Yousuf Al Aali, Chairman and co-founder of Pivot LLC, with Jean-Marc Riegel, co-founder and General Manager of Pivot LLC.
Doha: Only after six months of operation in Qatar, Pivot LLC has started to work on projects with clients in retail, manufacturing, agri food, education, healthcare, and construction activities. The company has received a strong response from the corporates said Jean-Marc Riegel, co-founder and General Manager of Pivot LLC speaking to The Peninsula during an interview.
Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA Qatar) provide a robust, systematic, cost optimisation process that can be brought to corporates based locally. “Pivot LLC not only offers cost optimisaton on the supply chain but we want to be the reference company in Qatar for restructuring activities to make the companies more competitive, to reorganise their activities with a macro approach to bring solutions for the businesses in Qatar, so that the result is increased profitability for the business,” he said.
Established in 1992, Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA) is one of the world’s leading consultancy organisations specialising in cost optimisation and supplier relation management. ERA delivers value through insight to clients in both the private and public sectors. With more than 700 consultants operating in over 40 countries, the award-winning business boasts international expertise while simultaneously offering a local presence to clients. Through in-depth industry knowledge and insight across a variety of expense categories, ERA adds value to organisations by advising on industry-specific best practices, reducing costs and ultimately delivering tailored solutions to benefit business activities and growth.
A few of ERA’s core expense categories include Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, Corporate and Administration Support Services, Logistics and Distribution, Energy and Utilities, Medical and Pharmacy, Facility and Property Management, Maintenance, Repair and Operating Supplies (MRO), Personnel and HR Services Delivery as well as Information & Communication Technology (ICT). For almost30 years, ERA has improved business performance for thousands of SMEs and corporate clients worldwide with over EUR 2 Billion cost under management.
Yousuf Al Aali is the Chairman and co-founder of PivotLLC, a QFCA licensed company in Corporate Advisory Services in Qatar, delivering cost optimisation with Expense Reduction Analysts (ERA), leading international experts in cost reduction. The company was licensed in January 2021 and the commencement date was February 1, 2021 after an intensive training by Expense Reduction Analyst Academy in the UK, London, headquarters.
Jean-Marc pointed out the reason for cost optimisation by highlighting the corporate environment in Qatar which is in a period of transition. Many corporate organisations have gone through financial crisis in 2007-2008 and have suffered from the aftermath of the blockade and COVID-19 pandemic and they urgently need to reduce the cost which is an ongoing dilemma for years. Therefore, we need to have a robust, systematic, cost optimisation process that can be brought to corporates based locally through ERA, he said.
Jean-Marc Riegel, Partner, Pivot LLC has 33 years of professional experience in Private Equity (multi-sectorial), Corporate and Investment Banking both in conventional and the ethical/participative/Islamic banking industry both in international (BNP Paribas) and regional (QIB) financial institutions in the Americas (BNP Paribas Canada), Europe (BNP Paribas France) and the Middle-East/North Africa/South-East-Asia (MENASEA: QIB Doha, Board of QInvest Doha, QIB-UK London, AFB Kuala Lumpur, CBC Mauritius). He joined the Qatar Islamic Bank Group in 2006 with goal to expand investment and corporate banking activities.
Jean-Marc Riegel, said, “The licensing was supported by Investment Promotion Agency Qatar (IPA Qatar). Acquiring the exclusive franchise in Qatar was to bring international standards of Corporate Advisory Services and with this international regulation in the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) and to offer this service to the companies based in Qatar in the area of operational cost optimization with ERA which is the expertise and first product of Pivot.”
The official reiterated our business plan is not only to offer cost optimisation services but to offer Corporate Advisory Services that includes other activities also. This is the reason for the second stage product that was announced recently – the strategic partnership with Al Sulaiti Law Firm, a leading corporate law firm and Open Source Management (OSM Qatar), the leading management company for broader restructuring in the organisational services. By combining Al Sulaiti Law Firm, OSM Qatar and ERA in a single package service from September, we will offer a comprehensive package of restructuring for companies to fix their financial, operational, management, and legal challenges. A conference in Doha this 25 November 2021 will highlight the benefits of this new service to Corporate based in Qatar.
Fred Mar fleet, Executive Chairman, originally founded ERA based in UK. Since 1992, ERA has expanded to the continent of Europe and Americas. From the year 2015 it expanded to the emerging markets - Latin America and the Middle East. ERA is in the region for five years - UAE (2017), Egypt and Saudi Arabia (2018) and now in Qatar.
Jean-Marc said, our business model is a 100 percent performance based. Being in the region for 20 years and in Qatar for 15 years, he noted to local companies, professional advisors are bringing advisory recommendations but the level of implementation by the management of the companies is fairly poor. With ERA principle the corporates and clients will implement the savings because they will be remunerated from it as they are incentivised to deliver the savings. The delivery of savings is very important, he added.
