Dear customers, dear business partners, dear Sir, dear Madam,
A year of unparalleled challenges for people and businesses is drawing to a close. After these turbulent times, we are certainly looking forward more than ever to a peaceful festive season – even though Christmas and New Year will have to be celebrated with a smaller circle of family and friends than usual. Unfortunately, COVID-19 will not have disappeared by then, but the announcements about vaccines are bringing hope for 2021. The new year is almost here, and we are looking to the future with confidence and optimism. We very much hope that you and your company have come through the pandemic well under the circumstances, and that you see a positive development for your business in 2021.
For Horváth & Partners, just as for most other companies, 2020 has been marked by COVID-19. It was already becoming clear in January and February that the new virus that had emerged in China was going to strongly affect our day-to-day business. In March, this development really gathered momentum. Within a very short time the usual “working with the customer on site” was no longer possible. Companies strengthened their precautions to protect their employees, travel restrictions came into force, people returning from high-risk areas had to quarantine. There were lockdowns in many countries.
For us too, the highest priority was to protect the health of our employees, customers and fellow humans. New ways had to be found to continue consulting projects successfully in cooperation with our customers under the new conditions.
“Remote Delivery”, “Remote Work” and “Remote Acquisition” became our catchwords of the year. By mid-March, we had decided that all Horváth employees should work from home as far as possible. Together with our customers, we switched our projects over completely to virtual working with the help of communication and collaboration tools. New solutions were developed to support businesses in coping with the crisis. We reorganized the long-established expert conferences held by Horváth & Partners, such as the annual “Strategie & Transformation” conference and the “Stuttgarter Controlling & Management Forum”, as online events. We received a lot of positive feedback on this as well as on the remotely conducted projects. This is thanks to the exceptional commitment of our employees and the trust of our customers. We are very proud of our team!
Despite our main priority being to manage the challenges brought about by COVID-19, we were still able to achieve important strategic milestones. In April, we consolidated key competences in the area of digitalization and data science in the new unit Horváth Digital. By doing so, we are able to offer companies the complete range of services relating to digital transformation. The aim is to exploit the full potential of digitalization through even closer integration of management consulting and data science solutions from our Steering Lab, enabling us to offer comprehensive solutions that use state-of-the-art, field-tested approaches.
In May, together with our partners OGE and TÜV SÜD, we founded the start-up evety, which specializes in hydrogen consulting. It is our joint aim to open up the future opportunities of hydrogen for industry, to promote green energy and push economically viable cross-sectoral decarbonizing. evety supports businesses from industry, logistics, mobility and energy supply on the way to the hydrogen economy.
In August, three outstanding colleagues were appointed as partners and have gone on to strengthen our international management team. In the same month, our Hungarian colleagues moved to a new office in the new district ‘BudaPart’, which offers excellent working conditions on the banks of the Danube river near one of Budapest’s biggest parks. Our Swiss company is just now in the process of moving its Zurich office to new premises. We are very pleased to have found an ideal new location in ‘The Circle’, directly adjoining Zurich airport, with the best possible infrastructure and great scope for growth and innovation – also thanks to the proximity of numerous other highly modern companies.
COVID-19 will continue to keep us busy especially in the first months of 2021. However, many businesses have already shown how they are mastering a completely new situation with flexibility and dedication. Today we understand the main challenges and solutions, and we are looking forward optimistically to the new year. Quite apart from COVID-19, megatrends like digitalization and sustainability are generating extremely rapid change. It is important now to seize the opportunities arising from this, and move companies forward. We will continue to support you with passion and commitment in this transformation and provide valuable impulses – not only for steering through the crisis. I look forward to continuing this journey together with you.
This year more than ever, we want to thank you for your great cooperation. Without your trust in Horváth & Partners we would not have been able to master the crisis so successfully.
I wish you and your families a happy and relaxing holiday season and all the very best for the new year – and above all, stay healthy!
Cordially yours
Dr. Michael Kieninger
P.S.: Every year we collect donations to support the less fortunate and disadvantaged among us, to help bring safety and stability to their lives. We’re especially committed to aiding organizations with personal connections to our colleagues. This year, donations in the name of everyone here at Horváth & Partners will be given to the following organizations: