“SociaLease”, the entry from BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK, won widespread appeal at the Leaseurope conference. The project gathered the highest number of votes in both the “most innovative idea” and “best presentation” categories as voted by the conference delegates.
In 2013, Leaseurope1, in close cooperation with its Associate Member, Invigors2, launched the Future Group, a programme designed to develop new ideas and disruptive innovation in leasing. The Future Group initiative involves 16 talented individuals from across European leasing companies who compete with each other to be shortlisted for “best innovation” accolade.
In June, 3 projects were pre-selected by Leaseurope and Invigors, amongst the 16 projects submitted by the young talents of the Future Group. These 3 best ideas were then presented at the annual Leaseurope Conference, held this year in Portugal, on October 15th and 16th. The projects were judged on 3 criteria: most innovative, best presentation and most likely to be implemented.
The “SociaLease” concept, developed by Suhale VORAJEE, Head of Marketing & Communications of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK, was one of the 3 shortlisted projects this year.
SociaLease aims at addressing a major challenge of our times – sustainability and climate change – by taking advantage of the emerging “subscription economy”. The thinking behind SociaLease is that we can integrate traditional leasing with the subscription economy by establishing a collaborative network with manufacturers, equipment resellers and recycling specialists, in order to minimise waste and promote resource re-use.
“We often think of leasing as a commoditised product lacking innovation. With SociaLease, we were able to turn this thinking on its head and show that leasing actually can help to address one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity, that of sustainability and tackling resource scarcity. Being nominated to represent BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions in 2015 Future Group was an amazing experience and helped to raise BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions’ commitment to responsible business”, said Suhale Vorajee after the conference.
Leaseurope will publish in the coming weeks a full report, rounding up all the innovative ideas put forward by the 2015 Future Group class.
The 2015 Future Group class
From left to right: Chris Boobyer (Invigors), Suhale Vorajee (BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions UK), the other 15 members of the Future Group 2015, Richard Ryan (Invigors) and -behind- John Mitchell (Leaseurope).
1 : Leaseurope is the European Federation of Leasing Company Association, the umbrella body for European leasing companies, representing 45 members across 33 countries.
2 : Invigors EMEA, part of The Alta Group, provides a comprehensive range of consultancy services to the asset finance industry across Europe, the Middle-East and Africa.
