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Zoetermeer, The Netherlands – ORTEC appoints Marijn Deurloo as Chief Product Officer (CPO). Deurloo will focus on the accelerated development of a market and customer-driven portfolio of scalable solutions.

“Resilience is agility’s twin brother. One cannot exist without the other!"

We are right in the middle of a digital revolution, says Roel van Rijsewijk, director of Cyber Defence at Thales. The question, however, is what the digital future will look like. “The digital transformation is changing the world for good: everything is in a state of flux and nobody quite knows where we will find ourselves when the dust settles.

Interview with Roel van Rijsewijk, Director of Cyber Defence at Thales

“We jumped ten years into the future in one fell swoop. The change was not gradual: it was instant and disruptive”

TNO, the company for which Ellen Lastdrager serves as Managing Director of Traffic & Transport, has a variety of roles. TNO identifies new technological developments in the field of mobility for authorities and organizations. It furthermore supports organizations in developing products and services by making innovative technologies and methods available to them. According to Lastdrager, boards eager to introduce innovative ways of working now have the wind in their sails: “I’ve noticed that people have become a lot less fearful of digital technologies. It speeds up the rate at which new technologies are launched and adopted. I cannot see fully autonomous vehicles happening just yet, but these technologies certainly develop at a faster pace. As society’s adaptivity increases, organizations will have to speed up their innovation efforts too.”

Interview with Ellen Lastdrager, Managing Director Traffic and Transport at TNO

February 2021

Everyone wants to become data-driven and most organizations have realized by now that the transition revolves around acquiring the right data, technology, skills, and models. However, executives often seem to ignore the most important, and most exciting requirement: changing the corporate DNA. To facilitate a data-driven approach and to attract the new generation of digital talent, organizations will have to implement multiple mindset shifts. And not all of them are even directly related to data. What they do have in common, though, is that the board has a key role to play. Rianne Langenberg, Managing Consultant at ORTEC Consulting, takes us through several key requirements based on the five “Mindset shifts for organizational transformation’ published by ThoughtWorks. Such a philosophical and organizational shift starts at the top and requires a solid change plan.

This article on Mindset Shifts for Organizational Transformation is the last part of our series on Data and AI in the Boardroom and is powered by Rianne Langenberg, Managing Consultant.

"I am not under the illusion that there will come a time at which we can sit back and say: Right, there we are. Transformation done.”

Univé wanted to digitize whilst staying true to the organization’s DNA, tasking Ellen Peper to do just that when she was given a seat on the board as Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) in 2017. Since then, Peper has kickstarted a comprehensive transformation that will ultimately make Univé more attractive to its members. “We are harnessing the power of Univé, the power of cooperation.” Together with Frank Dijkstra, IT Director, she relates the story of how Univé is becoming a data-driven organization. “A transformation like this one touches on all layers of the organization: you have to convince everyone that a change is necessary.” One of Univé’s objectives is to develop an insurance brand with new services, most of which are linked to Univé’s insurance products. We want to move to an omni-channel service model, offering services digitally and in our physical stores, “in order to express our core values of ‘togetherness’, ‘closeness’, and ‘action’.”

Interview with Ellen Peper, Board Member and CTO of Coöperatie Univé, and Frank Dijkstra, IT Director

January 2021

Algorithms are more widely used than ever before and affect people and organizations alike on an even greater scale. Apart from algorithms being a useful way to optimize all sorts of operations, there is also a potential downside: they can potentially discriminate against certain people. The profiles used for fraud detection could for instance be questionable. Algorithms can also potentially influence hiring processes, mortgage applications and online targeting, and in all these processes, it is vital that people are treated fairly. The good news is that, although it is step by step, we can make algorithms fairer.

This article on Explainable & Fair AI is the third part of our series on Data and AI in the Boardroom and is powered by Rogier Emmen, Lead Consultant Data Science.

“Making mistakes is good, as long as you are fully committed to solving them and learning from them”

Chip machine manufacturer ASML is renowned for its progressiveness, due in part to technologies such as Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography. “ASML is one of the finest companies in Europe”, says CFO Roger Dassen. In his view, ASML was able to build this innovative reputation because it operates in a field where mistakes are accepted as necessary, provided that you learn from them and are 100% committed to solving them. “Everything goes, as long as the potential rewards outweigh the risk.”

Den Hartogh Logistics is a global logistics provider specializing in bulk transportation for the chemical, gas and polymer, and dry food industries. As Luke van de Bunt, Network Planning Manager and member of the Sustainability Working Group at Den Hartogh Logistics is all too aware, implementing short-term sustainability improvements in logistics can be complicated: “If the rest of the industry is not ready, making the shift can be very hard. Everyone agrees that something must be done, that we have to work together and that everyone should do their part, but someone will eventually have to go beyond words alone. Strategic sessions help to chart a general course, but at some point you have to get going."

An interview with Luke van de Bunt, Network Planning Manager and member of the Sustainability Working Group at Den Hartogh Logistics

[New Brochure] Routing and Delivery optimized Solutions for the foodservice distribution industry

Zoetermeer, The Netherlands: A new release of ORTEC Routing and Dispatch is now available. The new release will deliver feature enhancements for improved planning, optimization, and data analytics.
Support for Windows 2022, an improved Carrier Portal and cloud maps support make this an exciting release.