Marcin Karkocha Chief Technology Strategist
IT strategy advisory · European companies
Technically safe and defensible in business terms. I help boards and IT leaders see where IT creates value, where it quietly leaks it, and what to build, defer or drop next – with evidence, in weeks, and without a vendor agenda.
18+ years in enterprise IT, since 2007. Banks, insurers, telecoms, SaaS and industry – in Poland, the UK, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Singapore and many more. On both sides of the table: the one asking for the budget and the one granting it.
When to think of me
Boards cannot see what IT spend returns; IT leaders cannot get a business case through the board. Each situation below starts with a short opener: a decision with evidence, small enough to skip board approval. What that diagnosis looks like is shown right below.
“We spend a lot on IT and see nothing new.”
High IT spend with no visible return in business KPIs. No ROI story, no value narrative.
Value-Flow Thinking Sprint“Our CoE does good work, but nobody can see it.”
A Center of Excellence that cannot show its own maturity is the first budget to be cut.
CoE Maturity Review“The board rejected the budget again.”
IT proposes, the board delays. No shared language between IT and the business, no case the board can fund.
IT Operating Model Assessment“We worry how dependent we are on one vendor.”
No clear picture of where you control your data and systems, and where vendors or regulators decide for you.
Digital Sovereignty Risk Review“Dozens of AI ideas, no idea where to start.”
AI spend is growing but outcomes are unmeasured. No prioritisation, no guardrails, no ROI baseline.
AI Readiness Snapshot“We want to scale, but IT can't keep up.”
Bottlenecks are assumed, not quantified. Value streams are invisible and unmeasured.
Tailored assessment – let's talkNot a fit: no budget or clear funding, no access to the people who decide, or an IT team with no influence on the processes it serves. In those cases I will tell you so on the first call.
Example
One process every board knows – from a customer's enquiry to the invoice. On the arrows I mark where work stalls, where money leaks and where it could be done better.
If the CRM stages match the real steps of the sale, the double entry into Excel disappears.
If AI drafts the quote from the qualification notes, a senior spends 15 minutes reviewing instead of 2 hours writing.
If discounts above 10% get a one-step approval in the CRM with a 24-hour rule, the time from quote to decision drops from 4 days to 1.
If a simple form with a checklist handles the 20 exceptions a month, the external system is no longer needed.
If contract data flows into the invoice automatically, corrections and retyping disappear.
5 hypotheses · 2 to implement · 1 test · 1 system to switch off · 1 deferred
about €90,000 a year of potential – from an opener starting at €3,000
Find the hypotheses in your processAn illustrative example, combined from several engagements and simplified. The numbers show the scale, not one client's result.
Results
Mid-size SaaS provider · ~40 people, ~10 products
−23%
cloud cost for delivered initiatives, 6-month average
Four budget requests had been rejected. A Value-Flow Thinking Sprint and an ROI & Risk Assessment gave the board 2–3 scenarios per initiative; it approved two of five, the client's own team delivered them, and the savings funded the next feature.
IT recruitment agency · in progress
6 h → 2 h
per candidate qualification – target, tool in build
Dozens of growth ideas, none tested. 45 business hypotheses in nine initiatives, ranked by value and feasibility; the first simulation exposed the real bottleneck before a line of code was written.
Proteach · training & certification, Azerbaijan
0
meetings – a CoE Maturity Review run fully asynchronously, by e-mail and a recorded walkthrough
Maturity level 1 of 4, with a concrete path to level 2. Five KPIs baselined and one operating principle the founder can run by: one quarter, one course, one page.
“The CoE Maturity Review provided Proteach with a valuable and practical outside perspective on our Training & Certification business. Marcin's recommendations were thoughtful, clearly structured, and closely aligned with the realities of a growing, founder-led organization.”
Openers
Every opener has one goal: to find hypotheses like the five above in your own process, put a value on each and tell you which to test first. The topic only decides where we look. Fixed scope, fixed price, a few weeks to a decision you can take to the board.
Lite – from €1,500, any topic. You collect the data with templates I provide, I spend a day on the analysis, we go through the findings and you get the report: does this make sense to build at all?
A half-day workshop with your CFO, Head of IT and a process owner. Map 1–3 value flows, overlay systems and their real costs, leave with a Value Scorecard and one optimisation path.
A 2-hour facilitated assessment across five dimensions. A maturity score, your top gaps and strengths, and one improvement pathway you can start this quarter.
Dependency-risk management, not ideology and not a migration project. IT, procurement, legal and business answer and challenge each other first; the report shows where the risk really sits.
The four or five places where AI gives back hours of your specialists' time, not minutes – each with a business case estimate, a readiness check and one first pilot with a kill condition.
It's rarely the budget, the team size or the tools. A scored assessment of how your IT actually operates, and one redesign pathway that removes the real constraint.
The price depends on the topic, not on negotiation, and is fixed before we start. If you continue with a Strategy Sprint, the opener is credited against it. Not sure which fits? Start with a call and we scope it together.
Extends an opener into ROI and risk analysis, 2–3 scenarios per initiative and a board-ready business case. Typically €15,000–25,000, fixed price, built from modules.
Six to eight months across several value streams, hypothesis-led with regular re-evaluation. Can take the form of an interim role.
A quarterly rhythm that keeps the course during and after the change: KPI and portfolio review, mentoring for key leaders.
How we start
You know up front what will happen, what it costs and when it is done. If the answer is “don't do it”, that is a full decision too – often the cheapest one.
We check whether I can help. If I can't, I will say so.
A one-page proposal, usually within 2 working days of the call. No meter running.
Framework agreement, NDA and templates are ready. An opener takes 1–4 weeks, fully remote if you prefer.
Hypotheses, value, tests and a decision for the board. You pay when the opener is done; Lite is paid upfront.
And then? Your team, your IT person or a partner I recommend without commission delivers it. We measure whether the value landed. If you want, I stay with the change in a quarterly rhythm, and the opener's fee is credited against a Strategy Sprint. The whole path →
For the board and the CFO
“We already spend a lot on IT and I don't see what we get.”
A clear view of which IT investments make sense, a funded roadmap with owners and decision points, and savings that land in the P&L.
For CTOs and Heads of IT
“The board rejected the budget again.”
Initiatives reframed in the language the board and CFO understand – ROI, cost of delay, scenarios – so good projects get approved.
About
Chief Technology Strategist & Founder, Caterpillar Garden
18+ years in enterprise IT, since 2007 – Cloud Centers of Excellence, FinOps, platform engineering and digital transformation across Europe and Asia. Active in the Flowtopia and CTO communities.
I translate IT complexity into clear financial narratives and simple decision options for the board. Small and independent by design: I open the door, specialists – your team or a partner – deliver.
The name is a metaphor: helping caterpillar organisations become lighter, faster butterfly ones.
About where your IT value actually leaks. Not sure which opener fits? Start with a call – we scope it together.
Mon–Fri, 9:00–17:00 CET/CEST · English or Polish
