BonaMente

Helping companies bring transformational ideas into Business-as-usual.
Powerful blend of Strategic HR experience, strong business acumen and passion for modern trends in people-centric Leadership and way of organizing.

Supporting business leaders and company owners on wide range of transformative journeys:
- Complex multi-dimentional change programs
- Business Performance turnaround
- Business model change
- Leadership paradigm shift
- Targeted organizational culture change
- HR transformation
- M&A integration, spin-off business transformation

Individual Entrepreneur, Business Transformation Consultant

LeanPeople

The multi-discipline expertise business service platform, dedicated to put strategies into practice. Everything a mid-size business needs to reach outstanding results:
- business and market positioning
- marketing and market intelligence
- people and culture
- organization and processes
- legal and finance
We take care of your organization in all means, so you could care of your core business.

Co-founder and Chief Transformation Officer

Electrolux

Effectively manage manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics for 20 factories, 34 warehouses, one supply chain fulfillment centre, a population of 15k, and 18 direct reports. Define and deliver major improvements for Employer Value Proposition. Address the coming needs of Industry 4.0 transformations regarding digitization and modern capabilities. Utilize leadership skills to fuel positive organizational change, experiment with the latest methods, and meet the needs of the VUCA environment. Travel 50–70%.
Key Contributions
Reached and maintained the strategic target for product delivery at continuously improving cost while growing employee engagement since 2016. The key success came from several turnaround initiatives allowing entire end-to-end Supply Chain to perform at best of capabilities:
•	Designed, implemented and continouosly growing the new leadership approach based upon trust, engagement, and realizing full team potential.
•	Accomplished several multi-year cultural change programs: Consumer-focused supply, cross-functional collaboration, talent-driven teams; new practices became the blueprint for success.
•	Realized major organizational setup changes in Quality, Supply Chain and Manufacturing; completely re-energized and transformed the teams into admirable, high-achieving and continuously improving.

HR Director Industrial Operations EMEA (from 2019 - Europe)

Fully supported all organization units located in the region (Sales & Service, Professional Equipment, Logistics, IT, Global Technology) leading an HR team of three that managed 250 staff members. Guaranteed timely turn-arounds on key projects. Streamlined the processes for leadership changes and paved the way for increased profits and growth. Built new capabilities and new culture while making the leap to drive business to the next level as an independent self-driving sales machine.
Key Contributions
•	Secured business continuity and increased HQ stakeholders’ understanding of situation.
•	Completely re-energized the team and seeded enthusiasm and self-esteem, assuring all are ready for stepping up the responsibility and taking all market opportunities
•	Ushered the company into an era of being a top player in the Russian and CIS markets.

Regional HR Director (CIS counties + Baltics)

Linde Gas

Oversaw four production facilities, two ongoing M&A projects, and an HR team of 10 that supervised 1k employees.  Developed and implemented new and improved HR policies, procedures, and processes that contributed to overall organizational success. Preserved cost basis and needed profitability after the financial crisis struck. Restructured processes, minimized hiring and training efforts, and developed key leadership teams. Oversaw large customer installation projects. Focused upon succession planning and preserving operational capabilities.
Key Contributions
•	Reached all targets and deliverables when completing two M&A projects.
•	Assured business continuity along economical crisis, delivering expected level of EBIT and ROI.
•	Successfully rolled out a critical SAP HR project.

HR Director

Samsung Electronics

CIS region was newly shaped organization in 2005, became independent and reported directly to HQ. CIS region included 8 subsidiaries: Sales, Service, and R&D functions. Population around 1.000 employees, HR team 8 people.
Main achievements:
-	Built up CIS Headquarter from scratch, including main holding function (among which HR)
-	Established all core HR processes from practically 0 levels or upgraded up to required international standard
-	Effectively installed localized Leadership team. Traditional Korean expatriates moved to "adviser" roles where needed, otherwise fully localized.
-	Reduced Employee turnover from 25% to 5%
-	Together with the Manufacturing unit completed due diligence study (people side) for the opening factory in Russia

CIS Region HR Manager

That was the project of integrating acquired PWC Consulting business into IBM. The idea was to find synergies between 2 businesses to move from Product- to Solution-based model. The population of ~100 consultants.
- Aligned all processes to IBM standard while keeping low turnover rate.  
- Consulting department got through several restructurings with overall headcount increase
- Reached project deployment ratio was 86%. 
- Re-tuned the educational system to allow consultants to use time without project for learning.

HR Manager. Business Consulting Services department (integration project)

Luxoft

My core responsibility was to build the software development team of around 200 people for the new business stream of Luxoft - dedicated software development centres for big corporate clients.
The pilot project I held was with super demainging Deutsche Bank who decided to outsource their USA and UK development centres to Luxoft.

The core responsibility was hiring initial team of ±100 people within a strict timeline of several months and expand it as per demand keeping speed, at uncompromised quality of candidates.

Along with the growth of the team, I was also involved into employee development, leadership development and team cohesion building activities.

