LEADERS IN CONSULTING

Send us Fan Mail AI projects fail because leadership assumes deploying the tool is the finish line. In this episode, Dr. Anja Konhaeuser , Co-Founder and Partner at OMMAX, explains why AI transformation cannot be treated like a traditional technology rollout. The real challenge starts once the solution is live: employees need to trust outputs, workflows need to change, roles need to be redefined,...

Send us Fan Mail When AI commoditizes delivery work, consulting firms have to prove where their real value lives. Olly Purnell , Managing Partner and co-founder of Q5, argues that consulting is being pushed back toward a more precise advisory model: specialist expertise, clear scope, and judgment clients cannot easily replicate. As AI makes research, benchmarking, reporting, and analysis faster an...

Send us Fan Mail The next consulting advantage is not account-led or expert-led. It is a combination of the two. Dr. Karsten Ballüder , Partner at Deloitte and leader of the firm’s European Application Modernization practice, joins David to discuss how consulting firms can stay differentiated when AI makes generic knowledge and polished output easier to produce. Karsten argues that relationships s...

Send us Fan Mail Selling inputs led to price pressure. Selling outcomes delivered a 20:1 ROI. Most consulting firms don’t lose pricing power because of competition. They lose it in how they define their value. In this episode, Rob Ferrone , Founder of Quick Release, explains how his firm moved from selling person-days and deliverables to owning measurable business outcomes. After facing increasing...

Send us Fan Mail The most dangerous place in consulting today isn’t the bottom… It’s the middle. Mid-sized consulting firms continue to grow, but many are becoming structurally fragile without realizing it. In this episode, Amol Punekar, Regional Director of Business for the UK and EU at Lyzr AI, explains why only service-led models create non-durable revenue and increasing pressure over time. He...

Send us Fan Mail Client loyalty is collapsing. This episode explores why you need more than a strong relationship to secure follow-on work. Matthew Dixon , co-founder of DCM Insights and co-author of The Activator Advantage, says consulting growth is breaking away from its traditional model. Despite strong delivery and trusted client relationships, firms are increasingly forced to compete for work...

Send us Fan Mail Clients don't want to be dependent anymore. They want self-sufficiency. James Cawthorne , CEO of FOIL, explains why consulting is undergoing a structural shift. As AI makes productivity widely accessible, differentiation through effort is eroding, while complexity and decision pressure continue to rise. James outlines why traditional consulting models built on dependency are...

Send us Fan Mail Berater sind gedanklich oft einen Schritt weiter. Umso wichtiger, dass sie ihre Kunden auf diesem Weg mitnehmen. Florian Warring ist Managing Director bei FTI-Andersch, Teil von FTI Consulting mit weltweit über 8.100 Mitarbeitenden. In der DACH-Region begleitet er Unternehmen bei ganzheitlichen Transformations- und Performance-Improvement-Programmen. Neben der Projektverantwortung...

Send us Fan Mail If a buyer looked at your firm today, would they see focus or fragmentation? Daniel Schwartmann , Managing Director at ServTeq Capital Advisors, has spent decades on the buyer side of the table, including leading 150+ acquisitions during his time at Accenture. In this conversation with host Sammy Gebele , he breaks down what strategic buyers and private equity investors actually p...

Send us Fan Mail How do you grow a buy-and-build consulting platform where founders genuinely want to stay after the deal? In this episode of the LEADERS IN CONSULTING Podcast, Alexander Thress , Partner and Head of M&A at AdEx Partners, shares how a PE-backed consulting platform can scale founder-friendly growth through disciplined buy-and-build. Alexander joined AdEx with a very deliberate m...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you stop "selling" and start designing every interaction around how clients want to feel working with you? In an industry where collaboration reigns supreme, this question is more relevant than ever. Ambrish Parmar , Partner and Consulting & Growth Leader at Cognizant, has transformed the empathetic coaching mindset into a practical playbook for lan...

Send us Fan Mail Christian Underwood didn’t build a sales team. He engineered a lead-generation system that would never need one. The CEO & Co-Founder of StrategyFrame®AI joins us once again, this time to lift the lid on how he operationalized a GTM strategy to scale his AI-powered consulting platform. With an 8-person team, Christian is on track to hit a mid–double-digit million revenue scale...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to go from zero in the bank to a successful exit without financial investors? In this episode, Marc Staudenmayer , Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Advyce & Company, joins Sammy Gebele to share how he and his co-founder Burkhard Wagner built one of Germany’s fastest-growing consultancies by merging three firms into one and eventually selling to a strategic acquirer...

Send us Fan Mail In this exclusive keynote from the main stage at the LEADERS IN CONSULTING London Summit, Stephen Edward (Managing Director, PTS Global), Connor Budden (Global Director at Service Performance Insight), and Sarah Edwards (Chief Product Officer, Kantata) unpack how consulting firms must rethink what success looks like as AI reshapes every part of the services lifecycle. Stephen shar...

