Building a Gurgaon Operation from the US: A 90-Day Planning Framework

Days 1–30: define and validate

Write the India mandate, target functions, first-year headcount and budget. Obtain current advice on entity, foreign investment, tax, payroll and employment. Interview recruiters and property advisers. Shortlist Gurgaon corridors based on the talent and client map.

Days 31–60: convert assumptions into commitments

Advance the chosen entity and banking workstreams, begin priority hiring, inspect office options and obtain comparable proposals. Define IT/security architecture, payroll process, vendor controls and US–India management cadence. Avoid irreversible property commitments until the legal and hiring assumptions are sufficiently clear.

Days 61–90: prepare to operate

Finalise compliant employment documents, onboarding, office or interim workspace, access controls, vendors and reporting. Set decision rights for the Gurgaon leader, test payroll and finance processes, and document escalation paths.

Use gates, not just dates

A 90-day framework is a management tool, not a promise that every regulatory or commercial step will finish within 90 days. Use decision gates such as “entity route validated,” “first leadership hire accepted,” and “lease diligence complete” before moving to the next commitment.

What headquarters should review weekly

Track six workstreams: legal/compliance, finance/banking, people, workplace, technology/security and operating governance. Each should show owner, next decision, dependency, risk and target date. This gives US leadership a compact view without micromanaging the India team.

Define what success looks like after day 90

The planning period should end with measurable operating outcomes, not simply completed tasks. Examples might include priority roles filled, payroll functioning, secure system access, an office or interim workspace operating, vendor controls documented and a local leader able to make defined decisions. The exact measures depend on the mandate, but they should describe an operation that can work rather than a project that has produced paperwork.

Keep contingency paths visible

Cross-border workstreams rarely move at identical speed. A property may be ready before hiring, or a senior candidate may start before the permanent office. Identify temporary workspace, phased hiring or alternative vendor options in advance where appropriate. Contingency planning is not pessimism; it prevents one delayed dependency from forcing a rushed decision elsewhere.

Move from launch governance to operating governance

During setup, a central project tracker is useful. After launch, ownership should transition into normal finance, HR, security, facilities and business routines. Decide which launch risks remain open, who owns them and how the Gurgaon operation will report performance to US leadership. A clean handover keeps the first 90 days from becoming a permanent special project.

Keep one cross-border decision register

During the first operating phase, legal, hiring, workplace, technology and finance decisions often depend on one another. A single decision register can show the issue, owner, required input, deadline and consequence of delay. This is more useful to US leadership than separate status decks that make each workstream look independent.

The register should distinguish between information that is still being gathered and a decision that is genuinely blocked. That makes escalation more disciplined and helps the Gurgaon team know when it can proceed locally without waiting for another headquarters meeting.

Review the plan against the original mandate

At the end of the planning period, compare the operation with the reason Gurgaon was chosen in the first place. Headcount, cost, client support, capability, security and leadership expectations may have changed as more information became available. Updating the mandate at that point creates a clearer basis for the next quarter than simply carrying every launch assumption forward.