Fees
What does a transformation programme cost?
That depends on its size – and that is not an excuse, it is the core of the matter. This page sets out what the total is made up of and which orders of magnitude you need to plan for.
€19,500
Diagnostic Sprint compact · 2 weeks
- €38,000Full picture · 4 weeks
- €1,800–2,500Programme support per day
Fixed prices · as of October 2026
What the total is made up of
A transformation programme costs money in three places. External support is the smallest of them. If you only ask about my day rate, you leave the largest block out of the calculation altogether.
Block 1 · The diagnosis
€19,500 – €38,000
Fixed price · 2 to 4 weeks
At the end you know what the programme covers, in which order it runs and roughly what it will cost. If you skip this step, you are buying a black box.
Block 2 · The support
€1,800 – €2,500
per day · depending on responsibility
€1,800 to €2,100 as a rule; for restructurings involving the supervisory board, €2,100 to €2,500. The question is not the rate but the number of days – and that depends on how much your organisation carries itself.
Block 3 · Your organisation
the largest item
appears in no proposal
If twelve executives each put one day a week into the programme for a year, that is around 600 person-days from your organisation. Work that out before you think about my rate.
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.
Three orders of magnitude
What you need to plan for
The figures below are experience-based values for planning, not a proposal. They are calculated as consultant days times day rate – after the diagnosis you have a figure you can rely on.
One area, one topic
€36,000 – €84,000
20 to 40 days · 4 to 6 months
A sales organisation being restructured. A unit that has to be merged. Clearly defined, one person accountable.
Several areas, one institution
€108,000 – €210,000
60 to 100 days · 9 to 12 months
The institution changes the way it works, not just its structure. Several board portfolios are affected; the interfaces are the real issue.
Banking group
€216,000 – €500,000
120 to 200 days · 12 to 18 months
Several institutions, one central organisation, a regulatory framework. Here success is decided not by subject-matter expertise but by steering.
What a programme like this looks like in practice:
Four factors
What drives the price
How many board members have to agree
Every additional portfolio boundary costs alignment days, not expert days. It is the most underestimated cost driver of all.
How reliable your figures are
If the data is in order, work begins on day one. If not, I obtain it – and you pay for days spent on something your organisation could do faster itself.
Whether you provide your own programme lead
An organisation with its own programme lead needs me for direction and bottlenecks, not for day-to-day running. That halves the days and is the most effective lever on the total.
The regulatory framework
Supervisory board reports, contact with auditors and reporting obligations require documentation that an internal project does not. That is work, and it is priced in.
Why the figures are on this page
You know the framework before we talk
Many consulting offers only name the price after the third meeting. Until then you are planning with an unknown. I disclose the ranges so that from the first conversation you know the order of magnitude of a support engagement and can factor it in as project costs straight away.
For your budget planning
Plannable from day one
The range fits into your budget planning and your board paper before a proposal is on the table. Nobody has to estimate a figure that will not hold later.
For the conversation
Conversations about the substance
Our time goes into the question of what really needs to be decided. Price rounds and renegotiations fall away because the framework is clear from the start.
For your decision
14 days
to the written proposal
No later than 14 days after the preliminary talks or the Diagnostic Sprint, you have a proposal with a fixed scope in your hands.
01
First conversation
30 minutes, free of charge. You describe the situation, I tell you what I think of it.
02
Diagnostic Sprint
Booked separately, fixed price €19,500 (compact) or €38,000 (full picture). If an engagement follows within 3 months, I credit half, up to €10,000.
03
Scope defined
What the diagnosis shows determines the days, duration and costs.
04
Proposal
In writing, within 14 days at the latest, with a fixed scope.
Straight talk
When a programme is the wrong answer
In three situations, money spent on a transformation programme is poorly invested – and I would rather tell you that beforehand than after four months.
You only want to change the structure
Drawing an organisation chart costs two workshops, not a programme. Setting up a programme to justify a renaming means paying for theatre.
The management board is not aligned
A programme makes disagreement visible; it does not resolve it. As long as two directions coexist at the top, you burn money and your workforce’s trust at the same time. In that case a facilitated day is the right measure, and by far the cheapest.
