Your Sparring Partner & Kickstarter for What’s Next
Strategic depth, clarity and hands-on leadership when you’re changing direction, entering a new market or building something new
Strategy Consulting | Fractional Leadership | Interim Management
20+ years | Corporate · Consulting · Founder | Germany · UK · Japan
You’ve reached a point where something needs to move. A new market or category offers an opportunity, your brand no longer reflects the business, a key project has lost momentum or a new initiative needs someone to get it underway. Perhaps you already know the direction and need help putting it into practice or the first task is to understand what is really going on.
Moments like these are where I do my best work.
Hi, I’m Christian! I get to the core of unfamiliar businesses and topics unusually fast, look beyond the immediate brief to understand what’s driving the situation and say plainly what I see. I make complex situations easier to understand, so you can decide how best to move forward. Then I work alongside you and your team to put those decisions into practice.
That approach draws on more than two decades across corporate leadership, consulting and entrepreneurship: building a global consumer insights function at Mazda’s headquarters in Japan, leading brand, media, strategy, launch and go-to-market across Europe, leading the market entry of a Nordic digital transformation consultancy into DACH as CEO and founding Europe’s first sustainable & fair sneaker retail business combining e-commerce with three stores in different cities.
Whether you need a fresh perspective on a difficult question, someone to spearhead a new initiative or senior leadership for part of the week, I can step in where you need me most.
I’m based in Düsseldorf, working internationally and typically up to speed within days.
Some of the situations I’m brought in to help with
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For example: assess a business or market situation · bring customer and competitor insights into strategic decisions · sharpen positioning · help a leadership team agree on direction and priorities · add strategic capacity when your team is stretched
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For example: set up and lead a market entry from positioning to local roll-out · develop and deliver a launch and go-to-market plan · build a new function or team · reposition a brand or service
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For example: lead marketing, strategy, insights or go-to-market on a fractional basis with up to three days per week · step in as interim leader during a leadership gap · act as an independent sparring partner for a founder or managing director · put the positioning, team and go-to-market foundations in place for growth
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For example: turn research into decisions · prioritise initiatives and clarify ownership · design and facilitate working sessions · lead the first phase of implementation
What I do
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Strategy and direction
Work out where you stand, what really matters and which choices to make, so the leadership team can commit and move
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Brand, Positioning & Insights
A clear, distinctive position built on what your customers actually value and research turned into decisions rather than reports
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Market entry, Launch & go-to-market
From target customers and proposition to launch plan, partners and first sales, including entering new markets, such as Germany and DACH
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Sustainability beyond compliance
Sustainability turned into decisions on proposition, brand and business model. Built on five years as founder and fractional sustainability lead
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New functions, teams and ventures
From first idea to a working business: structure, team, processes and early customers. Getting something new running with a clean handover so it lasts
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Senior sparring partner & Advisor
An independent counterpart for founders, managing directors and leadership teams on difficult decisions or a second opinion
Track record at a glance
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Former Head of Brand, Strategic Marketing, Media and Consumer Insights
Previously Head of Launch & Car Connectivity: Five new models, 12 markets, nine months. Budgets of up to €10M, teams of more than 15. Currently fractional Head of Sustainability & CSR.
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Winner of the Automotive News Europe's Rising Star Award in 2017
Highly regarded Automotive News Europe's Rising Star Award in the category of Brand Management
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Three years at Mazda Global Headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan
Selected for a three-year expatriate assignment at Mazda HQ in Japan to build the Global Consumer Insights function from scratch
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German market entry as Avaus CEO and General Manager DACH
Led the market entry of the Nordic digital transformation consultancy: opened the Munich office, built a team of eight and passed €1M revenue in the first year
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Founded Europe’s first sustainable and fair sneaker retail concept
Omnichsnnel retail concept with online shop and three stores in different cities within 18 months. Twice in a row nominated for the German Sustainability Award DNP (2025, 2026)
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Certified change manager and developer of the Liminal Fluency™ framework
Liminal Fluency™ is a research-based framework for leading people and organisations through transitions. Author of The Liminalist on Substack
How I work and how you benefit
Getting into unfamiliar businesses and topics deeply and quickly
Less briefing and onboarding effort for you. I’m part of the work within days and give useful input early, not months later.Getting beneath the surface of the stated problem
Before you invest in the wrong solution, it becomes clear what is really driving the issue: hidden assumptions, organisational dynamics and customer needs that are easy to overlook from the inside.Making complexity easy to understand
I explain the situation directly and openly, so people understand the reasoning, make decisions and act together, without costly misunderstandings.Insider experience without the insider’s blind spots
Based on two decades in international corporate roles, external consulting and leading my own business, I understand the work, the structures and the organisational dynamics from the inside, yet still see what has become normal to the people within. You get a view that challenges the status quo, without being idealistic about what can change, how and how fast.Fluent in modern Tech & AI
From research, analysis and concept development with leading AI models to content, automation and delivery on specialised platforms. Faster and leaner work for you.Entrepreneurial speed and hands-on leadership
Fast without losing judgment. I step in, build and deliver alongside your team, connecting strategy and execution across commercial, organisational and operational work.
What I offer - Engagement models and use cases
Press the arrow to open for details
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Corporate, Brand & Sustainability Strategy
Audits, Readiness & Discovery Phases
Change & Business Transformation initiatives
Strong Automotive, Retail and B2B industry knowledge
No vested interests, hidden agendas & no Tech to sell on the back
For companies: Your honest second opinion & neutral sparring partner “Your outsourced In-house consultant”
For agencies: Your external advisor and expert to support your pitches and client projects
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SME’s, agencies & smaller consulting companies
Privately owned or Investor-led
Overall or Partial Lead
Kickstart & Spearhead
Open for co-founding opportunities
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Interim:
3+ months duration
Clear mandate, responsibility, budget (if applicable)
Remote or Hybrid
Fractional:
Between 1-3 days / week
Onsite/Hybrid/Remote
Perfect for Scale-Ups, SME’s or when the need for deep expertise meets lower budgets
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Strategic (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning, Narrative)
Operational Introducer (i.e. for foreign agencies) or local representative / contact / bridge helping companies to grow
External Advisor and Expert for agencies and institutes to support pitches and client projects
No “Telesales” function
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Vacant positions (i.e. no one fits the Brief yet, illness, maternity leave, etc.)
Clear mandate, responsibility, budget (if applicable)
Opportunity to change legacy ways of working
Initiation of Change & Business Transformation initiatives
What are your Pivotal Moments? Let’s talk!
Alongside my advisory and leadership work, I write as 'The Liminalist' on Substack, exploring how leaders and organisations can best navigate transitions, uncertainty and identity shifts in the age of AI, climate and systemic change. So if you’re a curious mind and enjoy a good read, then follow the link below!
As part of this work, I have developed Liminal Fluency™ - A framework describing the human and organisational ability to recognise, inhabit and navigate the transitional spaces between what was and what will be.
Over the past years, navigating transitions - in organisations, in leadership, in identity - kept showing up as the hardest and least understood part of real change. This is also why 70% of large-scale change and transformation programmes fail to meet their objectives - not for lack of strategy, but because the human side of change is consistently underestimated. So I wanted to build a framework around it.
Liminal Fluency™ maps what actually happens when people and organisations move through the liminal phases between what is not anymore and what is not yet. It is grounded in 100+ years of solid research, built from decades of practice and designed for the moments when the old playbooks no longer work - in a world that keeps changing faster than the maps made to navigate it. The first tools and frameworks are live, with more in development. See how this shapes the way I work with organisations and what it means for your transformation.