Dit weekend komen er vrienden eten. Recepten worden nu al uitgepluisd, wat is er in huis en wat moet er nog gehaald worden? Ik doe dit liefst op voorhand, de dag zelf wil ik vooral in de keuken doorbrengen en niet meer af en aan naar de winkel hollen. Logisch toch? Stel je eens voor dat ik eerst naar de winkel loop, mijn winkelkar vol laad en eens thuis gekomen ga bedenken wat ik zal klaarmaken. Het resultaat zal hoogstwaarschijnlijk geen hoge toppen scheren. Of, net zoals in de TV-hit “komen eten”, waar projectmanager Didier ons zijn geheim van de 6P’s verklapte: “Proper Planning and Precision Prevents Poor Performance”.  (0)

Voor alle duidelijk,  ik ben geen ICT’er  en ga me dus ook niet op het pad wagen van de softwareontwikkeling en het IT-technische implementatietraject waar de softwarehuizen, actief op de markt van lokale besturen, mee geconfronteerd worden. Ook voor de softwarehuizen betekent BBC een ganse uitdaging, waarbij ontwikkeling, implementatie én de commerciële inspanningen de komende jaren hoge pieken zullen bereiken.  (0)

Last week I was at Kluwer ‘s congress day on the New world of work (NWoW), presenting our TriFinance case as an example of leadership changes in the NWoW.  I’d like to summarize the day for you.  But rather than elaborating this myself, let’s use some creative co-creation.  Hereunder you can see the a stream of tweets on the congress.  It reads as tips & tricks and food for thought questions.  Even people that are present physically can enter the discussion.  This virtualization is only one of the strengths of social media …  (0)

Bij het kiezen van de projectmanager voor BBC moet u als managementteam nagaan wie de  “Rapunzel” in uw organisatie is. Het is immers Rapunzel die de beste BBC- projectmanager zal zijn. Kent u Rapunzel nog? Rapunzel zit opgesloten in een hoge toren, maar kan haar prins iedere dag zien. Nochtans is er geen deur of trap voorzien in de toren. Een raam is er gelukkig wel. Via dit raam laat zij haar lange vlechten hangen die tot op de grond komen. Via deze vlechten klimt haar prins naar boven.  (0)

Genesis 41: 38-57. Stellen dat in de volgende legislatuur budgettaire discipline bij de meeste lokale besturen aan de orde zal zijn is  een open deur intrappen. Bij vele gemeenten (en onrechtstreeks dus OCMW ’s via de gemeentelijke bijdrage) zijn de 7  vette jaren  voorbij en zal het budget 2013 en het meerjarenplan 2014-2019 er één zijn van 7 magere jaren. Waar de  Egyptische farao  de wijze raad opvolgt om een voorraad aan te leggen tijdens de vette jaren, is het nieuwe financieel evenwicht de kwelduivel bij het opmaken van het toekomstig meerjarenplan.  (0)

Ralph Tuijn geeft een interview aan de telegraaf bij het inladen van zijn oceaanroeiboot de " Me Inc". Vanmiddag tussen 14:00 uur en 15:00 uur zal Ralph een interview geven over de TriFinance Ocean Challenge. Allemaal luisteren naar radio 1 dus!. (0)

Afgelopen donderdag is de oceaanroeiboot Me Inc in een container geladen.  (0)

Ralph stond al weer vroeg klaar om de Oceaanroeiboot op transport te zetten. Vandaag, 22 maart, is de boot naar Rotterdam vervoerd om daar in een container te plaatsen zodat hij niet beschadigt tijdens het transport over zee.  (0)

Het gaat beginnen, Ralph Tuijn is bijna klaar voor vertrek, maar voor hij gaat zal Ralph ons een mooie presentatie geven over zijn expedities en de TriFinance Ocean Challenge. Deze Launch gaat gebeuren op 5 april. (0)

Recent ging ik naar een optreden. Geen gewoon optreden, maar ik had de kans om een symfonisch orkest bij te wonen. Al snel viel het mij op hoe alle muziekanten op elkaar afgestemd waren. Strijkers, houtblazers, koperblazers, slagwerk, … elk zijn partituur en toch naadloos op elkaar ingespeeld. Terwijl ik dit spektakel aanschouwde, dwaalde mijn gedachten af naar het werk. Dit overkomt mij wel vaker. Tot het mij opeens binnen schoot, de BBC  implementatie zou eigenlijk zoals een symfonie moeten klinken. De strijkers zijn dan de stuurgroep, de houtblazers de diensthoofden, de koperblazers zouden wel eens de financiële dienst kunnen zijn en het slagwerk…het beleid natuurlijk. En dit alles gedirigeerd door een goede projectmanager.  (1)

Until recently, I was not familiar with the law of Pi. Being formed in mathematics, Pi used to be the constant result of a circle’s circumference over its diameter. It felt quite comfortable. However, nowadays we have exchanged the world of math for the world of projects. And then all of a sudden, I am told about the law of Pi in organizational change projects.  (0)

