A big move in German restructuring landed this week

Summary: Germany’s largest strategy firm, Roland Berger, and top restructuring leader Ralf Schmitz are founding a joint company for CRO work, aiming to build the strongest restructuring leadership bench in the German-speaking market.

Germany is heading into a heavier restructuring cycle. Financing costs, slower order books, and tighter lender scrutiny are putting pressure on companies across industrials, automotive, energy and mid-cap manufacturing. Against this backdrop, Roland Berger and Ralf Schmitz have announced the creation of a new restructuring vehicle: Ralf Schmitz CRO Management GmbH. It goes live in January 2026.

This is not a small partnership. It is a structural move.

A new powerhouse in German restructuring

Handelsblatt broke the story and Roland Berger confirmed the details: the firm will combine Schmitz’s personal brand with Berger’s global delivery platform to build the largest CRO team in the German-speaking market.

The operating model is clear.
• Schmitz brings credibility with lenders, banks and insolvency stakeholders
• Roland Berger brings scale, expertise and international specialist access
• The new company is designed to deliver experienced CROs who take full operational responsibility in stressed and distressed situations

Marcus Berret, CEO of Roland Berger, described it as creating a new force in restructuring, supported by a large expert team and a global network.

This is not advisory. This is execution.

Why this matters now

1. Restructuring demand is rising: Corporate stress in Germany is no longer isolated to traditional insolvency-heavy sectors. Energy transition pressures, software and automation capex, and supply chain fragility are hitting companies at the same time. Lenders are less patient. Boards are more nervous. CRO demand increases when ambiguity hardens into risk.
2. Operators are in short supply: The market has a deep bench of consultants. It does not have a deep bench of people who can take over a company at speed, manage liquidity, stabilise stakeholders, and run parallel strategic and operational plans. Schmitz is one of the few who can do this. Berger is one of the few firms with internal breadth to support it.
3. Boards want accountability, not presentations: In stressed situations companies want someone who carries the burden, makes the calls, and stands in front of lenders. Advisory-heavy models without operational leadership are losing traction. Trust and authority matter more than headcount.
4. Germany needed a scaled CRO platform: CRO work in the DACH region has been fragmented for years. Strong boutiques and individual operators exist but the market lacked a large, branded, execution-focused platform with national and international coverage. This move fills that gap.

What this signals for consulting firms

This aligns with a wider trend we have covered in recent posts including Why Mid-tier Firms Struggle to Compete (29 Jul 2025) and Partner Hiring in the Age of AI (12 Nov 2025).

Across the Strategy and Restructuring segments three shifts stand out:

Shift 1: Execution credibility beats theoretical expertise
Boards do not need theoretical frameworks in a liquidity crisis. They need CROs who can run day one workstreams, stabilise cash positions, and move stakeholders.

Shift 2: Senior capacity is the bottleneck
AI accelerates classic consulting tasks. It does not create new senior operators. The constraint in restructuring is not data. It is judgment, stakeholder management, and willingness to take accountability.

Shift 3: Cross-border capability is now essential
Many German restructurings involve global supply chains, non-German lenders, offshore entities and international private equity ownership. Berger’s footprint gives the new platform reach that standalone boutiques rarely have.

Implications for hiring and leadership

For firms:

• CRO talent will become harder to hire and more expensive
• Platforms that combine brand, specialist access and proven operators will gain market share
• Clients will judge firms on the strength of their interim leadership bench, not consultant headcount

For senior candidates:

• Execution experience becomes more valuable than transformation experience
• Stakeholder trust becomes the differentiator
• Cross-sector, cross-border and liquidity-heavy cases become career accelerators

From my vantage point in senior search, the signal is clear.
Distressed companies want judgment, speed and credibility in the room. They want people who can steady a board, work with lenders and take responsibility for outcomes.

This new platform positions itself directly at that intersection.

Ben Appleton

Ben Appleton is the founder of Strat-Bridge, a specialist executive search partner to the strategy consulting industry. He works with global consulting firms and senior leaders across the UK, Germany, Switzerland, and beyond — helping them build capability at the Partner and Director level.