The risk
If you're leading Commercial Excellence, Strategy, or Transformation in a multi-billion-dollar business, you're expected to produce CFO-validated impact.
Fast.
Not activity. Not engagement. Real numbers.
And right now, most programs give you just enough traction to look busy… but not enough actual change to move the needle on hard business results.
The same managers nod along and don't change how they think and act.
Workshops land well and fade fast.
And the ‘new way of working’ reverts to old habits on Monday morning.
That's the risk.
Not failure.
Running something that looks structured… but never produces a result the CFO cares about.
The diagnosis
This isn't a people problem. It's how the work is designed and set up.
Most transformation efforts start with tools, frameworks, and training, then hope mindset and behaviour change will follow, and tangible growth and EBITDA results will magically appear.
It usually doesn't work. This flips it.
Mindset first. Capabilities (behaviour change) second. Tools only when the field demands them.
Because when people work on real problems they own, behaviour changes and it sticks.
What breakthrough leaders do
The leaders who break through don't run better programs.
They build something entirely different that the CEO can't ignore.
A way of working that produces results the CFO validates, the Board backs, and the organisation keeps running long-term without external support.
The proof case
Roy van Griensven walked into this at LANXESS, a $7B chemicals company.
He inherited a fully built Commercial Excellence upskilling program from a top-tier strategy consulting firm. Academically correct, logical, and beautifully designed.
He scrapped it within two months of getting hired. Risky move, but it paid off huge.
Roy rebuilt his Commercial Excellence Academy around three things:
Mid-eight-figure EBITDA impact. Validated by the CFO.
Within 18 months
He was promoted. His mandate expanded.
And the Academy model became the internal standard for how change is done.
This works in highly complex, matrixed organisations where alignment is slow, politics are real, and incentives are misaligned.
The Operators Lab is a private engagement to help you build that inside your organisation.
You build a Commercial Excellence engine that produces measurable commercial outcomes. And the results are attached to your name.
Mindset first. Skillset second. Toolset only when the field demands it.
How it works
First 60 Days
You bring Roy into an executive session with your leadership team.
We anchor the proof case, diagnose where resistance is actually forming, and lock in the 2–3 commercial capabilities that will unlock movement fastest.
At the same time, we custom design your pilot around real business priorities and capabilities that must be built to achieve the results expected in your strategic plan.
You leave phase 1 with:
This is the proof and alignment phase. You'll know quickly if this is working.
60 days in, you'll know if this is working.
Months 3–6
We build your Commercial Excellence Academy around the problems your business actually cares about, and the capabilities required to move the needle on growth and earnings.
Not training topics. Real commercial work. Your people choose the problems and opportunities to work on — within boundaries. We call this ‘Structured Autonomy’.
Participation isn't the model. Ownership is. They present outcomes. Leadership sees results.
We run:
And something changes fast. People stop attending. They start owning.
Deals move forward. Pricing holds without discounting. Qualified pipeline builds.
Months 6–12
Once behaviour shifts, results start stacking.
Because the work is tied to real commercial execution from day one, one Growth Project often pays for the entire engagement. Then the next ones are upside.
The pipeline becomes visible and starts filling with solid, new, growth opportunities.
Execution improves. Resistance is eliminated.
EBITDA impact becomes measurable and defensible.
The proof case removes debate about funding the department.
The conversation shifts from “should we do this?” to “where else do we apply it?”
The engagement
Executive peer-briefing session with Roy to secure senior leadership alignment
A two-day onsite workshop to design your own Commercial Excellence Academy program, designed around current business priorities and capabilities you need to build
All the materials we used at LANXESS to help Roy succeed and get promoted
Full unlimited access to the Growth Platform library of proven playbooks & toolkits
Bi-weekly executive coaching sessions (24) to help you every step of the way
Coach-the-coach support for your team so this runs without external dependency
Pricing
You start with Phase 1 immediately. The first 60 days are the proof phase.
If it's working, you continue. If it's not, you stop. Minimal risk to try it.
A fraction of the cost of MBB/Big 4 consulting, and .1% of the EBITDA impact Roy generated.
A fraction of the cost of MBB/Big 4 consulting.
Fit
This is a private engagement for senior Commercial Excellence, Strategy, and Transformation leaders inside complex, matrixed organisations, who need to connect activity to EBITDA impact.
Typically, you're in one of two situations.
Situation 1: New to the role
You've inherited a plan that looks solid on paper but hasn't produced commercial impact.
Mindset isn't changing fast enough. Momentum is stalled.
You need something that works before you're pulled into defending a program that isn't delivering.
Situation 2: Tenured in role
You've launched initiatives. Activity and engagement are there.
But no clean proof case. Nothing you can point to and say:
“That drove EBITDA. The CFO signed off on it.”
And you can feel the clock.
In both cases, the problem is the same. You're being measured on commercial impact. But the system you're working with wasn't designed to produce it.
This doesn't add another program to manage.
It replaces the ones that aren't producing results.
Availability
We are a small team and take on very few engagements at the same time.
Each client works directly with our senior Operator-Coaches, including Roy van Griensven — our Operator-Coach-In-Residence who built the proof case at LANXESS.
That means we only start new engagements when there's capacity to stay hands-on through the proof phase and pilot.
If the current intake is full, the next start date moves out, sometimes several months.
Current intake: accepting applications for Q3 2026 start
Ready to start
Apply here: demandmetric.typeform.com/to/hdkB30Vz
We review within 48 hours
If it's a fit, you start Phase 1 immediately
P.S. Once you apply, we'll send you the full LANXESS case study. Not a summary. The real breakdown of how the system was built and why it worked. So you can see exactly what you're about to build before you start.
