In such a vast and complex industry, safety, innovation, and regulation are crucial. In between the pressure to innovate and transform, while keeping costs down, you need a partner to help you strike the right balance. Luckily, we don’t get called the “results consultants” for nothing. Our track record in this space has seen us deliver return on investment at typically 10:1 and often much higher. We don’t say this to brag. We say it because it’s something you need to know. For us, it’s about delivering the best, every time. Whether you need help navigating risk and regulations, reimagining your supply chain management, or making critical innovation investment, we make your progress our passion.

How we can help aerospace and defense

Since our founding nearly 100 years ago, we’ve partnered with clients across the A&D landscape – from departments and ministries of defense, to prime contractors producing major systems, and to their suppliers. Additionally, we work with commercial aerospace companies to achieve specific business outcomes. The breadth and depth of our experience puts us in a position to tackle some of the most complex challenges out there, but we never presume we’ve seen it all before. We’re more interested in developing solutions together. Looking beyond the expected, so you can go there.

Whether you need to make your program more affordable or optimize your portfolio strategy, our people can help every step of the way. Since the beginning, Kearney has been a firm for engineers – long before ‘consultant’ became the job title. You can see that legacy in the work we do and how we do it. Fact-based analysis that takes big ideas and makes working realities.

Above all, we’re committed to success that’s built to last. Superficial updates? They’re not for us. We’re all about actions that guarantee return in the years to come.  

Your transformation partner

Today’s healthcare and life sciences companies face a distinct challenge: delivering high-quality care at an affordable cost in a hypercompetitive market. Additional hurdles can threaten success.

A transformation partner makes all the difference.

Our experts provide you with the latest insights, connecting the dots along the healthcare journey to drive health outcomes and exceptional performance, and partnering with global healthcare leaders to address the disruptive forces in the industry.

Positioning you for the future.

How we can help

Providing healthcare has always been a fine balance between the ability to tackle illness and having the resources to do it. Thanks to modern medicine and technology we’re living longer and healthier lives. However, it comes at great cost. Healthcare currently represents more than 11 percent of global GDP and it’s rising in almost every country. The question is now less about whether it’s possible to treat disease and more about what’s affordable. That means—wherever you are in the value chain—the pressure is on.

While innovative technologies are central to transformation, there’s more to be done to enable the step change in performance that most organizations have yet to achieve. We’ve collaborated with multiple clients who have invested heavily in technology but haven’t seen the anticipated results. The reason: they need to address the people, process, and culture change required in addition to the technology.

What makes Kearney different is how we join forces with your teams. We’re pragmatic, working side by side to find the best solutions, strengthen your capabilities, and facilitate change, all while staying focused on delivering results.

As a global partnership, we can provide the best team, wherever in the world it’s required. We’re big enough to have it covered yet small enough to stay connected. We don't let separate geographic affiliates and internal barriers get in our way when we’re serving your needs.

Healthcare and life sciences are rapidly evolving—and we’re ready to help you transform.

We don’t shy away from big issues here. In fact, you could say we seek them out. In public sector, of course, it’s the nature of the job. National security. Education. Health and well-being. Law and order. Employment. Infrastructure. The list goes on.

Serving the public means making hard choices every day. So when you invest, it really has to count. We’ll work with you across your priority programs, and because we’re driven to make change, not just talk about it, you’ll see results and returns, making your budget go much further. We also believe that while transformation can be tough, it’s possible to enjoy it. Planned thoroughly and executed right, it can be a straightforward undertaking with rich rewards. Don’t believe us? Let us show you how.

How we can help in the public sector

When we’re helping you transform, it’s not our style to come in and call the shots. Instead, we prefer to ask the questions that get you thinking, then work together on building solutions.

With our long track record as operations specialists, we also know how to make refinements that build your capabilities at the same or lower cost. Whether you need to reduce risks or improve internal operations, we can help. No one’s better at lowering cost, enhancing performance to schedule, or eliminating waste. Above all, we focus on helping you achieve your mission or get more from your budget. The result is progress that’s affordable, achievable, and accelerated in the public sector.

As you’d expect, we’re well-versed in all things digital. We can help you use tech to supercharge your services, boost your efficiency, and bring you closer to the communities you serve. We don’t see digital as an add-on, but something that’s integral to your success.

Sometimes, tough decisions mean tough conversations. If that happens, we promise to tell it like it is rather than what we think you might want to hear. Working side by side, we’ll bring the honest advice and practical guidance you need to make a real difference, inside your own organization, and out in society.

Imagine a world where fleets of robo-taxis line highways that have no traffic lights, your kids don't know what a combustion engine is, and your car can do your shopping. While this may sound more science fiction than reality, in some places right now these are facts and it won't be long before they're standard issue. With new regulations, the average CO2 Emissions of a car are set to drastically decrease from 120g / km to 13g / km by 2050. Thirty years may sound like a long time but at the speed this industry is moving, blinking and you'll miss it. When we take it back to nuts and bolts, the move to e-mobility is a move from engines with roughly 4,500 parts to those with 400. That's quite a gap to fill. On the bright side, these are the kinds of challenges we thrive on, and we think you can too.

How we can help automotive

It’s not often that an industry is shaped not just by one macro-trend, but by four at the same time. Electrification, autonomous driving, connectivity, and shared mobility keeping you more than a little busy. But perhaps the biggest shift these require is a change in mind-set. To fully tap into the opportunities on offer, it’s time to open up and look outside your own four walls. Monetizing data, implementing new computer architecture, successfully using AI—all these depend on your ability to collaborate with partners from the tech and start-up worlds while defining your place in the value chain. As for us, collaboration is who we are as well as what we preach. We draw on cross-industry expertise from around the firm so that when we work together, we bring the full picture to the table.

