Client: A mid-sized Project Management Consultancy firm, Pune
Team Size: 70 employees
Leadership Transition: Founder’s son, Mr. Himanshu, newly appointed at the helm

Background & Problem Statement

When the founder’s son, Himanshu, took over the reins of the company, the business faced a leadership vacuum. Despite the company’s long-standing workforce and senior professionals with over a decade of tenure, all strategic and operational responsibilities were falling solely on Himanshu’s shoulders. This created immense pressure and hindered organizational scalability.

There was no structured second-level leadership in place, and accountability was poorly distributed. The organization lacked a clear vision-mission alignment and had no leadership framework to support sustainable growth.

Our Approach: Diagnosis to Design

1. Holistic Diagnosis

We initiated a top-to-bottom diagnostic process which included:

• Structured interviews with senior leadership
• Focus group discussions across levels
• Anonymous questionnaire rounds with employees and management
• Assessment of the clarity and alignment around the company’s goals, vision, and direction

The analysis clearly highlighted the need to define, develop, and deploy a second line of leadership, particularly in critical functions:

• General Manager – Costing
• General Manager – Construction
• General Manager – Safety
• Project Manager – 2 Individuals

These professionals had been with the organization for 10 to 14 years but lacked structured leadership orientation.

2. Leadership Mapping & Competency Design

We conducted 1-on-1 sessions with each identified leader to understand their alignment with the company’s long-term vision and their self-perception of leadership capability.

Post these sessions, we facilitated management-level discussions to define what “Second-Level Leadership” should mean for this organization.

Together, we arrived at 6 core leadership competencies:

1. Leadership & Accountability
   • Taking ownership, inspiring teams, and creating alignment
2. Strategic Thinking & Vision
   • Foresight, planning, and proactive challenge anticipation
3. Job Knowledge & Decision-Making
   • Technical command and timely judgment under pressure
4. Mentorship & Talent Development
   • Coaching mindset and knowledge transfer culture
5. Customer Focus & Client Feedback
   • Service excellence and active listening to stakeholders
6. Team Management & Collaboration (added to bring functional execution in focus)

For each competency, we defined:

• Expectation criteria
• Role-specific responsibilities
• Marking metrics to track growth and identify gaps

3. Practical Implementation

We created a leadership evaluation matrix in Excel to track monthly progress. The management was guided to evaluate these leaders for a period of 3 months on the defined parameters.

This system provided clarity on:

• Who was ready for elevated leadership roles
• Who needed developmental support
• Where external hiring may be necessary

4. Outcome & Organizational Impact

After 3 months of performance tracking, it was evident that while the current GMs and PMs held domain expertise, they lacked leadership readiness for strategic responsibilities.

We helped the management:

• Recruit a seasoned General Manager externally with proven leadership acumen
• Define KRAs and KPIs tailored to the new hire’s role
• Distribute responsibilities more evenly, enabling better decision-making across departments

✅ Result:

• Over 50% of operational burden was successfully lifted from Himanshu
• The new GM became a pivotal pillar of support and direction
• Existing team members were placed on customized leadership training plans for long-term growth