“If you’re a consultancy, you need to pick a specific area of expertise, a niche – otherwise you won’t survive.”
This is something we often hear from fellow entrepreneurs, particularly in the consulting world. They firmly believe in the necessity of a clear, content-driven specialisation: become the expert in risk management for financial institutions, marketing strategy for FMCG, IT asset management, or another tightly defined discipline. In this blog, Dolf L’Ortye, co-founder of Summiteers, explains how we look at this question.

Expertise, expertise, and expertise

In conversations, the question often comes up: “So, what’s your specialist area?” There’s a strong assumption that consultancies need to present themselves as experts in a single defined subject matter. It’s a good question – but the answer is more nuanced than you might think.

Here’s how we see it: there are different kinds of expertise. At Summiteers, we are not industry experts in our clients’ businesses. We don’t know everything about international transport, roadside assistance, artist development, hospitals, trade finance, health insurers, and so on. By industry expert I mean someone who knows exactly what’s happening in, say, the insurance sector – which regulations matter, which trends are relevant, and so forth.

Nor are we subject-matter experts in the work done by the departments within our client organisations – risk management, legal, compliance, HR, IT, and so on. A subject-matter expert can tell you exactly how to interpret CSRD legislation or which tech stacks a modern bank should be running.

That said, because we’ve worked with many clients over long periods and across diverse sectors, we do know quite a lot about their businesses. I now understand pretty well how a bank operates, how a call centre runs, or how a pension fund works – and what trends are shaping those industries. The same goes for the functions within companies: I know what IT does, what compliance does, and what’s happening in the world of HR. But we make sure this is never the reason clients hire us. Our starting point is always: “You know your business or department better than we do.” Of course, we share our observations, and clients appreciate that – but our true added value lies elsewhere.

We are experts in organisation and change

Our expertise lies in how to organise a business – and how to make change happen. We’re typically brought in for precisely that combination.

We can advise on operating models – structures, roles and mandates, governance forums – the ways of organising needed to deliver strategy. And we know not just how to design such a model (where change already begins), but also how to implement it. Think roadmaps for delivery, programme and project management – what we call regievoering (or steering and orchestration). That’s our what.

What makes us distinctive is our how: the way we design, plan, and actually realise change. That’s the second strand of our expertise – making change work. We can explain different approaches, how to diagnose situations, what works in which context and why. A defining element of our approach is our focus on development – creating movement through growth. That is a crucial part of our how.

The magic is in the partnership

We combine our expertise with that of the client – and that’s where the magic happens. You can see this reflected in our promises on our website: we make sure it gets done, we do it together, and you’ll learn from it.

It’s like this: bring together a group of people, each with their own strengths, add someone to lead the process – a coach, conductor, captain, call it what you will – and you get something extraordinary. That role suits us well. The client brings in their specialists – business knowledge, customer insights, legal, HR – and we join the orchestra as the ones who know how to organise. Because we also take the lead, it not only gets done, but it’s enjoyable too.

Choosing the right partner for your strategic challenge

Facing a strategic challenge? Ask yourself: what kind of expertise do I need? Someone who knows my industry inside out? A subject-matter specialist, such as in compliance? Or a partner like us – who knows how to organise and deliver change? In my view, all types of expertise are equally valuable. The nature of your challenge and your context determine what you need.

Look for a partner who:

• Truly listens and asks the right questions
• Has experience with similar challenges
• Recognises, leverages, and strengthens your expertise

One final thought: be careful with the term expert. Yes, we are experts in the sense that we have deep knowledge of the things described above. But above all, we are advisers – and that, to me, makes the difference. An adviser always works with the client, for the client, and with attention to the joint process. We are advisers with deep expertise.

Need help translating strategy into action?

We are Summiteers, we create movement, make something complex understandable again, something big manageable, a - vague - idea concrete and make something difficult succeed. We call that strategy execution. Can you use help with this? Take contact with us.

Interested, but not ready for the trip yet? Follow our LinkedIn page and get inspired.

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