Episode Transcript
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of the Growth Focus Podcast where we bring together leaders from all across the globe to share their time, their expertise and their insights in what it takes to grow a business today, particularly with within the tech industry. Today we're going to be talking about what lessons have we learned as leaders in the field out there to grow a business? What lessons have we learned from the mistakes that we've actually made? How do we actually stand above the crowd to earn the trust that the market requires from us, let alone then just keeping that trust at some point?
It'd be interesting to talk about the youth and see the youth of today coming up through the system and how we should be treating them as a opposed to letting them get on and thinking they're different to us. And obviously we'll be talking about AI and the power that AI has within the growth of a business as opposed to just AI. So I can't wait to get into this episode. We've got so much to unpack. Today's guest has been a great friend of mine for many, many years. We see each other even though we're on opposite sides of the world. We see each other at least two or three times a year if we can. And so, without further ado, let's bring on my guest, jw. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here today. Why don't you start off by introducing yourself, tell us who you are and what is it you actually do.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Well, hi Gary. Thank you for having me in your show. Well, I'm JW Jan Willem. It's a Dutch name. Stur, also a Dutch name. I'm a manager of business development and I'm an expert in asset management in the total view of an integral view of enterprise organizations. And that's what I do and that's what my love and passion is.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: So you're based in the Netherlands right Now, can you tell us what your company actually does and the problem it actually solves for people so we get a better idea of the work you actually do?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Well, my company is called Naviam. It's a worldwide global company with 400 experts like me. What do we do? We sell and implement enterprise asset management software. It's called IBM Maximo.
And that's what we are doing. And it's not only about selling the products because that's making a lot of profit, but it's also about the professional service around it, how to implement it, how to guide organizations to come from a low, mature step to the next step to the next step. And that's what I love to do. And there I can use everything I Learned in my 40 year career.
Where to stop, where to go, the do's and the don'ts. And well, my experience helps clients to grow their organization.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: You've got a wealth of experience and I know you know as you said, 40 odd years in within the industry. So you spent decades, especially within the technology field. You've worked with businesses all around the world.
So I'm going to ask you this, JW, when you look at growing a business today versus 20 years ago, what do you think is actually easier now than it was back then?
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Well, definitely what is much easier is that we have very grown up software as support nowadays. It's not about the software product itself. That's one of the pitfalls that they make the software implementation the goal. Now it's just a software that helps and support organizations to get much more insights. Compare this to 40 years ago, 30 years ago.
Well, we hardly had a printer. You know, it was this old printer. You were waiting already 30 minutes for just 3A, 4 papers and you have bunch of papers to protect your budget every year.
And we calculated just in a booklet or if we had luck, we had a kind of Old Lotus123 with a kind of spreadsheet to do this kind of calculations. Well, nowadays it's much easier. However, it became not only much easier, it also became much complexer.
As you know, we grow also in the industry.
When I started they called it rcmindustry 2.0.
Well then we had, in 2015 we had the hype industry 4.0 because now we all had this handy IoT devices, Internet of things.
Well, much handy, but a lot of data. A lot of data.
Ten years ago, 20 years ago it was much easier. It was only my booklet and that was my truth. But now we have a wealth of data and that makes it also complex. So we have both a very beneficial side of using computers. On the other hand, we have so much more data.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: Do you know, it's really interesting what you're saying there jw, right about, you know, we've definitely got a lot more advanced when it comes down to the software, when it comes down to what we actually have available to us when it comes to running a business. But again like you say, it's far more complex. And I think it's funny because you know, we have everything as we advance through the decades that help us build our business. But I speak to most founders and just like you, they also said it's also getting harder, getting more complex. There's more competition, there's more noise out there. And unfortunately, there's far more people calling themselves experts out there. As you know, within this industry, everybody's an expert in their field. And when everybody's an expert in their field, unfortunately, the market doesn't hear anything. It just hears noise because everyone's saying the same thing. Which actually leads me to something I've always wanted to ask you.
