Build a business worth choosing

Corporate acupuncture to help your teams deliver what customers really seek.

Profitably. At scale.

500+ mio

employees impacted

customers touched

Net Promoter Scores

1+ million

Top-decile

TRUSTED BY

Adidas · Audi · Barclays · Bekaert · Bordeaux Wines · Bridgestone · BNP Paribas Asset Management · Brightfish · Coca-Cola East-Japan · Deloitte · Etex · Gemalto · Generali Group · Grant Thornton · ING · Kinepolis · Lantmännen Unibake · Lexus · MCE · Mercedes-Benz · Mondi · Nationale Nederlanden · Oriflame · Philips · Pontes · Reebok · Sanoma · Teijin Aramid · Toyota · Vodafone · Wabco · Weber-Stephen · Wireco

Selected cases below

Call me when…

Customers feel no difference

Everyone's offers and experiences feel the same. Despite your efforts, customers struggle to see what makes you special, or why they should to pay you more.

You’re in perpetual catch-up

By the time you’ve implemented yesterday’s improvements, your market and technology have shifted again. Burning teams and money, without really getting ahead.

Promises get lost in delivery

Your customer promise gets lost among the sprints, dashboards, silos and technology roadmaps. While everyone has great intentions, your customers don’t feel the result.

Bots change the choice equation

Your teams try to please the algorithms that heal customers search, evaluate and buy. But it’s unclear why they would still choose you if their agents say otherwise.

Teams are tired of change

Every day brings a new AI update, market shock and bottomless inbox. Cascading harder isn’t the answer when teams are overwhelmed and exhausted by ‘transformation’.

Your industry needs disrupting

Everyone’s still making money, but you can see yesterday’s methods slide towards irrelevance. You may not know how, but you feel it’s time for a reboot. And you’re up for it.

Let's have coffee

Not yet ready to talk? Then steal my thinking here.

What to expect when you come to me

Here I’m supposed to describe my methodology: my sixteen-dimensional maturity scans, the insightful workshop format, the golden metric that will magically transform your business.

But I’ve learned they’re ofen corporate showbiz.

But every assignment is different, and while I’ve worked with most of the available tools, I’ve never seen any one really move the needle.

So here’s what you can expect when working with me.

Do expect me to drop the corporate charades to talk about root causes. Whether your customer strategy is clear enough. Whether your teams care. How your business gets in the way. Which moves make the difference.

Based on the findings I prototype the smartest next moves towards your customer transformation goal. Together we test and refine them.

Step 3: We iterate

Step 4: we conclude

We introduce test the final prototype to your team, let them further modify and take it forward. So the ownership stays in your business.

I consider your business as a whole. Read internal papers, talk to key stakeholders and complement this with desk research and market visits.

Step 1: We scope

We meet discuss the customer transformation that’s on your mind. The offer, experience, transformation, technology, or strategy that needs attention.

Step 2: I immerse myself

Alain Thys looking out of the window

Hi, I’m Alain

For three decades I’ve worked on customer transformation

Big programmes. Global standards. From automotive to accounting to wine.

Globally recognised case studies. Painful bruises.

But while proud of the work, I felt my profession drifting.

Experiences that stopped being worthwhile. Transformations that fizzled. The mad race towards Artificial Irrelevance.

So I decided to raise the stakes.

For seven years, I stepped out of my business bubble to learn from the real experts in emotion, humanity and change: neuroscientists, theatre makers, systems thinkers.

A tarot reader taught me the power of narrative. A Nepalese monk threw rice in my face. An improv coach made me play an ATM. Then recast me as a tree.

We went deeper than I ever had:

  • Turning McFunerals into meaningful farewells

  • Reimagining a global HQ as an immersive experience

  • Helping teams overcome their existential fear of AI.

It showed me that sustainable, premium profit is about more than solving customer problems. It’s about building a business that helps them become more of who they want to be.

Which is why I created The Transformation Code

A deceptively simple way to make your business worth choosing

And make transformation real

For your customers. Your teams. And yes, even yourself.

don’t expect complex maturity scans. big technoology programmes. large consulting teams. Been there. and done it enough it makes everyone feel good but doesn’t relally work that well.

