Transformation Advisory & Execution
Advisory for problems that
do not sit in one function.
We work with OEMs, importers and dealer groups when operating model, commercial economics, network roles, EV readiness, data and execution need to move together. The work continues far enough to build the routines, tools and ownership required to make the new model operate.
Built around OEM, importer and retail reality.
Automotive is the core reference industry. Selected work outside it follows only where the operating structure genuinely matches.
The people shaping the work stay inside it.
The senior people introduced for the mandate remain directly involved through delivery.
A recommendation is incomplete if the system cannot run it.
The work connects decisions to roles, economics, data, governance, tools and implementation ownership.
When we are useful
The problem is usually visible before the operating system is.
Clients normally bring us in once the direction is broadly understood, but the organisation beneath it cannot yet deliver consistently.
Strategy is agreed, but execution keeps fragmenting.
Roles, decision rights, governance and management routines still belong to the previous operating model.
Distribution economics no longer support the required roles.
Agency, direct sales, importer structures or dealer economics require channel, margin and accountability redesign.
EV strategy exists at product level, but market readiness does not.
Network capability, aftersales, battery, infrastructure and lifecycle responsibilities are not yet aligned.
Dealer problems repeat often enough to be an upstream system problem.
Planning, field roles, commercial terms, standards and review routines need to be examined at importer or regional level.
Data exists, but management still cannot see or steer the operation.
DMS, CRM, ERP and local systems fragment ownership, workflow and decision visibility.
A market entry or launch requires several functions to work as one model.
Volume, pricing, network, aftersales, supply chain, systems and capital assumptions must be resolved together.
Four connected capabilities
The work rarely stays inside one box.
These are not four separate practices. They are the connected capability groups we use to solve transformation problems that cross economics, organisation, network, technology and execution.
How we work
From structural diagnosis to working execution.
The public method stays deliberately simple. The detail sits behind each stage, including the decision gate that must be passed before the work moves on.
Identify where economics, systems, channels or accountabilities are actually breaking.
Translate strategic intent into roles, processes, governance and commercial logic.
Create the tools, data flows, workstreams, management routines and ownership required to deliver.
Stay with the organisation until the model operates in practice and ownership can transfer.
Selected case evidence
Proof from inside the work.
Three public, anonymised examples show the range from operating-model design to network steering and direct-sales execution. Attribution remains explicit.
EV operating ecosystem designed ahead of market scale
A multi-brand operating blueprint covering high-voltage capability, charging, battery handling, service, roadside, logistics and lifecycle economics.
EV readiness as an operating-system problem, not only a product launch task.
Dealer performance rebuilt at importer level
Planning, field roles, dealer steering, commercial alignment and management routines redesigned around repeatable network execution.
Repeated dealer issues often require upstream operating-model intervention.
The operating system behind a direct-sales launch
Retail, aftersales, parts, pricing and supply-chain decisions integrated through one operating and economic model.
Commercial design, operating detail and implementation economics have to move together.
Research is the evidence layer behind the advisory. It develops and tests the structural arguments we use in client work, proposals and executive decisions.
Explore Research →Ways to engage
The commercial structure follows the problem.
A narrowly defined priority does not need the same delivery model as a multi-market transformation. These are the three routes we use most often.
Focused Mandates
Defined senior working capacity around one important business priority, including implementation where that is what moves the mandate forward.
Approximately one senior working week / month
Three-month initial commitment
Transformation Programme
For larger cross-functional or multi-market transformations where several workstreams, decision owners and implementation gates have to move together over time.
Integrated governance
Selected specialist practitioners
Embedded / Build–Operate–Transfer
Sustained senior leadership to establish, operate and transfer a transformation capability, management system or new operating unit.
Explicit transfer criteria
Client ownership built from the start
Defined day-rate input remains available for workshops, board sessions, assessments and specialist interventions where time is the clearest unit.
Who delivers
A compact firm with a wider senior bench behind it.
at.Pointe is built around Sebastian and a small standing group of senior partners, then extended with independent operators and specialists where the mandate needs deeper market, functional or technical experience.
The model is deliberate: one accountable senior lead, senior practitioners matched to the problem, and specialist delivery partners where implementation requires them.
The person framing the work remains accountable for the decisions, coherence and quality.
Automotive operating depth across OEM, regional, importer, dealer, aftersales, supply chain and commercial roles.
DMS, CRM, data, digital platforms, audits, training, research and technical specialists added when required.
Start a conversation
Bring us the operating problem
that is not moving.
Tell us what has changed, where execution is breaking and which decision is stuck. We will tell you whether this is a problem we can usefully help with, and what the first useful step is.
Used when strategic direction is broadly understood but the organisation, governance or management system underneath it cannot yet deliver consistently.
What this can cover
- Operating-model assessment and redesign
- Roles, accountabilities and decision rights
- Regional, market and importer structures
- Transformation sequencing, governance and management routines
- Performance systems, capability design and transfer
Typical working outputs
Structural diagnosis, target operating model, governance and decision architecture, KPI and review system, implementation roadmap and transition ownership.
Used when channel roles, margin ownership, customer ownership or network economics no longer fit the business model the organisation is trying to operate.
What this can cover
- Agency, direct-sales and omnichannel operating models
- Importer and dealer economics
- Distribution and network architecture
- Pricing, margin and value-chain design
- Dealer performance, market entry and launch systems
Typical working outputs
Channel-role model, commercial business case, network logic, pricing architecture, customer journey, performance system and implementation requirements.