What, in your opinion, is the difference between being an expert and building a successful business?
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Well, being an expert is what you become after you have grown. If you made mistakes in the past and you learn from it.
So an expert is not a guy who said, okay, I made a lot of mistakes. Now I'm going to tell the world how to avoid this. Now it's about not telling the world. It's by just changing yourself in your mindset. And be polite. So don't be arrogant, but be polite. And I know the line and the border between arrogance and self confidence is pretty thin, but stay on the line of self confidence. But what I learned is learn from your mistakes.
Make yourself better. Don't sit down. Continue. Continue what you have learned. So that's an expert.
Growing a business is partially built on that second part. What did I learned?
How did I change myself? And how can I help people to change as well?
And you know, I don't believe in instructing you how to work because I did it in the past. I much more like the idea to coach you and helping you and do it by yourself. So it's not a problem.
As an unexperienced colleague is making a mistake, you have to step in the pitfall once to learn from that. You can't learn from. Listen to me, what mistakes I made, you have to step in it by yourself. However, I have this kind of elastic wire, so please step in the pitfall. But I have this elastic wire and I pull you back so I don't let you drown. I will help you.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: I love. That's always what I.
Yeah, I think this is the key thing, really, isn't it with especially within the field of tech that they become experts at the service or the product, but they don't really become experienced in running the business and growing the business because, you know, that's not where their focus has actually been. And there's some. We've all met, you and I have both met some really, really brilliant technical people. But they struggle to grow. They struggle to grow because either they don't have a mentor like yourself, to help them grow or they've never experienced it. And as you quite rightly said, they can't learn by just reading you. They can't learn by reading the book. They can't learn by what mistake did JW make? They've got to get into it and learn how to grow that business because they're experts in their field, but they're just not focused in growing their business.
What do you think founders tend to make far more difficult or more complicated than it needs to be when it comes to growth today?
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Well, one of the things is that founders, founders, they started as an expert and they started as an expert and they followed their passion. That's why they founded the company.
And then all of a sudden they say, okay, I need much more people. So they are searching for other experts. And at the moment you have a group of 20, 30 people like we had in the past before we were acquired. 30 people as a founder or as a manager or as a board member. It's quite difficult to think that all people you hire do have the same qualities as you have. So stop with that, stop with that.
And I started 10 years ago with, okay, I don't want to direct people anymore how they need to work, because that's the way how I work.
I started with a word and I found it on Google when Google was hot. Now AI is hot, but at that moment Google was hot. I found the word duocracy and I love that word, duocracy. What does it mean?
If you have an idea where you can improve either the project or internal processes or our way of working, don't ask me, start doing it. Do ocracy. That means I give you the freedom to improve things. The only thing what I ask, communicate about what you have done.
Communicate early if you think you have chosen the wrong direction because that's the resilience of a company and the agile working of a company. The earlier you see your mistake, the earlier we have the possibility to redirect and to resolve the thing and choose another path. But that's how I treat all my people in the company. We are equal and you know, we are duchies. We don't believe in hierarchy in our company. We are all equally, we are all the same. We can talk to the director in the same way as I'm talking to the technician or the developer. It's exactly the same way. The only thing, we are pretty direct. But one of the things which is very, very important to us, be polite, be ethical, say what you have to say. If one is making a mistake, it's not a problem to say you made a mistake, but continue with how can I help you to avoid this in the future?
[00:11:39] Speaker A: I think that's a seed we see founders, we were talking about this off air just before we started that it is difficult for someone within tech because they are deemed as the expert. They want to be the cleverest person in the room. And I mean this in the nicest possible way. They are very good at what they actually do, but they also find it very hard to then turn around and say, I made a mistake. It's because they are deemed like, as you say in Dutch, everyone's kind of at a level. You don't have the hierarchy. But in the other parts of the Western world, in England and in America, there is this hierarchy and there is this thing that, hey, I should know more than you. Therefore, it's harder for me to admit that I made that mistake and then try and cover it up. What advice or insights would you have to share with those listening that go, hmm, yeah, perhaps if I was to be honest, that is a little bit of me. I do find it hard to admit I made mistakes.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Well, it's not wrong by admitting you made a mistake. I'm doing it constantly.
