Why C-Suite Executives Are Being Encouraged to Lead Life Outside Metro Cities

The trend of moving C-Suite Executives beyond India's traditional metro cities is no longer a fringe trend. It's fast turning into a structural shift in how leadership roles are designed, located, and valued. For decades, India's senior-most executives were concentrated in metropolitan hubs like Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. These cities symbolized access to capital, talent, infrastructure, and influence.

And as Indian companies go on an overdrive to expand into new markets, and global capability centres push deep into the country, leadership roles are increasingly emerging from tier II and III cities. This is not quite a geographical shift. It is about business models in change, shifting preferences of talents, and a relook at what effective leadership would look and feel like in a post-pandemic, post-centralisation economy.

The Decentralisation of Senior Leadership Roles

Both demand and opportunity are driving the dispersal of leadership roles away from metros. According to industry experts, promoter-led organisations, private equity-backed companies, and expanding industrial groups are fast building senior leadership layers in non-metro locations.

For Preety Kumar, the Managing Partner at Amrop India, there has been a marked increase in senior leadership mandates that were coming from tier II and tier III industrial hubs. These roles, once confined to operational leadership, now increasingly involved chief executive officers, chief financial officers, and full CXO teams.

The share of such mandates is expected to grow to 20–25 percent of all senior leadership roles from roughly 10 percent today, and this marks a clear break from the long-held assumption that top leadership must reside in metropolitan centres.

Industrial Growth Beyond the Metros

The industrial development in India is no longer limited to big cities alone. Industrial clusters located around Coimbatore, Mysuru, Rourkela, Dholera, Jaipur, Rajkot, Vadodara, Surat–Valsad, and Maharashtra’s industrial corridors are seeing considerable capital investment and capacity expansion.

These regions have emerged as favored destinations because they offer many of the advantages that the metros can no longer provide. Large land parcels, plug-and-play industrial zones, proximity to ports or logistics hubs, and targeted government incentives have made non-metro locations attractive for large-scale manufacturing and infrastructure projects.

Leadership proximity becomes important as businesses scale operations in these regions. Boards and promoters now feel that strategic decisions, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement-not to mention a host of other C-level responsibilities-are best performed if C-Suite Executives are embedded within the very ecosystems where growth is happening.

IPO Ambitions and the Imperative for Localised Leadership

This trend is being driven, in large part, by the increasing mid-size companies that are preparing for initial public offerings. As firms professionalize governance structures in preparation for public markets, their need for experienced CXOs becomes pressing.

The mandate for many executive search firms is now to construct the entire leadership team for companies headquartered in Tier II and Tier III cities-manufacturing groups in Gujarat, family-run businesses in Nagpur, specialty chemicals firms in southern Gujarat and telecom players seeking organisational formalisation.

Moving headquarters to the metros is neither pragmatic nor required for such organizations. Rather, they are urging C-Suite Executives to relocate closer to the core operations-a trend functionally reshaping what leadership value means.

The Role of Global Capability Centres

Global capability centers-each also known as GCCs-are playing a vital role in the decentralization of leadership. With multinational companies continuing their expansion beyond traditional metro hubs to other emerging cities in India, senior leadership roles are being located in such cities.

These centers are no longer confined to back office or support functions. Most of them now boast strategic, technology, and product leadership roles that do need senior executive oversight. As GCCs grow mature, they require leaders willing to operate out of metros while maintaining global standards of governance and performance.

Payoff This has opened new career pathways for C-Suite Executives who would be happy to trade location prestige for strategic influence.

The Trade-Off between Salaries and the Opportunity for Creating Wealth

Of late, one of the most talked-about issues about non-metro leadership positions is compensation. The salaries in tier-II and -III cities could be anywhere between 20-30 percent less than counterparts in top metros. But this gap is closing in.

Compensation levels in these cities, according to Agamjeet Dang, CEO of Executive Access, often stand between 80–85 percent of metro salaries. Usually, this is supplemented with equity participation, stock ownership plans, and opportunities for long-term wealth creation not necessarily available to metro-based corporate roles.

For C-Suite Executives, this trade-off is increasingly holistic. Any lower cash compensation is often offset by reduced living costs, shorter commutes, greater organisational influence, and the opportunity to shape business strategy more directly.

Why Companies Are Willing to Take the Risk

From the employer's standpoint, luring senior leadership to locations outside of metro areas remains complex. Perceptions around lifestyle, education, healthcare, and employer brand visibility remain sticking points.

Companies accept that risk because the strategic benefits of decentralization outweigh the challenges. Leaders based closer to operations show deeper engagement, faster decision-making, and stronger relationships with local stakeholders, regulators, and communities.

