Jaco Vermeulen is a dynamic leader in digital transformation and IT management, currently serving as the CTO of BML Global. He brings a wealth of experience in marketing, martech, and the implementation of integrated ERP, WMS, and CRM systems with eCommerce capabilities. Jaco’s background includes successful digital due diligence and transition strategies for private equity and portfolio companies.
The Unconventional Path
The tech leader’s professional journey didn’t begin with tech. His journey has been rather different
than that of his peers.
Born and raised in South Africa, Jaco’s growing up years were dominated by participating in sports and not much interest in technology. After school he got into medical school; it felt close enough to support his passion for sport. At the same time his mother, who worked for the South African equivalent of The Open University, suggested that he make use of the opportunity to obtain a free degree from her institution, so Jaco did a marketing degree part-time. He quit medical school after the first year, but several years later, he applied some of the credits he had earned to qualify as a sports rehabilitation therapist. While he never practised, this background in healthcare would prove very useful in supporting companies in healthcare and life sciences later down the line. So armed with a degree in marketing Jaco started consulting retail businesses on stock management, location-based demand and customer profiling.
It was during his (short-lived) marketing career that Jaco stumbled upon the collision of business and technology. In the year 2000, he was headhunted to implement a CRM system in a $1 billion multinational manufacturing and distribution firm. He arrived on his first day only to discover there wasn’t a system for him to replace. Everything was done manually, with records on paper or archaic local software. Jaco overhauled the entire organisation, surprisingly with great success, and fell in love with the process of applying the right technology to deliver business outcomes… and the story has pretty much been the same ever since.
“I reinforced this experience by doing an MBA specialising in Technology Management, with a thesis on “Non-obvious impacts on business valuations”; something that will stand me in good stead later in my career advising M&A transactions,” says Jaco.
From that foundation, he founded a few tech start-ups and created technology IP, functioned as CTO/CIO for several PE portfolio companies, and led business-driven technology strategy and transformations from SMEs to large PLCs. Throughout his career, he has learned that you can have the most amazing idea, with the best technology in the world behind it, but if it doesn’t accurately reflect the capabilities of your company, the market will surely enlighten you and you’ll come crashing back down to earth before you know it. This touches on the sweet spot of everything he says and does at BML.
Jaco’s journey as CTO at BML started when he joined Ben Johnson a few months after the latter started BML. They had met when he was interim Digital Director at Royal Mail while Jaco was brought into the UK Post Office to create the foundations to move the Post Office on from the legacy systems that caused all their problems. Early on, they decided that they should continue working together.
“Our thinking rarely ever duplicates, but aligns and compliments. That’s how we’ve continued to build out the team,” shares Jaco.
His focus over the last few years has been on working with Private Equity portfolio businesses to modernise them and drive value creation, as well as M&A advisory. He has supported countless M&A transactions and finds himself more than ever giving portfolio support during these crucial moments.
The BML Advantage
BML provides 3 main service areas:
1) M&A Technology Advisory
2) Business change and operating model strategy
3) Technology leadership and modernisation strategy, and Data and AI capability establishment.
“It’s funny because, the majority of the time, companies are so accustomed to operating within chaos, that they present themselves from a position of stability. This image can be so credible that the issues aren’t obvious at first. We help companies navigate the chaos they are living in and lead them to a clear path,” observes Jaco.
BML’s work begins with people. They help client companies build their workforce and senior management to establish and realise their own capability. They enjoy calling up those in their network and pitching for their support. It goes without saying that this isn’t traditional recruitment, but its effectiveness lies in the fact that it means that the customers are not forever dependent on BML. This might seem counter-intuitive approach. However, BML has found that it builds longevity and partnerships that are far more sustainable for businesses.
BML is very unlike traditional consultancies. Everybody in the BML team has extensive hands-on experience in the industry. It’s a cliché but they really have been there, done that and dealt with the nuances and complexities of the real world. So, their approach is not to deliver templated solutions or craft strategy from theory, but what actually address issues and realise opportunities within real-world business contexts.
Addressing Customer Needs
BML’s customers are critical businesses which span across multiple sectors, from healthcare to manufacturing, education, financial services and more. At times these businesses are overlooked and underestimated, despite being the core of the economy. However, this treatment creates a sentiment that they are falling behind the curve. It is this perception that breeds utter chaos.
Speaking about the customer’s biggest needs, Jaco says, “Honesty. They don’t want to be disrupted or left behind. So, telling them they need to be an AI-first company when they don’t even have the data is lost on them. They want a real solution which considers the real-world constraints and the complexities they offer.”
So, BML’s customers need chaos orchestrators which lead with objectivity and an understanding of the intricacies of the systems at hand. They need real-world solutions, not over-promises and glitter. These businesses, the customers, need objective, pragmatic and financially viable solutions. That is where BML excels, continuously generating improvements in the most appropriate style.
Busting Myths and Overcoming Challenges
For Jaco, dispelling the perception that all change must be grandiose is a tough challenge.
“Such is the nature of the world we live in, which sadly tech exemplifies. Clients look externally and become transfixed on all things new and shiny. We focus on demystifying tech by aligning it to business objectives, to help the client be informed in every way, shape and form,” he says.
BML’s approach is enhanced when execs understand that a considered approach is a far better method than trying to jump the gun.
On the M&A side, they often face a lack of appreciation for the vitality of tech and IP in M&A transactions. Most transactions are analysed through a money lens, which ultimately neglects how the business operates and can go on to scale. This is sure to be a case in point of how a theoretical approach can fail miserably when reality hits.
