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Kai Vollhardt

Senior PartnerMunich

Kai Vollhardt

Senior PartnerMunich

Brings deep expertise in marketing and sales, and coleads our personalization at scale and customer experience work for utilities and energy providers

Kai is a core member of McKinsey’s European Marketing & Sales Practice, and coleads our global customer experience and personalization @ scale work. In this capacity, he serves clients primarily in Europe and North America on strategy, commercial transformations, and customer journey optimization.

Examples of Kai’s recent client work include the following:

  • designing and implementing a sales strategy for a leading European utility company, with the target of “net-churn = 0” and a focus on personalization at scale
  • identifying and optimizing customer journeys for a leading utility, leading to an increase of 20pp in NPS
  • advising a leading European energy client across 12 countries on commercial transformation—including diagnostics, heat map design, and implementation—in B2C and B2B, leading to a 20 percent increase of EBITDA
  • developing a customer segmentation and go-to-market approach for energy solutions for an energy retailer in Italy
  • designing the new sales operations organization and re-defined selected operational processes to increase the commercial performance for a leading energy company
  • optimizing the key account management organization at leading utility company , leading to a 15 percent cost reduction

Published work

Strategies to win in UK energy retail as the market reopens,” McKinsey & Company, September 2023

Digital transformations in energy retail: A shift toward advanced platforms,” McKinsey & Company, December 2022

How to build a unicorn: Lessons from venture capitalists and start-ups,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

Six governing considerations to modernize marketing,” McKinsey & Company, June 2019

The new way to engage with energy customers: Personalization at scale,” McKinsey & Company, April 2019

Personalization at scale: First steps in a profitable journey to growth,” McKinsey & Company, August 2018

No customer left behind: How to drive growth by putting personalization at the center of your marketing,” McKinsey & Company, July 2018

Commercial excellence: Powering success in today’s evolving energy retail utility markets,” McKinsey & Company, May 2018

Customer experience: New capabilities, new audiences, new opportunities,” McKinsey & Company, June 2017

Customer experience: Creating value through transforming customer journeys,” McKinsey & Company, July 2016

Education

University of Mainz
PhD, marketing, brand management
Diploma, marketing and finance