And I learned, and I did the same in the past when I was young, just to strive for a better career. So keep it for myself. I made a mistake, okay, Try to put it on the carpet or to solve it and work overtime in the weekend just to solve it so that I never was able to make a mistake. Front end. Well, I got to know, well, that's just another mask. And I'm playing an actor and I'm not myself, and I don't like it to don't be myself to play an actor. And you know, we play an actor as grandfather, as partner, as father, we everywhere, we play a kind of role. However, I love to be playing the role where I'm myself. I'm 100% or almost 100% natural.
And that's what I like. So I always say to people, even to you, Gary, admitting a mistake isn't a problem.
Put it under the carpet is much more worse than admitting your mistake. Why?
We can help you together. I made so many mistakes, and I made not only mistakes in my work, I also made mistakes which cost us pretty much money by innovating things, building things, keeping things for myself and within the company, and talk with my partners and my managers. Okay? We have to keep it inside. We do not need to share with the competition or with anyone.
But then you have taggies developers, they only want to deploy and go to market when it's 100% foolproof.
Well so I did make this mistake and our competition, they had a similar solution and they went to market and we lost a big deal because of that. So that is a big mistake. Keeping it for yourself.
That's also. And don't admit your mistake. Why we kept it for ourselves. So that's one of the mistakes. So that's what I learned also with the IBM thing, IBM Champion thing.
Sharing knowledge even with your competition is not a problem because it's open source tech. If we can't share it, my competition is going to do it. So try to share as much as possible with the same software. We all buy the same software, we all sell the same software which is coming from IBM. Well, it's an open book IBM. If we found a solution or an innovative thing, why don't you share it?
Why everyone can be beneficial of it, even my competitor. Because the competitor is not winning a deal because of the better software or the better solutions.
He's winning a deal because of the better proposition.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And who they are and the type of person like we've been discussing, you know, and I love. I'm going to dial it back a little bit there JW because what you said was actually quite interesting but you know, it was kind of lost within the conversation. I want to bring it back is that we all play a role. I love that scenario. We'll play a role whether it be the grandfather, whether it be the husband, whether it be the wife, whether it be the boss, whatever, that there's a role but there's nothing wrong in that because that's what we're doing. It's when you're playing a role you no longer enjoy, when you are playing a role that no longer sits with you as a person, then that's when it becomes hard. That's when it becomes hard to be a better person, a bigger person to help grow and to help not only grow you your business but also help grow others within the industry. And then we obviously you moved on to things like, you know, sharing with your competition and that's quite a big, big thing up. And there'd be people who are probably watching or listening going what? Well we can't do that, we can't stop. So let's touch on that philosophy. You mentioned, IBM Champions. Let's quickly mention what IBM Champions is and what you find is a benefit of being an IBM champion.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Well, the IBM champion, I try to tell it as short as possible. An IBM champion is just a passionate guy who is going above and beyond. That means an IBM champion is doing everything out of passion he has for the product or for the professional services he is acting for.
Even outside working time. Even outside working time. So that means, okay, you can't be a champion if you are working only 40 hours. You are not willing to to spend more time in your company.
And in this working hours you are sent to an IBM event and you are just there. And then you try to be. I was at IBM, so now I can become an IBM champion. No, we talk about IBM products. We in fact are the best sellers of IBM products. Not by selling it hard, I'm not trying to sell my mother in law, I always say, but I'm selling my content and my passion and I'm talking and presenting about what I love about this. And one of the most important things for me, whether it's the title IBM champion, even without a title I would have loved, I have this passion because I made a very important decision about 12 years ago when I just started at this company.