Recruitment Manager

Unconventional Leadership Enthusiast | Creator and propagator of the "5E's of Leadership" | Empowering Leaders to Transform & Thrive in the Age of Change

With over 20 years in corporate HR, I’ve transformed underperforming teams into high achievers and turned potential into performance.

Like many managers, those I’ve helped have faced the complexities of leading teams through challenging changes and resolving deep-rooted issues.

Today, as a consultant, I elevate leaders from daily firefighting to strategic excellence, driving outstanding team results.

My Commitment. 

I empower you to:
- Elevate your teams to new heights.
- Synchronize structures, processes, capabilities, and culture.
- Unlock your team's full potential with a clear performance roadmap.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning, tailored to your needs.

Why Partner with Me?
I offer more than advice — I become your strategic partner, crafting a unique approach that fits your world. As a mentor, coach, advisor, and consultant, I provide the methods and insights to view your organization from every angle, connecting these elements into a holistic picture.

People are the core of business success and the central driver of growth. If you're ready to uncover and maximize your organization's potential, let's collaborate.

Your vision, combined with my expertise, will forge a path to outstanding team results. 
Reach out with a message or book a call (button at the top of my profile). Together, we’ll shape the future of your organization.

Mikhail Lvovskii

I ran a business alone for 4 months.

The MD was fired in my second week. No handover, no welcome committee, and a team that had been losing money for years.

Every day felt like triage. Toxic personalities outnumbered pragmatic ones. There were no playbooks, just constant firefighting.

In that chaos, priorities snap into focus. 

What actually moves the needle vs. what just looks good for the next board meeting? 
You start to see which reports matter, which meetings are just noise, and who is really adding value.

I had to strip away every layer of corporate theater. 
Survival demanded ruthless clarity. 
The only thing that mattered was keeping the lights on and finding a way forward.

Fast forward 18 months: that same team became the fastest-growing commercial unit in Europe.

It wasn’t about bold speeches or complicated programs. It was about showing up every day, fixing what was broken, and refusing to settle for slow progress.

This is what happens when you stop talking theory and start owning execution. Real leadership is forged in the fire, not in comfortable meeting rooms.

P.S. The trick is: that time I had a role of HR Head. Not Commercial, not Product, even not Finance - HR Head.
Yes, fully entrusted to be able to run business and make significant transformation. Fully empowered beyond my functional limits. 
But still HR.
 
Crazy things happen, and your functional belonging does not matter if you have courage and skill.

Interim HR Director/CHRO | Turnaround & Transformation Specialist | Helping leaders succeed when context is tough

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Ever notice how teams start to crave chaos?

In turnaround situations, I see leaders and teams running from fire to fire, convinced that constant urgency equals progress. 

The daily scramble feels productive. 
But really, it's just noise.

Here’s the reality check: chaos is addictive.

-> People get used to the adrenaline. 
-> They wear firefighting like a badge. 
-> Ask for calm and process, and you'll hit hidden resistance. 
-> Suddenly, everyone’s nostalgia for the “old days” kicks in. 
-> Clarity sounds great... until it demands change.

And for newly appointed leaders, this is the trap. 

They underestimate how much people secretly love disorder. After all, chaos hides problems, blurs lines, spreads blame.

So what’s the hardest move? 

- Slowing down when instincts say speed up. 
- Choosing system over reaction. 
- Making decisions without the full picture. 
- Calling out old habits as soon as they reappear, even if it feels awkward.
 
Every time you feel that pull back to “just one more urgent issue,” recognize it. That’s not progress. That’s the comfort zone fighting back.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: discipline wins, not drama.

If you’re serious about transformation, make structure the hero. Treat process like your best ally. The system isn’t your enemy, it’s your chance.

You’ll want to default back to hustle and emergencies. Discipline will feel weird, maybe even boring. Good. Lean into it.

The only way out of chaos is through commitment to change. Don’t let old habits steal your turnaround.

Anyone else seen teams cling to chaos like it’s a life raft? 
Drop your stories or tag someone who needs to hear this.

"Can you make a game that feels like real life?"

That’s what my son asked me one day.

I shared this story around a week ago, showing the simple financial simulation we played over some time. I tried to explain valuables in life, which is not only money you can spend, but also taking care of health, family, and planning for future...

At first, when I heard his request to make a game, I smiled. I recognized the specific passion of my boy to understand the life, and the role of money in it.

Then I realized something:

This is the exact thing most leaders ask for.

They say they want playbooks, but what they're really looking for? 
A way to actually feel the impact of their decisions, not just read about it in a manual.

Here’s the funny part:
Whether we’re talking about kids or CEOs, the need is the same.

They both crave a space to:
→ Connect actions to outcomes
→ See how risk and reward really play out
→ Learn by doing, not by memorizing a list

So my son and I started on our “real life” game. 
-> We mapped out simple cause-and-effect loops.
-> Make a choice, see what happens. 
-> Earn, spend, save, invest. 
-> Adjust, try again.

