Olivier Bruslé, President of ACTIOM, is a seasoned executive with decades of experience leading large-scale transformations, performance improvement initiatives, capability development, and integration engagements. His expertise spans operations, procurement, supply chain, shared services solutions, as well as innovation and engineering solutions, covering various business sectors. Olivier has worked extensively in Aerospace & Defense, Oil & Gas, and the public sector.
With a track record of leading over 180 consulting and development engagements across different geographies and sectors, Olivier has particularly excelled in driving improvements in support functions, contributing to the success of over 100 such engagements.
The interview highlights Olivier Brusle’s profound expertise in business operations and his role as a transformation leader, showcasing his substantial contributions to diverse industries and his leadership in driving impactful changes.
With over three decades of experience in leading large transformation and performance improvement engagements, could you share a personal career milestone or experience that significantly shaped your leadership style and approach to consulting and professional services?
In my first experiences in automation engineering, and after successful innovations and business unit creation, I realised that many organisational and managerial barriers limit performance: to be equipped to address them, I engaged in an MBA at London Business School which gave me not only the needed tools and techniques but also the mental flexibility to adapt to each environment and to avoid the risk of placating exogenous solutions into unique situations.
The second realisation is that there is no such thing as an “ideal” operating model; it must be adopted by all the stakeholders, from the top management to the personnel, customers, and suppliers as well. Change management is well understood as a necessity but often under-managed as a practice.
The third and important realisation is that technology is a fantastic lever of productivity and effectiveness (mainly leading to automation and insights) and that its pace of innovation far outweighs the ability of personnel to adjust. The reliance on third-party partners is crucial but challenging on two main grounds: technology is complex, and implementation requires adoption.
These are at the core of successful transformations, especially since they often cut across organisational silos, which is what business process re-engineering and supply chain management are fundamentally about.
You have extensive expertise in operations, procurement, supply chain, and more. How do you approach building and leading diverse teams with such a broad spectrum of specialties, and what qualities do you value most in teams?
Indeed, to cut across the organisational silos mentioned above, skills are important in transformations. The best consultants combine relevant education and exposure to a variety of contexts: industries, geographies, and organisations.
Experience is essential, and clients no longer have tolerance for youngsters learning on their dime, which is why consulting teams need a blend of experiences to be fully effective. Important too are the skills within the client organisation: sponsors, champions, managers, and personnel.
Strategic management consulting is among your specialties. How do you balance the need for strategic thinking with the practical aspects of implementation, and what role does strategic alignment play in large-scale transformation projects?
Everything starts with a strategy, which defines the goals and plans and must be crafted and endorsed by the various managerial levels, the alignment of which is crucial. The conversion of strategy into results is done through the operating model, which has proven to be very effective in defining, developing, and implementing new organisations.
For example, it took me and my team only 6 months to set up and operationalise a completely new organisation using the above methods.
As Head of a Professional Services organisation, what leadership principles do you prioritize to foster a collaborative and innovative culture within teams?
Transformation projects are extremely hard work which can strain teams. The first recipe for success is articulation, alignment, and focus on collective ambition and expected realistic outcomes. Indeed, people are not enthused by money but by purpose.
The second recipe is team performance, accountability, and solidarity. Indeed, each team member needs to be performing on in his/her merit and contribute to the team’s performance; both are to be continuously measured, and constructive feedback is to be given. As individuals, we are all fallible, and therefore we must tolerate and compensate for such instances without limiting our accountability. “I messed up; sorry, it will not happen again and thanks for having covered for me for the benefit of our collective work.”
The third recipe is that there is no risk in over communicating: “but I had already sent you an email in that respect” must be replaced with “Sure, no problems, let me resend it to you.”
The fourth recipe is outperformance through innovation. As I have led innovation efforts for decades, with successes and failures of my own, I can assure you that this is the most difficult: getting away from comfort zones, exploring the unknown, fighting to find a solution, bearing with unsuccessful attempts, overcoming doubts and scepticism; yet, this is the most rewarding for individuals, teams, and organisations.
