I am very proud to announce that Friisberg & Partners International has upgraded its website.

We have made friisberg.com much faster, easier to navigate, more welcoming and visually vibrant. It is important that we make information easily accessible to our current and prospective clients, and candidates too, regarding market trends and to offer our insights and services in a compelling format.

Jörgen Friisberg founded Friisberg & Partners in Switzerland in 1977 and since then we have assisted, advised and supported clients all over the world – in fact we all have clients who have remained loyal to us for all that time - because we always put our clients’ interests first.

Our client-centric ethos was a founding principle of Jörgen's and this value remains core to our firm.

In 2013, I was elected Chairman & President of Friisberg & Partners International. During that time I am proud to say that I have overseen a period of considerable development and growth and realised our maxim moto of ‘Global Reach + Local Knowledge’. Our firm now has over 250 professionals in more than 40 locations across the world.

• Through our highly experienced consultants and researchers we offer our clients a results-orientated and professional approach to finding the exceptional talent who will add value to their businesses.
• We work with companies and organisations to increase efficiency by matching personal competence with the demands of the job using fair, relevant and objective methods. An organization that has the right mix of competencies and motivation will optimize profitability.
• By helping clients to build an organization that creates the best conditions to achieve their goals, the outcome will ensure solid long-term development of positive results.

However, development never stops and this is even more true today when the world struggles with the pandemic. It is still to soon to really see what the overall outcome will be, but one clear consequence is the evolution and acceleration of different ways of working that the market has been talking about for at least a decade - which will not disappear when this is over.

Actually, perhaps it will never be over, so we all have to adapt to the new normal: working from home, not travelling so much, virtual setups and increasing digitalization. This will result in new demands on us all:

• Working from different locations means of course that the logistics must be in place, but the way organizations are structured and managed might need to change too.
• In terms of the efficacy of the leaders and the way their performance is measured means that some managers will adapt but some will not and may need to be replaced.
• Those aspects of business we took for granted before the pandemic, such as face to face meetings, will be replaced mostly with virtual calls.
• Companies have changed the way they go to market using all sorts of new technology.
• People are learning quickly because they have to - they are learning by ‘doing’ and not from ‘education’ this will inevitably elicit a much better uptake and sustain these behaviours better than any training that might have been forced upon them!

Indeed, we have discovered that looking again at the way we conduct our own business within Friisberg might just make our own impact and contributions even better.

For example, one of our services, Management Audit, has become increasingly important to our corporate clients. An audit highlights areas for improving management and provides an objective view as to the likelihood of the management team's abilities to deliver planned results.

We review and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of directors, executives and key managers against the company strategy and business objectives. We can then make recommendations as to how to restructure the organisation and improve the performance of its key people.

Friisberg’ s Management Audit experience helps global multinationals, mid-sized businesses and owner-manged firms.  Our breadth allows us to offer other follow-on services including Coaching & Mentoring and Executive Search as necessary.

Development puts new demands on organizations as well as managers. In this new reality Friisberg stands strong in our conviction that we have the experience, knowledge and methodology to assist, help and support our Clients into this new reality - not only to maintain excellent performance but, in fact, to improve it!

Peter Strandberg
President

Well, we had an interesting summer from a business perspective in Hungary.

Many of our assignments were stopped, or put on hold and obviously not much new business landed on our desks. We had lost half of our expected business by May - comparing it to the volume we had in H1 2019.

Over the past 6 months we had many Teams meetings with our Friisberg colleagues, globally. I spoke many times with my friend and colleague, Alexander Matthies (Friisberg Germany) about the trends impacting us in Hungary, the similar trends affecting his business in Germany and yet how he continued to be so successful – seemingly Covid proof.

He shared Friisberg Germany’s strategy designed to keep their 2020 revenue plans alive - or even exceed them.  In all honesty his advice sounded a little at odds with my own instincts:

• continuous and systematic business development;
• active discovery of new business segments;
• accurate analysis of sales activities;
• actively recruiting the best consultants on the market during the downturn;
• being in contact with clients who see you as a trusted advisor.

I was astonished!

Could it be that simple?

Then I thought about how much it would cost if we simply waited passively for the pandemic to be over. The answer was indeed simple: if we waited, it would cost us a lot.

So, we actively adopted Alexander’s advice and it resulted in several new mandates. Then he called us with two cross-border Searches which we quickly and successfully delivered. Now, we are currently meeting prospective consultants in Budapest to further enhance our team.

Our existing clients have increasingly turned to us during this crisis. We are objectively able to highlight the weaknesses within their organisations by suggesting they talk openly with us as a trusted partner. By sharing ideas and openly discussing future decisions with trusted friends and colleagues, we can all adopt new and successful strategies.

We decided to shape our future instead of simply reacting to it.

We can all shape our futures.