Opportunities in times of crisis Interview of Mr. Peter De Prins, Manager of Linkpower (Kluwer) Mr. De Prins can you tell us about your professional background? I graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) and IHAM with an Enginee- ring degree. I headed the Logistic Division of Esso in Belgium. In 1992, together with two Harvard graduates we set up the company Allaire in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The core business of Allaire was the process of Web application services. With the help of Polaris, a US Venture Capital Company, we did an IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in 1997. Allaire was bought by Macromedia and after by Adobe in 1999. I became the EMEA Field Education Vice-President, responsible for evangelizing our technology and supporting the market. In 2000, I decided to share my experience in Leadership and set up 2thePoint, training, coaching & consulting company. 2thePoint put together its resources with Linkinvest to create a new company called Linkpower. The Mission of Linkpower is “Linking the power of people and business “. We set up Linkpower Belgium, Netherlands and South Africa. Link- power was sold to Wolters Kluwer in 2007. As you know Wolters Kluwer is quoted on the Euronext in Amsterdam and together with Thomson-Reuters and Reed Elsevier is among the three largest worldwide compa- nies involved in information and publishing services for professionals in legal, tax and ac- counting, finance, government, health and safety services. Kluwer in Belgium specializes in information services, software and training. Linkpower is a brand of Kluwer and provides training, consulting and advisory to profes- sionals from boardroom members to middle management. Can you detail the mission of Link- power? Our mission is to link the power of people and business. Today it comes down to reveal potential business value gain for organisa- tions. Or, explained in other terms: to show how your company can be more profitable without huge cash investments. This is done through a process of value assessments in order to measure the underlying troubles within an organization and turn potential value losses into secured business value gains. People and organizations: we bundle their strengths. Linkpower coaches and accompa- nies managers and their organizations, on a high level of commitment and with a focus on individual strengths. In this way, we contri- bute to better, stronger companies, in which leaders use their personal strengths even more effectively and deploy them with en- thusiasm. As a recent example, Linkpower has carried out an assessment of a worldwide energy company and measured in a scienti- fic way potential losses of €700 million due to misalignments in cultural values between the employees and the corporation. After seven months of consulting, training and advisory the company was able to generate an extra €140 million in revenue, which was 7% of the €700 millions. After carrying out completely this process we believe that the total poten- tial lost revenue will be transformed in €700 millions of real income. This will be accom- plished with almost no cash investment from the company but only through the changes in the way top management looks at the exis- ting business model and acts towards their employees. Linkpower is the exclusive licensee for Teams to Results® in Belgium and Luxem- bourg. What methods are being used by Linkpower in order to reach these enhanced values? This is obtained via five modules: Change Management, Change in the Leadership Model, Coaching and Gap Analysis, Corpo- rate Re-Engineering and HR Consulting. I) Change Management: We have a statement which defines this method: "He who wants looks for oppor- tunities. He who does not want looks for reasons". Added value is created by investing in people especially in times of crisis. In fact, measures taken in an economically challen- ging environment will have a much higher ROI than by taking short term measures of cost cutting. Linkpower can create a balance between cost efficiency actions as well as human culture improvement measures. In the Linkpower Change Management module, the 7 principal levels of business are reviewed. We implement cost efficiency measures as well as Human Resources upgrading. This can be in- dicated by the following diagram: DW ▪ 20
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Opportunities in times of crisis
Interview of Mr. Peter De Prins, Manager of Linkpower (Kluwer)
Mr. De Prins can you tell us about your professional background?
I graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) and IHAM with an Enginee-ring degree. I headed the Logistic Division of Esso in Belgium. In 1992, together with two Harvard graduates we set up the company Allaire in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The core business of Allaire was the process of Web application services. With the help of Polaris, a US Venture Capital Company, we did an IPO on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in 1997. Allaire was bought by Macromedia and after by Adobe in 1999. I became the EMEA Field Education Vice-President, responsible for evangelizing our technology and supporting the market.
In 2000, I decided to share my experience in Leadership and set up 2thePoint, training, coaching & consulting company. 2thePoint put together its resources with Linkinvest to create a new company called Linkpower. The Mission of Linkpower is “Linking the power of people and business “. We set up Linkpower Belgium, Netherlands and South Africa. Link-power was sold to Wolters Kluwer in 2007. As you know Wolters Kluwer is quoted on
the Euronext in Amsterdam and together with Thomson-Reuters and Reed Elsevier is among the three largest worldwide compa-nies involved in information and publishing services for professionals in legal, tax and ac-counting, finance, government, health and safety services. Kluwer in Belgium specializes in information services, software and training. Linkpower is a brand of Kluwer and provides training, consulting and advisory to profes-sionals from boardroom members to middle management.
Can you detail the mission of Link-power?
