WORK AND SERVICES
From strategic questions to practical action.
I help organisations understand what is changing, make the strategic choices that follow, and turn those choices into action across the organisation.
Three connected areas of work
Strategy, brand and culture are usually managed apart. In reality, each shapes the others — and a mandate that begins in one still has to work with the whole.
STRATEGY + EXECUTION
BRAND STRATEGY +
ACTIVATION
CULTURE + ORGANISATIONAL ALIGNMENT
I help organisations read what's changing: markets, customers, competitors, capabilities, and make the hard choices that follow.
Direction becomes priorities, measures and clear responsibilities. This is more than an ambition, it is a basis for deciding what to do differently.
I use brand as a management tool, not just an identity.
Inside the organisation, it turns strategy into a shared organising idea that guides decisions across all levels and functions.
Outside the organisation, customers and other stakeholders experience the organisation more consistently, strengthening distinctiveness, connection, trust and long-term value.
Strategy isn't real until people understand it, see their role in it, and act on it.
I work with leadership, HR and teams across functions, levels and geographies. I use participation and dialogue to build the understanding, ownership and capability needed to apply the direction in daily decisions and behaviour.
Clients work directly with me throughout the mandate, from the first questions and strategic choices through to implementation.
Stronger when connected
Strategy, brand and culture, can each stand on their own, and I'm glad to help with just one. But something different happens when they're done together.
Set a strategy while involving the people who'll carry it out, and you don't just get a direction. You get something owned, workable, and something people are already engaged with before it's even finished.
Do the brand work alongside it, and that direction stops living only in a document. It becomes something people can feel, and put into their own words.
Roll both out together, whether the organisation has fifty people or fifty thousand, and people start to feel part of the same thing. That's usually where culture actually begins to shift, not because anyone announced it, but because enough people are already acting from the same shared direction.
How brand guides decisions
Business strategy sets direction. Brand strategy turns that direction into a clear organising idea that guides decisions across the organisation, from product development and operations to marketing, partnerships, people and culture, customer experience and the investor story.
At its foundation is a well-defined brand DNA: the beliefs, character and principles that make the organisation distinctive, connecting what matters to people with what it can credibly offer. It provides both inspiration and a practical measure for deciding what fits, what does not and how the organisation should show up.
From understanding to action
UNDERSTAND + CHOOSE
– Look outward and inward: markets, customers, stakeholders, competitors, technology and organisational capabilities.
– Challenge assumptions and decide where to focus, including what to stop doing. These conversations are hard to have internally.
– I make those conversations possible, so the organisation reaches well-informed choices, even the difficult ones.
ENGAGE + IMPLEMENT
– Translate direction into strategies, priorities, measures and clear responsibilities, so people know exactly what changes for them.
– Build real ownership through participation. People who help shape a direction stay engaged, stand behind it, and implement it well.
– Put it into practice through brand, culture, customer experience and behaviour, until it genuinely shows up in daily decisions.
How I work
Grounded
in reality
My role is not to present a theoretical answer and leave the organisation to determine whether it can be implemented.
I work with the people involved to develop something that can be understood, applied and used in their everyday reality.
Knowledge from across the organisation
Structured involvement draws on knowledge from customers, markets and operations.
It reveals obstacles early and builds the real ownership that turns agreement into action.
Building lasting capability
I train the people who support implementation, not just those doing it directly.
That way, translating strategy and brand into daily work becomes a capability the organisation keeps.
I stay personally involved throughout, and make sure the organisation keeps the capability once the mandate ends.
"Built with, and owned by the organisation."
Ways of working together
Every mandate starts the same way: understanding your situation before proposing anything. From there, the shape of the engagement depends on what's actually needed.
I lead the mandate.
For a defined strategy, brand or transformation challenge, I take direct responsibility for the work, from direction through implementation.
I advise the board or leadership team.
For decisions that need an experienced, independent perspective, without taking over delivery.
I lead your team from within.
