Founder Operations Advisory

Delegation needs somewhere to land

You may have capable people who still ask for approval on familiar decisions. The instinct is to tell them to take more ownership. Sometimes the missing piece is a boundary: what they can decide, with what information and when they should involve you.

I look at the actual flow of work before treating founder dependence as a people problem. A handoff without an owner, conflicting measures or an approval rule nobody has written down can keep drawing the founder back in.

What we examine

The assessment covers workflow and handoffs, roles and decision rights, standard routines, systems and automation, measures and reporting, and the operating rhythm. We follow two core processes, such as quote to cash or order to delivery, rather than rely only on the organisation chart.

Your calendar and a one week diary show where your attention goes. The purpose is to distinguish work that needs the founder's judgment from work that returns because the team lacks an agreed way forward.

Two scopes of work

Lite: name the bottlenecks and first moves

Three weeks. ₹2,40,000, excluding applicable goods and services tax (GST).

Lite includes conversations with you and up to four team leads, two process walkthroughs and the founder time review. You receive an operations scorecard, bottleneck map, founder time review, and a 90 day plan with a 60 minute readout.

It is the right starting point when the problem is visible but the causes are still disputed. It identifies which process changes deserve attention before a larger redesign.

Full: redesign how the work and decisions move

Six weeks. ₹6,60,000, excluding applicable GST.

Full includes up to ten interviews and two processes examined in depth, with cycle time, rework and handoff analysis. The eight outputs are the operations assessment, current and future process maps, decision rights matrix, four to six short standard operating procedures, automation and AI opportunities, an operating rhythm and dashboard, a 12 month operations plan and a leadership walkthrough.

The people who run the work help shape and own the routines. Automation opportunities carry rough cost bands and guardrails. The package does not build those automations.

A decision rights example

Consider a delivery lead who can resolve a customer issue but still waits for the founder to approve every concession. A useful redesign would specify the decisions the lead owns, the financial boundary, the information needed and the point of escalation.

This is an illustration of the method, not a client case or a claimed result. The actual boundaries depend on your economics, customer obligations and appetite for risk.

How we work together

We agree the two processes and the decision you need to make. I speak with the people involved, review the evidence and walk through recent examples of work getting stuck. We then test the proposed changes with the team before the final readout.

Lite needs a short weekly founder check in. Full needs a weekly working session. Delivery is remote, with access to records and interview time agreed before kickoff.

Questions founders ask

Will you run operations for me?

No. This is advisory work. It does not include managing your teams, running the business, implementing software or taking decisions on your behalf.

Is this founder coaching?

The operations engagement examines processes, ownership and routines. Personal patterns around control, identity or leadership may also matter. Formal individual coaching is a separate engagement with its own agreement. I make that boundary clear.

Should we start with growth instead?

If the main question is why the right customers are not buying, SMB Growth Advisory may fit better. If demand is there but delivery and decisions keep returning to you, operations is the more useful place to begin.

Bring one recent decision that came back to you

Book a free 30 minute discovery conversation. We can use that example to establish whether you need a short diagnosis or a fuller operating redesign.

I lead the work personally. About Nirmalya Mukherjee.

Fees reflect the October 2026 package scope and apply to statements of work signed by 31 March 2027. Final scope and commercial terms are agreed in writing.

Clarity today. Momentum tomorrow.