pH neutre Pierrick Halflants

Expertise

Four fields of engagement

Scoped assignments with a starting point, deliverables and an end. I do not install dependency — I install capability.

01 — Strategy & growth

Set the course, then hold it

Most of the SMEs I meet are not short of ideas. They are short of choices. Too many priorities, too many open projects, and an executive team running in four directions at once.

My work is to bring the map back to what matters: where we actually stand, which three battles decide the next five years, and what we agree to stop doing.

What it covers

  • Strategic and financial diagnosis (four to six weeks)
  • Three-year growth plan and roadmap
  • 100-day plan for a new appointment or a turnaround
  • International development: market access, distribution, partnerships
  • Portfolio structuring and brand architecture
  • Preparation for a raise, an acquisition or a succession

Who for

SMEs and mid-caps of 10 to 500 people, owner-managers, family groups, and funds looking to strengthen a holding.

What it covers

  • Sparring partner to the CEO: a regular, confidential conversation with no hidden agenda
  • Support through a new appointment (incoming CEO, family successor, promoted executive)
  • Preparation for high-stakes moments: board meetings, negotiations, difficult announcements
  • Interim leadership on a short mandate
  • Building an executive committee and raising its autonomy

Format

Two-hour sessions, monthly or fortnightly, in person in Paris and Brussels or remotely. A six-month minimum, because below that nothing happens.

02 — Executive support

The peer you are missing

A chief executive cannot say everything to the team, cannot say everything to the board, and rarely says everything at home. That solitude is not a character flaw — it is a feature of the job.

I have held that seat for fifteen years. I am not there to explain your business to you. I am there to ask the questions nobody in your organisation is in a position to ask, and to hold the conversation to the end.

03 — Mediation & deadlock

Restore the conversation before the law freezes it

A shareholder conflict rarely costs what people think. The real cost is eighteen months of decisions not taken, teams quietly picking a side, and customers who sense it.

Mediation is neither arbitration nor therapy. It is a confidential setting where each party can finally name what is truly at stake — value, recognition, control, exit — and where we look for an agreement both sides can actually live with.

Situations handled

  • Conflict between partners or family branches
  • Disagreement over valuation or exit terms
  • A succession deadlocked between seller and buyer
  • Tension between operational management and shareholders
  • A commercial or industrial partnership that has stalled

Principles

Strict confidentiality, impartiality, nothing imposed. I do not practise law: I work alongside your legal advisers, ahead of or in parallel with proceedings.

What it covers

  • Independent non-executive board mandate
  • Chairing or joining a strategy committee
  • Advisory board for a family business or a scale-up
  • Designing governance: rhythm, agenda, dashboard, charter
  • Preparing the next generation for its role as shareholders

Current and past mandates

Board member of COSMEBIO (Valence, France) since 2024. Board member of DETIC asbl (Brussels) from 2017 to 2019. Board representation across several portfolio SMEs between 2007 and 2015.

04 — Board & governance

An outside view that carries accountability

Many SMEs discover governance at the worst possible moment: when an investor arrives, when a founder dies, or once the conflict is already in the room.

A useful board is not a legal formality. It is the place where bad news arrives early, where trade-offs are settled, and where the chief executive finds a counterweight that makes them better. I bring both the operator’s seat and the investor’s — the two sides of the table.

Le Mawenzi émergeant de la mer de nuages, Kilimandjaro

How it works

In practice

  1. A first conversation

    Forty-five minutes, free and without obligation, to understand your situation and check that I am the right person. If I am not, I say so and point you elsewhere.

  2. A written proposal

    Objectives, scope, deliverables, timeline, fees. One or two pages, not thirty.

  3. The engagement

    Fixed fee for a scoped assignment, monthly retainer for ongoing support, or director’s fees for a board mandate.

  4. The exit

    A successful engagement is one you walk out of. Knowledge transferred, documents handed over, and a door left open.

Working languages: French (native), English (fluent), Dutch (working knowledge). Engagements from the Brussels and Paris offices, at your premises, in Luxembourg and remotely.

Let’s talk

Every summit starts with a conversation

Tell me where you stand and what you are trying to reach. I answer personally, within two working days, and the first exchange costs nothing.

Request an engagement ph@phneutre.be