Our mission is to link the power of people and business. Today it comes down to reveal potential business value gain for organisa-tions. Or, explained in other terms: to show how your company can be more profitable without huge cash investments. This is done through a process of value assessments in order to measure the underlying troubles within an organization and turn potential value losses into secured business value gains. People and organizations: we bundle their strengths. Linkpower coaches and accompa-nies managers and their organizations, on a high level of commitment and with a focus on individual strengths. In this way, we contri-bute to better, stronger companies, in which leaders use their personal strengths even more effectively and deploy them with en-thusiasm. As a recent example, Linkpower has carried out an assessment of a worldwide energy company and measured in a scienti-fic way potential losses of €700 million due to misalignments in cultural values between the employees and the corporation. After seven months of consulting, training and advisory the company was able to generate an extra
€140 million in revenue, which was 7% of the €700 millions. After carrying out completely this process we believe that the total poten-tial lost revenue will be transformed in €700 millions of real income. This will be accom-plished with almost no cash investment from the company but only through the changes in the way top management looks at the exis-ting business model and acts towards their employees. Linkpower is the exclusive licensee for Teams to Results® in Belgium and Luxem-bourg.
What methods are being used by Linkpower in order to reach these enhanced values?
This is obtained via five modules: Change Management, Change in the Leadership Model, Coaching and Gap Analysis, Corpo-rate Re-Engineering and HR Consulting.
I) Change Management: We have a statement which defines this
method: "He who wants looks for oppor-tunities. He who does not want looks for reasons".
Added value is created by investing in people especially in times of crisis. In fact, measures taken in an economically challen-ging environment will have a much higher ROI than by taking short term measures of cost cutting. Linkpower can create a balance between cost efficiency actions as well as human culture improvement measures. In the Linkpower Change Management module, the 7 principal levels of business are reviewed. We implement cost efficiency measures as well as Human Resources upgrading. This can be in-dicated by the following diagram:
DW ▪ 20
II) Transformational Leadership
Linkpower consultants use a very power-ful personality style assessment tool, called Insights. The Insights Transformational Lea-dership Programme is built around a unique eight-type Transformational Leadership model and takes a multi-dimensional approach to leadership development. The leaders of a company are guided through an in-depth and invigorating exploration of the eight di-mensions of leadership. This enables them to examine their effectiveness in each of these diverse areas and to develop proven strategies for continuous and profound personal deve-lopment at the individual, team and organi-zational level.
Linkpower increases the efficiency of the enterprise principally via the Change in the Leadership Model. This approach will help the company to plan and manage the bu-siness through a hands–on approach that targets immediate improvements and excep-tional long term results. The planning of the company path will improve the competitive-ness positioning in a down market and allows the company to achieve a modified vision and mission for the future.
III) Coaching
Effective coaching is a combination of cor-porate coaching and personal coaching.
1) Corporate Coaching and Gap Analysis We take a "picture" of the company as it
exists today. We focus on the 7 S model of Mc Kinsey:
A) Staff – Does the company have the right people and does the organization treat them in the right way?
B) System – Does the company have the right or most efficient processes to contribute to what it wants to achieve?
C) Shared values – Are the values of the company understood by the employees; is there a corporate identity? Does the mission live on the floor?
D) Skills – Does the company have the right skills in place for the corporation and the people
E) Leadership – Is our style of leadership un-derstood and accepted by the employees and the outside world ( all stakeholders )?
F) Strategy – This encompasses the strategy choices we need to make to achieve our goals.
G) Structure – How is the company structu-red? Is this efficient? Centralization versus decentralization, line-management & bu-siness lines.
2) Personal Coaching
It is essential to combine corporate coa-ching with personal coaching to help imple-ment the changes needed by the company. The leaders and all the employees have to understand and implement the changes of value in the learning process in order to make it happen. Linkpower has a lot of experience, in guiding people to achieve the expected results and to improve the global profitability for all stakeholders.
IV) Corporate Re-Engineering: An overall approach to take the process of
Input management to Output management
V) Human Resources Consulting: Linkpower focuses purely and solely on
how to improve the way employees feel about their company. In other words, it aims to achieve a higher level of happiness of the people working in the company. Studies conducted at Harvard University have proven that a 5 % increase in happiness has a 1.3 cor-relation with an increase in EBITA. In conclu-sion, we make management understand that with power comes responsibility towards all the stakeholders. This responsibility needs to be based on commitment and needs to be seen through actions. We live in a world where there is a lot of talk, sometimes brilliant and thoroughly persuasive. But how often do we see it stopping at that point ? The action turns out to be "too difficult", or "not the right time", or is defended by "yes but…". My advice: keep it simple. Keep it clear and focused. Keep it understandable for every-body in the company. And act accordingly. But most important of all: “Knowing and not doing is still not knowing”.
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