Last Tuesday, 25 February, we made a working visit to Vanenburg Software in Putten. We were guests at Vanenburg Castle, hosted by Mr Jan Baan. He told us about his company, his career, developments and the future of the ICT sector, and shared his experiences.
The meeting began straight away with a question from a participant. He asked why Jan Baan was so keen to welcome us to his company when he is extremely busy. Jan Baan said that he wants to share his dream with others, expand his network and share the experiences he has gained. He feels an obligation to pass on knowledge to others, which is why Jan Baan has also written a number of books about his entrepreneurial career. One of them is ‘De weg naar marktleiderschap’ (The road to market leadership). In it he describes the big and small successes and setbacks he has experienced and achieved to date.
Jan Baan then began his presentation and divided his career and the developments in ICT into 4 parts. ICT began in the 1960s, when a single computer with a few kilobytes of memory had to be transported by lorry, whereas today we have computers and phones that are 10 million times more powerful than the computers of that time. He considers it very important that ICT companies always stay one step ahead of the times and do not forget innovation. He himself says that, however old you are, you must keep up with the times and technology and try to be innovative.
He explains that ICT used to be based on ‘information’, whereas today it is mainly based on ‘entertainment’. Think of Netflix, YouTube and so on. In his view we should strive for a combination of information and entertainment , the so-called ‘ entformation’ , in which information and entertainment are blended and made more attractive to users.
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A final message he gave to all entrepreneurs is that they can make their dreams come true by daring, thinking and then carrying it out. For this you need discipline and perseverance. Above all, do not forget to share with others, take good care of your fellow human beings and become a good leader for your employees.
After the meeting we also spoke to a number of participants, and one of them said he found it very interesting and gained a lot of inspiration from Jan Baan's energy, perseverance and experiences.
We would like to thank Jan Baan once again for his hospitality and his impact on our entrepreneurs during this meeting. After the meeting he said that he enjoyed sharing his experience with us and that he thought HOGIAF was a great club.
Left: Ahmet Taskan (Chairman HOGIAF), Jan Baan (Chairman & Founder Vanenburg Group)
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The largest cross-cultural and multisectoral business association in the Netherlands.
