Chicago (July 11, 2023) – Kearney, a leading global strategy consulting partnership, has acquired TEAMS, an industrial design firm with a unique heritage and whose customers include many of the world’s best-known consumer and equipment brands. The acquisition will enable a deeper partnership between TEAMS and Kearney’s Product Excellence and Renewal Lab (PERL), a lab within Kearney that advises companies on product strategy.

Since TEAMS’ formation in Germany in 1956, the ideas of its designers and engineers can be found in products from Bosch, Dräger, Kärcher, Siemens and numerous other companies, and their work has won more than 1,000 design awards. TEAMS’ industrial-design innovations and PERL’s expertise in product strategy and brand alignment have already been combined in dozens of joint client engagements, with more to come.

“We’re very excited about the potential for even greater collaboration with TEAMS,” said Bharat Kapoor, Kearney partner and global lead at PERL. “The industrial and product design market TEAMS serves is big and growing quickly. We have seen extremely favorable responses from clients to the ideas put forward by TEAMS’ product designers and engineers. What they do is a terrific complement to PERL’s focus of helping companies reinvent products to meet evolving customer expectations, or to achieve internal goals like greater profitability and sustainability.”

TEAMS’ existing relationships with major brands—especially in the professional and industrial equipment, consumer goods, medical devices and technology sectors—could also benefit from Kearney’s consulting expertise across industries. TEAMS will now be known as “TEAMS, a Kearney company,” but will continue to operate independently.

“We love working on the creative aspects of industrial design, and look forward to continuing to do that on behalf of our long-standing clients,” said Klaus Baumgartner, managing partner in TEAMS’ Stuttgart studio. "At the same time, PERL and Kearney bring a completely different kind of expertise to the work of product improvement and renewal. We’ve already seen how beneficial our joint expertise is for our clients.”

TEAMS is currently located across four design studios in three countries—Chicago, Hamburg, Shanghai and Stuttgart—and Baumgartner said he expects that Kearney’s global presence—with more than 55 offices in 40 countries—will expand TEAMS’ reach. With additional studio locations in the works, PERL looks to expand its own footprint as well.

The TEAMS acquisition represents a continuation of Kearney’s strategy to accelerate growth and serve clients in greater depth. In the past four years, Kearney has acquired Cervello, a data and analytics provider; Prokura, a procurement and supply chain consultancy; and OPTANO, which provides AI-powered operations optimization solutions.

About Kearney

Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm. For nearly 100 years, we have been a trusted advisor to C-suites, government bodies, and nonprofit organizations. Our people make us who we are. Driven to be the difference between a big idea and making it happen. We work alongside our clients to regenerate their businesses to create a future that works for everyone. Learn more at www.kearney.com.

About TEAMS Design

TEAMS is a leading global strategic design company established in 1956. Their mission is to create enduring positive impact in cooperation with our industrial partners and provide sustainable solutions for a better life. With a profound understanding of users and brands our experts in design and engineering create solutions for the physical and digital world. Learn more at www.teamsdesign.com