Knowledge.

What’s the use of a solid strategy, if it is not realized tactically? A question many companies – management teams and boards – are asking themselves right now. The past two years have been turbulent, to say the least, and it hasn’t ended yet. However, businesses have had ample time to redesign their plans to suit the “new normal” and answer to new needs. New market, product development, pricing, and general business strategies have been defined. As the demand, customer journey and target groups in many cases changed. These developments led to restructurings and management shifts, but as we hear from our network these are slowly reaching stability. From redefining strategy, the execution of these plans has now clearly taken the overhand. Companies are adapting their focus on realizing the 1-, 3-, 5- or even 10-year plans they have created.

“Marketeers need to be the crusaders against conventional, predictable and uninteresting work.” This week, we had the pleasure of meeting Robin de Bruijn, Head of Marketing Snacks Western Europe at PepsiCo. As an experienced leader in various strong FMCG companies, Robin will share his insights on the industry, marketing developments and his personal growth throughout the years.

We had the pleasure to meet Patrick Aalbers – Director of Growth and Marketing at Backbase, to deep dive into his career and personal challenges. Having worked for large multinationals like TomTom and Raet, he shares his experiences, mistakes, advice to younger marketing professionals and he elaborated on his management style.

“In the future I would like to manage a team” or “I’d like to develop my leadership skills in a next opportunity, are ambitions we hear often from our network. Especially from young and driven professionals, who are eager to climb the career ladder. More experienced and senior professionals on the other hand, who in many cases have led a team in the past, increasingly mention their wish of working independently and being closer to the actual operation. An interesting insight, is this management or leadership role really what you desire?

We had the pleasure to meet Erwin van der Valk - Head of Marketing at Xiaomi Technology, to deep dive into his career and personal challenges. Having worked for the largest multinational consumer electronic brands in several Head of Marketing and General Management roles, he shares his experiences, mistakes and advice to younger marketing professionals.

As Sales, Marketing and Digital specialists within Consumer, Industry, Healthcare Services & ICT environments, we are a strategic partner to our clients. Any obstacle in your plans, setback in your results or mistake in your approach, starts and ends with the quality of your people. It can be the cause, but it is always the solution.

Of course, you and your team are convinced your product or service is the best, but how to convince your customer? In many cases it’s not about what you sell, it’s about how you sell it.

Today's business world is becoming more and more intertwined.

September marks the start of the yearly strategic planning phase for companies in all sectors. We reflect on what has been and what this would mean for both the short- and long-term future of our businesses. Where is the market going? What are hot topics in our sector? How do we adopt and adapt? And, specifically, what will be our focus in 2022?

Our network and experience playing the commercial field across consumer, industry, ICT, services and healthcare sectors, has provided us with some initial “hot topics” that are noted on the agendas of many.