Am I going to work for a boss who's saying what I need to do and what I don't need to do or am I going to treat my work like a hobby? And I love the work I'm doing every day again and again. And also when you do a hobby, you have good days, you have bad days because you know, if you play guitar or music, I'm a musician as well. If you play music and it doesn't sound well. Well, even when it's a hobby, you have a bad day. But if it's working and you have this eureka momentum, well that's what I have in my work. So I'm not looking to time. I'm a guy who is working easily 60 to 65 hours a week. Why I love my hobby, I love my passion and even I do all the things to let our company grow or at least be able that we have a true reason for existence. It's not only about grow. You can grow with revenue, you can grow with the number of people. But that's also very important to me that all my colleagues and employees do have their salaries in time. We do not have any financial, financial debt or whatever. That's also very important as a manager. It's not only about growth, it's also about security for all the employees.
And if I can do this in 40 hours, well, I have still 25 hours left. To do my IBM Champion thing.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: It's refreshing to hear that because we now live in world where there's instant gratification. There is. There's plenty of hard workers out there. There's plenty of long workers like yourself and like myself. You know, when you build a business, you've got to put those hours in, but there's also this instant gratification. Work smart, not hard. But ultimately I think that's an oxymoron to a degree. You've got to put the hours in. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen because you slack off.
But I want to talk a little bit about what you just said there as you finished off. It gives me 25 hours to talk to IBM champion stuff. So I'm going to move slightly on the theme but off the IBM Champion.
What I want to talk about is, especially when I get to meet you across the globe, when we're at different conferences and whatnot, you're always up there speaking, you're always up there sharing. You're always up there networking with people. You know, you've kind of put yourself there that where almost everybody that needs to be anybody knows you out there.
But you're not doing it for.
What I've certainly noticed is you're not doing it for gratitude. You're doing it because you generally want to share and help other people do that.
Why do you think in your opinion so many founders or leaders struggle to go out there and share in the way that you actually do?
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Well, a couple of reasons. Let's start with the first.
I had my co founder and my co partner who was really a technology and a nerd. Her, he was really a techie.
He didn't like to go out and talk in the audience. Well, that's a kind of taggy DNA. That taggy DNA is that they are quite introvert. So they are not going to stage to talk about what they are doing. However, they have an excellent story to tell. But that's just their DNA. That's just the DNA. So that's one of the things. And they struggle then because why do we not have exposure as our company? Well, it's not your company logo which makes exposure. It are the people who take the stage not from a commercial reason but just to share what they are doing, what they like, what they love about innovative ideas. I will give you a very short anecdote, a very short story. When I was on the stage in 2002, well that's 24 years ago, I had a story to Tell on the stage. And I said, okay, look at me, listen at me. I think in 2020 all the technicians do have a phone.
They are automatically notified when there is a outage from an asset and I need to go. And if they know the outage, they exactly know what to take, what are the materials, what are the instructions to take. Do they need to have some tools so that they can take fix it pretty fast and to just to avoid a lot of operational loss? They were laughing to me. Do you think that everyone is running with a mobile phone and that Iot is there and that they have the notifications? Well, watch me. And they laughed at me. What happened in 2080?
Industry 4.0 IoT came up in 2050. Everyone had a mobile phone already. And now we were able to use IoT to send the technician that there was a problem and an outage somewhere in their factory which needs to be repaired. And he was directly informed, okay, this is the problem and this is how you need to resolve it. And these are the materials and tools you need.
It happened in 2020. It happened in fact in 2080. So we are there. That's the same with the other bridge.
Dare to talk about your innovation.
