A top-level conversation

Van Schagen, Van Raalte, Blokhuis and Van Vugt about entrepreneurship, knowledge, technology, the world and about FHI Five men in conversation, on top of the Euromast, technology leaders! Various special reasons. FHI sixty years, the FHI technology manifesto, the Start-Up of the Year, the upcoming change of the federation chairmanship. The top players gathered in a higher atmosphere above Rotterdam, the city that in 1956 was decisive for the successful start of what would become FHI. The city where the large process industry developed. This also includes the city where, shortly after the conversation on the Euromast, the members of FHI celebrated, at the foot of that tower, on the 1956 ship, the SS Rotterdam. Publication; Signaling, Text; Kees Groeneveld, Photography; Henk Tukker Who gathered there, with or without a fear of heights? Of course, the outgoing federation chairman Eric van Schagen, recognized and admired for years as a technology leader. His would-be successor, Willem van Raalte, has already earned many reputations within and outside FHI and is still a top performer on the rise. Hendrik Blokhuis, CTO at Cisco, the 'plumbers of the internet', one of the newest member companies in two FHI industries. And then the rapidly rising star Aaike van Vugt, who became Start Up of the Year with his VSParticle in December 2015 during the International MicroNano Conference in Amsterdam and has been stealing the show everywhere since then, but in the meantime does not hesitate to soak up the knowledge and experience of all the FHI entrepreneurs he now meets. A conversation 'on level'. Let's start with a simple discussion question. What is the importance of knowledge and technology for the world? Eric van Schagen is still FHI chairman, so he kicks off effortlessly. “Technology is the driving factor behind progress. We experience all kinds of incidents, but we should not exaggerate their impact. As a whole, the world has only become better with more knowledge and technology.” FHI newcomer Blokhuis brings his experience of several years to Nairobi. “It is very unfairly distributed in the world. We need to democratize technology.” Young entrepreneur Aaike immediately makes it concrete. “What knowledge and technology must do in the coming years is to ensure that a poor farmer in Africa can also use solar panels.” Incoming chairman Willem van Raalte naturally chooses a different approach. “It is not the knowledge economy that creates technology, but the other way around. Bring technology somewhere and knowledge will grow. The danger is that society cannot keep up with technological development.” Van Schagen ripostes. “The statement 'if every Chinese person has a refrigerator, our lights will go out' appears to be incorrect. There is always a difference between individual interests and collective interests. We 'embrace' our knowledge too much, but we still want to keep something for ourselves.” A tip for Hendrik Blokhuis: “By sharing knowledge you prevent war.” While we were talking, we arrived at the second topic of conversation. According to the FHI Technology Manifesto, the Netherlands is a hotspot in the world in terms of knowledge infrastructure. What opportunities does that offer and what do we have to lose? As a spin-off from TU Delft, Aaike van Vugt's company is a product of the knowledge infrastructure. “If something looks or sounds like 'too good to be true', people won't believe you. That will then have a braking effect. Crossovers in particular provide acceleration within a strong knowledge infrastructure. But then the question arises whether everyone can still keep up.” Van Schagen is already slightly older than Van Vugt. “In the past, certain knowledge belonged to a certain person. Now people solve all kinds of things together. Now it's about the 'United Brains'. And the Dutch are good at that, accessible and approachable. Aaike again. “We have been chosen to present ourselves at an EU event, alongside other small innovative companies from completely different sectors. During the preparation you immediately get all kinds of crossovers. Everyone immediately starts looking for it. That is also the difference between small and large companies, switching quickly.” Cisco man Blokhuis knows he has been addressed. “Our company is a mammoth tanker with 80,000 employees and we would like to have the start-up mentality. We are trying to solve that by allocating money for spin outs and spin ins, speed boats alongside.” Van Vugt mentions Mapper as an example of how difficult it is for a start-up company to enter where large companies control the market. “I think you can very well remove that discrepancy between large and small through a trade organization. In such a community you can develop and maintain a culture of equality.” Van Schagen and Van Raalte almost fall off their chairs. How quickly this young entrepreneur has grasped the success factor of sixty years of FHI! What does all this mean for the competencies that the knowledge worker of 2025 needs? Blokhuis has thought about that. “We have to safeguard the culture we want and that can only be done by connecting. Then aging is a danger. I have too many 40+ engineers in my organization. They still keep too much to themselves, while others are busy with the same things as they are.” An anecdote from Van Schagen. “We older people want to figure everything out for ourselves. Young people share a problem and it is solved. My daughter lost her