A Goliath in Management Consultancy

Advisory Group AG offers a wide range of strategic change advisory services from strategy design to successful implementation and transformation. Following the firm’s recognition in the 2022 AI Leading Advisor Awards as the ‘Leading Boutique Management Consultancy Firm of the Year’ for Switzerland, we spoke with Managing Partner Dr. Wladimir Kovacic to find out more.

Management consultancy is an immensely difficult landscape to navigate and secure enduring success. Yet, Advisory Group AG has certainly cultivated an impressive portfolio of work and reputation in the sphere through its dedication to strong solutions that, simply, achieve observable results. For Wladimir, Advisory Group AG is in the business of transformation, metamorphosis, growth, momentum – revitalising their clients through expert services.

Here, Wladimir speaks on the ethos of the firm and how it has strengthened its impressive image since its establishment. “We see ourselves as more than Advisors as we share transformational risks with our clients. Sharing risks relates to our core values to support our customers to create innovations, growth and improve quality and efficiencies. Our specialities are: Strategic change, business design and transformation, compliance and risk management, operational excellence and similar pursuits. These tie fundamentally into our core values such as a strong dedication to customer orientation, trust, and creating excitement to take positive action.”

This approach has certainly proven to be successful, as – since 2005 – Advisory Group AG primarily builds its client base through referrals, references and past engagement experiences. Wladimir is keen to emphasise the role of the firm’s staff in driving this reputation to greater heights. “Our staff is a key factor of our success. when we recruit new talent, we look to their achievements: did they finish and how they finished their jobs and project engagements. Furthermore, we look for people who wants to have the freedom to bring in their own opinion and have the freedom to solve problems in their way and being team players at the same time. We look for people who can integrate and enhance our current teams and capabilities. People who have personalities rather than just nice CVs.

“Our internal culture is built on strong trust. we trust each other and support each other where possible. furthermore, we allow our people to make mistakes and encourage them to take risks. this is the only way to grow and this is one of our real differentiators.”

As for the future, Wladimir is keen to grow the firm with scalability in mind – that is to say, growing in a way that doesn’t impact the quality of the services it produces. “We face the challenge that we have more client requests than Advisory Group teams to fulfil our growing demand. Nevertheless, we believe that our boutique character and setup is the baseline for our USPs and therefore we are defensive to grow. We want to grow in quality not in quantity. This is where we see our future.

“We also plan to hire new talent. People who want to make the difference, personalities with interesting (non-linear / not streamlined) carrier paths. Finally, we would like to increase awareness for new and innovative nearshoring opportunities at our nearshore centre in Tunis.”

For further information, please contact Dr. Wladimir Kovacic, Managing Partner via email at w.kovacic@advisorygroup.ch or visit www.advisorygroup.ch