After completing his Master's in Organizational and Social Psychology, Jannick had to choose between pursuing a PhD or starting his career. Ultimately, CPC managed to convince him, leading him to join as a Change Management Consultant. After 1.5 years of valuable experience, he was promoted to Senior Consultant, allowing him to take on even greater responsibility in his project work.
‘You want to change or drive something forward?
– Jannick Benz
Then do it!’
During my studies of organisational and social psychology in London, the start of my professional life was always an important topic. Consultancy was always at the forefront, but with a clear focus on pure strategy or management consulting. However, the content of my studies was so people-centred that I couldn't imagine considering this facet of my life as a consultant as a by-product. When I came into contact with change management for the first time, it was clear to me: that's exactly what it is! Now I just had to find a company that combined the world of change management with consulting practice - and that's how CPC came into play.
Always new paths - a constant learning journey
Consultant at CPC is my first job, so I was expecting a calmer familiarisation and training phase when I started. But that wasn't the case: I was able to dive straight into 3 projects and support the project teams in preparing concepts, training sessions and workshops. It was an incredibly instructive time - both professionally and personally. Just when I thought I had mastered the basics, new challenges arose that demanded new skills. For me, this was the definition of the famous steep learning curve! Even after 2.5 years at CPC, I still don't see any levelling off.
Get on board, drive forward, take responsibility
After just one month, the first internal issue came up, which I was supposed to coordinate together with the CFO. I expected that there would be a clear hierarchical distance between us and that I would be seen more as a helper. But after five minutes, I realised that I was the driving force behind the issue and that the CFO was addressing me as an equal. Respect and trust in the abilities of others have characterised all interactions at CPC for me since then. Do you want to change or drive something forward? Then do it! You can take responsibility for your own topics and put together a team that is behind them.
From the home office to the field
I was sceptical at first when I found out that we were working 100% from home. Now I'm a big fan of the combination of working from home and visiting customers. It helps a lot to spend a few days in my own four walls after a busy week at the customer's premises. And if we ever feel like seeing each other, we book a co-working office, work together a little and chat, of course.
The Change Management Practice
As a change management consultancy, we focus on people - a key success factor that is unfortunately too often not given sufficient consideration. It is important to us to successfully guide employees through the change process, as they are ultimately the ones who drive and implement the change. We therefore always maintain a dialogue with all hierarchical levels and positions in order to have a broad perspective and understand the needs of our employees. An employee once came up to me and said ‘Thank you for making my day-to-day work easier. It's much more fun now’. I knew then that I was doing the right thing here.