As an observer of the Financial Institutions sector, I am pretty astonished about the fact that the position of the rating agencies has not been fundamentally questioned.  Even outsiders understand now that banks have invested, in an improper way, in CDOs and other synthetic products.  But fewer people know that these junk securities were rated AAA by US rating agencies, despite the fact that the quality of the underlying (US) assets was often extremely poor.  Today, with respect to the evaluation of sovereign risk within continental Europe their opinion is less questionable, but many observers wonder whether they use the same standards regarding a number of other countries. Some voices therefore claim that the ECB should establish an independent European rating agency.  But how independent would that institution then be? (0)

Maybe it’s directly linked to the Maya’s prediction of the 2012 cataclysm and end of the world, but lately I read more and more blog posts, articles and analysis about the love/hate relation between work and happiness. Most of the people of the Y generation were raised believing that “following your dreams will lead you to (professional) happiness”. Today’s down turn Economy shows that only relying on your dreams to be happy in your function is no longer true. (0)

No, it is not me saying it this time. It was the title of an article in the weekend edition of the newspapers.  It was a quote of Frank Van Massenhove, general manager of the FOD Social Affairs.  Old news you may say.  It is indeed true that this statement lasts for quite some time now.  The war for talent is here to stay, it is now only temporarily tempered by the global crisis. But in 2020 for every 100 leavers out of the work marketplace, there will only be 60 entrants. An employer will have to be able to attract the required talents in a market that is showing an important deficit.  (0)

I have recently come across the self-determination theory (SDT) on several unconnected occasions. This theory is the basis of the book “Drive” which I read a couple of months ago, it featured prominently in a presentation on “motivation of employees in a change project” I attended recently and it was mentioned in an article I read this morning on how to motivate your children to perform at school…  (0)

Belgian athlete Eline Berings welcomes the visitors on her website with an inspirational anecdote. Somebody asked her “Are you going to be the next star?” She answered a bit shy with “Who knows?” She was looked in the eyes, while being said: “You should know!” At that moment, she realized this is the core in striving towards an achievement: know what you want, know who you want to be and know what you want to achieve. Set a goal, believe in it and strive for it. (0)

... or Robinson without Vendredi. Why is there always a necessary side-kick? Because we are only human and need to relay on a strong, supportive help! It is well known, nobody can know everything about any topic. The use of our everywhere internet today and Wifi allow us to have knowledge and share ideas and thoughts all around the planet at any time. But truly: do you always understand any topic you read or learn without assistance?  (0)

Congratulations with your promotion: you have just been promoted to CEO of your own company, called Me Inc !  Open the bottles of Champagne! You’re the boss of your own company called “Me”. Indeed, you define the strategy, the investments, and action plans to propel your own company into today’s and tomorrow’s world. As CEO, you determine your communication strategy in the era of social media.  (0)

I recently came across an article that promoted rewarding employees for trying out new and creative ideas, even if these fail. Some companies have started initiatives to award an “Heroic Failure” trophy for this kind of initiatives. The reasoning behind this is that it is better for people to try out creative and innovative initiatives, than to have no initiatives at all because people are afraid of the repercussions if these initiatives fail: negative performance appraisal, impact on career opportunities or even outright dismissal. (1)

As the Surfhouse is currently undergoing some renovations, to bring it partly back in one of its previous destinations, being a datacenter for Belgacom, we had to look for a new host for our Finance Community Day.   L’Arsenal offered a good alternative.  (0)

In a recent blog, Peter Van Oevelen wrote about his view on working and leading in the New World of Work. Many of those changes in culture, management, way of working, etc. have to do with the entrance of generation Y into the working environment. Consequently, generation Y and all of its characteristics are hot on social media, blogs, digital communities, printed media, etc. (please note putting printed media at the end could be a typical Y-symptom)...  (3)

Euro commissioner Michel Barnier is not a lobbyist for the Big Four, this may be clear.  In a recent green paper, Barnier is basically questioning the independence of the auditor in his statutory audit work.  The auditor is supposed to provide an independent attestation on the financials of the client to its stakeholders, i.e. lenders, shareholders, suppliers, …      (0)

...of Work.  Apparently  that’s the official translation of “Het Nieuwe Werken”.  Of course it is the other way around.  It was Bill Gates who initiated the term New World of Work (NWoW), afterwards translated in Het Nieuwe Werken,  #HNW.  Learned it all on twitter by the way.  Needless to say that our society has become more and more complex, and quite some companies have followed this example. Although we all know there is an important difference between a manager and a leader, we are not going to elaborate on this here.  The mentioning is important though as in the NwoW, it may well be that both roles eventually converge.  (3)

A second major factor contributing to the continuation of the budgeting activity, especially in larger organisations with multiple divisions or business units, is that this process provides a sense of control to the people working in HQ and to the top management of the company.  (0)