Dare to talk about. And that's what I learned from the Rockefeller habit. Probably you have read this book as well, the Rockefeller habit. He told me. And that's what I learned. Always believe in the B hack, the big hairy huggerous goal. That means somewhere in the dot on the horizon, about 30 years, what do you want to achieve? Do you want to be a millionaire? Nah. Do you want to have a legacy? Yeah, that's what I like. Because legacy is not arrogance. Legacy is okay, what did I left behind for the newcomers in terms of knowledge sharing? Knowledge sharing, experience, writing books, whatever. But share and present what you have learned. If you are able as a founder to do this, why should you struggle? Struggle is not about, okay, we made a bit less revenue, we had a bit less profit. Well, that's not where you need to struggle about. We know it's a hard world nowadays. It's hard to make your money.
If you can even make break even without any loss, that's the most important. If your people, employers are happy, just look to the next year. Because what we learned, you have peaks and you have also the other things. That's how businesses are running. As long as the trend is going positive and positive and you can expand your company, that's where it's all about. So don't struggle to present on the stage what Your vision as a company is what your mission as a company is. But also more important, what are your ethical rules and political rules? Avoid politics, avoid geopolitics. And that's a big. That's a big concern nowadays, of course.
And that's where every company is struggling with, okay, what happens when it's going the wrong direction? I'm not mentioning any name, but what's happening and how is it harming my company? So of course there are struggles, but let them only temporary struggles because it only takes another two years and then the world can shine again. So that's how it works.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think this is a key thing about, and I love what you just said there, is that so many founders are technically brilliant. And again, I'm going to rewind it a little bit because there's so much good golden nuggets there that you left with this idea is that, you know, there's so many founders who are technically brilliant, who know what they're doing, who growing a relatively great company, but in their DNA, it's not about standing in front of the camera. It's not about standing underneath the lights. It's not about standing on the boards of the stage. And it's a DNA issue as opposed to something that they should or should not be doing.
But I think the unfortunate thing is they have such a great story. Like you said, they have a great story, they have a passion. And in a time where the market is looking for authenticity over and above information, that that story becomes so much more prevalent and welcomed by the marketplace out there. So totally agree. In order to grow.
It's almost become essential now if you can't tell your story, you know, and I'm telling people on stages all the time to share their story in such a way that it is enticing and intriguing and inspirational. But if you can't do that, or generally do not want to do that because of your DNA or whatever the case might be, make sure there is an avenue that your story can still be told, either by a partner, either by an employee, either by somebody that can still share that information.
The other thing that you mentioned as well is looking forward and making sure that the company's growth is almost long term, not short term. And that leads me really nicely onto something else that you're really passionate about. I want to talk to you about is youth.
Is the younger generation. You're extremely active and extremely passionate about bringing youth.
You know, when we say youth now, you and I, over the age where the decades keep rolling off the youth of today coming through.
This is a great passion led for you. Tell us a little bit about what it is that you actually do and why you actually do it with the youth.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Well, first of all, as you know as an IBM champion, I'm mentoring a lot of other people where I think well, that are such bright minds, they need to be an IBM champion. They are passionate about what they are doing and I'm especially mentoring people who are quite introvert. The taggies with authenticity have a great story.
How can I help them to take the stage? And even if it's not the big stage with hundred people, a stage for me can be just a YouTube movie. Just sit in front of a camera, talk to the camera because then you are not afraid of the people around you because they have a story to tell. And I think they have an excellent story for the world to learn and to share their authenticity. And we have a lot of people in our company which are such bright minds. That's what I love. The second thing, what I'm doing already for I think almost two decades is that I am a guest lecturer at the Leuven University where I present and where I have lectures six times a year. Just sharing and presenting what's all about asset management. It's not only about the technology. Sometimes we have the IT classes. So then I'm explaining, okay, what are the pitfalls of doing it if you're only zooming on it without looking to the business? Well, you're building a product which doesn't resonate with the business. So it's a golden do nothing machine. So how can we avoid that?
