Training suite for restructuring advisory firms

We know restructuring
from the inside.
Enabling people is our craft.

One continuous training suite across all levels — from Consulting Readiness to Inspire Leadership. Developed by former top-tier consultants with more than 15 years at McKinsey and Roland Berger, in use today at leading firms in the German restructuring market.

Proven in restructuringCases from turnarounds, independent business reviews and restructuring — not from the textbook
Across all levelsOne logic from analyst to partner — Lead Self · Lead Others · Lead Change
Leadership & craftProblem solving, hypothesis trees and client interactions are part of it
Hands-onSimulations with works council, lenders and CRO instead of slide lectures
Selected clients
Scroll
About us

Who works with you

Two former top-tier consultants who know restructuring, transformation and leadership pressure from their own practice — and who both deliver the trainings in person. With us, it is always the duo in the room, never a junior stand-in.

Portrait of Frederic Rupprecht

Frederic Rupprecht

Co-Founder & Managing Partner
  • Former Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company
  • Performance transformation & turnaround strategies for industrials and automotive
  • Harvard Kennedy School (MPP), LL.M. University of London
  • Industry Advisor Technology & Consulting, University of Oxford
Portrait of Jonathan M. Günak

Jonathan M. Günak

Co-Founder & Managing Partner
  • Former Principal, Roland Berger
  • Former member of the Technology Council, Dürr AG
  • LSE MSc — Best Overall Performance
  • Digital, agile and cultural transformation
The situation & our view

Why development works differently in restructuring

What we see in restructuring firms
  • Hard-hitting teams that have built a market position in restructuring, transformation and corporate finance that reaches far beyond their size.
  • In a firm of this size, everyone takes on responsibility early: the jump from analyst into the client meeting, and from senior consultant into steering the project, happens faster than in large firms — with less of a buffer.
  • Restructuring intensifies this: deadline pressure, lender committees, works councils, existential decisions. Technical excellence alone does not carry you here — it takes stance, clarity and leadership under pressure.
  • That is exactly why development here is not a nice-to-have but a driver of quality and retention: enabling people early secures engagements and keeps talent.
“Restructuring does not forgive a learning curve at the client’s expense. Leadership has to be there from day one.”
1
A steep learning curve under crisis pressure
Data room, liquidity planning, IBR deadline — and at the same time your first own client meeting. Structure and self-management decide the quality.
2
Leadership without formal authority
On an engagement, people lead before their title says so — towards the team, the client, lenders and the works council. It can be learned, but is rarely trained in a structured way.
3
Growth needs scalable leadership
For strong consultants to become strong project leads, and project leads to become partners, you need a shared leadership language across all levels.
Why us of all people

Restructuring is our home turf

We do not train restructuring advisory firms because we have a training product that fits any industry. We train them because we come from this business ourselves — and because leading firms in the German restructuring market have engaged us for exactly that.

Restructuring reference

Leading restructuring firm

For one of the leading restructuring firms in Germany, we design and deliver training and concept formats across all levels — tailored to the reality of turnaround engagements, expert opinions and stakeholder situations that participants work in every day.

Active engagement · all levelsRestructuring & transformation
Restructuring reference

Restructuring and transformation firm

For another restructuring firm, we work across all levels — from enabling future project leads to in-depth, individually tailored formats at partner level. With simulations on delegation, conflict resolution and stakeholder pressure taken straight from day-to-day turnaround work.

Active engagement · all levelsTailored partner formats
+

… and many more

Besides these two restructuring firms, we work with consultancies, industrial companies, associations and foundations — from mid-sized businesses to international groups. We are happy to share references and contacts in conversation.

ConsultingIndustryPublic & NGO
Where we come from
McKinsey & Company
Frederic Rupprecht
Former Associate Partner Performance transformation, turnaround strategies and cost programmes — plus internal trainer certification in one of the world’s strongest L&D systems.
Roland Berger
Jonathan M. Günak
Former Principal Strategy, performance and digital transformation across industries — including the methodology we now pass on in our technical craft modules.
More than 15 years of top-tier consulting. Our technical modules — problem solving, hypothesis trees, storylining, client interactions — build directly on the training content we were trained with ourselves.
From the engine room
We know the pressure because we have worked in it — board work, turnaround logic, lender committees, lists of measures.
Consultants enabling consultants
No outside trainer persona: we speak the language of the data room and the steering committee — which earns credibility from the first minute.
Trainer craft on top
First-class trainer education, MBTI certification, our own 360° leadership assessment and more than 1,000 interviews and coaching sessions at international business schools.
Cases we train

Our role plays and simulations are not made on the drawing board. They reflect situations that actually occur in a turnaround engagement.

