Can you tell us about your background in a few words?
I never had the “call of a vocation”. It’s even the opposite: my career has been shaped by my insatiable desire to try everything. In the end, it is the multiple trips, the essays in art, music and sports, the entrepreneurial experiences and the richness of the encounters made in all these fields that define my career.
So I did more generalist studies at HEC Liège, from which I graduated with a management engineering degree in 2006. I also made my first attempts at entrepreneurship there as a partner in a company run by students, HEC Consulting Group. I then naturally opted for a career start in Management Consulting. I am now Director at GCP Consulting in parallel with other entrepreneurial projects in the field of real estate and e-commerce. I am married and have 3 children aged 4, 6 and 9 of whom I am immensely proud.
And more than 15 years later, you are still at GCP Consulting…
Yes, and staying there was probably one of the best ideas I had. I joined GCP Consulting at its almost embryonic stage; there were 5 or 6 of us at the time. I had barely left my studies, but I already felt the interest of being at the start of a project of which I could be a first-class contributor. The first years, I was able to satisfy my desire to work for several companies, in very varied sectors (heavy industry, service companies, public sector, etc.), confronted with as many work cultures as projects. It was around 2009 that GCP took a new entrepreneurial dimension with a first company acquisition (note: the WEX in Marche en Famenne); 13 years later, GCP Group has become a real conglomerate (more than 20 companies active in 8 sectors, bringing together more than 250 employees) whose the consulting activity remains strategically the driving force.
In short, the playing field has expanded considerably and the prospects for future development are as exciting as ever.
Today, what is your role in society? How has the consulting profession evolved over the years?
When there is a good cultural fit, progress at GCP Consulting can be dazzling. It was my chance. I made my debut in supply chain optimization type projects, mainly in factories in traditional industry. Very quickly, I was able to transpose certain principles to other sectors (services, construction, etc.) and harden my ability to adapt while gaining autonomy. At the same time, I was leading internal business development initiatives as well as personal projects that the flexibility offered at GCPhas always allowed.
Today, thanks to the accumulated experience and this double current intra/entrepreneur, I have the pleasure of distancing myself from the operational front line of the projects and of ensuring a more managerial role: business development, recruitment, strategy , employee coaching. And above all maintain the culture that is our strength.
In 15 years of experience, how many companies have you had the opportunity to meet thanks to your role as a consultant?
The dozens of projects accumulated over these 15 years have allowed me to rub shoulders with more than 30 client companies and around twenty partner companies (integrators, solution publishers, other consultants, etc.). I have had to work in 4 languages, with dozens of different nationalities on subjects that always vary both in terms of content and framework (customer culture). Even today, each new project is a new challenge. There is nothing routine. That’s also what I likeinthis business. .
If you had to pin an important value in your profession?
Cu-rio-si-ty! I obviously provoke by citing a value that can also be seen as a default. I am talking here about the curiosity to understand a new profession, a new company, another strategy, a new problem, a new solution. The curiosity to meet new people, to observe another business system, to understand the strengths and weaknesses of an organizational model. It is curiosity that leads to an interest in everything and that makes a “generalist” consultant, capable of being good at everything, without being an expert in what whether it be
. I admire experts and I like to draw inspiration from them, but I find it dangerous in such a complex and volatile world, to lock oneself into overly specialized expertise which in the end risks leading to dogma and forgetting that in realityeverything is interconnected. When we deal with the problems of our customers, we must look at them with a holistic vision (Order-to-cash, purchase-to-pay) under the systemic prism (Tool + Process + Organization). Without forgetting the understanding of the culture, which as everyone knows, eats business strategy for breakfast…
A strong memory at GCP Consulting?
The first project I landed at a conference given on Change Management. I have aroused the interest of the director/shareholder of a company of 700 people. I was not 30 years old, and he trusted me with his colleagues on the management committee. I thank him, he will recognize himself.
Why is it a good time to join GCP Consulting today?
We are in a phase of significant growth, for the whole group moreover. There is still time to be a direct contributor to a project that still has great years to come.
What advice would you like to give to new/future consultants? A final word?
Forget that a good job is a job where you have to spend a lot of hours working. Don’t trade your time for money. Time is too precious, exchange it for knowledge, that’s what makes you happy.
GCP Consulting is a consulting firm specializing in operational excellence and change management.
