Board Work · 7 min
Stepping in: scaling past the ceilings of €50 million revenue and €1 million EBITDA
West-European companies stall at recognisable altitudes: around €10 million in revenue, around €50 million, around €1 million…
Read Sparring for CEOs · BE · NL · LU · FR · Remote
A sparring partner who still runs a company.
I am the full-time CEO of a €25 million Belgian distribution business. Alongside it, I work with a handful of CEOs and owner-managers on the decisions they cannot take to their own team – as a peer who sits in the same chair this week, not as a coach who once did.
3–4Sparring clients at a time
EN · NL · FRSessions and written notes
Fixed feesNo success fee, no equity
How to work with me
Three ways in. One conversation to start.
Not a ladder you have to climb – three different shapes of need, each with one fee agreed before anything begins. Most people start with the first.
01
Sparring
Two working sessions a month and a phone that answers in between. You set the agenda: the hire you are putting off, the price increase you are afraid of, the owner who wants an answer by Friday. After every session, one written page – the decision, the reasoning, the next step.
€2,000 / month3-month minimum, then monthly
Details – Sparring
02
Screening
One scoped question, answered in writing. A pricing structure, a cost base nobody has taken apart, an organisation that no longer fits the size of the company, a stock position, a deal before signature, or where AI actually belongs. Analysis, options, and a named recommendation.
€9,500fixed · 2–3 weeks
Details – Screening
03
Advisory board
A named seat on your advisory board, or on your board of directors where the structure calls for it. Four to six meetings a year, papers commented before the meeting rather than skimmed in it, and one written note a year to your shareholders.
On requestannual mandate
Details – Advisory board
All three start with the same thirty-minute conversation, which is free and stays free. If I am not the right person, you will leave it with the name of someone who is.
Appointing or backing a CEO, rather than being one? Sparring for the chief executive you just put in place, a second opinion on a company you own, and advisory board seats are described separately.
For boards & investors 
About
An operational CEO with a deliberately narrow advisory practice.
I have run SOD.DEL since 2025: roughly €25 million of revenue, a full P&L, an owner to answer to. Everything I say in a sparring session was tested against that reality the same week – which is the only reason it is worth paying for.
Before the chair: civil engineering, a post-graduate degree in finance, the INSEAD Global Executive MBA, and three years in the United States as Digital Director at Carmeuse on a Prince Albert Fund assignment. Enough theory to know which framework applies, and enough operating scars to know when none of them does.
Operator truth beats framework truth. Narrow beats broad. Honest capacity beats vague availability.
Field Notes
Written from the operator's chair.
Operator Chair · 10 min
Priority setting at CEO level: the Monday-morning framework
Most priority frameworks – Eisenhower, OKRs, RICE, OGSM, MoSCoW – fail not because they are wrong, but because they assume…
Read
Board Work · 5 min
Succession-ready: professionalise before the transition, not during it
Belgium is heading into the largest ownership transfer in its economic history. Family businesses make up 84 per cent…
ReadEach note, the day it publishes.
One email per Field Note, in your own language, sent when the piece goes live. No schedule to keep, no marketing, and nothing else is ever sent to this address.
Questions
Frequently asked
What does LIDI Partners do?
LIDI Partners is the practice of Ruben Claessens, a sitting mid-market CEO. It gives CEOs and owner-managers a sparring partner who runs a company of the same size right now. Three engagements: Sparring at €2,000 a month, a €9,500 fixed-fee Screening that answers one scoped question in writing, and an advisory board seat with remuneration agreed per mandate. Every one of them starts with a free thirty-minute conversation.
What is a CEO sparring partner, and how is it different from a coach?
A coach asks you questions and helps you find your own answer. A sparring partner has an opinion, has made the same decision recently, and will tell you when yours is wrong. I run a €25 million company this week, with an owner, a management team and a P&L of my own. What I say about replacing a manager, raising prices or holding a board together is current, not remembered. The trade-off is capacity: three to four sparring clients at a time, and I will tell you when I am full.
Who is this for?
CEOs and owner-managers of companies between roughly €5 million and €50 million in revenue, who have nobody inside the business they can think out loud with. In practice: first-time CEOs in their first eighteen months, successors stepping into a family business, managers who have just bought in or been bought, and owners who have run the company alone for years and know it. If you lead a team of ten or a division inside a group, I am probably not the right person, and I will say so in the first call.
Do you take a success fee or equity?
No. Fixed fees only. If my income depended on your decision going one way, my opinion would be worth what every other opinion in the room is worth.
What geography and languages?
Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern France are the ground I cover in person, from Brussels – close enough to be in a room on short notice. Beyond that I work remotely and gladly: a sparring session, a board pack and a memo do not care where I am. Sessions and written notes in English, Dutch or French.
Start with thirty minutes.
No charge, no obligation, and nothing you have to disclose before you are ready. Bring the decision you are turning over; we will see whether a second chair helps.