I work with strategy and leadership in situations where decisions matter — not in theory, but in practice.

Over the years, I have learned that most real problems are not caused by lack of intelligence, data, or frameworks. They arise when responsibility becomes personal, when uncertainty cannot be postponed, and when people are expected to decide without reliable guarantees.

This is the space I know best.

Professional background

I hold a PhD in Marketing and Strategy (doctoral thesis: Strategic assessment of product policy in the marketing of e-commerce companies), training that sharpened my analytical thinking and deepened my understanding of how elegant concepts behave once tested in real life — often imperfectly.

Over the years, I’ve blended academic rigor with leadership development, advisory work, and executive practice, developing a perspective grounded in applied strategy rather than textbook solutions. At different points, this also included teaching in a business school environment — an experience that sharpened my ability to explain complex ideas clearly and to see where theory resonates with practice, and where it quietly breaks down.

What connects these experiences is not a specific industry or role, but a recurring pattern: intelligent people struggling with decisions they already understand conceptually.

Where my experience comes from

My professional path spans diverse sectors: from consumer goods and luxury to e-commerce, automotive, and procurement. These environments differ wildly — speed versus patience, volume versus meaning, experimentation versus reliability — but they share one truth: pressure changes everything.

I’ve worked across general management, marketing, e-commerce, and procurement. Seeing organisations from both growth and constraint sides refined how I think — skeptical of simplistic answers and attentive to the trade-offs decision-makers often overlook.

How I think and work

I am not fascinated by best practices for their own sake. I’m interested in judgment — how decisions are actually made long before they are rationalised or justified.

Too often, we focus on frameworks instead of the assumptions, habits, emotions, and organisational signals that quietly shape outcomes.

People describe my approach as calm, precise, and constructively demanding. I don’t slow conversations to delay action — I slow them to make sure the right questions get asked.

I am drawn to situations where:

  • clarity is expected but unavailable,

  • leadership feels heavier than it looks from the outside,

  • and responsibility cannot be delegated or hidden behind process.

What people usually come to me for

People typically seek my perspective when something feels off, but it’s hard to articulate why.

That might look like:

  • strategic decisions that seem right on paper but fragile in practice,

  • leadership roles that have grown heavier over time,

  • teams that are capable yet stuck,

  • brands or organisations that are formally aligned but slowly drifting.

My role isn’t to hand you answers. It’s to help you see what’s really happening — and make decisions you can stand behind when certainty isn’t available.

On recommendations and trust

I don’t believe trust is built through impressive credentials or catchy claims. It’s built through consistency, candid observation, and the willingness to stay with difficult questions rather than dodge them.

Most recommendations I receive highlight a similar quality: the ability to combine strategic thinking with psychological realism — and to speak honestly without creating defensiveness. That matters to me more than titles or awards.

Licenses & certifications

  • Project Management Professional (PMP)® — Project Management Institute (PMI) (Issued: Jun 2016 • Expires: Jun 2028) — Credential ID: 1939099

  • Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB) — TĂśV NORD GROUP (Issued: Apr 2016 ) — Credential ID: DE-A1146

  • Baden-WĂĽrttemberg-Zertifikat fĂĽr Hochschuldidaktik — Geschäftsstelle der Studienkommission fĂĽr Hochschuldidaktik an Hochschulen fĂĽr Angewandte Wissenschaften in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg (Issued: Aug 2022)

  • Teaching with Cases: Engage, Energise, and Challenge Your Students — Harvard Business Impact Education (Issued: Aug 2022)

  • Teaching in Higher Education — European University Institute (Issued: Jul 2019)

  • PADI Divemaster — PADI (Issued: Oct 2024) — Credential ID: 551900

A personal note

Everything I write — including this — is shaped by experience: by successes and mistakes, by revision and reflection. I don’t approach leadership or strategy from a position of detachment.

If there’s a common thread in my work, it is this: Good decisions rarely come from certainty. They come from clarity about what you are responsible for — and what you are not.

That perspective continues to guide how I work, and how I live.