"Success is a team sport, so I decided to hire people who would take ownership, empowerment and embark on this journey with me."
Özlem Özümer’s career has been shaped by a deep curiosity about how businesses grow, how trust is built and how risk is navigated in complex environments. She began in banking, drawn to the blend of macroeconomics, client relationships and problem‑solving. Those early years taught her how companies make decisions, how markets behave and why confidence matters as much as capital.
Her move into credit insurance opened up a different lens: the hidden machinery of global trade. Supporting clients across geographies exposed her to the daily realities of counterparty risk, expansion plans and the fragile nature of trust between buyers and sellers. A pivotal moment came when she was asked to build a greenfield operation in Turkey, balancing regulation, talent, local market nuance and the expectations of a global organisation. It was a crash course in leadership, stakeholder management and the discipline required to build something new from scratch.
Over time, she became increasingly drawn to the unmet needs she saw in clients’ day‑to‑day operations, especially around digital commerce and real‑time decision‑making. Those conversations sparked the idea that eventually became Allianz TradePay, and the journey that followed was far from linear. Early pilots didn’t gain traction, internal resistance needed to be navigated and the team had to earn trust from the wider organisation while still defining the product itself.
The breakthrough came through co‑creation with a major enterprise client willing to experiment and push beyond traditional offline models. Long, iterative work with real buyers, real journeys and real operational challenges shaped the product far more than theory ever could. Özlem reflects on how proximity to IT, rapid experimentation and the freedom to fail early became the foundations of real progress.
Scaling innovation inside a large organisation required sponsorship, belief and constant communication. As she describes, everything hinges on people: the right team, a shared vision and the willingness to challenge familiar processes. Her story is a reminder that transformation is rarely about sweeping disruption. It is about building confidence, earning trust and helping customers grow in ways they could not have achieved alone.
Topics connected to this episode
Understanding unmet needs in B2B trade
The emotional drivers behind confidence and growth
Why change initiatives face resistance in established organisations
Sitting with stakeholder hesitation rather than pushing past it
Mapping buyer journeys and moments of uncertainty
Designing experiences that support better decision‑making
Balancing innovation with risk, reassurance and trust
Enabling adoption through emotional as well as functional support
Customer hesitation in digital transformation
Making change happen in B2B environments
Overcoming internal and external resistance to new approaches
The role of trust and proximity in B2B decision‑making
Confidence as a driver of customer experience
Experience‑led innovation in B2B commerce
Supporting adoption of new models and ways of working
Topics covered
Key moments
John Kelly has spent over 25 years navigating the realities of FMCG and Food and Beverage, an environment defined by operational discipline, complex routes to market and a low tolerance for risk.
In this episode, John reflects on his 15‑year journey at Heineken, where he helped scale a B2B digital ecosystem from three pilot markets to more than 30 countries, generating over €2.5 billion in digital revenue and fundamentally reshaping how the business goes to market.
John shares honest stories from the frontline of transformation, from failed big‑bet initiatives to the power of incremental innovation, agile ways of working and building belief market by market. He explains why early pilots should focus on adoption, not ROI, how to balance annual planning with sprint‑based delivery, and why customer centricity must come before technology.
The conversation also explores practical AI use cases, including dynamic sales routing and next‑best‑action models, alongside John’s framework for scaling digital capability through distinct growth phases without moving too fast.
Grounded, pragmatic and deeply experienced, John’s perspective is a reminder that successful transformation in FMCG is rarely about disruption for its own sake, it’s about patience, proof and bringing people with you.
Chris Monery entered food wholesale from the fast, unforgiving world of online retail, where technology, data and constant optimisation are the norm. What he found was an industry shaped by relationships, routines and workarounds, where businesses could operate successfully without the systems and digital discipline he took for granted.
In this episode, Chris talks openly about what it means to bring a digital mindset into a traditionally low‑tech B2B environment. He reflects on the early realities of the sector, the gaps he saw immediately, and why fundamentals such as forecasting, stable platforms and clear processes became the foundation for change. He also discusses the practical work of scaling in a protected market, from building trust with suppliers to persuading independent van drivers to join him, to developing the tools he couldn’t find off the shelf.
For Chris, real transformation isn’t about disruption for its own sake. It’s about seeing where a system is fragile, strengthening the parts no one else wants to fix and proving that technology, relationships and execution can work together to build something better.
Maxim Gelmann didn’t set out to make edible spoons. He set out to change how people think about sustainability. His journey from strategy consulting to Burning Man to Dragons’ Den shaped the way he now builds his brand: with creativity, playfulness and a refusal to make sustainability dull.
In this episode, Maxim talks about building Stroodles as a brand from day one, not just a product line, and why fun travels faster than fear when it comes to behaviour change. He explains how edible tableware creates the kind of memorable, shareable moments that no carbon‑reporting framework can match, and why B2B hospitality and wholesale adoption requires more than innovation, it requires storytelling, patience and “pre‑chewed” ideas that help chefs and venues imagine what’s possible.
Maxim’s view is clear: sustainability only shifts when it becomes visible, tangible and joyful. And for B2B leaders wrestling with innovation, distribution complexity and customer expectations, his story offers a reminder that differentiation often comes from narrative, not novelty.
