1. Expertise
I only take on assignments for which the necessary skills, experience and staff can be provided. I seek solutions that are best suited to the state of the art, the development of the industry and the needs of my clients. I make every effort to continuously improve my knowledge, skills and techniques and make the benefits of these improvements fully available to my clients.
2. Integrity and effectiveness
I only recommend my services if I expect my work to benefit the client. I provide realistic performance, schedule and cost estimates and endeavour to meet them. I do not only provide expert opinions or recommendations, but also help to realise the proposals and work with the client until they are able to continue the task without further help from me. I am aware that, in addition to the objective solution, human relations are of great importance. I therefore endeavour to work in harmony with my clients and their employees.
3. Objectivity, neutrality and personal responsibility
As a matter of principle, I act on my own responsibility and do not accept any restriction of my independence by the expectations of third parties when carrying out my work. I provide unbiased and objective advice and also speak openly about unpleasant matters. I do not provide expert opinions as a favour. I am committed to neutrality towards suppliers who are necessary for the realisation of my proposals and do not demand or accept any commissions, expense allowances or similar from them. If I recommend suppliers, this is only done on the basis of the client's requirements or a comparative analysis of the services offered by the suppliers.
4. Incompatible activities
Accepting assignments for activities that jeopardise compliance with professional duties and minimum standards of professional ethics is incompatible with the profession of management consultant.
5. Confidentiality
I treat all internal processes and information of the client that become known to me through my work as strictly confidential. In particular, order-related documents are not passed on to third parties. I do not grant a general exclusion of competition; in special cases, written agreements are made in this regard. I consider myself authorised to publish client lists, but will only name clients as references with their prior consent.
6. Non-solicitation
I do not directly or indirectly offer employees of my clients positions with myself or other clients. I also expect my clients not to conduct recruitment negotiations with any of my employees and not to poach them during our cooperation. I require my employees not to negotiate employment with the client for the duration of the client relationship, in order to ensure the objectivity of their work. I do not solicit employees from other consultancies in a way that is contrary to morality or competition.
7. Fair competition
With the exception of preparing and submitting offers, I do not provide any preliminary services free of charge, nor do I offer labour or other services on a trial basis. I respect the intellectual property rights to proposals, concepts and publications of others and only use such material with reference to the source. Where objectively necessary, I only recommend colleagues whose level of performance is known to me. In the case of cooperations — unless it is a matter of capacity equalisation — I explain openly and clearly to the client who is responsible for the project and the nature and scope of the cooperation.
8. Reasonable pricing
I charge fees that are commensurate with the nature and scope of the work carried out and that have been agreed with the client before the start of the consultancy work. I only submit fixed-price offers for projects whose scope is clear and for which the scope and degree of difficulty of the problems to be solved have been worked out precisely, clearly and bindingly for both contracting parties following preliminary investigations for which a fee is payable. I specify my offers in such a way that the client knows what other costs will be charged in addition to the fee.
9. Reputable advertising
I am committed to serious behaviour in advertising and acquisition and present my qualifications solely in terms of my skills and experience. In my descriptions of turnover, employees, areas of activity, etc., I keep to the current status and do not announce any spectacular plans for the future.