These consulting firms advise financial service providers best

Cologne Digital from the initial meeting to the final presentation: the management consultancy Roland Berger recently completed a major project for a German bank without any physical contact. Markus Strietzel, responsible for finance worldwide, describes the procedure as the new normal. “Many customers no longer assume that we are working on site,” he says.

Consulting for financial service providers traditionally accounts for around a quarter of the entire German industry turnover, which recently amounted to almost 35 billion euros. And the need is increasing. The corona pandemic has dramatically demonstrated to many financial institutions that they are lagging behind in the digital world. At the same time, banks and insurance companies must increasingly develop ideas and concepts relating to indicators for social and ecological responsibility.

The consulting firms are well booked. “The inquiries range from small strategy projects to major modifications in the engine room,” says Andreas Mach. He is responsible for business consulting at the consulting firm MSG Gillardon BSM, which specializes in the financial sector and currently has 600 employees.

But the consultants also have to optimize a few things internally. “The job description has changed significantly,” says Strietzel, who has been working as a management consultant for more than 20 years. Traditionally, in the conservative financial sector, teams of consultants sat in the customers’ offices from Monday to Thursday; on Fridays, readjustments and organization were carried out in the home office or at their own location.

With the pandemic, the mode is changing. An evaluation of the Comatch platform, which provides freelance consultants, shows this. This year, only 17 percent of customers expected the consultants to work entirely on site – in 2019, almost 70 percent asked for it. Almost 1000 inquiries from the banking sector were evaluated.

“The classic model is no longer the present – and will no longer be the future,” says Nikola Glusac, head of the banking practice group in German-speaking countries at Bain. “The new normal is maximum flexibility.”

The market research institute Lünendonk & Hossenfelder, which specializes in the industry, also assumes that there is no going back to its massive presence. Many major banks have announced that they will send a large part of their employees to the home office on a permanent basis – in order to save a lot on rent.

The change to the new everyday life is demanding for the consulting firms. “Basically, we are staffing our projects in the same way as before,” says Glusac, “but there are a few additional factors that need to be taken into account.”

With international teams, the HR departments now have to pay close attention to who is subject to which conditions when they travel. Some consultancies let their employees work on several projects at the same time – for a long time the exception. Costs for travel and accommodation, which were previously significant items on the bill, are also being renegotiated. Some customers could try to lower the fee.

Decentralized work has advantages. Experts can simply be asked for advice without having to fly halfway around the world. “It’s much easier to call in global specialists for a virtual conversation,” says Glusac. The consultations unanimously report that more technical projects can be distributed and completed digitally without any problems.

Acquisition as a challenge

This is more difficult with other tasks. The more a consulting project also consists of relationship work, the more complicated the purely digital contact is. “Above all, it has become more difficult to place relatively new topics with new customers,” observes Mach.

Anyone who has built a resilient network in recent years now has an even greater advantage. “It is even more efficient with existing customers because, for example, the application pitch with an entire team on site is usually not necessary,” says Mach.

Many consultancy executives have to use the time saved to take care of their own team. Regular travel, well-equipped accommodation and evenings together at the hotel bar are what make the consulting job so attractive for some beginners. If this is no longer possible, other employers will become more attractive – in the banking and insurance industry, wealthy financial start-ups are competing for consultants.

The traditionally high fluctuation in the consulting sector continues to increase. The companies try to counter this with joint dinners in front of the laptop or virtual Christmas parties including wine tasting. If the situation allowed, some teams also met during the week in their home office instead of at the customer’s. “A certain sense of belonging is decisive for the question of how quickly a newcomer arrives in the company,” explains Berger consultant Strietzel.

One way out could be to make a virtue out of necessity. In the future, advice can also be provided part-time or with a reduced travel volume. “This offers the possibility of attracting new employees with different career or working time models – and thus setting yourself apart from other consulting firms,” ​​says observer Jörg Hossenfelder, managing partner at Lünendonk & Hossenfelder.

More: Which asset managers offer guidance in difficult times.