Oliver Elirani and April Lincoln launch consulting firm Ollen Group

A “siloed, non-personalised” approach to consulting is “no longer viable” in the wake of Covid-19, according to the founders of new consulting firm Ollen Group. With a combined 25 years of experience between them, Oliver Elirani and April Lincoln aim to help change makers solve business challenges and empower economies and communities to rebuild following the Covid-19 induced recession.

Founded in 2020 by Oliver Elirani and April Lincoln, Ollen Group is a consulting firm established to help business leaders achieve practical results. The term Ollen in its name refers to an individual of legendary talents – a legacy the firm is looking to live up to quickly following its launch.

Ollen Group’s capabilities span five key areas from idea-to-execution: research and analytics; strategy and innovation; planning and improvement; design and supervision; and activation and support. The company is aiming to support clients across a diverse range of sectors, from agribusiness, hospitality, consumer goods and travel retail, to public sector, healthcare and technology.

Helping the company to span such a diverse offering, and attract clients from such a broad cross-section of industries, both Elirani and Lincoln possess extensive institutional and entrepreneurial experience regionally and globally.

Elirani, for example, has spent more than 12 years in different industries and practices, working for and with leading consulting firms, corporations, start-ups, investors and governmental entities across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. He most recently worked for PwC Middle East, where he served in the Beirut, Riyadh, and Dubai offices across different practices – work which included leading and delivering several high-impact engagements across the region, as well as extensive work on Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 scheme, collaborating closely with leading ministries, authorities and government-backed funds.

Lincoln meanwhile has more than 12 years of experience in delivering projects across the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Most recently, this saw her head up the consulting division of ODG, a professional services firm specialising in retail & travel retail throughout the region.

In this role, Lincoln became a renowned expert in strategy, branding, design, and project execution, working closely with clients on designing and executing winning strategies and customer experiences. Some of her client portfolio included Maf Carrefour, PepsiCo, Spinneys, Del Monte, Americana Group, Proctar & Gamble, Coty Group, Chalhoub Group, Dubai Properties, Dubai World Trade Centre, Emirates Leisure Retail, Aer Rianta, and Dubai Airports.

Speaking on the motivation behind Ollen Group’s launch, Elirani commented, “We believe that our mission is to help leaders reach their full potential and achieve practical results. Our purpose today is to actually solve business challenges and empower communities, economies, and individuals to shape their future, make ripples and impact the millions of lives around them. Every client we help will help thousands of individuals and businesses indirectly.”

International footprint

Headquartered in the UAE, Ollen Group has launched internationally, with experts based in Dubai, Riyadh, Beirut, Ahmedabad, Johannsberg and Orlando. Combined with the pull of the track record of Ollen Group’s founders, this intercontinental reach means the firm is already working on multiple engagements in strategy, business planning, branding, platform design, and startup growth acceleration in UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Lebanon and the US.

Citing a “lack of idea-to-execution consulting firms” in the industries Ollen Group is targeting, El Irani stated that traditionally known leading consulting firms are expensive, and usually overlook work there altogether, due to the smaller scale of projects. However, as the MENA region and the world look to recover from a torrid 2020, he contended that supporting SME clients was the key to rebuilding the economy.

Elirani concluded, “Siloed, bureaucratic, pricey, non-personalised and non-accountable approach to consulting is no longer viable post-Covid-19… The market needs consulting firms like Ollen Group. We offer better personalised quality of services at better value, leading to higher returns on investments for our clients.”