According to the official, freelancing does not work for corporate professional services which is the reason why ERA which brings services by international franchise with all the systems such as IT, corporate governance, data protection and operational expertise with 700 analysts globallyis an organised systematic professional approach.
“We have an international standard in terms of deliveries that is we are organising a matrix in the area - the Industrial Practice Group (IPG), the industries they serve such as agri food, healthcare, transport, real estate, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, financial services, education, digital, oil and gas. We have teams that have expertise in specific industries and analysts specialised in cost categories such as freight management, facilities management, banking, insurance etc, he said, highlighting the combination for each client and project. The client decides which benchmark and experts to be taken regionally or internationally to deliver the project, he added.
Speaking on local knowledge, global reach which enables to achieve savings that are greater and more sustainable he said, “The regions of our IPG expertise in agri food and manufacturing are based in Denmark, retail in UK, healthcare in Netherlands, Financial Services in UK and Qatar. Our business plan about project 2022 is to transfer oil and gas expertise from Norway, the Gas Export Countries Forum (GECF) Headquarter is in Doha, ERA Qatar can deliver on Oil & Gas operational optimization which will serve all the oil and gas clients. Construction, Education, Healthcare, Hospitality & Leisure are other areas of growth for new cost optimization expertise where ERA Qatar can also become leader. “It is very important to transfer activities to Qatar and then to the world which is part of what we have agreed with ERA as our next step, he added.
He said, beinga performance-based model, we take the risk of the corporate clients from a sense that the consultants will analyse the cost categories to evaluate if there is a potential cost saving opportunity. Once the client agrees on the situation report, on the letter of authority we negotiate the cost on that category with the existing and new suppliers and delivers the options to the client for his own decisions before we implement the savings for him without conflict of interest with suppliers. Not only we re-tender the customer supply chain, but we reengineer the process to save on the cost. For example, in manufacturing we improve the process to save and use less steel, similarly less plastic is used for those using plastic bottles.
“We re-engineer the process with two objectives – to reduce the cost and save the environment by using less raw materials and ERA delivers CO2 savings recognition certificate to our clients to showcase their contribution towards a more sustainable future” he added.
Talking about the French National Day last July 14, the French Ambassador and the Qatar former Ambassador to UNESCO in Paris referred to ERA Qatar pointing out how Jean-Marc Riegel is working with ERA France in the area of improving the process of manufacturing to save the cost for Qatar based clients and abroad.
Jean-Marc said, in Qatar we have received a strong response from the corporates. There is an urgent need for corporates for cost reduction and more broader restructuring in terms of activities whether it is from the retail, manufacturing, agrifood, education, healthcare, and construction activities. In these areas we have started to work on projects with clients which is only after six months of operation.
Speaking on expansion in Qatar, he said, we follow our business plan systematically and launched in June new ERA financial services solution for banks’ Remedial Units (RU) with corporate clients performing below potential.
ERA adds value to corporate clients within Remedial Units of banks. Expense Reduction Analysts have an international expertise in cost optimisation in most countries where banks with Remedial Units are operating. “In Qatar most of the banks have corporate banking activities and have setup Remedial Units to monitor very closely and with third party advisors to help the companies to fix their problems and have sustainable growth. As I am an ERA accredited IPG expert in financial services solutions, we have developed the first 100 percent ‘Made in Qatar’ services to the network which is something new. Last month we have announced the first service that is delivered from ERA Qatar to the network to 700 consultants in 45 countries now, in Americas, Europe, Middle East and Australasia and this service is called the ERA financial services solutions for corporate lending clients performing below potential,” he said.
We recently started to provide this service with one local bank and our plan is to do this with all commercial banks based in Qatar that are active in corporate lending, conventional and Islamic. So, this is win-win for the banks and the corporates and also for us. This is the service we have developed for Qatar, and for the 10,000 international banks with Remedial Unit, like I personally achieved back in the 90s’ in the active management of 500 Mio. CAD of corporate banking loans in BNP Paribas Canada Remedial Unit, with the improving risk lending profile of 50 percent of the portfolio through cost optimisation initiatives taken by the corporate clients in partnership with experts similar to ERA.
Pivot LLC in Qatar is supporting ERA consultants with banks in Europe, particularly our core markets are in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands; in the US and Canada, now in KSA, UAE and Qatar, and this service is being developed 100 percent by Pivot LLC where we export the know how outside of Qatar to the world. This is quite a breakthrough that QFC can be proud of and therefore IPA Qatar has shown interest to showcase a new exporter of activities from Qatar which is diversified activities with high added value, Jean-Marc stated.
Pivot LLC is engaged in a recruitment process in various expertise in professional services. “We will do whatever is required in Pivot LLC to support our vision including consider a listing on QSE Venture Market to be the first QFC licensed company in the digital economy opening its shares to the investors when applicable and appropriate” Jean Marc Riegel concluded.
