In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Patrick Apostolo, Business Transformation Director at MSC Cruises, whose career has taken him from building e-commerce businesses in Italy to leading operational and digital transformation across hospitality and the cruise industry.

Patrick started his career as an entrepreneur before moving into large corporate environments, including roles with Radisson Hotel Group and now MSC Cruises. That combination has shaped how he approaches transformation: stay close to the customer, understand how the operation really works and be prepared to test ideas rather than spending months debating them in a meeting room.

This is a wide-ranging conversation about what happens when transformation meets the reality of complex operations, from changing the way hundreds of hotels work to managing the interdependencies of what is effectively a small city moving around the world.

They discuss:

• What Patrick learned from entrepreneurship about the difference between having a good idea and actually being able to execute it, and why he has carried that mindset into corporate transformation
• Why fear of failure creates slow decision-making in large organisations and the importance of giving transformation teams enough freedom to test, learn and challenge how things have always been done
• Why a transformation that looks good at head office has failed if the frontline cannot execute it, and what hospitality taught Patrick about designing around the people actually delivering the customer experience
• How small operational improvements can create significant value at scale, and why optimisation should be about cost effectiveness rather than simply cutting costs
• Why technology is often the easier part of transformation and adoption is where the real work begins, particularly when established ways of working need to change alongside it
• What COVID taught Patrick about how quickly organisations are capable of changing when the usual barriers disappear, including closing and reopening around 200 hotels with completely new operating protocols
• What moving from hotels into cruises taught him about complexity, interdependencies and the danger of improving one part of an operation without understanding the consequences elsewhere
• Where AI can support transformation, from modelling scenarios in complex operations to amplifying people's work, and why organisations need to stop buying technology first and then trying to fit their operating model around it

Patrick also makes a strong case for transformation becoming a continuous organisational capability rather than a series of individual projects. His advice for anyone working in the field is simple: get close to the operation, ask people to show you how things really work, understand the economics behind the business and never stop questioning why things are done the way they are.

If you work in process, operations or transformation and are trying to make change work in a large, complex organisation, this episode offers plenty of lessons from someone who has had to do exactly that across very different environments.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd
Guest: Patrick Apostolo, Business Transformation Director at MSC Cruises

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Joy Wong, Head of Transformation Technology, Productivity and Value Capture at Standard Chartered, who has spent 20 years leading transformation across retail, investment and wealth management banking.

Organisations invest huge amounts of time and money in transformation, but there is often far more focus on delivering the programme than understanding the value it created. Joy has spent much of her career looking at that gap, from putting meaningful numbers against process improvement to tracking whether the expected savings and benefits actually materialise.

But for Joy, the numbers are only part of the picture. One of the most important lessons she learned early in her career was that sometimes you have to slow down to go faster. However good the technology, process or business case might be, change is unlikely to stick unless you bring people with you.

This is a practical and wide-ranging conversation about making transformation deliver measurable value, learning from what happens after implementation and applying those same fundamentals as AI and automation become a bigger part of the transformation agenda.

They discuss:

• Why transformation teams can become too focused on delivery and move onto the next programme without stopping to understand whether the promised value was actually realised
• What value capture looks like in practice, from reducing process touchpoints and unnecessary checks to measuring people, technology and vendor costs, ROI and payback time
• Why process teams should not be afraid to put a number against improvement, and how setting an initial North Star can help you start without getting stuck in analysis paralysis
• How quick wins build confidence in transformation and why understanding your biggest detractors can sometimes turn them into your strongest supporters
• Why productivity and automation can create resistance, and the role communication, feedback and empathy play in bringing people through change
• Why AI does not change the fundamentals of transformation, from fixing poor processes before automating them to making sure the organisational knowledge feeding AI is actually fit for purpose

Joy brings a practical perspective to transformation, grounded in the idea that delivering the programme is only part of the job. If you work in process, transformation, operational excellence or technology and want to get better at demonstrating the value your work creates, this episode is worth your time.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd
Guest: Joy Wong, Head of Transformation Technology, Productivity and Value Capture at Standard Chartered

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Chris Hinds, VP of Digital Strategy Design and Implementation at one of the UK’s leading aerospace and defence manufacturers. Chris has spent nearly two decades working across operations, manufacturing, engineering, IT and enterprise transformation in highly complex, heavily regulated environments.

What makes this conversation particularly interesting is that Chris approaches digital transformation from an operational perspective first. Before moving into enterprise architecture and digital strategy, he spent years leading teams on the shop floor, solving production problems in real time and learning how large organisations actually function under pressure.

This is a thoughtful and highly practical conversation about why transformation succeeds or fails in complex organisations, and why technology on its own is never the answer.