And as we played, I realized:
This is exactly what good leadership systems do, too.

We talk a lot about best practices and frameworks, but none of them stick until people get to experiment safely.
Give a team a safe way to try, fail, and learn, and you get real change, real fast.

It’s wild how much business has in common with a child’s playground.

But here’s the punchline:
No one ever learned to lead by watching someone else play.

You have to get on the field. 
You have to try, make mistakes, see for yourself.

That’s why play is the oldest, most effective learning system ever designed.

So here’s my challenge:
- If you want your team to learn fast, give them space to experiment. 
- Make it safe, make it real. 
- Let them play their way to mastery.

Who’s building “cause and effect loops” at work? 
How do you create room for safe experiments? 
Would love to hear your take.

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #culture, #leadership, #management, #futureofwork, and #humanresources

We’re quick to teach kids facts: how things work, what’s right, what’s smart.

But I’ve noticed with my son that he doesn’t need more answers.

He needs space to ask better questions.

We talk about curiosity like it’s just a stage before real learning.
Honestly, it’s the whole game.

When he asks, "Why do people go to work?" or "Who decides what things cost?" I could hand him the answer.
Instead, I ask, "What do you think?"

The stuff he comes up with? Sometimes hilarious, sometimes surprisingly deep, always honest.

It keeps reminding me of leadership.
The best leaders aren’t the ones with all the answers.
They’re the ones who keep the right questions open long enough for the team to grow into them.

Maybe real learning - for kids and adults - starts the moment we stop teaching what to think, and start letting people discover why to wonder.

Curiosity isn’t a warm-up. It’s the main event.

Most new leaders fail in their first 180 days. 

This is research and statistics say, not I.

This is not because they're bad, rather because they're often polite.

Here's the usual script as I see it:
-> They walk in, eager to "listen and learn." 
-> They hold back on real decisions, hoping to win trust first. 
-> They focus on being liked, not on making waves.

But while they're waiting, the real problems are getting worse. 
The people resisting change are stalling out progress. 
By month 6, it's too late. Their window to set the tone has closed. 
They've lost credibility, and the dysfunction is now their problem.

The lesson? 
Speed matters. 
But so does getting it right.

You don't need to blow up the place on day one, but you can't wait forever. 
Make your priorities explicit. 
Go after the roadblocks early. 
Address the hard truths, even if it feels uncomfortable.

The teams that see results aren't run by leaders who just listen. 
They're run by leaders who act, right from the start.

If you want to survive the 180-day trap, earn respect by having the tough conversations, making principled moves, and setting the bar before the clock runs out.

P.S. Sure thing, rushing without reflecting neither is better.
I've seen cases where extreme rush resulted in even more drastic failure. 
Be prompt, but not super rushing. 
Be thoughful, but avoid analysis paralysis. 

Balance matters.

Executive coaching won't fix a dysfunctional team. Here's why.

Most companies hire a coach when a team goes off the rails. They think if the leader is better, the team will follow.

That hardly ever happens.

Coaching makes the leader sharper. They get new skills. They learn to manage chaos a little better.

But the real problem never goes away. 
- The team is still stuck. 
- The same turf wars and trust issues keep coming back.

So what happens? 

The leader just gets better at surviving dysfunction, not solving it.

Here’s the reality: Coaching alone is like polishing the captain while the ship keeps taking on water.

What actually works? 

Tackling the problem at both levels. 
-> The team gets a reset, a serious intervention. 
-> The leader gets coaching to grow alongside them. Real 
-> change happens together, not in isolation.

If you want to fix a broken team, don’t just coach the leader. 
Fix the system they’re leading. 
That’s how you stop sinking and actually move forward.

Remember when digital transformation felt like a marathon everyone could train for?

Now, it’s a sprint—and the finish line keeps moving.

AI has just changed the rules for leadership, pretty much overnight. 
It’s not just another tech upgrade. It’s a full-on test of how fast, decisive, and human your leadership actually is.

Here’s the real kicker: 
Every CEO, MD, and exec is now getting graded on their ability to use AI as an advantage. 
If you hesitate, someone else will move faster. Simple as that.

This isn’t just about tools or hype. 
It’s about how you think and act.

Leaders who figure out AI are going to jump to the front.
-> They’ll automate headaches. 
-> Make faster calls with better data. 
-> Turn cautious teams into teams that execute fast (because the excuses disappear when AI does the grunt work).

The ones who wait? 
They’ll keep fighting the same old fires, but now those fires are ten times bigger and the clock is running out a lot quicker.

Let’s be honest:
- We’ve all seen leadership teams drag their feet on new tech before.
- But this time, the cycle is brutal. 
- Markets move faster. 
- Boards are impatient. 
The gap between the top and bottom widens every quarter.

