Advisory Services
Strategy and Sound Decision Making
Many situations are strategic in nature, involving interrelated choices where every person’s or entity’s decision directly shapes what others decide to do. At its core, both our advisory and didactic services aim to provide approaches and frameworks to navigate and act successfully in such situations. This essentially comes down to:
(i) Accurately and comprehensively understanding the context as well as one’s own capabilities and objectives.
(ii) Making the optimal decisions to advance one’s position while anticipating the actions and reactions of others.
One’s success in such a situation will be heavily shaped by the ability to understand and respond effectively to these interdependencies. It is therefore also clear why our philosophy is fundamentally guided by Model Thinking and Sound Decision Making, as these approaches are central to addressing the challenges inherent in any strategic context.
In practice, it is surprising to see that decision-making remains an underdeveloped explicit consideration, even in professional environments, as we all make countless decisions every day, and the way we make these decisions ultimately shapes our future. Many managers, for instance, are not effective decision-makers, despite decision-making arguably being the most important skill a manager or leader can possess. Decisions are frequently evaluated—especially when they lead to negative outcomes—but rarely within a structured framework.
In decision-making contexts, however, the question is not always just about identifying the best choice. Often, we may not even be aware of situational factors that necessitate a decision, or we may be confronted with unforeseen events that, in hindsight, seem entirely predictable. Because real-world events are inherently unpredictable, good decisions may still lead to undesired outcomes, meaning decisions cannot simply be measured by their results. Decision-making is therefore both a highly practical and, at times, abstract or even mystical area. Optimizing decision-making should become a habit rather than an occasional act, and it also requires training various skills and developing one’s intuition.
Where many companies regularly struggle with difficult strategic challenges and make use of strategic advice, we set ourselves apart due to our use of our own highly sophisticated and rigorous frameworks combined with a didactic approach. By leveraging these frameworks, we offer unique perspectives and impactful strategies in any (business) strategic setting. At the same time, our approaches are replicable and teachable, ensuring that the value we provide strengthens and enhances the organization’s overall approach rather than focusing on a singular solution.
Financial Risk Management and Actuarial Science
Real-world events are inherently uncertain—far more so than we often care to admit. This is both an intriguing and, at times, unsettling thought. In fact, every time we engage in something meaningful, there is potential for adverse outcomes. This is commonly referred to as risk. Often, such risks are relatively harmless or limited, but there are also instances where misfortune can strike on a much larger scale.
Risks are not simply abstract notions, they relate to the uncertain nature of reality and as a result need to be carefully managed at both the corporate and personal level. Over recent decades, companies have increasingly recognized the critical importance of risk management. Driven in part by disruptive events like the 2008 global financial crisis, many organizations have established entire departments dedicated to managing various forms of risk, from financial to operational.
We have extensive experience in providing advisory services to corporations in the field of financial and quantitative risk management and actuarial science. This are broad and complex domains that covers a wide range of analytical, regulatory, and strategic challenges. Our clients in this area have primarily been financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, which operate in highly regulated and risk-sensitive environments.
Given the size and complexity of the field, the specific needs of each organization can vary significantly. We offer tailored support across various areas, including but not limited to:
- (Financial) risk management, like in the identification and assessment of risks a company is subject to
- Development of hedging strategies against potential and considerable macro-economic shocks
- Setting up and reviewing risk management governance
- Development and validation of mathematical models
- Setting up actuarial reserving and pricing methodologies
- Development of software solutions
- Optimization of operational processes and problems
Health Risk Management
Well-being and resilience are fundamental to organizational functioning, yet they are not directly observable and are therefore often overlooked as core strategic assets with far-reaching implications. Their profound importance became unmistakably clear during the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed health as the ultimate core consideration in society. Furthermore, we live in a time characterized by major and unpredictable changes across key domains such as technology, economics, and health. These shifts introduce new layers of complexity, not only disrupting established practices but also placing additional strain on both employee and organizational well-being and resilience. We have pioneered HRM as a comprehensive re-evaluation in response to these critical challenges.
HRM is a principle-based framework and distinct paradigm that elevates health related considerations to a strategic level, aligning employee and organizational interests to address significant contemporary challenges, and creates substantial value in the process. It is not a prescriptive framework for implementation but aims to provide guidance.
In early 2025, we partnered with Anna Herbalism to further strengthen our work in this area. We are currently investing heavily in research, education, and strategic support around health risk, and it is becoming an increasingly central pillar of GON—both for its organizational impact and its broader social relevance.
The topic is too broad to outline fully here. In the articles we regularly publish and the talks we will give, we will share our perspectives and explore in more depth what health risk management means and how it can be applied in practice.
Mathematical Modeling and Analytics
In complex situations with many factors to consider, as large corporations often face, problems naturally require sophisticated mathematical models to capture and manage this complexity. As our clients tend to mostly be large corporations, our services in practice result not only in providing advice but also in delivering concrete solutions in the form of mathematical models and analytical tools. As a result, we are highly proficient in programming environments like R and Python, as well as in working with large-scale databases.
Besides Model Development, we also have an extensive background in Model Validation and Model Risk Management. This experience has given us a deep understanding of the full model lifecycle—from conceptual design and implementation to independent validation, stress testing, and the governance processes required to ensure models remain reliable, explainable, and fit for purpose. Working across these stages has strengthened our ability not only to build robust models, but also to critically assess their assumptions, limitations, and real-world implications. Some of the models we have built or validated include models for:
- (Insurance) Pricing
- Asset valuation
- Asset Allocation
- Regulatory Purposes, like Capital Requirements
- Performance Evaluation and Back-testing
- Market Sampling
For the wider public it is good to realize that large companies, especially in finance, tend to heavily rely on these mathematical models in their decision-making processes, to the extent that model risk is itself managed by dedicated teams. Operating in these types of environments with highly skilled professionals was an important influence in shaping our broader philosophy of Model Thinking.
