Transformation management in banks
Shaping change. Delivering results.
I guide transformations from analysis to implementation – with hands-on banking experience since 1990, not with slides.
Typical triggers
When you call me in
A transformation assignment rarely starts with a strategy. It starts with something stalling. These are the three situations I see most often – if you recognise yours in one of them, you are in the right place.
Trigger 01
The programme is running, the organisation does not notice
The milestones are green, yet nothing changes day to day. What is missing is someone who translates between the steering committee and the branch – and stays with it until it arrives there.
Trigger 02
Two banks, two cultures, one sales force
After the merger, the organisation chart is in place. The collaboration is not. Someone has to facilitate the conflict that inevitably arises – and still bring about the decision.
Trigger 03
The analysis has been on file for eight months
The report is good. It is still sitting in the archive because nobody took ownership of implementation. The most expensive pile of paper is the one that has already been paid for.
To be candid
And how you can tell I am the wrong person
Transformation is not an off-the-shelf product. It fits very well – or not at all. This is so that you know before the first conversation, not after it.
A good fit if
- The decision has been made, but implementation is stuck.
- You want someone who stays on site until the result is delivered.
- You are a bank or financial services provider in Austria, Germany or Switzerland.
- You prefer being challenged to being agreed with.
Probably not a fit if
- You need an expert opinion to back up a decision already made.
- It is supposed to be quick and hurt nobody.
- Someone else is supposed to do the implementation.
- The lowest day rate is the deciding factor.
As of August 2026
What is on the table right now
Three developments currently shape almost every transformation assignment in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In my experience, initiatives that do not plan for one of them stall during implementation.
01
Core banking migrations tie up exactly the people who are also meant to carry the change.
02
Regulation absorbs implementation capacity that was not priced into the original plan.
03
AI initiatives start in parallel with the transformation – two programmes, one team, and only so much patience.
Next review: November 2026
Clarity before the first conversation
Do you recognise your organisation in one of these three points?
Seven statements, 90 seconds, an honest assessment of whether a conversation makes sense now.
Process
From diagnosis to implementation – the roadmap in numbers
Transformation management in banks means translating strategy into programmes and steering them through to results. Change management supports a single change. Transformation reshapes the business model – and needs someone who holds both together. Programme management here means not steering each project on its own, but the points where they block each other.
Every engagement starts with a diagnosis and ends with a handover to your line organisation. In between lies a programme with a fixed rhythm. Three numbers to orient yourself by.
01
2–4 weeks
Fixed-price diagnosis
Compact in two weeks, full picture in four. At the end you have an unvarnished status report: set-up, governance, progress, risks. You can continue with it without me. Or with me.
02
6–18 months
Programme support
One division in four to six months, several divisions in nine to twelve, a banking group in twelve to eighteen. I am on site for 20 to 200 days. Your organisation carries most of the work.
Rhythm
1 hour
every two weeks with the client
A fixed slot, brief, without slide marathons. In between I work with the people responsible in the line. Decisions that cannot wait are put on the table immediately, not at the next steering committee.
How to get there: a reply within 24 hours on working days, a 30-minute first conversation usually within five working days. The entry point is always the diagnosis. It provides the figures the programme builds on – and shows whether a programme is needed at all.
Fees
What transformation support costs
The diagnosis at a fixed price, the support afterwards by the day: €1,800 to €2,500, depending on the responsibility. The final total depends on the scope of the programme.
One division
€36,000 to €84,000
20 to 40 days · 4 to 6 months
A sales organisation, a risk function, a back office. A clear client, one leadership team, one goal. The most common format.
Several divisions
€108,000 to €210,000
60 to 100 days · 9 to 12 months
When the interfaces are the problem: sales and back office, front and back, two banks after a merger. More alignment, more committees, more days.
Banking group
€216,000 to €500,000
120 to 200 days · 12 to 18 months
Several legally independent institutions, one shared structure. The format in which I supported Programm Adler across nine banks.
The entry point · fixed-price Diagnostic Sprint
€19,500
Compact · 2 weeks · fixed price
€38,000
Full Picture · 4 weeks · fixed price
The largest share is carried by your own organisation: twelve managers investing one day a week for a year add up to around 600 person-days.
Prices for businesses, net plus VAT. Travel expenses at cost. The diagnosis is a fixed price; day rates and programme sizes are guide values, and the written proposal is authoritative. Prices as of October 2026. Errors and omissions excepted; subject to change.
All fees, credits and terms at a glance →
How the total is made up and what a kick-off off-site costs:
Region and evidence
Where I work – and what you can verify
From Vienna and Lower Austria for banks, financial services providers and mid-sized companies in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The diagnosis and the programme launch take place on your premises. After that, on-site presence and video calls are combined as each phase requires.
Whether this works is not decided by this page but by what can be verified. Three programmes from my own practice:
Programm Adler: nine banks, one structure
The Volksbank association reorganised the division of tasks, responsibilities and processes across nine institutions. My role: the staff function in which association-wide topics were designed, tracked and set in motion again whenever they stalled. The association’s cost-income ratio over the programme period went from 77.6% to 75.1%, its NPL ratio from 4.6% to 1.7%.
GE Money Bank Austria: branch turnaround
36 locations, negative ROI, the business model in question. Nine months later: lending volume in the branches up 60%, credit protection insurance up 50%. No slides – a sales force that was selling again.
Santander Consumer Bank: integration after the acquisition
35 branches, around 190 employees, an organisation that had worked for years according to the previous owner’s logic. A training programme with an average knowledge test score of 84%. The name changed on the day of the acquisition; the work took longer.
All case studies, all reference quotations – and what this looks like in mid-sized companies and bank mergers:
FAQ – Transformation & change consulting
In detail
The seven patterns that cause transformations to fail in practice – each with the signals that let you spot it early: Why transformations fail →
The evidence
His strong interpersonal skills and his straightforwardness led to successful collaboration with our management board members, colleagues, employees and the association banks.
Volksbank Wien · Employment reference, 2022 · (Translated from German) · nine pieces of evidence on the question “Does he bring the organisation with him?” →
Your next step
Any questions? I answer personally.
No form. No call centre. A direct conversation – within 30 minutes you know whether and how I can help.
Confidential and free of charge.
WHERE TO GO NEXT
You may also be interested in these topics:
Interim Management
Interim leadership responsibility – full, accountable, effective from day one.
Sparring & Advisory
Clarity through dialogue – an external sparring partner on equal terms for difficult decisions.
Self-assessment: need for transformation
Does your organisation really need restructuring? 20 statements across five areas, four minutes, instant results – no registration.
Further reading
Three analyses from implementation practice
If you are deciding whether and how to tackle an initiative: these three articles deal with the questions that come up first.
Diagnosis · 6-minute read
Why transformations fail: 7 patterns you can spot early
Transformations rarely fail because of the strategy. They fail because of patterns that are visible early and ignored for a long time – with the signals by which you can recognise each one.
Read the article →Basis for decision
Why an external reality check before the crisis costs less than a late restructuring
Organisational blindness is normal in running programmes. What an independent view achieves early on – and how you can tell that the time for it has already come.
Read the article →Current situation
AI writes the plan in four minutes. The plan was never the problem.
A target state in four minutes, a roadmap in ten – and yet transformations still fail at the same three points as ten years ago. What AI takes over and what it does not.
Read the article →
You will find all analyses on transformation, leadership and sales in the Insights.