With our solutions and operations background as well as our passion for all things automotive, we get right into the details of your trickiest challenges. Whether you’re in need of a cost improvement program across your enterprise, consistent top-line growth, or a strategy to now hire thousands of software developers, we know just the people. Engineers in the way we think and at heart, you’re just as likely to find us engrossed in data analytics as you are by the side of the race track. Many of us do this job because we wanted to turn a personal passion into a lifelong career. Automotive culture is something we deeply respect and make it our mission to sustain. Want to talk more about how we do all this? Reach out anytime.

When you need to make the shift from the mechanical world of the past to the digital, software, and electronics world of today, as well as rethink your business model, there’s really no better word than transformation. That’s what it is. An inside-out, comprehensive change. But here’s the secret—transformation isn’t about a grand revolution. What it actually takes is a considered plan and step-by-step action. We pride ourselves on our deep-rooted understanding of this industry and all its segments, from components to large systems and plants. The result is solutions that do more than sound good on paper. Plans that are made to be executed in our signature, diligent way. Whether you need to reassess your operating model, reimagine your supply chain, or really embrace digital, we can help.

How we help industrial goods and services

It’s quite a time to be in this industry. With what feels like everyone everywhere shifting from products to services, and the rise of new monetization models, it’s never been more important to define your role in the landscape. For many, the need for big bold change is evident but how to make it happen doesn’t seem so clear. That’s where we come in.

To put it simply, getting things done in industrial goods and services is in our DNA. Since our beginning nearly 100 years ago, our heritage has always been in operations. Less of the standing around and talking part, more of the rolling up our sleeves. Our commitment to results is so strong that we put skin in the game—our contingency models match pay with performance.

Because we cover all the core functions, from operations, service, engineering, and procurement through to innovation, strategy, and M&A, we have the full picture—end to end—of what you need to succeed. We understand that any optimizing we do needs to be recession-proof, future-proof, and downturn-proof, and that new capabilities are all well and good but mean nothing if you don’t have the people to sustain them. It’s this wide-ranging perspective and eye for detail that gets the job done. Allowing you the time and space you need to focus on your core strengths, whatever they may be. Interested in hearing more about how we can help in industrial goods and services? We’re here, anytime.

When we support our high-tech clients, we do so by bringing with us our experiences and expertise from one of the most dynamic and complex sectors of the global economy.

For starters, we understand that our technology clients are extremely diverse in size, core needs, and market position—ranging from Fortune 100 tech-hardware companies and software enterprises to highly tech-reliant producers such as automakers and medical-device firms. They include rising midsize tech ventures, high-upside start-ups, and private-equity players.

Underlying all of this diversity is a basic truth: software may or may not be “eating the world,” as Marc Andreessen famously put it, but there is no disputing that it has become a primary differentiator between competing products, services, and companies in one industry after another. As to hardware, we understand the unforgiving market dynamics that have given rise to ever-higher degrees of systems integration and the shift from selling products to selling services.

How we can help

The Kearney team includes people who have worked throughout the software and hardware sectors: at trailblazing tech titans such as Microsoft, Apple, and Intel; at telco manufacturers such as Motorola and Nokia; and at a wide range of industrial end users, including Ford and Tesla.

As a result, our teams have firsthand, cross-functional knowledge of how software, hardware, and connectivity increasingly overlap. We know what it takes to develop, sell, and sustain a tech product or service, and we bring an operations mentality, experience, and insight to everything we do for you and your organization.

Whether your company defines its core offering as hardware, software, manufactured goods, or all of the above, your livelihood depends on knowing what’s happening and what’s next in an industry that won’t stop transforming itself anytime soon. That’s where we come in.

Throughout history, the chemicals sector has played a fundamental role in human progress, with a positive impact felt across all aspects of society. With individual passion for the industry, our consultants understand just how important this work is—the role chemicals play in our lives, how they interact—and how they build businesses.

There’s no denying this is a challenging industry. Beyond societal expectations there are also the demands of shareholders, customers, and employees to address. Let alone an intensely competitive market. No doubt you’ve been juggling this all for years, and still managing to keep moving forward in the process. So, we’re not here to tell you what you already know. Instead, we promise to bring you the refreshing perspectives that create meaningful results.

How we can help in chemicals and materials

For anyone willing to get under the surface and understand how things really work, there’s no better area to work in than chemistry and materials. While we may not be wearing lab coats, we do share a fascination with the elements, and know how market changes and technology can shift business models.

Take sustainability. It’s the topic on everyone’s lips, and chemicals companies are expected to act quickly, whether it’s moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources to coming up with carbon-negative solutions or shifting to circular rather than linear value chains. Easier said than done when the reality can mean unraveling and rebuilding products, processes, supply chains, and, sometimes, entire businesses and ecosystems. But as with all major challenges, there’s a world of opportunity there too. The move to a more circular model, for example, can allow you to not just be a part of the solution but to lead the way.

We can help you do just that, thanks to our industry experience and nearly 100-year heritage in strategic operations. We’ll work with you on new ideas to help your business grow, on programs to fine-tune your core activities, or both if that’s what you need. But because we believe ideas are only as good as the actions that follow, we naturally gravitate toward changing the way the work gets done. Tangible, practical solutions that address your challenges head-on. With our thriving digital and analytics teams, we can come up with solutions quickly, and help you make the most of your legacy technologies or move on from them.

As you’d expect, we never forget that the work we do needs to ensure you can deliver on your ever-increasing financial commitments—growth, margin, return on capital. It’s another area where we have both the right experience and tools to help you hit those numbers, again and again.

Finally, a steady pace of deals is reshaping the industry as companies evolve their portfolios to become more coherent. Everyone knows the risks involved in mergers and acquisitions, but not all consultancies can guide you through the process. We can. And we can also support you end to end: from development of your strategy to pre-close planning, and through integration to close, with a focus on value and delivering results along the way.

