The hard calls
don't make themselves
Your spreadsheet won't tell you whether to fire that executive. Neither will another offsite. Sometimes you need people who've seen this movie before and know how it ends.
Seven fires we get called to put out
Nobody calls consultants when everything is fine. These are the situations that make executives stare at the ceiling at 2am. Click any to see what we actually do (and what happens after).
Professional values demonstrated through work
Intellectual honesty
We present findings and recommendations based on evidence and analysis, even when conclusions are difficult. Our value depends on our willingness to deliver unvarnished perspective.
Discretion
Client confidentiality is absolute. We handle sensitive strategic matters with appropriate care, recognizing that trust is the foundation of effective counsel.
Rigor
Every analysis, recommendation, and deliverable reflects our commitment to thoroughness. We pursue depth of understanding before breadth of coverage.
Accountability
We stand behind our work and share responsibility for outcomes. Consulting advice must translate into organizational results to be considered successful.
Former insiders.
Current skeptics.
We got tired of watching expensive advice collect dust. PowerPoints don't fix companies. People do. So we built a practice where nobody gets to hide behind "strategic recommendations" while someone else deals with the mess.
Scars, not just slides
We've fired people. Been fired. Watched turnarounds fail and a few succeed. Sat through board meetings where the CFO cried. This isn't consulting tourism. We know what it feels like when your name is on the door.
We're allergic to handoffs
The moment most consultants leave is exactly when things get interesting. Implementation reveals whether ideas actually work. We stay for that part. Not indefinitely, but until we know.
Repeat offenders
Most calls come from people we've worked with before. They move companies, get promoted, face new problems. They call because they know we'll say "actually, you've got this" when that's true.
Industries we've learned the hard way
Reading industry reports isn't the same as having lived through a regulatory upheaval or watched a business model collapse. Here's where we've accumulated the scar tissue.
Financial services
The Reality
Banks and insurers are getting squeezed from every direction: regulators demanding more, fintechs stealing customers, technology aging faster than it's replaced. Meanwhile, someone still expects profitable growth. Good luck.
What We've Done
We've helped banks rethink business models without triggering regulatory panic, insurers modernize without breaking what works, and everyone figure out which digital investments actually matter.
Industrial and manufacturing
The Reality
Supply chains that used to be boring are now front-page news. Sustainability went from 'nice to have' to 'board agenda item.' And everyone's asking about Industry 4.0 without knowing what it means for their specific factory.
What We've Done
We work with industrial leaders on operations that don't break, supply chains that bend without snapping, and sustainability plans that survive contact with financial reality.
Technology and software
The Reality
Hypergrowth is fun until it breaks everything. The people who got you here can't get you there. Your culture is becoming whatever you're trying to disrupt. Investors want governance; engineers want freedom.
What We've Done
We help tech companies scale without losing their soul (or their best people), build operating models that work above 500 employees, and make strategic decisions at startup speed.
Healthcare and life sciences
The Reality
Somehow you're supposed to improve outcomes, reduce costs, satisfy regulators, keep clinicians happy, and make shareholders whole. All at once. In an environment where nobody agrees on what 'value' means.
What We've Done
We work with healthcare leaders on strategic bets that account for regulatory reality, operational improvements that don't compromise care, and organizational changes that clinicians don't reject.
Energy and natural resources
The Reality
The energy transition is real, but so are this quarter's numbers. Thirty-year assets, two-year policy windows. Everyone has opinions; nobody has certainty. Capital allocation has never been harder.
What We've Done
We help energy executives think through transition strategy without abandoning operations, optimize portfolios against multiple scenarios, and transform organizations built for a different era.
Consumer and retail
The Reality
Channels multiply, margins compress, customers expect everything instantly. Your brand matters but so does your supply chain. Direct-to-consumer sounded great until the CAC math stopped working.
What We've Done
We work with consumer leaders on growth strategies that account for channel reality, brand and operations working together not against each other, and organizations that can actually move fast.
Public and social sector
The Reality
Do more with less, forever. Governance structures designed for accountability, not agility. Stakeholders with incompatible demands. Staff who joined for mission, not money, and are burning out.
What We've Done
We help public sector leaders improve performance within political constraints, design organizations that can adapt despite bureaucracy, and make strategic choices when 'strategy' feels like a corporate word.
Process that doesn't feel like process
Yes, we have a methodology. No, you won't hear much about it. Structure should be invisible. What you'll notice is that things move, decisions happen, and at some point you realize we're done.
Engagement lifecycle
Finding the real problem
Most engagements start with the wrong question. We spend time here because solving the wrong problem brilliantly is still failure. Expect pushback on your assumptions.
Learning fast
Interviews, data, pattern recognition. We're not trying to become subject matter experts. We're trying to understand enough to be useful, fast enough to matter.
Building something real
Elegant solutions that nobody implements are decoration. We design for your actual organization with its actual politics and actual constraints. Trade-offs included.
Staying through the hard part
Implementation is where strategies go to die. We stick around for the messy bits: the resistance, the surprises, the moments when the plan meets reality and loses.
Guiding principles
Opinion over analysis
Data matters. But hiding behind data is cowardice. We'll tell you what we think and why. You're paying for judgment, not just research.
Alongside, not above
We're not here to deliver wisdom from a great height. We work with your people, argue with your team, and build answers together. Faster that way.
Outcomes over outputs
Decks don't change companies. We measure success by what's different six months later, not by the weight of the deliverables.
Self-destruction
Our goal is to make ourselves unnecessary. If we've done it right, you won't need us next time. That's what success looks like.
Questions without clean answers
We've noticed patterns. Same interventions, wildly different outcomes. Organizations that should succeed and don't. Leaders who seem average until crisis reveals otherwise.
We keep notes on this stuff. Not because we're planning to write a book, but because the patterns help us work better. Here's what we're chewing on lately.
What's bugging us right now
Why do transformation programs die at the same stage? What separates leaders who transform organizations from those who just talk about it? How do you make good decisions when the data doesn't exist?
Core themes
Strategy when maps don't exist
What happens when you can't analyze your way to an answer? We're interested in how leaders make consequential bets when the data simply isn't there. Intuition, experience, and the courage to be wrong.
What makes organizations work
Some companies with terrible org charts outperform rivals with perfect ones. We're studying what actually matters: the informal systems, the cultural undercurrents, the things that don't show up in operating model diagrams.
Why change fails
Most transformation programs don't transform anything. We're cataloging the failure patterns and studying the exceptions. Turns out the problems are predictable. The solutions less so.
The performance gap
Why do similar companies in similar markets produce wildly different results? We're tracking the operational and cultural factors that separate consistent performers from everyone else.
Surviving what you can't predict
Risk management as practiced is mostly theater. We're exploring what resilience actually looks like: organizational capacity to respond to whatever shows up, not just the scenarios you planned for.
Leadership that changes things
Plenty of smart people run organizations without changing them. We're studying what distinguishes leaders who actually shift trajectories from those who just occupy the role.
Got a situation?
Skip the form. Write us an email. Tell us what's happening. We read everything and we're faster than you'd expect.
Remote. French market. Fast responses. No intermediaries.
Talk to us