Stakeholders

Works council and a plant closure

Communicating with sensitive stakeholders when the message is unpopular and the facts are clear.

Committee

Presenting to the lender group

Presenting under scrutiny, withstanding tough questions and building confidence in the plan.

C-suite

The turnaround story with the CEO

Structuring the turnaround logic so that it holds up technically and still connects emotionally.

Owners

Political resistance from PE shareholders

Recognising interests, putting headwinds into context and still moving decisions forward.

Client

Kick-off at an overwhelmed family business

Clarifying roles, expectations and ways of working when uncertainty dominates on the client side.

Team

Time pressure in the virtual data room

Prioritising, managing workload and holding quality when everything is urgent at once.

+ and many more

We build cases on your engagements

The preliminary interviews give rise to scenarios your participants will recognise — from the IBR deadline to the difficult escalation.

The training suite

One architecture. Three pillars that support each other.

Our entire suite rests on three pillars — and they do not stand side by side, they interlock. If you cannot steer yourself, you cannot lead a team. If you do not lead a team, you will not drive change. And if you drive change, you are thrown back on yourself. Hover over a segment or tap it.

LEADBeyond Everything is
connected
Alongside the three pillars

The technical craft is part of it

Leadership alone does not make a good consultant. That is why hard consulting methodology is a fixed part of our suite — shaped by our own training and practice at McKinsey and Roland Berger, translated into the reality of mid-market turnaround engagements. These modules are built into the levels below and marked Craft there.

Craft 1

Problem solving & hypothesis tree

Defining the problem cleanly · inductive and deductive approaches · pyramid principle · hypothesis-driven analysis · issue trees and scoping the solution space · storylining and charts that make the point.

Craft 2

Effective client interactions

Writing precise data requests · building effective meeting agendas · conducting structured client interviews · leading client conversations and committee meetings with confidence.

Craft 3

Data science & modelling

Data analysis and “connecting the dots” · introduction to advanced analytics · business case and financial modelling · project management 101 as a shared way of working.

Supported by MBTI and our proprietary 360° leadership assessment.

The journey

From analyst to partner — what really shifts

Scroll through the four levels. On the left you can see how the weight shifts between the three pillars: those who at first mainly need to manage themselves end up leading entire change processes.

Level 1

Consulting Readiness

Solid craft, clear head
Lead Self60%
Lead Others25%
Lead Change15%
Level 1

Consulting Readiness

AnalystConsultant

New to the firm, straight onto an engagement. The learning curve is steep: tools, communication standards, quality expectations — and at the same time handling time pressure and unclear priorities. This phase decides whether someone experiences the load as overwhelming or as craft.

“I never know when something is good enough — and I rarely get structured feedback.”
Level 2

Accelerate

Senior Consultant 1Senior Consultant 2

The in-between role: full complexity, but not yet full authority. The first leadership tasks arrive without preparation — steering workstreams, guiding analysts, giving feedback. At the same time, expectations around client contact and self-organisation rise sharply.

“I’m already leading, but nobody ever showed me how it actually works.”
Level 3

Embark as Project Manager

Senior Consultant 2Manager

Several engagements, high time pressure, little room to delegate. This is where the lever finally shifts: away from your own output, towards steering the team, the client and committees. Those who cannot let go here stay trapped in operations — and the team takes no responsibility.

“I’m stuck too deep in the day-to-day — and my team waits for instructions instead of driving things themselves.”
Level 4

Inspire Leadership

PrincipalPartner

Business development, client relationships and culture become the main job. The aim: building relationships without selling; delegating without controlling; anchoring leadership in the firm instead of correcting course yourself. This is where the firm’s leadership culture is created — or missing.

“The pressure to sell keeps growing, but there is no structured way to build relationships systematically.”
The four levels in detail

Same language, different weighting

Pick a level: you will see the target group, the rhythm, the weighting of the three pillars, the typical pain points, the training need that follows from them, selected modules including technical craft, and the simulations we use to put it all into practice.

Our approach

From problem to practice — in four steps

Every module follows the same logic. We do not start with the model but with the pain — and we do not stop at the aha moment but at the transfer into the next project day.

Problem

Creating relevance

Using short cases, films and live polls, we make visible where things actually get stuck day to day — with data from preliminary interviews and current engagement situations.

ExampleWhy do teams fail? We capture live what typically makes projects fail in the firm.
Inform

Providing a framework

We introduce a robust model — grounded in research and the work of leading thinkers, but always reduced to what is needed.

