A lifestyle: Building bridges beyond borders

Francis Laleman studied Oriental Languages & Cultures at the RU Gent (Ghent University, Belgium), majoring in post-classical Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies and reading Hindi, Urdu, Malay, and Bahasa Indonesia.
Immediately after his degree, he worked for a brief time as a Human Resources Facilitator with Townsend Thoresen (European Ferries) Ltd (Dover-Calais-Zeebrugge), only to return to studying and travelling after two years of corporate experience.

Asian Studies and travels

After a brief reconnaissance in Jain Studies (he wrote a thesis on Rajashekharasuri's Prabandha literature), he further explored the world of Buddhist Studies, reading Tukharian and Classical Malay with Prof. Walter Couvreur, studying and lecturing in New Delhi, Patna, Vaishali and Nalanda, and discovering the Buddhist Suttanipata texts with Rev. Obbegoda Dhammatilaka Mahathera at the Buduruvagala hermitage in southern Sri Lanka. Further to a 2,500 km walk (paidal yatra) through the south of Nepal and the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in 1991-1992, he devoted five years to the study of Buddhist Archaeology, writing an historical account of the life and times of the historical Buddha (Whoever turns the Wheel - shortly to be published), guiding tours and treks in Sri Lanka, India and the Himalaya, and lecturing on the subject worldwide.

Meanwhile, as a developer and guide of tours in South Asia, he gradually shifted focus from the well-trodden paths through Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bengal and the Punjab to the more adventure-prone areas of Bihar, Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet - combining his childhood passions for hillwalking and birdwatching with his emerging interest in human behaviour and group dynamics. He has successfully led hundreds of clients, in small groups of no more than twelve, through novel and hitherto unexploited territories, always hunting for a unique combination of natural beauty, historical interest, cross-cultural dynamics and human endeavour.

At the same time, having translated a series of books on Zen and Tibetan Buddhism (published by Bzztoh, Den Haag, The Netherlands), he joined the India Study Centre at Antwerp University as a lecturer in Indian history and culture (1994 onwards) and the Department of Oriental and Slavonic Studies at KU Leuven (Louvain University, Belgium) as a researcher (1995-1998). It was here that he first got acquainted with Islamic Studies, while compiling an encyclopeadic (descriptive) bibliography of Pakistan's founding father Sir Allama Mahammad Iqbal (published by Peeters, Louvain, 2000), under sponsorship of the Iqbal Foundation Europe (Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan).

Back to business

Slowly getting overdosed with travelling and lecturing, towards the end of the nineties Francis felt the urge to escape from the narrow world of academics and devote his energy to working closer with people. In order to make a thorough break, in 1998 he first joined Marketing Interactive and a few months later Mobistar, Belgium's second mobile operator and member of the France Telecom Group, as a trainer and training developer. Building on his expertise as as a teacher-trainer-lecturer, he quickly learned to excel as a trainer in telecom products and services, specialising in the rather advanced mobile data and internet-related services.

Moreover, using his broad experience in human interrelationships obtained from guiding groups of clients through harsh and adventurous treks over high and inaccessible Himalayan passes, he developed as a highly efficient and sought-after trainer in leadership, communication, negotiation, and meeting skills as well as in customer service.

Having further explored the corporate environment as a Project Manager and as Head of Customer Service (Call Centre) Team at Mobistar, in 2001 he decided to leave the company and offer his services on the marketplace as an independent business consultant and trainer. To this aim, he founded Beyond Borders (bvba Francis Laleman).

Business Consultant and Trainer

After a major assigment (2002-2003) with CM Midden Vlaanderen, Belgium's major health insurance provider, where he facilitated the development of a brandnew call centre, fitting within a newly designed customer service policy, he joined the Minds in Motion Group where he steadily broadened his international experience and reputation, both as a trainer and as a consultant. Major assignments with Minds in Motion were (among others) with AGF (Allianz Group), Proximus, Belgacom, Nuon, the Ministry of Health (Federal Government of Belgium), Ikea, Sanoma Magazines, and Nawras (Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company, Muscat, Oman).

In the meantime he side-focused on language training in a corporate environment, cross-cultural and intercultural business strategy and implementation programs, and expat coaching, working with BLCC (Business Language and Communication Centre), Randstad, Cargill, Sony, Schneider Electric, ICOS and many others. Moreover, he is often at work as a translator and/or interpreter, using his mix of language skills and knowledge of business vocabulary as a unique asset.

Late 2004, the entire Minds in Motion Group chose to become a member of Abyzco, thus widening its scope and its expertise. With Abyzco, Francis has been delivering consultancy services in the fields of corporate culture, organisational excellence, strategy implementation, cultural integration, change management, bottom line enhancement, and people performance.

As an independent Consultant/Trainer/Coach, Francis offers consultancy, implementation and training as either separate or integrated services, and his engagement can cover the entire business process or just a specific step. For the past few years, Francis Laleman has been working with major companies all over the world, either directly or through mediation of some of Belgium's and the world's finest consultancy and training bureaus. His expertise extends over a variety of industrial sectors, from the financial and telecom to government services, distribution, travel, pharmaceutics and many more.

Beyond Borders, India Business Support, Dunya, Kahani

From Beyond Borders, the distance was short to more. In 2007, Francis joined forces with Bert Verdonck, to build India Business Support, a company specializing in the preparation and organisation of European trade missions to India, which has remained Francis’s second homeland ever since the early days of his career.

Next, in 2008, a new partnership came along, this time with Michaela Broeckx, Xenia Orgielewski and Eddy Van Hemelrijck. ‘Dunya’ (aptly meaning ‘the world’) represents a brand covering a variety of programs and consultancy offers in the fields of intercultural communication and leadership – areas in which Francis holds both an excellent academic and a long-standing pragmatic track record.

And then, also in 2008, came Kahani, a new brand under which Francis promotes the use of literature and storytelling as tools and techniques to further insights into aspects of  organization and change management.

The Beyond Borders, India Business Support, Dunya and Kahani headquarters are at Bayt al-Andalus, a remarkable historic Arabo-Andalusian mansion in Berchem (Antwerp, Belgium), a venue which is available for meetings and events at request.

 Contact:
 flaleman@zensearch.com