In capital-intensive industries-like manufacturing, infrastructure, and chemicals-geography is destiny. With boards placing an increasing emphasis on operational effectiveness over symbolic site selections, C-Suite Executives are being told to lead where the action truly is.

The Growing Relocation Willingness of Executives

Equally significant is the supply side of this trend. More and more senior professionals are now open to relocating out of metros, driven by both personal and professional motivations.

The reassessments of lifestyle priorities in the post-pandemic period have played an influential role. High living costs, congested infrastructure, long commutes, and urban stress have forced many executives to reassess the assumed benefits of metro life.

Empty-nesters, professionals returning to their roots, and leaders seeking better integration of work and life are showing a growing receptiveness to jobs in smaller cities. The idea of being able to live near family, have more of a pace in life, and still lead a meaningful business really speaks to many C-Suite Executives.

Quality of life: A strategic issue

Quality of life has become a valid leadership consideration rather than a personal indulgence. Shorter commute times, availability to community networks, and the ability to participate more meaningfully in family life are driving career choices at the highest levels.

Agamjeet Dang leads off with examples of senior executives who have relocated out of the metros without losing professional relevance or satisfaction. In most cases, they are from small towns and therefore find it less intimidating.

In this context, relocation for C-Suite Executives is not a compromise; it is a success recalibration.

A Case Study in Leadership Relocation

One of the most illustrative examples of this shift is the move made by Amarpreet Singh Dua. After nearly two decades of working outside his home city, he quit as CEO of Reliance Jio in Mumbai to move to Ludhiana as Group CEO of Jhajhar Group’s Fastway Transmissions and Netplus broadband.

For Dua, the transfer was not just about moving to a different location. It involved a change in the scope and level of influence of his leadership. At Jio, he headed one of the many verticals. In Ludhiana, he is now poised at the helm of a whole organisation, with wider strategic accountability and decision-making powers.

Despite concerns around the impact on schooling and lifestyle adjustments for his family, the transition has been well received. Reduced commute times, improved quality of life, and stronger family connections have reinforced the benefits of leading from a non-metro base.

Redefining Career Progression for C-Suite Executives

Career advancement for C-Suite Executives traditionally seemed inextricably linked with metro-based roles, multinational visibility, and corporate headquarters. That model is being rewritten.

In fact, leadership impact, scale of responsibility, and proximity to value creation are matters of increasing importance for executives, rather than whether or not a headquarters is located in a prestige location. Executives are willing to give up brand visibility in return for greater autonomy, influence, and long-term legacy.

This has shifted the onus from traditional notions of what comprises a "big" role. Often, the scope for more strategic depth will be greater running an expanding organisation in a tier II or tier III city than by managing a narrow function in a metro-based conglomerate.

The Governance and Talent Implications

The mobility of the top management has wide ramifications on corporate governance and talent management. The boards would need to rethink succession planning, leadership development pipelines, and support structures for executives.

Similarly, organizations that wish to encourage C-suite executives to relocate will need to invest in ecosystem-building: governance frameworks, advisory boards, and professional services that support executive effectiveness outside of the metros.

Meanwhile, this trend has been enhancing regional talent development and reducing excessive dependence on metropolitan labor markets to attain balanced economic growth.

Remaining Challenges

Despite growing momentum, challenges still prevail. It is harder to attract talent in smaller cities, especially for a job that requires international exposure or specialized expertise. Education and healthcare infrastructure, while improving, may not be at par with that in metros in most regions.

Another important factor is employer branding. Companies without headquarters in the metros have to try harder to convey ambition, professionalism, and growth potential to attract leadership that is top-notch.

Yet, these challenges are now being seen more and more as manageable rather than prohibitive.

Conclusion: Structural Shift, Not Fad

This fast-growing encouragement of C-Suite Executives to lead life outside metro cities reflects a deeper transformation going on in India's corporate and leadership landscape, driven by decentralized growth, changed priorities amongst executives, and a redefinition of what effective leadership actually means. It is not a temporary response to pandemic-era disruption, but a structural realignment of leadership with opportunity. In short, as businesses expand beyond traditional hubs, leadership follows. For C-suite executives, the message is loud and clear. The future of leadership is no longer domiciled in glass towers in crowded cities. Rather, it's getting increasingly built in industrial corridors, emerging hubs, and communities where growth, purpose, and quality of life come together. In this new reality, location is not a constraint but a strategic choice.

Our Directors’ Institute - World Council of Directors can help you accelerate your board journey by training you on your roles and responsibilities to be carried out efficiently, helping you make a significant contribution to the board and raise corporate governance standards within the organisation.