Last weekend I completed a course about Sustainable Development on Coursera. The past fourteen weeks professor Jeffrey D. Sachs from the Earth Institute and Columbia University shared his insights in a series of video lectures and suggested reading material. As a special advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (and to his predecessor Kofi Annan) professor […]
The company I work for is making headlines in the national newspapers over the past couple of months and not all for the right reasons. A settlement to avoid legal procedures in a case about bribing Middle East government officials, signing off the annual report of companies that proved to have serious financial issues later […]
Lately I have worked on a project where most of the work is done more than 30 floors above ground level. For the Netherlands that is quite exceptional. This country is flat and many cities seem to be reluctant in allowing high rise buildings. This project is therefore a unique opportunity to study an interesting […]
In various languages there are different sayings for the attempt to compare incomparable items. English and French refer to the comparison of apples and oranges where Dutch and German refer to the more similar apples and pears. Spanish is still in the fruit and vegetable department comparing potatoes and sweet potatoes, Serbian compares grandmothers and […]
The Netherlands are an open economy in which trade is an important factor. This goes back for centuries. You could argue that back in the 17th century the Dutch East India Company was the first multinational corporation. And for a fact it was the first company to issue stock. In hindsight we are not proud […]
Selecting and contracting an IT or BPO service provider is usually a complex process. It takes significant time and effort from all parties involved. Service providers put in a serious investment with only a limited chance to get a return. For clients it seems to be a necessary evil to put everything on hold for […]
Recently the company I work for introduced Tibbr as an internal Social Network. It is a nice product suite with functionality you would expect in such a platform. We can now chat, blog, set up communities, and exchange ideas online via Tibbr. We can use it in the office but it also has mobile interfaces […]
Recently I engaged in a number of Sourcing Strategy projects for clients in a broad range of industries. In these type of projects we (it’s almost always a team effort) supported clients in being specific about their requirements, add relevant market trends and determine the impact for next steps. Several sourcing related topics are listed […]
The price model is an important factor in outsourcing contracts. The overall trend in price models is towards utility based pricing where standardized services have a fixed price. Then the total price of a set of services is calculated by P(rice) times Q(uantity). Typically we refer to this model as PxQ. It greatly simplifies comparing […]
When you want to sell your house you obviously want to get the right price for it. So you start asking around how you could make it more valuable or at least more attractive. Suggestions are easily found and they will be quantified with the associated investment: the gardener will tell you to improve your […]
Early in the new year is the time to think about life’s priorities. Numerous people start 2015 with the best intentions to live healthier lives by eating better, exercise more and if applicable stop smoking. When making up your mind about things to change this year, your Social Media behaviour may be part of the […]
In the early days of industrial revolution scientists conducted many tests to better understand what impacts productivity. A well known experiment was to differentiate the level of illumination in otherwise comparable factory halls. Before and afterwards the productivity was measured. To the surprise of the researchers both an increase and decrease in lighting level improved […]