Our Company History: 3con stands for boutique consulting on an equal footing
3con Management Consultants GmbH was founded in Bonn in 2002. Initially, the firm focused primarily on the chemical industry—today, an interdisciplinary team of experienced consultants develops sustainable solutions for companies across the entire process industry and beyond.
Our company name is derived from the key ingredients of successful transformation processes, which 3con regards as a distinctive working principle and has incorporated since its founding: Connection —bringing together the key stakeholders; Conception —developing holistic solution concepts; and Conversion —focusing on implementation that delivers lasting results.
Following a successful start-up phase, during which 3con increasingly defined its role as a problem-solver for complex issues, this approach was reinterpreted in 2008 as a triad: Connection as an overview, Conception as insight, and Conversion as foresight. After all, only by viewing things from different angles can one discover new perspectives. This is how we identify problems even before they become apparent.
While 3con’s founding team initially worked out of subleased office space, we were finally able to move into our current company headquarters in Bad Godesberg in 2010. The historic building quickly became an inspiring workplace for the growing team, which—just two years after the company was founded—already consisted of 10 employees and has consistently hovered around the 20-mark since 2010.
Since 3con brings together colleagues in different life situations and with diverse professional backgrounds, it has been a top priority for us from the very beginning to enable a genuine work-life balance—even in a demanding work environment. Flexible work models are just one of many measures for which we first received the “audit berufundfamilie” certification in 2014—a seal of approval for HR policies that take life stages into account. In 2026, we successfully completed our fifth recertification.
At the beginning of 2021,the AllocNow GmbH was founded as an independent 3con spin-off. The A cleantech company offers a ” Product Sustainability Platform ” that enables businesses to automatically calculate the environmental impact of their products, communicate this information clearly, and identify potential reduction opportunities . The software is currently used by numerous well-known chemical companies , impressively underscoring its innovative strength and relevance.
Although the topics and challenges in the field of management consulting have changed continuously since the company was founded in 3cons and will of course continue to do so, our company DNA stands the test of time: we have been supporting management in mastering complex transformation processes for more than 20 years – currently in the key areas of operational excellence, sustainability and digitalization.
In 2023, our work was recognized by the independent “Hidden Champions” study conducted by the Scientific Society for Management and Consulting (WGMB), which named us a “Hidden Champion” in the process industry. This is both an honor and an incentive for us. After all, we owe this title to our satisfied clients, who rated us higher than McKinsey, BCG, and Bain in terms of our industry focus and, in particular, our technical expertise and implementation capabilities.