You can do it yourselves
Some institutions have everything they need, just no one who owns it. That does not call for a programme, but for a decision about a person.
What a facilitated day costs and delivers:
The item nobody budgets for
What a failed programme costs
The figure missing from every programme calculation is the probability that the objective will not be achieved. It is considerable, and it almost never depends on the concept.
A programme that runs out after fourteen months without a result has cost you not only the consultant days, but two years of your best people’s attention and a measure of credibility with everyone else. The second attempt is therefore more expensive than the first – not in fees, but in resistance.
That is why every engagement begins with the question of whether a programme is the right format at all. In case of doubt, this half hour saves six-figure sums.
Opportunity cost calculator
What it costs when the transformation does not begin
Support has a price. So does postponing, it just does not appear in any proposal. The opportunity costs of a postponed transformation lie in tied-up management days, stalled projects and impact that arrives later. Work it out with your organisation’s own figures.
Your result · sample values pre-filled
is what every month without the transformation starting costs
Over the delay
–
A first overview with no claim to completeness. Not included are consequences such as lost market share or staff turnover, which cannot be expressed in euros.
The calculation and the PDF are created in your browser only. No entries are stored or transmitted.
What this calculation does not capture
This calculation can only give a first overview and makes no claim to completeness. On top of the items calculated come costs that arise but cannot be expressed seriously in euros:
- Market shareCustomers and volume that move to faster institutions during the wait rarely come back.
- Staff turnoverHigh performers leave first when nothing moves. Finding and onboarding replacements takes months.
- Credibility of leadershipEvery announced attempt that never starts makes the next one harder.
- Supervisors and auditorsKnown weaknesses that are left lying become findings with deadlines you no longer set yourself.
- Legacy systems and workaroundsEvery makeshift solution becomes part of the estate that someone later has to migrate as well.
- Missed opportunitiesWindows for partnerships, acquisitions or products close while alignment is still going on internally.
- Later implementationThose who start under pressure pay more: fewer options, scarcer specialists, shorter deadlines.
How the calculation works
- Management: managers × hours per week × 4.33 weeks ÷ 8 hours = person-days per month, times cost rate.
- Projects: staff × share without progress × 20 working days = person-days per month, times cost rate.
- Postponed impact: annual effect ÷ 12. The effect is not lost, it arrives later. What is counted is the month that is missing.
- Interim solutions: your monthly figure, taken over unchanged.
- Comparison: Diagnostic Sprint compact (€19,500 net) and full picture (€38,000 net), each divided by the cost of one working day of delay (monthly figure ÷ 20).
Prices from the price list, prices as of October 2026. Terms and credits: Fees & terms. The calculator is an estimation aid based on your own assumptions, not a forecast and not a promise of any result. The pre-filled values are examples and do not come from any particular institution.
Frequently asked questions
What decision-makers want to know first
Why do you publish your prices?
So that you can plan the support as project costs from the outset. The ranges are on this page, and the written proposal follows no later than 14 days after the preliminary talks or the Diagnostic Sprint. Lengthy price negotiations fall away. All fees and terms are collected under Fees & terms.
How quickly do I receive a proposal?
No later than 14 days after it is clear what needs to be decided. For larger projects that is after the Diagnostic Sprint, which is booked separately at a fixed price of €19,500 or €38,000.
What does it cost to postpone a transformation?
It comes down to four items: management time in alignment loops, projects on hold, the postponed impact and interim solutions. The calculator on this page works this out with your figures and gives you the result as a PDF. It provides a first overview: lost market share, staff turnover or supervisory findings come on top, but cannot be expressed seriously in euros.
How do I calculate the opportunity cost of a transformation?
Work out what each month without a decision costs: tied-up person-days times the internal cost rate, plus one twelfth of the expected annual effect and the running costs of interim solutions. That result times the number of months of delay gives the total.
The evidence
Programm Adler to optimise the structure of the Volksbank association was completed ahead of schedule – as documented in the Volksbank association’s 2022 half-year report. The case study
Before you apply for a budget
Whether a programme is the right format for your organisation can be assessed in thirty minutes – free of charge and without any obligation. You describe the situation, I tell you what I think of it.