They discuss:

• Why technology should be treated as an enabler rather than a silver bullet, and how Chris’s experience across operations, engineering and manufacturing shaped his approach to enterprise transformation
• The tension between quality, cost and delivery in aerospace manufacturing, and how conflicting KPIs can unintentionally drive the wrong behaviours
• What leading operational teams taught Chris about leadership, trust and the importance of protecting teams from organisational noise while removing barriers to delivery
• Why manufacturing and assembly processes are often far more parallel than they appear on paper, and what organisations frequently miss when digitising them
• The challenge of balancing global standardisation with local operational variation, and why enterprise software should be “as common as possible, as different as necessary”
• How digital twins and AI are being applied across aerospace engineering and operations, and why trusted data, governance and human oversight remain critical
• Why meaningful transformation takes years to realise, and why foundational operational systems knowledge may become one of the most valuable skills for the next generation

Chris brings a rare combination of operational leadership, engineering understanding and enterprise technology experience. If you work in process, manufacturing, digital transformation or enterprise architecture, this episode offers a grounded and refreshingly honest perspective on what it really takes to make change work in large organisations.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd

Guest: Chris Hinds, VP of Digital Strategy Design and Implementation

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Mike Lucas, Business Process Excellence Manager at Alkermes, a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Dublin with significant operations in the United States.

Mike has spent nearly 19 years at Alkermes, starting on the manufacturing floor before moving through supply chain, SAP, planning systems and transformation. That journey has given him a practical view of process management, shaped by working in highly regulated environments where getting a process right has consequences far beyond producing a good-looking process map.

This is a grounded conversation about the gap between how a process is documented and how work actually happens, and why closing that gap requires process professionals to spend more time with the people doing the work.

They discuss:

• How Mike’s early experience in aviation and pharmaceutical manufacturing taught him the importance of structure, discipline and processes that work in practice, not just on paper
• Why Lean and Six Sigma are valuable as a common language for improvement, and how a Yellow Belt project helped Alkermes improve the efficiency of master data collection by around 80%
• How BPM can evolve from supporting business change to actively driving it, and why a beautiful process map that nobody uses is not a measure of success
• What Alkermes’ move from ECC6 to S/4HANA has revealed about its existing processes, and why the programme is being used to move away from heavy customisation towards greater standardisation
• How SAP standard processes and Signavio can provide a useful starting point for transformation, reducing local reinvention and creating more consistent processes and documentation
• Why process ownership and governance remain difficult to get right, particularly when accountability stretches across functions, systems and end-to-end processes
• Why the best process professionals are translators, getting close to the work, listening to SMEs and turning complex business reality into something people can understand, adopt and improve

Mike brings a refreshingly practical perspective shaped by years spent close to operations as well as major transformation programmes. If you work in process, transformation, supply chain or enterprise systems and want process management to influence how the business actually works, this episode is worth your time.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd
Guest: Michael Lucas, Business Process Excellence Manager at Alkermes

Description:

In this episode, Liam O'Neill speaks with Alex von Schledorn, Head of Procurement Excellence at ETEX, whose career has taken him from manufacturing and flower exports in Ecuador to logistics, planning, procurement and operational excellence across Europe.

Alex's route into process is anything but conventional. After working in his father's business from a young age, he built experience across multiple industries before having to rebuild his life from scratch after moving to Europe. Those experiences shaped the way he approaches operational excellence today, combining a deep respect for people with a relentless focus on improving the systems they work within.

This is a practical and refreshingly human conversation about why process improvement is never really about technology. It is about understanding how organisations work, helping people solve problems and creating systems that make work easier rather than more complicated.

They discuss:

• Why working across every function of his father's business taught him that you cannot improve what you do not truly understand
• How experience across manufacturing, logistics, sales and planning helped him develop a systems mindset that transfers between industries
• What rebuilding his career from scratch in Europe taught him about resilience, humility and leadership
• Why the best operational decisions come from trusted data rather than assumptions or instinct
• How organisations can unlock significant value by using the capabilities they already have before investing in new technology
• The importance of helping people understand why systems like SAP work the way they do, rather than simply expecting adoption
• How a simple robotic process automation solution transformed document management, reduced manual effort and improved audit readiness across the business
• Why AI should enhance human decision making rather than replace accountability, and why organisations need the right foundations before introducing it
• How building relationships, understanding different cultures and picking up the phone remain some of the most powerful tools for driving process ownership
• Why attitude is ultimately the biggest differentiator for anyone building a career in operational excellence

Whether discussing procurement, process management or digital transformation, Alex consistently returns to the same principle: technology matters, but people, curiosity and a willingness to solve problems are what create lasting improvement.

