Head of the week: "The importance of strategic consulting is constantly increasing".
Andreas Thommen is leaving the Wirz Group and will become a partner at Hirzel Neef Schmid Consultants in the middle of the year
Andreas Thommen leaves the Wirz Group and becomes a partner of Hirzel Neef Schmid Konsulenten in the middle of the yearActually, Andreas Thommen wanted to become a lawyer. But things turned out differently: He earned his bread and butter as a freelance journalist while still a student. In the early 1980s, the trained lawyer joined the NZZ as an editorial assistant. In 1984, Thommen switched from journalism to PR. Why? "On the one hand, I had a hereditary predisposition, because my father was a lecturer in public relations. On the other hand, I was interested in becoming entrepreneurial within communications," he recalls. Thommen joined the Wirz Group 18 years ago as a PR editor and consultant. Just a short time later, he was appointed a member of the Executive Board and Consulting Group Manager of Wirz Public Relations. Since then, Thommen has climbed the career ladder inexorably. Within the Group, he headed the Frontpage, Wirz Public Relations and Wirz Investor Relations companies. Today, he is the managing partner of these companies. What prompted him to leave the Wirz Group after such a long time to join Hirzel Neef Schmid Konsulenten? "I see the change as a logical development of my previous work," says Thommen.
For Thommen, managing the Wirz Group meant increasingly having to perform management tasks as well: "This left less and less time for my core discipline, customer consulting," he says. In addition to the desire to devote himself primarily to customers again, he would also like to focus more specifically on strategic consulting in the future. According to Thommen, the importance of strategic consulting within communications is steadily increasing: "In the future, strategic consulting will be separate from traditional communications. This will result in cooperation with various agencies that have special implementation expertise," says Thommen. In this respect, he describes the move to Hirzel as a logical continuation of his previous activities: "Wirz is a strongly creation- and implementation-oriented company, while the consultants focus on strategic consulting and supporting executives."
Thommen vigorously denies rumors that a joint venture between the two companies is planned. However, he does not rule out partial cooperation: "Due to the given constellation, there are common interfaces that could definitely be used for a collaboration. Daniela Zivadinovic
For Thommen, managing the Wirz Group meant increasingly having to perform management tasks as well: "This left less and less time for my core discipline, customer consulting," he says. In addition to the desire to devote himself primarily to customers again, he would also like to focus more specifically on strategic consulting in the future. According to Thommen, the importance of strategic consulting within communications is steadily increasing: "In the future, strategic consulting will be separate from traditional communications. This will result in cooperation with various agencies that have special implementation expertise," says Thommen. In this respect, he describes the move to Hirzel as a logical continuation of his previous activities: "Wirz is a strongly creation- and implementation-oriented company, while the consultants focus on strategic consulting and supporting executives."
Thommen vigorously denies rumors that a joint venture between the two companies is planned. However, he does not rule out partial cooperation: "Due to the given constellation, there are common interfaces that could definitely be used for a collaboration. Daniela Zivadinovic