In the world of projects there’s big. Then there’s big. Big investments. Big assets. Big plans. And big risks. Or, what we know as “Infrastructure.” 

What we’re really talking about is spending money in the right place, at the right time, and making sure nothing goes wrong. Simple, right? Except in this line of business, things tend to be complicated. Supply chains are messy. Regulations are biting. Requirements are tougher. And there’s a list of interested parties as long as your arm. 

We’ve been working on programs like these for a long time, and we know what it takes to carry it off. Let us help you cut through the noise and get on with the job.

How we can help in infrastructure

To many of our clients, we’re known as the “results” consultants. We know the difference between a big idea and making it happen. We know big change is actually all in the detail. And we know how to deliver outcomes that last.

In large capex projects, the stakes are high, and expectations are higher. More often than not, it’s about offsetting the old and the new, as frameworks age and fresh requirements appear. To strike the right balance and make clever choices, you need a partner who’s in it for the duration.

Our approach will take you from developing your strategy to achieving top performance. At the heart of it all is our Shielded operating model, which helps you control your project portfolio, and guides key activities and decisions. We also happen to be the original operations specialists, so we know how to root out cost, manage risk, and tighten up supply chains. And with digital tools offering new opportunities, we’ll help you choose wisely here too.

As every client-facing firm knows, external performance stems from internal vigor. Quite simply, you need to be fit to deliver. We’ll work with you to get you into top shape, making your organization stronger, more productive, and more competitive along the way.

What’s more, as a global partnership we’ll bring you the best team, wherever you are. Our reach means we understand the rules of engagement—with governments, public authorities, and private institutions alike. We can even help with privatization plans or setting up a public-private partnership if that’s what’s needed.

At the end of the day, we’re here to help you deliver.

At Kearney, we understand that the telecommunications industry isn’t merely experiencing extraordinary change. It’s also driving and defining many of the changes that are transforming the entire global economy.

From 5G and fiber networks to mobile-edge computing and augmented reality, the telecom industry is redefining what’s possible—for business and residential customers alike. This is an industry that shapes how other industries imagine the future on everything from digitalization to sustainability. But even as the telecom industry transforms the world, it too is being transformed by major shifts in technology and relentless pressures to both keep up and reduce costs.

How we can help

We understand the pressure you’re under to run leaner, smarter, and more sustainable than ever before while also having to think about investing at enough scale to keep up with rising demand and ceaseless competition. We recognize that the telecom value chain is redefining itself, with new infrastructure companies emerging, sharing becoming more prevalent, telcos becoming cloud-native, and big-data platform players relying more on having a strong bond with their customers. Telcos must now transcend commodity status—to give their customers a service experience that builds on the brand and to generate revenue opportunities that provide more value to consumers and businesses alike.

An action-oriented consultancy can help you manage this variety of imperatives in a way that maximizes your capacity to provide your customers with the services they need—both now and in the future. A consultancy that understands your sector and will work with your company, not just on it. A consultancy with a global team that works together seamlessly to keep you ahead of the curve.

We could start off by talking more about the pace of change but by the time we’d done that, more opportunities would have passed. Disruption is not just an overused buzzword, but a massive understatement. The facts are you need to get ideas to the shelves faster, accelerate consumer engagement, and move from catching up to the latest trend to defining the next. Whether you trade in diamonds or diapers, the goal is the same—to anticipate and meet unprecedented consumer demands. But the real question is—how?

How we can help consumer and retail businesses

We’re not saying it’s easy. Under pressure to meet consumer expectations every moment and shareholder expectations quarter in, quarter out, the challenges you’re facing are complex and discrete. The rising costs of labor, implementing the right level of automation, breaking out of the corporate approach that results in standardized products for a global consumer who doesn’t exist. Through it all, every element counts, from how you move the sugar to how you make the chocolate to how it reaches consumers. It’s details like this that call for solutions as unique as your challenges.

We pride ourselves on being the difference between a short-term project with fleeting results and a long-term change your team can sustain. Bringing refreshing perspectives from outside the firm as well as within, we work with your team to embed new thinking, palpable consumer centricity, and the flexible response mechanisms you need. Working with you, not on you, we help you make the hard changes that produce meaningful results. Through our industry partnerships, we commit to providing you with the latest consumer trends, ensuring you consistently meet your consumers' needs.

As one of our biggest practices, our team has the strategic know-how, the operational can-do, and the practical empathy to work with clients as far-reaching as the industry itself. Wherever you fit in the picture we can help.

If you’re ready to make the shift from keeping up to breaking through, get in touch

In today’s media environment, the most dangerous move of all is standing still. If you’re still receiving the same old market guidance from the same old places, you’ll miss out on the incredible opportunities evolving every day across the value chain.

Content creation is booming. The 2020s have seen the number of US original scripted TV series break through the 500 mark, more than doubling since 2010. This growth is mirrored by rising pressure to use data and other technology to reduce costs and risk and to generate a positive return for investors.

Content aggregation has been redefined. TV broadcast networks and programmers along with publishers are competing with online channels and increasingly with technology-led “super-aggregators” for share of eyeballs.

Content distribution is changing at unprecedented speed. High-speed mobile and fiber networks have complemented and in many places supplanted direct-to-home (DTH/DBS) satellite and digital terrestrial television (DTT) as video content distribution channels. And 5G deployments, edge computing, and the metaverse will extend the customer experience and expand the network options for distributors.

How we can help

For established media companies such as broadcasters, publishers, and film studios, we recognize the need to preserve the value of traditional content creation, aggregation, and distribution channels while future-proofing by swiftly evolving to digital and virtual models. For instance, studios need to balance the temptation of early releases on their own direct-to-consumer streaming services with the fact that their pay TV and theatrical distribution channels remain solid cash cows.

