{"id":72387,"date":"2025-08-30T23:16:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T21:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/?post_type=news&#038;p=72387"},"modified":"2025-09-02T11:25:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:25:50","slug":"internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/news\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/","title":{"rendered":"&#039;International business is just fun&#039;"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"header\" class=\"header header--low header--branch\">\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"header__background header__background--graphic\"><\/div>\n\t\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"header__content\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"header__first\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"header__subtitle\">Marc Geerdink of VPC on the benefits of globalization and what that has to do with the stock market gadget  <\/h6>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"header__title\" >\n\t\t\t\t\t&#039;International business is just fun&#039;\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header__dots-line\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<svg width=\"431\" height=\"9\" viewbox=\"0 0 431 9\" fill=\"none\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M430.799 4.192a1.136 1.136 0 1 1-2.272-.001 1.136 1.136 0 0 1 2.272 0Zm-27.272 0a1.135 1.135 0 1 1-2.27 0 1.135 1.135 0 0 1 2.27 0Zm-27.27 0a1.136 1.136 0 1 1-2.272-.001 1.136 1.136 0 0 1 2.272 0Zm-27.272 0a1.39 1.39 0 1 1-2.78 0 1.39 1.39 0 0 1 2.78 0Zm-27.78 0a1.645 1.645 0 1 1-3.29 0 1.645 1.645 0 0 1 3.29 0Zm-28.29 0a1.9 1.9 0 1 1-3.799 0 1.9 1.9 0 0 1 3.799 0Zm-28.799 0a2.154 2.154 0 1 1-4.308 0 2.154 2.154 0 0 1 4.308 0Zm-29.308 0a2.41 2.41 0 1 1-4.819 0 2.41 2.41 0 0 1 4.819 0Zm-29.819 0a2.663 2.663 0 1 1-5.326.001 2.663 2.663 0 0 1 5.326-.001Zm-30.327 0a2.919 2.919 0 1 1-5.837 0 2.919 2.919 0 0 1 5.837 0Zm-30.837 0a3.173 3.173 0 1 1-6.345.001 3.173 3.173 0 0 1 6.345 0Zm-31.346 0a3.428 3.428 0 1 1-6.856 0 3.428 3.428 0 0 1 6.856 0Zm-31.856 0a3.683 3.683 0 1 1-7.365 0 3.683 3.683 0 0 1 7.365 0Zm-32.365 0a3.937 3.937 0 1 1-7.875 0 3.937 3.937 0 0 1 7.875 0Zm-32.874 0a4.192 4.192 0 1 1-8.384 0 4.192 4.192 0 0 1 8.384 0Z\" fill=\"#FFF960\"\/><\/svg>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header__second\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header__branch-logos\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/app\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Industriele-elektronica.svg\" class=\"header__branch-logo\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\t<div class=\"header__meta\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"header__meta__category\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header__meta__detail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div>Branch<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/kennishub\/?_branches_kennishub=industriele-elektronica\" class=\"header__meta__detail--branch\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndustrial Electronics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"header__meta__detail\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div>Subject<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/kennishub\/?_onderwerp_kennishub=industriele-elektronica\" class=\"header__meta__detail--categorie\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndustrial Electronics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"text bg--white\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text__content text__content--2-col\">\n\t\t\t<p><strong>The Electronics &amp; Applications 2025 trade show gadget is an initiative of fifteen electronics companies in Belgium and the Netherlands. For almost a year, they secretly worked on the show&#039;s biggest draw: the Circuit Cruiser. Value Procurement Centre (VPC), a manufacturing specialist in China, supplied four small but essential components not available in Europe. How did they pull this off?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Commercial director and co-owner Marc Geerdink explains: \u201cI believe in collaboration and joining forces. You can&#039;t be the best at everything. The trick is to find partners who excel in what you need. It&#039;s important to me that the quality, delivery time, and price meet our requirements. The supplier&#039;s geographic location is less important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The power of globalization<br \/>\n<\/strong>\u201cOf course you can make a lot of things yourself, but do you really want to? Are you willing to pay 120 euros for a simple toaster, for example, just because it&#039;s made in the Netherlands?\u201d Geerdink continues his argument. \u201cThe power of globalization is precisely that you use each other&#039;s qualities. This way you focus on what you are good at. Simple, non-essential parts are perfectly suitable for making.