About
Dr. Stefan Schaefer
I help leadership teams make the decisions that matter, in the room, together.
Founder of Visual Pathfinders
My story
I know how frustrating important meetings can be. Slow, unfocused, and over before anyone has decided anything.
That changed for me at Hewlett-Packard. I helped build a team for the company's most important customers, starting at the Executive Briefing Center in Silicon Valley. It grew into a global practice. I carried that work on through HPE and DXC, with Fortune 500 leadership teams across 36 industries and five continents.
There I saw what makes a strategy conversation work. A clear question, a visible discussion, and a team that builds the answer together.
In 2022 I founded Visual Pathfinders to bring that way of working to leadership teams directly.
What clients notice
Clients often talk about the drawings first. For me, the real work is the conversation the team has been avoiding.
I sometimes call myself a "company therapist". The solution is almost always in the room. My job is to help the team find it and keep the discussion on track. The team leaves with a decision people stand behind.
"What we accomplished in one day with your facilitation would have taken us at least a year of discussions in our standard way of doing business."
Meeting attendee
Before Visual Pathfinders
Managing Partner roles at HP, HPE and DXC (2011 to 2023), most of them in the ENVISION practice
VP Global IT Strategy and Planning, DHL Express
PhD in Information Systems, University of Cologne
Certified Master Practitioner, Shared Vision Toolkit