Send us Fan Mail Die wenigsten Beratungen überleben den Sprung vom Gründerteam zum Marktführer. Atreus hat’s geschafft. Was macht eine Beratung wirklich skalierbar: Menschen, Prozesse oder Haltung? Uwe Gehrmann , Partner und Mitglied des Executive Board bei Atreus, teilt im Gespräch mit Sammy Gebele die Erfolgsprinzipien hinter dem Wachstum eines Unternehmens, das vom kleinen Beratungsplayer zum M...

Send us Fan Mail During the pandemic, Christian Underwood laid off almost his entire team. Today, he leads an AI powered consultancy that generates €5.5 million in revenue 2025 and will generate €50m+ 2026. Christian is the Co-Founder and CEO of StrategyFrame, a consultancy that doesn't look like one. It's lean, software-powered, and built for scale. Clients use the platform to run strat...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Tilman Au , Managing Director Conclusion DACH, and Engbert Verkoren , CEO of Conclusion, reveal how they’re building one of Europe’s most entrepreneurial IT and consulting ecosystems where autonomy, collaboration, and growth go hand in hand. Tilman shares why moving forward with diva-e was the natural choice, and how joining Conclusion opened a new chapter of purp...

Send us Fan Mail Ein guter Berater hat einen Plan. Ein exzellenter stellt die richtigen Fragen. In dieser Folge des LEADERS IN CONSULTING Podcasts spricht Yeliz Keppel , Partner bei Cassini Consulting, über die Kunst, wirksam zu beraten und warum das weniger mit Antworten als mit Haltung zu tun hat. Yeliz verantwortet bei Cassini den Bereich Consumer Goods & Services, ein Team, das Konsumgüter...

Send us Fan Mail When consulting firms stop hiring juniors and AI makes it easier for those who do join to go it alone, how will you build and retain the next generation of leaders? Thordur Arnason , VP & Global AI GTM Lead at Capgemini, has a clear-eyed view of consulting’s talent crisis. In this episode, Thordur joins host Sammy Gebele to break down how the old consulting pyramid is being up...

Send us Fan Mail Wie schafft man es, eine Beratungseinheit im Public Sector in nur drei Jahren von null auf 70 Mitarbeitende zu skalieren und dabei im ersten Jahr bereits Millionenumsatz zu erzielen? Anna Köllmann hat genau das bei Materna geschafft. Ihr Erfolgsgeheimnis? Ein klarer strategischer Plan, ein internes Trainee-Programm, gezielte Nutzung von Rahmenverträgen und der Mut, Verantwortung f...

Send us Fan Mail Recorded live at the LEADERS IN CONSULTING Conference in Munich, this special episode hosted by David Anheier, Partner at entero AG, brings you an in-depth conversation with Patrick Thatcher, Group Professional Services Director at Advania UK, and Sarah Edwards, Chief Product Officer at Kantata. Patrick shares Advania’s journey from a collection of acquired companies with fragment...

Send us Fan Mail From total silence to scaling a consulting firm with 125+ experts—this is not your typical founder story. Linus Benjamin Bauer , Founder & Managing Director of BAA & Partners, was born deaf and grew up reading lips. At 15, he received a cochlear implant—stepping into a world of sound, speech, and, eventually, leadership. In this episode, Linus sits down with host Sammy Geb...

Send us Fan Mail Wenn dein Projektgeschäft dich am Wachstum hindert, ist es Zeit für einen Strategiewechsel. Über diese und weitere Erfahrungen als Managing Director bei Eraneos Automation spricht in dieser Folge Mario Smeets . Mario teilt seine beeindruckende Wachstumsstory – vom kleinen, organisch gewachsenen Beratungsteam bis hin zur erfolgreichen Integration in eine internationale Consulting-G...

Send us Fan Mail How one question helped Meribeth Banaschik reshape meetings—and deepen trust across EY. In this episode, I sat down with Meribeth Banaschik, Equity Partner at EY Germany in Forensics and the EMEIA Chief Innovation Officer, to discuss the power of internal networks in consulting. Meribeth shares how a simple question—“What’s your stress level?”—has helped her build lasting trust wi...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Martin Strietzel , Leiter der Beratungssparte der PROSTEP AG, hat das Unmögliche möglich gemacht: Eine Consulting-Einheit in einem Softwareunternehmen nicht nur zu etablieren, sondern als strategischen Wachstumstreiber zu positionieren. Im LEADERS IN CONSULTING PODCAST verrät er unserem Host David Anheier , wie die PROSTEP AG es geschafft hat, trotz starker Produktorientierung...