By Oliver Knapp and Benedikt Rickmers
The pressure on business leaders is growing. Costs are up. Supply chains are fragile. Growth is uncertain. At the same time, expectations to transform, digitalize, and decarbonize continue to accelerate. Most don’t have the luxury to wait for better conditions. They need to act while everything is moving and it’s no longer enough to adjust around the edges. The companies that thrive will be those that don’t delay tough decisions.
At Roland Berger, we help clients optimize to outperform. We partner with companies to strengthen performance at every level by boosting efficiency and building resilience into the engine room of the business.
Operations are either a source of strength or a serious liability. From material shortages to logistics delays, instability and disruption is part of the daily business reality. We help clients get ahead of these challenges by improving how their operations are structured, managed, and scaled. That might mean reworking procurement strategies to counter price volatility or stabilizing supply chains . It includes increasing output without compromising cost or simplifying processes that slow the business down. But we rarely look at these issues in isolation. The real value comes from understanding how one challenge connects to the next: Where improved logistics can unlock working capital, or where rising input prices are best addressed not in procurement, but through design-to-cost in R&D. Our goal is to help companies regain control and build operations that support greater resilience.
Optimized operations create stability. To outperform, companies also need to make sure the business is set up to support sustained performance across the board. We work with clients to improve their cost structures, increase transparency in margin contribution, and reduce the complexity that often creeps in over time. We support them across a range of challenges, from reviewing how functions and regions share responsibility for profitability to optimizing capital allocation and reshaping financial governance to support better decisions. The focus is not only on where money is spent but also on how well the organization understands its own cost base and how quickly it can adjust. We help businesses align their setup with what drives value, making sure they can perform today and remain adaptable for what comes next.
With decades of experience across sectors, we know what it takes to improve performance under pressure. Our experts combine deep operational know-how with strategic performance insight working hands-on, from strengthening supply chains and optimizing manufacturing to realigning cost structures and building leaner organizations. From the boardroom to the shopfloor, we’re there to deliver lasting impact.
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