Bridging the Gap

from strategy to execution excellence

Our philosophy

We have often seen excellent strategies on paper which completely failed as they were at odds with the capacity of an organization to implement, adopt or absorb.  Conversely, we have witnessed many excellent executions by organizations with truly empowered teams, but which failed to maximize the potential gains due to lack of articulation or external perspectives.

Strat-Exx was founded to bridge that gap!  We eliminate these mismatches, facilitating a frictionless conduit between vision and execution.  Our approach comes from our industrial roots and experience.  This allows us to recognize both the complexities and desired objectives of your situation.  Our consulting expertise marries this with the ability to inject proven consulting methodologies and tools, industry best practices and thought leadership to deliver pragmatic but most of all, suitable and transparent solutions to take your business forward.

We work hand in hand with your organization – leveraging its existing knowledge and expertise – amplifying its capabilities to achieve your vision.  We emphasize stakeholder alignment and rigorous and agile execution, as it is pivotal to long-term success. 

We build trust and establish high performing teams by collaborating with your organization. We accelerate your profitable growth to enable your business to evolve long after the project has concluded.

Bernd Hirschle

Strat-Exx is led by Bernd Hirschle, a senior executive with over 25 years’ experience and a proven ability in strategy design and delivery, and implementation of sales and digital transformations that drive growth, profitability and innovation for international B2B, high tech and manufacturing businesses.  He has held global strategy and commercial leadership roles within multinational organizations and has also advised global clients as a partner within leading management consultancies.

Bernd is an acknowledged expert in his field, regularly publishing cutting-edge thought leadership and speaking at relevant industry events.  His consulting advice is underpinned by an in-depth understanding of the practical challenges facing industrial companies.

He has designed, led, and managed complex go-to-market transformation and organizational change programsHe exhibits outstanding stakeholder engagement skills, working in unison with organizational teams and has an ability to rapidly master new markets and technologies, culminating in successful, achievable programs that increase revenue, optimized (digital) customer interaction and reduced marketing and sales overhead costs (SG&A).

Bernd has worked in Europe, North America and Asia for over 25 years. He holds an Executive MBA from INSEAD and an honors degree in economic sciences from the University of Augsburg.

Testimonials

“I had the pleasure of working with Bernd on a major digital-commerce topic which was transformational for our company.  During this journey, Bernd not only brought thought leadership on this subject, but also simplified and guided our teams through different phases of building the strategy and also accompanied us along the process with true commitment to our implementation success that brought fantastic business results. What differentiates Bernd is his capacity to listen and adapt to our needs, result-orientation, professionalism, and at the same time his outstanding ability in addressing multiple stakeholders.  Bernd’ exhibits a high-level of emotional intelligence that made the experience of working with him and the overall transformation journey both smooth and exciting for us”.

CDO/CSO, Swiss Industrial Company

“Bernd’s unwavering dedication played a pivotal role in our new business area’s success. His strong customer and market focus helped us to define our position on the value chain, shaping the future organization and getting ready for a successful implementation. His exceptional talent lies in promptly translating our upcoming requests and varying project focus into practical solutions. He seamlessly engaged with our teams, blending their insights with external perspectives to establish actionable strategic paths. His friendly yet engaging project management style, embodying someone grounded yet visionary, has breathed life into complex tasks, making them feel achievable. His expertise has been instrumental in optimizing our portfolio for maximum growth”.

Head Strategy, Multinational Building Equipment

“A “guru” in B2B sales and marketing.  I truly enjoy working with Bernd - his collaborative and inclusive approach is appreciated by both clients and colleagues.  He builds trusted relationships across C-level and Board, and balances business development and delivery in an impressive way.  Bernd is relentless in client value creation.  He drives new topics, develops assets, and thought leadership.  He manages a broad array of topics from classic consulting to new digital opportunities”.

Partner, Global Consulting Company

“We have launched our most extensive and far-reaching customer engagement transformation project to date and Bernd was instrumental in our decision to proceed with this through his outstanding leadership, expertise, and innovation.  Bernd`s ability to enable our board to take this significant investment decision was due to his ability to convey the benefits and complexities in simple, concise, and convincing business terms – all this with an unprecedented and contagious enthusiasm”.