But we also see the challenge that many of these companies are facing as they migrate to digital distribution and find that their content may generate less revenue or profit than it had on traditional platforms.

We have reached the point where anyone offering viewable digital content—from online retailers to solo influencers and producers—can refer to themselves as content creators. They’re compiling user data, selling ad space and subscriptions, and trying to figure out ways to enhance the audience experience. They’re even creating content, customized for the spaces in which it will appear. The barriers to entry into the media sector have decreased, and competition for audience attention has intensified, which affect media entities both large and small.

In this environment, content is still king, but in an increasingly digital-driven media sector, capabilities such as multi-platform distribution, customer experience, and technical innovation certainly have a place in the castle.

What does it all mean for you? Incremental thinking about how to engage your audience will not cut it; you need to get bold about how to deploy your comparative advantages in the marketplace.

And for companies of all sizes and sectors, it means making the right choices about which markets, business models, offerings, and capabilities are the best fit for your enterprise and its objectives, in both the short term and the long.

Whether your company has been in the media industry for generations or is just starting out, Kearney can provide the insight and guidance to get you where you need to go. Our clients include five of the top 10 media companies in the world, three of the top five publishers globally, and three of the top four media business units for mobile telecom companies in the United States.

We’ve worked across all traditional vertical categories in media—with deep experience and expertise in television, streaming video, pay TV, broadcasting, and publishing—but we’re also leaders in dynamic emerging areas such as sports betting, digital advertising, and e-sports.

By now you’ve probably heard the story about uncertainty and disruption a thousand times because, well, it’s true. New technologies and energy sources, along with new regulations, are evolving so quickly that at this point even those who say they can predict the future are probably too late. The rate of change is such that in 10 years’ time who we get our energy from, where we get it, and what forms it takes, may all be completely unrecognizable.

But the thing is—this doesn’t scare us, and it shouldn’t scare you either. The way we see it? Less fear, more freedom to explore. Yes, it takes time, commitment, and investment, but the opportunities out there are worth working for. Side by side, we can help you not just navigate the changes, but enter and define whole new fields of play.

How we can help in energy

To be clear—we’re not for a minute suggesting this is easy. If you’re in power and utilities, the facts are you need to make this shift from the old to the new profitable, invest in the right tech to make it happen, stay competitive amid a swarm of new entrants, and all while delivering on sustainability. No wonder you’re reading this. For oil and gas, it’s a similarly tough to-do list—making bold commitments and investments that show the world how seriously you take your role in the future. We can help because we understand this pressure, and we’ve got the cross-industry, specialist knowledge that moves the needle.

You might be getting to grips with the financials of e-mobility or what CO2 emissions pricing means for you. You might be entering the world of renewables for the first time, or even looking to become a utility yourself and produce what you consume. Whatever the goal, we’ll review where you are, define where you need to go, and this is the clincher—get you there too. One thing we don’t do is pretend we’ve got the magical answer to all your problems. Instead, backed by our partner the Energy Transition Institute and with our specialist platform, Helios, we test out new ideas and business models in real time. Build, test, adapt, improve. It’s that entrepreneurial spirit that sees you stop following trends and start making them.

As for our size, we’re big enough to have it covered, small enough to stay connected. You’ll see that global perspective in the work we do, and that easy collaboration in how we do it.

Perhaps more than any other industry, metals and mining deal in the foundational. Straight from the earth, it’s the first link in every value chain. While this has been the case for centuries, change is very much here. The pressure’s on to transform from the dusty, oily, noisy world of the past into socially and environmentally sustainable organizations that still manage to stay efficient and productive. It’s a task that feels like it may never end.

The good news is we’re here to help. Our ingrained expertise and hands-on, hard-hat experience mean we deliver the results you need. Together we’ll switch gears and turn that ideal vision of the future into a working reality.

How we can help with metals and mining

For an industry that’s so fundamental, the challenges metals and mining present appear paradoxically complex and varied. Yes, running as efficiently and productively as possible remains your focus, but it’s the how that needs straightening out. How do you move beyond adopting new technologies to sustainably running with them? How do you give your employees the skills they need to thrive in new sectors? How do you stop talking about the fourth industrial revolution and start living it?

That’s where we come in. To date, our bias for action has seen us help everyone from private companies to government bodies. It’s work that builds economies and transforms countries, and we’re proud to be a part of it.

Because this is truly a global industry, we draw on our people around the world to bring global insight to dedicated local teams—joining the dots from São Paolo via Detroit to Germany and Moscow, from Johannesburg via the Middle East and Mumbai to China and Melbourne.

When we say we get in the details, we mean it. Not only do we understand what it’s like to walk in your shoes, we’ll even bring our own steel toe-cap boots to the on-site safety briefing. Our heritage in strategic operations transformation means we favor the factory over the office, and it shows.

The legacy of the financial crisis has meant a few tricky years for many banks. Now, the triple pressures of more regulations, new competition, and advanced technologies are challenging how you do business, whether you’ve been around for a while or you’re a newer name. It’s the same story for insurance companies that are also searching for ways to reach the same goal: customer loyalty. Beyond the industry going digital, consumers’ move to simpler subscription-based models requires a fundamentally different approach. We can help you meet these new requirements and deliver on what comes next.

Wherever you stand, big change is coming, and it’s coming right now. The payments revolution is well underway. One in five consumers are already saying their primary bank is a challenger. Whether you’re in banking, insurance, or payments, it’s time to decide what sort of relationship you want with your customers and how you want to make that happen. But it’s also an opportunity to make a real impact. We can help.

