The bosses of the individual consulting firms, from left to right: Joachim Lang, Jan Kallmorgen, Ana-Cristina Grohnert and Lutz Meyer.
(Photo: Berlin Advisory Group)
Dusseldorf A new consulting company is formed in Berlin: Jan Kallmorgen, Lutz Meyer, Joachim Lang and Ana-Cristina Grohnert merge their companies and found the Berlin Advisors Group. The Handelsblatt learned this from the entrepreneurs.
The new company combines the boutiques Berlin Global Advisors, Lutz Meyer & Company, Strategic Minds Company and Corporate Transformation Advisors. The company starts with around 50 employees at locations in Berlin, Frankfurt and Brussels. The consulting company covers the areas of sustainability, geopolitics, energy, human resources and communication.
According to the company, the reason for the merger is the increased complexity of the business world caused by crises and the resulting increased demands on consulting services. “These new times require a new model of management consulting. Never before has the value of the company depended so much on the political environment, global upheavals and the expectations of society,” says Ana-Cristina Grohnert. The services must be comprehensive and profound at the same time.
The consulting market is booming
Founding partner Grohnert is a former board member of the Allianz insurance group and an experienced auditor (EY). Most recently, she was the owner of the management consultancy Corporate Transformation Advisors. She has also been the chairwoman of the Dax network “Charter of Diversity” for many years.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The other three founding partners also have extensive experience in their fields. Jan Kallmorgen (53) is bringing the largest boutique into the new company, Berlin Global Advisors (BGA), currently with 22 advisors. According to its own statements, it is the leading consulting firm for geopolitics and international government relations in Germany. Several well-known personalities work for the company. Partners include the former German ambassador to Russia, Rüdiger von Fritsch, and Donatus Kaufmann, ex-CEO of Thyssen-Krupp.
Kallmorgen is also co-author of the best-selling business book “The Geopolitical Risk”, which he wrote with former McKinsey partner and former State Secretary Katrin Suder.
>> Read also: Audit firm EY gives the go-ahead for split
The third founding partner of the Berlin Advisors Group is Joachim Lang. The 55-year-old brings 16 employees with his company. He is the managing partner of the industrial consultancy Strategic Minds Company. Previously, he was the general manager of the BDI, head of the group representative office of the energy company Eon and European coordinator in the Federal Chancellery.
Fourth in the group is Lutz Meyer. The 54-year-old is the owner of the communications consultancy of the same name. He is considered one of the best-known PR and advertising heads in Germany. He has received numerous awards for his political campaigns, such as those for the Social Market Economy Initiative and ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel. Most recently, he worked exclusively for the automobile association VDA.
Consolidation: Small and medium-sized consulting firms are merging
The consulting market is booming overall. Most recently, the consulting giant Accenture, the world’s three leading strategy consultancies, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company, grew the most in Germany, each with around 20 percent, and the largest German consulting firm Roland Berger.
In addition to digitization and sustainability, there are classic consulting fields such as restructuring that drive the business. There are also new topics such as geopolitics and supply chains. The industry association BDU estimates the consulting business in Germany at around 42 billion euros. Last year and the current year it went up by ten percent.
According to the BDU, smaller and medium-sized consulting firms are also developing positively. Recently, however, they have been collaborating or merging remarkably often, as is the case with the four Berlin consultants now. They are pooling their strengths in order to be perceived more strongly by customers and in recruiting and to be able to offer more expertise.
“The good industry situation is driving the consolidation,” says industry expert Jörg Hossenfelder from market analysts Lünendonk. The order books of many consultants are well filled, only the people are missing to work through them. Cooperation or affiliation with a competitor could appear attractive in this situation.
With this approach, the Berlin Advisors Group also wants to offer more customers well-founded advice. “The four partner companies are real expert organizations,” declares ex-BDI Managing Director Lang. If the former ambassador to Russia (Rüdiger von Fritsch, editor’s note) assessing the situation for companies and a former Dax board member thinking her way into the CEO agenda is of “invaluable value”.
More: Buy and cooperate or be bought – The consulting industry is consolidating