Making a Significant Impact on your Bottom Line.

Making a Significant & Positive
$ Impact
on your Bottom Line.
Gabriel Blanc-Laine
Senior Executive
Leading International High-Tech Business Operations toward Profitable Growth
SaaS/Software, Telco, Hardware and Service Industry

4 Corner Stones of a Unique Added Value
Leadership
Business
Management
Coaching
People
Management
Gabriel Blanc-Lainé 2

A Unique, Diversified and Balanced Skill Set
4- Passion 1- Creativity
Leadership
3- Vision 2- Ethics
Business
Management
4- High Impact
Communication
3- Strategic Market
Positioning
& Values
1- P&L
Bottom Line Focus
2- C-Level
Strategic Selling
4- Re-centering 1- Developing
Coaching
3- Listening 2- Adjusting
People
Management
4- Problem
Solving
3- Team
Building
2- Organization
& Process Driven
Emotional Skills
Analytical Skills
Organizational Skills
Communication Skills
1- Result
Oriented

20 years of Senior Management & Leadership
in International S&M Operations
4- Passion 1- Creativity
Leadership
• Beliefs
• Convictions
• Emotions
• Intuition
• Out of the box thinking
• Brainstorming
3- Vision 2- Ethics
Business
Management
• Future
• Shared
• Realistic
• Rewarding
4- High Impact
Communication
• Attractive
• Easy to understand
• Easy to remember
• Visual
• Highly professional
• Social media
3- Strategic Market
Positioning
& Values
• Honesty
• Respect
• Trust
• Reliability
• Booking
• Revenue
• COGS
• Margin
• Opex
• Capex
• Ebitda
2- C-Level
Strategic Selling
• Concept
• Value proposition
• Competition
• Market trends & size
• Strategic alignment
• Bottom line impact
• ROI
• Customer satisfaction
4- Re-centering 1- Developing
Coaching
• New perspective
• New point of view
• Positivism
• Personal development models
• Teamwork models
• Management models
3- Listening 2- Adjusting
People
Management
• Empathy
• Humility
• Confidentiality
4- Problem
Solving
• Analyzing
• Synthesizing
• Simplifying
• Focusing on
interests
3- Team
Building
• Culture
• Language
• Education
• Experience
1- Result
Oriented
• Setting goals & objectives
• Planning
• Executing
• Following-up
• Measuring
2- Organization
& Process Driven
• Hiring
• Motivating
• Delegating
• Empowering
• Controlling
Emotional Skills
Analytical Skills
Organizational Skills
Communication Skills
• Roles & responsibilities
• Efficiency
• Scalability
• Commitment
• Accountability
1- P&L
Bottom Line Focus

Led Subsidiaries “Integration” through Higher
Collaboration and Business Excellence
VP International Operations - 09/2013 – 09/2014 - Generix Group
Situation/Opportunity
• Generix Group subsidiaries (Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) had been working in stand
alone mode for years
• Lack of information, collaboration, support, and control led to sometimes poor performance and
high risks in local business practices
Actions
• Launched a broad initiative across the 5 countries to share and build a bottom-up 3-year vision
and plan. Final plan aims at +72% revenue (from €8.7M to €15M) and +84.5% Ebitda (from
€2.84M to €5.24M) increase in FY2016-17 over FY2013-14
• Structured plans with headquarters to better inform, train, and support subsidiaries working at
each and every level (PMM, GAM, Pre-sales, Risk Management HR, Legal, Finance,
Administration, IT)
• Established regular calls and meetings to share best practices, “review and plan”, and build
momentum across countries, while continuously measuring progress against plan (KPIs)
Results
• YTD FY2014-15 H1 subsidiaries Ebitda was 32% over the budget (+ €295K)

Ignited Sales Leading to SaaS New Business
Four Folding and Profitability Recovery
Group VP Sales - 01/2011 - 09/2013 - Generix Group
• Generix Group cumulated €10M loss over 3 years, from FY 2007-08 to FY2010-11
• Generix Group sales force was deeply disorganized, demotivated, and inefficient
Actions
• Restructured sales by product line instead of “SPOCs selling all products”, because product lines
were too different (sales cycle, average deal size, decision makers…), named new managers, got
rid of disturbing elements and hired new talents
• Established Sales Force as a unique sales repository with a simplified sales cycle process, a
sharp and comprehensive sales forecast and management dashboard, and enforced its use after
training.
• Broke silos, encouraged cross-department communication and collaboration, and changed mind
set toward transparency, accountability and excellence.
Results
• Grew SaaS new business from € 2.5M in FY2010-11 to € 8.8M in FY13-14
• Restored profitability in FY2012-13 (Net result: €1.6M) and ever since..