Host: Liam O'Neill, Managing Director at bpmd

Guest: Alex von Schledorn, Head of Procurement Excellence at ETEX

Description:

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Paavo Heikkinen, Head of BPM and Change Management at Bank Frick, the Liechtenstein-based financial institution operating at the intersection of banking, fintech and crypto services.

Paavo’s career has taken him from consulting into manufacturing and now into financial services, working across organisations including BMW, Siemens and VAT Group before moving into the banking sector. That journey gives him a particularly grounded perspective on what stays consistent across organisations regardless of industry, and what fundamentally changes when regulation, risk and operational complexity become part of everyday process design.

This is a practical and thoughtful conversation about why process transformation succeeds or fails, the limitations of governance models that exist only on paper and what it actually takes to build operational ownership that people engage with rather than quietly work around.

They discuss:

• Why most large organisations behave less like a single company and more like a collection of semi-autonomous silos with their own cultures, incentives and ways of working
• Why process ownership fails when it is treated as an administrative responsibility rather than something people are genuinely empowered to shape and influence
• How lightweight workflow tools and process prototypes can make governance tangible and help teams collaborate more effectively across functions
• Why continuous improvement and BPM work best when they are tightly connected rather than operating as separate disciplines
• The challenge of balancing innovation, customer experience and operational efficiency inside a highly regulated banking environment, and why Paavo sees regulation as a “design envelope” rather than the starting point for process design
• How Bank Frick is moving away from document-centric compliance towards a process-centric operating model where processes become the primary source of truth
• Why AI will increase the importance of BPM and process governance rather than replace it, particularly in regulated industries where accountability and human oversight still matter

This episode is full of practical insight for anyone working in BPM, operational excellence, transformation, governance or enterprise change, particularly those trying to balance structure, regulation and real operational usability in complex organisations.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd

Guest: Paavo Heikkinen, Head of BPM and Change Management at Bank Frick

Description: 

In this episode, Sam Lewis speaks with Prem Krishna, Global BPM Transformation Leader at IKEA. Prem's career has taken him from software development and management consulting in India, through operational excellence and supply chain leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, to leading business process transformation in one of the world's most recognised brands. 

What makes Prem's perspective particularly interesting is that he does not see himself primarily as a process professional. He sees himself as a problem solver. Throughout his career, he has worked across industries including manufacturing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, supply chain and retail, applying the same fundamental principle: understand the problem before choosing the solution. 

This is a practical and thought-provoking conversation about process, governance, continuous improvement and why organisations often focus on the wrong things when trying to solve business challenges. 

They discuss: 

• Why Prem sees himself as a problem solver rather than a process professional, and how that mindset has helped him work across industries from manufacturing and pharmaceuticals to retail and supply chain 
• The danger of starting with methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma, Agile, process mining or AI before fully understanding the problem you are trying to solve 
• Why organisations often blame process when the real issues are governance, ownership, decision-making and unclear responsibilities 
• The lessons he learned improving manufacturing operations, and how data, observation and systems thinking help uncover what is really happening on the shop floor 
• The difference between improving physical production processes and digital workflows, and why process mining has become such a powerful tool for understanding how work actually gets done 
• How he helped build a five-year cost reduction strategy at Johnson & Johnson, and why winning stakeholder support one conversation at a time is often the key to successful transformation 
• How AI is changing the way organisations operate, why it should be treated as a tool rather than a strategy, and what happens when you apply AI to a process that is already chaotic 

If you work in process management, transformation, operational excellence or enterprise change, this episode offers a refreshingly pragmatic perspective on how to solve problems, improve performance and create lasting results. 

Host: Sam Lewis, Director at bpmd 

Guest: Prem Krishna, Global BPM Transformation Leader at IKEA 

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Carina Siemen, Global Quality Systems Leader at Nexperia, where she leads global quality systems, process improvement and digital transformation across a highly complex international manufacturing environment.

Carina’s route into process and quality management is not a conventional one. Before moving into aviation, operational excellence and global quality leadership, she started her career in fast food, managing restaurant operations at 19 and opening a brand new restaurant as a manager at 22. It was there, long before she formally studied quality management, that she first learned what process really means under pressure.

This is a practical and wide-ranging conversation about why process is fundamentally about enabling scale, why so many organisations misunderstand quality management, and why AI is about to make process governance more important rather than less.

