Fabrice Lacroix went into Paris 2024 with a clear idea of how the Games should work with suppliers. But delivering them taught him something very different about the role local businesses could play.
The former Paris 2024 Chief Finance and HR Officer initially wanted “not too many suppliers, and bigger suppliers” to limit risk.
“This is not what happened,” he says.
Instead, small and medium-sized businesses became “the outstanding majority” of suppliers, with 85% or almost five thousand businesses contributing.
Even the biggest delivery partners couldn’t do it alone.
“They need everyone in the chain to be able to deliver for the Games,” Lacroix says.
The scale of demand also surprised him. Paris organisers bought tens of thousands of flowers, hundreds of thousands of towels and millions of ice cubes. France couldn’t produce enough towels on its own, so organisers pushed some smaller businesses to produce more before sourcing additional supplies from neighbouring European countries.
“Everywhere you looked, we were talking about amounts, about volumes, that do not exist in the usual life of a country,” Lacroix says.
With Brisbane 2032 less than six years away, Lacroix says there are lessons Australian businesses can readily take from the Paris experience.
New CommBank research shows seven in ten Australian businesses see an opportunity in Brisbane 2032, but only 16% say they would be ready to act if a relevant opportunity opened in the next 12 months.
Here are five lessons from someone who has already helped deliver an Olympic Games.
1. Get ready before the opportunities arrive
Lacroix’s first lesson is not to wait until a suitable contract appears before getting organised.
“Don’t leave the paperwork for later,” he says.
Games organisers are more likely to turn to suppliers that are already registered and “ready to deliver”.
For Brisbane 2032, businesses can create a free profile on the Brisbane 2032 Supplier Portal on Gateway by ICN and submit relevant Expressions of Interest as opportunities arise.
2. The opportunity is bigger than the organising committee
Businesses shouldn’t assume Games-related work begins and ends with contracts issued directly by organisers.
Sponsors, broadcasters and public bodies also buy goods and services, while opportunities can flow through infrastructure, tourism and hospitality.
Lacroix puts the economic activity around a Games at two or three times that of the organising committee itself.
Businesses also don’t necessarily need to be based in Queensland to take part, despite 38% of businesses in CommBank’s research believing they do.
