Write us a message
What changes do you experience when you accompany an organization from the very beginning? Charlotta Frings, who has been part of the team since November 2020, the year torq.partners was founded, shares her impressions of the company's developments in this interview. She also gives an insight into her professional career and talks about how she is involved in an internal working group for the empowerment of women in addition to her position-related tasks.
I am a manager in the generalist track at torq.finance and currently mainly take on interim positions. In my interim mandates, my main tasks include monitoring the entire controlling process and guiding team members who are responsible for the operational part.
I also coordinate the month-end closing processes and am responsible for clarifying open questions, preparing the final reports and discussing them with our clients during the month-end closing period. This phase is always particularly intense for me due to the many tasks and the urgency of the situation.
Before torq.partners, I worked in two different start-ups. Unfortunately, one of them could not be continued and the other had to reduce the number of employees.
When it became apparent that my employer at the time would have to let me go, I spoke to the tax consultant responsible at the time about the challenges that I had repeatedly encountered in my work in the start-up world. I was often left to my own devices. It also bothered me that although I was always able to solve all the tasks, I was never sure whether I was doing it in the best way. That's why it was important for me in a new job to work with real professionals to learn how to do things properly. I no longer wanted to just put out fires, I wanted to develop myself further.
The tax consultant then advised me to choose a job in a management consultancy, as I would have a steep learning curve and would be working with a team. Through him, I then came into contact with two of the Managing Partners of torq.partners. At that time, the company had only been founded two months earlier. When talking to the two partners, I immediately had the feeling that the company offered what I was looking for.
I work almost exclusively from home, which has both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, I find it super practical as I don't have to travel and can cook my lunch at home. On the other hand, I see it as a challenge for the working atmosphere. Sometimes I miss the direct contact with my colleagues. Overall, I still think it's great that we have a remote-first culture, as I appreciate the flexibility of being able to work from other locations. Besides, I always have the option of going into the office after all.
In my team, we have twice-weekly check-ins in which our line manager shares important information, but also creates space for professional exchange and personal discussions. Apart from that, I try to attend all team events and make appointments with colleagues in the office. Last year, for example, I initiated a meeting in one of our project teams to have breakfast together. I thought that was great.
Completing a training course on leadership has made me even more aware of how important such moments are for team cohesion. It shouldn't always just be about work, but also about celebrating successes together and talking about other topics. I introduced the idea directly to the team and I think it was well received everywhere.
It's difficult to say because so much has changed.
Last year was my fourth anniversary at torq.partners. On this occasion, I thought a lot about what it was like when I started: we were just over ten employees and were still able to hold our weekly team meeting all together. The biggest development is therefore probably the enormous growth of the company. I used to know which mandates everyone was working on, but now a lot of things pass me by. This is of course a good sign for the further development of the company, but it also means more anonymity.
As I started during the coronavirus peak phase, another positive step forward for me was that team events could finally take place in person again after the pandemic. They make it possible to make contact with people you don't deal with directly in your day-to-day work and therefore help to minimize the risk of increasing anonymity.
I started as a Junior Consultant, which today corresponds to the position of a Senior Associate. In this role, I mainly worked as an assistant and didn't have much responsibility myself. However, I communicated right from the start that my goal was to grow into the Consultant position. Together with my line manager at the time, I defined what was needed to achieve this and then took on the appropriate mandates over time. This enabled me to prove that I could handle all the necessary tasks and I was ultimately promoted to the Consultant role. This year, I took another step and am now a manager.
In my new position, the tasks are more demanding. I also have significantly more responsibility than when I started. Last year, for example, I managed a project independently for the first time and am now also the People Lead for one person.
A certain degree of self-organization is important, as we work on different mandates and therefore have to familiarize ourselves with new working environments on a regular basis. Equally relevant is the ability to set boundaries - in other words, to know that although you are working on a mandate, you are not responsible for every task that follows and do not have to be available around the clock. In this way, you can counteract overload even with a higher workload.
Another important quality is good communication skills. I notice time and again that at least 85 percent of the problems that arise are due to a lack of communication. That's why I motivate our team to communicate actively: please provide regular feedback so that everyone knows how things are going and our clients always feel well looked after.
Of course, there are always assignments where not everything runs smoothly. However, the biggest challenge for me was that I had several different superiors in two and a half years due to the company's growth and the associated restructuring. As a result, I often had to get used to new structures and ways of working.
This experience has made me realize once again how crucial good leadership is - especially now that I am taking on leadership responsibilities myself. In my professional career, I have encountered both inspiring and demotivating leadership and have experienced the impact a conversation can have. As a manager, it is important to me to make sure that my colleagues feel seen and valued.
As a manager, it is important to me to ensure that my colleagues feel seen and valued.
I would like to get to know the daily routine in our HR consultancy torq.people, especially in interim positions. In my own role, I sometimes realize that it can be time-consuming to enter established structures as an external person. In finance, this only causes problems to a limited extent, as you work independently here to a large extent anyway. In HR, on the other hand, a lot of exchange is required. I am therefore interested in how my colleagues at torq.people manage to position themselves accordingly within companies and achieve sustainable results in interim roles.
Yes, I am part of a working group on the topic of women at torq.partners. The central topic of the group is the fact that there is still no gender equality - at least at the level of society as a whole - even though it is enshrined in our constitution. The finance sector in particular is still a male domain, especially in management positions.
Our work is aimed at empowering each other and advancing women in general. It is important for me to emphasize that our aim is not to exclude men and position ourselves against them. Quite the opposite: we won't create change if we don't take men with us on the journey. We need to make it clear to everyone, regardless of gender, how important the issue is and that true equality will help us as a society as a whole.
One of the necessities on the road to equality is to question ourselves critically. Many people say that they treat everyone equally, but is that really the case? Don't we still have certain prejudices? This is an aspect that I get involved in a lot.
Another focus of our work is the financial independence of women and the question of how they can build up assets in a targeted manner. Our working group has already organized a dinner at which female colleagues from our team shared their experiences on this topic. We also recently organized the networking event "Invest like a Woman" together with N26, which was attended by many of our female clients.
One of the most important values for me is commitment - both in relation to our mandates and internally. Contrary to the usual clichés about management consultancies, at torq.partners we focus on bringing about real change and developing sustainable, constructive solutions.
Internally, it's all about the commitment to each other: there is a lot of support and you can always find someone who has already dealt with open questions. This has enabled me to learn an incredible amount.
I actually think all our team events are always pretty successful. I particularly liked the first offsite in 2023, as we had a lot of room for individual organization and were able to have real encounters with our colleagues. I also really enjoyed our first summer party in 2021, when we hired a boat and spent a relaxing evening on the water together.
