Pragmatic answers to real-world executive challenges
Who we are, what we do, and how we are different.
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We offer executive capacity to Private Equities, Venture Capital, Boards, and Companies in commercial, operational, or strategic transformations where leadership responsibility for outcomes is expected. Our operator-led approach is non-traditional as we prioritise action grounded in hands-on experience in real business environments rather than producing slide decks or offering plain consulting. We run 3 to 12-month, or longer term, outcome-focused engagements for global companies operating anywhere in the world.
Traditional consulting and advisory firms typically compile impressive-looking slide decks and whitepapers after studying company org charts, key processes, and running stakeholder interviews. The result is generic advice from brilliant career consultants (and their AI assistants) who have rarely held P&L responsibilities or run a company themselves.
Input from Volantris has been tested against execution reality. In our experience, CEOs, C-levels, Boards, and PE/VC operators already know how their market operates and what their top challenges are. However, they often lack Clarity on which challenge is worth tackling first and how, the Momentum to drive change at all levels of the hierarchy, and ownership for Results that become institutional muscle memory, not one-offs.
Volantris was founded by Attila Nagy, who has worked for 20+ years in senior leadership roles in the travel technology and education sectors. Most of these roles were newly created, cross-functional, and directly exposed to top management and investors. As a result, Volantris is fully focused on identifying where true value is created and how to reach it without thinking in departmental silos.
Clients engage directly with Attila, who may involve director- and more junior-level specific domain expertise as demanded by clients.
We have extensive experience in software and human capital services, specifically in airline and travel technology, and higher education. Our core differentiator is our ability to tackle transformations anywhere by applying proven operating principles across industries and functions.
CEOs, Boards, Private Equity and Venture Capital Operators, and C-level executives looking to meet transformation challenges. They typically lead companies between $10M and $500M in annual revenue, or lead P&Ls of similarly-sized business units of billion-dollar companies.
We reduce execution risk and own outcomes for companies and groups of companies undergoing significant transformation. This is especially relevant in situations such as:
We partner with leadership teams to turn these challenges into opportunities.
We believe in understanding each client’s specific situation and engaging from the right angle. This can range from time-phased contracting to interim or embedded executive roles. We are experienced in leading global teams remotely and can also engage on-site for efficiency.
Long projects are the most likely to fail. Even for major transformations, milestones must be frequent, and deliverables must be tangible both for our clients’ customers and their internal stakeholders. As a result, we spend the initial 30-60 days pinning down desired outcomes in detail, identifying quick wins, and structuring the path to meaningful milestones, which are ideally due every 3 months.
We clarify what success looks like in measurable outcomes during our first client interactions. This can be a percentage increase in revenue generation, cost savings, more efficient or shorter decision cycles, and other KPIs. Then, we challenge and help define what the top objective is, and drive momentum.
Each engagement is tailor-made and tied to outcomes rather than hourly rates. This ensures that both parties are clear on a positive ROI right from the start. We don’t aim to compete with major consulting firms on price and work best with clients who understand the added value of engaging with a real-life executive experienced under pressure.
Yes, absolutely. We have worked in the highest echelons of leadership, privy to remuneration structures, M&A deal specifics, and other sensitive contract details. Our engagements may fall under full NDAs, and we provide PE-standard confidentiality.
Book a commitment-free exploratory call with Attila Nagy using the contact form or by sending an email to info@volantris.com
Targeted responses to specific challenges.
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The skills required to get a startup from zero to $10M ARR are not the same as those required to get a company from $10M to $100M. Highly capable experts can fail spectacularly in senior leadership roles, as can founders and top managers who are too close to the action to always have the right perspective on what the real blockers to growth are. Organisations can also be strained by acquisitions and senior-level departures without succession plans.
In those situations, Volantris can add immediate executive bandwidth and push organisations towards their next milestones. This means temporary ownership with authority and clearly defined exit criteria in times of a leadership hiatus, PE/VC entry, carve-out, and other situations.
Volantris brings hands-on executive experience rather than consultancy wisdom.
Processes can become rigid and serve internal stakeholders instead of providing value to customers. Agile becomes a swear word in technology, operations engage in continuous firefighting, products and services are too customised to scale effectively, commercial teams struggle with too many different client profiles, margin leakage, and failing to follow up on customer commitments. Influential internal stakeholders may not adjust well to new challenges, and some of their skills that were assets before may now turn into liabilities.
These situations must be handled with maturity, understanding, and gratitude given where it is due. All companies that are lucky to make it to this point struggle with the same issues.
At Volantris, we know that scale exposes weaknesses and take decision rights with clients to define key transformation requirements and execute them completely. We also make sure that this does not become a one-off achievement but becomes long-term muscle memory. Sustainable business success is a marathon, not a sprint.
Potential clients who seek cosmetic transformations or have no commitment to sponsor change. We partner with clients to identify what needs to be changed and how, and do our best work when change is adopted for the long term, well beyond our engagement.
As we have seen several PE ownership changes at companies from the inside, we know that it’s challenging to execute value creation playbooks in real-world situations. Whether it’s pre-exit stabilisation or post-acquisition integration, we partner with PE operating partners to identify and resolve issues in live operating environments involving real people with diverging interests. This ensures that PEs generate the expected value from past and future transactions and that their portfolio companies meet growth and executive succession challenges.
As companies get bigger, functional silos emerge, creating execution friction. We don’t see this primarily as an organisational problem, but a loss of focus on what delivers value to customers. First, we identify which tasks and roles are essential to create value to the customer, and ensure that value is delivered independently with minimal supervision. These working groups often have members from different departments and thrive when given the responsibility for a tangible value stream rather than just tasks. This is how even large companies can maintain a boutique feel and avoid bottlenecks.
Having held VP, Managing Director, Product, and Strategy roles at one of the few aviation software firms operating across Offers, Orders, Settlement, and Delivery, Attila brings first-hand execution experience from inside complex airline transformation environments. This background enables Volantris to support airlines and travel companies not just with advice, but with practical leadership and delivery under live operating conditions.
Typical situations where Volantris adds value include:
Each airline and travel company faces different constraints, maturity levels, and strategic priorities, and modern airline retailing is not for everyone. Volantris helps leadership teams define what success realistically looks like, sequence transformation initiatives, and decide which industry bodies, partners, and technology providers to engage with (and when) to achieve their objectives without overextending the organisation.
We believe our experience is unique in combining hands-on university chief administrator experience with extensive global private sector business leadership, interacting with some of the biggest names in technology and aviation. The following are typical situations in which Volantris can add value:
We identify the one thing your institution is world-class at, and help you double down on it. We also know what healthy bottom and top lines look like, and will help you achieve them.