Dutch management consultancy Twynstra expands international footprint

25 May 2018 Consultancy.uk

A Dutch consultancy with decades of experience providing strategic and sustainable solutions is expanding its international client base. Twynstra seeks to make a difference by helping public and private clients solve some of the world’s most pressing climate and energy-related challenges.

Sustainability is not a buzzword but an umbrella term encompassing a huge range of projects and strategies dedicated to securing the planet’s future. Many of the most complex engineering projects and formidable strategic decisions underway today are grounded in issues of sustainability – whether it be preventing climate conflict in Africa, or reducing plastic waste in the ocean.

Hugely important sustainability initiatives from Colombia to Bangladesh enjoy the support of Dutch management consultancy Twynstra Gudde. The consulting firm has come a long way since being founded more than 50 years ago in the Netherlands. Today the firm has around 300 consultants in the Netherlands, including a team busily engaged in every corner of the globe, providing organisational solutions to a growing roster of clients.

With access to 70+ local offices worldwide through its membership of Cordence Worldwide – a worldwide management consulting partnership – the global footprint of Twynstra’s alliance network is impressive. In comparison, the alliance has a larger presence than among others A.T. Kearney (58 offices) and Roland Berger (50 offices), and is on par with for instance Strategy&, the strategy consulting arm of accounting and consulting giant PwC. Twynstra’s international offering includes advisory and execution services in the fields of energy transition; smart sustainable transport; water governance and climate; the circular economy; climate change; and asset management. The firm also has decades of expertise helping public/private partnerships.

Dutch management consultancy Twynstra expands international footprint

“We are particularly strong in strategy and policy development, governance and cooperation issues, interest management, and project and programme management”, says Zenzi Pluut, Managing Partner at Twynstra Gudde (as it is known in the Netherlands). Netherlands-based projects have traditionally been the firm’s main source of revenue but Twynstra’s international reputation is growing.

“Our consultants have the desired knowledge and expertise in these functional areas and can then bridge the gap to, for example, spatial planning, mobility and infrastructure, or to water and climate adaptation”, continued Pluut, who believes that helping clients with energy transition projects is one of Twynstra’s greatest strengths.

Cordence Worldwide

She not only leads the firm’s large water, energy, transport and infrastructure projects in the Netherlands, but also nurtures Twynstra’s relationship with Cordence Worldwide. Through its membership of the international network, Twynstra can leverage a local presence throughout Europe, the US, Japan, China, India, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Cordence membership also provides invaluable access to more than 2,600 consultants dotted around the globe – each with unique specialist knowledge. 

In one sustainability project where the firm’s experts were called in for, Twynstra was hired to help support the establishment of Colombia’s National Center for Water Modelling. Dutch expertise in water infrastructure management is held in high regard around the world and Twynstra, with its specialised sustainability and water management focus, was drafted in as a key consulting partner. 

Its role included performing diagnostics, stakeholder analysis and establishing an implementation plan that covered organisational design, sustainable financing and strategic positioning. Twynstra also provided advisory services to the Dutch government on its future relationship with the much-needed new centre – which was necessitated by catastrophic floods in the country.

Another example saw Twynstra working in partnership with US consulting firm North Highland and Chinese design consulting firm S.Point Design to advise one of the world’s largest energy companies on the future of sustainable transport. The Netherlands-headquartered company is also a key consulting partner on the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, a comprehensive strategic plan to help secure the country’s extremely vulnerable coastline. Closer to home the Dutch firm is working with European partners to advise the Netherlands on the creation of a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2025.