How we can help financial services

A recent headline declared: “Banking used to be the worst. Then the challenger banks arrived.” Is this really the state of today’s industry? Well, not quite. In fact, whether you’re an established player or new on the scene, the speed at which things are evolving means standing still isn’t an option.

But if the race is to be the brand consumers use every day, the scales are already tipping. Retail banks still hold a majority share of customers’ wallets with long-term arrangements such as mortgages and salary payments, but challenger accounts are increasingly being used for everyday purchases. These transactions are like gold dust when it comes to really knowing who banks with you—giving you a rich layer of insights to inform the products and services you provide. The question is: how close do you want to be?

New payment and credit technologies have also come to the table, meaning competition is no longer contained to the industry. As retailers and tech companies enter the fray, banks must decide where to play and how to adapt. Banks and insurance companies alike are facing more pressure than ever to do the day job quicker, more efficiently, and at less cost—and run it all digitally.

Put together, it’s quite a to-do list. But whether you need a hand to re-examine your strategic operations, develop your digital capability, get closer to your customers, or completely transform, we have the skills and the know-how to help you rise to the challenge.

Kearney and our private equity clients are united by a shared objective: creating value. The PE industry's impact continues to grow, spurred by sophisticated firms leveraging advisors with increased specificity and purpose.

We understand large-scale and mid-market PE investors' requirements, demands, and expectations in this competitive landscape. That’s why our “best-of-Kearney” approach provides clients with tailored solutions that integrate industry and operational expertise while aligning with each opportunity's unique investment thesis, time frame, and risk profile.

How we can help drive investor success

Investment thesis

We help clients develop high-ROI investment strategies and define where to employ capital, considering market conditions, business models, and operational competencies.

Due diligence

We eliminate transaction surprises by defining risks, value potential, and scalability for investments. We support commercial, operational, IT/digital, ESG, and carve-out diligence.

Portfolio-wide opportunity and risk assessments

We evaluate thematic opportunities and systemic risks based on multiple factors and drive cross-portfolio assessments for procurement and SG&A.

Operational value creation

We leverage our High-Impact Transformation (HiT) framework to deliver EBITDA uplift strategies that provide material gains and ROI within three years.

Commercial value creation

We collaborate with PortCo management to help the company capitalize on top-line and margin improvement opportunities that reflect the business model nuances and market circumstances.

Transformational carve-outs

We assess carve-outs to ascertain what is needed for the asset to operate and realize operational value across people, processes, assets, technology, and future-state operating model.

Product innovation and design

We help improve product margins by leveraging our PERLabs, which creates sustainable processes across the product life cycle to lower costs and improve customer value.

Add-on acquisitions

We provide support via proprietary target identification and assessment tools, and develop playbooks to facilitate the efficient integration of tuck-in acquisitions.

If your business is getting people or objects where they need to go, you’ve come to the right place. We work with clients across multiple sectors, and with so many moving parts, there’s a huge variety of challenges out there in the transportation and travel space. From rapid growth to new competition, privatization, regulation changes, or shifting trade flows, we’ll help develop the right strategy based on your needs. More importantly, we’ll put it in to action.

Amid so much change, we’re always looking to the future. Whether it’s best-in-class processes, new business models, or the vehicles we’ll be using 50 years from now, we’re doing our part to shape the travel and transportation industry’s next steps too.

How we can help in transportation and travel

You don’t need us to tell you how transportation and travel has been turned on its head in recent years. It’s enough to say that, in an industry once steeped in tradition, the watchword now is innovation.

But what does that really mean? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, and it’s our job to work with you and figure it out. However, there are some common themes. One is the need to run your network more efficiently. Another is cost control. Then there’s managing customers’ ever-growing expectations while you try to stay in profit or the skills and talent becoming crucial as new technologies revamp your business. What’s more, all of this has to be done at speed if you’re to make the move from keeping up to breaking through in the transportation and travel industry.

With nine decades of experience behind us, we know the ins and outs of managing performance. We can step in and lend a hand with operations, procurement, digital, analytics, and organizational change. And if changes in ownership are on the horizon, we’ll guide you through the M&A process too. 

Whatever’s ahead of you and whatever you’re shipping, we can help. Within transportation and travel we work with logistics and freight organizations, postal and express delivery services, travel and tourism companies, and all sorts of transport operators. As a global partnership, we understand the subtleties of different regions and networks, so we’ll always start at ground level to establish your needs. And it’s easy to say, less easy to do, but we get results.

There’s a reason our clients call us the “results” consultants. We’ve been operations and performance specialists since the origins of management consultancy and are intimately familiar with the workings of most industries. If you’ve got a problem to solve or mandate to improve results, chances are we’ve done something similar before. We take the time to understand your needs and use our experience to collaboratively develop solutions that generate tangible results. That’s why more than 80 percent of our clients work with us more than once.

How we can help operations and performance

First and foremost, we understand business operations and supply chains from end to end. Whether it’s planning, sourcing, production, or distribution, we know how to address difficult challenges in managing cost and service while applying the latest thinking on key support resources such as digital technologies, agile operating models, and change management along the way.

Launching a transformation is a true career bet. One of the highest-stakes decisions you can make as a leader. It’s your name in the news, a make-or-break undertaking. If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to go all in for success.

We don’t need to look far to see how damaging transformations can be. Slash-and-burn approaches that at their worst cut into capabilities, undermine leadership, lose customers, and destroy shareholder value. No wonder the word can conjure more fear than enthusiasm. Fortunately, we know a different way.

Since 1926, our founding industrial engineers’ focus on precision and results has remained at the heart of what we do. It’s this legacy that means we can proudly say we’re the original strategic operations experts—guiding many a successful transformation long before it became a buzzword.

Amid all the noise, one thing’s clear—together we can make it real and make it matter.

