What is better in Europe in terms of reputation and future exit options: A.T. Kearney or Roland Berger?

Where in Europe? ...UK?

In the UK, ATK has the better reputation; in Germany, Roland Berger is better positioned. Those are the biggest markets in Europe - the situation in other countries will vary.

and btw there is quite some "exchange" between those two - lots of former ATK partners (especially in France) in Berger, but also some movers in the opposite direction (Germany, Portugal)Reputation depends on country, but also issue - ATK being very strong in operations consulting, RB more into pure strategy work

Is it really like that? I know some countries in Eastern Europe were is RB that is doing more operations work (even process mapping) compared to ATK who is doing pure strategy.

It really is a matter of perception - both firms do both things but different partners in different markets will push marketing to publicise different projects.

ATK has a very good reputation in all kinds of operations issues – supply chain, procurement etc. (probably the best in the market), but isn't usually seen as a main player in pure strategy. RB is probably less focused (they call it entrepreneurial), but the operations practice group is relatively small. Besides strategy work there is a lot of restructuring/turnaround (that's what they are famous for in Germany – but there are few of those projects in other countries) and (maybe surprising) marketing and branding.