Young consultants networking in Europe

Young consultants networking in Europe

The „Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce“ is cele­bra­ting its 10th anni­ver­s­a­ry and is cur­r­ent­ly recei­ving a new boost from the young con­sul­tants based in the offices of its three part­ner con­sul­tan­ci­es in Munich, Paris and Milan. The so-cal­led Young Alli­an­ce has esta­blished its­elf wit­hin the Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce as a high­ly credi­ble group of young con­sul­tants to net­work and to keep in touch.

As a young gra­dua­te inte­rested in an inter­na­tio­nal care­er as a con­sul­tant, you should look for a posi­ti­on with one of the lar­ge, esta­blished inter­na­tio­nal con­sul­tan­ci­es. On the sur­face this seems like good advice, but it’s not right for ever­yo­ne. The­re are tho­se of us who have cho­sen to go for the medi­um-sized h&z becau­se we reco­gni­ze that it offers some­thing dif­fe­rent. It offers a more peop­le-cen­tric way of working becau­se it’s a busi­ness that fol­lows the man­tra of head, heart and hand. It also pro­vi­des amp­le oppor­tu­nities for working inter­na­tio­nal­ly through its coope­ra­ti­on with part­ners abroad. This com­bi­na­ti­on of a mind­ful busi­ness with strong inter­na­tio­nal links has pro­ven to be a very attrac­tive opti­on for young gra­dua­tes who are loo­king for some­thing dif­fe­rent in the care­ers as con­sul­tants.

The­re are around 80 young con­sul­tants in based Munich, Paris and Milan who are con­nec­ted through a net­work cal­led the Young Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce. The con­cept for this net­work was deve­lo­ped in 2017 and was based on the goals of tho­se who would most bene­fit from it—the same peop­le that will be the life­b­lood of the alli­an­ce in the future. The­se goals are streng­the­ning cohe­si­on, making suc­cess­ful working methods mutual­ly acces­si­ble, and esta­bli­shing a clear voice for the youngs­ters in the Alli­an­ce.

Esta­bli­shing inter­na­tio­nal con­tacts and advan­cing joint pro­jects

The three con­sul­tan­ci­es involved—h&z in Munich, Kéa in Paris and MBS in Milan—have pro­vi­ded the finan­ci­al sup­port for the initia­ti­ve. Foun­ded in 2008, the Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce, of which h&z has been a mem­ber sin­ce 2010, is an asso­cia­ti­on of inde­pen­dent Euro­pean stra­te­gy and manage­ment experts with a mutu­al inte­rest in crea­ting sustain­ab­le impacts for their cli­ents. Wit­hin the alli­an­ce, the inter­na­tio­nal con­sul­tants joint­ly deve­lop tools, inno­va­ti­ve methods and eva­lua­te new trends. Ano­t­her cen­tral issue, howe­ver, is the demand to work on an equal foo­ting with custo­mers who are ope­ra­ting glo­bal­ly. Our con­sul­ting firms in Euro­pean capi­tals and busi­ness cen­ters want to live and bre­a­the the Euro­pean ide­al of working without bor­ders and in an open envi­ron­ment whe­re con­sul­ting work func­tions per­fect­ly despi­te cul­tu­ral dif­fe­ren­ces.

There’s also a lot to learn in terms of con­tent. That’s why the mem­bers of the Young Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce meet regu­lar­ly for work­shops and trai­ning ses­si­ons – some­ti­mes in Munich, some­ti­mes in Paris or in Milan. The busi­ness focus of each of the three con­sul­tan­ci­es is alre­ady dif­fe­rent. Paris focu­ses pri­ma­ri­ly on retail, Milan on finan­ce and insuran­ce, and Munich on purcha­sing and manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses under the hea­ding Indus­try 4.0. Howe­ver, the­re is gre­at mutu­al respect and the open­ness with which they sha­re expe­ri­en­ces and methods con­ti­nues to grow with the per­so­nal con­tact and trust that this crea­tes. Com­pre­hen­si­ve exter­nal trai­ning for young Euro­peans or joint par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on in con­gres­ses and trai­ning events are also under­way. The­se pro­jects are inten­ded to meet the wis­hes of the­se young pro­fes­sio­nals for inter­na­tio­na­li­ty.

Exchan­ge pro­gram in plan­ning

Even if it’s some­ti­mes only a mat­ter of a few kilo­me­ters that sepa­ra­tes them, con­sul­tants expe­ri­ence again and again how dif­fer­ent­ly peop­le alre­ady think and work on the other side of the Rhi­ne or across the Alps, with all the various cons­traints, hier­ar­chies, dead­lines, and uns­po­ken rules in place in each loca­ti­on. That’s why we’re cur­r­ent­ly orga­ni­zing an exchan­ge pro­gram for young employees in the posi­ti­on of Con­sul­tant or Seni­or Con­sul­tant.

The foun­ding idea of behind the Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce was based on a simi­lar idea. At the time, a short trip on the TGV, the French inter­ci­ty high-speed rail ser­vice, was enough to learn that, for examp­le, French and Ger­mans have very dif­fe­rent approa­ches to mana­ging chan­ge pro­ces­ses. This is inst­ruc­tive and inte­res­ting for tho­se of us who work as con­sul­tants. What counts for our custo­mers, howe­ver, is that we ope­ra­te seam­less­ly with local experts in the­se dif­fe­rent envi­ron­ments.

Sha­ping the future of the Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce

Through our activi­ties and our com­mit­ment, tho­se of us who count our­sel­ves among the youn­ger employees have gai­ned a stron­ger voice and our opi­ni­ons and ide­as car­ry more weight in deci­si­on-making wit­hin the actu­al Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce. After all, we’ll have to deal with their lega­cy as our care­ers pro­gress. This

The team of young con­sul­tants across Ger­ma­ny, Ita­ly and Fran­ce has a real role to play in sha­ping the future of the Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce. „With their com­mit­ment, the young team has given the ent­i­re Trans­for­ma­ti­on Alli­an­ce a new dyna­mic. We sup­port this impres­si­ve pro­prie­ta­ry initia­ti­ve expli­cit­ly,” said Micha­el San­to, Mana­ging Part­ner at h&z. “The inter­na­tio­nal deve­lop­ment of our employees, espe­ci­al­ly in the Euro­pean con­text, is a high prio­ri­ty for us.“

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