Restructured a Company Leading to a $56M
Acquisition.
EVP Sales & Marketing - 6/2001 - 12/2004 - Steleus
• Although a lot of positive signs of growth, Steleus was not yet profitable and was still losing
money in 2001 and 2002.
Actions
• Restructured the company to reduce OPEX, and cut cost (33 people laid off on a 150 p total)
• Increase productivity and established business discipline and metrics.
• Clarified positioning, focused on targeted markets and developed international sales (new office
in Singapore).
Results
• Restored profitability in 2004 with a revenue of $18M.
• Steleus acquired by Tekelec in October 2004 for $56M.

Doubled International Sales & Opened
Asian Market.
• The organization consisted of two sales regions: Central and Northern Europe, and Southern Europe
Middle East Africa and Asia.
• I was in charge of the first region, and also led the marketing as the VP Marketing left in 2001.
• In August 2002, the VP Sales in charge of SE/MEA/Asia also left the company. I took over the entire
sales force while keeping managing the marketing.
Actions
• Extended the best practices from my sales team to the overall sales team.
• Analyzed the worldwide market and targeted major operators in 69 countries.
• Developed indirect channel strategy.
Results
• Opened an office in Singapore (5p) to better cover APAC.
• Grew the international business to from 30% in 2001 to 70% in 2004.
• Increased annual revenue by 20% average, from 10MEuro in 2001 to $18M in 2004
• Opened channel with HP and Telcordia in Europe, and Ericsson in Asia.

Established a 70p Top Gun Sales Team from
Scratch & Generated $70M in 4 Years.
Regional Sales VP - 11/1996 - 5/2000 - Cegetel Entreprises
• Cegetel Entreprises was a start-up on a market that had been France Telecom monopoly for ever.
• There were no trained competencies in the market place. However we needed a lot of sales and
systems engineers.
Actions
• Hired 70 people (sales, system engineers, trade marketing and sales managers) in the Southern
Eastern region coming from a large variety of markets over a 18 month period.
• Invested a lot of time and resources to train people and build a team sharing the same best practices
and values.
Results
• Achieved sales of $10M in 1997, $38M in 1998, $56M in 1999 and $70M in 2000.
• Key people from the team evolved and took larger national responsibilities.
• This region became the reference in term of sales management discipline and tools (funnel and
forecast) and was designated to be the pilot for a sales force automation software evaluation.

Restructured Team to Support 100% Growth.
VP Product Management & Marketing - 10/2005 3/2007 - Tekelec
• CSSG Business Unit had been created within Tekelec for one year, but was still in a storming phase.
Product management and product marketing teams were not working together.
Actions
• Reorganized the teams. Got rid of 3 low performers, promoted a powerhouse to a director role, and
hired 4 talented people.
• Clarified roles and responsibilities, instituted daily call and weekly meeting to work out priorities and
reenergized the whole team toward clear deliverable and time lines.
Results
• The 2006 roadmap was the output of the whole team who spent several days gathering ideas,
reviewing business cases and making calls about priorities.
• The marketing plan was for the first time consistent with the product plan.
• Both supported a growth from $32M revenue in 2005 to $75M in 2006.

Fourfold Installed Based and Boosted Visibility
of a SaaS Start-up.
VP Sales & Marketing - 3/2008 - Current - Qtask
• Qtask was a R&D driven Web2.0 SaaS collaborative solution with a very confusing positioning and value
proposition.
• No market awareness, no traffic on the website, no marquis references, and no clear go to market strategy.
Actions
• Created a comprehensive 2 year plan covering all aspects of Marketing, Sales and Customer Service.
• Clarified positioning and value proposition via a deep competitive analysis.
• Established brand identity and awareness via a complete Website redesign, and offline and social media
marketing initiatives.
Results
• Quadrupled installed base and won major MBA Program Business School references.
• Got the 2009 Red Herring NA 100 Award and were Finalist of CompTIA CEO Software Award.
• Got a Website Google rank of 5/7 and improved Alexa ranking from 1,200,000+ to less than 100,000.
• Generated 18,000 unique visitors with a 2.1 page view average ratio on the website.

Improved Sales Performance by 30%.
• Steleus (previously NMG Telecoms) was a kind of “old start-up”. Spin off of a large French industrial
group, most of the people have been working together for more than 5 to 10 years.
• Sales territories were unbalanced and roles between sales and marketing confused.
• Communication was way too technical.
Actions
• As VP Sales Central and Northern Europe, got rid of low performers, hired new resources,
reorganized sales territories, and clarified roles and responsibilities.
• Established tools to manage sales funnel and forecast.
• Trained my team to a more strategic selling approach.
Results
• Achieved a +30% growth in 2002 (10MEuro) vs 2001 (7.5MEuro).
• Signed a Master Purchase Agreement with Orange Group worth 30% of the company revenue in
2003/2004.
• Opened an Agilent account; this account generated $17M to Tekelec in 2006.

