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Transformation doesn't need another deck. It needs someone who can make it move.

I work where transformation actually happens: inside the complexity, alongside the people who have to make it work.

Strategy matters. But the difficult part starts afterwards.

Turning decisions into action when structures are changing, information is incomplete, stakeholders want different things, and the business still has to deliver. That's where I come in.

Transformation. Execution. Communication.

I don't advise from the sidelines

I've spent my career inside businesses while they were changing: building, restructuring, digitizing, integrating, separating, and reinventing how they go to market.

Barbara Zelenay in a working session, explaining and aligning with colleagues
Barbara Zelenay working inside the business during a transformation

Most recently, I was part of the Extended Management Team (EMT) taking a €1bn+ Bosch business with 4,300+ people across 90 locations in 50 countries from corporate ownership to independence under private equity.

My role was to connect the pieces: leadership decisions with execution, commercial priorities with organizational reality, and what was happening in the boardroom with what employees, customers and teams needed to understand and do next. At the same time, I worked across sales, go-to-market and corporate communications to help keep the business moving while we built what came next.

There was no finished playbook. We had to build a new company while running the existing one. Keep customers buying. Keep employees engaged. Separate systems and processes. Create a new identity. Make decisions before every answer was available. And make the transformation real, not just announced.

The problem is rarely the strategy.

Organizations usually know what they want to change. The gap is between the decision and what actually happens on Monday morning. That's where my work sits.

Need someone inside the transformation, not alongside it?
Let’s talk about what needs to move, or book 30 minutes.

Send me an email →

Where I work

01

Turn strategy into execution

Translate ambitious transformation agendas into priorities, ownership, decisions, and action. Less transformation theatre. More movement.

02

Connect the commercial and organizational reality

Sales, marketing, customer experience, processes, organization, and communication don't transform independently. I work across those boundaries rather than optimizing one silo.

03

Lead through incomplete information

Carve-outs, integrations, restructurings, and major change don't wait until everything is clear. I help leadership teams move while being transparent about what is known, what isn't, and what needs deciding next.

04

Make communication part of the transformation

Not the announcement at the end. Communication is an operating tool. It creates clarity, surfaces resistance, aligns leaders, and keeps people and customers with you while the organization changes.

05

Get close enough to the work to know what's really happening

Boardroom. Customer meeting. Town hall. CRM process. Leadership workshop. Or the conversation nobody particularly wants to have. Transformation looks different from the inside than it does on a steering committee slide.

Bosch → Independence

4,300+ people. 90+ locations. 50 countries. Four businesses. One separation.

My most recent transformation wasn't a case study I observed. I was inside the leadership team making it happen.

Bosch to Keenfinity transition

Independent context → Keenfinity: In just twelve months, we have built real momentum.

My remit crossed the boundaries transformation usually exposes: sales and go-to-market, commercial continuity, corporate communications, leadership alignment, employee engagement, group identity and brand transition.

Almost overnight, I became one of the faces and voices people looked to for what was happening, what came next and how we would get there. Internally and externally, I helped translate leadership decisions into what thousands of employees, customers and partners needed to understand and do next. And the business couldn't stop while we transformed it.

Barbara Zelenay with a colleague during the transformation
Barbara Zelenay preparing the NewCo name reveal during the Bosch carve-out
<10%Employee attrition, announcement to close
4 BUsOne corporate structure to four independent businesses
90+Locations connected through the transition
50Countries
15,000+New LinkedIn followers in under three months
~40,000Followers within the first year

But the goal wasn't simply to build a corporate audience. We created a new group voice while strengthening the identities and channels of the individual brands at the same time. The corporate brand needed to connect the businesses, not compete with them.

Keenfinity Group and its portfolio of established brands

One company. Strong brands. Distinct audiences.

Protect today's business while building tomorrow's. This is what I mean by execution.

80/20, then move

I don't believe every question needs a six-week workstream. Get close to the problem. Find the 20% that determines 80% of the outcome. Make the decision. Test it. Learn. Adjust.

That doesn't mean being careless with complexity. It means knowing which complexity matters.

I bring the perspective of a corporate executive, the impatience of an operator, and the communication instinct to make sure people understand where we're going, including when the route changes.

Bring me in when...

Straight answers
What does an enterprise transformation executive actually do?

I close the gap between a decision and what happens on Monday morning. That means translating a transformation agenda into priorities, ownership and action, connecting the commercial and organizational pieces that rarely move at the same speed, and keeping employees and customers with the business while the structure underneath them changes.

Strategy is usually not the problem. Execution is.

What was your role in the Bosch to Keenfinity carve-out?

I was part of the Extended Management Team (EMT) and one of the visible faces and voices of the separation. Not the sole leader of it.

My named workstreams covered change management, corporate communications, branding, marketing, and sales excellence and go-to-market, and I supported the IT user migration. A Bosch division was split in two, three business units were carved out and established as independent businesses, and a fourth was added along the way: 4,300+ people, 90+ locations, 50+ countries. Employee attrition stayed under 10% from announcement to close.

Do you work as an executive, an advisor, or both?

Both. I take senior operating roles when the mandate is broad and the ground is moving. I also take on a small number of advisory mandates.

But I don't do consultancy from the sidelines. I get into the problem, work with the people who have to solve it and help move it. The output is a business that has started moving.

What kind of problems do you get brought in for?

Carve-outs, integrations and restructurings that have produced more questions than answers. Commercial transformation that has fragmented into disconnected initiatives. A clear strategy that has stopped moving. Leadership teams that know something has to change while the organization stays where it is.

And the recurring one underneath all of those: nobody has the full picture yet, and people still need to be led through it.

How do you work once you are in?

Get close to the problem, find the 20% that determines 80% of the outcome, make the decision, test it, adjust. That is not carelessness about complexity. It is knowing which complexity matters.

Close enough to the work to know what is really happening: boardroom, customer meeting, town hall, CRM process, leadership workshop, or the conversation nobody wants to have.

Which industries and regions do you work in?

Industrial and B2B technology businesses, including automotive, mobility, security and building technology, and digital organizations inside large groups.

Based in Munich, regularly in Stuttgart, Vienna, Prague, and Bratislava, and working across Europe and North America. My career has taken me through Germany, Belgium, the UK, and Japan, with global remits spanning 50+ countries.

Something else on your mind? Email me and ask.

Advisory & consulting

Senior experience brought directly into the work.

After years of doing this from inside large organizations, I also take on a small number of advisory mandates, built on a simple premise: strategy has value only when someone makes it happen.

Transformation. Execution. Communication. Challenging a leadership team, structuring a transformation, unblocking execution, solving a commercial problem, connecting functions that aren't connecting themselves, or helping leaders bring an organization with them when not every answer exists yet.

Deliberately not a traditional consultancy model, and deliberately selective. A dedicated home for this work is being built.

If you have something difficult that needs moving, talk to me.