But also learning the business people and the asset managers, okay, how do you have to look to supporting it, which is not a goal as such, but it's just a tool where you can get the most business value out of and that's the real added value where you are searching for. That's what I'm doing. The second one I'm guest lecture on the Utrecht University of Applied Science. And that's a pretty nice one because that's a combined master, bachelor's, bachelor school. So we learn science from a master perspective but then we take the bachelor's side to make it applicable directly in the business. Directly. Okay, with this information now you can just have an interview and solicit it to the best company and then you can show off what you have learned. You can use the science and put it into practice. And that's also the nice bridge which IBM always saying, okay, put it into practice, don't talk about it, but really doing it, that's what I'm doing. And the third one, that's the Antwerp Maritime Academy. You know, we are living in the Netherlands and we have the kind of bathtub.
45% of our country is below sea level. So we have to fight against water. So I think our country has a lot of experts in water management. And that's why I'm at the Antwerp Maritime Academy learning about the do's and the don'ts within water management related to asset management, but also very highly related to software it and how we can use IoT combined with AI nowadays to make much more better prediction models about what's happening with the climate change and how is it impacting affecting us?
Because the sea level, they thought 50 years ago the sea level is only rising 10 centimeters centimeters per hundred year. Well now they have already adjusted it. Oh no, it's not 10 centimeters, it's 40 centimeters. So that means it's rising, rising, rising. But our land is just sinking and
[00:31:56] Speaker A: sinking and sinking at four times the rate they thought it was. That's right, it was at four times the rate. Well, that's really interesting and I think this is fantastic that you also help the youth and as you say, you know that there's science there and learning there. And you also mentioned, you know that we can't really have a conversation, a podcast on tech and growth if we don't talk about AI. And you mentioned AI there as well.
So as we bring this sort of conversation to an end. What part? There's a few more questions I want to ask you. What part of the AI?
What part of AI conversation out there today? You guys are using it not just for your country, but you're also using it for the science and for business growth out there. Where do you think founders are getting AI completely wrong? Which part of the conversation are they either missing or they're just getting wrong today?
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Well, it is not. It's not about how you use AI. Wrong. It is wrong how it is introduced.
So like Google was introduced to find anything on the Internet and IoT was introduced as the new thing. So what? I saw every company, even the low mature company, they started with an iOS IoT project. And I always said, okay, look IoT as an entire house and IoT is just the roof of the house. So how can you build the roof without having a proper foundation? That's the same with AI.
So everyone is using AI and I'm using it as well, but I'm using AI already as from 10 years ago. Because if you talk about AI nowadays, we talk talk mainly about the chatgpts, the glots, the generative AI, the agentic AI. Well, AI was already there in 2018. It was called AI machine learning, deep learning. Well, I use it already there to just predict the next failure. And that was the first AI. So I'm using it pretty much and pretty long.
With the era of generative AI like ChatGPT and that really, that really triggered the world. That was a real game changer into the world.
So anyone? Everybody. Also, the companies were focusing on AI, but they do not see the real benefits of AI and they don't know where to start with AI. Well, if you think I have a mess out of my data and now I can use AI as the magic box and all of a sudden my company is going bright. Well, that's similar to the IoT building the roof without a foundation. So to build AI, the most important thing, what I learned, AI only helps if you have a, a very good structure in your company.
Are your processes in line? Do you have real books?
Do you have a qualified way of working that is foundational? Because if you have a qualified way of working, you know that information and data is crucial to succeed. So that means you have the foundation ready and now you can ask AI. And I'm using it every day. Gary.
I have written so much in the last 20 years that I have put it on my drives. I have built an AI bot to find back the things I have written in the past because I simply can't find them anymore. But I know I've written about it somewhere, somehow. Okay, AI searched for me and it's finding it back. And then I say, okay, that was not well written, but then I was much younger. Okay, AI, can you rewrite it in the style I'm using today? So I learned by AI to take over my meme. And I learned that AI starts with prompts. You ask something and it's coming back with something. And I learned in the last two years that a prompt engineering is a real art. It's a must. And if you do not know how to engineer the prompts well, it's really not a waste to invest in really good young people who are excellent in prompt engineering. They cost a lot, but look at the value they will bring you in your company. And that's how I see AI. And I'm using it every day. I'm even building the nice things because I learned and I like the concept of low coding. Well, low coding is still working.
