The art of zero digitalization

I remember my conversations with Mathieu Roger, CEO of EFOR. He built something rare—a consulting firm that scaled rapidly with until recently close to zero digital infrastructure. EFOR has grown from a specialized life sciences consultancy into a €300 million revenue group as of 2024, backed by Raise Invest and Andera.

Until their second LBO, everything was done on Excel. No fancy tools. No dashboards. Just structure and amazing processes.

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Mathieu himself, does not come from a military background but his leadership team does. That influence isn’t subtle. The way decisions are made, the cadence of meetings, the clarity of expectations—it all echoed a command structure. And yet, it didn’t feel rigid, just well organized.

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What impressed me most was how little was left to interpretation. Every business manager knows what is expected of them, even if all the reporting is done in excel, without even a CRM. The culture does not rely on metrics flashing on screens—it relies on accountability. It worked because everyone took their role seriously.

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This is the paradox: removing tech doesn't create disorder, it often reveals the strength (or more often weaknesses) of the operating model. In these environments, sloppiness is simply not tolerated. Invoices are manually tracked, orders confirmed by phone, and performance monitored directly by the leadership team. Everyone knows their role. Everyone is held to it.

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During due diligence, when I come across a company with zero digitalization but rapidly growing EBITDA, I naturally flag the operational risks—but more importantly, I take it as a strong indicator of exceptional leadership and execution discipline. It also points to significant untapped potential: if a company can perform at this level without digital tools, just imagine the leverage once basic systems—billing, reporting, scheduling—are added. And given how well these teams execute everything else, you can bet they’ll implement technology with the mindset.

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