Ludovic Basset has experience working in corporates, associations and consultancies, and is now the Head of EU Affairs at General Motors. Here we spoke to Ludovic about the lessons from his varied experience, public affairs as a service and the need for less regulation in the EU.
Can you tell us about your career journey?
I moved to Brussels around 20 years ago to work in EU affairs, a field that was still quite new at the time. I had a passion for the automotive sector, which led me to a great job as a policy officer at FIGIEFA. Despite having the right educational background, nothing fully prepared me for the intricacies of working in Brussels. Fortunately, I found a mentor in the Secretary General, Sylvia Gotzen, who taught me the ins and outs of the job.
After about five years at FIGIEFA, I had the chance to become the deputy director and then executive director at ARCTURUS GROUP, a consultancy in Brussels, leading a team of 10-15 people. Although I continued to provide strategic advice on mobility, energy, and the environment, this role was entirely different and required me to develop new working methods. I dealt with new areas such as budget management, team leadership, and client relations. The people I interacted with also changed, from technical experts in my first job to VPs and CEOs in this one.
A few years later, I transitioned to something even closer to my heart than the automotive sector: motorcycles! As a motorcyclist myself, I found a way to combine my passion and my work by joining ACEM, the Motorcycle Industry in Europe, to manage public affairs. By then, I had gained significant experience in the industry, creating some interesting scenarios.
Working alongside the Secretary General at ACEM, I served as a bridge between stakeholder needs and the regulatory directions of the Institutions, which I really enjoyed. Eventually, I was hired by General Motors as part of their strategic move to re-enter the European market after their departure in 2017, marked by the sale of Opel to Stellantis (formerly PSA). I was brought on as ‘the man in Brussels’, and here I am! I work closely with my colleagues in the US and the European branch in Zurich.
What made you stay in the automotive sector, and what made you change from one organisation type to the next?
The great thing about Public Affairs is that, while specialising in a single topic or sector, you can move within a vast industry and across various types of organisations, each offering a completely different job experience.
Having worked for the three main types of organisations in Brussels (association, consultancy, corporate) I found myself approaching subject matters from different perspectives and with different people constantly. Also, while I stayed in the automotive sector, I covered all the various parts of the value chain. I worked on vehicle and parts manufacturing, spare parts distribution, aftermarket services, energy, trade, and industry, all involving a wide array of vehicles. This variety truly brought a unique dimension to my work.
Lastly, there is no doubt that working for a medium-sized trade association in Brussels is quite different from working for a large American corporation, and that was another layer of complexity which added value to my experience. In summary, I had the ambition to develop my career in a tri-dimensional way, which worked out very well.
If you had to identify one key lesson from each of your experiences (association, consultancy, and corporate) what would these be?
This is a difficult question as it depends on the specific organisation. However, for me, the key lesson in association work is to constantly find a balance and ensure no member is left out. This is challenging because members can be quite different, from small companies to large corporations. It is easy to listen more to the larger corporations since they contribute more (with money, expertise). It might be tempting to go with the flow, but anyone working in Public Affairs should remember that all members are important. Don’t go for the easy win.
Also, I often see association staff – or even association members – thinking they are the association, but this is not the case: it is the members who are the association. Staff members in Brussels are merely acting as a link between companies and institutions. It is crucial to understand that you are the voice of your members, not the association itself. The members should always be the core.
In consultancy, you need to be versatile and adaptable to your clients. Clients pay a lot for your expertise, and consultant work should be viewed as a tailor-made service – which can be problematic for consultancies that try to repackage the same information for different clients. That’s why I valued working in a boutique consultancy, where I could create bespoke services with real intelligence, adding genuine value rather than just providing widely available news. Being an extension of your client’s team is the highly rewarding part of the job, though not always possible everywhere.
When it comes to working as an in-house corporate lobbyist, you are an essential part of the team. What you bring to the company can greatly benefit other departments and potentially solve their problems. Even though many colleagues from other departments might not understand what Public Affairs actually does, it is a crucial support function, where working in silos doesn’t make sense. I take pride in serving my colleagues, aiming to make their lives easier.
More generally, despite our often-large egos, as public affairs professionals we need to remember that in every working environment and type of company, we are always at the service of others.
What goal have you set for yourself to achieve at General Motors?
Despite GM being one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world, we are re-entering Europe and therefore evolving like a start-up entering a new market. We have strong support from our colleagues in the US and a relatively small team in Europe (150), with our HQ in Zurich. We’ve been launching in one European market after another for the last few months.