CFO, Nordic Industrial Company

Industries in which we have enjoyed successful collaborations include:

  • Engineering

  • Industrial and production equipment

  • Electrification and electrical products,
    motion and drives

  • Material Handling, construction and technical building equipment

  • eMobility

  • Packaging

  • Power tools

  • Medtech

  • Laser technology

  • OEM

Project Snapshots

  • eMobility Infrastructure - defining and optimizing the go-to-market approach and KPI setting, developing a market-oriented organization with a focus on application segments and customer groups, segment development plans, extending the value chain, redefining marketing to improve market access and pre-sales

    Power Tools - Strategic business field analysis for market acquisition targets/M&A, market share expansion, entry into new/adjacent business fields, commercial due diligence resulting in two major acquisitions

    Building Technology - Strategy development to optimize the position on the value chain and enter adjacent business fields with recommendation/realization to invest in a new service business

    Material Handling - Sales Excellence program for international Key Account organization increasing sales by >45% in 4 years including global training/coaching of key Account Managers in soft skills, negotiation and tactical sales

    Motion, Drives and Controls - Strategy Masterplan review to align strategic measures with top management and define prioritization and execution roadmap

    Building Technology - Strategy development for a newly formed technical building equipment company: vision/target state, offering portfolio includingM&A, position on value chain, go-to-market approach, and organization design with target to reach additional 3bnEURO within 5 years (+60% growth)

    Packaging Technology - Development and roll-out of global strategic marketing/growth accelerator program as part of the client’s commercial excellence roadmap: a targeted, pragmatic, impactful and replicable capability, resulting in a pipeline of unique growth opportunities

    Material Handling - Growth program to increase indirect sales via (independent) distributors: alignment and joint strategy development within a heterogeneous distributor network, the introduction of segment strategies and cross-distributor/manufacturer collaboration and introduction of key account management

    Laser Technology - International sales growth initiative realizing 15% growth p.a. within for years including new organizational design shifting from a product to a customer/segment/solution approach with optimized processes & tools while keeping the headcount at a constant level

    Packaging Industry - Strategy masterplan, product portfolio management and market entry strategies and implementation/business case for growth markets in South America, China and India

  • Industrial Conglomerate - Digital Commerce strategy and business case development for leading player in the Electrification business development to generate 2%pts. additional EBIT, definition of eCommerce, customer journey based market strategies, product assortment, go-to-market options. Extensive capability and organization design (60 roles) and roll-out strategy

    Energy/Electrical Equipment - Global marketing and digital commerce program execution for distributor online acceleration, marketplaces, customer portals and eBusiness solutions, establishment of digital commerce organization, implementation of 2-speed IT/MarTech and DigTech, including foundational topics such as PIM/DAM, Content factory, Analytics, architecture blueprint and functional services such as digital marketing, data and content management. Achieved >50% revenue increase over three years

    Industrial Conglomerate - Digital front-office transformation of leading Nordic Industrial Company to support shift from offline to online sales, digitization of new and legacy processes, technology implementation (PIM, customer portal), +50% growth expected within 3 years

    Automotive Supplier - Development of new customer engagement vision and platform recommendations to justify multi-million $ investment

    Consortium of 20 Providers of Building Trade Equipment - Assessment of a German eCommerce marketplace for the building trade/installers provided by industry suppliers. The platform is not performing to expectations, hence a recommendation on how to move forward has been proposed.

    Cleaning Technology - Front-office digitization: Increasing marketing, sales and service performance while strengthening customer centricity through CPQ, Portals, CRM, dig marketing, eCommerce, MarTech/DigTech

  • Drives & Controls - Strategy assessment and restructuring project delivering new go-to-market model and organization set-up delivering turnaround while achieving >75milEURO savings. Market and performance assessment, competitor benchmarking and strategy re-definition and marketing and sales optimization including comprehensive benchmarking, FTE rightsizing (feet-on-the-street vs. admin), process analysis and improvements (offer & quotation, order management) and definition of divisional set-up vs. segment organization

    Material Handling - Sales Excellence program for international Key Account organization, increasing sales by >45% in 4 years up to >1 bnEURO including global training/coaching of key Account Managers covering customer development plans, soft and negotiation skills

    Laser Technology - Post Merger Integration of new business units, optimization of go-to-market approach, organizational structure including implementation of segment management, consolidation of sales product management, marketing and sales operations

    MedTech - Professionalization of go-to-market approach and key account excellence to support double digit growth in the German market, characterized by consolidation and cost pressure thru Customer Development Plans (CDP)

    Material Handling - Development of new customer engagement vision and platform recommendations, CRM/SFDC introduction for EU countries including program approach and alignment, investment justification, CRM transformation value case and technology validation

    Packaging Technology - Development of new customer engagement vision and platform recommendations including mapping of key customer touchpoints/requirements through customer journey and platform selection (SFDC, SAP, MS Dynamics)