Si I’ve dropped the corporate charades to work on what really works

I' ve been called a corporate acupuncturist. and the name kind of stucck

Not just because you tell them

The Transformation Code by Alain Thys: How to really transform your customers, your organisation, yourself.

The Transformation Code

Δ = Story × Resonance × Flow

My seven year journey led me to a deceptively simple conclusion.

Sustainable premium profit comes from transforming customers and helping them become who they want to be. Which may require transforming the business itself.

Both are the result of three multiplying factors:

  • Story: A new way to see the future that is possible

  • Resonance: The desire to achieve that goal

  • Flow: The freedom, tools and conditions to act

Get the book on amazon

Selected Cases

​I’ve been involved in too many projects to list, but these cases give a first flavour. I'll happily discuss limited case details and other credentials in a personal conversation (subject to NDA). 

  • At Pontes Crematoria, we looked beyond the death care industry’s focus on operational efficiency to ask what grieving people actually need.

    The result: a crematorium opening in 2029, designed to redefine the industry’s standards, scripts and rituals.

  • At a global non-food retailer, we flipped the usual AI-first cascade by asking why teams would, and wouldn’t, want to use AI.

    The result: a pragmatic, honest AI narrative that fitted the corporate strategy, addressed teams’ aspirations and fears, and shaped a programme to make AI relevant to store staff.

  • Luxury car brands obsess over the vehicle. At Lexus, we went further, turning the brand’s ‘omotenashi’ heritage into an automotive experience on a par with five-star hospitality.

    The result: a retail experience that helped Lexus become the NPS leader in most European markets.

  • When ING Insurance (later NN) prepared for its IPO, we paired international experience standards with a customer movement that invited staff to show customers they cared.

    The result: hundreds of grassroots initiatives, leading to #1 or other top NPS positions in every market.

  • At Grant Thornton, we looked beyond the professional services focus on meeting clients’ needs to ask how clients should feel at every stage of the relationship.

    The result: shared standards for both the practical and emotional sides of client experience, with measurement and capability development across 100+ markets.

  • At Generali, we broke with the habit of scripting every possible customer scenario from headquarters. Instead, we crafted a global customer manifesto and worked with market teams to turn it into experiences they could stand behind.

    The result: a set of customer standards for purchase, claims, service and renewal, with the people, technology and organisational capabilities to deliver them.

  • At Philips, we shifted marketing’s focus from the company’s technology-centric heritage towards an approach led by customer insight.

    The result: one of the world’s first global, cross-functional Net Promoter programmes, stronger customer-led marketing capabilities, and better alignment between marketing, sales and technology.

  • Some other projects include:

    • Creating and implementing international experience standards at Oriflame, Vodafone, Bridgestone, …

    • Implementing customer-centricity programmes at Bekaert, Deloitte, Weber-Stephen, Mercedes, McLaren, …

    • Developing and introducing new value propositions at MCE, Lantmännen-Unibake, Sanoma Group, …

    • Implementing customer voice, strategy and employee programmes at Toyota.

    • Setting up a global advocacy programme for Bordeaux wines (tasty!)

    • and so on …

What others say about me

  • Alexandra de Greck

    "​With his collaborative, commercial and hands-on approach, Alain sparked a fire for customer experience across the company from the moment he started."

    Alexandra de Greck
    ​Chief Operations Officer 

    Oriflame

  • James Wallman

    From our first interactions, I thought: "Wow, this guy's sharp - super smart & also super honest. He exemplifies the concept of radical candour."

    James Wallman
    CEO

    World Experience Organisation

  • Nikolaas Tahon

    For the first time in my life, I got a more structured way of thinking about customer experience and client satisfaction.

    Nikolaas Tahon
    ​Global Board Member

    Deloitte

  • Dominik Endler

    Alain helped define and form our customer-centricity program. His skill to listen, understand and bring everything into the context of his client is amazing.

    Dominik Endler ​
    VP Customer & Commercial Excellence and CMO 

    Bekaert

  • Paul English

    Alain has worked with us on our CX agenda from the beginning. He brings clarity, relevance and a commercial mindset to engage a diverse and international audience.

    Paul English
    ​Global Leader - Markets & Clients 

    Grant Thornton International

Are you ready to make your business worth choosing?

Enrich the lives of your customers. Allow your teams to care.

Let's meet for a virtual coffee