Know what to do
Choosing
A well-founded answer to where growth and margin come from, with sharp choices and a management team behind them. Board-ready.
Strategy advisor to family offices, owners and investors
From strategic plan to commercial growth.
Most strategy fails in the handover, not in the thinking. I work with owners, family offices and investors on both: making sharp choices about where growth and margin come from, and getting it on the rails internally until it works in the market.
Ideally as a long-term strategic partner, at the management table or on the board. Just as well for a sharp, well-defined assignment.
Customer relationships, positioning, brand: what makes a company commercially strong is the hardest part to put numbers on.
As long as an investor sees the brand as a cost, every budget discussion becomes a cost-cutting discussion.
Sound familiar?
Where I usually come in.
Rarely because there is no plan. Usually because the plan is not delivering what it promised.
Choices without buy-in
There is a growth strategy, but the choices are not sharp, or management is not behind them.
It works on paper
The growth plan or acquisition is not delivering, and nobody can tell whether it is the market, the offer, the team or the customer.
Brand as a cost line
The investment in brand and marketing cannot be defended and never makes the board agenda.
Buy and build without architecture
Brands and channels pile up without clear roles, and the group becomes less than the sum of its parts.
From plan to market
From choice to customer.
I work across the whole chain, for a new plan or an existing one that is not delivering: making the choices, and carrying them through to where the customer notices.
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1
Making choices
Where do growth and margin come from?Dilemmas on the table, outside-in versus inside-out: what the market asks and what the company can do. Captured in an OGSM, the business plan on one page, a tool I have used for more than twenty years.
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2
Taking it to market
What promise, to whom?Positioning, brand architecture and the role of each brand, and how the corporate brand and product brands relate to each other.
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3
Go-to-market
Which route to the customer?The role of each channel: dealer, distributor, end user, e-commerce. Including digital sales and marketing, and where AI genuinely adds value.
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4
Embedding and steering
Is it working, internally and in the market?Management aligned, the team and running projects built around it. Then measuring what it delivers in the market, and adjusting where needed.
How I work
Know. Re‑Act. Learn.
Three steps, in this order. The third is not an extra: a plan that depends on the advisor is a risk, a team that runs it themselves raises the value of the company.
Re‑Act
Strategy in action
Landing the plan in the organisation and in the market. Measuring what it delivers, reacting and adjusting where needed. Often from the inside, at the executive committee table.
Learn to do it yourself
Making it transferable
Bringing management and the team on board: building the plans together, coaching and training. So the organisation can carry it on without me.
Who for
Owners and investors with a growth story.
Companies where the commercial side has to carry the value, and that need to defend it to a board, a bank or a buyer. The best fit is with those who want to build lasting value: strong commercial assets and topline growth that translate into higher multiples. Not just optimising short-term EBITDA by cutting costs.
Family offices and their portfolio
A longer horizon than classic private equity, so strategy, positioning and brand carry more weight. This is where a long-term relationship fits best, from one portfolio company to the next.
Family-owned companies with ambition
Growing, internationalising or going through a generational transition, and getting strategy and management aligned to do it.
Private equity
When a portfolio company needs strategic reinforcement, or when the growth story has to stand up for the next buyer. With the question that is often missing: does commercial performance transfer beyond the founder?
Working together
Where we can start.
Each of these assignments stands on its own. When there is a fit, it can grow into a long-term partnership. Where an assignment needs more, I bring in experts from my network within a week.
State of the Company
Where does the company stand, how future-proof is it, and where is value being lost? An analysis with a hypothesis on the sweet spot for growth, with or without a session with the team. Also as a quick scan of an acquisition target.
1 to 2 daysA clear strategic plan
From ambition and sharp choices to positioning and go-to-market, captured in an OGSM and owned by the management team. Where it helps, we train the team in strategic thinking along the way. Also as preparation for a sale: building the growth story so a buyer believes it.
4 to 8 weeksOn the rails, from the inside
At the executive committee table until the plan runs and delivers in the market, with an explicit handover.
from 6 months
Where it can lead
An assignment often grows into a long-term partnership with a family office or owner: on the rails from the inside, involved from the board, or as a co-investor when that makes sense for both sides.
I also take on well-defined assignments: fixing a commercial pain point, getting the organisation behind a new direction, or building the commercial case for an acquisition or sale.
Results
What it delivered.
Engagements I was involved in long enough to see the effect.
Sylphar · health and beauty products
25× EBITDA
From omnichannel go-to-market to exit
I set out the commercial and brand strategy, with an omnichannel go-to-market, and built the commercial capabilities: the organisation to carry it, recruiting and coaching the team. I also helped find and integrate a crucial acquisition. In 2021 Sylphar was sold at more than 25 times EBITDA.
“Karel guided us strategically and helped us with a crucial acquisition.”Robin List, founder, former CEO and co-owner Sylphar
Agristo · frozen potato products · Trends Supergazelle 2022
×2+
Revenue more than doubled
Over six years I supported Agristo at the key moments, with coaching in between. First a broad strategic track, from a shared company ambition to a strategic plan in OGSM, until it landed in the organisation. Then employer branding, the biggest bottleneck to growth. Later positioning and customer relationships. Over that period revenue more than doubled.
“I thought we were aligned. Only through that exercise did we set a clear direction, and now we really speak the same language.”Filip Wallays, CEO Agristo
A selection of companies and investors I have worked with
- Agristo
- Vendis Capital
- Miele
- Sylphar
- CIM Capital
- Wolters Kluwer
- Metagenics
- Gilde Equity
- Valckenier
- United Petfoods
- Innovad Group
- Innotec
- Aertssen Group
About Karel
Twenty-five years, on both sides of the table.
I learned the trade in B2C. At Danone and The Coca-Cola Company I grew from brand manager to Director Digital Sales & Marketing.
In 2017 I chose entrepreneurship. A year later I co-founded Callebaut Collective as managing partner and helped build it into a strategy consultancy. In 2024 I brought it together with LDS Advisory, so clients could find strategy and financial and tax advice in one place. Today I continue that path through KRL, and remain closely connected to LDS Advisory.
KRL is pronounced like Karel, and the letters stand for how I work: Know, Re‑Act, Learn.
Most of my work today is in B2B and B2B2C. That is where I see the most room: much of what consumer brands take for granted is still untapped in B2B.
- 2017–nowKRL, strategy advisor
- 2024–nowLDS AdvisoryPartner until 2026, today closely involved as senior advisor to LDS Advisory and Callebaut Collective
- 2018–nowCallebaut Collective, co-founderManaging partner until 2026, part of LDS Advisory since 2024
- 2012–2017Coca-Cola European Partners, Director Digital Sales & Marketing
- 2005–2012The Coca-Cola Company, from brand manager to Head of Digital NW Europe & Nordics
- 2001–2005Danone, Senior Brand Manager
Act Human, also as a keynote
Co-author of Act Human, waarom succesvolle bedrijven investeren in langetermijnrelaties (LannooCampus, 2021, in Dutch). As a keynote, refreshed for the AI era: why lasting customer relationships remain the foundation, even when AI has a say. Bookable through Read My Lips or directly.
Contact
Half an hour is enough to see if there is a fit.
Tell me briefly where you stand.
- Emailkarel@krl.company
- Phone+32 479 46 93 04
- LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/demeester