46 Acquisition International - Issue 10 2018 STIRIXIS Group is an internationally awarded strategy-through-execution consultancy firm that focuses on ensuring long-term success and maximizing return on investment for their clients. Following their double success in 2018 Global Excellence Awards where they received the title Most Outstanding Hospitality & Leisure Management Consultancy - 2018 & CEO of the Year 2018 – Europe, we profiled the firm and spoke to President & CEO of STIRIXIS Group, Alexander Athanassoulas to discover more about the innovative services they provide. stablished in 1996, STIRIXIS Group is an internationally awarded strategy-through- execution consultancy firm that focuses on ensuring long-term success and maximizing Return on Investment for their clients. The firm works closely with them to define, design, deliver and manage successful, holistic business concepts globally, in Retail, F&B, Hospitality, Workspace and Leisure industries. STIRIXIS Group’s clients receive from the firm practical strategic advice, based on a clear understanding of the implementation and roll- out, as well as executional, hands-on services such as customer experience design, architectural design and branding. All of their services are aligned through an innovative way of working and are based on a profound understanding of their true business context. At STIRIXIS Group, they have successfully completed more than 600 projects in 24 countries over the last 22 years and have been honoured to receive numerous international awards. Above all, the team is both proud and grateful to have established long-term very good relationships with most of their clients, something that gives the positive energy and drives to continue to grow and become better for the clients as well as for themselves. Going into further detail about the firm’s approach when undertaking a new client, Alexander beings by explaining how the team at STIRIXIS Group ensures right from the start that the outcome meets the needs of the client. “To best support our clients, we have formed a clear, results-oriented, holistic approach to each business case. Our success lies in understanding the true objectives of the assignment as well as their relationship and impact on the business and its stakeholders.Thestrategytobefollowed,onceagreed with our clients, becomes the reference point for all services thereafter. An account manager assigned to the project ensures swift, clear information flow, and Company: STIRIXIS Group Phone Numbers: Greece: +30 210 613 8312 Romania: +40 213 021135 UK: +44 2032890870 Email:
[email protected] Web Address: www.stirixis.com DeliveringMore E 1809AI39 seamless delivery of the project on-time, on-budget and on-specs. The ‘afterlife’ of the project is designed too, through an innovative proprietary process based on feedback, research, trend-hunting and competition analysis. This ensures true maximisation of Return on Investment as well as strong, truthful relationships between our client and their market.” As for the firm’s ongoing strategy, Alexander informs us of the techniques STIRIXIS Group employs to ensure that they achieve their goal. “Systems Thinking and its ‘successor’ Design Thinking rule our processes. We pride ourselves for being a true learning-organisation, building every day a stronger knowledge base and harvesting market know-how from the 600 projects we have successfully completed in 24 countries. Our team of high-level, dedicated experts work in a truly cross- functional way, daily creating emergent values for our clients and solving complex business cases with an impressive success rate. Above all, we work openly and coherently as a team, and share ideas, create answers and follow a common vision to make the business industry more efficient and sustainable. This is our strategy for success, our clients’ and ours.” When discussing the current state of the industry, Alexander focuses on how both technology and the industries are changing at a rapid speed. “The challenge lies not in the changes that affect ours or our client’s industries. The accelerating speed of change is what counts. A breath-taking pace, where staying ahead of the curve is the only way to survive. Agility and proactiveness are two of the key characteristics of Systems Thinking which help us succeed in this. Our holistic approach helps organizations create true agility as there are optimized in whole as a system, not in parts creating or sustaining ‘silos’. The speed will become faster as technology advances, communication and travelling becomes open and easy and people become hungrier for the new, the exiting, the ‘never seen before’. Victory will come for those businesses that will be able to provide for this target group not only all these but with true value integrated; not as a firework but a life-changing experience. At STIRIXIS Group we have been studying this trend in depth and have created ways to proactively address its impact on all industries. “...we work openly and coherently as a team, and share ideas, create answers and follow a common vision to make the business industry more efficient and sustainable.”