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Battle for the future
To a management consultant and entrepreneur, December is always a busy time. Aside from the usual festivities, December is also a time for looking ahead. Many of my clients are concerned with the question in what ways society will change during the next year. And what their organisation should be like next year. You might…
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The new discount card of Albert Heijn
The supermarket chain Albert Heijn introduced their new discount card last month. So what’s new about it? Nothing at all. Well, that is to say: if you personalise your new discount card, making it into a personal discount card, you’ll get three times the benefits, the advertisements say. Three times what benefits, exactly? “Personal offers…
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The function of functions
What do a captain, a cook and a carpenter have in common? They all work aboard a ship, and they each have their own tasks and responsibilities: navigating the ship, preparing the meals and making repairs when necessary. They relate to each other as a hierarchy: the captain is in charge. And even though they…
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Automation and digitalisation
Automation and digitalisation have become synonymous with cheaper and more efficient. Cheapness and efficiency — what company or government wouldn’t want that, in an age characterised by widespread budget cuts and a search for better margins, a goal that’s considered achieved when there’s an increase by one cent per unit? If we continue automating and…
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Hierarchical crisis
When it comes down to it, it’s the Board of Directors that calls the shots for an organisation. Therefore, its members should be appointed based on the value they can provide for the company, based on the world we currently live in. We usually assume that the Board of Directors is the highest attainable position…
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Big Data and the Lone Wolf
It has become more valuable than ever to gather data yourself as an organisation. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, search engines and other easy-to-search databases on the internet have been making more and more information publicly available: your competitors and the guy next door can see it too. So in order to have…