companies generally pay higher salaries and employees have better chances of being promoted there. To become more competitive in this area, the public sector needs to improve so that it remains an attractive employer as well. This includes establishing a more agile working culture, creating an innovative environment, and developing a differentiated incentive system, such as family-friendly working hours, worklife balance and performance-based bonuses. When consulting our public clients on human resources matters, we are always aiming at improving employee recruitment and retention. This imminent shortage of skilled workers, digitalisation and finally, the enormous infrastructural backlog – when it comes to both maintaining existing public infrastructure and climate-friendly upgrades – have led to a dynamically increasing demand for PD’s consulting services. The immense growth in the number of PD public shareholders has even reinforced this trend. In early 2017, we had eight shareholders; in early 2022, we had 146. Meeting these challenges on the demand side and responding to this with the necessary flexibility was certainly our largest organisational task in recent years. In summary, PD has grown tenfold in size since 2017. What would you say is the part of your work that fascinates you the most, and what motivates you to achieve success in your work? Claus: It brings me great joy to help shape the future of the public sector. Working for the common good and helping public authorities to better cope with their many challenges is deeply meaningful work. This benefits our country and every one of us. I could not imagine any other job that combines diversity, challenges, and personal development opportunities in this way. Daily, I experience how our public clients trust and appreciate our work, which brings great personal satisfaction. In late 2021, we were awarded “Hidden Champion of the Consulting Market 2022/2023” in the Public Sector category. Our customers supported us in gaining this award and we are more than happy about this extraordinary sign of confidence! The award stands for the high level of commitment and high quality the PD consultants deliver in our projects, also supported by the PD back office team. Stéphane: I can only agree with Claus here. The prestigious “Hidden Champion” award has been issued since 2008, based on an extensive survey of executives. In 2021, the Public Sector category was introduced, and PD won it! We are delighted by this honour, the result of PD’s excellent work in recent years. This includes our sound project work and our activities for connecting important stakeholders at various levels by bringing together our customers and partners. It is great to see how many good ideas and projects come out of this networking. On a daily basis, we exchange ideas with administrative professionals who are engaged in driving innovation. We love seeing that we can make a difference and it really is great fun to work with these highly motivated and talented people. How have you seen the public consultancy sector in Germany change during your careers? Claus: I have noticed that the consulting needs of the public sector have increased significantly. This is not only reflected by the large number of consulting fields, but also by the intensity, complexity and, in some cases, the duration of the required consulting services. These days, a larger share of consulting services is based on framework agreements. The public sector has become an important market segment for large consulting companies and offers highly demanding projects. Looking ahead, it will be important that the best consultancies are contracted more often and that significantly more risks are transferred to the contractors. Stéphane: What makes us special as an in-house consultancy is that we share our knowledge with our customers and shareholders. We also promote the transfer of knowledge within the public sector. We are therefore committed to contributing to public sector conferences and contributing fresh perspectives by publishing studies and recommendations for action. At our annual PD-SummerSchool, executives get the chance to share their experience with and views on current public sector challenges and best practices. I am convinced that it is of utmost importance for executives to network and to strive for cooperation across government departments. This will enable modernisation efforts to be successful. To contribute to this exchange of knowledge and to networking across public sector organisations is not only our standard but also our obligation. We want to enable our customers to carry out future projects on their own and to pass on this knowledge to other public organisations as well. ❝ ❝ CEO Today Management Consul t ing Award s 2022 - GERMANY - - 23 -
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