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 management « 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 French-speaking 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.
Nestlé's value is not in its 340 factories. It is in the information that synchronises them across a hundred markets.
A bank's value is not in its vaults. It is in the information we call money.
Your organisation is subject to the same system. Having the map is not enough. What matters is whether your leadership can read it and make informed decisions from it.
The practice
Twenty years in organisations of a few hundred to a few thousand people, regulated or not. Not an imported methodology. Most people brought in come with an answer. I start with a question: what does this organization do that no one else could do in its place? The confusion between the two, between replacing a tool and reorganising what the organisation must do itself, is precisely what makes problems last.
I work with the teams in place. Whatever the entry position, board level, C-suite, or embedded programme director, I read the organisation to make a management decision possible where no one had yet put it into words. What I deliver in 6 to 8 weeks: a documented map and a 36-month strategy the leadership can carry on its own and present to its board without needing me in the room. Political access varies. The method does not.
Twenty years
Directing information organisation programs in environments where information isn't a peripheral topic: it's the productive apparatus itself.
FEDELIA SA · 2023–2025
Context
Group of 5 Swiss compensation funds, 500,000 insured. Product director iPension, member of the operational management.
What I did
Executives were deciding without a three-year picture. They got one: project and function mapping, summarized at their level, projected over 36 months. Tripartite governance structured through 20+ multi-stakeholder working groups. Ongoing federal regulatory compliance: MOSAR, APG, Swissdec.
What I saw
Management was conflating two distinct problems: replacing a tool, and reorganising roles around what the organisation must do itself. The first is a project. The second is a management decision. One does not automatically produce the other.
Agro-Twin AG / AGRIDEA · 2019–2023
Context
Swiss association for agricultural and rural development. Managing a team of 10, product strategy for a SaaS serving 35 client and shareholder fiduciaries.
What I did
The product portfolio no longer served the strategy; infrastructure and processes made the solution unstable. Restructured. Then chief of staff for the Dynamisation and Digitalisation project: transforming the association toward a more agile structure.
What I saw
What nobody wanted to say out loud: clients stayed because of regulatory obligation, not perceived value. The real question had never been asked: what do these firms do that no one else will do in their place once compliance becomes automated? Because the answer was uncomfortable.
Bison Schweiz AG / fenaco · 2016–2019
Context
IT project manager LANDI. Several agricultural cooperatives in the network (300+ branches across Switzerland) migrated to a shared ERP with renewed infrastructure, without service interruption.
What I did
Entity mergers completed under tight deadlines. Multi-site, multilingual environment.
What I saw
This wasn't a technical migration. It was a question of sovereignty: which cooperative accepts giving up control of what, in what order, to whom. And behind every hesitation, an invisible informational debt: processes built around information that was specific yesterday and will become generic tomorrow. These debts only become visible once they cost something.
2006–2016 · The foundation
At the interface between systems and business functions: Cardinal Health (Rolle), Nestlé Switzerland via Getronics, Richemont International, then assignments in banking and construction (BRZ Suisse). Always at the friction point between what an organisation decides and what its systems actually allow.
Direct knowledge of information-intensive sectors: pension and disability insurance funds, insurers, para-state bodies, professional associations. Trilingual FR / DE / EN, operational across Switzerland. Federal Certificate in ICT (2019) · Federal Diploma ICT Manager (2021).
Thirty minutes is enough to know whether an engagement makes sense in your context. No preparation needed, no commitment.
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