India Inc. Turns to Consultants as Leadership Pipeline Thins
A shrinking succession pipeline and faster business cycles are pushing boards to prize transformation experience over tenure.
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Indian companies are increasingly turning to former management consultants to fill top leadership roles, reflecting a thinning bench of career industry executives and the growing complexity of running large businesses. Mint reported.
Recent appointments illustrate the shift. Rahul Guha, who spent 17 years at Boston Consulting Group, became managing director and chief executive officer of Thyrocare in 2022.
Anuj Khandelwal joined JK Cement in 2023 after a career at BCG, taking charge of its grey cement business. In March 2025, Vikas Kaushal assumed office as chairman and managing director of Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd after 25 years at Kearney. Abhishek Malhotra moved to RPSG Group in 2024 as president and strategy head following roles at McKinsey and Kearney.
The trend signals more than a preference for brand-name advisory pedigrees and points to a structural recalibration in what boards expect from leadership.
Companies navigating digital transformation, portfolio restructuring, global expansion and AI-driven disruption are prioritizing cross-sector exposure and analytical rigor over traditional operational depth within a single industry, analysts said.
Consulting careers train executives to diagnose complex systems, challenge legacy assumptions and work across functions. Those skills have become more valuable as corporate strategies grow less linear and more experimental.
In an environment marked by volatility and rapid technological change, boards appear to favor leaders comfortable with ambiguity and large-scale transformation.
At the same time, the shift underscores a thinner leadership bench in several sectors. Traditional industry veterans typically rise through operational hierarchies over decades. But as business cycles compress and strategic resets accelerate, companies are increasingly looking outside their own ranks for executives who have managed multiple transformations across industries.
The move from advisor to operator, however, is not trivial. Consultants stepping into CEO roles must transition from recommending strategy to executing it, taking full accountability for capital allocation, culture and results. The distinction between influencing from the outside and owning performance internally becomes stark.
Industry expertise has not disappeared as a criterion. But it no longer seems sufficient on its own. The rise of the consultant CEO suggests that boards are recalibrating their definition of experience, placing a premium on transformation capability, cross-functional leadership and data-led decision making.
