The First Cordence Festival 2021 came at a time when we haven’t been able to meet for over a year, but in the four days of the Festival, the member firms and the Cordence team were more connected than ever.
In more than 25 sessions our member firms showed the power of Cordence and their international collaboration, sharing awesome insights on how we can help our clients, and tackle the challenges they face. Mobility, energy, transition, change management and new ways of working are all global topics on which we can learn from each other. From Australia, to India and from Europe to the Western Hemisphere: for all those important topics we need to find an answer – together – to help our clients thrive and to get ready for the New Normal.
New Ways Towards Circular Economies
The topic of Sustainability was addressed in a couple of sessions. Key to Way (Korea) presented how transition impacts social contracts and how they have worked together with their government to help them set the rules for energy transition. Governments play a key role in achieving the development goals and targets through, for instance, setting and implementing rules. In the Sustainability Assessment session Horváth (Germany, DACH), TwynstraGudde (The Netherlands) and Valcon (Denmark) shared their expertise on how to address the most urgent and biggest transformation industry topics, like decarbonisation and circular economy, as well as on sustainability management & reporting. The latter was also discussed in a live session hosted by the Young Professional Network (YPN); in break-out rooms they compared sustainability reporting of several automobile manufacturers.
TwynstraGudde zoomed in to their national Climate Agreement and the public-private partnerships in addressing climate actions. When talking about climate change and the developments towards decarbonisation, member firms agreed that hydrogen is a priority worth discussion. Horváth, Oresys (France), State of Matter (Australia) and TwynstraGudde showed their audience in a masterclass alike session the differences in national developments of hydrogen, how to cooperate internationally and answered the question if hydrogen is the new ‘silver bullet’ in the energy transition.
New Normal
One of the major themes of our event was the Next Normal and New Ways of Working. Horváth introduced the results of their 2021 Global Listening Study, where thousands of participants shared their goals, fears and doubts about the future of work. Alfa Consulting, Oresys and North Highland introduced their dynamic approaches towards Hybrid working and workplace change, each focused on different aspects – all tailored to the client’s needs.
Artificial Intelligence and Pricing took center stage when discussing the customer experience, and our session on Agile, Digital and Data explored what an Agile Mindset truly means. Oresys offered an in-depth review on their tool RightChange, which keeps employees efficient, accountable and anchored, while Genex introduced their highly stylized approach towards Change Management and cultural competence. Many people in the audience were interested in the Genex approach, and enthusiastically suggested to collaborate on an international version.
People Centricity
Alongside happy hours and networking opportunities there was another important session. Women in Consulting, an idea initiated by several female consultants from Oresys, is a collaborative community of professional women consultants across all member firms. Consulting is still a white male dominated field, a fact being acknowledged by some executives in the Fireside Chats. Being the only female in the room is a common experience for almost all women in consultancy. To promote gender diversity in the workplace it is fundamental to have a dialogue between both men and women. It was above all a very energetic session which concluded in a call for action to address these topics more prominently since they are highly important in our todays work environment.
In the three Fireside Chats executives were being challenged by the audience’s questions about what the Cordence Network will look like in 2030. Some answered to a stronger partnership from Asia member firms, and all agreed on working together on issues that have a global impact. Patrick Leluc, CEO of Oresys highlighted “We are the best for delivering consulting solutions to challenges and companies that need to transform”.
During the four Festival days we have discussed important and “hot” topics, like sustainability, hydrogen and the new ways of working. As a result, the Cordence team is committed to organizing in the fall Roundtables with clients to discuss their challenges and our solutions.
Now that the festival has ended, we want to leave participants with a Call to Action: Don’t let the momentum stop here! Stay connected, stay inspired, and stay ahead of what’s next. The amount of effort from our twelve member firms as well as the Cordence Team have put forth has been incredible, evident by the new conversations started over the past two weeks.
The Power of Cordence is here, and we’re ready to support you. We wish you all Happy & Healthy Summer holidays.
