Arnold Beekes

  All the digital tools are really becoming an addiction. They look like a digital extension of our bodies. Everywhere, people are constantly glued to their screens, whether it is on the bike, during meetings and presentations, in coffee shops or while watching TV. In combination with the frantic pace of our society, that looks like a normal thing to do. At the same time it is also crucial to disconnect regularly to give our minds and intellects the time: -  To digest -  To understand -  To connect -  To reflect -  To give it a place -  To get ideas The way to do this is to create space with time and/or place. You can fix daily intervals where you will switch off the digital devices. You can also decide to not use your digital ‘friends’ in certain spaces, e.g. the kitchen, sleeping room, the garden. Yesterday I did watch a documentary about Ricardo Semler, one of the most interesting iconoclasts of our time. H...

In the industrial age, which has been replaced by the information age (but many people still don’t realize this yet), life and work was divided like this: -       -   Citizen -        -  Companies -        -  Cities -        -  Countries As citizen, we did work in companies, which where located in cities. If we did work in other cities, the commute challenge was added to the equation. And it did matter in which country you did live and work. These old ways of living and working are now rapidly changing. Lifetime employment for a company has completely vanished. Especially large companies are having difficulties in adapting to the information age. Almost all (needed) innovation comes from small companies, specifically startups. Countries are also loosing their power. The level of trust is also here (like with companies) at an all-time low. People don’t trust...

2013 will be a year, where we will not return back you ‘normal’, as many people hope for. Unless you consider a lot of change to be the new normal! Please find below a small overview of areas, which will (need to) capture your attention. Storytelling As the amount of information is growing every second, it is very hard to focus your attention on what information is worthwhile. So, the story that you tell (as an individual and/or organization) is increasingly important. The stories that match my interests and are awesome will capture my attention. The rest of the information will not reach me. Big Data The information, which is already available, covers almost all levels of our being, from my heart rate, to places visited, to products sold. More and more organizations are analyzing this data and producing useful reports out of this. This analysis will give them very useful information for the  (potential) impact of their actions. Craft As more an...

Many people are hoping (and expecting) that ‘things’ will return back to normal. This means to them that the economic crisis will end and that we will grow again, that there will be new jobs and that the stock price will increase. This also means that they just have to wait and be patient. This perspective allows then not to change their own behaviors. This sounds like the definition of insanity: “doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results”. So, let me awaken you (if needed). Things will not return back to normal. There is a huge transformation under way, which impact will be felt even more in the coming year. Education, government, healthcare are among the areas, which will be impacted, and urgently need innovation. The only way to cope with these changes is to continuously learn, adapt and act in a new, more sustainable way. However, if you still think of old institutions (schools, training-organizations, universities) tha...

Most companies have (on their site) a contact page. Usually it mentions a physical address and an email. A phone number is not mentioned very often – ‘don’t call us, we call you’. The email looks like this info@......... So far that looks rather logical. The main failure is that I have never received an answer from mails send to these info@ …. addresses. However,  most of my inquiries were related to where I could buy their products! Apparently they are not really interested in having new customers. I would suggest to seriously respond to these questions or to skip the contacts page. Are you responding to customer inquiries? Enthusiasm drives Excellence! www.theproperway.com