If you’re a new CEO or just got handed a messy turnaround, here’s my take:
- Start running small AI experiments right away (you don’t need a PhD)
- Pull your leadership team in. Get everyone learning together
- Focus on real business headaches that AI can solve now, not three years from now
- Measure, tweak, move - don’t wait for perfect

AI isn’t a silver bullet. 
But right now, ignoring it is the fastest way to fall behind.

If leadership is about making decisions that move the business forward, AI is the new test.

Some leaders will take the test and win big. 
The rest might not get a second chance.

Who’s actually moving?

A weird thing happened last weekend.

I was trying to get my kids to clean up their toys. 
After week-long school break, room was looking way too messy.
 
The more instructions I gave, the slower things got. 
Questions, clarifications, waiting for my next move—total standstill.

I finally just said, “You know where everything goes. I trust you. Show me when you’re done.”

The shift was immediate. 

Suddenly, it became a project. They sorted, made up little games out of it, even helped each other. It actually got done faster, and with zero nagging.

On Monday, I returned to work and realized how much this “parent mode” sneaks into business.

We say we want teams to move fast and take ownership. 
But how often are we - without even noticing - setting the pace by controlling every little step?

In turnarounds or high-stakes projects, it’s easy to clamp down. 
We want things fixed. We want visible control.

The problem? 

The more you micromanage, the more passive your team becomes.

Fast, high-performing teams don’t need a permission slip for every action. 
They need clarity, trust, and a real chance to own the outcome.

If you’re always in “parent mode,” you’re training the team to wait for your go-ahead.
If you give them space (and trust), you might be surprised by the results.

The reality: 
You can’t force speed. But you can remove the drag.

So here’s my question:
Where are you still giving play-by-play instructions, when you should just be asking for the finished result?

Maybe it’s time to step back. And see what your team can actually build.

I used to think creating something big required a team, a fancy setup, and a real budget.

Today, my 7-year-old asks, "Can we make our own stories? You know, the kind with real animation?"

The wild part is, now we can.

AI and a wave of new tools have flipped the script. Anyone willing to imagine and learn can bring their ideas to life, no big studio needed.

You don’t have to be a pro animator to make a point visually.
You just need a message worth sharing, and a bit of persistence.

To me, this isn’t about replacing human creativity,
It’s about giving it a megaphone.

If technology lets a kid and his dad turn big life questions into stories, we’re on to something bigger than just content.

We’re seeing the start of a world where learning, storytelling, and real leadership all mix together in the same creative space.

That’s the future I want to help build.

P.S. I am soon coming out with the series of short animated movies explaining kids all around money.
2-minutes short 3D animated movies are the best way to explain my kids complex matters of earning, spending, saving, investing, making business.

Along with games, I consider visual stories the second best way to teach things to kids.

HR is not your compliance cop or party planner.

Let's just call it out.

Too many HR teams are stuck pushing paperwork, rolling out one-size-fits-all policies, and obsessing over annual engagement surveys that barely shift the needle.

But that's not what moves a business forward.

HR should be where growth starts.

If you want real results, you need a system where people know the goal, get the right support, and have the freedom (and pressure) to perform.

I've seen companies double down on ping pong tables, happy hours, and fancy policies.

Trust me, no one ever turned around a struggling business with free snacks.

What actually works?

→ Putting the right people in the right roles, fast.
→ Giving crystal-clear expectations, not just fuzzy values on a poster.
→ Holding leaders (yes, even the CEO) accountable for results, not just effort.
→ Rewarding what actually moves the needle.
→ Designing systems that make execution almost automatic.

The best HR leaders I know are builders. They're not waiting for someone to hand them a seat at the table—they pull up a chair and start driving the agenda.

They turn HR into the actual engine of business outcomes.

If you're in HR and you want to matter, don't hide behind process.

Be the architect of performance.

Nobody will invite you to lead if you don't make things happen.

Stop waiting for permission.

Start designing for impact.
 
Want HR to matter? Drive the business, not just the paperwork.

How are you making HR the engine, not the brakes, in your company?

Ever watched a kid build something from nothing?

A drawing, a paper city, a wild little experiment. 
It almost doesn’t matter what it is.

It’s that moment when they look up and say, “I made this.”

As a parent, it’s hard to top that feeling. But here’s the thing: we talk a lot about ownership and accountability in business. At the heart of it, we’re all chasing that same spark—the quiet pride of making something real.

Lately, I realized what I actually want to teach my son isn’t how to follow instructions. It’s how to come up with his own ideas. It’s how to make something that didn’t exist before, even if it doesn’t work out the first time. Maybe especially if it doesn’t.

Creating makes you care. Caring makes you grow.

That’s where leadership really starts. Not with memorizing rules, but with turning curiosity into something real.

If your team isn’t making things - testing, building, experimenting - something’s missing.

Leadership and learning are both about this simple loop: see what’s possible, try to make it happen, and learn by doing.

It’s not just for kids.

My son started telling me a story.

Halfway through, he froze. Frustrated, he said, "It's not working like I thought."

I’ve seen this in boardrooms, in C-suites. Smart, capable leaders tightening up the second things go sideways. Afraid to mess up. Afraid of looking foolish.

