About me

In case you have not yet read this excellent book by Simon Sinek, you should. It made me think very deeply about my motivations and resulted in this page. The content will likely evolve over the coming years, ideally becoming more focused, but the essence should stay the same. Enjoy if you want to find out what drives me to do what I do.

Why do I do what I do?

I believe a number of things, ideas and convictions which form the core of why I do what I do and how I do it. Here they are:

I believe that we all have a responsibility to leave the world a better place than it was when we came into it. But just continuing doing things the old ways because that is “the way it has always been done” will not get us there.

I believe we have a fundamental, moral obligation to critically and continually question dogma and the current state of play and act to change them for the better, ideally at the most concrete level possible. This takes courage, competence, attention and patience. It is also not something we can effectively or efficiently do on our own. We can only really achieve lasting change if we act together, because as individuals we will always be limited by our own limitations.

I believe that hierarchy disempowers people. Leaders should carry their teams, if need be on their backs, and ensure that their people can perform optimally. I believe that servant leadership is the best way to lead.

I firmly believe that in order to realise impactful change in the long term we need to dare go for radical change in the short term. Incremental change just will not do.

How can we realise this why?

At a societal level, our governments and leaders should act as servant leaders. Most of government’s traditional roles can now and often are safely and transparently assumed by private market players in a much more effective and efficient way than administrations can. The top-down, we impose upon you approach is less and less relevant. So what is left for government? From a servant leadership perspective, government should be an actor in establishing a moral and societal behavioural compass, helping citizens and companies with the choices they make about how they can all optimally fit together into a cohesive, positive society striving for balance.

Each citizen within our society has the freedom to make her or his own choices. Government has a responsibility, as servant leader, to show what behaviour beneficial to society looks like and what the reasonable choices are that we as citizens or organisations have. As such, it should create possibility, never obligation. However, each individual or organisation has to understand they carry a wider responsibility to society. A mature societal model sees every member of that society contribute to the best of their abilities.

One way to effect change is to make sure that our contributions, whatever form they take, are being used in the the most effective way possible. Government needs to be transparent as to its use or redirection of the resources put at its disposal. One way to do that is to establish systems that provide reasonable assurance as to right use.

What do I contribute specifically?

Why do I teach at AMS, Solvay and Audit Academy and why do I blog?

Working as a consultant, an internal auditor and a government advisor in first 20 years of my career, I have built a capacity to critically analyse systems and processes. I have a toolset which allows me to look into the black boxes of systems and identify what can be optimised. I want to share and teach that capability to as many people as possible. It is my contribution the help people question dogma and challenge the status quo.

Why do I work for Sodexo?

First, and very important, the values that Sodexo was built on, and the mission it strives to achieve align very closely with my values. I have never felt more at home professionally than at Sodexo.

As to Sodexo’s Benefits and Rewards activities, I believe that Sodexo has the tools to help its beneficiaries make the right choices which contribute to both a better life for themselves and a better world for us all.

Ultimately, as a servant leader in its field, Sodexo helps to make choices about the important little things, such as the right food, correct ecological behaviour and maintaining health easier. And all its beneficiaries together can effectively influence the world around them.