A whole category team, not one category head
Five related roles hired as a programme, calibrated on level and pay so the team fits together.
Leadership hiring firm in Mumbai
When you need to build a leadership layer, not fill one seat.
One of the leadership hiring firms in Mumbai that companies retain when they need a whole senior layer, not a single appointment. Multi-role hiring programmes for the senior management layer: category teams, regional leadership, functional benches and succession pipelines. Where executive search fills one critical seat, leadership hiring builds the group of people who will run the business together.
India & EMEA
Founder-led
Confidential
5 rolesLargest single programme
The short answer
What do leadership hiring consultants do?
Leadership hiring is the recruitment of a company's senior management layer usually several related roles hired as a coordinated programme rather than as separate mandates. Leadership hiring consultants map one market for the whole layer, calibrate levels and compensation across the roles, and sequence the hiring so that early appointments help attract later ones. It applies when a business is scaling a category, entering a region, professionalising a family-run structure or building a succession bench.
The difference matters in practice. Hiring five category heads one at a time produces five separate benchmarks, five compensation anomalies and a team that doesn't fit together. Run as a programme, the roles are calibrated against each other comparable levels, coherent pay bands, complementary strengths — and hired in a sequence that makes each subsequent role easier to fill.
Is this you?
Category build
Professionalising
Succession bench
Three situations that usually bring companies here.
If one of these sounds like your quarter, the first conversation will be useful whether or not you appoint us.
A family business hiring its first senior layer
Needs clarity on real authority before it needs candidates. We work on the brief first.
Depth behind a leadership team that is ageing out
Hired ahead of the gap rather than after it, which widens the pool considerably.
Roles
What we are typically retained for.
If your role isn't on this list it is still worth a call the answer takes five minutes.
- Category and vertical leadership teams, hired as a group
- Regional and zonal heads for a national sales or operations structure
- Functional benches a supply chain, finance or HR leadership layer
- Succession pipelines behind an ageing or departing leadership team
- Greenfield site leadership: plant head plus direct reports
- Professionalising a promoter led business with its first senior layer
How it works
Four weeks to a shortlist you can argue about.
The full method runs to eight stages. This is the shape of it from your side of the table.
- 01
Brief & challenge
We interrogate the role, the reporting line and the compensation before any search begins.
- 02
Map the market
You approve the target companies. We map roughly 100 relevant leaders.
- 03
Approach & assess
46 approached in confidence, 14 assessed in depth against the agreed competencies.
- 04
Shortlist & close
Four candidates with written appraisals, then interviews, references and offer management.
What's different here
Calibrated as a team, not five unrelated searches.
A leadership hiring programme is briefed once, mapped once and benchmarked once. That is what stops the fourth hire arriving on terms nobody can explain to the first three.
- One market map covering every role in the programme
- Level and compensation calibration across the whole layer
- Sequenced hiring anchor role first, then the roles it helps attract
- Team composition input: where the group is thin, not just each CV
- A single point of contact for the entire programme
What you actually receive
Market map
Every relevant leader in the agreed target market, named and levelled.
Shortlist of four
Each with a written case for, case against and compensation position.
Reference reports
Structured references with people who actually managed them.
Offer & onboarding
Counter offer management and check-ins through the first months.
Proof
Five category heads for Pidilite, between 2015 and 2020.
The clearest example of this practice is the category leadership team we built at Pidilite over five years a programme, not a placement. In real estate, we built the senior sales leadership for the 200-acre Charoli World City development in Pune from scratch.
ASTC was instrumental in building senior sales leadership for the 200 acre Charoli World City, Pune, from scratch.
Choosing
Not sure this is the right practice?
The three practices share a method and differ in who the hire reports to and how the search runs. If you're between two, call us we'll tell you which one your role belongs in.
| Practice | Typical roles | Reports to | How it runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Executive Search | Functional heads, business unit heads, P&L owners, plant heads | CEO or CXO | Retained, one mandate at a time |
| Leadership Hiring | Senior management layer, category and regional leaders, succession bench | Function head or BU head | Retained, often a multi role programme |
| C-Level Recruitment | CEO, CFO, COO, CHRO, CIO, board and promoter office roles | Board, promoter or investor | Retained, confidential, often off-market |
Case studies
Mandates we can talk about.
Chemicals × Consumer · 12 years
A twelve-year talent partnership at the intersection of chemistry and consumer goods
What keeps a client relationship alive through three CEOs and two market cycles.
Read the case study →
Logistics · Leadership transformation
Orchestrating a leadership transformation for DTDC
Solving the serviceability puzzle at one of India's largest logistics networks.
Read the case study →
Specialty chemicals · Greenfield
Baerlocher's strategic expansion and growth in Indore
Building a plant leadership team in Dewas, Madhya Pradesh, from the ground up.
Read the case study →FAQ
Questions about leadership hiring
What is leadership hiring, and how does it differ from executive search?
Leadership hiring builds a senior management layer usually several related roles run as one coordinated programme, calibrated on level and compensation. Executive search is normally a single business-critical mandate. The research method is the same; the scope, sequencing and benchmarking differ.
What do leadership hiring consultants in India charge?
Programme fees are normally retained and quoted per role, with a reduction where several roles run together because the market mapping is shared. ASTC agrees the structure in writing before work begins.
Can you hire several leadership roles at the same time?
Yes multi-role programmes are the core of this practice. Roles are mapped from a single market picture, benchmarked against each other and hired in a deliberate sequence, usually starting with the role that makes the others easier to attract.
We are a family run business hiring professional managers for the first time. Can you help?
This is one of the most common reasons companies engage us. It needs care on both sides: clarity on the authority new leaders will genuinely hold, and candidates prepared for a promoter led culture. We work on the brief before we work on the search.
Do you help design the structure, or only fill defined roles?
We will challenge a structure where it won't work reporting lines that split accountability, spans of control no candidate could deliver on, or titles that don't match the market. We are search practitioners rather than an org design consultancy, but that input comes with the brief.
How long does a multi-role leadership programme take?
The first appointment follows the same rhythm as a single search — shortlist at around four weeks. A five role programme typically runs six to nine months end to end, because roles are sequenced rather than run in parallel.
Are you a leadership consulting firm in Mumbai or a search firm?
A search firm. Leadership hiring consultants at ASTC advise on level, structure and compensation as part of the brief, but we are retained to recruit not to deliver leadership development, assessment centres or organisation-design consulting as standalone services. Where a client needs those, we say so and refer them on.
Which sectors do you run leadership hiring programmes in?
Most often consumer (FMCG and FMCD), chemicals and agro chemicals, industrial and manufacturing, auto, retail and real estate the sectors where we hold relationships across an entire leadership layer.
Start here
Tell us the role. We'll tell you honestly whether we're the right firm for it.
A first conversation takes about 30 minutes and costs nothing. You'll leave with a view of the market for that role the talent pools, a realistic compensation band, and how long the search should take whether or not you appoint us.
- 01
You send the role
The title, the reporting line and why the seat is open. Two paragraphs is enough to start.
- 02
We come back within a day
With a first read on the market: who exists, what they cost, how long it should take.
- 03
You decide
No proposal deck, no pursuit calls. If we're not the right firm for this one, we'll say so.