We cannot give you names. Here is what we can give you: eleven real engagements, anonymised, described by what was at stake and by what was done there. These are the founder’s engagements. Those of the sparring partners who join KAIRNEXA will be published here under the same rules.
Our standard of proof. The situations published here are real and anonymised. We describe what the records allow us to establish: the context, the intervention and our reading of the situation. You will find almost no figures here, because a transformation metric taken out of its context proves very little. Only one of these engagements has a documented end state; it is flagged as such.
We would rather leave a result unstated than manufacture causality.
They are grouped by the question that made them difficult: one person has to decide, a group has to decide together, or the organisation stops good decisions from travelling.
01
One person has to decide
3 engagements
02
A group has to decide together
4 engagements
03
The organisation stops good decisions from travelling
4 engagements
One person has to decide
When a transformation rests on two people at the top
An information systems division embarks on a deep transformation of its organisation and of its management practices. Two members of the leadership team carry it: the HR director and the technical director. I mentored both of them individually, and worked in parallel with middle management and the talent pool.
KAIRNEXA reading - The point was not to get a method adopted. It was that those demanding it below should hold themselves to it above.
The committee that rules on the projects, and the person who prepares it
In a French private bank, strategic projects are steered by a committee chaired by the chief executive. I worked with the manager responsible for running and tracking it, and with the bank’s Organisation unit. Six months.
KAIRNEXA reading - What was at stake had less to do with the project portfolio than with the position of the person who has to prepare, hold and sustain the forum in which his own chief executive rules.
A regulatory constraint that turns into a question of business model
A Swiss private bank has to bring itself into line with a European regulation. I ran the overall coordination for eight months: setting up and chairing the steering committees, reporting to top management, managing schedules and budgets. And, alongside that, taking part in the strategic discussions the constraint had made unavoidable - the business model, the review of the offering.
KAIRNEXA reading - A compliance programme often forces a decision on what was being postponed for quite other reasons.
A group has to decide together
Eighteen brands, eighteen leaders, one framework to hold
The luxury division of a group launches a transformation resting on four requirements: a culture of direct feedback, an explicit strategic framework, real conditions for cooperation, and new forms of meeting. It is carried by eighteen leaders - one member of the leadership team for each of the group’s eighteen brands - tasked with spreading it in their own house. I worked with those eighteen people.
KAIRNEXA reading - The difficulty was not understanding the shared framework. It was holding it alone, at home, once the collective meeting was over.
Thirty managers, and the thirty coming after them
The French subsidiary of an international group launches a transformation. The emphasis is on managers: they are the ones who have to anchor and embody it. First phase, a two-day seminar to put the subject on the table; then refresher sessions every four months to hold the pace. Thirty managers in post, thirty future managers.
KAIRNEXA reading - A transformation is not decreed once: it has to be kept alive.
Forty managers, a management model to redefine
A group made up of several entities wants to redefine the way it steers itself. I worked with forty managers: an acculturation programme with the IT leads, then working sessions to design new ways of operating together. Six months.
KAIRNEXA reading - Redefining a management model is an uncomfortable exercise: it forces each entity to say what it wants to keep and what it accepts losing.
A legal department that decides to open its door
A legal department wants to structure a community bringing together its internal “clients”. For that group to last, its sponsors give it a framework and let it co-build its vision, its ambitions and its means. Three hundred and eighty people concerned.
KAIRNEXA reading - The difficulty for a support function is not being consulted: it is accepting that those it serves have a say in what it should become.
The organisation stops good decisions from travelling
A procurement division, its network, and the shape of its meetings
The procurement division of a car manufacturer launches, with its dealer network, a transformation covering four points: how people say things to one another, the strategic framework, the conditions for cooperation, and the very shape of meetings. Eighteen internal ambassadors carry it, across a perimeter of four hundred and fifty people. I led the engagement and worked with those ambassadors.
KAIRNEXA reading - When an organisation changes its meetings, what it actually moves is the place where decisions get made.
A transformation across six countries, and as many ways of saying yes
A digital security player for media and entertainment launches an end-to-end transformation: defining the value chains, launching five programmes, leading the change. Four hundred and twenty people, in France, Israel, Finland, Vietnam, Poland and Romania. I led the engagement and worked with the IT and business leads.
KAIRNEXA reading - Across six countries, an agreement reached in a meeting does not mean the same thing everywhere.
An HR division that starts with itself
The HR division of an international custodian bank launches its own cultural transformation: strengthening interactions between employees, improving what it delivers, establishing a different leadership culture, and opening up transparency - inside the teams as well as outside. Three hundred and twenty people. Nine months.