BeKnown, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Hyves, LinkedIn, Xing, Plaxo…en zo kan ik nog wel even doorgaan. “Social Media” is het woord waarmee je alles op één berg gooit. Onoverzichtelijk?  Leuk voor ‘de jeugd’? Nee, dat is allang niet meer zo. Degene die de toegevoegde waarde, en de kans op het creëren van kansen, nog niet inziet, moet de 295 woorden hieronder even lezen…  (1)

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics”. It is one of those famous quotes to put results of statistical research into perspective. However, when the University of Birmingham came up with statistics and results of a survey this week, it rang a bell. Researchers checked 20,000 employees from 2,000 UK companies on their feelings of engagement in the company. Their findings? Employees working in a family business put in longer hours feel more secure, but most of all: they experience greater commitment and morale!  (0)

Despite the numerous books, articles and blogs about the advantages of going “Beyond Budgeting” and the countless studies on the cost and inefficiencies of the traditional annual budgeting process, the majority of companies still holds on to the engrained process of drafting annual budgets and measuring actual performance against this budget.  (0)

In a recent blogpost we talked about the Strategy, or the lack thereof, of the Finance Department. Can success of a company be measured by the success of its finance department? That is of course hard to say, the causality is probably not (yet) scientifically proven, but there is a definite positive correlation. And therefore it is sad to see that sometimes this correlation is largely under-addressed.   (1)

Our Financial Institutions Forum on 30 May in the Auditorium of BNP Paribas Fortis on strategic cost management was a great success with 175 people present. Filip Dierckx (deputy CEO of BNP Paribas Fortis), Jan De Meulder (management committee member of La Bâloise in Switzerland) and Jan Muchez (CEO Tri ICT) were key note speakers.  (0)

Zaterdag 28 mei heeft TriFinance Students samen met onze consultants Igor en Pieter meegedaan aan het Studentenkampioenschap tijdrijden.  (1)

Last month I ran the marathon in Leiden in the Netherlands.  My 10th marathon.  On my 42th birthday.  One could drink champagne in the morning while enjoying a hearty breakfast.  Or do so many other nice things.  How then can someone be so cruel to subscribe himself for a day of pain on his birthday ?  Having to wake up at 5h30, a 2 hours drive to eventually start the run at 10h30 for almost 4 hours fighting wind in the Dutch polder, cramps but mainly fighting yourself.   (1)

“Finance is to become a Business Partner”, is a quote often heard in the CFO office.  That is of course not untrue.  But it is too easy to get away with this one-liner.  Quite some reflections and clarifications are still to be made in this respect.  (0)

Last weekend, I attended a dancing performance in which my sister took part. Without any subjectivity, I can say the show was magnificent. People simply doing their hobby delivered a great result to their audience, although they did not have that many resources available. What struck me most during the evening (besides the relief that I did not had to dance myself) was the reason of their great performance. I think one word suits best to explain it: passion! The author of this item guarantees the presence of it while writing this blog. (0)

“Employees First, Customers Second” is the rather provocative title of a book I have been reading this weekend.  The book is written by Vineet Nayar, a CEO who transformed his company – HCL Technologies – into one of the major leading global IT services companies.  His vision is that when you really put your employees in the centre of your attention, you create such a drive within your company that, in the end, it will appear to be largely beneficial for your customers.  The methods by which he puts his vision in practice in his own company are pretty unconventional, to say the least.  Inversing the organizational pyramid is one of them.  (1)

I just finished reading the book “Haantjes” from Kluun.  Kluun is hot in the Netherlands these days.  He is competing with Herman Koch for the title of “Best writer of the moment” over there.  They are both using various media to attract the reader.  We can learn from them on this.  (0)

Dear Reader, “I am not sure where I’m headed, I have gotten lost before”, sings R.E.M.’s Micheal Stipe in the Sad Professor. http://youtu.be/maM0C7e8i38 Well, let that now be the feeling I have when writing these first blog lines. As indeed, that’s what they are, my very first blog lines.  I have gotten lost before, and don’t know where I am heading for. I must admit it’s kind of strange, all this writing in the air, without knowing you at all, Dear Reader.  I really hope we’ll get to know each other over the coming weeks and months.  I hope you are as curious to hear my ideas, as I am to hear yours.  So do share your ideas and points of view, and hopefully we won’t always agree.   We can cover wide ranges of topics.  As you will soon find out, I have some favorite ones… Let’s not stay on the laid out paths.Why all the fuzz around this blog ?  Why blogging at all ?  Is it because there was still an empty space to fill on our new website ?  Hope not.  Our ambitions aim to go further than that.  By the way, don’t forget to check out what’s new on the website and experience the new wind.  We should embrace these new communication tools, not to follow any hypes, but to really facilitate the interaction and communication within our community.  The success will therefore be a joint responsibility. I promised Caroline, our marketing manager to periodically write a post.  “Not concrete enough”, Caroline said. OK, every two weeks at least. Deal. I will try to do better.  Hope we both enjoy this journey,  Dear Reader, as “Everyone hates a bore, everyone hates a sad professor”.Talk to you next week. (0)