The University President now has consulting equipment at hand
Prof. Florian Pfeffel, President of accadis Hochschule since 2016, is expanding the university's research and consulting offerings, thus returning to his roots. Before Pfeffel came to accadis in 2006, giving his career a new orientation, he worked for the top consulting firm McKinsey. He therefore brings with him a rich and lasting wealth of experience from the consulting industry and, of course, still has the necessary consulting equipment in his briefcase. Pfeffel still enjoys the job and is happy to now be able to bridge the gap between consulting and research with a team of fellow professors, doctoral students and graduate students. "It's often the case in life that things somehow end up falling into place. The fact that I can now offer my consulting expertise combined with the university's research ambitions is a great thing," Pfeffel said.
accadis research groups offer specialized know-how
So how exactly does the whole thing work? The three accadis research groups - Digital, Sports Management and Entrepreneurship - offer their know-how with combined man-/womanpower to potentially interested parties. In this way, the university can continue to develop in terms of application-oriented research; companies, associations, and institutions benefit from the content-related expertise of the research and consulting teams and pay manageable rates for the service compared to the renowned consulting companies. The university, in turn, can use the sums raised to further expand its academic staff and at the same time increase the size of its consulting teams. "So it's a perfect match," says Pfeffel, " and I'm very happy that my colleagues immediately agreed and were enthusiastic." Prof. Andreas Dahmen, a longtime lecturer at accadis and Managing Director of GHK Management Consulting, heads the Digital Research Group. Dr. Andreas Walkenhorst, Head of the accadis Institute of Entrepreneurship, heads the Entrepreneurship Group, and Prof. Florian Pfeffel leads the Sports Management team, which has already earned an excellent reputation in terms of research.
Practice proves the idea is right - Numerous projects have already been carried out to everyone's complete satisfaction
Numerous projects that have already been successfully carried out underpin the potential of the initiative. Satisfied clients to date have included the DFB (German Football Association), the DOSB (German Olympic Sports Confederation) and the city and Baugesellschaft Hanau (Hanau Construction Company). The latter had already planned the so-called "House of Working Life," a new government building, before Covid With the pandemic, the framework conditions changed and a need for consulting arose: accadis was called in and and was to conduct a space requirements survey, taking into account digital trends (home office and the increasing digitalization of municipal services). The university's research team on one hand derived the new space requirements "top down" from existing surveys and on the other hand "bottom up" through systematically conducted discussions with the responsible project members of the planning team. This approach provided the research team with certainty, as both methods resulted in the same potential space savings.
Furthermore, the accadis research and consulting team previously supported the DOSB, which wanted to survey the digital maturity level of its 100 member-organizations. The accadis consultants conducted a comprehensive online survey and supported the associations with answers. The collected and processed results were presented to the member organizations; from these, in turn, the university experts developed a catalog of requirements for the DOSB.
Another exciting consulting assignment also stemmed from the sports sector: Here, a sponsoring concept was to be developed with RSV Lahn-Dill, a very successful Paralympic wheelchair basketball club, and HSG Wetzlar, the first handball Bundesliga team. The aim was to identify a main sponsor for both clubs and design a suitable concept - a first in sports sponsorship. "Sports sponsors not only need scope," says Pfeffel, "but also a meaningful story on issues such as social interaction in the high-performance sector. We've achieved that brilliantly here."
The teams are looking forward to more assignments
The accadis research and consulting teams are looking forward to more exciting challenges and projects. Prof. Florian Pfeffel is available for inquiries and will immediately put together a "proposal package" for you in the best consulting manner.