Fees
What does a sparring partner cost?
€500 to €700 for a 90-minute session, €3,500 or €5,000 per month for fixed availability of four or six hours. What you get for it, when each format pays off – and when you do not need a sparring partner.
€500–700
Single session · 90 minutes
- €3,500per month · 4 hours available
- €5,000per month · 6 hours available
Net · as of October 2026
The short answer
Three formats, three prices. What would a sparring partner cost you? That depends on how often you need someone to challenge you before you decide.
Single session
€500 – €700
per session · 90 minutes
For a specific decision that is pending. You bring the question and the documents; I bring the outside view and the experience of four large-scale transformations in banks. By video or in person.
Sparring retainer
€3,500 or €5,000
per month · four or six hours
Fixed availability instead of searching for appointments. A regular standing meeting plus short calls in between when something cannot wait until the next one. For board members and managing directors in the middle of ongoing change.
Board advisory
€45,000 – €75,000
per year · annual mandate
For supervisory board members, advisory board members and owners who want a programme accompanied over its entire duration: preparing board meetings, reading the board papers, putting into context what the management board reports.
Prices for businesses, net plus VAT. Travel expenses at cost. The retainers are fixed prices; the single session and board advisory are guide values, and the written proposal is authoritative. Prices as of October 2026. Errors and omissions excepted; subject to change.
Where a session falls within the range depends on the preparation required: a board resolution with a hundred-page paper takes more preparation than a personnel question without documents.
The calculation behind it
Why the hourly rate is the wrong figure
If you convert the retainer into an hourly rate, the result is higher than for a single session. That is not a mistake. With a retainer you are not paying for hours, but for three things a single session cannot deliver.
First
Time
when it matters
The decision does not wait for a free slot in three weeks. Retainer clients reach me within one working day.
Second
Context
that does not need explaining again
After the third session I know your organisation, your governing bodies and your opponents. Every further session starts with the issue, not with the background.
Third
Challenge
that comes in time
A sparring partner who is there regularly sees the decision coming before it is on the table. A single session only sees it once it is already there.
How sparring works and how it differs from consulting:
Distinctions
Sparring, coaching, consulting – what you pay for in each case
The three terms are used interchangeably in the market, and so are the prices. Hence the distinction here, so that you know what you are paying for.
Coaching works on you as a person
A coach asks questions and holds back their own opinion. That is right if you want to work on how you come across. It is the wrong format if you have to take a decision on Tuesday.
Consulting delivers a recommendation
A consultant analyses, calculates and presents you with a recommendation. You pay for days, often weeks. Useful if you cannot or do not want to work out the result yourself.
Sparring delivers challenge
In sparring, the decision stays with you. I contribute what I have experienced in comparable situations, tell you where your plan has a gap, and keep quiet when it has none. You pay for experience and candour, not slides.
Why the smart business owner no longer decides alone:
Straight talk
When you do not need a sparring partner
Sparring costs money and time, and neither is worth it in every situation. In three cases I advise against it.
You are looking for confirmation, not challenge
If the decision has been made and you need someone to approve of it, save yourself the fee. I notice that in the first session, and then I tell you.
The question needs an expert opinion, not a conversation
Tax structures, detailed questions of supervisory law, valuations: there are specialists with liability for these. I tell you which question you should put to them, but I do not replace them.
You have someone in-house who challenges you
If there is a person in your leadership team who tells you openly what they see, and you listen to them, you do not need me. Such organisations exist. They are rarer than their boards believe.
Under what conditions do you really decide? Four minutes, twenty statements:
For governing bodies
How board advisory differs from sparring
A supervisory board or advisory board does not decide weekly but four times a year, and then on the basis of papers written by someone else. Board advisory starts exactly there: with the preparation of the meeting, not in the meeting.
Before each meeting you receive an assessment of the board papers and the questions you should put to the management board, and afterwards a brief evaluation of what was decided. In Programm Adler I regularly prepared papers for supervisory boards and the banking supervisor. I know both sides of the table.
Ten questions a supervisory board should ask before any transformation:
The evidence
“Professional expertise, objectivity and reliability” – CRONBANK AG, employment reference 2013 (Translated from German). Five pieces of evidence on whether he delivers what he promises
The first conversation costs nothing
Thirty minutes in which you describe your situation and I tell you whether sparring is the right format. If it is not, I tell you in the same conversation. It is the first test of whether we are a good fit.