Lockdowns, border closings, interrupted supply chains: the corona pandemic posed special challenges for medium-sized companies. Many of the medium-sized companies, often family-run, had to react quickly to the changes, reschedule and at the same time keep their employees on board as much as possible. In such a situation, entrepreneurs need experienced consultants who know how medium-sized companies work and who can quickly offer specific solutions.
The consultant comparison "Top Consultant" helps medium-sized companies to find the right consultant. Whether it is about management, strategy, IT solutions, personnel or financing issues: "It is important that consulting companies know and respond to the special needs of their medium-sized customers," says Dietmar Fink, professor of management consulting at the Bonn-Rhein University of Applied Sciences. Victory. Fink is co-director of the Scientific Society for Management and Consulting (WGMB), which organized the "Top Consultant" competition for the 12th time this year. The competition analyzes the professionalism of the participating consulting firms in eleven categories and at the same time inquires about customer satisfaction.
The Top Consultant competition is divided into three size classes, depending on how many employees a consulting company employs: up to 10 employees, 11 to 50 employees and more than 50 employees.
You can find the top three winners per size class in the picture gallery.
In addition, a "Consultant of the Year" is awarded for each size class - the company that is number one in its size class.
Consolidation after rapid growth
Among the top consultants of the year 2021 are consulting firms that support small and medium-sized companies with a wide range of questions raised by an external shock such as the 2020 corona pandemic: personnel planning, resource and supply chain management are just as much a part of this as financial advice and a Adaptation of the strategy.
After years of rapid growth, the pandemic also caused consolidation in the consulting industry itself: the sales of top consultants fell slightly on average in the corona year, while the number of customers seeking advice increased at the same time.
The accompanying study also shows changes in the topic of diversity as well as in the industries that are in demand, as the following overview shows.
Slight decline in sales
The top consultants achieved an average turnover of 9.1 million euros in 2020. IT consultants are by far at the top with almost 23 million euros, followed by technical consultants with 11 million euros and personnel consultants with 9.3 million euros. The turnover of Top Consultants fell by 2 percent in 2020 - albeit from a high level. The growth was around 18 percent in 2018 and around 10 percent in 2019. Corona has now ensured consolidation - and new priorities for customers: the IT consultants among the top consultants, who were in extremely high demand in previous years, posted a 3 percent decline in sales in the pandemic year of 2020, while the sales of management consultants rose by 3 percent in 2020.In the case of personnel consultants, sales in 2002 surprisingly fell by almost 20 percent - apparently many customers had already dealt with personnel planning in previous years.
Machine builders, automotive suppliers and retailers are generating the greatest demand
Mechanical and plant engineering accounted for the largest share of sales with 18 percent, followed by vehicle construction and the supplier industry (15 percent) and retail and consumer goods (12 percent).
These three industries account for almost half of the top consultants' sales.
Healthcare, telecommunications and the financial sector are also important customer segments with strong demand for consulting services.
Personnel consultants were most in demand in the automotive supply industry and in mechanical engineering, while technical consultants were in great demand in the energy sector: they achieved almost 20 percent of sales in the energy segment.
Number of employees: Consultants also hired more cautiously
According to the study, the top consultants employed an average of 68 people in 2020. By far the greatest number of employees employ IT consultants, who have an average of 227 employees. This is followed by technical consultants with 78 and personnel consultants with an average of 51 employees. The uncertainty of the corona pandemic has also interrupted the stormy growth of the consulting firms: While the number of employees at the top consultants grew by double digits in 2017, 2018 and 2019, the consultants only recorded an overall growth of 2 percent in the pandemic year 2020. The number of employees in personnel consultants and organizational developers fell slightly, while growth in IT consulting fell to 4 percent and in management consulting to 3 percent.Every tenth consultant among the participating top consultants works as a freelancer.
Share of women: room for improvement
The topic of diversity and women in management positions has not yet really become a reality at the top consultants either.
In 8 out of 10 of the participating consulting firms, the proportion of female partners or managing directors is below 20 percent.
Only 3 percent of the companies surveyed have the share over 60 percent.
The proportion of freelance and permanent consultants is only slightly better: 4 out of 10 companies have a proportion of women of less than 20 percent.
The guild of consultants is still predominantly male: the highest proportion of women among the top consultants are organizational developers and personnel consultants.
Daily rates hardly changed
The daily rates of the top consultants decreased slightly in 2020 compared to the previous year.
In 2020, a top consultant was able to bill an average of almost 1,500 euros per day, the range of daily rates was between 654 and 2,700 euros.
The most expensive were management consultants with daily rates averaging 1,577 euros, followed by organizational developers (1,505 euros daily rate) and personnel consultants (1,489 euros).
With just under 1200 daily rates, IT consultants fell slightly behind technical consultants (EUR 1270) on average.
The number of client companies increased by an average of 3 percent to 146 client companies per consultant - here, too, the high need for advice is evident in economically difficult times.
Wulff: "Piloting in difficult seas"
On November 26, 2021, former Federal President Christian Wulff will serve as a mentor and congratulate all top consultants on their success at the 7th German SME Summit in Ludwigsburg.
"We live in turbulent times, regardless of whether it is about social, economic or ecological conditions," says Wulff.
"Quite a few companies get bogged down in the thicket of everyday challenges. In this situation, the top consultants can give medium-sized companies orientation - like pilots who navigate the ships past the shallows and sandbanks."
la / mmo