AFC AS PART OF GOPA CONSULTING GROUP –INTERVIEW WITH DR MARTIN GÜLDNER AND JOHANNES BUSCHMEIER

Learning about strategic decision-making, synergies and joint forces as well as AFC’s role and success within the GOPA Consulting Group. A look back at the past, present and an outlook to the future from the GOPA Group’s CEO Dr Martin Güldner in discussion with AFC Managing Director Johannes Buschmeier.

AFC joined GOPA Group in 2007. What were the main reasons for this step?

Güldner: GOPA both collaborated and competed with AFC several times in the past, and we always had the impression that AFC had a strong and committed team. In addition, and following discussions with former AFC shareholders, we jointly came to the conclusion that, with EUR 6 million turnover, the international business of AFC was too small to be competitive or to grow in the future. To be embedded in the GOPA Group, with its access to new networks and financial coverage such as guarantees, and in the strong and like-minded GOPA Group management team, seemed to be the right approach for the company and its colleagues. What’s more, the AFC team proved that this was the right idea leading, as it did, to exceptional success.

What has changed for the work of AFC since joining the GOPA Group?

Buschmeier: A number of AFC-colleagues had long lasting experiences in the agricultural sector and consequently were proud of previous achievements. The Financial Sector Development Department was quite small at that time but we were convinced about the potential. Thus, we were keen to continue the successful work of AFC, but at the same time, we recognised that a strong company group focusing on development cooperation offered unique chances for further development of AFC.

We quickly realised that all the colleagues in the GOPA group have a similar spirit to us. After clarifying the future working fields of AFC in several constructive workshops, we understood that our new shareholder Martin Güldner wanted to help us realising our full potential. Finally, we are proud to be a strong member of GOPA Group.

What has this cooperation achieved since then?

Güldner: As in every good partnership, there is always an element of “give and take”. We learned from each other and tried to get the best from both organisations. AFC plays an important role in the GOPA Group Directors Forum, helping to shape the Group for the better. On the other hand, our AFC colleagues have benefitted from the GOPA Group approach (as defined in the GOPA Rule Book) and our shared services and joint working groups, like the Acquisition Coordination Meeting and regional working groups, to name only a few. This has allowed them to tap into new networks and to focus on the markets, on new clients like the Millennium Change Corporation, and on their technical profile in a more targeted sector-based approach. We are so proud of what we have accomplished together.

Buschmeier: In figures, after 17 years AFC has increased its turnover from EUR six to 33 million annually. These figures already tell us, it has been a success story. However, success has many faces. To mention a few, the cooperation enables us to use strong synergies, e.g. joint databases, a joint compliance system and market intelligence. Also, while AFC is fully responsible for its strategic company decisions, we are involved as a full partner in GOPA Group strategies. Vice versa, AFC shares its strong experience, and our strong regional knowledge such as in Central Asia and Morocco for the benefit of other Group companies.

Global crises are becoming increasingly complex and interrelated, which is partly also reflected in development cooperation tenders. Do you believe the broad spectrum of expertise within the GOPA Group helps to address these crosscutting issues properly?

Güldner: Absolutely. The future of our business will be more and more interrelated and we are increasingly becoming a ‘know-how broker’ that brings crosscutting solutions together. In this picture, the Group’s broad spectrum of sectors becomes increasingly important and we have significantly increased our competiveness by bringing our sector-related expertise to proposals and projects. For example, in education and agriculture, finance and renewable energy, and in fragile countries with various degrees of technical capacity, such as in Syria and in West Africa, etc.

Where do you especially see challenges, potential and synergies for AFC within the GOPA Group to cope with these interconnected challenges?

Buschmeier: In the agricultural sector, the integration of climate change aspects for further development is key and with this come a number of challenges in terms of worldwide food security. Climate change aspects are topics of other GOPA Group companies as well. Crosscutting activities benefit all companies and finally the recipients of our projects, which is of utmost importance. Our financial sector development department covers financial systems and banking in all sectors, like green finance and even banking supervision. Thus, we cooperate for example with our colleagues from Intec in renewable energy. Another aspect is human resource development, where our young colleagues can profit from various engagements in the whole GOPA Group. Banking and agriculture are pushing digitalisation and again general experiences are being shared in GOPA Group. We have to further diversify our portfolio and to offer services to complex programmes. Referring to agricultural value chains, further education and training of young farmers is an important topic and we already offer services for ATVET together with our colleagues from GOPA Worldwide. Energy and especially renewable energy will play an important role also in stages of processing and storing of food products.