That fear is poison.

Let’s be honest: most organizations are built on covering your backside, not taking risks. We talk a good game about innovation, but the second someone stumbles, the room goes quiet.

Here’s the truth most leaders won’t say out loud: If you don’t create emotional safety, you will never get breakthrough results. Period.

Kids don’t worry about failing. They just go again. Somewhere along the line, we beat that instinct out of people.

It kills speed. It kills growth. And it turns talented teams into spectators.

If you’re not actively dismantling fear in your organization, you’re building a dead end, not a future.

Real leadership isn’t about protecting your own image. It’s about making space for others to swing and miss, then swing again.

You want a high performing team? Double down on safety. Make it impossible to play small.

Transformation isn’t a slogan. It’s a decision to lead differently.

Ever tried explaining compound interest to a seven-year-old?

My boy shows interest to various range of topics, among money and science are the top leaders.

I've been reading some adapted financial and science books with my son. They're fascinating, but let's be real - most of it goes way over a kid's head.
Even those written for kids...

I watch him wrestle with big ideas. Sometimes he gets lost. Sometimes he asks questions that catch me completely off guard.

That’s when it hits me: understanding isn’t just about the content, it's about how you translate it.

At work, I spend my days turning strategy into something people can actually act on. At home, I’m learning how to turn abstract concepts into curiosity and play.

It's the same skill either way: empathy. 

Seeing where someone is - right now - instead of where I wish they were.

So, when he asks why some people have more, or how money "appears," I answer with stories, not spreadsheets.

Maybe that's what real learning looks like. Less flooding people with facts, more lighting up that spark of understanding.

That's how you make ideas stick. 
With anyone, at any age.

Culture isn’t window dressing.

It’s not team posters, Friday perks, or high-concept values crafted for your website.

Let it grow undirected and eventually the strongest force shapes it:
Status, inertia, comfort, or cynicism. Never strategy.
 
Everyone talks about pursuing “excellence,” but few invest the energy to design the everyday system their team operates within.

Clarity or confusion? Individual responsibility or quiet finger-pointing?

The calls you take, the ones you don’t, how deadlines actually matter, what gets quietly waved off... these dial the system you’re competing with or fixing daily.

And culture doesn’t wedge fake urgency around shiny new trends or tools.

It turns real with frameworks that outlast product pivots:
- Actual ownership, not just buy-in at offsites
- Leadership as blueprints, not drama
- Feedback and measurement hardwired, not resurfaced in anxiety
- Agency assigned, shortcuts killed with discipline

People join to do meaningful work in teams that help them grow.
Very few thrive on make-it-up-as-we-go vibes.

Your business already ran a culture experiment last quarter, whether you acknowledge it or not.
Who saw real ownership? Which values remained standing after a cost cut or a failed launch?

System beats marketing every time.
Ignore execution, and the culture hands you the bill.

Every org’s culture matures:
Yours scales quietly with you: modelled in hundreds of invisible micro-decisions, or unravels just as quietly.
What grows beneath the surface says it all.

Most CEOs talk about change.
Very few start with themselves.

I've seen it over and over: leaders overhaul teams, processes, org charts.
But their own habits?
Untouchable.
Their blind spots?
Off-limits.

And the business never really moves.
Because the system always mirrors the leader at the top.

Want accountability?
Show it yourself, even when it's uncomfortable.

Want speed?
Make decisions without hiding behind endless analysis.

Want trust?
Go first. Admit mistakes, ask for feedback, be human.

The hard truth is this:
You can't build a high-performing culture by standing on the sidelines with a checklist.
You have to do the real work, in public, flaws and all.

The best leadership systems I’ve seen?
They start with a CEO willing to get uncomfortable.
Willing to hear tough truths.
Willing to shift their own playbook, not just everyone else's.

So next time you think about transforming your business, ask yourself one question:
Am I ready to change, too?

That’s where the real transformation starts.
Who have you seen lead real change - by changing themselves first?

The other night, after dinner, we sat by the window.

No screens. No agenda. Just a quiet room.

My son looked up and said, "Dad, I think when I grow up, I want to understand how the world works."

For a second, I forgot how big that question really is.

We like to talk about preparing kids for the future. But sometimes, I think they're actually preparing us to see things differently.

Every generation tries to explain life to the next. Maybe our real work is simpler: create space so they can discover things on their own.

Leadership, parenting, teaching... It's all the same at the core. Hold the light steady, and let others learn to walk by it.

You don’t win the first 180 days as a new CEO by being the hero.

Everyone makes the same mistake at least once.

You hit the ground running, convinced you have to prove you’re “the one in charge.” 
You hold every meeting, answer every question, jump into every fire.

But here’s the thing nobody tells you: 
The faster you make yourself the center of everything, the faster you’ll hit burnout.
And the more you risk to have the entire organization blocked.

