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Decide faster. Grow better.

I don’t solve the task as given. I solve the actual problem — with philosophy, business, and technology.

The best solution is rarely the.task you defined · software you bought · agency you’d brief

read on

Situations

Six sentences I hear a lot.

My work almost always starts with one of them. Take the one that’s yours.

The mirror

It’s rarely a knowledge problem.

In almost all of these cases, someone already knows what should happen. There are analyses, a concept, a workshop — and often a tool that has already been bought. What’s missing isn’t knowledge. It’s the decision. And then someone who sees it through.

Maybe the task you’ve defined isn’t your actual problem.

You can execute it perfectly and still end up exactly where you started. That’s expensive, and it’s rarely anyone’s fault: teams get very good at delivering precisely what was ordered.

The elephant in the room is rarely invisible. It’s just uncomfortable. Often my job is to say the sentence everyone is already thinking — and once it’s on the table, the decision gets surprisingly easy.

How I work

Four principles, no framework.

At the core I do one thing: I translate a situation into the perspectives of the people in the room, until everyone sees the same thing and the next step is obvious.

“Where do I see that in Salesforce?”

A CFO, about his CMO’s work.

The CMO was right about what he was doing. He was just using the wrong language. To a CFO, marketing is an investment before it is a funnel. We didn’t change his measures, we changed their translation. After that, the budget stopped being an argument.

Problem first, task second.

My first question is why the task is worded the way it is. That is usually where the assumption sits that nobody questions anymore — and assumptions can be moved.

Models before tools.

Tools go out of date, models don’t. I’d rather explain margin with an ice cream stand by a lake — at what point does a second person behind the counter pay off? — than with a dashboard. Think that through once and an AI budget stops being intimidating.

Working between disciplines.

The interesting problems rarely sit inside one discipline. They sit between business, technology, law, and data. I’m fluent enough in all four to translate — and to notice when two sides are nodding politely and meaning different things.

Plain words, not buzzwords.

If I can’t explain something in one sentence, I haven’t understood it. You won’t get a slide from me that says “AI enablement”. You’ll get a sentence your CFO would sign.

Five doors

Five ways in, one destination.

All five end in the same place: a decision that wasn’t possible before. They differ only in how close I get and for how long.

  • The spark

    Speaker

    A keynote or a moderated session, for when an event should move something and not just inform.

  • The sounding board

    Advisor

    You have a decision in front of you and want to turn it over with someone from the outside — occasional, senior, no report at the end.

  • The step up

    Coach

    Executive sparring or rising leaders: someone on your team is facing the next step and should take it themselves.

  • The groundwork

    Masterclasses & seminars

    You want your team to understand AI and digital business, not just operate it — models, not tool training.

  • The ownership

    Fractional CxO

    A role is open and needs someone in it, just not forever: CAIO · Growth · Data · Evangelist.

Track record

Where this comes from.

25+ years. Miele, BMW, Google, SAP, Mercedes-Benz, Payback, MediaMarktSaturn, Deutsche Telekom.

No logo wall, no case-study library. Two numbers I can account for:

10×*
digital revenue at Miele — after we put sales logic into the shop instead of more technology.
30×
registrations a day at FriendScout24 — from 600 to 18,000, after about 25 iterations.

*The real number was higher. I reduced it so people would believe it.

The long version is in my book Der Elefant im Raum (in German).

I’ve talked about it here: t3n · Marketing on Fire · Marketing Pioneers

Rate

€3,200 a day.

It’s here so neither of us wastes time.

Whether that becomes a single day, a series, or a longer mandate is what the first call is for.

What does a week cost in which nothing gets decided?

For peers

No project, just up for sparring? That door is open too.

Just write. I answer my own mail, and you won’t get a pitch back: pascalfantou.com@fantou.net

The call

30 minutes. No pitch. You’ll come away knowing more than you did before.

We look at your situation. If I’m the right person for it, you’ll tell me. If I’m not, I’ll tell you.

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Pascal Fantou, Munich. 25+ years across marketing, technology, and leadership — from startups to enterprise. More about me