\u201d <em>outsource<\/em>Especially when many hands are needed to produce a product or component. Wages are lower in Asian countries, even for highly skilled technical personnel. Why wouldn&#039;t you take advantage of that? For high-tech and essential product components, it&#039;s wiser to stay within Europe. This prevents production processes from being jeopardized in the event of a disaster. So it&#039;s not an either\/or situation, but a both\/and situation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fresh look<br \/>\n<\/strong>&quot;Of course, there are also disadvantages to doing business internationally,&quot; Geerdink qualifies. &quot;You have to deal with language and cultural differences, the distances are greater, and sometimes you run into geopolitical tensions. You have no control over the latter, so it&#039;s important to have alternatives available and not be dependent on a single supplier. Language and cultural differences aren&#039;t necessarily a disadvantage. They provide a fresh perspective. I often get new ideas and inspiration after being abroad. Sometimes it even leads to funny situations. For example, the Chinese are used to communicating very precisely. You shouldn&#039;t leave any room for interpretation. So don&#039;t say: &#039;Make the yellow a little darker,&#039; because then you won&#039;t get what you mean. It&#039;s better to provide the exact color code. That way of working aligns with their work culture and prevents misunderstandings.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fear of the unknown<br \/>\n<\/strong>One way of doing business isn&#039;t better than another. It&#039;s simply different. I&#039;m a big proponent of globalization. Over the past thirty years, the world has invested in building international business networks, and that has yielded significant results. Now we&#039;re throwing all that away. Often, ignorance and fear of the unknown are at the root of this. I hear fellow entrepreneurs speak negatively about a country they&#039;ve never set foot in. That&#039;s a shame. You&#039;re depriving yourself of the opportunity to discover a country&#039;s potential.<\/p>\n<p>In China, for example, you can scale up much faster than in the Netherlands because the infrastructure is designed for that. As an entrepreneur, you get things done more smoothly. They don&#039;t have the typical bureaucratic meeting culture we have in the Netherlands. Of course, you have to stay focused on quality. That&#039;s why we have three checkpoints during the production process: at the start, upon delivery, and just before shipping.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Make peace, not war<br \/>\n<\/strong>\u201cWe have to get rid of the us-them mentality. <em>Insourcing <\/em>is good and important and we should certainly continue with it, but that does not rule out that <em>outsource <\/em>in certain cases the best choice. It depends on your wishes and options. We can never 100% <em>insource <\/em>Because we can&#039;t make everything in Europe. The components of the trade fair gadget are a good example of this. I estimate that we always have to source 10% of the components from outside Europe, and there&#039;s nothing wrong with that.<\/p>\n<p>International collaboration enriches and accelerates innovation. China is a beautiful country, surprisingly modern and progressive. We can learn so much from it. The same goes for America, and so on. <em>Make peace, not war <\/em>a famous singer sang and I wholeheartedly agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/eabeurs\/gadget-ea-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn more about the Circuit Cruiser<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"text bg--white\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"text__content text__content--1-col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","branches":[13],"events":[9],"secretariat":[],"categories":[57],"themes_tax":[],"content_types":[],"class_list":["post-72387","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Internationaal ondernemen is gewoon leuk\u2019 - FHI, federatie van technologiebranches<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Internationaal ondernemen is gewoon leuk\u2019 - FHI, federatie van technologiebranches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/en\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FHI, federatie van technologiebranches\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-02T09:25:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/\",\"name\":\"\u2018Internationaal ondernemen is gewoon leuk\u2019 - FHI, federatie van technologiebranches\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-30T21:16:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-02T09:25:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/nieuws\/internationaal-ondernemen-is-gewoon-leuk\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Nieuws\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/nieuws\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"\u2018Internationaal ondernemen is gewoon leuk\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/\",\"name\":\"FHI, federatie van technologiebranches\",\"description\":\"Nederlandse branchevereniging voor technologiebranches\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/#organization\",\"name\":\"FHI, federatie van technologiebranches\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/app\/uploads\/2024\/06\/3-e1722349014385.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/app\/uploads\/2024\/06\/3-e1722349014385.png\",\"width\":732,\"height\":136,\"caption\":\"FHI, federatie van technologiebranches\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fhi.nl\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/fhi-federation-of-technology-branches\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fhi_nl\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"&#039;International business is simply fun&#039; 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