bicycle key. Just a message via social media to the network of friends and the problem was solved. Schools still operate much too old-fashioned.” It resembles the eternal reflex of the middle-aged man, Hendrik Blokhuis's comment. “We are looking for 'young and female'.” But luckily, he means something different. “The competence we need is that of emotional intelligence. We have a chronic shortage of computer scientists. And people must be able to take apart things, systems like Lego blocks and redesign them, purpose-driven. You need a broader generation of people for that than is currently part of the technology community.” Van Vugt: “It is important that a larger part of that community comes out and all together.” Blokhuis: “We take over companies precisely to get people in. We use crowd sourcing.” Van Schagen: “We focus on bringing people together. 'Scrum' and 'Agile' are the concepts we use.” What about the role of the government and universities? It is Willem van Raalte's turn. “The government must mainly act as a facilitator. Stimulating the connection of companies and knowledge. This can be done publicly and privately and does not have to cost a lot of money. I have good experience with IPCs, Innovation Performance Contracts. Then you receive an amount through the trade organization to make the connection between companies in such a group that enters into the contract and you connect with research institutes.” Van Raalte proves that the FHI technology manifesto is his thing for him as the incoming chairman. “The government must really fund fundamental research, based on serendipity. And the role of launching customer can also be much more innovative. We are not necessarily asking for more subsidies.” With his company Da Vinci, Van Raalte is an expert in public-private projects. “European programs such as Horizon 2020 and cross-border research projects help enormously. Without that, you wouldn't be able to get all kinds of things done as a small or medium-sized company.” Willem also has experience with the purchasing side of universities. “The interaction there can still be improved enormously. I am willing to invest in collaboration with universities. But then I also want to get orders back or intellectual property from time to time.” What role can FHI, can the trade organizations play? The incumbent chairman Eric van Schagen: “FHI can play a role in connecting. Especially from small and large companies.” Aaike van Vugt has already experienced it. “I spoke to Mr. Wybren Jouwsma from Bronkhorst High Tech during a meeting and told him that we actually needed some mass flow meters. He arranged it immediately. He still had a few lying around that were useful for a starter.” Newcomer Blokhuis: “FHI can do more; teach people how it works, how the processes work, and create manuals for that.” As a new member, Hendrik appears not yet fully aware of the successful workshops for members in which groups of members learn all kinds of things and share experiences with the help of professional facilitators. Aaike would like to expand that. “We have to build and check cases, structure them and then also measure the effect.” Van Raalte: “Ensuring that business comes out of it.” “Big data like?” Blokhuis suggests. “Aaike, who do you want to talk to?” Willem asks. “I don't really know in advance. FHI may be able to shed some light on things. Divisions of larger companies often do not have an overview of the whole. It would be useful if companies became more open about this.” The incoming chairman Van Raalte casually formulates a mission: “we must be a nursery where serendipity can flourish. We're growing in that direction. And perhaps we should also apply the workshop approach that we now focus on management topics to technology development.” Aaike van Vugt speaks like a true FHI entrepreneur: “Ultimately, I don't need an external organization to do it for me.” “That's right,” says Willem, “but sometimes it turns out that FHI has to do it for large companies.” How do we ensure value creation in the Netherlands? Aaike van Vugt shares his experiences with the world of investors. “Not everything comes from an app. Material is also important. But investors are not interested in that. The government can play an important role in that sector. This is going well in the world of nanotechnology, and the Netherlands is good at that. It is mainly about the first steps and their financing.” “You also have to prepare society for this technology to offer opportunities,” says Willem van Raalte. “That has to happen in schools, but Robert Dijkgraaf in DWDD also helps.” Social responsibility of technology companies, what is the status of this? Hendrik Blokhuis takes the plunge. “Every technology has a black edge. But at the same time, cyber security as such is also a business. Bottom line, of course, everyone is responsible for what they do.” “But the risks do not increase the more technology available. It sometimes seems that way, but that is not true,” Aaike van Vugt notes. No one at the table contradicts him. The trend towards 'local for local' and an increasingly bottom-up economy, how long will that trend continue? Aaike continues with his argument. “Because you have so much technology available, you have to look for the connection. This leads to the splitting up of large companies.” “The current Cisco model should be over in ten years,” Hendrik predicts. Willem van Raalte: “Will new companies employing 80,000 people emerge? I do not think so.