Sanet in Transition: A Conversation with Dr. Gunter Denk, Founder of the Sanet Group (Part 2)

Part 2 of 3

On staff turnover, Generation Z, the consultant’s Kama Sutra, and whether a boss needs to be popular

The Sanet Ecosystem: Consulting That Does Not End with the Concept

In Part 1, Gunter Denk spoke about working at 75, succession and letting go. Now the focus shifts to the Sanet Group itself: How can strategic consulting become integrated operational support? What does the Sanet Ecosystem mean, and what kind of people does the company need to make this transformation succeed?

Sawita Iamkaew: In Part 1, we spoke at length about succession, responsibility and your future role. Now let us turn to the Sanet Group itself. What exactly will change with the new Sanet Ecosystem?

Gunter Denk: The most important change is that the Sanet Group is evolving from a predominantly strategic consultancy into an integrated strategic and operational partner for its clients.

Many of our clients have now been active in Thailand for years. They no longer need only a market-entry strategy or legal advice. They need practical support in day-to-day business, in developing their organization and in implementing entrepreneurial decisions.

The Sanet Ecosystem therefore stands for a consulting approach in which strategy and operational support are no longer treated as separate disciplines. We do not merely want to make recommendations. We want to work with the client to turn a good idea into a functioning business solution.

Sawita Iamkaew: Is the Sanet Ecosystem also a response to the fact that traditional management consulting has become too theoretical for many clients?

Gunter Denk: The mocking definition of a management consultant has always been this:

A consultant is like a man who has memorized the entire Kama Sutra but has never actually got to know a woman.

As with every exaggeration, there is a grain of truth in it. Many management consultants have never run a business themselves. They may know the models and strategies, but not necessarily the daily realities of dealing with employees, customers, trade unions and all the unexpected complications of business life.

As an entrepreneur, you quickly learn that planning is often merely the replacement of chance with error. Or more religiously: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans".

What matters really is responding pragmatically when circumstances change and actually putting solutions into practice.

Drawing on my own entrepreneurial experience, I have made our young management team closely familiar with these practical challenges.

Helping our clients solve them is to become an integral part of the Sanet Ecosystem.

Sawita Iamkaew: Is that not a little presumptuous? The Sanet Group is itself a medium-sized company. Are you not overestimating your capabilities if you now want to support almost every area of a business, both strategically and operationally?

Gunter Denk: No, because the new Sanet Ecosystem does not mean that we intend to build up services at random or do everything ourselves.

We are bringing together our existing expertise in marketing, business development, IT, artificial intelligence, recruitment, legal, tax and financial advisory services and aligning all of it with the client’s business objectives.

These areas must no longer operate in isolation. A medium-sized company does not need five consultants and service partners independently delivering five different recommendations. It needs partners who understand the business as a whole, coordinate their specialist areas and develop practical solutions together.

As consultants, we learn from the successes, experiences and setbacks of many different companies. We do not want to use that knowledge only for our clients. We also want to transfer it to them.

Good consulting must not create permanent dependency. It must enable clients to build their own capabilities and effective structures, while delivering services driven by a single, unified vision.

Sawita Iamkaew: Can you give a practical example of what you mean?

Gunter Denk: Certainly. Recruitment is a good example.

We will, of course, continue to fill important key positions for our clients as a highly qualified recruitment consultancy.

At the same time, we can use our experience to develop the internal recruitment capabilities and HR processes of our medium-sized clients. That includes defining a position properly, approaching suitable candidates in a targeted way and assessing not only professional competence but also personality and cultural fit.

We do not merely advise in theory. Together with the client, we develop processes, tools and capabilities that can work successfully within the company over the long term.

That is the core of the Sanet Ecosystem: connecting existing capabilities, making experience from many companies useful and strengthening the client both strategically and operationally. The Sanet Group is thus developing from a consultant for individual strategic projects into a long-term entrepreneurial partner.

Sawita Iamkaew: If you also support clients operationally, does that not create precisely the kind of dependency that good consulting should avoid?

Gunter Denk: Only if operational support is misunderstood. Our aim is not to take over tasks permanently that the client should be able to master independently. We can assume responsibility for a limited period, build processes and assist with implementation. At the same time, we must transfer knowledge and enable the client’s own employees.

Nor do we want to become dependent on any single client. Economic dependency quickly erodes professional independence and turns a consultant into someone who merely follows instructions.

Sawita Iamkaew: The Sanet Ecosystem requires different specialist areas to work closely together and share responsibility. Is this transformation not at least as much about people and corporate culture as it is about organisation?

