What is typical about Dutch Innovation? Can we coin it as a concept, like Dutch Design? And is that an opportunity to position the Netherlands more powerfully on the world stage as a leading innovation country? In a preview of the Dutch Innovation Days, May 11, 12, and 13 in Enschede, we explore the opportunities and limitations of Dutch innovation. Read the whole series here. Today, we share Jeroen Kemperman’s vision. He is the author of the bestsellers Brilliant Business Models and The Amsterdam Dream and a researcher of innovative companies. During DID, he will also explore what “Dutch Innovation” is, as the foundation for a new book.
What makes a new business brilliant, and what makes Dutch innovations stand out worldwide? “If you look at how new companies are created, that is actually comparable to a beautiful story, and as with all stories, it goes in three acts,” says Jeroen Kemperman, currently senior manager of Strategy & Business Development at Zilveren Kruis.
Act 1: the dream
Kemperman: “In the first act, there is a reason to get moving for our hero, heroine, or club of friends. With a pioneering new venture, this is about an idea for a solution that does not yet exist in this way and that helps solve a major issue for customers or even society as a whole. In Dutch companies, you see through the ages that there is a lot of individualism and room for people to be themselves and make a difference and not to wait for someone else to solve the world’s problems but to work on it themselves.”
Act 2: self-confidence
“The first act of a story is only the beginning. The real story comes afterward when the journey begins with all its difficulties and challenges. When setting up a new venture, you must be pretty self-confident and stubborn if you keep going while not being confirmed and instead find the establishment opposite you. Traditionally, the Dutch, on average, are quite convinced that they are right. In addition, there is always a reasonably safe social safety net with which people also dare to take risks and do not just go for the easy road that yields the fastest money when the dreamed difficult road means trouble.”
Act 3: impact
“The third act of a story is the happy or fateful ending. Dreaming big and persevering is no guarantee of success. Rather, it’s all or nothing. But then, when things are going well, and the dreams are bigger than making a little more money or status, and there has been real perseverance to do so innovatively, the results also become interesting. Then you may indeed have a really relevant impact. Not only for yourself but also for customers, employees, investors, and preferably society itself. And this kind of impact has been realized quite often over the centuries by the Dutch, certainly for a small country.”
Dutch Innovation Manifesto
Jeroen Kemperman will be involved in the kickoff for the Dutch Innovation Manifesto during Dutch Innovation Days. His appearance is on Thursday, May 11, at 2 p.m. in the Grote Kerk. He will engage the audience in a conversation about how to seize the Dutch Way of Innovation. He will look for the pioneers who are tackling the big social challenges of our time through companies “without bullshit, with an open mind, and full of crossovers”.
The illustrations are part of Kemperman’s keynote at DID
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