40 years of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

This year, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants is celebrating its 40th anniversary. With 33 offices in 23 countries, the consultancy has successful operations in all major international markets. In 2006, the firm generated approximately EUR 555 million in revenues with 1,700 employees. The strategy consultancy is an independent partnership owned by about 150 Partners. Among the leading global strategy consultancies, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants ranks second and third in Germany and Europe, respectively. Globally, the firm is number four.

Roland Berger supports leading international corporations, non-profit organizations and public institutions in all management issues – ranging from strategic alignment and introducing new business models and processes, to organizational structures and IT strategy. Roland Berger's offices in Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, Japan and China advise 30 of the 100 largest corporations worldwide and 40% of Europe's leading companies. In Germany, the firm's clients include 79% of the top 100 industry and trading companies and 60% of the top 20 financial services providers.

Roland Berger, who will also be celebrating his 70th birthday this year on November 22, built up Roland Berger Strategy Consultants with his Partners to make the firm a worldwide leading strategy consultancy with European roots. In June 2003, he became Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Since then, the five-man Executive Committee, led by Burkhard Schwenker, has been in charge of business operations. The Committee is made up of António Bernardo (Deputy Chairman), Lisbon; Vincent Mercier, Paris; Dirk Reiter, Munich; Martin Wittig, Zurich. Management has been expanding international activities and is following a winning strategy. For instance, the Committee opened offices in Zagreb, Manama (Bahrain) and Hong Kong, and strengthened the firm's presence in Western and Eastern Europe and Asia. This growth course is paying off: Roland Berger experienced healthy double-digit growth in 2007 and realized excellent sales, especially in China, Japan, CEE and France. Globally, we expect to generate more than EUR 600 million in sales this year.

"We are very proud of the firm's 40 years of dynamic history and a successful anniversary year," says Burkhard Schwenker. "We'd especially like to thank our clients, business partners and colleagues who made this success possible. We continue to live our values: excellence, partnership and entrepreneurship, and remain true to our promise of quality."

Going beyond consulting, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has also made a name for itself in the area of research and development. Numerous studies on current business and management topics bear the firm's name. By founding the Roland Berger Academic Network in 1998, a network of currently 15 professors from prominent universities in Germany and abroad, the firm is constantly engaged in exchanging theoretical and practical knowledge. The consultancy also sponsors several university chairs and publishes "Roland Berger Strategy Consultants – Academic Network" (Springer publication) and "Schriften zum europäischen Management" (Gabler publications). The Roland Berger client magazine "think: act", which has won several distinguished prizes, appears three times a year in German, English, Russian, Chinese and Polish. It has a circulation of approx. 20,000 and is sent to international decision-makers in business, politics and media. And globally renowned experts and independent editors from Burda Yukom Publishing write about core international management issues.

As the sole worldwide leading strategy consultancy with European roots, Roland Berger feels obligated to represent the European spirit. Therefore, each year in Europe's largest economies, the consultants are proud to honor Europe's top-performing companies by hosting the "Best of European Business" event. Roland Berger experts analyze companies in each of the participating countries using publicly available data. After screening the data, they prepare a shortlist of top performers. Using this list, a high-caliber jury chooses the winner for each country. In this year's competition (now being held for the third time), the jury is rating the companies according to "Profitable Growth" and "International Mergers & Acquisitions". The winners of the national competitions then qualify for the European Grand Prix that will be held at the European Business Summit in Brussels on February 21, 2008. The German winners will be selected at the American Embassy in Berlin on February 13, 2008.