Hidden Champion of the Consulting Market 2024/2025

Reliability, integrity and speed: Atreus named Hidden Champion of the Consulting Market 2024/2025 

Munich, December 16, 2023 – A fantastic success for Atreus: the Munich-based consulting company has been named “Hidden Champion of the Consulting Market 2024/2025,” outshining many well-known competitors. It was in the “Interim Management” category that German market leader Atreus prevailed by a clear margin over top-drawer rivals like Roland Berger, Accenture, Oliver Wyman and Deloitte. The market survey results showed that 90 percent of respondents considered the consulting expertise of Atreus to be “very high” or “high.” The Munich company was particularly noted for not only its reliability, integrity and speed, but also its flexibility, commitment to results and value placed on people.

These are the key findings from a recent survey done by the renowned WGMB (Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft für Management und Beratung), a management and consulting research institute based in Bonn, Germany, which did its fieldwork from June to October and has now published the results. They surveyed 1,055 management executives who work for major German companies with an annual turnover of at least 500 million euros. Three main groups of decision-makers were interviewed: project managers, budget managers, and members of boards and C-suites.

In its core competence, namely the Interim Management category, Atreus successfully prevailed over even the biggest players in the consulting sector, achieving survey best with an outstanding 446 points. At a time of acute challenges and uncertain markets, Atreus consultants have built a reputation as reliable implementers, knowledgeable experts and forward-thinking innovators. According to the study, Hidden Champions are particularly good at implementation and teamwork, speak the language of each department, and also offer a very competitive price.

Survey respondents said that the most important criterion in choosing a consulting firm was the “ability to implement,” which came in first ahead of “technical expertise” and “innovative thinking.” It is particularly noteworthy that among all consulting companies, regardless of industry and specialty, Atreus achieved an excellent fourth place in this survey category, which covered the ability to develop practicable solutions and carry out the implementation successfully. On top of that, the market perception of Atreus was consistently rated as “very positive” by all respondents.

Reliable implementers and forward-thinking innovators required

“We’re overjoyed to be honored with this Hidden Champion award. Not only does it confirm our position as a leading force in the consulting sector, it also shows how much our deep commitment and innovative excellence are appreciated by clients,” says Dr. Harald Linné, Managing Partner and co-founder of Atreus. “This award will spur us to keep forging ahead as reliable implementers and forward-thinking innovators. For us, it’s an acknowledgement of all the hard work put in by our team, and also an extra motivation to keep meeting our clients’ expectations to the fullest,” adds Rainer Nagel, also a Managing Partner and co-founder of Atreus alongside Dr. Linné.

Overall, the survey’s respondents were very positive about Atreus as a consulting firm. A clear expression of this was in the extremely high satisfaction ratings awarded to the services provided by Atreus. Atreus’ specialist knowledge, industry familiarity and analytical capabilities were particularly valued, as were communication skills on both technical and managerial levels.

The aim of the study was to identity consulting companies that are perceived as particularly strong by clients but are still relatively unknown, especially in comparison to prominent players like McKinsey, BCG and Bain. These Hidden Champions distinguish themselves by offering a high-quality alternative to the industry’s most well-known firms. In fact, there are only a few mid-sized consulting companies that can successfully compete against the consulting market’s champions. This award affirms once again Atreus’ significant role as a serious challenger.

About Atreus

Atreus GmbH (LLC), Germany’s leading provider of executive interim management, helps clients solve particularly challenging transitional situations by placing experienced executives for line, project and program management tasks. With high-quality, tailor-made services, Atreus Interim Management offers solutions at or adjacent to the C-suite level. Launched in 2006, the company is led by its founding managing directors Dr. Harald Linné and Rainer Nagel. With a network of more than 16,000 interim managers, Atreus carried out more than 400 projects in the last year alone, for some 250 clients across Germany and worldwide. Atreus is part of Heidrick & Struggles (Nasdaq: HSII), a leading provider of global management consulting and on-demand talent solutions that works with the world’s top companies to answer their leadership and consulting needs.

Atreus GmbH
Sabine Dreesen (Marketing Director), dreesen@atreus.de, +49 89 45 22 49 420

WBCO Public Relations & Business Communications GmbH
Ferdinand von Gehlen, f.woellstein@wbco.de, +49 69 133 88 039