We recently had the opportunity to interview Olivier Brusle, CEO of ACTIOM. With more than 35 years of experience in industry, consulting, and entrepreneurship, Olivier has directed more than 180 projects for more than 100 organizations on five continents and in various sectors. He has also produced more than 50 papers and presented several webinars.
A serial entrepreneur and innovator, Olivier Brusle is passionate about helping clients achieve their strategic goals and enhance their capabilities. His latest venture in the TradeTech field, named TradinLoop, is an innovative commercial transaction facilitation platform bridging gaps in operations, payments, and trade finance while contributing to sustainability. In this insightful interview, Olivier Brusle speaks about his early career journey and challenges, offering unique services and insights on the GCC region and valuable suggestions for aspiring professionals.
The Beginning
We started the interview by asking, “Could you start by telling us about your career path?”
Olivier responds, “Upon graduating from Top Engineering College CentraleSupelec Paris and Imperial College London, I designed control systems for industry, creating new products and building new international business lines. My MBA from London Business School equipped me with the skills to move into management consulting and drive over 160 business transformation programs for clients across five continents on behalf of top consulting firms. My own is called ACTIOM, a professional services organization focusing on “ACTIOn with Methods.”
Spark Behind ACTIOM
We were curious to know what motivated Olivier Brusle to found his business, so we inquired, “What inspired you to develop the idea of your company?”
He passionately responds, “My clients entrusted me to get into entrepreneurship, building on the great results achieved for them before and my resourcefulness in getting things done, no matter what. I also wanted the freedom to act and build on trends that I was seeing in the market from Globalization at the turn of the century, the emergence of the Supply Chain Management field in the early 2000s, to immersive technologies of the 2010s and Web3 technologies of the 2020s.”
Changing Priorities
During the years of spending in the industry, businesses tend to alter their priorities. We asked, “How have your priorities in business evolved since you first started?”
“Solving client problems across boundaries has always been at the core of my business, taking a cross-country, cross-functional perspective with a pragmatic and results orientation. We evolved from pure services to a mix of services and technology, gradually shifting towards more automation.
We started in Europe and expanded geographically into North America, North Africa, India, and the GCC, notably Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar.” Olivier replied.
Adaptability Amidst Adversities
Challenges are a part of every business journey. To learn more about the hurdles faced by Olivier Brusle and how he overcame them, we inquired, “What are the most challenging situations that your company overcomes?”
He shared, “Exogenous factors are the most difficult to overcome: the financial crisis of 2009, the Covid crisis, the high inflation environment, and geopolitical events (such as wars) all contribute to caution on the part of buyers and economic challenges for small firms.
Getting paid on time has also been a constant challenge; it is valid across all regions and countries of the world and gradually became a source of inspiration for improvement services first (to large buyers keen to preserve good relationships with suppliers as well as meeting their ESG commitments and to smaller sellers anxious to get paid faster and to fund their trade) and our latest venture TradinLoop which aims at making Trade Friction-Free.”
An Ambitious Environment
To learn more about Olivier Brusle’s perspective on the GCC region for business, we asked, “How do you find the business environment of the GCC, as a region?”
He shared, “GCC is one of the most demanding regions in the world where ambitious executives and politicians are driving an agenda of modernization at a fast pace, which leaves large bureaucracies lagging. This region is unique in various ways.
Results are expected to come faster here, either because competitive pressures are higher or because executive sponsors have shorter time horizons to deliver results. Also, large professional firms are finding it more challenging to develop talent at the speed needed by the market, indicating they will either lose some engagements to smaller firms or have to subcontract parts of engagements.
In the private sector, since time immemorial, it is also a region of traders, currently keen to ride the waves of growth of their countries and of globalisation while adapting to a constantly changing world and carefully managing risks.
Furthermore, the shortage of talent compounded by nationalization programs and ever-increasing competition means that professional firms will have to change their service mix with more subcontracting and automation. Still, the region is economically less mature than others, and the most critical challenge is trust in commercial relations, continuously damaged by late payments, and the on-time payment rate of less than 40%, a meager figure by any standard.”
He added, “This topic is becoming increasingly important in the GCC. Indeed, in the Principle of the 50, UAE leaders have instructed “all state institutions, of all sectors and across different federal and local levels” to “bear the responsibility of building the best global economic environment collectively.” In late 2023, they went one step further with a Federal Decree-Law No. (56), which established the UAE Accountability Authority to improve the installation of integrity, accountability, transparency, and good governance in the Federal Government and businesses.
Last but not least, introducing Corporate Tax will render late payments visible to Stakeholders and Shareholders of organizations, forcing improvements to meet ESG targets.”
Setting ACTIOM Apart, we asked Olivier Brusle
We further asked, “What makes your company stand out from other businesses in your industry? Tell us something about your services. What are you working on currently?”
Olivier Brusle responds, “Our positioning of serving international firms is unique given the fragmentation of service firms per country and sector – we do not have such constraints.
The second differentiator is the skill and responsiveness to client requirements when larger firms get slowed down by bureaucracy and inertia. Thirdly, our ability to mobilize relevant talent is based on a resourceful staffing model. In the fourth position is innovation across methods, technology, and approaches.
Additionally, we go beyond being advisors at strategy and design stages: we also roll up our sleeves into implementation and operations support. Take our new service line under the brand name TradinLoop; it cuts across Finance, FinTech, TradeTech, ProcureTech, IT, Consulting, and Engineering, all wrapped into a value proposition of enabling businesses to trade better, faster, cheaper, and safer, which is very relevant to the GCC as mentioned before.”
Olivier Brusle continued, “Enabled by modern technologies (AI, APIs, DLTs) and regulatory progress, TradinLoop uniquely addresses this challenge by bridging the gaps in operations & payments management, providing end-to-end control of B2B transactions and resulting in faster commercial transactions from funding to payment settlements.
The benefits to all parties involved (buyer, seller, suppliers and subcontractors, agents, financiers) are radically reduced processing costs & times, improved cash flows, visibility on transaction status and performance, compliance with laws & regulations, as well as comprehensive tracing supporting financial, controls, fiscal, AML, statutory and ESG auditing & reporting.”
Words Of Wisdom For Beginners
Aspiring professionals starting in a similar field will find it inspiring to hear from an industry leader like Olivier Brusle. So, we asked, “What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
“Develop on a shoestring, focus on customers more than on investors, and manage your cash flows. In that respect, entrepreneurs are often victims of late client payments and can benefit from TradinLoop to ensure timely payments, de-risked trade finance, much-reduced costs, and preserved relationships.” Olivier Brusle concluded.
Follow Olivier Brusle on LinkedIn.
Find ACTIOM on LinkedIn and website https://www.actiom.net/
Check out TradinLoop on LinkedIn and website https://www.tradinloop.com/
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