Surprisingly, this continues to be the case even for companies that breathe and live tech. For example, when a company is acquiring another for let’s say their proprietary AI-enabled platform, the technology and IP due diligence are often skipped. Again, an approach of this nature will create serious complications that will only be discovered after the transaction has been completed.
“Rather than providing utopia solutions, we bring tech back down to earth. We shift understanding from technology being seen in isolation to explaining its role in being enablers of all parts of a business direction, but where and when appropriate,” explains Jaco.
Enabling customers to make significant improvements without breaking the business or investing in tech that is of no real value has been the most rewarding aspect of his work at BML.
Driving Successful M&A
Drawing attention to M&A, Jaco shares that it drives 90% of business activity. So many businesses go through transaction cycles even though they aren’t even aware of it. In so many of these cases, the objectives are not defined or aligned with what needs to be achieved. The answer to these questions is again, not just about the tech, but everything about the profile of the business.
A single M&A transaction can be the most important moment in the lifespan of a business. BML makes M&A fit within the company’s story by clearly articulating the risks, costs, impacts and opportunities.
How pre-transaction is executed and what comes out of due diligence strongly informs TSA terms, integration estimates and strategy, realistic synergy realisation, and the direction for value creation.
Driving Transformation
BML doesn’t push digital transformation. Instead, it focuses on innovation and evolution. In many cases, digital transformation initially seems too farfetched or disruptive. By its nature, digital transformation means that you have neglected to keep up and will need significant investment to rectify. Innovation is about evolution in the context of the business and its ecosystem; making it more effective and efficient in increments where there is value.
Firstly, BML helps clients understand what they already have. Then it can formulate a design that achieves strategic objectives in a sensitive way. BML acts in a way that minimises disruption; directs and contains investment; executes business and tech change and enables quick value.
BML doesn’t lead with technology most of the time, in fact, it often tells its customers who want a tech strategy or AI solutions to not even think of the tech, because there is so much else to consider and navigate to gain anything from tech and change.
Emerging Technologies and Their Impact
Jaco doesn’t single out a specific technology. While most people are banking on AI as an emerging technology to look out for, he believes that AI is just part of the mix at best, and totally inappropriate at worst. A combination of sensors (IoT), cloud storage and processing, 5g and 6G connectivity, AI and vast data processing, extended reality, automation and workflow all play their parts for him.
BML has created and delivered AI-enabled solutions for well over a decade, so this boom is nothing new. They have delivered AI solutions from healthcare predictive diagnosis to insurance auto claims processing, through to logistics optimisation, so have a lot of hands-on experience in the space.
What most don’t realise is that AI, like other new technologies, is dependent on so many other factors, from the business’s actual need for it down to having the technology and data foundations in place along with the operating model to leverage it effectively.
BML takes its customers on the journey, sometimes accelerated, to implement the technologies with pragmatic approaches to how they transform and make investments at the right time, scale and sophistication.
Securing the Business
Security is the number one priority and Jaco shares that there are infinite ways to attack a business.
“During a transaction, a CEO may wake up one day and find out he is locked out of his laptop and no longer runs a company. M&A creates a black hole which sometimes we are the only ones to cross,” he says.
For BML, it is always about being fit for purpose. Its fundamental principles are security, privacy and scalability. Its team includes experienced CISOs, DPOs, Security specialists and specialist architects across domains. By design, it has an experienced team that helps it shape, scrutinize and test any solution.
Contributing to the Broader Tech Industry
BML provides talks to secondary and tertiary education institutions on technologies, including AI, and real-world bridge of business and tech, as well as discounted training sessions and workshops to help the staff at those education providers. It does similar work for healthcare providers and runs several events that bring people from all industries together.
Working with the education sector is particularly rewarding for Jaco because he gets to teach people one of the most fundamental truths about his career, the reality of business is that it is personal.
One of the main assumptions about the work we do is that the charm and answers lie in the latest technology. The pace at which the world is advancing means that people prioritise being at the front of the race above all else. Some say the hype around AI is triggering. Essentially, AI is the genericization of everything. Why would you swap out the human, the understanding and the creativity, in place for a machine? On the other hand, with a mannered approach and due attention to AI, how to use it the ethics around it and its constraints, we’re aware that we have the potential to make a significant impact.
“I have a problem with the word transformation. I’ve come to realise that always being on the hunt for a silver bullet in the hope of firing it to the moon isn’t the way to go. Instead, when companies look internally and apply a tailored methodology with a measured, purposeful and humble mindset, they just might find they advance quicker than ever before,” he says.
Ultimately, companies must remember that people are integral to business operations. When people’s eyes are opened and they realise the skills they have and then are given the right tools to advance them, that’s when things get exciting.
Creating a Diverse Workplace
Growing up in South Africa enshrined the importance of diversity and inclusion in Jaco from a very early age. “We would love to live in a world where everyone is recognised for the skills in their possession. Maybe we will one day,” he feels.
At BML, the world is seen as diverse and complex by nature and they are structured the same, benefiting from different skills and experiences to complement each other…so diversity and inclusion are not something contrived for BML, but key to what they are and how they work.
BML partners with several organisations to create new approaches and products together. They see their strength in the diversity of the team and those they work with, both partners and customers.
BML also has interns starting while they are still in college and supports education and skills development. One of their partners is a specialist technology skills training organisation that provides apprenticeships in critical technology skills, with their input directing it to how the technology can practically be applied…so it isn’t technology for technology’s sake.
Vision Ahead
“BML is growing. We’re on the path to becoming a known consultancy firm for being sensible or providing real-world-based business change solutions and M&A advisory. This wholly resonates with a large market segment that has been bamboozled with nothing more than under-delivering while charging an arm, a leg, and a kidney. We have an active pipeline and operate across several geographies,” concludes Jaco.