What are your expectations and forecasts for donor organisations’ strategies and directions in the future?

Güldner: We should not talk anymore about “donors”. We work in the context of “development partners” of all kinds. We see many new players and organisations in our markets – and a new alignment with the private sector. In this context, AFC is very well-positioned and is one of the frontrunners in the Group. Looking to the Group’s strategy, we see two trends and challenges. The first is regionalisation – how to shift our business model from a German/headquarter-focused business approach to the countries we are working in. The second trend is towards new clients to support our growth. GOPA Group is the leading service provider in Europe, in particular for the European Commission, for GIZ and KFW. However, to be competitive in a very aggressive market environment –and that is the reality for our markets, where there is a lot of consolidation and increasing price competition and pressure on fee rates etc. – we have to grow and to enter new markets if we want to be successful or independent as a Group. This is why we have opened an office in the US, to approach and to be eligible for USAID – the biggest contributor to development aid. This is a joint initiative and I am sure that it will be important also for the development of AFC.

Buschmeier: Well, the GOPA Group is capable to serve a wide range of clients. One of our most important contracting partner is GIZ. Today GIZ tenders a wide range of projects of different sizes. The financial budget is not the most important criteria for an interesting project, but our project and financial managers are all very qualified in their fields of work and expect to implement interesting and challenging projects in terms of job satisfaction. Thus, we do hope that development cooperation contracts will tender out reasonable parts of programmes to specialised consulting firms. The discussion of combining technical assistance and financial cooperation has a long history. In future, we may be forced to respond more quickly and in coordination with donors to global challenges in a number of fragile countries. AFC is prepared to take responsibility for larger projects and to react flexibly to changing requirements. Digitalisation has become more important in development cooperation. Currently procedures are consequently digitalised and it is interesting to see that a number of countries were front setters for example in mobile money applications. In agricultural production, irrigation is a topic with increasing relevance due to draughts and floods caused by climate change. We are testing irrigation schemes which use satellite data to calculate the quantity of water needed on a given day to achieve and keep high harvests and saving water at the same time. Even smallholders may apply this system. Of course, new ICT technologies must be affordable and economically viable for our target groups.

Lastly, both of you experienced many joint travels, field visits and events between AFC and GOPA Group partners. Which one do you think back to most fondly and why?

Güldner: Whenever I travel, I meet AFC colleagues and teams on the ground – we always try to organise joint dinners and to visit the projects. I would say that these meetings, where I experience the teams’ strong commitment to the impact of their work, was and is the most impressive aspect for me.

For me, our last GOPA Group Day was very special as the digital format gave us, for the first time, the opportunity to reach out to our colleagues in the field. Further developing a good mix of communication channels will be key to our joint success. We need physical meetings, digital collaboration, a joint Group culture and modern/digital instruments, such as new interactive portals, to be attractive to our young colleagues and the next generation.

Buschmeier: A lot of examples could be mentioned. I refer to a joint mission with Martin Güldner to Central Asia. This was a new region for Martin and I was hoping to provide many insights about a region, which I know for more than 25 years. A number of topics worked quite well, like impressive visits to our ongoing projects on site, partly in a very beautiful landscape, which is definitely a big plus for projects in agriculture.

However, during a visit to the Minister of Economy in charge of one of our projects, he used the opportunity to address several claims to Martin, which I hardly expected. Nevertheless, in the next days, most of the subjects were clarified with the Deputy Minister and we organised an interesting GOPA Group project meeting with all team leaders who were active in Tajikistan at that time. Finally, by coincidence we had the chance to view a horse race at the end of the mission in Kyrgyzstan. Why I am looking back at this memory so fondly is because it shows that even though we always encounter challenges during our missions, we can solve them together as a team and with support of different colleagues from GOPA Group in Germany and on site in our projects. Furthermore, we enjoy working with colleagues from different cultures!