We want to grow – 10 years of acondas: Interview with the founders – Part 3
Ten years ago, Andreas Florissen and Jörg Fengler founded acondas. In this three-part interview they talk about what they experienced during this time of independence, how acondas has evolved over time, and what their vision is for their company.
If you were to start a company now, what would you do differently than back then?
Andreas: You just have to try things out and, above all, have courage. If something fails, that’s not negative, it’s an opportunity to learn something valuable, a new experience.
Jörg: But I think we would do it again as a duo. You have your own ideas, you have to mirror them and you have to have someone you accept as a sparring partner and whose feedback you value. That was extremely valuable, especially in the first few years, when things were up and down.
What is your vision for acondas?
Jörg: I believe that implementation consulting is still underrepresented in Germany. In other countries, for example Scandinavia, it’s much different, so we see great opportunities for growth here in Germany. And we want to seize these opportunities. To do this, we need a slightly different setup. But that’s not something you can change overnight.
Andreas: I might even put it in a slogan: “McKinsey is the consultancy for strategy development. acondas is the consultancy for strategy implementation in Germany and maybe also in Europe.”
And what will acondas look like in ten years’ time?
Jörg: There will then be a large group of partners responsible for driving the business forward on their own, both with the customer and in the internal set-up, and who are always reinventing it to some extent.
Do you have a dream of where the first office outside Germany should be?
Andreas: There are many points of contact through the industries and topics we are involved in now. Virtual consulting is probably also increasingly working to our benefit. After all, it doesn’t make sense to send consultants from Germany to another European country on a weekly basis. But if you can do project work virtually, you can also do projects abroad from our consultants’ office locations.
Do you have any final words you would like to add?
Andreas: It’s really fun to work here. At the beginning, I was asked: ‘Why are you leaving strategy consulting and doing implementation? The topics that come up there are really boring.’ That’s not true at all. The portfolio of topics we work on is so large. Every project is different, every client is different, every interaction is different. And I can hardly think of a wider variety.
Jörg: The point is: we’re a team, not an organization. We’re not a group of employees, like in some other companies, but really a team of people who all have a sense of belonging. We just experienced that again during our employee event. And I think the strongest argument is that it’s fun to work here.
Thank you for the interview!