How we can help with transformation

First things first. If your company’s in financial distress, has a new leader or owner with a new vision, or is facing major disruption by competitors or technologies, chances are transformation is needed. We define it as a board-sponsored, CEO-led, whole-company, multiyear, all-encompassing change program designed to improve the business performance sustainably. You get the picture.

The numbers are there. Studying our clients, we saw that across the board, one year after the project, they outperformed their local markets by an average of 7 percent. By 21 percent after three years, and 45 percent after five. Our research also showed us that the leaders in this space did five things:

• They did it once and did it right. They had a whole company program with targets. A beginning, a middle, and an end.
• The leaders went all in and made it personal. That’s what it takes to move the behaviors of tens of thousands of people—they need to see and feel that commitment.
• They took fewer but bigger steps. They picked a handful of manageable, large initiatives to drive impact, not a load of small activities that could drag and derail the program.
• They anticipated and embraced disruption. They made the trend a friend.
• They reinvested for success. They took the dividend yield and invested it to win in the marketplace.

As for us, we’re sure about the things that make us different. We bring deep operational know-how supported by a full suite of digital tools to the table. But we don’t pretend to know everything. This is your business, not ours, and we don’t forget that. Where others may go in all guns blazing, we pledge the Hippocratic oath to do no harm.

Think better. Build better. Scale better.

For nearly 100 years, Kearney has been in the business of change, employing pragmatism—not hype—to help our clients navigate complexity and make shift happen.

Today, we face rapid, sweeping technological change. Change that accelerates change. We’ve seen it before. The PC era. Browsers and the Internet. The mobile revolution. But, while change is inevitable, growth is not. AI presents an entirely new lens to reimagine your business, from productivity and performance to business model innovation, and it all starts with your operations—the core of Kearney. Unlocking this scale of potential requires a trusted partner with vision, deep industry expertise, and most of all, the readiness to work alongside you, even when things don’t work as expected, to adapt both the technology and your business until it does.

How we can help

Digital and analytics. Pragmatism and possibility. Kearney Originals is ready to make the shift happen

Customer and Growth

Drive top-line growth using data and intelligence to understand better and serve your customer’s needs.

Digital Operations

Boost supply chain performance by digitalizing end-to-end processes and optimizing the impact of powerful operations platforms, advanced analytics, and scaled AI solutions across the enterprise and broader value chain.

Data and AI

Embed the power of AI to accelerate decision-making and operational efficiency and build cutting-edge capabilities that address the data dividend and maximize your greatest growth asset.

Technology Transformation

Define and execute pragmatic IT strategies and programs built upon the foundations of quality, speed, cost, and value, on topics from IT organization and operations transformation to cloud migration, application rationalization and technology acquisitions, mergers and divestitures.

Foresight and Innovation

Access innovation ecosystems and emerging technology insights to inform industry, national, and partnership strategies, unlock trapped value, and rapidly build and scale new businesses.

Value Realization

Execute and win by combining internal and external assets, deploying platforms, developing rapid POCs and prototypes, and building high-impact and scalable AI, data, and digital solutions that deliver on operational business priorities and the growth agenda.

Kearney’s independence, size, and global scale is unique in the ability to make shift happen—whether operational, technological, or cultural, and likely all three if you really want to get ahead. Our team of digital and analytics Originals—4,000 consultants, technologists, data scientists, user experience designers, and program leaders—are ready to create exponential outcomes with our mindset of endless possibility, and our focus on relentless execution.

That means we help you make the shift happen, not just now, but with every other change we know will require us to adapt. If your organization is focused only on the toolset, let us work with you on the mindset and skillset that enables regenerative growth, an entirely new way to think about growth. It goes beyond episodic, beyond sustained. It’s a business shift for the next 100 years, because we’ve seen this before, and we will see it again. But the next shift will come faster, and we are ready.

With organizations routinely spending more than two-thirds of revenue on procurement, it’s one of the most fertile areas for improving your business. But as companies and supply chains get more complex, and technology opens up new opportunities, tactical negotiation approaches and one-off projects have had their day.

To many, we’re synonymous with procurement excellence, and we’ve been at the forefront of strategic sourcing since day one. We pride ourselves on going further than most, and have a decade’s worth of analytics experience to prove it. What’s more, with the ability to invest, and get the job done, you’ll benefit from the latest solutions and thinking. Meaning you don’t just get the elevator pitch, you get practical solutions, feet on the ground, and lasting results.

How we can help procurement

Procurement’s days as the “better, cheaper, faster” function have long gone. In a world of mounting pressures around supply security, sustainability, and—the ultimate goal—organizational resilience, it’s no longer about cutting a good deal. It’s the center of gravity for operational and supply chain viability.

We get it. And we understand the levers that make the difference, from crafting the strategy to getting the job done. Where should you focus your efforts? What (and when) should you digitize? How do you build scale and take cost out, in a way that guarantees continuity, helps you make smarter investments—and doesn’t hurt the planet?

We help our clients solve problems like these every day. Resilient, sustainable organizations come from resilient, sustainable supply chains, and that’s exactly what we excel at building. This means taking a broader view of your business. From the outset, we’ve been the go-to firm for operations and performance solutions, and this runs through everything we do. When we help you define your supply setup, what we really have in mind is improving your competitiveness where it matters most, whether it’s in planning, sourcing, production, or distribution.

We also bring in specialist capabilities wherever you need them. With our Product Excellence and Renewal Lab (PERLab), we find ways to extract maximum value from your products at every point in the life cycle. Our expertise in digital enables you to find and fit the right tools to streamline and supercharge your operations, while Cervello, our advanced analytics nerve center, can help capture the true power of your data, creating immediate impact and lasting advantage. Finally, we know better than most that a plan is only as good as the results it delivers. That’s where our execution specialist Prokura comes in, as boots on the ground to see your transformation through.

