Anyone who develops solutions for customers as a consultant does not work in a black box. Due to digitalization, customers now more than ever want to know where advice comes from. If you want to pursue a career as a management consultant, you have to adapt to a cultural change - and that requires new skills that you rarely learn during your studies.
The management consultancy of the future is digital
When Jonathan Günak advises customers, it often doesn't look like advice at all. Side by side with managers, he then hops around whiteboards, moderates, sketches possible solutions on post-its or develops prototypes in order to test hypotheses directly with the customer. The young consultant works at Roland Berger , a proud German management consultancy with a 50-year history. At the same time, Günak is part of the digitalization department within the company - and everyone who works there is something like the “young wild ones” at Roland Berger.
Management consultants are asked for advice by customers when they need outside help, and this is increasingly linked to digitalization. Uber has disrupted the taxi market, AirBnB has disrupted the hotel industry and Apple has pushed traditional cell phone maker Nokia out of business. This is the stuff that corporate board members' nightmares are made of - no one wants to be the next victim of digitalization.
Digitalization as a means and solution
Consultants like Günak are supposed to show companies what “the next big thing” will be. “A leading financial service provider wanted our team’s support in digitizing its customer interface,” says the 28-year-old. He then set out to visit the customer with a team of five consultants. In order to understand the digital everyday life of young people, the consultants first created a user journey. “This means tracing the points of contact that young people have with the digital world today – from when they get up to when they go to bed,” says Günak. The consultants then presented a benchmark analysis, i.e. compared what the competitors were doing, in order to then shed light on the possibilities for the financial service provider.
Management consultancies must be flexible and adaptable
Not only at Roland Berger, but also at EY , McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company, digital elements are increasingly an important part of the solution offered to the customer. But Günak goes one step further: “Digitalization is a complete cultural change.” If you want to keep up with start-ups, you have to behave a bit like a start-up. This includes breaking down hierarchies and using new creative techniques. That's why Günak intensively involves the customer and shows him all the modern tools that were once developed in Silicon Valley - and are now used primarily in start-ups.
Failure desired
Design thinking, for example, is one of these tools, an innovation method that the young agency Journey2Creation from Berlin uses for consulting. Design thinking brings with it a basic understanding that failure is expressly desired, unusual ideas are encouraged and people should not work against each other but with each other. Instead of thick luxury sleighs, you will find Fixi bicycles in front of the J2C office, and instead of heavy oak desks, there is a bright presentation room, the interior of which has been transformed into a pirate ship with the help of plywood panels. What happened to the financially heavy consulting industry of the past?
The advisor, your friend and helper
“We don’t see ourselves as consultants at all,” says Lucas Licht, who founded J2C a few years ago together with graduates of the Potsdam School of Design Thinking. “We are coaches who, together with the customer, bring out the best in the customer ." Licht finds the idea of explaining to a customer what they should change in their company absurd. "I can't catch up on specialist knowledge that companies have sometimes built up over generations within a short consultation period," says Licht. Instead, coaching sessions open up J2C gives the customer space to find out for themselves how they can develop further.
“Sometimes we bring managers into contact with their customers for the first time in their lives, sometimes we test what everyday office life could look like with flat hierarchies and sometimes we develop environments in which employees can pursue their own ideas without pressure,” is how he describes his coaching -Approaches. During the consultation, J2C presents its own methods, teaches them to the customer and develops them further with them. The Berliner is convinced that such experiences would sustainably change corporate culture from within - and in the long term enable customers to discover digital trends themselves.
Just do it
Licht and his 20 or so colleagues from J2C are one example of a growing number of consulting agencies that specialize in methods for sustainable business transformation. Especially in the areas of design thinking, systemic consulting or agile management, there are a number of young agencies where career changers have good opportunities. Licht himself studied media studies and philosophy before completing further training in Design Thinking in Potsdam. “I wanted to continue this creative and at the same time goal-oriented way of working with my friends from there,” remembers the 32-year-old. “So we founded the agency.” To this day, the scene is one big family, and Licht often finds new applicants in alumni networks or circles of friends.
Career changers bring fresh ideas
Günak was also once a career changer. He originally studied jazz music, but then quickly focused on business topics after studying at the European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel and also worked in student management consulting. After this practical experience, Günak knew that he wanted to stay in the consulting business. “I find advising on digitalization topics so exciting because you have your finger on the pulse of the times,” says Günak. He enjoys being one of the “young, wild ones” at Roland Berger. But more traditional consultant colleagues with a focus on restructuring consulting are also increasingly orienting themselves towards the new methods. Who knows: Maybe manufacturers of luxury sleighs and oak desks will be the next to have to rethink their business model.
Digitalization also has the consulting industry firmly under control.