ExampleTuckman’s five stages of team development, or adaptive leadership after Ronald Heifetz.
Train

Trying it out

Role plays and group simulations followed by reflection. This is about practising, not listening — including video reflection where it helps.

ExampleA feedback conversation with a defensive analyst — based on a script drawn from real situations.
Transfer

Anchoring

Everyone leaves the training with a concrete plan for the coming weeks — plus tools to capture what they have learned.

ExampleA personal development agenda plus a debrief call with HR and leadership after the training.
Assessment

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

MBTI as a practical framework for reflecting on working, communication and leadership preferences — in the team as well as individually. Both facilitators are certified.

  • Four dimensions, 16 types — as a shared language in the team
  • We combine MBTI with role plays and real cases rather than type folklore
  • Directly applicable to team composition, delegation and resolving conflict
360°by LEADBeyond
Assessment

Proprietary leadership assessment

Our own instrument along the three pillars: Lead Self, Lead Others, Lead Change — with feedback from all directions and its own dashboard.

  • Feedback from peers, team members and managers
  • Strengths and development areas across all three leadership dimensions
  • Concrete recommendations from day zero — not only after the training
More on this below ↓
What this looks like in practice

A sample training agenda

So the approach does not stay abstract: this is what a two-day Consulting Readiness format could look like. Full days, two facilitators, with 1:1 reflection conversations at the end of each day.

Day 1

Manage Self & Communicate Smart

Opening & objectives30 min
  • Warm-up, clarifying expectations and learning goals
  • Reflecting back the results of the preliminary interviews
Managing Self, Stress, Timing & Priorities2–3 hrs
  • Prioritisation & agenda-setting under deadline pressure
  • Planning with buffers, realistic deadlines
  • Recognising stress and actively managing it
  • Peak performance and the flow state
References: Eisenhower matrix · Covey · Csíkszentmihályi · Kabat-Zinn
Lunch break
Core Communication Skills4–6 hrs
  • Mastering spoken and written communication
  • Active listening and the four-sides model
  • Presenting top-down, body language, assertiveness
  • Role play with simulated critical questions
References: Schulz von Thun · Amy Cuddy · Pease
1:1 reflection conversations
  • Personal coaching, pulse check, individual feedback
Day 2

Crack the Problem

Effective Problem SolvingFull day
  • Defining the problem cleanly instead of solving it too fast
  • Inductive and deductive approaches, pyramid principle
  • Hypothesis-driven analysis and hypothesis tree
  • Scoping the solution space and cutting it into workstreams
  • Building storylines and charts that make the point
References: de Bono (Six Hats) · Toyoda (5 Whys) · Minto logic · methodology from McKinsey and Roland Berger
Simulation on a restructuring caseIntegrated
  • Hypothesis tree on a realistic turnaround case
  • Prioritising five to-dos and working through them in order
  • Conducting a first structured client interview
1:1 reflection conversations
  • Capturing a transfer plan for the next four weeks

An example. We tailor length, depth and choice of cases to your target group and the reality of your engagements.

Why the whole suite

The leverage lies between the levels

Individual trainings have a one-off effect. A continuous suite changes how a firm works together — because it creates a shared language and makes the friction between levels visible.

01

Learning synergies across all levels

The Lead Self – Lead Others – Lead Change framework is the same at every level. Same terms, same models — but clearly differentiated in depth, complexity and application. No duplication, full differentiation.

02

We see the systemic friction

Because we enable every level, we see patterns that never become visible from a single level. If a senior consultant says “my manager delegates vaguely and at the last minute”, that feeds straight into the manager training — anonymised, but effective.

03

Proven impact

From the Embark and Inspire pilot formats: a Net Promoter Score of 90%. At least 30% of discussion time was about cross-level experiences — and that was exactly the strongest driver of the ratings.

04

One partner instead of five providers

Fewer coordination loops, less onboarding, more pace. Shared templates, a shared language and shared logic reduce friction — and increase learning impact, because nothing has to be explained twice.

05

Trainings become a system

Instead of isolated one-off events, a learning journey emerges that grows with the people. Whoever goes through Consulting Readiness today will already know the language when they reach Inspire Leadership in five years.

06

No need to do it all at once

The suite is modular. You can pilot one level and expand later — the architecture stays compatible because it was thought through from the start.

