Navigating transformation with clarity and control
Even with thorough preparation, complex transformations rarely follow a straight line. When conditions change, delivery needs clear direction, disciplined steering, and calm risk management.
I advise and guide IT executives by structuring, planning, and driving complex initiatives through uncertainty—establishing clarity, managing risk, and ensuring delivery based on leadership responsibility for large implementation and transformation programs.
What this looks like in practice
| Key Facts | - IT subsidiary of a major insurance group, responsible for application development as well as the provision and operation of the entire IT infrastructure for 16,000 employees
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| Initial Situation | - Technical, process-related, and organizational duplicate structures due to a post-merger integration that was never fully completed
- Resulting infrastructure costs significantly above market level
- Partly inefficient leadership and operating structures
- Deeply entrenched corporate culture
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| Problem Statement | - Sustainable reduction of infrastructure run costs (including personnel, depreciation, licenses, and purchased services) by at least 15–20%
- Maintain existing service quality and the high level of availability during ongoing operations
- Additional requirement: cultural change towards a more industrialized, process-oriented operating model
- The holding company set a clear ultimatum: successful delivery was non-negotiable, and failure would trigger a sale process.
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| Approach | - Preliminary study to analyze potential, model a baseline, and plan the program
- Multiyear program including the consolidation, modernization, and standardization of the infrastructure, the implementation of key ITIL processes, and the redesign of the operations organization towards process-oriented structures
- Co-sourcing to ensure delivery, i.e., deployment of own consultants as interim managers in key leadership roles to tightly integrate the program with line operations
- Rigorous program management including weekly steering committees on board level with focus on business case management and issue management
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Compensation
Model
| - Fees largely success-based and tied to demonstrable value contribution, i.e., realized cost reductions (“value-based, success-linked compensation”)
- Recognition only of savings confirmed as sustainable by corporate controlling, i.e., permanently removed from budgets without offsetting costs elsewhere
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| Value Creation | - 30% savings (> EUR 30 million p.a.)
- 10% below the approved project cost budget
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| Role | - Program Manager and Engagement Lead (EUR 32 million and 18,000 person-days)
- Led approx. 100 internal and external project team members
- Operational involvement in executive management decision-making processes
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| Lessons Learned | - Sustainable realization of savings and cultural change were secured by temporarily filling key line roles with experienced interim leaders
- Value-based, success-linked compensation shifts the focus from day rates to outcome quality, creates clear prioritization of the primary objective, and facilitates joint decision-making on critical measures
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