You’ve been involved in Capability Development. How do you assess and enhance the capabilities of team members, and what strategies do you employ to ensure continuous professional growth within teams?
I would distinguish between capability and competency: the former relates to organisations and the latter to people with capabilities encompassing competencies. So, how to develop competencies?
Thorough and objective assessments are the first building blocks and require relevant competency frameworks and pertinent tools.
The second building block is development methods which are customised and engaging.
The third building block is the drive and measurement of progress, where a programmatic approach is needed. In all three blocks, technologies have proven invaluable: on-line assessments, learning management systems, immersive simulations, and artificial intelligence too.
With a background in Human Resources Management, how do you approach talent development and management in your role, and what do you believe are the critical factors in building a high-performing team?
Indeed, in addition to core MBA courses in HR, I went back to LBS for Strategic HR Management by Linda Gratton, a world-renowned professor. I also invested in developing rigorous competency and capability frameworks, leveraging best-in-class methods and also inventing new ones when gaps remained.
Then the development programs mentioned above can be run at high speed. Yet, the speed is never as fast as the market demands, and then external leverage is always needed: recruitment, outsourcing, and automation.
Procurement and Supply Management are significant areas of your expertise. How do you approach optimizing commercial transactions and supply chain processes to deliver value for clients, and what role does innovation play in shaping these approaches?
Indeed, after three decades of in-depth involvement in improving commercial transactions for buyers, sellers and intermediaries, I came to realise that two factors are essential for frictionless trade:
- Business processes must be well defined, understood, implemented and supported by technology: this is crucial for effectiveness, efficiency and consistency.
- Trust must be built and nurtured throughout the transaction from sourcing, negotiating, awarding, contracting, ordering, delivering and paying.
I’ll give you two figures which indicate that there is still much room for improvement:
- $2.5 trillion is the size of the global trade finance gap, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), for 2022. That is as much trade is not happening because the various players cannot find commercial grounds.
- 50% is the average on-time payment rate of commercial transactions (a very low figure by any standard), denting cash flows and relationships.
There are reasons for these amazing figures. Indeed, based on dozens of in-depth assessments of organisations of all sizes, we have mapped over 260 potential issues along the 90+ steps of the commercial transaction process. The good news is that there are solutions from short-cuts and quick fixes to longer term structural changes to processes, systems and practices.
It all starts with the willingness from top executives to address the issue and make the relevant stakeholders accountable for performance improvements. Consulting services can help identify the issues and root causes and then design the solutions but technology is what makes these solutions stick and avoid deviations, revert-to-type or mere unethical behaviours; TradinLoop is one such fill-gap platform of software and services: https://www.tradinloop.com/
We have also launched the “Commercial Timely Payment Initiative (CTPI)” which aims at addressing the structural and behavioral reasons behind late payments: more details on https://www.actiom.net/ctpi
Supply Chain Finance is also part of your skill set. How do you integrate financial considerations into supply chain strategies, and how has this approach contributed to the success of your services?
Finance is the life blood of organisations and one of the key dimensions of Supply Chain Management; without it, transactions simply do not take place. In our optimisation endeavours, we account for it, all along the commercial transaction.
At the sourcing stage, it is about securing the buyer’s total cost of ownership budget and plan for an optimal cash-to-cash cycle, as well as the supplier’s commitment to prices and delivery conditions (including logistics and insurance), all wrapped into comprehensive and detailed commercial terms.
Beyond budgeting and optimal prices, finance is also about balancing the cash flows between buyers and sellers, and we extend our services to help source funding gaps, which take the form of PO financing, inventory financing, and invoice factoring or discounting.
Risk management is an important consideration in supply chain finance, and we have defined ways to manage operational and financial risks. This de-risking is of huge value to financiers, especially as it opens the way to more sophisticated negotiable trade instruments, the securitisation of which enables to tap into financial markets, public or private. This contributes to bridging the global supply chain finance gap.
