Modern Work, Remote Work, Digitalization – Everything Digital?

Anne Meinelt visited Akquinet in October 2022 and talked about Modern Work in the consulting industry. She talks about how WAYES is organizing itself as a consultancy with regard to remote working, how communication and collaboration with clients is changing, and how the consultancy industry is basically dealing with digitalization.

How is working at WAYES organized?

Anne: “Management consultants have been working on the road for a long time – from the road or from the client, including at WAYES. In addition, remote work and concepts such as workation enable people to work freely, flexibly and independently. My colleague Heinz Baumann, for example, has already taken advantage of this concept and worked from Spain. Through Corona, this way of working has become even stronger, even if it has shifted the work location away from the customer and more to home.”

How does digitalization influence the collaboration with the customer?

Anne: “Digitalization makes it possible for consultants to be reached without having to be on site. But the quality of the consulting service does not suffer if the communication tools and methods are used appropriately – many coordination processes can even be more efficient as a result. Collaborating on a digital document, for example, is much more efficient than sending files or even using physical papers.”

How is the consulting industry dealing with digitalization?

Anne: „The consulting industry has always been more digital than other industries, because consulting must not only be in tune with the times, but always one step ahead in order to be able to react quickly and flexibly to changes. However, as consultants, we feel the challenges at the client when the strategies and concepts cannot be implemented due to investment backlogs for digitization and outdated, partly analog business processes, especially in medium-sized companies. Even though management consultancies are therefore often one step ahead, sometimes the strategies even have to be set two steps further back.”