I’ve seen it more than once. 
I’ve watched it happen to smart, motivated leaders who should have crushed it. 
They show up every day, work late, push decisions across the finish line themselves... and then wonder why nothing moves unless they move it.

The real game isn’t about proving yourself at all.

It’s about how quickly you build a leadership system that keeps running when you’re not in the room.

I’m not talking about a loyal team. 
Not just getting buy-in. 
I mean building a machine that runs on trust, clarity, and follow-through. 
A lot of first-time CEOs miss this. 
They get stuck fixing problems themselves and become the bottleneck in their own business.

Want the secret to a real turnaround? 
Ditch the hero cape. 
Start acting like the architect.

Lay out what matters, set up real accountability, and then get out of the way. 
Stop firefighting. 
Let the system do the heavy lifting. 
You’ll actually execute more, move faster, and—crazy as it sounds—finally have a life outside of work.

The CEOs who do this don’t just survive. 
They build companies where people step up, decisions happen quickly, and nobody waits for permission to get things done.

That’s how you create real momentum.

I wish someone had told me this before I got under water for the first time.
Trying to be everywhere myself, driving my first significant organizational transformation.

So, who else had to learn this the hard way? 
What did it look like for you?

The secret to building a human leadership system in 8 weeks? 
It is not some magic playbook. 
It is not a perfect framework, fresh off a consultant’s laptop. 

It is this: 
Are you brave enough to have the real conversations?

Most new CEOs and MDs want a shortcut. 
They ask me for a ready-made system, a toolkit, a checklist. 
I tell them the same thing every time.

You can have the best process on paper, but if your team is not telling the truth - especially the uncomfortable truth - you are stalled before you start.

So, what do I do first with a leadership team? 
Get everyone in a room. 
Ask one question: 
What is really holding us back?

Not “our meetings run long” or “deadlines are fuzzy.” 
Not vague stuff. 
I mean the things people are scared to say. 
The things that get stuck in people’s throats but drive all the frustration and poor execution.

The room goes quiet. 
Nobody wants to go first. 
But someone does. 
Then another. 
Pretty soon, you are hearing the real story.

And here is the rule: 
No defending. 
No explaining. 
No “let me clarify what I really meant.” 
Just listen.

That is when you feel the shift. 
Because once the truth is out—raw and uncomfortable—you finally have something real to work with.

From there, you set up simple practices:
- Weekly check-ins where people actually say what is on their mind.
- Feedback in real time, not a month later.
- Decisions made in the open, so there is nowhere to hide.

Is it awkward? Yes. 
Is it quick? Also yes—because when you stop dodging, you actually start moving.

Most companies never get past the surface. 
They hide behind fancy models and digital dashboards. 
They call it “transformation” but the hard stuff never gets touched. 
The window dressing is nice—the results are not.

So, if you are serious about a leadership system that works fast and lasts, skip the window dressing. 
Risk the real conversation. 
Make honesty your ritual.
 
Ready to try it in your team? 
Or still hoping that one more framework will save the day?

Most leadership systems are built to slow you down, not speed you up.

Everyone loves to preach "agility," but then drowns every real decision in endless approval chains and pointless politics.

I've watched new CEOs hit the ground ready to make things happen. 

Then bam! They're dragged into the same loop: meeting after meeting, status reports nobody reads, and busywork that looks like progress but isn't.

Why do we pretend this is normal?

If you actually want a leadership system that moves fast (without burning people out), you have to break old habits.

Here's where you start:

→ Get crystal clear on decision rights. Who can actually say yes or no? If nobody knows, everything stalls.

→ Audit your rituals. Weekly meetings: are they pushing anything forward, or are they just time-fillers?

→ Take a hard look at culture. Where are people scared to take risks? If everyone's just covering themselves, forget about moving fast.

Fast doesn't mean chaos. It means everyone knows the rules. People trust each other. People own their choices, and know someone has their back even when things blow up.

The best business turnarounds I've seen? They only happen when leaders build for humans, not for compliance.

If you're stepping into a new leadership role, you don't have to play by the same old rules.

What would you toss out if you could build your system from scratch?

Tag someone who's seen a leadership system that actually works.
Or tell me, what's the one habit you'd break first?

Every transformation hits a brick wall.

Not a speed bump you can glide over, but a full-stop, dead-in-your-tracks moment. 

-> That meeting where everyone looks at the table. 
-> The plan that worked yesterday? Suddenly useless. 
-> The room feels heavy. 

Been there more times than I’ll admit.

What do most leaders do next? 
They clamp down. More meetings. More dashboards. More control. Stack up more layers and hope to squeeze something out.

But control almost never breaks the wall down.

Here’s the real pattern I’ve seen:
When projects stall, it’s rarely because people don’t know what to do. It’s because something important has gone unsaid. 
- A fear no one wants to admit. 
- A grudge floating around under the surface. 
- Misalignment nobody wants to name.

The wall stands because everyone’s dodging the real thing holding you back.

