What did Hanne and Nils teach us about building trust, both with clients and consultants?

Bernhard: “Two thoughts that come to my mind, things they said. One was, to build trust, you need to be interested and interesting to the other person. And the other element is back to what I said around performance. You always need to aim to deliver above and beyond as a good basis to build trust.”

Julia: “I would say authentic leadership, because I think it has served us very well with clients. It has served us very well with the team, and I think authentic leadership comes with a lot of honesty. And the honesty that we can bring to our clients in terms of what is the best of a-connect that we can bring and how we allow everybody to play to their strengths. I think is very important, and I think that builds trust. Honesty also allows us to course-correct very swiftly when we make mistakes. When we need to fess up to something with the client, and that allows us to then move forward together. And you need that in any project because things constantly change, and you always have to evolve. So, this notion of being authentic and bringing the best of yourself to the client is something that I think is very important.

What’s your favorite memory with Hanne or Nils that reflects the spirit of a-connect?

Julia: “We always talk of a-connect as an entrepreneurial company, and I fondly remember early days the passion and the energy and the dedication that Hanne brought to every single team event, in particular our global retreats. They truly are the visionary entrepreneurs that people see them for. That was one of the events where we would see the most of that. And then secondly, and this is a memory of Hanne that I’ve mentioned at times. It’s Hanne pulling me off a football field to go to a client meeting where I ended up showing up with bloody knees and obviously much to the visible discomfort of the client. But it, to me, was just such a show of our a-connect culture. The notion of performance, but also team spirit and delivering at our best. And we just got on with it.”

Bernhard: “My memory is also one of Hanne. You spoke about care before. I remember Hanne teaching me basic consulting skills on a Sunday afternoon in the office some 20 years ago. And it just showed to me her care for people and their development and growth. I think that’s a legacy that we definitely want to continue being key part of a-connect and our culture.”

Julia: “And I think, Bernie, you would not be by yourself with that core memory. I know that Hanne developed many members of the a-connect team and family, including myself, but also including many of the associates and project managers. So I’ve heard lots of people say the same thing in the past.”

What does the future of consulting look like from an owner’s perspective?

Bernhard: “I guess the first thing that comes to my mind, there’s a lot of change ahead. I think consulting the way our founders knew it is already history. And how we think about consulting today is also going to be history in five or 10 years. I think AI has a fundamental impact on how consulting will be delivered in the future, and staying on top of that change is a challenge and a chance that I’m excited about.”

Julia: “Yeah. No, I would agree with that, and I believe nowadays clients have frameworks at their fingertips. They can, as you mentioned AI, they can plug something into AI and get a recommendation. But what will really matter going forward is how to get things done in the context of that specific client environment at that specific time. So this notion of a bespoke implementation consultancy is, I think, going to become much more relevant than the more conceptual consulting environment that we’ve seen over the last couple of decades.”

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