An interview with Rolf Heeb

Company: IFM, Institut für Managementberatung GmbH
Location: Neuss, Germany
Position: Partner and Managing Director


Where did you learn the basics of running a business?
I have been a management consultant for about 30 years. The education to become a management consultant started with a very formal training process for consultants in the Arthur Andersen organization.

While I was a consultant I also had several Interim Management projects as Product Manager, CFO and CEO. This helped to become aware of how to run an operational production, retail and service business.

I am running our own management consulting organization since 1983. I gained a lot of experience with my own business.

Whom did you work with, before becoming a consultant?
I have been a consultant for all of my life.

What will you do in ten years?
Let s talk about the next 5 years. Almost nobody is able to really answer this question in a fast changing world.

Within the next 5 years I will still be a consultant. There are a lot of opportunities to further grow the business and to help clients with our professional service.

In addition to that I would like to become a member of some more supervisory boards of very interesting and challenging companies. I started this type of engagement about 10 years ago, gained a lot of experience in this field and would like to do some more of this kind of work.

Right now I am a member of two supervisory boards. One of these two companies is a public listed company on the German stock exchange.

What kind of people do you like to work with?
Managers who are able to run big organizations very professionally and entrepreneurs who have build up their own business and are in a generation change process.

And some bad characterstics?
I hate to work for "alibi" type of projects. As soon I become aware of a situation like that I either get out of such a project or I have serious talks with the client.

Is there someone whom you would describe as very intelligent?
I think there is no real scale for being intelligent. It always is a question of the environment somebody is working or living in. As far as the professional business is concerned I thing that all managers / entrepreneurs are intelligent who are able to run a business very successfully in bad economical situations.

After working many years as a consultant you managed many projects. Are there any really special among them?
All projects which require major changes of the organization are to me the most special once. In my professional experience merger projects and post merger activities have been the most challenging once.

Why is your company a member of IMCN
The management consultancy world becomes more and more international. The clients are going international so the consultant have to do the same. The big international consulting organizations have their own office in almost all countries in the world. I think we, as the small and medium sized management consulting organizations have to find a way to be able to serve our clients internationally.

IMCN is a way to do that.