Greensill is the market-leading provider of working capital finance for companies globally. They provide Supply Chain Finance around the world, from 20 days to 20 years and beyond, with ranges from $10mm to $5bn.
Ilkka is responsible for originating and structuring innovative financial solutions for clients across the world. Prior to Greensill, he served as CEO for three Australian listed companies and growing businesses to a global scale across a number of industries. And is what he calls himself an “unemployable character.”
Listen to the full discussion here:
Connect with the Guest:
Ilkka Tales: LinkedIn
Some of the highlights from the podcast:
- Funding USD142 billion for global trade
- On-boarding 19,800 suppliers to a client’s platform
- The difference between Greensill and a bank
- Future developments in trade finance
- How to look at risk and due diligence in supply chain finance
Show Notes:
- [01:25] So tell us a little how did somebody like yourself and being highly unemployable ended up in Greensill?
- [04:12] Can you take some time to explain to our listeners that may not know, what does Greensill do
- [05:04] I think last year we funded about $142 billion and this year we’re expecting to find significantly higher than that value.
- [05:20] Can you give us an example of clients you worked with? How you worked with them and helped them?
- [06:30] We implemented a technology-driven solution that was embedded into Vodafone’s SAP platform for suppliers to get access to funding earlier, as soon as the even invoice was approved.
- [10:45] What is the difference between you and a bank? What would you say would be the main differentiator?
- [13:36] From a supply chain financing perspective, how do you see this crisis having an impact and playing out in the next quarters?
- [16:52] Many of the trade insurers have pulled out because they’re highly exposed to the recession that we are most certainly in globally.
- [18:44] We’re quite adept at solving very complex problems for our clients, and I think that’s probably what we’re best known for in the marketplace.
- [19:55] Is there such a thing as a silver bullet in ensuring that you don’t end up funding companies that can go bankrupt, especially under the current situation?
- [21:34] We need a different way of looking at risk. It requires due diligence on any transaction that you do but also what the governments are doing globally on supporting businesses.
- [22:31] Where do you see trade finance in a couple of years down the line? What would be the main developments that you see happening?
- [24:26] If you are to give a piece of advice to our younger listeners tuning in the podcast to have a successful career in a corporate environment, what would that be?
- [24:55] When you approach problems with childlike innocence and not the baggage of what you might have learned and might have experienced. You end-up developing better solutions and better outcomes.
- [26:53] If you don’t have diversity, you just have groupthink, and groupthink is just a bunch of people who come up with the same solution and face the same problem in the same way.
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