Gunter Denk: That is exactly the crucial point.

An ecosystem is not created simply by placing different services next to one another on a website. It works only when people think beyond the boundaries of their own specialist field, share knowledge and accept joint responsibility for the result.

The best concepts are worthless without the right people. And people change from one generation to the next.

We should not forget that my generation was extremely fortunate. In Europe in particular, we enjoyed a long period of peace, and if we worked hard, we could be fairly confident that our economic prospects would improve.

Generation Z is growing up under different conditions. Its expectations of work, leadership and personal development are therefore partly different and not always easy for our generation to understand.

But I am not one of those who therefore dismiss today’s generation as generally inferior, less capable or even incompetent.

Sawita Iamkaew: That sounds almost a little too diplomatic. In the consulting business, you cannot always have had good experiences with the high turnover among younger employees.

Gunter Denk: Let me add one more thought about Generation Z.

Older generations have always looked critically at those who followed them. Yet younger people have repeatedly solved their own problems and moved their world forward.

I trust them to do so again today.

Sawita Iamkaew: Are you avoiding the subject of staff turnover?

Gunter Denk: Not at all. Staff turnover is always related to both leadership and employees.

Let us begin with leadership. Everyone likes to be popular. But a leader is not there to be loved. What matters is demonstrating competence and fairness, achieving results together and ensuring that the entire team shares visibly in both the economic success and the sense of collective achievement.

By mental participation, I mean that employees understand the purpose of their work, receive recognition, are able to take responsibility and experience the shared success as their own. That requires allowing them to achieve something themselves and make a visible contribution to the result.

That is how a team develops in which people take responsibility and identify with the shared success.

Sawita Iamkaew: And yet young people today change jobs much more frequently and much sooner?

Gunter Denk: Yes. Many listen to teachers and acquaintances who tell them that frequent job changes mean broader experience and a steeper career path. Others eventually realise that their expectations and the company’s requirements do not match. They then leave the team.

A company has to be able to deal with that.

Look at successful companies today. They are usually sustained by a small core of competent, loyal and, at the same time, critical employees. That core must be recognised, developed and cared for.

Even though staff turnover is higher today than it used to be, the answer is not to condemn an entire generation. The task is to find the right people, give them responsibility and trust them to find their own successful path.

That has always been the case. And there are still plenty of such people today.

You will find them in the Sanet Group.

Sawita Iamkaew: So you are not simply looking for qualified employees but for a rather rare type of person. What does someone need to fit the Sanet Group?

Gunter Denk: Competence, resilience and the courage to offer intelligent dissent. Those qualities have always been difficult to find.

To me, competence means more than a good education or an impressive CV. What matters is whether someone can apply knowledge in practice, solve problems and take responsibility for the results.

Resilience becomes visible when things become difficult or mistakes are made. It means addressing problems openly, seeking support in good time and accepting responsibility for the solution. Some people prefer to conceal their mistakes rather than ask the team or their manager for help. Once the problem becomes obvious, they withdraw instead of taking responsibility.

That is precisely when the old saying applies: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”

Sawita Iamkaew: What exactly do you mean by intelligent dissent? Is any disagreement not exhausting for a leader at first?

Gunter Denk: Of course it is exhausting. And sometimes even I have to take a deep breath when I do not regard a particular objection as especially intelligent.

But should I really look for employees who simply agree with everything I say? Then my own competence becomes the limit of the company and a brake on its growth.

A leader should even make sure that senior employees are better than the leader in their respective specialist fields. In that case, professional disagreement is not merely useful but essential.

Intelligent dissent is grounded in expertise, focused on solutions and combined with a willingness to accept responsibility. It is not enough merely to explain why something will not work. One should also propose a better solution and be prepared to help implement it.

I am still in close contact with former employees from my first professional life in Germany, people with whom I often debated important decisions quite fiercely. Many later took senior positions in major companies or became successful entrepreneurs themselves. Some were probably more successful in their fields than I would ever have been.

I still have to smile when they quote principles and rules back to me today that I no longer even remember. Apparently, the provocative statements were the most memorable.

The best employees were therefore not always those who agreed with me most often. They were frequently the ones who challenged me, had good arguments and were then prepared to accept responsibility.

Those are exactly the people the Sanet Ecosystem needs: specialists who do not merely agree but debate together in pursuit of the best solution for the client.

In Part 3, we discuss changing client expectations, artificial intelligence and the importance of cultural understanding for successful management consulting in Thailand.

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