How come you started at OPX Partners, Simon?

After switching from management consulting at BCG to positions in business development and sales management, I never looked back. Consulting the way I knew it was a finished chapter, and not something I would consider returning to. I had had a great run, learned a lot and done good, but I was done with it and ready for new challenges. However, after spending a few years in line management positions, I started missing the dynamic environment, the pulse, and the intellectual challenges. OPX Partners intrigued me by offering a proven way of working with the topics and questions I enjoy, but without the downsides from traditional management consulting.

What do you mean with downsides of traditional management consulting?

In traditional management consulting, you mainly do short strategy projects with an emphasis on desktop analysis and defining answers to strategic questions as correctly as possible – often down to the last decimal. The deliverable is often a PowerPoint or Excel file outlining how the client should proceed. This is rewarding in a sense – it can be high impact work and you do learn a lot quickly. The downsides are not being able to stay on long enough to see the changes through and take responsibility for delivering results, rather than just recommendations. At OPX Partners we partner with clients and work alongside them through implementation as well. This requires more interaction and collaboration than the traditional management consulting model allows for in most cases. While it does set additional demands on our teams, it is a truly rewarding experience to see concrete change happen at our clients. It also enables a long-term sustainable work-life balance. At OPX Partners I have had the opportunity to combine a challenging job with both being a dad and fully pursuing my genuine interest in competitive running. 

Tell us a bit more what you believe makes OPX Partners unique?

OPX Partner’s approach to consulting, the way I see it, is based on pragmatism and underpinned by integrity in everything we do. We focus on the long-term and are always comfortable with voicing our true opinion. This is important and something I really identify with. Important are also the colleagues I have here. Apart from being extremely sharp, they challenge me and help me become the best version of myself. They also make me laugh! We are all engaged in making sure that OPX Partners stands out as a great place to work and something to be proud of. In the end, I think that ownership and engagement make OPX Partners unique.

You mentioned you had worked in sales and business development before joining OPX Partners?

Yes, I spent more than four years working with commercial topics at Elfa Distrelec, a distributor in the electronics industry with sales across multiple countries in Europe, Asia and Middle-East. I was leading the sales organizations in six European countries and heading the business development agenda across the group. It was exciting to work a mix of B2B and B2C customers, as well as across multiple countries. With a portfolio of over 100 000 technical products things can easily get quite complex! Commercial excellence is an area I have continued to focus on as a consultant at OPX Partners, where I cover areas such as commercial strategy, pricing and sales force effectiveness.