A small advisory house that prefers to write things down.
Verdure Group was founded on a particular conviction: that the most useful thing a consultant can do for a company is to sit quietly, ask careful questions, and hand back a written record of what they heard along with a few options to consider.
Return to the homepageA long way around to a short brief.
The founders of Verdure Group spent the first part of their careers inside larger advisory houses, where the work tended to grow rather than close. Reports lengthened. Engagements rolled over. The original brief was, by the end, hard to find in the deck.
We opened the firm on the Limmatquai in early 2018 with a different intention. Each engagement would be small and named on a single page. The deliverable would be a written document a chair, founder or chief executive could read in one sitting. When the work was done, we would close it. If the company wanted us back, the next engagement would begin on its own brief.
Almost a decade in, the rhythm has not changed. We still take on a handful of engagements at a time. We still write rather than present. And we still meet most of our clients through someone we have worked with before.
The best note we ever wrote ran to four pages. It changed how a board met for the following two years.
What we do is, in honest terms, fairly ordinary: we read documents, we talk to the people who attend the meetings, and we tell the person who commissioned the work what we noticed. The skill, if there is one, is in the listening — and in choosing what is worth writing down.
Three quiet principles.
Observation, not prescription
We describe what we see and present options. We do not tell a board what to decide; the deciding is theirs.
Close the work cleanly
Engagements end on a date written into the brief. We would rather be missed than become permanent furniture.
Write it down well
A note worth reading is worth drafting twice. Our written documents are edited like manuscript pages.
A handful of consultants. No juniors below them.
The person who reads the first email is the person who interviews your board and writes the final note. We do not pass engagements down a chain.
Elena Marchand
Spent twelve years as company secretary at two listed Swiss companies before joining the firm. Leads board governance reviews.
Thomas Fülscher
Was an investor before he was a consultant. Now writes the cadence frameworks for founders he probably would have invested in.
Anouk Reverdin
Built operating review meetings inside a manufacturing group in Lausanne. Facilitates the first two sessions of every setup we do.
Standards we keep without making a fuss about them.
Mutual non-disclosure as a first step
Before the first interview takes place, both sides sign an NDA. Drafts and final documents are shared only with the person who commissioned the engagement.
Swiss-hosted document storage
Anything you send us is kept on encrypted infrastructure hosted in Switzerland. At the close of the engagement, materials are returned or deleted according to your preference.
Non-attributed interviews
Directors, investors and team members can speak candidly. We write up what they said without putting their name to it.
A written brief, every time
Every engagement begins with a one-page brief that names what is in scope and what is not. Any change is agreed in writing before we begin it.
No exclusivity, no kickbacks
We do not take a share of any law firm, audit firm or other adviser we suggest you speak to. You are free to bring in whomever you trust.
An archive you can return to
Every written document we hand back is filed. If a chair wants to revisit a recommendation two years later, the original note is on the shelf, ready.
Advisory for companies that have outgrown the back of an envelope.
The companies who write to us tend to be at a particular kind of moment. The team has grown past the point where everything fits on a single founder's calendar. A board has been seated, or is about to be. Investors are taking a closer interest. The early habits — the WhatsApp updates, the standing Tuesday lunch — have stopped scaling.
Our work sits in that gap. We help the chair understand whether the board paper is doing its job. We help a founder design the monthly note that lets their investors stop asking for impromptu updates. We help a chief executive set up the operating review that lets them stop being the only person who can see the dashboard. The aim, in each case, is the same: fewer surprises, fewer late-evening texts, more attention on the work itself.
None of this is novel. Good companies have been doing it for decades. What we offer is a careful pair of outside eyes, a written record, and a willingness to leave when the work is done. We charge a fixed fee per engagement so that the decision to bring us in does not become a negotiation halfway through.
Verdure Group is based in Zürich and writes in English, German and French. Most of our clients are Swiss; a smaller number are spread across the rest of Europe, where we travel as the engagement requires. We are members of the Swiss Association of Independent Consultants and observe its standards of practice.
Describe the situation. We will tell you whether we can help.
The first call is short and free of charge. If we are the wrong people, we will say so and try to suggest who might be the right ones.
Write us a note