As a visionary leader, what do you see as the most significant trends or challenges in procurement and consulting in the coming years, and how do you prepare yourself and your team to navigate these changes?
Having managed over 180 consulting engagements, I have seen a lot of repetition in the form of engagements as organisations mature in their own way. What is changing now is triple:
- Speed: results are expected to come faster either because competitive pressures are higher or because executive sponsors have shorter time horizons to deliver results, be it in the private sector under the pressure of shareholders or in the public sector under the drive of ambitious politicians.
- Value chain fragmentation: large professional firms are finding it more difficult to develop the talent at the speed needed by the market, and the global talent pool is not sufficient to meet the resource requirements. They will either lose some engagements to smaller firms or have to subcontract parts of engagements.
- Change in service mix: the shortage of talent compounded by the nationalisation programs and ever-increasing competition means that professional firms will have to change their service mix with more subcontracting and more automation, enabled by artificial intelligence.
Looking ahead, what are your personal and professional goals for the future, and how do you envision your role as a visionary procurement leader contributing to the evolving landscape of consulting in 2024 and beyond?
As I have helped hundreds of organisations improve their procurement and trade arrangements (at the speed permitted by their organisational tempo), now is time for me to accelerate and scale up the fixing of the core challenges mentioned earlier: Supply Chain Finance Gap and late payments.
Indeed, through innovative technologies and a broad perspective across geographies, industries, and professions, I endeavour to provide consulting and technology as a service anywhere, anytime for durable tangible results. Interested parties are welcome to join in: https://www.actiom.net/
A Leadership Chronicle
Olivier BRUSLE is the President of ACTIOM, a professional services firm active in management consulting, engineering, HR and Finance.
Olivier is a post-graduate in Engineering from Imperial College-London & CentraleSupelec-Paris and in Management from London Business School (full-time MBA). He gained his supply chain expertise at top management consulting firms and top innovators before founding The Supply Chain Foundation (SCF) and TradinLoop, a TradeTech platform.
Olivier has over 35 years of experience in industry & consulting and entrepreneurship, he has led over 180 projects for over 100 organisations across all sectors and 5 continents, authored over 50 articles and presented at over 30 conferences and webinars.
Olivier is a regular speaker at conferences and Webinars, including “Supply Chain World” in Madrid & Munich, “Supply Chain Conclave” & “Pharma Supply Chain Forum” in Mumbai, “Extended Supply Chain Conference” in Brussels, “Training-Trends-Technology” in London, Defense Logistics Forum 2013 (as speaker and Chairman), Pharmaceutical Logistics 2013 (Vienna, April 2013 as speaker and Chairman), Supply Chain Directors Dialogue 2013 & 2014 in London, Oil & Gas Supply Chain Europe (Vienna, October 2013 as speaker and Chairman), Pharmaceutical Logistics 2014 (Vienna, April 2014 as speaker and Chairman), Pharmaceutical Distribution (Warsaw, May 2014), Gamification HR summit (Paris, 2014), Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Directors Dialogue (London 2013 & 2014), “Innovation in Supply Chain Talent Management” in Pune India, May 2014), “Supply Chain & modern risk management in Casablanca, Morocco”, “Global Aerospace Summit” in Abu Dhabi in 2022, “Digital Logistics webinar in May 2023”, “Transforming Procurement for Sustainable Success, JAGGAER webinar February 2024”, World Economic Forum TradeTech forum in February 2024 in Abu Dhabi…
Olivier is a serial entrepreneur and innovator, having created in 2009 The Supply Chain Foundation (SCF), a global provider of Supply Chain Capability development solutions, including the recourse to innovative “Supply Chain Immersive Learning Simulation ™ ” (SCILS) which has been used globally as a support to classroom teaching and training, self-learning and for assessment purposes too.
His latest venture is in the TradeTech field, named TradinLoop, which is an innovative commercial transaction facilitation platform which bridges the gaps in operations, payments and trade finance while contributing to sustainability.