They discuss:

•  Why fast food taught Carina more about process management than most corporate environments, and how operating under real-world pressure shaped the way she still thinks about standardisation, execution and scale today 
•  Why standardisation, when done properly, creates freedom rather than bureaucracy, and how clear processes allow organisations to move faster without losing consistency 
•  What the business world still gets wrong about quality management, and why many organisations become “audit-ready but operationally fragile” by focusing too heavily on compliance, documentation and approvals 
•  Why process improvement only works when the people doing the work are involved in designing it, and how communication, operational credibility and stakeholder alignment determine whether change actually succeeds 
•  How Carina approaches process and quality systems by starting with how work actually flows through the business first, then mapping standards onto that reality afterwards 
•  Why AI agents still require clear rules, governance and process frameworks to operate effectively, and how process repositories are becoming a critical organisational asset in the age of AI 
•  The difference between uncontrolled AI data environments and governed process knowledge, and why organisations with clean, trusted process frameworks will have a major advantage as AI adoption accelerates 
•  How Carina’s team built an AI-powered internal process chatbot, why prompting AI is fundamentally different from using Google, and what organisations need to do if they want employees to use AI effectively rather than become frustrated by it 

This episode is particularly relevant for anyone working in process management, quality, operational excellence, transformation or digital change. Especially those trying to understand how AI, governance and process thinking are starting to converge in large organisations.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd

Guest: Carina Siemen, Global Quality Systems Leader at Nexperia

In this episode, Liam O’Neill speaks with Paul Rudge, Process Intelligence Manager at RS Group, where he is helping to bring together nearly two decades of continuous improvement experience with a new generation of process intelligence capability.

Paul has spent most of his career in Lean and Six Sigma roles, working hands-on with teams to drive improvement across complex operational environments. More recently, his focus has shifted towards using data and process mining to understand how work actually happens at scale, particularly in the context of RS Group’s SAP S/4HANA transformation.

This is a practical and grounded conversation about what really changes when you move from traditional continuous improvement to a more data-led, process intelligence approach, and why greater visibility does not automatically make improvement easier.

They discuss:

• Why process intelligence can be “almost too powerful” at first, and how insight overload can slow you down rather than speed you up
• The shift from improving hundreds of small things to focusing on a handful of changes that genuinely move the needle
• Why most organisations underestimate the scale of variation in their processes, and what happens when you finally make that visible
• The concept of the “hidden factory” and how process intelligence exposes the rework, manual touches and workarounds that traditional reporting never shows
• Why years of well-intentioned customisation can make processes worse, and how standardisation can be a counterintuitive improvement
• The gap between what people think the process is and what is actually happening in reality
• How process intelligence supports ERP transformation by revealing complexity, reducing variation and identifying unnecessary work before migration
• Why governance only works when accountability and visibility are in place together, and how making processes visible can drive behaviour change on its own
• The importance of validating data with subject matter experts, and why even the best tools can produce misleading conclusions
• Where AI is starting to add value in process and CI work, and why it still depends heavily on human judgement and critical thinking
• Why continuous improvement as a discipline has been slower than expected to adopt AI, despite its potential

Paul brings a pragmatic perspective shaped by years of experience delivering change in real organisations. If you are working in continuous improvement, process management, transformation or ERP delivery and trying to make sense of how process intelligence and AI fit into that world, this episode will give you a clear and honest view.

Host: Liam O’Neill, Managing Director at bpmd
Guest: Paul Rudge, Process Intelligence Manager at RS Group

In this episode, Liam O'Neill speaks with Aafke Post, Senior BPM Solution Manager at Philips, where she has spent 14 years building and leading enterprise process governance across complex, multi-country environments.

Aafke's background is genuinely unusual for someone in this space. She started as a sports performance coach before studying Communication and Multimedia Design, and it is that combination of systems thinking and design thinking, always anchored to the end user, that has shaped everything she has done since.

This is a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation about what it actually takes to make process work useful rather than just correct.

They discuss:

• Why teaching people to abseil taught her more about trusting a process than any business programme
• How she discovered a formal process framework at Philips that nobody in the business knew existed, and what that moment clarified for her
• Why a technically correct process that does not serve the people who use it has already failed
• The gap between how organisations work and how they think they work, and why that gap is so persistent
• What good process ownership actually looks like and why it is rarer than most organisations realise
• Why clean, consistent, agreed-upon data is the foundation everything else depends on, and how hard it is to get there in practice
• How she built a chatbot in Copilot Studio, and what the transcripts of user conversations revealed about the real gaps in the process framework
• Where AI is heading in the process space and why organisations without a strong data foundation will struggle to benefit from it

Aafke brings a perspective that is both deeply practical and genuinely different from most people working in this field. If you lead process, transformation, IT or enterprise architecture and you are trying to build something that people will actually use, this episode is worth your time.

Host: Liam O'Neill, Managing Director at bpmd 

Guest: Aafke Post, Senior BPM Solution Manager at Philips