About
Two Decades in the Room Where Strategy Becomes Execution.
Twenty years across operating models, numbers, transformation, growth and the CEO agenda, in telecom, energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, ITeS and distribution.
Background
Hello, I’m Avik.
Twenty years in consulting and operating roles spanning across EY, Bignify, Airtel, Reliance, Aircel, OMC Power and now Managing Partner at CEO Cadence. Focus around Telecom, Energy, Infrastructure, Manufacturing, ITeS and Distribution. The work has mostly sat where the operating model meets the numbers: post-merger integration for telecom operators in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, cost programmes across India, Nepal and Malaysia, go-to-market for five new divisions of a global company, and national sales and distribution networks built from scratch.
The closest thing to what I do now was sitting as CEO Shadow, running the agenda of the chief executive at India’s largest telecom company, and the PMO for a 100 MW solar portfolio across 120 sites. The models on this site were built in those roles because the job required them. CEO Cadence exists to build them for other chief executives.
It is all number driven
Selected experience
Where the operating model and the numbers meet.
A sample of the work behind the models.
Transformation
- Post-merger integration: telecom, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
- Cost reduction: telecom, India, Nepal and Malaysia
- National sales and distribution set-ups
Growth and go-to-market
- Go-to-market for five new divisions of a global company
- Market entry: handset manufacturer, pan-country launch
- Scaling operating models for new businesses and growth platforms
CEO office and governance
- CEO agenda: India’s largest telecom company
- PMO and CEO agenda: 100 MW solar portfolio across 120 sites
- Board notes and board presentations
Finance and planning
- Company-level cash-flow models
- Annual operating plans and long-range plans
- Board and investor reporting
Advisory and leadership experience across
Focus on Telecom · Energy · Infrastructure · Manufacturing · ITeS · Distribution
How I work
Four things that shape every engagement.
The constraints are deliberate. They are what makes a practice of one useful to a chief executive rather than simply smaller than a firm.
A practice of one
No team, no deck factory, no hand-off to a junior. You get judgement rather than a methodology, and the person in the room is the person who built the model.
Few clients, long horizons
A small number of engagements at a time, measured in quarters rather than weeks, so the work stays close enough to be useful when something actually goes wrong.
Models your team owns
Not a deck and not a dashboard licence. A working file, in tools you already have, that keeps running whether or not I am still involved.
Hand over by default
Diagnose, build, run, then your choice. Take it in-house, or keep me alongside the CEO. Both are fine, and the first is the default.
Working together
Start with a conversation, not a proposal.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. If I am not the right person for what you need, you will leave with a view on who is.
Avik Chowdhury: CEO Advisory
The four areas, the three models and the three ways to engage, with the CEO problem set out in seven questions and two decades of experience behind it. Figures are illustrative examples, not client data.