For organisations with internal capability I take direct responsibility for the work as part of the team, not apart from it.
I provide senior capacity for a defined period.
When an organisation needs experienced leadership for a specific phase, without creating a permanent role.
Location isn't a constraint.
I'm based in Barcelona, Spain, but the mandate usually isn't. When a mandate needs someone on the ground, I relocate for its duration, wherever that is.
Selected work
Different situations, one connected approach
BKW (Switzerland)
Energy and infrastructure – Getting an engineering-led incumbent ready for market liberalisation
I reframed the original request for a new logo around the underlying business challenge. Ahead of electricity-market liberalisation, BKW needed to become more competitive and customer-focused—and more coherent across its different businesses. What appeared to be an identity question was therefore a strategic and organisational challenge.
I designed and led an inclusive process involving functions and levels across the organisation. Their input shaped the strategic positioning, brand strategy, Guiding Principles and corporate design. Together, these created a shared management framework for decisions about customer experience, communication, design, behaviour and culture—not simply a new visual identity.
The new direction was introduced to BKW’s top 500 leaders and received strong support. Because people across the organisation had contributed to its development, it already felt familiar and collectively owned when launched, supporting its subsequent organisation-wide rollout. The original CHF 75,000 identity brief developed into a mandate approaching CHF 2 million, reflecting its expansion into a full strategy and brand transformation.
Aimia / Groupe Aeroplan (Canada)
Loyalty, data and marketing services – Uniting acquired businesses behind one direction without losing their brands
Following acquisitions across Canada, the US, the UK, Italy and Chile, Groupe Aeroplan needed to unite loyalty, data and marketing-services businesses with different cultures and different descriptions of what they did. Its Canadian, airline-associated name no longer reflected the group’s international capabilities, while established consumer brands retained valuable market equity.
I was part of Interbrand’s strategy and engagement contribution team within the wider integration programme. Interviews with 42 stakeholders and input from more than 100 employees informed the new corporate positioning, Aimia identity and a selective brand architecture: the business-to-business operations came together under one name, while Aeroplan, Nectar and Air Miles Middle East remained visible to consumers.
Leadership cascades and Brand Ambassadors supported the rollout for more than 3,800 employees across over 20 countries.
The resulting architecture gave the group one international corporate identity and a coherent full-service proposition without discarding the equity of its strongest consumer brands.
Migros Group (Switzerland)
Cooperative retail and consumer services – Turning fragmented offers into platforms customers actually recognize
Migros, one of Switzerland’s largest retail groups, is a diversified cooperative with activities spanning retail, manufacturing, financial services, health and leisure. Its valuable services and content relating to health, families and cooking were dispersed across business units, channels and brands. The challenge was to create clearer customer destinations at group level without competing with the established businesses behind them.
I worked on the strategic development of iMpuls, Famigros and Migusto. iMpuls brought fragmented health services together in a Migros-wide platform and a more coherent digital and in-store experience.
Famigros evolved from a members’ club into a broader platform for families from pregnancy through school age, while Migusto united previously dispersed cooking content under one brand and digital platform.
The work created clearer points of access to Migros around three important areas of customers’ lives. iMpuls also helped establish health as a group-wide strategic field and was recognised at Best of Swiss Web 2018; Famigros received a REBRAND 100 Merit.
Euro Pool System (Netherlands / Europe)
Reusable packaging and fresh-supply-chain services – Turning a central strategy into plans regional teams own
Euro Pool System manages reusable packaging pools for Europe’s fresh-food supply chain. It had defined its central corporate strategy in a one-page format, but needed to translate that direction into realistic action across regions, functions and cultures—while connecting people with its brand, values and circular purpose.
I led a participative strategy-and-brand rollout involving the people responsible for delivery. Regional and functional teams developed their own aligned one-page strategies, connected their contribution to the corporate goals and assessed existing work against the new direction. This enabled practical decisions about what to stop, start, continue or adjust, based on priorities and available capacity.
