5 months
to cash-flow break-even in a French turnaround
Transformation
Transformation that changes performance.
Turnaround, plant-network reset, commercial restructuring, and strategic realignment. The work is to read the situation clearly, make the few decisions that matter, and stay with execution until performance changes.
15%
cost potential in plant-network redesign
€79m p.a.
sized across sales, pricing, and restructuring levers
Selected cases
Representative transformation work.
Clear situations. Few decisive moves. Measurable outcomes. The cases below cover direct turnaround leadership, cross-border footprint redesign, commercial and structural reset, and holding-level strategic realignment.
Turnaround · direct leadership
French automotive-electronics carve-out
- Situation
- Loss-making carve-out with unstable operations and high labour friction.
- Move
- Took direct operating responsibility, reset the organisation, stabilised planning and quality, and led negotiations with unions and labour authorities.
- Result
- Approximately one-third workforce reduction in two months. Cash-flow break-even in five months. One major strike managed.
Plant network · logistics · implementation
Cross-border plant-network redesign
- Situation
- Seven plants across three countries had overlapping roles, uneven productivity, and a footprint that had resisted change.
- Move
- Built a production and logistics simulation, set plant-specific targets, and worked with plant managers as one cross-border operating team.
- Result
- 15% cost-reduction potential identified. The approach was then repeated in the UK.
Commercial and structural reset
European paper merchant
- Situation
- Margin pressure sat across sales productivity, pricing, country structures, and logistics economics.
- Move
- Worked across sales effectiveness, pricing setup, restructuring, and operating-model choices instead of treating the problem as one single lever.
- Result
- Identified annual potential of €27m in sales effectiveness, €25m in pricing and €27m in restructuring.
Strategic reset · operating model
Industrial holding reset
- Situation
- An industrial group needed a clearer portfolio logic, leadership model, and route out of complexity.
- Move
- Designed an AI-supported strategy to reshape the group into three focused industrial clusters, eight business units and four venture units — each with entrepreneurial leadership, external capital logic and a flatter, more agile operating model.
- Result
- Directional path toward ~€1.3bn revenue, ~7x EBIT and ~10x EV. Key levers: the right people, entrepreneurial culture and venture-unit autonomy with external capital discipline.
Directional scenario, not reported performance.
Approach
How I run a transformation mandate.
The cadence changes by situation. The sequence does not: read the facts, decide the few moves that matter, then execute with clear ownership and steady follow-through. Across every mandate, two levers make the real difference: building a first-principles culture and backing the right people.
1
Read the situation
Cash, operations, commercial economics, footprint, governance, and leadership issues.
2
Make the key decisions
Define the target state, the few moves that matter, the 100-day agenda, and who owns what.
3
Drive execution
Set the management rhythm, remove blockers, and stay until the business performs differently.
Next step
Discuss a situation confidentially.
Send a short outline or a one-page brief. I respond personally, confidentially and promptly.