Used when electrification changes the responsibilities, economics and capabilities required across the vehicle lifecycle, not only the product offer.
What this can cover
- EV operating readiness and network qualification
- High-voltage capability and aftersales design
- Charging and infrastructure implications
- Battery handling, repair, storage, logistics and lifecycle economics
- Roadside, body and paint, customer care and rollout governance
Typical working outputs
EV operating ecosystem, responsibility map, qualification framework, lifecycle business cases, partner model and implementation plan.
Used when the transformation depends on fragmented DMS, CRM, ERP or local platforms and the organisation needs a coherent execution layer across them.
What this can cover
- Business architecture and data-flow mapping
- DMS, CRM, ERP and platform integration logic
- Workflow, event and ownership design
- Dashboards and management visibility
- Requirements, vendor support, rollout and integration governance
Typical working outputs
Target architecture, data and workflow map, dashboard specification, requirements backlog, evaluation criteria and rollout governance.
The objective is to distinguish the visible symptom from the economic, organisational, process or system constraint causing it.
Typical work
- Executive and operator interviews
- Financial, process and performance review
- Value-chain, responsibility and system mapping
- Market, network and capability assessment
- Evidence gaps, risks and decision agenda
Decision gate
The client agrees what problem is actually being solved, what is out of scope and which decisions the redesign must resolve.
The objective is to translate the intended strategy into roles, processes, governance, economics and commercial logic that can work in the client's context.
Typical work
- Target operating model and decision rights
- Channel, process and customer-journey design
- Commercial and financial architecture
- Capability, system and data requirements
- Scenario modelling and sequencing
Decision gate
The client commits to a coherent target model and accepts the implications for ownership, resources, economics and sequencing.
The objective is to create the mechanisms, owners and workstreams required to make the target model executable rather than leave it as a design.
Typical work
- Programme and workstream setup
- Dashboards and management cadence
- Requirements, tools and operating procedures
- Pilots, partner coordination and decision escalation
- Capability building and implementation governance
Decision gate
The organisation has accountable owners, a critical path, management information and working controls required to move into repeatable operation.
The objective is to stay close enough to execution that adoption problems, exceptions and performance gaps are resolved before ownership transfers fully to the client.
Typical work
- Operational reviews and issue resolution
- KPI and benefit tracking
- Market or network rollout
- Model refinement and exception governance
- Capability transfer and exit planning
Completion test
The agreed capability operates at the required level, ownership is clear and the client can sustain it without hidden dependence on at.Pointe.
Situation
Electrification was arriving in China without a market operating model for high-voltage training, charging, battery handling, repair, logistics, roadside, customer care and aftersales economics across multiple brands and entities.
Intervention
at.Pointe's founder led the design of a group-wide operating blueprint covering qualification architecture, service and battery-repair concepts, wallbox and partner logic, storage and transport, roadside and lifecycle financial modelling.
Delivered change
The work established a structured operating foundation and responsibility boundaries across group, brand, importer, dealer and partner layers.
Situation
Repeated dealer execution problems, reactive planning and unreliable forecasts were pulling senior management into local firefighting. The pattern pointed upstream to the importer operating system.
Intervention
Importer, field and dealer responsibilities, planning logic, dealer steering, commercial alignment, review cadence and implementation ownership were redesigned around a repeatable management system.
Delivered change
The revised routines improved planning reliability, reduced repeated management intervention and created a more consistent network steering model.
Situation
A direct-sales launch removed the dealer buffer that normally absorbs local variance in inventory, capacity, pricing and working capital. The replacement operating system had to be designed before launch.
Intervention
at.Pointe integrated retail, aftersales, parts, pricing and supply-chain design through one modular operating and business-case model across pilot markets.
Delivered change
The integrated strategy and business cases received board approval, and the pricing, retail and aftersales workstreams moved into implementation.
We agree the mandate and scope, then use the senior capacity on whatever work is necessary to move that scope forward, including implementation.
How it works
- One defined business priority
- Approximately one senior working week per month
- Three-month initial commitment
- The person you meet is the person who actually does the work
- Selected specialist depth can be added where required
Used where the problem spans several workstreams or markets and requires sustained governance, client owners and structured sequencing rather than a bounded senior-capacity mandate.
Typical characteristics
- Integrated workstreams and milestones
- Formal sponsor and decision cadence
- Business case and operating-model design
- Implementation governance and issue escalation
- Selected senior practitioners around the problem
Used where the client needs more than design: a management system, operating unit or transformation capability has to be established, operated with the organisation and transferred into line ownership.
Typical characteristics
- Recurring senior access and operating cadence
- Clear implementation ownership
- Capability, process and management-system build
- Defined transfer and exit criteria
- Client-owned tools and routines at closeout
at.Pointe is built around Sebastian and a small standing group of senior partners, then extended with independent senior practitioners and specialist delivery partners according to the problem.
Selected depth available across mandates
- OEM, regional, importer and dealer operations
- Retail, sales, marketing, customer experience and network performance
- Aftersales, parts, body & paint, supply chain, pricing and commercial economics
- EV readiness, battery lifecycle, infrastructure and network capability
- DMS, CRM, data, digital platforms, integration and technology architecture
- Audits, assessments, capability programmes, market entry and venture growth
The team is assembled around the mandate. The people introduced for the work remain directly involved, while specialist depth is added only where it is useful.