For leaders we offer 

Leadership

 and 

Career Consulting

 services.

We strongly believe in the approach of combining coaching and consulting elements (“coachulting”) to collaboratively address your specific challenges.

If you are a former professional athlete, have been out of the workforce for more than two years or a leader working in Startup, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) or Non-Profit Organization (NPO) we gladly offer special conditions (pro bono if you qualify too).

Leadership Consulting

From a leader’s perspective there are typically three scenarios that we engage in:

General: Today’s leaders are faced with an ever-increasing number of multi-dimensional challenges in an environment where the only constant is change. Deciding the course of action based on incomplete facts and guesstimates ist highly stressful. Taking into account that thanks to social media everybody can scrutinize and criticize your actions it becomes even more daunting to put a stake into the ground. In addition, the saying “it is lonely at the top” still holds true. In this environment you sometimes simply need a sparring partner to help you order your thoughts and talk through possible paths of action.

New role: If you are transitioning into a new position the first couple of weeks on the job are critical. Even more so if you are changing the employer too. A structured and holistic integration plan that looks at a number of factors (e.g., firm strategy, stakeholder environment, team skills, communication culture, leadership philosophies, branding) will greatly increase the chances of you starting successfully into your new challenge.

High performing teams: Your happiness correlates highly with the quality of your leadership team. The latter is to a great extent the result of your personal ability to attract great talent. While salary is still important a set of leadership principles and personal traits have emerged that you need to be aware of and adapt to if you don’t want to be left behind. 

Contact us for a non-binding first discussion to find out more how we can be of service to increase your leadership happiness.

Career Consulting

Careers used to be quite linear and pre-defined. This is no longer the case as the pace of change (e.g., industry convergence, digital disruption, new leadership models) has radically increased. As a result many job requirements (hard and soft skills) are continuously changing, completely new jobs are emerging while others cease to exist. Lifelong unlearning and relearning, continuous adaptation and greater possibilities to switch jobs/industries at all career stages has become the norm. 

In addition, the need for authentic personal branding and conscience story telling has clearly increased given the importance of social media in the recruiting process for jobs at all levels. 

As a result of this dynamic environment we have the option and in some cases are forced to evaluate different career paths forward more often than ever before.

Having worked in many different industries at board and c-level, the continuing education sector and been a sparring partner for hundreds of leaders thus far we want to continue to help you maximize your personal happiness.

Contact us to find out more how we can be your trusted sparring partner for your next career opportunity and happiness.

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Patricia
Widmer

Managing Partner

Dr. Patricia Widmer is Founder & Managing Partner at Aalto AG – fostering organizational and professional happiness through executive search, leadership and career consulting.

Patricia studied business administration at the University of Zurich with an emphasis on banking and finance and worked for several years in private banking and wealth management for a large Swiss bank. During her subsequent time abroad in the US and Germany, she held leadership positions with several charity organizations. Patricia has been with the University of St. Gallen since 2014, where she established the English-speaking certificate programme “Women Back to Business” (WBB) as well as the “Women’s Leadership Programme” and is now Programme Director for Diversity and Management Programmes. In addition, she is facilitating and moderating workshops as well as presentations about Diversity & Inclusion and unconscious bias. She wrote her dissertation about “Gender Disparity on Top of Companies”.

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Mike J. Widmer

Founder & Managing Partner

Dr. Mike J. Widmer is Founder & Managing Partner of Aalto AG – fostering organizational and professional happiness through executive search, leadership and career consulting. 

He began his professional career by founding an internet startup and thereafter joined the software company BSI Business Systems Integration AG as a Project Manager and Legal Counsel. After complementing his PhD in law at the University of Zurich, Switzerland with a full-time MBA at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan he joined McKinsey & Company in the USA. Next Mike returned to BSI to set up the company’s German subsidiary in Frankfurt as Country Manager. 

Prior to founding Aalto in 2020 he worked for almost 10 years in two top-tier executive search companies at international and local levels.