Three things I am useful for, and what each costs.
A standing partner for the decisions you cannot take to your own team. A second opinion, in writing, on one question that matters. And a seat at the table that asks what the executive team cannot ask itself.
I do three things: I spar with CEOs and owner-managers on the decisions they are carrying alone, I answer one scoped question in writing when a decision needs more than a conversation, and I sit on a small number of boards as the member who runs a business of this size now. Everything below is one of those three, with the fee agreed before it begins.
What I bring is not a framework. It is that I made the same kind of decision last week in my own company, with my own reputation attached, and that I will tell you when the honest answer is not to do it. Nothing is subcontracted, no fee depends on the outcome, and there is no day rate to argue about. Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and northern France in person; anywhere, remotely.
- Sparring€2,000 a month · two sessions a month · three-month minimum, then monthly
- Screening€9,500 fixed · 2–3 weeks · 10–15 page memo and a 90-minute readout
- Advisory boardFee on request · annual mandate · four to six meetings a year
- Intro callFree, thirty minutes, and there is no version of it that becomes billable
- CapacityThree to four sparring clients at a time. One Screening at a time
- WhereBenelux and northern France in person, from Brussels · remote anywhere, gladly
- Delivered byOne person. No team, no subcontractor, no third-party tool holding your data
Sparring – a second chair for the decisions you carry alone.
A standing monthly engagement for CEOs and owner-managers. Two working sessions a month, ninety minutes each, on an agenda you set; a phone that answers in between; and one written page after every session, so that nothing lives only in the conversation. Three months to start, because the first month is spent learning your company and the third is when the pattern shows. After that, month by month, and it ends when you say so.
- Two sessions a month, ninety minutes, video or in Brussels. Your agenda, not a programme.
- A written page within 48 hours of each session – the decision, the reasoning, the next step, and the question I think you are avoiding.
- Between sessions, a phone that answers for the calls that will not wait: a key person handing in notice, a board paper due Thursday, an offer on the table.
- An operator's read, not a coach's questions. I will tell you what I would do, why, and what I did when it was my turn.
- Confidentiality by design. Where a shareholder pays, the CEO owns the agenda and I report nothing back except that the sessions took place.
- A fixed monthly fee, so neither of us spends the relationship counting hours.
Fit and conflicts
Thirty minutes to see whether we can work together, then a written conflict check against SOD.DEL's markets. One page, signed.
Learn the company
Your numbers, your organisation chart as it actually works, your board papers. The first two sessions are mostly me asking.
Working sessions
Ninety minutes on what is on your desk this fortnight. A written page follows within 48 hours.
Continue or stop
The minimum term ends by default. Continuing is a decision, taken out loud, and from then on it is month by month.
Screening – one scoped question, answered in writing.
One question, agreed up front, answered in a memo you can hand to your board or your owner without editing it first. The questions that come up most: a pricing structure that has not been touched in years, a cost base nobody has taken apart, an organisation that stopped fitting the company two sizes ago, a stock position that is eating the cash, a deal before signature, or where AI and automation actually belong – including which EU AI Act obligations now apply to you. Same shape, same fee, whichever question you bring.
- A memo of 10–15 pages in plain sentences. No maturity matrices, no traffic lights, no appendix that hides the finding.
- The question restated – usually not the one you asked, which is most of the value.
- Two or three options, each with what it costs, what it risks and what it forecloses.
- A named recommendation, in writing, with my name on it – including "do nothing" where that is the honest answer.
- A 90-minute readout with your team, where you are entitled to argue with every line.
- A follow-up call after 30 days. No charge. By then you know which finding was real.
NDA and intake
Thirty minutes to agree the question. I name SOD.DEL's sectors before you tell me anything specific, and decline on overlap.
Read and talk
Your existing material – or your transaction data – then three working sessions with the people who know. I am looking for the gap between what the file says and what the people say.
Write and defend
The memo lands 48 hours before the readout, so nobody reads it in the room.
Follow-up
A free call once reality has had a month to vote.
Advisory board – an operator in the room, four to six times a year.
A named seat on your advisory board, or on your board of directors where the structure calls for it. For owner-led companies and investor-backed platforms that want one member who is running a business of this size now, rather than a room of people who once did. Remuneration is agreed per seat: a family business preparing a transfer and a platform on its third bolt-on are not the same work, and a published figure would flatter one and insult the other. A small number of seats, and never one I cannot prepare for.
