Oliver Wyman plans to double team in Switzerland

Global management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman is aiming to double its Swiss headcount in the medium-term, according to Country Head Joris D’Incà. The win of a prestigious contract with UBS is setting the firm on the right path.

Usually the merger of two organisations goes through a lengthy strategy phase, supported by strategy consultants. At clients the size of UBS and Credit Suisse, this is usually taken on by one of the world’s largest strategy brands – such as McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group.

Yet in the case of UBS acquiring (or saving Credit Suisse), that mandate went to Oliver Wyman, which ended up beating the world’s biggest three biggest strategy consulting brands to take on the contract.

Sensing a major opportunity to accelerate its growth in Switzerland, Oliver Wyman has already undergone a transition since landing the contract. The firm has now surpassed a headcount of 100 consultants working out of Zurich – an explosive expansion which has left everyone – including partners – having to hot-desk.

Even amid such dramatic scenes, Oliver Wyman is determined not to slow down yet. Speaking to industry publication Finews, Joris D’Incà confirmed the firm is still hiring.

The continued recruitment spree coincides with plans to move to new, larger offices. Oliver Wyman intends to make the most of that extra elbow-room quickly, targeting a headcount of 200 staff in the “near-future”.

Knowledge sharing

Globally, Oliver Wyman has over 7,000 employees active in over 50 offices. But according to D'Incà, its outpost in Switzerland had grown the fastest among all European markets, even before it landed the Credit Suisse gig. In recent years, the country’s location at the heart of Europe, and Europe’s financial sector, has already been helping Oliver Wyman expand. And it is not only growing within financial services, either.

While Oliver Wyman generates about half of its revenue in Switzerland from banks, insurers and other financial institutions, its expertise is fast extending to various other industries. This already includes the transportation, logistics, automotive, technology, and utilities fields – while a new life sciences division is currently being built.

As a result, the Swiss partners – including D'Incà himself – are making a name for themselves throughout the broader Oliver Wyman network.

Oliver Wyman operates as a single international entity, so D'Incà explained that Swiss-based experts are “flown around the globe when a local client needs their specific advice,” helping improve the firm’s knowledge and clout on an international basis, while preparing cross-border teams to take on other major projects in the future.

While he remained tight-lipped on the factors which may or may not have helped Oliver Wyman pick up its famous contract with UBS, he did note that “consultants are increasingly becoming catalysts for corporate transformation, and their influence on management is increasing”.

In that environment, Oliver Wyman’s strategy through to execution and cross-border approach to knowledge sharing and collaboration could well see it pick up more work of this kind in the future.