So I started doing the one thing that feels risky. Stopping the grind. Literally calling a timeout. Pausing the agenda. Looking around the table and asking: 
- “What are we NOT saying?” 
- "Do we still remember the WHY of doing this?"

Silence, every time. Awkward shuffling. Sideways glances. You wait. The truth starts slow, but once it comes out, people lean in. 
You finally get the real problem, not the polite one. And that’s when transformation actually starts moving again.

My favorite myth? That turnarounds happen because someone at the top pushes harder. The reality: they start when someone makes it safe to say what really needs to be said.

So, if you’re stuck and the old moves aren’t working, try dropping the script. Ask what’s missing from the conversation. Then let it be awkward for a bit.

You’ll be surprised what happens.

What’s the wall you’re facing right now? If you’re willing to share—I’m listening.

Juttu

Founder

Niko at Work - Product Consulting

- Go-to-Market and Product Ideation for 2trde
Discovering an opportunity for a new vertical in 2trdes business. Building first MVP to validate our solution. Pitching partners and planning go-to-market strategy with them.

- Product Discovery for Nioomi
Strategic Discovery to help determine Nioomi's potential path to monetisation and sustained growth.

- Product Ideation & Discovery for Fountain.fm
Analysing one of the biggest user pain points when using the app (related to audio editing) and discovering potential "pain alleviators".

- Revamp Groups Strategy for New Work SE

Product Coach & Consultant

New Work SE

More of a strategical focus, overseeing integrations with other teams, people management of Junior PO, driving key projects through three functional teams

Senior Product Manager

First Year: Product ownership of B2B product, developing new pricing strategy, cross-team project lead to bring data-analysis product to market
Second Year: B2C Product with focus on mobile first development, SEO optimisation and conversion rate improvements on key metrics
Third Year: Managing two cross-functional teams to deliver holistic product improvements

Product Manager

Implementation of user stories, Migration from SSR with Rails to ReactJS, Tech-lead on project initiatives

Junior Software Engineer (Fullstack)

Rails backend work, implementing business logic, optimising data base queries

Software Development Working Student

AutoScout24

Build monitoring system to decrease response time in case of production issues - Rails, JS.

Working Student Software Development

Nolio solutio

Customer Acquisition, Project Management, Building custom websites using a variety of frameworks/technologies such as wordpress, jekyll, magento.

Web Developer

smartpatient

Intern Content Management

Mission → 1k teams to adopt weekly prod. discovery. 📈 curr: 15/1000

Hey - I'm Niko,

after coaching 30+ teams on Product Discovery I realized one thing.
The single biggest action any product team can take, is getting to talk to users, every week.

That's why we started juttu.co
>> A tool that automates having two user interviews in your calendar - with the right people - at the right time - every week.

After working with product leaders and coaching teams on the best practices, I realized that the first step is getting team to "just talk to their users".

If you want your teams to be empowered and built user-centric products - this is where it starts!

Do you want to press PLAY on Continuous Discovery? 
>> Give juttu.co a try at https://juttu.co/

Want to chat? 
Drop me an email at niko@juttu.co

In any case, have a great day ahead.
And keep building products users love.

Niko

Niko Noll

not going to lie.
haven't been posting cause AI-generated content everywhere.
and i wasn't sure what to contribute here on LinkedIn.

so i went and touched some grass instead.

but I cleaned up my feed.
and my brain.

following founders and product leaders like David Finnegan, iuliia shnai, Charlotte Schmitt, Louise de Sadeleer etc. has restored my faith in ... well humanity on LinkedIn.

working without distractions on AI-agent-systems for weeks has cleared my brain.
I'm as excited about tech as I've ever been.
and as I get to work on things like mastra ai (typescript agent framework) 40h a week, well, I learn a thing or too.

and i'm going to be sharing that.

building ai products.
finding customers.
b2b SaaS stuff.

and up the transparency.
spoiler: I might even be coached in public this week.

alright, back to dancing with the new claude opus.

Reduce subscription churn with smart cancel-flows

Idiot or genius? 
We just made Juttu freemium as a self-funded team.  

Conventional wisdom says freemium kills focus and margins. 

I disagree. 

If you have fewer than 50 cancellations a month, Juttu is free forever. 

Why?

Small teams need churn analysis early.
Not after the leak becomes a flood.  

Most think retained revenue is the headline. 
The real win is knowing why people leave, fast. 

Our cancel flow surfaces reasons and retention plays.
You get the smartest cancel flow without building one.  

The bet is simple. 
If we help you keep customers now, the upgrade later is obvious. 

Usage caps create a path to paid, support stays sane, and we gather sharper product signals. 

I will report back how it goes.  

If you were me, what metric would you watch in the first 60 days? Have you tried freemium in B2B, where did it work or break?  


P.S.  Hey, I'm Niko.  I'm building a retention tooling SaaS in public. Talking about AI, B2B subscriptions, pricing, and all that good stuff.  Follow along if that's your jam.

Idiot or genius? 
We just made Juttu freemium as a self-funded team.  

