,

Regular Engagement Maintenance, a continuous effort in the relationship

As a huge fan of the TED talks, I quite regularly listen to the diverse range of speakers telling about their expertise and providing new insights. A recent example of a very interesting presentation was from Dan Gilbert who talked about The…

Thinking In New Boxes – Luc de Brabandere

Recently I concluded an on-line course 'On Strategy : What Managers Can Learn from Great Philosophers'. The course was given by Luc de Brabandere, a professor at Ecole Central Paris and a fellow at the Boston Consultancy Group. During the course…
, ,

Musical chairs in the corporate world

Career development systems in a consultancy firm have some nasty streaks in it. First I'll explain how it works and then why I think we should abolish it in this form asap. The career development in many partnership firms is a variation on…
, ,

From cost to value

Outsourcing has been around for some time now. After the mega deals in the late nineties, the industry developed quite a bit. Deals became smaller, engagement are now mostly multi-vendor, in some cases with a prime vendor responsible for service…
,

The more you know… (the paradox of the Dunning-Kruger effect)

In a series of experiments at the Department of Psychology of Cornell University published in 1999, David Dunning and Justin Kruger tested a phenomenon now known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. Their experiments showed that unskilled individuals…
, ,

Tomorrow’s Lawyers: An Introduction to Your Future

Richard Susskind is a British author, speaker, and independent adviser to international professional firms and national governments and he holds professorships at the University of Oxford, Gresham College and Strathclyde University. Wikipedia…
, ,

The Age of Sustainable Development

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…
, ,

Compliance and Integrity

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…
,

Elevator etiquette

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.…
, ,

Evaluating Price, Quality and other inequalities

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…
, ,

Business talk or pidgin English?

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…
, , ,

Sole sourcing: a win-win-win?

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…