Built Momentum & Team Spirit toward a Vision.
VP Product Management & Marketing - 10/2005 - 3/2007 - Tekelec
• Steleus had been integrated within Tekelec to create CSSG BU for one year, but there were still two
teams; a Steleus one and a Tekelec one, with significant cultural, market vision, way to work, and
product knowledge differences.
Actions
• Launched a “Next Generation Platform” initiative. The objective was to define, specify, design and
develop “as a team” a new hardware and software platform that would be the best of the two worlds:
“Steleus-Europe/Asia-Wireless” and “Tekelec-US/CALA-Wireline” markets.
Results
• This project was a major project for 2 years ($15M investment).
• This platform represented a major breakthrough in term of scalability (from 2.000 to 20.000 users),
reliability, and usability while reducing the direct and indirect costs by 50%.
• It became the corner stone of Tekelec future growth.

Led a Complete Marketing Makeover
Resulting in 20%+ Annual Revenue Growth.
• The VP Marketing left the company during his trial period in September 2001.
• The marketing messaging was too technical and unclear.
Actions
• Took over the marketing.
• Launched a huge initiative across the company to re-assess the value proposition, reposition the
product, define a new brand identity and re-build all sales tools (presentations, collateral, web site)
Results
• Re-energized the entire company across all functions: sales, marketing, CS and R&D.
• Established core value proposition and powerful positioning that led to a 20%+ annual revenue
growth and were instrumental to the company acquisition by Tekelec. ($56M in October 2004).

Structured a Large National Sales
Organization.
Regional Sales VP - 11/1996 - 5/2000 - Cegetel Entreprises
• Cegetel Entreprises was a start-up telecommunication operator created and funded by Vivendi,
Vodafone and Bell South in November 1996.
• The initial team was composed of 80 people starting from scratch; no network, no product, and no
sales force.
Actions
• Analyzed and segmented the market, sized the sales force, and targeted the cities where to open
offices.
• Developed and delivered attractive presentations and trainings as we hired an average of 10 people
per week across all different functions.
Results
• Defined 2 main markets and 2 related sales strategies: large account with consultative selling , and
SMB market with a quick turn approach.
• Within 2 years, the company headcount grew over 1000 people.
• After this 6 month launch, I took responsibilities of the Southern Eastern Region of France and
established a sales team of 70 people.

Structured Operations to Increase Customer
Satisfaction.
VP Business Operations - 4/2007 - 9/2007 - Tekelec
• CSSG Business Unit has been developed in fast growing start-up mode for 2 ½ years without a Business
Operations Department. As a result, a lot of issues related to scalability, quality and customer satisfaction
did not have any dedicated owner and were not properly addressed.
Actions
• Assessed the situation with all stakeholders.
• Established and executed a 90 day plan to address main issues: lack of operational models, process
adherence and customer service training.
Results
• Defined operational models with all involved departments (input/output/process and metrics).
• Established a new Software Development Life Cycle process to improve product quality and roadmap
reliability.
• Improved 3 key quality indicators by 40% (overdue RFF, CAR and PR).
• Achieved first step of TL9000 Certification process.

Raised $10.5M to Finance a SaaS Start-up.
VP Marketing & International Development - 6/2000 – 4/2001 - SellingVision
• SellingVision was a SFA/CRM SaaS start-up founded with three peers from Cegetel.
• We raised $4M on a first round.
Actions
• Established brand identity, and managed press relations, advertising, tradeshows and conference
opportunities while developing sales force tools.
• Supported sales force in large accounts.
• Developed business plan for 2d round of financing.
Results
• Increased visibility via a very innovative and staggered advertising campaign.
• Developed a 30 customer installed based.
• Rose $6.5M on a 2d round of financing.

Transformed a Large European Sales Force’s
Selling Skills to Gain Market Share.
European Sales Training Manager - 1/1991 - 10/1992 - Sun Microsystems
• Sun Microsystems was a fast growing company selling “boxes” (Unix workstations). Competing against HP,
DEC and IBM, the company wanted to evolve its sales force to a more consultative approach, selling
“solutions” vs “boxes”.
Actions
• Chosen to lead the training effort at the European level thanks to my successful track records in sales and
my background in training (400+ hours of personal development and communication training delivery).
• Met with all countries managers and HR directors to qualify needs and objectives.
• Built sales training curriculum.
Results
• Established a new training curriculum for the European sales force (630 people spread in 11 countries)
• Evaluated and qualified training packages (negotiation, communication…)
• Distributed internal trainings designed by SunUniversity in the US (solutions, market segments…).
• Delivered Strategic Selling training in several countries.

Making a Significant Impact on your Bottom Line.

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