Latest news from MK Consulting
01 / 2025
The analysis of 2024 - the outlook for 2025
“Flexibility, responsiveness, reliability and trust were essential qualities for many companies in a wide range of sectors in 2024 and will likely remain so in 2025 in order to succeed in a challenging economic environment. Furthermore, it has been shown once again that in the field of management consulting, investment projects and also in the sports industry, the international approach is very important and the way to the customer and analyzing and working on projects & customer on site under the motto “Boots on the Ground” are decisive success factors. For MK Consulting GmbH, the strategic approach of diversifying business areas was, is and remains the right way to successfully develop the company since 07/2021 - maintaining and continuously expanding personal relationships across different industries and areas are key success factors.
The most intensive and extensive fields of activity in 2024 were the various projects of the KENSTON Group. On numerous business trips to New Dehli, Mumbai, Los Angeles, New York, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, London, Nice, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, among other places, numerous new strategic ideas were discussed and evaluated on the ground together with KENSTON CEO Sebastian Uckermann, true to the motto “boots on the ground”, and the existing business areas were consistently further developed. In addition to acquiring new customers in the area of KENSTON Pension (the focus here is on taking over pension obligations of German medium-sized companies), finding new projects and investment opportunities with KENSTON Business (here KENSTON acts as an investor, co-investor worldwide or finds investors for partners in its international network of partners), since Q4/ 2024, the focus is on the one hand on evaluating and implementing further locations in addition to the existing hubs in Cologne/Düsseldorf, London, Vienna and Dubai, and on the other hand, with the “Global Economics” project with the Dubai/UAE hub, the next big step in the development of the KENSTON Group is imminent - we will also be able to report some interesting news on this in the coming weeks and months.
With USC ltd (Unique Soccer Cooperations), some interesting new projects have been started and implemented from the headquarters in Vienna. For example, a partnership has been concluded with the football academy project “The MAKER” of the former Egyptian star player MIDO (including Olympique Marseille, clubs in the Premiere League) in order to provide comprehensive advice and support in sporting and structural matters on site and to establish partnerships with international clubs (in Europe, but also other continents) in the coming months. Likewise, the business area “soccer camps/soccer school” was consistently developed with partners in the entire D-A-CH region - the first camps took place in Vienna in the summer of 2024, and locations throughout Austria have already been set for 2025 - in addition, several company cups will also take place in order to create an ideal networking and business platform in addition to the sport.
It was also exciting to develop the idea of the “UNIQUE Group” in some sectors with a few colleagues from USC GmbH as a spin-off. In 2024, the UJC ltd has already been implemented to help companies in Germany and Austria to overcome the shortage of skilled workers, especially in the areas of nursing and IT, but also for truck drivers in the short and medium term. This group of companies will be expanded to include several new companies in the coming months, and we will report on this on an ongoing basis.
And the idea of designing and structuring a fund to pre-finance targeted transfer payments and other investments by football clubs was also developed in addition to the above-mentioned fields of the UNIQUE Group, with the aim of reaching market maturity by 2025.
With the participation in the company “Die Karrierebegleiter ltd - DKB”, another investment of MK Consulting GmbH was consistently further developed - the focus was on advising smaller amateur clubs in areas such as structuring, governance, strategic sports development and modernization of training processes, in addition to individual career advice for young players in Austria. This path will also be continued in 2025.
With the ESG4Sports project, my partner Jörg Wagner and I were able to start an exciting project with the ÖTV (Austrian Tennis Association), which we will continue in 2025. Often, when it comes to buzzwords such as ESG, CSR and sustainability, companies and sports organizations only think of the very important environmental considerations. However, the fact that the “social” and “governance” components are just as important for the future design is not yet on the radar for many clubs. In connection with the reporting obligations arising from EU requirements and the increasingly detailed and demanding legal requirements, many organizations will experience major (negative) surprises here – an appropriate ESG strategy will also be essential for obtaining financial resources from public institutions, banks and sponsors – and this is precisely where we want to provide support with ESG4Sports.
The franchise of the VIENNA VIKINGS, co-developed by MK Consulting, was in the 2024 ELF final in September at the “Auf Schalke” stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, in front of over 40,000 spectators. Unfortunately, they did not manage to win the title as they did in 2022, but with 1 title, 1 final and 1 semi-final, the VIENNA VIKINGS Franchise (ltd) is one of the two most successful league teams in the still young history of the ELF. After 3 years as co-owner, however, the decision was made to sell the remaining shares to one of the new co-owners at the end of 2024, as planned. However, we will continue to be available to advise on this exciting franchise and American football project.
The consistent further development of the contact network was continued by participating in numerous international congresses - e.g. in India's capital Deli, I acted as a participant in one of the panel discussions at the TV9 congress in 02/2024 “WITT 24 - What India thinks today!”, as well as at the innovative industry summit ‘SPORT MARKE MEDIEN’, which took place on December 2nd and 3rd, 2024 as part of the leading international trade fair ISPO in Munich. Media, sponsors, suppliers, organized sports and start-ups came together to shape the future of sports - I was a speaker in the panel discussion “Alternative Ways of Financing in Sports” with partner FanInvest! I also took part in the Football Congress Germany in 10/2024 in Ingolstadt and, together with partner KENSTON, in the 3-day summit of “The Stern Stewart Institute” in September in the beautiful castle of Elmau in Bavaria with over 50 CEOs, CFOs from German (DAX) corporations and numerous international guests such as the Turkish Minister of Finance and American university professors and star journalists.
I was also able to successfully continue my lecturing activities for the IFI with the courses “Organization in Sports/Football” and “International Association Management” and to teach the module “Organization & Human Resources” as part of the “Campus of the Austrian Football League”! The recent very positive feedback that I have received from the numerous students in the most diverse stages of their studies is and remains the “best” testimonial for me - so I will gladly continue my lecturing activities in 2025 in close cooperation with IFI founder and co-owner Prof. Dr. Florian Kainz and his team.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to my numerous partners and clients who continued to place their trust in me in 2024 and will continue to successfully develop many projects with me in 2025. My special thanks also go to my family, who have supported me in all my activities and business trips with a great deal of understanding for the high degree of flexibility in terms of time and will continue to do so!
2025 has already started off as an intense and exciting year – and I am sure that this trend will continue until New Year's Eve this year,” concludes Managing Director Kraetschmer.
