There is what only your organization can do. And there is what everyone else does the same way. If you don't know where the line is, you spend money protecting what you should have let go, and you let go of what you should have kept.
The line gets lost in both directions.
The operations team « Nobody had decided whether this task actually mattered to the organization. So the teams worked around it. Five years later, the workaround is blocking everything. »
Software installed, features missing, no budget to fill the gaps. Teams opened Excel. Managers knew. They didn't escalate — the indicators stayed green.
Five years later, management wants to upgrade. The files don't work anymore. The update is postponed. Twice.
And the real question, nobody asked: did this task actually matter to the organization?
The planning team « The team fought for two years to get a planning tool. They got it. They still plan in Excel. And maybe they shouldn't have been planning at all. »
Not every organization needs to schedule its teams. Those that do spend a considerable amount of time doing it.
Here, the team fought for two years. They got the tool. They still plan in Excel.
And the real question, nobody asked: did this planning actually add anything — for clients, for the organization?
The fiduciary manager « Every week, Janine manually copies till receipts into a spreadsheet. By hand. For five years. The organization hasn't automated it because it doesn't want to take away her fifteen francs an hour. »
Four hours of work per week. A standard tool would do the same thing in seconds. Automation would pay for itself in six months. Management knows. They said no, because Janine needs the money.
What nobody says out loud: Janine is doing work she has no training for, with no prospects, for a wage that barely meets legal minimums. That's not solidarity. It's keeping her where she shouldn't be.
And the real question, nobody asked: why does this task still exist?
The accounting firm and its clients' software « She thought she was offering good service by letting each client choose their software. She had actually let her clients decide how she worked internally. »
Bexio for one, Klara for another, Excel for a third. The firm adapts to each client. Five tools half-mastered instead of one mastered fully.
The client gets an invoice for 7,000 francs and reads that AI will replace accountants. He no longer understands what he's paying for.
And the real question, nobody asked: what does this firm do that AI will never do?
Field: network of 35 Swiss accounting firms — Agro-Twin AG / AGRIDEA, 2019–2023
The account manager « He was helping clients in difficulty. He didn't know that this is precisely when the rules are least negotiable. »
When a client can't pay, the advisor gives them time. Without writing it down. Without telling anyone. As a favour.
A few months later, the client is even more in debt. The file reaches collections. They're furious — nobody informed them, nothing is in writing, they can't do anything.
The advisor wanted to help. The company lost money. The client is worse off. Everyone loses.
And the real question, nobody asked: between the advisor and collections, which one actually adds value — for the client, and for the company?
Field: fiduciary and para-state sector, French-speaking Switzerland
Finding the line in these cases takes an outside eye.
For whom
You run or advise an organization of a few hundred to a few thousand people, in a regulated sector: insurance, pension funds, para-state bodies, professional associations. You have information systems, suppliers, projects that have been running for years. And at some point, the same question reaches you: do we really know what we have in there, and on what terms could we get out?
That boundary gets redrawn with every contract signed, every system changed, every supplier kept. It's an ongoing capability, not a project: knowing at all times where the line is, and making your major decisions accordingly.
Who
Most consultants arrive with an answer. I start with a question: what does this organization do that no one else could do in its place? This question is almost always skipped. Yet it determines everything that follows. At the end, the organization has a documented map: what belongs to it, what can be entrusted to the outside. Precise enough to guide decisions for the next three years.
At FEDELIA, five compensation funds, 500,000 insured. Executives were making decisions without a full picture. They got one, projected three years out.
At Agro-Twin, 35 fiduciary shareholders. The product portfolio no longer served the strategy; infrastructure and processes made the solution unstable. Restructured.
At Bison Schweiz, several LANDI cooperatives. ERP migrations and mergers completed without service interruption.
Vaud / Bern / Geneva. FR / DE / EN. A network built on this ground for twenty years: its institutions, its codes, its people.