Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Rawcliffe, how has Assure Consulting developed since its inception? Are there any milestones you would particularly emphasize?

Christian Rawcliffe: The company was founded in 2003 with the mission to become the leading PMO service provider in Germany. We have continuously expanded our expertise in project management and have constantly broadened our range of services. Areas such as project leadership, consulting, and agile project management were added, and today we have a comprehensive range of project management services to offer. We have also gradually expanded our customer base and built many long-term customer relationships. The number of employees has steadily increased to currently about 150, of whom 125 are consultants. When I joined 15 years ago, there were roughly 35. Our annual turnover last year was over 15.8 million EUR. This year we expect to close at 16.8 million EUR.

Wirtschaftsforum: What is the reason for this positive development in a time that is characterized by various crises?

Christian Rawcliffe: We are always involved in very future-oriented projects. For example, we are working on making Germany more digital by laying fiber optics into the ground. With our projects for the railway, we contribute to the fact that their infrastructure will be new and better in ten years. The same is true with other digitization projects with which we make companies future-proof. We see ourselves as a quality provider and lead projects to success. Our clients can therefore rely on the fact that working with us increases the likelihood that they will be successful in the future.

Wirtschaftsforum: How do you see your role as managing director?

Christian Rawcliffe: I see myself as someone who enables colleagues to deliver their best performance to clients. Because their best performance is the basis of our business success. I want the people around me to be well; then, the probability is high that I will be well too. Therefore, it is important to me to preserve the culture we have in our company. Our employees should come to the office and feel comfortable. New Work is a topic in this context. I am still advising on projects myself, albeit less than before. My tasks have a lot to do with communication and leadership. Our business is 100% people business, which makes it so challenging. We are a growing company, and it is hugely important for us to find and hire the right people. They have to fit with us, in terms of their character, but also in terms of their willingness to change things.

Wirtschaftsforum: What else is characteristic of your corporate culture?

Christian Rawcliffe: That as a company, we are very critical of ourselves. As consultants, we always ask ourselves how we can be better tomorrow than today, this is our drive. We are certainly far from being the perfect company. But we are working on it. We want to get a little better every day and understand a little better what people need. This is something completely different for young people coming fresh from university today than for those who came to us 15 years ago.

Wirtschaftsforum: Moving on to your product portfolio. Can you explain by example what services Assure Consulting offers?

Christian Rawcliffe: We are problem solvers for our clients. We focus on the complex problems where there is often a lack of clarity on what to do to advance the project. For example, we supported an SME in the development department with the agile transformation as part of a change management process. In the fiber optic sector, we have supported the rollout of a customer on the topic of 5G. Here, we ensure that in a complex nationwide rollout, all gears mesh together so that the antennas finally transmit!

Wirtschaftsforum: What vision do you have for Assure Consulting?

Christian Rawcliffe: With our Vivid Vision 2026, we have drawn a very concrete future image of our company. It describes a world in which we successfully contribute to transforming organizations and leading complex projects to success. Artificial intelligence also plays a role here. The Vivid Vision 2026 is meant to lead us to a future-oriented consultancy based on sustainable growth and excellent performance.

Wirtschaftsforum: Finally, a personal question: What motivates you to do what you do every day for the company?

Christian Rawcliffe: I want my daughters to believe later on that I at least tried to leave the world a little better than I found it for the coming generations.