Steve van Wyk, CIO ING Bank – Building the preferred Bank

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Steve van Wyk, CIO ING Bank – Building the preferred Bank

Stress, the University of Twente’s largest study association, organized an awesome guest-lecture with Steve van Wyk, CIO @ ING Bank. The theme of the lecture is  “Challenges @ ING” and one of the topics is the merger of the Postbank and ING, the challenges that came with it and how they were overcome.

In this article I will provide some of the interesting topics from the lecture, and for those who haven’t attended this lecture you really missed a great opportunity to have a detailed look at the technology-side of ING.

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Open Leadership – How social technology can transform the way you lead (Charlene Li, 2010)

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Open Leadership – How social technology can transform the way you lead (Charlene Li, 2010)

I was fortunate to get an early copy “Open Leadership – How Social Technology can transform the way you lead”, the latest book of Charlene Li (co-author of the best seller Groundswell) that combines different areas that interest me:  (1) the social media revolution, (2) leadership, and (3) corporate strategy.

In this article I will provide an overview of the book, and highlight some interesting parts and give you an idea about the structure of the book and the way it is written. On the other hand I won’t give away all the interesting details, so you need to do some reading yourself.

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Michael Hitt @ VentureLab Twente – Entrepreneurial Strategies, Building and Maintaining a Competitive Advantage

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Michael Hitt @ VentureLab Twente – Entrepreneurial Strategies, Building and Maintaining a Competitive Advantage

On March 18th I was able to attend an open VentureLab Twente training about entrepreneurial strategies with professor Michael Hitt.

In this article I will try to cover some of the highlights of the VentureLab Twente Open Training, without unraveling the complete details of the training, that was tailored at the entrepreneurs in the VentureLab program. 🙂

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The One Minute Sales Person (Johnson & Wilson, 1984)

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The One Minute Sales Person (Johnson & Wilson, 1984)

Back in march of this year I published a short book review of a bestseller The One Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983) which has sold over 13 million copies. As you can read in the conclusion I decided to look for another book in the One Minute series: The One Minute $ales Person -more sales in less time with less stress-.

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Möbius Conference 2009 (Seattle, United States) – Short Trip Report

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Möbius Conference 2009 (Seattle, United States) – Short Trip Report

In November it was time for the annual invitation-only Mobius conference, and I was one of the very fortunate ones to be invited for this great event. The Möbius conference 2009  was held in Seattle, and I was very excited about my visit to one of the top 10 tech cities in the world.

In this article I will provide a short section with background information about Möbius, and than focus on this year’s Möbius conference and the discussed contents (which I’m allowed to share).

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Business Model Generation – A handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers

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Business Model Generation – A handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers

Back in June 2009 I visited the “Business Model Innovation Knowledge Fair and Book Launch” in Amsterdam, where a first (prototype)version of the Business Model Generation (hand)book was launched by Alex Osterwalder and his team. Furthermore I was able to meet the book-team as well as over 100 business model practitioners from 13 different countries there.

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The One Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983)

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The One Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983)

The One Minute Manager has sold over 13 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages, which proves that a good and interesting book doesn’t have to be thick. With just 110 pages it provides a lot of information and examples to think about, and compare those with real-life situations. I found this book in relation to the “Getting Things Done” methodology, and ordered it right away. In the article below I provide a brief summary and my personal thoughts about the contents of this book.

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Workshop Effectuation by Professor Saras Sarasvathy @ VentureLab Twente

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Workshop Effectuation by Professor Saras Sarasvathy @ VentureLab Twente

I already wrote about the VentureLab Twente concept, but now it was time for the first three day training covering several interesting topics of venturing. This article will focus on an excellent one-day workshop effectuation, lectured by Professor Saras Sarasvathy. 

Let’s first start with the definition of effectuation, before we take a dive into the details and research-backgrounds, as well as an overview of the Venture Training.

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