Alvarez & Marsal launches People & Organisation Change unit in Europe

As business demands change across Europe to accommodate a trend for digital transformation, human capital and change offerings from consultants have become a hot commodity. In response to growing demand, global consultancy Alvarez & Marsal has launched a new unit dedicated to assisting clients across Europe to manage the people side of change programmes.

People and organisation change is an increasingly important factor in terms of business success, because transition to a new end-state is fruitless without altering the behaviours and skills of human resources. As a result, change management offerings from the consulting industry are becoming increasingly sought after services, as companies look to ensure their transformation programmes meet their objectives.

In response to growing demand on this front, international consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) has launched a People & Organisation Change service line in Europe to help corporates organise and lead change with their staff during times of disruption. A&M specialises in management consulting, financial advisory, offers services such as strategy, performance improvement, restructuring, and mergers & acquisitions. The launch comes as part of the firm’s expansion of its performance improvement proposition to companies in need of pragmatic solutions, at speed.

The People & Organisation Change arm will work to win separate human capital consultancy projects for A&M in the market, while working as a supporting service line on other A&M engagements. In these engagements, different A&M individual teams can now leverage the firm’s new People & Change to offer more integral services to clients. A&M’s expanded offer also reflects tightening regulatory requirements in relation to audit conflicts, that are giving rise to major corporates increasingly turning to non-audit based consulting firms for high quality, senior-led performance improvement and turnaround support.

Peter Blausten

The practice will be led from London by A&M Partner Peter Blausten – a consulting industry expert of 30 years – who has been appointed as Managing Director to lead the new European initiative. Blausten brings three decades of human resource and organisation change management experience. As the Group HR Director of a FTSE 30 international, he supported a company-wide organisation review with the CEO, and the implementation of a new operating model and leadership framework.

Roger Bayly, Managing Director and Co-Head of A&M’s Corporate Performance Improvement practice in Europe, said, “People and leadership issues are becoming increasingly important elements in delivering effective performance improvement programmes. Peter’s extensive experience in leading high profile, complex and challenging assignments, with both corporates and private equity, will be invaluable to our clients."

Alvarez & Marsal already had a substantial People & Organisation Change outside of Europe, most notably in the US, where the firm is headquartered. The service line offers propositions such as human capital advisory, HR transformation, change management, leadership alignment and HR due diligence on transactions. 

"Our team of experienced practitioners will work alongside A&M’s wider corporate performance improvement group and Human Capital and Organisational Change service line to analyse, plan and deliver results at pace," said Bayly.

Related: Alvarez & Marsal launches Transaction Advisory Group in France.