Transformation consulting, one of the traditional consulting fields at Roland Berger, has recently undergone its own transformation. The flagship segment "Restructuring, Performance & Transformation" (RPT) has received a new structure after Sascha Haghani, who had been the face of Roland Berger in the restructuring market for many years, announced his departure at the end of the year.

The platform for restructuring, performance, and transformation consulting will now be led by a management team that includes "the next generation of leadership" at the consulting firm, according to Adrian Pielken. He takes responsibility for the "Restructuring & Turnaround" segment – the R in the RPT area – together with Alexander Müller. The other segments of the RPT platform will be overseen by Benedikt Rickmers (Performance), Cyrus Asgarian (Transformation), Christof Huth and Sven Kleindienst (Investor Support), Patrick Heinemann (Transaction Services), and Jörg Eschmann (M&A/Financial Advisory).

The executives meet weekly in a steering team to coordinate, but in day-to-day operations, the restructuring, corporate performance, and transformation consulting teams can operate more independently than before. "That is the essential structural change," explains Müller. The areas have become so large that centralized control is no longer efficient.

The RPT platform, as per Pielken, is one of the largest units for restructuring issues in the German-speaking area with around 250 consultants in the DACH region. The pool of personnel is available to the entire platform: "It may happen that a consultant works on a performance project for several months and then handles a restructuring case," says Pielken. For projects, specialists from other Roland Berger units, such as specific industries or functional areas like procurement or production, complement the teams.

For the two senior partners, restructuring consulting is "a brand-defining core" of Roland Berger. Pielken has been with the consulting firm for about 15 years, and Müller returned to Roland Berger in 2015 after mandates as CRO and interim CFO. For 2024, both expect an increase in inquiries in their area. "Advisory services covering special situations, spanning from restructuring to transformation, are expected to emerge as a key focus in the upcoming years," states Pielken. "We don't see a wave, but the water level is rising."

The senior partners see interim management as a significant growth field. The core of this offering is a team of about a dozen people from the Munich-based consultancy Candidus, which was integrated into Roland Berger on February 1, 2023. "We increasingly see that in restructuring projects, operational support is also in demand alongside consulting," presumes Müller.

Nevertheless, the expansion in interim management is limited by the personnel issue. Because mandates not only require difficult decisions but can also have liability consequences for interim managers. "For these mandates, you need special characters with experience, and they are rare in the German-speaking region," notes Müller. The expansion of the area depends on the profiles available in the market. "Quality comes before quantity."

It is currently noticeable that tension in the market is increasing, reports Pielken: "We hear from financiers that they are closely watching how the risk situation of financed companies is changing." In addition, many companies find themselves having to confront new challenges year after year, hardly having overcome one crisis before encountering another.

The result: "Restructurings affect many areas, are very complex, and take longer." Müller also observes that shareholders and management teams are more likely to seek advice when impending covenant breaches or complex refinancings are looming.

The increasing complexity of restructuring cases plays into the hands of large units like Roland Berger, which can cover a wide range of topics with their teams. "There will certainly always be medium-sized firms in the market, but the business is likely to concentrate somewhat more on large providers," Müller expects.

Roland Berger does not disclose the economic role of the RPT platform in terms of revenue by segments or countries. It is known, however, that the consulting firm expects to have surpassed the €1 billion revenue mark for the first time in its corporate history in 2023, which would be a year ahead of an internal target. The next goal is to exceed the €2 billion mark within the next five years.