Otto van Harmelen, founder and owner of CORE-UP; a business consultancy for corporates and start-ups. CORE-UP can set up and execute a revised blueprint and/or business model, supporting companies’ innovation, (re)focus strategies, improve synergies and expand internationally. By training and coaching CORE-UP accelerates implementation.
Otto has more than 30 years’ retail and wholesale experience, worked in more than 35 countries and lived and worked in the Netherlands, Germany, UK, Czech Republic and China. He graduated as Master of Science at the Rotterdam Erasmus University.
Regularly, he gives lectures at the Tongji University in Shanghai China, the Mannheim University in German and is summit guest speaker around the world.
Otto started his career in wholesale electronics, followed by working in retail at the British Shoe Corporation in his home country the Netherlands. The last 27 years he worked in wholesale/retail for METRO GROUP. For this multinational he worked in many different fields, countries and management levels.
He set up Office-Centre / Staples the Netherlands and developed the METRO Corporate University. He trained and coached country boards and operational management in more than 35 countries and set up training campuses in Germany, France, Russia and China. He was in the Management Board of METRO Czech Republic, Slovakia and MAKRO UK as Procurement and Merchandising Director. As Regional Officer for Europe and MENA he was responsible for developing and implementing strategies for procurement, customer and own brand products in more than 15 countries. Moreover, he was responsible for the development of the Corporate Business Innovation at METRO GROUP, where he managed business innovations and start-up integration. Lastly, Otto conducted feasibility studies for countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa.
To conclude, Otto van Harmelen brings industry insight for start-ups and new corporate business integration, by international business consulting and executive training and coaching. He can improve your operating model to be more flexible, scalable and customer oriented, and accelerate (international) expansion, business results and revenues.
