Consulting and recruitment, Reutlingen
We deliver the plan and the people who carry it out.
For owner-led companies with roughly 20 to 500 staff. Advice that reaches the shop floor, and the people to carry the change. Owner-led in Reutlingen, for over 45 years.
Over 45 years in business · 320+ projects supported · 5,000+ professionals in our own network
The starting point
The idea is rarely the problem. Getting it into the business is.
Succession has been on the table for three years. The order process keeps sticking, and everyone in the building knows it. A key role has been vacant for months, and the owner is covering the work on the side. None of this is unclear. It stays undone because nobody picks it up alongside the daily business.
That is where we start. Not with a presentation, but with a plan that can be carried out with the people and means at hand. And where the people are missing, we fill the role from our own network.
What we do
Two fields, one standard.
Consulting and recruitment work into each other here. Changing a structure usually means finding the right people for it.
Strategic business consulting
Ordering structures, preparing handovers, simplifying workflows. Hands-on and all the way into the business.
- Restructuring and succession
- Company sale and mergers
- Digitalisation and processes
- Software development and websites
Recruitment and headhunting
One of our oldest and largest fields. We fill roles where the wrong hire becomes expensive.
- Specialists and managers, permanent
- Medical and care staff
- Interim management for periods of change
- Freelancers for defined projects
Consulting
Ten fields in which we have already delivered.
Not a statement of intent. In nine of these ten fields we have carried out projects, repeatedly and over years. The tenth, AI and automation, is deliberately marked as a newer field.
Management and business consulting
The frame for everything else: strategy, governance and leadership.
Done repeatedlyRestructuring the organisation
Building and reordering company structures.
Done repeatedlyFinance and controlling
Figures that arrive in time and that decisions can rest on.
Done repeatedlySuccession planning
Handing over to the next generation or to an outside party.
Done repeatedlyCompany sale and mergers
From sale to merger, prepared and seen through.
Done repeatedlyExpansion and new locations
Growth into new regions or lines of business, in an orderly way.
Done repeatedlyDigitalisation and processes
Simplifying workflows, closing the gaps between systems.
Done repeatedlySoftware development and websites
Applications and web presences built rather than bought off the shelf.
Done repeatedlyAI and automation
Automating where it pays off. Not everywhere.
Newer fieldSales and growth
Sales strategy, channels and management for mid-sized companies.
Done repeatedly
How we work
Four steps, until it runs without us.
We do not work to a template. The sequence is the same every time nonetheless, because it has held up over decades.
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Listening and doing the maths
A conversation, a look at the figures, a walk through the operation. What comes out of it is an honest assessment, including the uncomfortable parts.
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A plan that fits the business
Whatever we propose has to be workable with the people and means available. Otherwise we do not propose it.
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Going in with you
We stay involved while it is put into practice, on site rather than from a distance. Where a role is missing, we fill it from our own network.
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Handing over, not holding on
The aim is that it runs without us. A mandate that never ends is a bad sign for both sides.
05 Network
A network grown over decades.
Owners, specialists and managers, advisers and partners, built up over decades in the same region. Not a bought database, but people we have already worked with. Mandates, succession solutions and appointments come out of it, often before anyone starts looking.
How we see it
Turning a mandate down costs us less than delivering something nobody can use.
So we say early on when a plan makes no sense to us. Over 45 years in the same region: we meet our clients again, and that keeps us honest more reliably than any mission statement.
Who we work with
We are not right for everyone. That is deliberate.
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Owner-led mid-sized companies
Roughly 20 to 500 staff, where decisions are still made at the table rather than in committee. Industry and mechanical engineering are what we know best, but no sector is ruled out.
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A question that has been waiting a while
Succession, a sale, a merger, a structure that has fallen out of time. Matters you cannot settle on the side, and that get more expensive with every year of delay.
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Anyone who only wants a report
If you need a presentation that then goes into a drawer, we are the wrong firm. We only work where carrying it out is part of the job.
Group
Where a project goes beyond consulting, the group takes over.
Both divisions are in development. They belong to DROST Consulting GmbH & Co. KG and are not shareholdings.
Questions
What owners ask before they call.
What does it cost?
That depends on the scope, and this is not an evasion but the reason we have a conversation before every proposal. What we can promise: before we start, you receive a written estimate of effort together with the scope of work. We do not begin without that basis, and anything not in it is not charged.
How long does a mandate take?
Anywhere from a few weeks to several years, and the range comes from the task rather than from us. A process project in one area is done in a few months. A succession is prepared over several years, because the company has to become ready for handover in that time. In the first conversation we will tell you roughly where your project sits.
Who will actually be working in our business?
You speak to Thomas Drost first, and he remains your contact. Nobody here sells a mandate and then hands it to a team you have never met. Where additional experience is needed to carry the work out, we bring it in from our network, and you are told beforehand who is coming and why.
You advise and place staff at the same time. Is that not a conflict of interest?
It is a fair question, so here is a clear answer: we do not propose an appointment in order to generate a placement fee. If a role is not needed in our view, we say so. The other way round, the advantage is real: knowing the structure also means knowing who fits into it.
One conversation is enough to know whether it fits.
In the first conversation we work out what this is about, what is realistic, and whether we are the right people for it. If we are not, we will say so.
No obligation.