As the man in Brussels, my job will largely depend on how GM’s sales evolve in Europe. This puts me in an interesting position: I work with Detroit to support the strategic understanding of the European market and also with GM Europe to enable an operational market environment for sales here. In essence, I am involved at both the very beginning and the very end of the process, which is quite exciting.
As GM is fundamentally starting from scratch, my objective now is to build a strong representation for GM in Europe and restore its reputation to its former standing. I’ll admit, I have a good head start towards achieving this goal, as I already have good connections in Brussels and in the industry, and experience with associations and working collaboratively with (not against) EU institutions. From this standpoint, I aim to ensure that my company doesn’t become a blocker in the industry but rather a collaborator.
What do you consider to be the most important skill for success in your current role?
Being both very technical and very high-level.
You can’t focus solely on high-level strategy; part of the job is also understanding technical regulations. High-level skills are essential for serving higher leadership, while technical knowledge is crucial for supporting my engineers in Detroit. I need to be able to serve both effectively.
Plus, another important skill is speed. In Brussels, there is a tendency to go with the flow, but I prefer to deliver quickly. My approach is to always find a way to stay ahead of the curve. Honestly, if I couldn’t do this, I wouldn’t enjoy the job!
Are there aspects of the American way of working that particularly struck or amused you?
This is my first time working in an American company, and what strikes me is the power and decisiveness an American company can wield. Once a decision is made, it is implemented thoroughly. Being French, I am used to decision-making being a much slower and more controversial process. Here, every decision is executed without hesitation. If there’s an issue, we stop, think, pivot, and continue. We do not stop for the sake of stopping and letting it stagnate.
I also found the hierarchy to be much more flexible. It’s easier to connect with C-Suite executives compared to other cultures. As long as you bring value to the company, you can speak to anyone, which I find very appealing.
Can you give kudos to one colleague who is an inspiration for you?
I’ve been fortunate to find someone I highly regard in every job I’ve had, which has made each experience incredibly enjoyable. All the people I’ve met along the way have been instrumental in shaping the professional I am today.
First and foremost, I will always remember Sylvia Gotzen. She taught me how to do the job and how to do it fiercely. I refined this approach in my subsequent job at ARCTURUS, where I met Gilles Teisseyre. He made me understand that sometimes you need to be smart and take side steps to achieve your goals. Antonio Perlot at ACEM taught me about finding compromise and achieving balance while working in an association.
I hope I can bring the best of these three approaches to my work at GM now.
What would you like to see more of in Brussels, and what would you like to see less of?
Let’s start with what I would like to see less of: regulation. The number and length of regulations in my sector have exploded over the last 20 years. I still remember when Directive 2007/46, concerning the type-approval of cars was first introduced; it was around 25 pages long (if I recall correctly). Today, we are dealing with and 86-pages long framework regulation, with 308 pages of annexes accompanied by countless delegated and implementing acts, each with dozens of technical regulations attached. You can add 117 pages of the new Battery Regulation, and 3 dozen of secondary texts to come.
I understand the importance of regulation and acknowledge the efforts the European Commission has made so far, but this complexity is simply too much for a sector like mine to function efficiently. The US has far less regulations for my sector, and I am not sure that the outcome is worse than here…
On a positive note, what would I like to see more of in Brussels? Diversity. I am very happy to be working at GM, where our CEO and our European President are women, and I have met countless female and young leaders. Gender and age are not measures of competence, and I wish people would be judged more based on their skills and abilities rather than their identity.
Finally, do you consider yourself successful at balancing work and life? What tips do you have?
I believe I have achieved a good balance, but I have a secret: I don’t see my job as just a job; it’s my passion! I don’t like working from home – I thrive on coming to the office and meeting people.
On the flip side, I’ve crafted a career for myself where I enjoy a level of freedom. What matters is the outcomes, not when or how long it takes me to achieve them. I remember having to advocate for this simple outcome-based approach to work early in my career, so this is not to be taken for granted in every organisation.
Going back to the question, allow me to reverse the perspective here: nobody should think of it as a balancing act between work and life; instead, one should build a job and a life that brings you happiness!
I genuinely hope everyone finds a workplace with the right people, the right manager, and the right mentality, so they can experience the same passion I feel for my work. If not, take it as a sign to move on and find something else. Don’t stay and be miserable just for a few lines on your resume. Nowadays, Brussels offers plenty of opportunities for talented individuals, so seize them!
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