Sustainability becomes more and more important. Our consultants have a strong interested in this, and new hires also pay attention to this.
Currently, we are conducting pilots in helping companies with the implementation of the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), that will be mandatory from 2026 (reporting over 2025) onwards for the majority of our customers (>40 million turnover, > 20 million balance total or >250 employees).  For our customers this CSRD is becoming a problem as they have to become compliant. Current accountancy agencies do not help in a pragmatic way, leaving the companies more puzzled. We are looking for ways to help our clients, offer interesting content to our consultants on sustainability and make impact in the world.

With a combination of knowledge on the CSRD and the linked ESRS framework and lean techniques we help our client base understand where they have significant impact on the environment (E), social (S) and governance (G).

Main reasoning behind this topic is enabling Spark & Keane to quickly set priorities in client propositions and marketability of a potential CSRD expertise center.

This is an agile research proposition that may consists of several elements depending on the students’ level of expertise and outcomes of the conducted research:

1. Identity and investigate what type of companies would fit best in this stage to start working on the CSRD implementation? As it would benefit them to start communicating/ reporting earlier already in line with CSRD rules and regulations?
2. What needs to be the role of the consultant in the future when it comes to CSRD (data & reporting) and sustainability (recommendations)?
3. How can an attitude-change be initiated (company-wide or between departments) in embedding CSRD in the business model?
4. Feasibility analysis (structure, setup, timing and added value) on the creation of a CSRD related Community of Practice (CoP) by Sparke & Keane.

Sparke & Keane is an organization with over 100 motivated and highly educated consultants. We help organisations with challenges in the areas of Strategy Consulting, Project & Program Management, Finance & Control, Business Intelligence or Digital Transformation. We are based in South East Netherlands and have offices in Nijmegen, Eindhoven and Maastricht.

Our way of working is rooted in the philosophy of careful and attentive listening to our clients, dissecting complex matters and no hazy talk but realistic planning and action. The value of our consulting practice lays in the application of the lean methodology. Firstly we slow down, understand the reasoning for action. Next, we stabilize, determine an action plan and rethink it. Lastly, we fire up the jets and accelerate towards action!

We can only deliver good advice and service to our customers if we attract and keep a workforce of the best and brightest. We aim for champions league employees and have to compete with larger companies like Big-four and other large consultancy firms.

As a scale-up consultancy firm we are continuously expanding our areas of expertise in line with our employees’ and clients’ interests. Next to Finance & Control, Project & Program Management, Digital Transformation and Strategy Consulting we are exploring the business case of CSRD. Pioneering is in the heart of Sparke & Keane, and with this project our student consultants will get a first taste of what it is like setting up a new business line and provide us with the necessary insights about our market.

Employee retention and development is key for Sparke & Keane. Not only for business reasons. We would be genuinely disappointed if we were not to succeed in providing an interesting and fulfilling workplace. A quote from our CEO is “if it is good for our people, it is good for Sparke & Keane”.

We aim that our business issues also trigger students to reflect on their own motivation and reasons to choose for a given employer. We have to manage the expectations and as soon as an employee starts to work with Sparke & Keane we have to deliver on those expectations. Enabling students early on to experience what it is like to work with and for S&K is only way to manage those expectations.