Why LEADBeyond

Experience you can build on

★★★★★
Consistently 5 out of 5 stars in the feedback on our trainings.
0
Increase in retention when investing in development
0
Return on investment from L&D benchmarks
0
Interviews & coaching sessions at business schools
0
Net Promoter Score from the pilot formats

Sources: LinkedIn Learning Report 2020 · Harvard Business Review · own calculation based on 10% lower attrition and a 10% productivity gain.

„

Because you come from consulting, you understand our day-to-day. That made the discussions and reflections enormously valuable.

Participant · restructuring advisory
„

I have attended many trainings, but you opened my eyes in many ways and showed me new perspectives.

Participant · leadership programme
„

The trainings should be rolled out and linked across all hierarchy levels so the whole organisation benefits.

Participant · senior management
„

The exercises showed me how little attention we pay to the needs of the younger people in the team.

Participant · project leadership
„

You complement each other perfectly as a team — as facilitators, you guided us through the workshop superbly.

Participant · workshop feedback
„

I really appreciated that you brought in current, research-based concepts — it kept the discussion well-grounded.

Participant · leadership training
Outlook · optional

And if development should become measurable: LEADBeyond 360°

Classic 360° feedback measures what someone does. Our own instrument measures why it happens — and what blocks it under pressure. Six levels: from inner beliefs through capabilities and stress triggers to visible behaviour, impact and wellbeing.

We developed the instrument ourselves and calibrated it for boutique consultancies. It is already in use at several consulting firms — mainly as a baseline before the training and as proof of impact afterwards.

99 items 12 dimensions 6 measurement levels 7 limiting tendencies 18 min self-assessment
View the platform Open the live dashboard
Executive summary of the LEADBeyond 360° dashboard with Leadership Orientation Ratio, effectiveness, wellbeing and followership
Radar of the twelve progressive leadership dimensions comparing self, others and benchmark
Task vs. relationship balance by rater group
Live dashboard · demo cohort
The causal chain — click a level
Classic 360° feedback only captures the last two levels.
+ Wellbeing
The energy buffer runs across all levels: it decides how quickly triggers kick in and whether beliefs turn into behaviour at all. Six items on workload, recovery and purpose.
r = 0.93

The strongest single predictor of performance

The Leadership Orientation Ratio measures the ratio of progressive to limiting competencies. Across more than 500,000 assessments, this ratio is the best single predictor of business performance — by comparison, personality tests come in at r = 0.20 to 0.35.

Anderson & Adams, Mastering Leadership (2016)
Blind spots

Over-raters are the risky group

Those who see themselves more favourably than others do see no need to act — and that has a measurable cost: over-rating correlates with lower team engagement and higher attrition. We predict the perception gap and test it against the data.

Robert Kegan, In Over Our Heads (1994)
5 patterns

We see when leadership tips over under pressure

Ten trigger items show which defence pattern takes over under stress: over-control, over-performance, avoidance, pleasing or distancing. The very strengths that made someone successful become their Achilles heel under pressure.

Kets de Vries, INSEAD · Heifetz, Adaptive Leadership

How this works with the trainings

As a baseline before Embark or Inspire, the assessment surfaces the topics that really need work in the room — including the friction between levels. In the follow-up session a year later, it becomes a before-and-after. Optional and bookable independently of the training package.

Fully anonymous, mobile-optimised survey Tailored questionnaire for each rater group Dashboard with 12 views — from the executive summary down to single items HR administration with completion tracking and reminders Industry benchmark for boutique consulting
Working together

Three steps to the right curriculum

We do not deliver off-the-shelf programmes. Before we propose anything, we want to understand how work actually gets done at your firm.

1

Understand

  • Selected interviews with designated participants and leaders
  • Optional: 360° leadership assessment as a baseline
  • Optional: alignment with the target skill matrix
approx. 1 week
2

Tailor

  • Design the curriculum around your specific challenges
  • Fill it with practical learning methods and real cases
  • Tailor simulations to your types of engagement
approx. 1 week
3

Sharpen & anchor

  • Fine-tuning with HR and leadership
  • Showing the link to overarching business goals
  • Securing backing within the partnership
a few days

On format: we always work in full-day sessions with two facilitators — continuous facilitation, parallel observation and clean documentation. Preparation, materials and a debrief call with HR and leadership are always included. We are happy to discuss terms directly.

Next steps

Let’s get specific

A first conversation in which we understand how development is organised at your firm today and where an outside perspective would have the greatest leverage. From that, we put together a concrete proposal.

1
Agree on target groups & levels together
2
Preliminary interviews & choice of cases
3
Schedule a pilot format
Book a meeting
Jonathan M. Günak · Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Frederic Rupprecht · Co-Founder & Managing Partner
info@leadbeyond.de