Stuttgart The management consultancy Horváth, Germany’s number four, lost its defining figure in June with its founder. After all, Péter Horváth was present in the company almost every day until shortly before his death at the age of 85. Nevertheless, the company should continue to grow, announced CEO Helmut Ahr in an interview with the Handelsblatt: “We want to expand – internationally, especially in the USA, thematically and structurally.”
In addition to Atlanta, Ahr wants to expand Horváth’s presence on the US east coast. In addition, they want to open up Scandinavia. A first location in Copenhagen has already been opened this year. In terms of content, Ahr focuses on the top topics of corporate transformation, sustainability and digitization. After all, Horváth is already the market leader in corporate management and the transformation of finance departments.
Structurally, too, the offer is to be broadened. In this way, Ahr increasingly wants to get involved in the premier class of the consulting industry, strategy consulting, and also offer implementation. For the latter, the company is increasingly entering into partnerships with specialized providers.
Horváth faces intense competition
For example, in the hydrogen economy segment, the joint consulting company Evety was founded with the transmission company OGE and TÜV Süd, and cooperation with the consulting company Drees & Sommer, which specializes in the construction and real estate sector, was promoted.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
For the industry expert Jörg Hossenfelder from the market analyst Lünendonk, the advice on their expansion is both a driver and a driver at the same time: Horváth abandoned the focus on controlling years ago and dedicated itself to digital transformation projects. Internationalization has also been gradually expanded. However, this path is not over yet.
With the task of specialization, the field of competitors is now broadening. “Of course, Horváth now has to respond to this situation with growth in order to be able to make investments and be better perceived as an attractive employer,” says Hossenfelder. International growth is essential to escape from being stuck in the middle.
>> Read also: Egon-Zehnder boss – “We are currently experiencing the perfect stress test for executives”
Horváth has developed positively in recent years. Large projects such as the reorganization of the household appliance manufacturer BSH and the transformation of Südzucker drove the business of the Stuttgart-based company. According to Lünendonk, Horváth has risen to number four among German management consultancies. In 2021, the company had a turnover of around 216 million euros and employed 900 people.
The German number one is Roland Berger with a recent turnover of 745 million euros. In second and third place are Simon Kucher from Bonn with sales of EUR 443 million and QPerior from Munich with sales of EUR 235 million in 2021. The German market is dominated by the three major international providers. McKinsey and Boston Consulting each account for around one billion euros in sales in Germany, Bain for around 400 million.
Company is developing better than the industry average
The consultants benefit from the challenges facing the German economy, such as digital transformation and the decarbonization of the economy. There are also classic tasks such as restructuring and new topics such as geopolitics.
Horváth is developing better than average. According to the industry association BDU, the industry grew by around ten percent last year, and it should look similar this year. Horvath is currently growing by around 20 percent. “In the current financial year, we will probably achieve sales of well over 250 million euros and expand our team to 1,200 employees,” says company boss Ahr.
So far, the growth has been purely organic. 250 new employees were added this year, which was a record. Mergers and takeovers have not played a role for the Stuttgarters so far. However, that could change in the future, says Ahr. “Inorganic growth can also make strategic sense for us in the future.”
Founder Péter Horváth laid the foundations for the expansion himself. The native Hungarian not only managed the company for almost three decades and made it big – he is considered a co-founder of controlling, i.e. the planning and control of the company divisions. In 1975, the graduate mechanical engineer and industrial engineer took over the first specialized chair in Germany at the then TH Darmstadt.
>> Read about this: The decarbonization of the German economy – the new billion dollar business for consultants
Soon after, Horváth published a textbook on the subject, which quickly became a standard work. In 1981 he founded the consulting company.
The entrepreneur and economist who died in June is considered one of the founders of controlling.
(Photo: Imago)
In 2007, the then 70-year-old withdrew from the operative business and handed over the company to his best advisors in a management buyout. Since then, 97 percent have belonged to the active partners and three percent to the Horváth Foundation. Helmut Ahr has been CEO since April. He succeeded Michael Kieninger, who led the group for ten years.
Ahr joined Horváth in 2002 as a consultant from the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. In addition to the expansion, there is another special challenge for him: the board has so far been exclusively male. Since the end of September, Emese Weissenbacher, chief financial officer at the filter technology group Mann + Hummel, has had a woman on the supervisory board.
More: Strategy consulting in Germany – a billion-dollar business with “margins of up to 60 percent”