For managing directors, business owners and chairs
Sparring partner for managing directors – I offer course corrections, you stay at the helm
When did someone last disagree with you who had nothing to gain from it? As a sparring partner, I am the counterpart with no agenda of my own: confidential, direct and with more than 20 years of leadership experience on the other side of the table.
The starting point
The higher up you sit, the less often anyone disagrees with you.
Your team tells you what works. Your tax adviser tells you what is possible. Your family tells you what they would like. What is missing is someone who tells you what he thinks – and who has carried decisions of this magnitude himself.
That is exactly what business sparring is for. A sparring partner for business owners is not a consultant with a project mandate and not a coach for personal issues. He is the person with whom you think a decision through before it becomes expensive.
The decision rests with you alone
Staff, investment, succession: the big questions are hard to discuss internally, because everyone in the company is affected by them.
The day eats the strategy
Between customers, employees and the bank, the question of where the company should be in three years gets left aside. A fixed appointment brings it back.
Consultants sell projects
You do not need a concept or a team in the building. You need two hours with someone who listens, asks questions and does not want to sell you anything afterwards.
What sparring is for
The topics business owners discuss with me
Before a major decision
The second opinion before you sign
- Investment, acquisition or a new location
- Filling a key position or parting ways
- Starting a restructuring – or deliberately not
Around the bank
Prepared for the financing meeting
- How does a bank read your plan?
- Which questions will come, and which answers will hold?
- How do you negotiate facilities and covenants?
Succession and handover
Plan your exit while you still have a choice
- Family, management or a sale: what will hold?
- How much time does the handover really need?
- How does the company remain manageable in the meantime?
Leadership and sales
Lead the team you have, better
- Building a second management level
- A sales operation that becomes predictable
- Conflicts that have been running too long
In context
Sparring, coaching or consulting – what do you need?
The terms are often used interchangeably. The difference lies in who brings the topic and who delivers the answer at the end.
| Coaching | Sparring | Consulting | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is about | You as a person: behaviour, role, impact | Your decision: substance, figures, consequences | A project: analysis and concept |
| Who delivers the answer | You yourself; the coach asks questions | You, with a clear counter-view | The consultant |
| Rhythm | Sessions over a few months | As needed or fixed each month | Project duration |
| When it fits | When you want to work on yourself | When you want to make better decisions | When you lack capacity or method |
Where it becomes more personal, I also continue in 1:1 coaching, as part of a mandate or on its own. Where coaching reaches its limits is described in the article Coaching: challenges and limits.
What it can look like
Three typical conversations
Deliberately generalised: many sparring sessions begin like this or similarly, and none of these situations stands for an individual client.
Trades
“Should I open the second location?”
A master joiner has the chance of a second workshop. The bank would finance it. The question in the sparring session is not whether it pays off, but who runs the first location while he builds up the second.
Retail
“My best salesperson wants to become branch manager.”
A retailer faces the classic promotion trap: the best salesperson is not automatically a good boss. The sparring session is about how to develop him without losing a salesperson and gaining a weak branch manager.
Family businesses
“When do I tell my son?”
A business owner knows that her son will not take over the business. The sparring session is about the sequence: family, managers, bank, workforce – and what she tells each of them.
How it works
From the first conversation to a regular rhythm
01
First conversation
30 minutes, free of charge. We clarify whether your topic is a fit for me. If it is not, I tell you.
02
Initial session
Two to three hours on your most important open question. You leave with a clear assessment and the next steps.
03
Rhythm as needed
Individual sessions when things are urgent, or a fixed appointment each month. In between, you can reach me when a decision cannot wait.
Whether a single session, a regular rhythm or alongside a project: after the first conversation you receive an offer that fits your situation.
Why me
I have founded, led and sold a business myself.
More than 20 years of leadership responsibility in the financial sector, most recently as Strategy and Transition Manager in Programm Adler. 360 employees led, responsibility for four major transformations. And with golf-unique.com, a company of my own founded, built up and sold.
So I know both roles: that of the manager who reports to a management board, and that of the business owner who signs alone at the end.
Clear limits
What sparring with me is not
- No yes-man. If I think a decision is wrong, I say so once, clearly and with reasons. You decide.
- No tax or legal advice. That belongs with your specialists.
- No second mandate with a direct competitor. As long as I work for you, I do not advise anyone competing with you for the same customers.
- Confidentiality. What we discuss stays between us. Agreed in writing on request.
Frequently asked questions
What business owners want to know about sparring
What exactly does a sparring partner for managing directors do?
He listens to your situation, asks the questions nobody in the company asks, and tells you what he would do in your place and why. You make the decision. You simply make it with a second, independent view.
How often do we meet?
As often as you need. Some business owners come before a single decision, others want a fixed appointment each month. Both are possible, and the rhythm can be changed at any time.
Does the sparring take place on site or online?
Both. I recommend the first session in person; after that, video calls are often sufficient. When a decision is pressing, also at short notice by phone.
Do I need to be from the financial sector?
No. Most of the questions business owners discuss in sparring concern leadership, sales, succession and financing. They are no different in the trades or in retail than in a bank. My banking background helps especially when your main bank is at the table.
What does sparring cost?
That depends on the format: a single session, a regular rhythm or alongside a project. After the free first conversation you receive an offer that fits your situation.
What happens to what I tell you?
It remains confidential. I do not work for your competitor at the same time, and on request we put the confidentiality in writing.
Next steps
Three ways to get a clearer picture
Self-assessment · 4 minutes
How decisions are actually made in your company: 20 statements, instant results.
For your company
Transformation in mid-sized companies
When the conversation turns into a project that someone has to lead.
For boards
Transformation in the supervisory board
Sparring for the chair of a supervisory board or advisory board.
Is there a decision you would like to think through out loud?
In 30 minutes we clarify, in confidence, whether sparring would be useful to you. Free of charge and with no obligation.