Meet Klas Nordin
People at OPX Partners
“As founders, Gustaf and I saw the need for consultants who were not only smart and experienced, but who could work closely together with clients both in designing solutions and implementing them successfully”
Tell us a little bit about your background, Klas!
I have had the opportunity to try different career tracks. It started back in 1999, with McKinsey & Company. After that I had the opportunity to test my wings in line management, as head of global procurement of Dynapac, a mid-sized global manufacturing company during a period of private equity ownership. Subsequently, I ended up on the ownership side of the business community, as operations director at Nordic Capital. These experiences have provided different perspectives on what it takes to create value in business, and on professional development.
As one of the founding partners of OPX Partners I have had the pleasure to work with clients in many very interesting and challenging situations, across several industries helping them address their biggest value creation opportunities. I am also the father of two young ones, and ardent runner and a fan of American football.
Why did you, together with Gustaf Lindberg, start OPX Partners?
After spending a number of years in line management and working with the leadership of private equity portfolio companies in addressing their biggest improvement opportunities, Gustaf and I saw a need for a type of support to management that at least we could not find in the market: Support from smart and experienced consultants, who spend time on the ground together with clients, working side by side in defining solutions and initiating and driving change and putting structures in place to ensure effects are sustained.
This need is particularly evident in private equity owned companies, where management, boards and owners typically have highly ambitious change agendas with a defined time horizon, where resources are limited and “quality consciousness“ is extremely high.
What kind of consulting service did you believe was missing?
On the one side of the spectrum you have the traditional top-tier strategy consulting firms providing, among other things, strong analytical horsepower. But from my own experience they are often ill-equipped to support organizations in implementing the change needed, and too expensive to work alongside the client for a longer period of time. And on the other side of the spectrum you have niche consultants that work side-by-side with the client, very hands-on, but only in their particular field of expertise and frequently miss the big picture.
We saw a need for senior consulting support to identify and detail the strategically important issues for the client, but also support the client further with implementing solutions. Make change happen and create real tangible results for the client, unleashing the inherent value of the organization. That is where OPX Partners comes in.
Interesting. And what makes OPX Partners stand out in this field?
Consulting is the ultimate people business, and it all comes down to our people and our consulting approach. The typical OPX Partners profile is someone that has worked in top-tier consulting, but also spent some years in a line management role. This provides a unique blend of the tools and skillset of a top management consultant as well as own experience from how to make change happen. What is the solution that provides the best combination of improvement potential and being implementable for this client? How can we make sure change happens in practice?
The experience of our team, well developed people skills and a highly pragmatic consulting approach make our group being able to lead through change. We don’t leave the client with only a presentation full of good analytics and ideas, we help them detail robust plans, create momentum and support in making plans reality. Our people have the experience and knowledge to make these engagements successful.
While this may sound like the most obvious consulting approach, it is far from the mainly analytically driven traditional top tier consulting approach and far from “home grown” consulting approaches that some small consultancies employ.
“Värdeskaparna” – A podcast about value creation
Listen to “Värdeskaparna” to learn about what goes on behind the scenes in the private equity industry. We have interviewed CEOs, advisors, owners, and board members who operate in the industry. They share their unique experience from both private equity and portfolio companies. Podcast in Swedish.