Carlo spent 16 years at Hilti, working across countries, functions and leadership roles. For a long time, he carried two professional ambitions: to build an international career, and one day to build something of his own.
The first became far richer than he had imagined — different countries, great teams, big challenges and plenty of fun along the way. There was always another challenge worth taking on. But the second ambition never disappeared.
A skiing accident — and the two long recovery periods that followed — created an unexpected pause. The first recovery was largely about getting back: back on his feet, back to work, back to sport, back to normal. Almost a year later, facing another operation and another long recovery, stopping landed differently.
The questions changed.
Where am I actually going?
What matters enough to build around?
What do I want the next chapter to look like?
That was not a rejection of the years before. Quite the opposite. They had been consciously chosen. But direction is not something we choose once. Life changes. We change. The world around us changes.
As AI makes it possible for organisations to do more, faster, that personal question becomes an organisational one:
AI can accelerate almost anything. The harder question is what deserves to accelerate.
Your North Star grew from that territory. Human Navigation is the practice underneath it: understand what matters, choose where you’re going, move with intention and recalibrate as reality changes. The North Star Alignment Sprint is its organisational application — helping founder-led leadership teams surface what matters, make priorities and trade-offs explicit, and create enough shared direction to move together.
