Roland Berger expands its digital footprint internationally, opening a digital hub in Paris

Munich, September 2019: Consultancy Roland Berger opened a Digital Hub in the heart of Paris on September 25. This marks the international expansion of the company's successful hub strategy that began with the 2016 inauguration of the Spielfeld digital hub in Berlin in cooperation with Visa and the Roland Berger Innovation Hub in Tokyo. They plan to open an additional hub in the United States. Spanning industry verticals, the digital hubs are platforms for corporate innovation. By providing a setting for companies to step outside their everyday routines and structures, the hubs offer firms the chance to try out and work on new business formats. For startups they offer great access to established companies and decision makers. Roland Berger clearly stands out from rival consulting firms with its digital hubs, offering clients not end-to-end solutions but a network approach with the involvement of tech partners.

"The speed of the technology transformation taking place within the digital revolution offers seemingly endless possibilities, while at the same time threatening previously successful business models. Companies have reached a turning point in their digitalization efforts. After years of limitless digital experiments and getting involved in startups left, right and center, companies are now zooming in on the profitability of their digital investments. The biggest challenge they face is orchestrating the wholesale transformation of their organization and getting their workforce to accept the need for change," says Stefan Schaible, Global Managing Director at Roland Berger. "With our hubs, we at Roland Berger are supporting companies with actually relevant aspects of digitalization – from identifying new business models capable of tapping new revenue streams, to integrating relevant startups in the organization, to transformation processes tailored toward optimizing company functions and structures with the help of new technologies."

Olivier de Panafieu, Member of the Global Executive Committee and Managing Partner France, adds: "The opening of our Digital Hub in Paris marks the next step in our digital growth strategy. The hub is a great addition to our team of data analysts and our Terra Numerata ecosystem under the leadership of Axelle Lemaire. Opening this hub enables us to offer our clients the very best of digital technology in the context of tech ventures."

Some 70 percent of Roland Berger's advisory projects now have a digital component. To serve these projects and clients effectively, the consultancy draws on its network of partners within Terra Numerata. A digital ecosystem established in 2014, Terra Numerata now boasts more than 90 tech partners, bringing together players of all different sizes in all different industries. The extensive network gives Roland Berger the scope to be independent and impartial when selecting tech partners for its clients and positively affecting its clients' bottom line via digital transformation based on the firm's restructuring expertise. The network also has an economic dimension in that it pools digital capabilities and resources on a pan-European basis.