Why Bravos Exists

Inge Van Belle and Yves Vekemans have spent twenty-five years working on the question of how organisations actually get the best out of their people. In Belgium they started Hercules Trophy in 1999 and grew it into ten countries before turning it into Herculean Alliance from 2009, with Pink Ladies Games and bespoke engagement programmes. In 2020 they turned the accumulated framework into the Bravos — an annual benchmark of how companies actually lead their people, measured against each other across a cohort.

They run the Dubai edition for the same reason they ran the Belgian one: most companies have no honest way of knowing how they compare to their peers on the things that genuinely determine growth. Financial metrics are compared; leadership, culture and engagement usually aren't. That gap is where Bravos does its work.

Dubai's 2033 Economic Agenda (D33) sets an ambition that can't be reached without stronger companies. Bravos Dubai exists to help close the measurement gap between where organisations are and where the agenda needs them to be.

The people behind Bravos.

Bravos is a family business. Inge and Yves built the firm over twenty-five years with their children growing up alongside it — they attend the Labs and the Off-Record evenings, they're in the room because the business is a family's work. This matters in a programme about how organisations treat their people. You find out a lot about how people work by seeing how they live.

Part of a broader practice

Bravos is one of the formats Herculean Alliance runs in the UAE. Alongside it:

• Hercules Trophy — the coolest inter-company team game format that started it all, in Belgium in 1999. Since then it has run in ten countries across Europe, the Middle East, and the US. In the UAE since 2009. Tests how organisations actually collaborate under pressure. We also run white-labeled game days. → herculestrophy.ae
• Pink Ladies Games — a format built for women leaders, their teams, and the organisations that support them. → pinkladiesgames.ae
• Employee Engagement, What Else? — the book. The longer argument for why this work matters, and the framework behind it. → book.employeeengagement.ae

Each format serves a different question. Bravos answers how does my organisation actually compare? Hercules Trophy answers how does my team actually work together? Pink Ladies Games answers what does real leadership look like from the women building it?

Not just the founders

Bravos works because of the people who back it — the jury, the coaches, the participating organisations, the partners. The Community page lists all of them publicly because the programme's credibility depends on that transparency.

Three ways to join

• Take the readiness scan — the first step for any organisation considering membership. → Take the scan
• Apply to contribute — jury or coaching roles are open year-round. → Apply to contribute
• Sponsor or partner with Bravos — for organisations that want to support the programme directly. → Talk to us about a partnership