the person operate (a former manager, a peer, someone who reported to them), and cover how they made decisions, handled pressure and worked with others, not just confirmation of dates and designation. Background verification runs alongside, not after.
If the mandate genuinely needs to stay off the market (the incumbent is still in seat, or a restructure is unannounced), it should be run as an executive search rather than as an open leadership hire. An advertised process puts the role in front of people who will discuss it, and at senior levels the market is small enough that word travels quickly.
Because it is the most common reason a strong senior candidate withdraws. Leadership processes involve several stakeholders, and every unscheduled gap reads to the candidate as a signal about how decisions get made at your company. We treat panel coordination and consolidated feedback as a deliverable, and push for interview slots to be blocked before the shortlist is ready.
Usually, yes. A leadership mismatch costs far more than any recruitment fee, a lost year for the function, the team that leaves behind the wrong hire, the strategy that stalls, and then the same search run again. Two extra weeks of proper assessment and real reference checks is the cheaper option by a wide margin, provided the time goes into calibration rather than into an unmanaged process drifting.
It is a legitimate reason to run a leadership search, and worth doing openly. Running a proper external process either confirms your internal candidate is the right appointment, which strengthens their mandate with the team, or shows you what you were about to miss. Tell us if there is an internal candidate; it changes how we brief the market and manage external candidates' expectations.
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.
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