In procurement, there are certain things that come as standard and, naturally, we’ve got those covered. Sourcing isn’t the straightforward task it used to be, but whether you’re searching for raw materials or seeking out the best providers, we’re on hand to get you the best results. But don’t expect the same old thinking. It’s also our job to help you reexamine core assumptions and create more space for innovative solutions, something we call “disruptive procurement.”

Most importantly, with us you don’t just get the elevator pitch. What we’re interested in is long-term transformation that delivers real impact. That’s why we’ll be with you all the way, working shoulder-to-shoulder from the first conversation to the results in your P&L.

Wherever you’re at and whatever your needs are, we can work with you to find the path forward, and then take the journey together. Let’s start exploring what’s possible.

The Global Business Policy Council is a strategic service of Kearney. Through exclusive global forums, public-facing thought leadership, and advisory services, the Council helps to decipher sweeping geopolitical, economic, social, and technological changes and their effects on the global business environment.

Few things in life are truly unique. But people are, and people make businesses what they are too. If you want to transform, you’re transforming people: the actions they take and the ways that they take them. This is where things really start to get interesting. And that’s why we’re here.

Managing change is as important as ever, but in our turbulent world it’s not as straightforward as going from A to B anymore. What we’re really talking about is shoring up your organization so it’s fit for the future. Which means different strategies, different skills, different ways of leading, and a different approach to change itself.

 We’ll help you get there.

How we can help with leadership and change

Relationships matter; everyone knows it. So it makes sense to get a handle on what they look and behave like in your organization—above ground and under the surface. Who influences who? And who are the “go-to” people making things happen? This is about grasping the informal strands that tie your business together, and using them to turn your vision into action.

Our Network Navigation method has been designed to do just that. It combines the art of managing strategy, operations excellence, and large-scale transformation with the scientific rigor of data analytics. You get deeper insights into how your organization really works, which means better primed plans, and quicker results.

With uncertainty and transition the new normal, managing change takes on a whole new meaning. We all know the stats: 70 percent of large transformations fail. To succeed, it’s no longer enough to treat change as an add-on to culture. Instead, it has to be part of the culture, running through your business top-down, bottom-up, and side to side.

The Kearney approach covers all the bases, helping you set the direction, establish ownership where it makes most sense, get your people behind you, and deliver results that last. Meaning your culture’s in the best shape possible, and—needless to say—more than words on a poster.

In all our years of transformation experience, one theme stands out, and that’s effectiveness. The best companies have effective systems and processes, effective leadership, and effective workforces. We’ll work with you to balance them all, in a way that’s designed for today’s complex environment, nurturing performance, productivity, quality, and focus.

And when it comes to today’s most pressing issues, we can give you the answers you need. Like how to move from diversity targets to true inclusion, work in an increasingly digital world, and deal with data in a way that benefits everyone.

All put together, it’s our job to help you make change work for you—looking beyond the expected so you can go there.

Design thinking. Data wrangling. Customer centricity. From the way these concepts sound, you’d be forgiven for dismissing them as yet more industry word salad. But when you look beyond the language, you see these systems build on qualities we all recognize: empathy, imagination, and curiosity.

There’s a reason their implementation is a top priority for almost every business. Organizations that act more humanly—listening to the data, understanding people’s needs, and evolving alongside them—can’t help but succeed. When your proposition is always relevant, your audience continues to buy it.

Our approaches balance data with design, facts with intuition. The result transforms being “customer-centric” from an action item into the way your company lives and breathes. Let us show you how.

How we can help

It should come as no surprise to hear that if you’re looking for creative ways to appeal to people, creative people are who you need. Our global network of entrepreneurs, designers, scientists, and specialist execution partners are ready to meet any challenge. We build the right team for you, whether you’re looking to launch new offers, design for sustainability, or boost your bottom line by investing in the products your customers care about most.

True to Kearney’s engineering and operations DNA, our consultants are happiest when getting into the details: mining data to find insight, using technology to make an experience or process better. Kearney's Ignite and Product Excellence and Renewal Lab are where we roll up our sleeves and pull apart the puzzle, redesigning products from the ground up, if that’s what’s needed. We’re not satisfied with superficial improvements, so we don’t deliver them. Through the continual testing, refinement, and reinvention of your product or proposition, we embed the kind of resilience it takes to make growth sustainable.

As the saying goes, a carpenter is only as good as their tools. NEXT, our transformation management software, allows you to monitor company-wide developments ranging from employee learning programs to core operational activities. Cervello, a Kearney company, is a full-suite analytics platform and consulting service that demystifies data and makes every decision the right one. Easy to use, and always helpful, together these assets prove why this work matters. When you design and build with people at the center, you make real progress possible.

In a world with many buyers and a lot of money to invest, it’s a sellers’ market out there—often making prices higher than you would like. When everything is speeding up despite it feeling like things should be slowing down, it can be hard to ensure you’re buying the right business for your company’s strategy. You also need to do it at a price that gives you enough flexibility to achieve your goal, be it expanding into a new region or a new sector, or to improve your in-house capabilities. We can help.

How we can help with mergers and acquisitions

Whether you need help sourcing your next acquisition, managing the process, reviewing what you already have, or preparing for sale, our experience ensures the process runs smoothly with lucrative and lasting results. Diligence by name, diligent by nature.

With our support, our clients often use mergers and acquisitions as the catalyst for driving transformation across their business. It’s work that helps you make difficult step changes—those that can be hard to deliver without the impetus of a major acquisition.

For us, it’s about more than just making the numbers work. Where we really come into our own is in managing your biggest and often most under-valued asset—your people. Easier said than done. Whether you have too many, too few, or need to review skills and specialties, we work alongside your integration team to make sure your employees are fulfilling their potential. Nothing more, nothing less.

