Transformations rarely fail because of the idea itself.
They fail in the gap between the methodology, the tool and the people who actually have to use it. I support energy companies and industrial organisations in two areas: Risk-Based Asset Management on one side, and digital transformation and change management on the other. With the same objective in both: turning ambition into something that works in practice.
Get in touch →Asset Management
Risk-Based Asset Management starts where models have to support real decisions.
You can build a highly sophisticated Health Index. Add criteria. Add data. Refine the scoring.
And still end up in a meeting where no one can clearly say which asset should be addressed first.
That is where I come in.
I structure Risk-Based Asset Management approaches that turn technical expertise into a clear, practical and usable decision framework.
I am not there to build one more mathematical model. I connect technical experts, business teams, available data and the decisions the organisation actually needs to make.
From the OEM side to the grid operator side.
I have worked on both sides: first with equipment manufacturers, then with grid operators. More importantly, I worked in an environment where two organisations had to bring their Risk-Based Asset Management approaches closer together.
One had historically been more OPEX-oriented. The other was structured more strongly around CAPEX. As a result, the same assets were not always assessed, prioritised or treated according to the same logic.
Two traps had to be avoided: imposing a single methodology that would truly work for neither organisation, or maintaining two parallel systems that would prevent any meaningful common approach.
The work was to determine what needed to remain specific and what could be harmonised, then build a sufficiently common framework to enable consistent decisions while remaining effective for both organisations.
That is often what makes an RBAM framework successful: not the sophistication of the model, but its ability to work within the real organisation.
- Structuring or reviewing an RBAM framework
- Health Index and degradation models
- Criticality matrices
- Identification of critical components
- Formalisation of decision rules
- Harmonisation of methodologies across functions, entities or countries
- Asset Management governance
- Business-side functional leadership and coordination for Asset Management and APM initiatives
transformation
A tool can be delivered. And the transformation can still fail to happen.
The project is complete. The tool works. Access has been set up. Training has been delivered.
And six months later, teams are still running their own Excel spreadsheets alongside it.
This is far more common than organisations like to admit. Because digital transformation is not simply about deploying a solution.
It means understanding how teams work today, deciding what genuinely needs to change, defining the requirements, getting business, IT, data and suppliers to work together, and making sure the final solution still solves the problem it was originally meant to solve.
That is what I lead.
I can support a transformation from initial scoping through to deployment:
- Clarifying business needs
- Functional scoping and requirements
- Process analysis and simplification
- Data structuring
- Business / IT / data coordination
- Business-side project leadership and functional delivery
- Integration with existing systems
- Deployment readiness
- Post-go-live adoption support
I have worked across SAP, IBM, APM and industrial asset management environments.
But software is never my starting point.
I start with the decision, the process and the user. The tool comes afterwards.
management
Telling teams that change is necessary does not make them adopt it.
During a project, everything can look perfectly logical from a meeting room.
Then you get to the field, and someone asks a very simple question:
“Why should I work this way now?”
If no one has a convincing answer, that is where the problem starts. I approach change management from that reality: not as a layer of communication added at the end of a project, but as part of the project itself.
I look at what is actually changing for the people concerned: what they will lose, what they will gain and what they do not understand.
And what, concretely, they are expected to do differently on Monday morning.
- Adoption assessments
- Impact analysis
- Stakeholder mapping
- Roles and responsibilities
- Change management plans
- Business communication
- Training
- Operational guidance and support materials
- Manager enablement
- Post-deployment adoption tracking
The goal is not for teams to say they are convinced. The goal is for the new way of working to become the way work actually gets done.
Not every project needs the same kind of expertise.
Specialist expertise
Some engagements call for deep, specialist expertise in energy Asset Management and Risk-Based Asset Management.
Complex transformation
Other engagements are broader: a digital transformation losing momentum, a cross-functional programme that needs structure, an operating model between business and IT that no longer works, a deployed tool that is not being adopted, or teams that are no longer clear on who decides what.
On these assignments, I deliberately work across a broader scope. After fifteen years on complex projects and programmes, one thing is clear: industries change. Tools change. Human and organisational problems change much less.
When many stakeholders are involved, someone has to keep the whole picture together.
I work primarily with industrial organisations and energy-sector players facing complex transformations.
For RBAM and Asset Management engagements
- European TSOs
- DSOs
- Energy producers
- Nuclear-sector organisations
- OEMs and solution providers
- Consulting firms seeking specialist senior expertise
For digital transformation and change engagements
I also work more broadly with industrial organisations and large companies when a project requires alignment across:
business + processes + IT + teams.
Fifteen years across technology, Asset Management and transformation.
I began my career in high-voltage equipment at GE Grid Solutions, formerly Areva T&D and Alstom Grid. It taught me to look at an asset in its full reality: its design, condition, ageing, failure modes, performance and lifecycle.
I then moved to the grid operator side. At 50Hertz and Elia, I worked on much broader Asset Management and digital transformation programmes.
And the question changed. It was no longer just about understanding the equipment. It was about turning technical knowledge into decisions.
Which assets should be addressed first?
Where should we invest?
Which data should we use?
How do we harmonise methodologies across several organisations?
And how do Asset Management, maintenance, IT, data, suppliers and management work together?
With different priorities. Sometimes different systems. Sometimes even different investment philosophies.
That is where the work I do today took shape.
Understanding the technology well enough not to oversimplify it. And the organisation well enough to transform it.
After fifteen years in this ecosystem and recent assignments in the French nuclear sector, I founded Desplanche Advisory in Aix-en-Provence to focus where my experience adds the most value: complex projects that now need to become operational.
View full experience / Download CV →The right solution is the one the organisation can actually sustain.
It is always possible to design a more comprehensive methodology, a cleaner process, a more ambitious governance model or a tool with more functionality.
But every additional layer has a cost: time, complexity, data to maintain and people to bring with you.
So I look for the right balance: enough methodology to make sound decisions, enough structure not to depend on a handful of individuals, enough digitalisation to simplify the work, and enough attention to people for the change to last after the project ends.
I ask the difficult questions early.
What are we actually trying to solve?
Who will use this methodology?
What decision does it need to support?
What will happen in practice once the consultant has left?
Because ultimately, that is the only test I care about.
Some projects simply need the right things put back in the right order.
Do you have a Risk-Based Asset Management challenge that needs structure ?
A digital transformation that needs to move from project mode into day-to-day reality ?
A programme where business, IT and the teams are no longer fully aligned ?
Get in touch. We will quickly establish whether my experience is the right fit for your needs.