Conventional wisdom says freemium kills focus and margins. 

I disagree. 

If you have fewer than 50 cancellations a mont

Feels like every month now we have a major outage?
Last month AWS.
This month Cloudflare.

They proxy 10% of ALL internet traffic.

When AWS goes, Netflix goes.
When Cloudflare goes twitter goes.
But also Supabase (a big database provider).

Man this internet is getting centralized.
Back to self hosting websites we go?

honestly?
building b2b software.

with AI.
ah, and John Rush is a cool guy to follow.

New release: Paddle integration is now live at juttu.co 

Stripe was our starting point, but many people told us:
“Love this… but we’re using Paddle.”

So we shipped:
- Plug in Paddle 
-	Create your flow and retention offers
-	Retention and cancellations are automatically synced into Paddle (it stays the source of truth)

Excited to see what you’ll build with it.

New release: Paddle integration is now live at juttu.co 

Stripe was our starting point, but many people told us:
“Love this… but we’re using Paddle.”

So we shipped:
- Plug in Paddle 
-	Create

AI did not kill SaaS, it raised the bar for people who ship.  

Reality check. 
The hot take that we will not need software anymore is self centered. 

If you wake up to solve real problems, and code can help, you still have a job. 
People use coded products every day. 
The work is to build something clearly better than a quick internal script.  


Example from our shop:

Our first AI cancel flow was basic. 
Prospects said, I can build this. 
Fair. 

Then we added smart offers, on the fly churn analysis, and tight UX. 
Now it is obvious they should not build it in house. 
We keep improving it so they do not have to.  

What actually wins:
Not raw code, the cost of thinking, maintenance, and iteration. 
Most teams do not want their scope to explode. 
They focus on their edge, they outsource the rest to specialists who ship weekly. 

The bar is higher, not gone.  

Where do you draw the build versus buy line today? What would make you switch from DIY to a product?  

P.S. Hey, I'm Niko.  I'm building a retention tooling SaaS in public. Talking about AI, B2B subscriptions, pricing, and all that good stuff.  Follow along if that's your jam.

If you only track one number this year, make it this one.

NRR >100% → your customers get value, stay longer, and pay more over time.
NRR <100% → your existing revenue is shrinking, even if your top-line growth looks great.

It’s one of the first numbers investors look at.
Because it shows the quality of your revenue, not just the quantity.

I’m doing a series on core retention metrics for SaaS, and this one had to come first.

Here’s how it works 👇

P.S.  Hey, I'm Niko. I'm building a retention tooling SaaS in public. Talking about AI, B2B subscriptions, pricing, and all that good stuff.  Follow along if that's your jam.

I just automated our entire lead qualification process and it felt great. Here's how:

We were spending 10+ hours/week manually checking pricing pages. Not anymore:

Full n8n workflow walkthrough below. I recorded the whole thing.

1. Fetch new leads from our database → filter for unqualified ones.
2. Generate and test likely pricing URLs to avoid wasting AI calls.
3. Scrape the real pricing page with Firecrawl → analyze with OpenAI → push structured output back into Coda.

Result: Hours saved daily + far more consistent scoring.
We finally spend our time talking to people who actually need us.

Is this taking #buildinpublic too far?
David reviews our business Juttu in public. On YouTube.

Link in comments.
Here my thoughts on it.

We have our first customers. 
The product reduces cancellations, saves revenue for SaaS businesses.

But obviously the challenge now is to improve how we
- solve the problem of our customers
- find new customers
Every day.

And while most startups (especially here on LinkedIn) pose to be WAY BIGGER than they actually are, I thought:
"What founder/product content would I like to have seen 5 years ago?"

Well, and that's where the idea for David coaching me in public came from.
Cool idea? Taking it too far with the transparency?

This is an experiment.
Let us know what you think.
Pls. Thx.

- Niko
Your friendly PM turned AI-startup-founder 

PS: Shoutout to co-founder Pauline for letting me do this :D

The AI-slide wars.
When model providers move to the application layer.

I love Gamma, and that new round, almost 70 million at a 2 billion valuation, proves how fast this space moves. Big value created, big creative destruction coming. 

(value because Gamma is profitable)

Now Kimi shipped Agentic Slides with Nano Banana Pro (Google newest image gen), plus their LLM, search to create to edit in one flow.

On paper, same job as Gamma. As always, demo videos look magical. The only way to know is to run your own test. 

Here is my 20 minute test for real value:
- ask LLM to summarize slides you already have (with figures, details)
- give it to Kimi
- edit layouts
- generate infographics with (hopefully) accurate text
My first test were surprisingly accurate with enough context.

Luckily I don't have urgent need for creating many slide decks right now.
But if you know somebody at McKinsey, maybe send this post to them <3

The model providers going to the app layer is interesting though.

P.S. 
Hey, I'm Niko. 
I'm building a retention tooling SaaS in public. Talking about AI, B2B subscriptions, pricing, and all that good stuff. 
Follow along if that's your jam.

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