They don’t call us the operations specialists for nothing. Helping your business work smarter is what we do. Want to hear more?

Business leaders have bold sustainability ambitions. That is commendable, of course, but many are finding it challenging to fulfill those ambitions. There is a discrepancy between commitments made and current progress toward those goals, resulting in an “execution gap.”

If we don’t bridge this gap we won’t have a chance to remain below 1.5 degrees Celsius or to lower emissions by 40 percent through 2030.

Furthermore, we need to think about long term, which goes beyond minimizing harm and toward having a positive impact on people and planet by embedding regenerative business practices.

Together, we can make sustainability happen

At Kearney, we focus on bridging this execution gap, supporting our clients in making tangible and measurable progress toward their sustainability ambitions. We know how to address the complexities of sustainable business transformation, translating strategy into actionable plans that achieve real results. We can help you decarbonize operations and supply chains, find circular solutions, transform your business models, and much more.

Sustainability for government and communities

Governments and civil society have sustainability goals, too. We work closely with nations, nongovernmental organizations, not-for-profits, and communities, supporting their sustainability initiatives and programs.

How we can help build a sustainable future

From strategy to execution, we offer your organization a range of innovative and enduring solutions to help it achieve sustainable value.

Sustainability strategy and transformation

Developing ambitious, tangible, and value-creating sustainability strategies and large transformations, while embedding sustainability throughout the organization and value chain

Net zero in operations and supply chains

Tailoring and executing decarbonization pathways for successful low-carbon businesses, from sourcing and manufacturing to delivery, including energy transformation initiatives and policies

Climate change strategy and response

Building business resilience to the physical and transition risks of climate change, future-proofing businesses and countries

Circularity

Driving greater resource efficiencies, enhancing security of supply, and reducing waste by redesigning products, processes, and business models

Responsible supply chains

Embedding social and environmental strategies across every step of business supply chains, from human rights to carbon footprint

Social impact

Unlocking value within organizations, governments, and civil society, from social and DEI strategy to social performance improvement

We are a global team of visionaries, builders, and operators who are experts at creating new sources of customer value. From start to scale, our mission is to help you bring customer-centric ideas to life that generate material value and ignite sustainable growth for your business within just 18 months.

We have been building new sources of value since 2015. Prior to 2022, you might have known us as Proposition and Customer Experience (PCE) Labs.

What we do

We help you to ignite your business growth by examining and pursuing commercial challenges and unique opportunities from your customers’ perspective. Then, from the ground up, we build fully operational business concepts often integrated with your business to leverage what you do well.

Ignite’s most impactful engagements focus on launching new businesses that impact the bottom line: sustainably, drawing on the combined power of all three of our customer excellence disciplines—Inspire, Imagine, and Empower—delivered as a fully integrated offering we call Forge

• Forge: Launch new businesses that impact the top and bottom lines, sustainably.
• Inspire: Discover the full potential of your customer value chain, and translate it into concrete commercial opportunities.
• Imagine: Create a winning proposition—differentiated offerings and a signature customer experience that is linked to your organization’s authentic purpose.
• Empower: Make your teams fully capable of continuously delivering customer-inspired innovation and growth.

Our Design Studio is where our proprietary tools, methodologies, and capabilities are nurtured and honed, for use by our people, and yours.

Increase your profits, transform your products, and delight your customers with PERLab’s proprietary design framework.

Do you want a customer who values and relies on your product? When customers begin to see how your product solves their problems and provides a best-in-class experience, brand loyalty is born and profitability soars.

We listen to your customers and create value by enhancing what matters most to them. With experts in product design, product development, sustainability, user experience, industrial design, Internet of Things (IoT), consumer insights, product engineering, packaging design, and manufacturing excellence, PERLab’s end-to-end capabilities can support your growth at any point in your product’s life cycle. By taking a comprehensive look at your product, our design and development consultants unlock profits at all stages of your product’s life.

From PERLab partner to Kearney member

The TEAMS legacy stretches all the way back to 1956, playing a pivotal role in Bosch's first line of power tools. TEAMS is not just a design agency; it’s a pioneering company keen to bring your product ideas to life—redefining business value while pushing the boundaries of physical and digital products.

Product consulting for all stages of a product’s life

Your products have value. You know this, and so do we. Our experts work directly with your cross-functional teams for product value identification and enhance this value for optimized end-to-end product life cycle management—which has been proven to increase profits.

We enhance product margins by lowering production costs through sustainable processes and improving the features your customers crave most.

NEXT from Kearney is a new way to manage transformational change. Continuous transformation is a way of life, and NEXT is a new consulting approach that uses technology to enable companies to achieve transparency, speed, and agility.

We bring an integrated team of consultants, technologists, and data specialists who will work with you to co-create a solution to help you address your specific challenges, consistent with your culture, ways of working, and future aspirations.

Partnering with a leading SAAS (software as a service) provider, we have developed a platform specifically to meet the needs of large organizations facing transformational change. The technology we use, and the way we deploy it, has been developed through working with dozens of leading companies and government agencies on the toughest change challenges. The result is a technology capability which is fast to implement, sophisticated enough to meet the most complex reporting needs, but so simple to use it can be deployed widely with minimal training.

The journey continues, and we continuously refine the user experience and introduce new features based on client feedback, so you continue to benefit from the experience of leading organizations. Our solutions offer the highest levels of security, stability, scalability, and ongoing support.

NEXT is often first deployed in the context of a consulting engagement, but the vast majority of our clients continue to use our solutions long after the initial engagement, using the same technology capabilities to address an ever-wider range of transformational challenges.

Whether your challenge is to deliver a specific change program, transform the performance of a function, or quickly stand up a new process or capability, NEXT uses technology to transform your ability to transform yourself