Lee and Kenneth discuss:

• How Optimy helps organisations amplify their positive impact

• Why positive impact is no longer a nice-to-have but a must-have

• Navigating the complexity of working with multiple languages

• Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make positive impact

Links & references

Lee Cooper: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecooperrecruiter/

Kenneth Bérard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethberard/

Optimy: https://www.optimy.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/optimy/

Get in touch: lee@extrology.com

Episode highlights:

“The initial project of Optimy was to support projects in sport and in music, because I always love sport. My wife is an artist, a painter, so that was important for me. So since then, my vision has always been the same, which is helping companies to have a positive impact on society in different ways. So we started with sponsoring first, and then because of the demand of users, we slowly moved to grant management, scholarship management, and more recently to even to employee engagement through what we call volunteering and donation.” 2:55  - Kenneth Bérard

“I think the main challenges have been recruiting in Belgium.  It has been a big challenge for us, we turn it into an opportunity in a way because we have to recruit a lot abroad. So in the Brussels office, we have 60 people, but we have 20 nationalities. And that really helped us in our internationalisation. So that was very positive.”  17:15 - Kenneth Bérard

“You could do what you do anywhere, anytime. So the rules of the game are evolving, has that meant therefore you've got access, conceivably, to a wider pool of prospective talent? You could go anywhere in the world to acquire the talent that you need.” 23:50 - Lee Cooper

“So positive impacts really became something very important for me over time. And when we started for companies, it was quite the same. And we say it was nice to have. Okay, it was nice. Because you could tell a story on LinkedIn, you could tell a story about what good you do. But today it is not nice to have any more, it's a must have.” 40:35  - Kenneth Bérard

“ I think corporations or key public governments and so on, don't have that much money to give back anymore, someone has to give back. And I think companies do it. And we should thank them for it.” 50:09  - Kenneth Bérard

Extrology is sponsored by Progresso Talent Partners who for more than 25 years have successfully delivered interim and permanent leadership talent to transform businesses and to hire the talent you need to enable your business to thrive: https://www.progressotalent.com/