KAIRNEXA reading - A function that supports other people’s transformations seldom gets the chance to start with its own.
When the branch manager stops being an administrator
A bank redefines its operating model across its servicing and sales activities. The work is broken into twelve workstreams, run with the stakeholders, then rolled out in every branch of the network. The model adopted brings together the organisation, the management layer and the associated tools.
KAIRNEXA reading - Changing an operating model means changing what is expected of a branch manager. That is not settled in the twelve workstreams, but in what you accept no longer asking of him.
The only engagement on this page whose end state the records describe: in every branch, the manager became a facilitator and a leader, no longer an administrator.
What executives said about it
These words were collected before KAIRNEXA was founded, from executives the founder worked with in his earlier practice. They led companies with revenues from eighteen million to over eight hundred million euros.
They are published with their authors’ written agreement, with no company name and nothing that could identify them. These are not measured results : they are perceptions, from the people who lived them. The quotations appear in their original French, followed by a translation. Where a quotation has been shortened, the cut is marked with […]. No word has been rewritten.
« Ce que j’aime, c’est avoir un interlocuteur qui ne pense pas comme moi, mais qui comprend la réalité de l’entreprise. Certaines de ses idées m’ont bousculé… et nous ont ouvert des voies qu’on n’aurait pas vues seuls. »
What I like is having someone who does not think the way I do, but who understands the reality of the business. Some of his ideas unsettled me… and opened up paths we would not have seen on our own.
« On était plus une collection d’ego qu’une équipe. En mettant nos désaccords à plat et en construisant une vision commune, on décide désormais de manière beaucoup plus collective. »
We were more a collection of egos than a team. By putting our disagreements on the table and building a shared vision, we now decide in a far more collective way.
« Transmettre à ma fille, c’était mêler l’affectif et le stratégique. L’accompagnement nous a aidés à poser les vraies questions, sans émotion, pour construire une transition solide. Le passage de relais a été bien plus serein. »
Handing over to my daughter meant mixing the emotional and the strategic. The work helped us ask the real questions, without emotion, to build a solid transition. The handover was far calmer.
« Devenir patron, ce n’est pas une promotion, c’est un métier à part. Avoir un regard extérieur qui me challenge sur mes décisions m’a permis de prendre ce virage […] »
Becoming the boss is not a promotion, it is a job of its own. Having an outside view that challenges me on my decisions let me take that turn […]
« J’ai passé vingt ans à tout contrôler. Je pensais que déléguer, c’était perdre la main. Avec des relais clairs et des contrôles adaptés, j’ai changé ma façon de travailler […] »
I spent twenty years controlling everything. I thought delegating meant losing my grip. With clear relays and appropriate checks, I changed the way I work […]
« Quand on a commencé, tout était urgent. J’avais besoin de clarté, sans trahir ce qui compte pour moi. Dès les premières semaines, j’ai retrouvé des leviers d’action concrets. »
When we started, everything was urgent. I needed clarity, without betraying what matters to me. Within the first few weeks, I found concrete levers again.
« On était tellement dans l’urgence qu’on ne voyait plus les vrais problèmes. Le regard extérieur nous a permis de sortir la tête du guidon et de traiter à la fois les enjeux humains et opérationnels. »
We were so deep in the urgency that we no longer saw the real problems. The outside view let us lift our heads and deal with both the human and the operational issues.
« On avait des idées, pas une vision. On a clarifié nos priorités, revu notre gouvernance. […] »
We had ideas, not a vision. We clarified our priorities and reworked our governance. […]
« Annoncer une mauvaise nouvelle à nos investisseurs, c’est risqué. En préparant nos messages et en anticipant leurs réactions, on a été clairs et transparents. […] »
Announcing bad news to our investors is risky. By preparing our messages and anticipating their reactions, we were clear and transparent. […]
« Je passais mon temps à tout reprendre. Aujourd’hui, je délègue sans stress, et mon équipe dirigeante a retrouvé son autonomie. […] »
I spent my time redoing everything. Today I delegate without stress, and my leadership team has recovered its autonomy. […]
« Avec un représentant du personnel, la relation était bloquée. J’ai changé ma manière d’interagir, et tout s’est débloqué. Résultat : un dialogue constructif là où il n’y avait que des tensions. »
With a staff representative, the relationship was blocked. I changed the way I interacted, and everything unlocked. The result: a constructive dialogue where there had only been tension.
Does your situation look like one of these?
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Every situation described here is real and anonymised. No company name is given, no identifying detail about the author of a testimonial is published, and no result is claimed that the engagement records do not document.