The company
European advisory advancing positions across commercial and capital markets
Special Projects is a founder-led European consulting firm combining senior advice with hands-on execution. We help clients define where they can win, how they should be understood, and how to act when the stakes are highest—through market entries, transactions, leadership changes and reputational risk situations.
The model is built around long-term relationships with a limited number of clients. Unlike our clients, we aren’t looking to scale. The firm is headquartered in Basel.
Trusted by leading financial institutions and technology companies
Since 2023, at least seven European firms recognised among the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company or Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies by the Financial Times have trusted us for counsel.
Among these and other clients are businesses listed on major European exchanges, several NYSE-listed companies, multiple regulated banks and a few of Europe’s leading private-market investors. We decline assignments that conflict with existing ones and screen for conflicts before taking on new work.
Closer to stakeholders, sharper on the market
Our work is about reducing the distance between organisations and their customers and investors, substantialising market positions, seeing opportunities and risks earlier and challenging institutional bias, a natural by-product of any organisation.
As we see every assignment, getting further starts with getting closer to reality. We help clients deepen their situational awareness and advance their agendas through direct stakeholder engagement and third-party platforms, channels and relationships.
Delivering against outcomes
What matters is what changes. Our assignments vary, but the outcomes fall into four broad areas: Better decisions, stronger demand, a more valuable business or confidence that holds under pressure. Our work is shaped around where we can make a material difference.
Decision advantage
- Improved decision quality
- Seeing risks and opportunities earlier
- Internal engagement and alignment
- Deeper customer and stakeholder understanding
Market momentum
- Customer growth
- Product-market fit alignment
- Share of voice
- Investor trust
- Organisational momentum
- Perception and brand appeal
- Strategic currency for partnerships and talent
Enterprise value
- Market valuation, public or private
- Pricing power
- Intangibles driving revenue and margin
- Capital on better terms
Value protection
- Customer loyalty and retention
- Resilience against commercial and reputational risks
- Preserved market confidence under pressure
- Stronger exit and ownership outcomes
Decision advantage
- Improved decision quality
- Seeing risks and opportunities earlier
- Internal engagement and alignment
- Deeper customer and stakeholder understanding
Market momentum
- Customer growth
- Product-market fit alignment
- Share of voice
- Perception and brand appeal
- Organisational momentum
- Strategic currency for partnerships and talent
- Investor trust
Enterprise value
- Pricing power
- Intangibles driving revenue and margin
- Market valuation, public or private
- Capital on better terms
Value protection
- Customer loyalty and retention
- Resilience against commercial and reputational risks
- Preserved market confidence under pressure
- Stronger exit and ownership outcomes
Decision advantage
- Improved decision quality
- Seeing risks and opportunities earlier
- Internal engagement and alignment
- Deeper customer and stakeholder understanding
Market momentum
- Customer growth
- Product-market fit alignment
- Share of voice
- Perception and brand appeal
- Organisational momentum
- Strategic currency for partnerships and talent
- Investor trust
Enterprise value
- Pricing power
- Intangibles driving revenue and margin
- Market valuation, public or private
- Capital on better terms
Value protection
- Customer loyalty and retention
- Resilience against commercial and reputational risks
- Preserved market confidence under pressure
- Stronger exit and ownership outcomes
Decision advantage
- Improved decision quality
- Seeing risks and opportunities earlier
- Internal engagement and alignment
- Deeper customer and stakeholder understanding
Market momentum
- Customer growth
- Product-market fit alignment
- Share of voice
- Investor trust
- Organisational momentum
- Perception and brand appeal
- Strategic currency for partnerships and talent
Enterprise value
- Market valuation, public or private
- Pricing power
- Intangibles driving revenue and margin
- Capital on better terms
Value protection
- Customer loyalty and retention
- Resilience against commercial and reputational risks
- Preserved market confidence under pressure
- Stronger exit and ownership outcomes
Decision advantage
Market momentum
Enterprise value
Value protection
- Improved decision quality
- Seeing risks and opportunities earlier
- Internal engagement and alignment
- Deeper customer and stakeholder understanding
- Customer growth
- Product-market fit alignment
- Share of voice
- Investor trust
- Organisational momentum
- Perception and brand appeal
- Strategic currency for partnerships and talent
- Market valuation, public or private
- Pricing power
- Intangibles driving revenue and margin
- Capital on better terms
- Customer loyalty and retention
- Resilience against commercial and reputational risks
- Preserved market confidence under pressure
- Stronger exit and ownership outcomes
Decision advantage
Market momentum
Enterprise value
Value protection
- Customer growth
- Product-market fit alignment
- Share of voice
- Perception and brand appeal
- Pricing power
- Intangibles driving revenue and margin
- Customer loyalty and retention
- Improved decision quality
- Seeing risks and opportunities earlier
- Internal engagement and alignment
- Deeper customer and stakeholder understanding
- Organisational momentum
- Strategic currency for partnerships and talent
- Resilience against commercial and reputational risks
- Investor trust
- Market valuation, public or private
- Capital on better terms
- Preserved market confidence under pressure
- Stronger exit and ownership outcomes
We welcome outcome-based pricing.
A methodology built around calculated risk
Growth requires taking risks. Protecting value requires knowing which ones are worth taking. We treat both as one discipline: seeking open upside, bounding the downside and making early moves reversible wherever possible. The question is not whether a decision carries risk, but whether the potential return justifies it.
Technology and capital markets define our terrain
Capital markets and technology are defining forces across our client base, shaping competitive dynamics, investment decisions and expectations of value. Technology changes what is possible. Capital determines what gets scaled. Substance determines what endures. Our work, then, is to strengthen the substance behind a company’s position, rather than inflate perceptions of it.
How we work
Inside your logic, outside your bubble
Attuned to each company’s nature and inner workings, we embed ourselves in their logic while offering an independent perspective. We test our clients’ assumptions—but always seek to understand each layer of a problem first. Read more about our principles.
Execution is part of the strategy
Without exposure to reality, it’s hard to be good at strategy. To us, often executing on our recommendations is a form of accountability. It is part of the responsibility that comes with giving advice, and what makes us improve as strategists. Our approach is designed to offer both quick wins and long-term direction, not just one or the other.
A different model for extraordinary work
Our personable services are for companies pursuing high-stakes initiatives that need more than the usual playbook. Few companies are built to handle them alone. Professional services firms are rarely equipped to help either, with their incentives and processes typically wired around more commoditised work. This is why our clients often call us first, and sometimes after exhausting every other option.
Enterprise-grade capabilities, personally delivered
The company combines direct senior involvement with advanced technology and data capabilities. Our operating model is designed to accommodate the information security and governance requirements of major institutions. Learn more through our Principles, Policies, Client testimonials and Capabilities.