The process produced aligned strategies and implementation plans with clear responsibilities and actions. Leadership gained a stronger line of sight from corporate goals to team commitments, while delivery teams took ownership of plans they had helped create. Strategy, brand and circular purpose became shared guides for everyday decisions and behaviour.
British Airways (UK / Global)
International aviation – Rebuilding customer focus and employee engagement after a decade dominated by cost reduction
After a decade dominated by cost reduction, British Airways needed more than 34,000 colleagues to reconnect with customer-focused service before the external launch of its renewed brand.
I helped develop the global engagement and embedding programme. It first rebuilt pride by collecting and sharing colleagues’ own stories of exceptional service. Then it strengthened customer understanding and enabled operational teams to identify practical improvements and structural barriers.
The programme connected the brand with leadership, people practices, daily routines, communications and measurement, giving delivery teams ownership rather than imposing a standard script.
SOS Children's Villages International
International child-welfare NGO and federation – Creating shared strategic and brand direction across an autonomous global matrix
SOS Children’s Villages International operated through more than 130 autonomous national associations and a complex regional and global structure involving over 30,000 people. It needed greater strategic coherence without imposing central uniformity on countries with very different cultures, priorities and operating realities.
I helped shape the new corporate strategy and led development of the global brand strategy in parallel, allowing the two to inform each other. A participatory process gathered approximately 2,000 voices from across the federation, creating a shared direction grounded in the organisation’s diverse local realities.
The work established one global brand direction while respecting national identities and needs. It also strengthened cooperation and trust between headquarters, fundraising markets and programme countries, positioning brand and communication as management tools and enabling the international office to operate as a more effective strategic hub.
Novo Nordisk / Levemir (Denmark / Global)
Pharmaceuticals and diabetes care · Repositioning a challenger by changing the category’s basis of choice
Levemir had been on the market for several years but remained behind Lantus, whose simple once-daily coverage story had taught physicians how to judge the category. With a limited patent-protected period remaining, Novo Nordisk needed a compelling reason for physicians to reconsider Levemir.
Working closely with the lead brand strategist, I used qualitative and quantitative research across five countries to reframe the choice around Levemir’s combined value: glycaemic control, weight profile, hypoglycaemia risk, once-daily dosing and device. This informed the “No Compromise” positioning and the global “Expect more. Get more.” communication platform.
The platform ranked first for uniqueness in every country tested and most often ranked first for motivating physicians to reconsider their prescribing. During the period surrounding its development and rollout, Levemir sales grew from DKK 3.85 billion in 2008 to DKK 6.88 billion in 2010, when Novo Nordisk reported blockbuster status.
Validation Training Institute (US / Global)
Dementia-care education and standards · Preparing an established international method and network for its next phase
Validation Training Institute safeguards and develops Naomi Feil’s Validation method, which helps professionals and family members communicate with older adults living with dementia. With a respected method and international network, it needed to complement immediate operational work with a shared long-term ambition, clearer priorities and broader foundations for the future.
As a Board member and strategic adviser, I introduced a structured strategy process and helped the Board define its first five-year ambition. I translated this into an actionable one-page strategy with five priorities, measures, owners and priority teams. I also initiated work on a broader international Validation network and the future role of VTI within it.
The Board moved from predominantly short-term, topic-by-topic discussion towards structured strategic work. All trustees now participate in priority teams, with named responsibilities and actions, while the international network and VTI’s future organisational role are in active development.
Experience across sectors
energy
healthcare
pharmaceuticals
education
financial services & insurance
technology
NGOs and not-for-profit organisations
airlines
logistics
construction
retail and consumer goods
culture and entertainment
the public sector
Beyond these sectors
These are examples, not boundaries.
More than 25 years in consultancy have taught me how to get to grips with a new sector quickly: its market, customers, operating realities and unwritten assumptions.
I combine that understanding with experience and perspectives from other industries, bringing a fresh view without losing sight of the context.