Management advisory for SMEs and the mid-market
Continuous senior direction alongside the entrepreneur, in modular packages calibrated to the company's stage: from the SME professionalising its operating backbone to the mid-market preparing the step-change in scale and the generational handover. Not a document describing what to do, but someone who does it with you and answers for the result.
The challenge
In the mid-market the constraint that separates a good quarter from a structural step-change is rarely capital: it is direction. Owner-led companies reach the threshold of scale with a sound product and a capable founder, but with an organisation still built around a single head. Every decision that matters runs back to the entrepreneur, the second line executes but does not decide, and the rules live in his memory rather than in the mechanisms of the business. It is a problem of structure, not of the balance sheet: when the project is sound, capital can be found; the ability to lead the company through the phase in which it stops resembling its founder has to be built.
Our approach
We stand alongside the entrepreneur with continuous senior direction, in modular packages calibrated to the company's stage: a few days a month of guidance and oversight for those who simply need to put order in place, a heavier presence when managing a step-change in scale or a succession. The perimeter is defined from day one: which decisions enter the mandate, which stay with the founder, what must exist at the end that does not exist today. We design the operating backbone, install real governance and build the second line rather than replace it. We work to verifiable KPIs and milestones, on a fixed review cadence, with boardroom-ready output.
Why Krymax
We bring direction, not theory: operational expertise applied to the company's real knots, with Swiss rigour, confidentiality and accountability for the numbers. The modular model makes high-level guidance accessible to the average company without the cost or the rigidity of a permanent hire, scaling the engagement up and down with the need. The principle is firm: value must stay in the company. When the mandate ends, what remains is processes that hold, solid governance and managers able to decide on their own, not a new point of dependency.
Modular day-based package, calibrated to the stage and scalable month by month
Continuous senior direction alongside the entrepreneur, with a perimeter defined from day one
Operating-backbone design: processes, data and clear accountability in place of informal practice
Governance build: bodies, delegations and checks that hold when the founder steps back
KPI system and a fixed review cadence, with boardroom-ready output legible to a bank or an investor
Second-line management build and a succession-readiness roadmap
- — Every decision that matters still runs through the founder and growth saturates with his day
- — The company must manage a step-change in scale and yesterday's structure no longer carries the complexity
- — Real governance is needed, legible from outside, ahead of a bank, an investor or a board
- — The generational handover is approaching and the setup, or the second line, is not yet ready
How does this differ from traditional consulting?
Classic consulting delivers a document describing what to do. We step into the execution phase: senior direction that works with you, takes part in decisions within an agreed perimeter and answers for the result by KPI. The aim is not a recommendation, but a company that, by the end of the mandate, runs better on its own mechanisms.
What does a modular package mean and how is it sized?
It means the engagement is calibrated to the phase: a few days a month of guidance when the need is to put order in place, a heavier presence during a step-change in scale or a succession. We start from a clear perimeter and scale up or down with the need, without the cost or rigidity of a full-time executive hire.
Do you replace the management or strengthen it?
We strengthen it. We build the second line rather than take its place, because creating a new point of dependency would be the opposite of the result. Where the phase calls for it we take a fixed-term operational role to lead the transformation from within, but always leaving people in the company able to carry it forward.