I like the concept of no coding building. So I'm not doing anything. I just have my idea. I know how I need to set up a proper foundation in terms of this should be the architecture, this is how it should work, this is how it should look like. So you have the entire foundation builds and then just ask Claude or even IBM Bob. Ask. Okay, IBM Bob, please build me an application which is deployable on your software or on your hardware and it's working fantastic. But you learn and you listen to me. I started with the foundation before I asked anything to build and that's in fact how an entire company works. If your foundation is bad, don't think that your top level, third level roof will just keep it.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: This is a great point what you've made there, isn't it? We heard about, you know, bad data in, bad data out, you know, bad, you know, crapping crap out, as it were, you know. And as you say, if you look at it as opposed to just putting stuff in, think about it as a foundation. Like you say, it's the foundation first, the information you feed it, the data you, you feed it first.
That's when you get to have a good solid structure. That's when you see a good solid house and then you can work on, on the roof, as it were. And you really nicely answered that. The debate question I, I tend to ask all the time to people is do you think AI replaces people or it makes good people more valuable? And I think you actually answered that really, really well to that critic question. So the time has just really got away from us. It's been such a great conversation with you, jw and no doubt we should have a part two because we can keep on going on this. I love.
So I have a final question for you. If a tech founder or any founder or leader listening today or watching the show wanted to build a business that was still thriving 10 years from now, what's the one thing, the one thing you would tell them to focus on and why?
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Always look what is coming to you.
So look ahead, be a visionary scenario. Thinking is very important.
Look back, but don't look too back too long.
Just learn from the past, don't relive the past. Look forwards. That's always what I'm doing.
Look forwards, look ahead and look about. Okay? And coming back to this, AI. AI is not replacing people. AI is helping people to get much more value out of them. And that means you can do much more business with the same people using AI. So you are not replacing any person.
It's just the first and the start to extend your business.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: That's brilliant. What a great way to finish this show on. That's an excellent piece of insight from there. So, jw, if people want to, you know, they've been listening and they want to get hold of you or know more about IBM Championship or more about you or whatever they are, what is the best way they can get hold of you?
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Well, find me on LinkedIn. I have a very easy name, Dutch, but you can find me on LinkedIn.
So you can just connect to me and of course I can share all my contact details. That's the easiest way. Find me on LinkedIn. Find me on the network.
Well, you'll see this nice friendly guy and this nice friendly face. So I'm quite recognizable on LinkedIn.
If you search for one word on LinkedIn, search for BCM business capability model. I'm the founder of that. If you search for that, you will find the author and the founder behind it, which is me.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Well, I'll make sure my team puts those in the show notes so they can just do a one click and get through to you. So all that reminds me to say is, jw, look, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show. I know it's taken. We've been trying to organize our calendars to make sure you get on this show. It's been a while, but I can't wait for number two because I'm sure you've got so much more insights to share with people. So all that reminds me to say is thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your insights today. It's been an absolute pleasure.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: And thank you, Gary, for having me. It was wonderful and I'm always looking also looking forward to a part two because I think we both have so much to tell the world.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: Exactly. And well, thank you, we'll look forward to that. And thank you ladies and gentlemen, for joining us for yet another episode of the Growth Focus podcast. So as per usual, if you have have picked up some nuggets from JW and you thought, wow, that's interesting or oh, I need to be doing that. Make sure that you like and share. Share what you thought was that you picked up that was value because it's not just you, it's about other people thinking all that's a good thing as well. We all grow by standing on the shoulders of giants. So make sure that you share. You get it out to people. Who needs to hear this until the next episode, keep working hard. More importantly, be profitable all. And we shall see you next time. Bye. Bye.
