Switzerland & DACH
Interim management and fractional leadership for the Mittelstand and industrial groups across Switzerland, Germany and Austria — experienced steering when a leadership gap, a turning point or a value-creation programme leaves no time to lose. Swiss governance discipline, hands-on execution, and a measurable first 100 days, for owners, boards and funds who want results rather than recommendations.
Interim management, where it counts
In the DACH region — Switzerland, Germany and Austria — fractional leadership is known as Interim Management, and it is established, mainstream practice rather than a last resort. We take on Fractional CEO/COO and interim mandates when a leadership gap, an inflection point or a value-creation programme calls for immediate, experienced steering. The German-speaking market expects substance over presentation: a clear mandate, full ownership of the result, and a manager who is in the business, not in front of it. We step in within days, stabilise the situation, set direction and hand back a stronger organisation. The format is deliberately senior — no learning curve on the client's time — and the goal is always to leave the company more capable than we found it.
For the Mittelstand, industry and portfolio companies
From the family-run Mittelständler to a fund's portfolio company, the DACH economy is built on industrial depth, engineering rigour and businesses that compete globally from a regional base. We combine operational value creation, governance and execution discipline — with a measurable first 100 days rather than theory. For owner-led companies we bring large-company capability without large-company bureaucracy; for funds we act as operating partner on the holdings that need hands-on steering to hit the plan. Cost, margin, working capital, commercial focus and organisational design are addressed where the numbers actually move — on the shop floor and in the market — and translated into governance the board can hold long after the mandate ends.
What an operating partner changes in the field
An experienced operating partner is the difference between a value-creation plan on paper and one that lands. In the DACH mid-market that usually means a small number of decisive moves, executed properly: a credible 100-day plan with owners assigned, a tighter commercial and pricing focus, working-capital and cost actions that protect cash, and a management team that is upgraded and aligned rather than merely instructed. We sit inside the business with full mandate, not alongside it as advisers, and we install the governance and reporting that let owners and boards stay in control after we leave. The test is simple and we hold ourselves to it: is the company demonstrably stronger, and the result measurable, by the end of the mandate?
A Swiss anchor for cross-border groups
Many DACH companies are not contained by a single border: Swiss groups with German operations, German Mittelständler expanding into Switzerland or Italy, Austrian businesses reaching across Central Europe. We are built for exactly this. From our Swiss base we bring governance that holds across jurisdictions, an operating model coherent on both sides, and direction that engages local advisers rather than working around them. For funds, that means an operating partner who can steer a holding whose value chain or growth runs across the region; for owners, a leader who has managed complexity beyond one market and one legal system. The same rigour that defines our work in Switzerland travels with us — turning a cross-border footprint from a source of friction into a structural advantage.
Context. In private equity, operational value creation has replaced financial engineering as the primary lever, and over 50% of mid-market portfolio companies have launched AI initiatives (McKinsey, EY, FTI 2026). That is exactly where an experienced operating partner earns their place. In a high-cost, high-standard economy like DACH, returns increasingly come from how a business is run rather than how it is financed — from margin, productivity and execution. A senior interim or fractional leader, accountable for the outcome and able to act from day one, is the most direct way to convert that thesis into results that hold.
Fractional CEO/COO & interim
A Fractional CEO or COO brings senior executive leadership into the business for a critical phase, on a time-boxed basis: growth, transition, reorganisation, entry into a new market. Not a consultant who recommends, but a leader who decides, aligns the team and delivers results. Operational within weeks, not months.
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Value creation and direction for funds and portfolio companies
Executive direction and operational value creation on the portfolio companies of funds and investors. We step in after the closing, where the return is actually made: 100-day plan, governance and control redesign, commercial and operational levers, AI on margin, turnaround where needed. We protect and multiply value, and we prove it with numbers from entry to exit, rather than claim it.
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Strategic direction & governance
We give companies, scale-ups and groups a direction that holds up in the boardroom and in front of capital: from strategy and the industrial plan through to an investor-ready business plan and capital structuring. Not theory, but executable decisions delivered with Swiss rigour.
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Is this fractional or interim management?
Both, depending on need — fractional for an ongoing part-time leadership role, interim for a time-boxed full-time mandate. In DACH we deliberately use the established term Interim Management, the format owners and boards there already trust.
Do you work with private-equity funds?
Yes. We support funds and their holdings as operating partner: 100-day plans, turnaround, value creation and board-level governance — close to the business, accountable for the numbers.
How quickly can you step in?
Within days for a defined mandate. The model is senior by design, so there is no ramp-up on the client's time: we stabilise first, set direction, then build the governance that outlasts the engagement.