- A named seat, held by me for an agreed term and never delegated to someone else.
- Papers read before the meeting, with written comments circulated in advance, so the meeting is spent on decisions rather than on presentation.
- Four to six meetings a year, plus the calls in between that will not wait until the next one.
- An operator's read on the plan – where it is optimistic, what it assumes about people who have not agreed to it, and what the executive team is not saying out loud.
- One written note a year to your shareholders on what the board should be worrying about next, in their language.
- A conflict rule stated first. Anything touching SOD.DEL's markets is declined in writing before the mandate begins, not discovered halfway through it.
Fit and conflicts
One conversation with the owner or sponsor about what the board is actually for, and a written conflict check against SOD.DEL's markets. Gate: both sides say yes in writing.
Read-in
Two years of board papers, the current plan, and an hour with each executive beforehand. I arrive knowing the business rather than learning it in front of you.
A position, not a presence
Papers commented in advance and a stated view on every decision item – including a minuted one when I disagree with where the room lands.
Renew or stand down
The mandate ends by default. Renewing is a decision the shareholders take deliberately, and a board seat nobody has re-argued for is a board seat doing nothing.
Two numbers, and one seat agreed per mandate.
| Engagement | What it covers | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Sparring | Monthly. Two ninety-minute sessions, a written page after each, a phone that answers in between. Three-month minimum, then month by month. | €2,000 / mo |
| Screening | Two to three weeks. One scoped question, 10–15 page memo, three working sessions, 90-minute readout, day-30 call. | €9,500 |
| Advisory board | Annual mandate. A named seat, four to six meetings a year, papers commented in advance, one written note a year to your shareholders. | On request |
| Intro call | Thirty minutes, video or coffee in Brussels. Before any of the above. | Free |
Working together: frequently asked
What happens in a sparring session?
You bring what is on your desk; I do not bring a programme. A typical session covers one decision in depth – a hire, a price move, a confrontation with the owner, a reorganisation – and ends with what you will do before the next one. Within 48 hours you get one written page: the decision, the reasoning, the next step, and the question I think you are avoiding. Two sessions a month, ninety minutes each, by video or in Brussels.
Why a three-month minimum?
Because the first month is spent learning your company, and the third is when the pattern in your decisions becomes visible to both of us. Shorter than that is a conversation, not sparring. After month three it runs month by month and ends when you say so – no notice period, no renewal by silence.
Can my shareholder or fund pay for it?
Yes, and often they do – for a first-time CEO, a successor, or a manager who has just bought in. The rule is the same every time: the shareholder pays, the CEO owns the agenda, and I report nothing back except that the sessions took place. Without that, the CEO brings me the safe problems and we both waste the money.
Can a Screening look at pricing, cost structure or stock?
Yes, and those are the three most common questions. Two to three weeks on your own spend and transaction data – margin by customer and by article, price variance on the same product, supplier concentration, stock turning against stock sitting – and you get back a ranked list of what is recoverable, what each item is worth and how hard it will be to get. Same €9,500. No percentage of savings, because a success fee would give me a reason to overstate what is recoverable.
Can a Screening cover AI and automation?
Yes. Two to three weeks deciding which processes in your business are genuinely worth automating, which are being sold to you and should be refused, what each would cost to do properly, and which EU AI Act obligations apply to you as a company that merely uses AI. You get an inventory, a risk classification and a costed twelve-month roadmap. Same €9,500 – the fee follows the depth of the work, not the fashion of the subject.
Can a Screening look at a deal before I sign it?
Yes. It does not replace financial due diligence – it asks the different question of whether the business will behave the way the model says once you own it: the management bench, where margin actually comes from, which relationships live in one person's head, what the first hundred days will cost in cash and attention. Same €9,500, same two to three weeks.
Do you take advisory board or board seats, and what does a seat cost?
Yes, a small number, and only where I can be useful at least four times a year. It is a named seat held by me rather than by a firm: papers commented in writing before the meeting, a stated position on every decision item, and one written note a year to the shareholders. Remuneration is agreed per seat rather than published, because a family business preparing a transfer and an investor-backed platform on its third bolt-on are not the same work. Anything touching SOD.DEL's markets is declined in writing before the mandate begins.
Is a sitting CEO really available for this?
For three to four sparring clients and one Screening at a time, yes – that is a commitment I can hold for years without touching SOD.DEL's performance, and it is the reason the advice is worth anything. I will tell you if the seats are taken, and roughly when one frees up.
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.