KMS works with founders and CEOs of scaling companies — particularly in energy transition and professional services — as their fractional Chief Strategy Officer. Not reports. Not frameworks. Clear thinking, sharp decisions, and someone who has sat in your seat.
"I keep making decisions reactively and I'm losing strategic clarity. I don't have anyone around me who will tell me the truth. I know what I want to build in five years — but I can't translate that into what we should do next quarter."
Your board is passive or too investor-driven. Your team looks to you for answers. You have no one in your corner who thinks strategically, challenges you directly, and has nothing to lose by being honest.
Every week is full. The business grows but the strategic picture blurs. You're making important decisions — on pricing, hiring, market entry, partnerships — without enough time to think them through properly.
A full-time CSO is premature and costly. A traditional strategy consultancy delivers a report and leaves. A coach listens but rarely challenges. You need something different — relationship-based, high-leverage, deeply experienced.
Each engagement is designed around the same principle: high-leverage strategic thinking, not operational overhead. You get a relationship, not a project.
A focused 90-minute session built around one strategic question you're wrestling with. We come prepared with a point of view. You leave with a one-page synthesis: the decision landscape, the trade-offs, a clear recommendation, and three next actions. Low risk. High signal. Converts to retainer at 40-60% when the fit is right.
Two 90-minute strategy sessions per month. A defined async channel for in-between questions. A quarterly strategic review to step back from day-to-day and reorient on the horizon. One clean offer — no menu of options, no confusion. This is the relationship that compounds.
One high-stakes initiative, done properly. Market entry decisions. Fundraising narrative and investor framing. Pricing overhaul. Build-vs-buy choices. Organisational redesign at leadership level. Fixed fee, clear deliverable — a decision memo or strategic framework you can use and present. Often the beginning of a retainer relationship.
This is not a menu of services. It is a description of where strategic thinking creates the most disproportionate value for scaling founders.
Clarify vision and ambition level. Define 3-5 strategic priorities — not OKRs, not KPIs, but the high-level bets that determine what you build, who you hire, and where you invest. Kill distractions. Sharpen focus.
Help the CEO think through trade-offs — on hires, pricing, partnerships, pivots. Ask the uncomfortable questions. Ensure alignment and clarity. Be the person who tells you what your team won't.
Market segmentation. Positioning sharpness. Commercial pacing. Strategic sequencing of expansion or new product lines. Translating ambition into a market approach that is coherent, executable and differentiated.
Review board documents. Help prepare strategic narrative and investor updates. Strengthen the founder's communication of risk, opportunity and direction. Turn a reporting exercise into a strategic conversation.
Not process design. Not org charts. Instead: who does the CEO need around them, and when? What capabilities does the next chapter of growth require? How should the leadership team be structured to execute the strategy?
KMS is not an advisory firm staffed by former consultants. It is an operator-founded practice with direct experience building and scaling companies across three sectors in the DACH region and beyond. This is founder-to-founder credibility — not advice from the outside.
The KMS approach is shaped by what we have actually done: defining strategy in conditions of uncertainty, making build-or-buy decisions without perfect information, preparing boards under pressure, and leading organisations through significant transitions.
The KMS engagement model is deliberately selective. We work with a small number of founders at any time, which is what makes the relationships deep and the thinking sharp.
Scaling companies in clean energy, infrastructure transition, or energy services. Revenue CHF 2–30M. Navigating a market entry, technology bet, fundraise, or strategic pivot. DACH-based with European ambitions.
Consulting, engineering, advisory, or boutique financial services firms with 10–50 people. Stuck between staying boutique and scaling. Strong technical expertise, weaker strategic muscle. Ready to think differently about growth.
Smart, capable, and overwhelmed by the pace of growth. Have tried coaching and found it too soft. Have tried consulting and found it too transactional. Want a long-term relationship with someone who will challenge them, not validate them.
KMS publishes regular thinking on the strategic challenges facing scaling founders — particularly in energy transition and professional services. Written for founders who want sharp, opinionated perspectives, not management clichés.
If you're a founder navigating a decision you can't quite resolve alone, or if you simply want to sense-check your strategic direction with someone who has been there — reach out. No pitch. No obligation.
The first Strategic Clarity Session is the lowest-risk way to experience how KMS works. Most founders who do it leave with at least one decision made.
Send us a brief note on the strategic question you're wrestling with. We'll confirm availability and send a booking link within 48 hours.