Today, the e-news medium madeinoostvlaanderen reported about idmanager and idlegcy, with a nice article promoting the product of our new venture.
Subsidiary Idlegcy NV launches app to make GDPR customer-oriented
Idlegcy NV is a subsidiary of Participium. Idlegcy wants to help companies to handle their customers and business relations data with respect. The company has now developed a web application to help companies manage GDPR rights: idmanager. With idmanager, anyone can manage GDPR rights centrally, instead of approaching each organization individually. The digital identity is therefore much easier to manage.
Tomorrow, 25th of May is the GDPR deadline. Dozens of companies and organizations have prepared themselves to be compliant and to protect themselves against potential claims. From tomorrow any individual can contact any company to review their data, change them or have them deleted.
That means that you have to contact all those organizations one by one… very cumbersome indeed. That is where idmanager comes in. On one overview page, idmanager shows the organizations that keep track of your data. It takes merely two clicks to clear them. The app allows you to contact the data manager in any of these companies.
The application is free for all people who want to manage their data and privacy. Companies and organizations that pay the bill of idmanager, when they connect idmanager with their IT system.
More information on http://www.idlegcy.com/idmanager
Forte to reduce the threshold for established I3.0 businesses to adopt new I4.0 concepts
Forte is one of the investments of Participium. Forte is the customer intimacy specialist among the management advisory companies for technical and production industries. They are ahead in helping established companies embrace Industry 4.0. But, they also discovered many companies still struggle with new 4.0 concepts, such as digitization, servitization, customer value management, outcome-based business models.
In order for established companies to get a head-start and take decisions more thoroughly, Forte is providing a half day sounding board named “I4.0 Doctor”. Typically, one or two decision takers get a half day of feedback on their ideas. During that half day, the sounding board will help them better understand the reasons why for taking certain I4.0 decisions – or not.
More info via press release (nl) that will be spread later this week. Or get in touch with Forte via jan.ghys@forte.eu or jan.lagast@forte.eu.
Industry 4.0 experts Forte in search of 3 new top experts (m/f/x)
Forte is one of Participium’s companies. Forte is the customer intimacy specialist among B2B management advisory companies and offers an end-to-end range of services, from strategic advice, sales & marketing planning, to sales, communication, staffing and training. Forte has noted that Industry 4.0 will shake up several sectors. And that this will thoroughly change the role of sales & marketing. Are you also convinced of this and do you want to make the changes happen? Then this is your chance to jump on the Forte train …
Forte is looking at short notice for:
Transformation Architect. You have experience in B2B sales and marketing, you’ve held a middle management position in a division or business unit of an industrial organization for several years, but now you feel that the corporate world can’t provide you the freedom you need to really have impact in the coming years. Then this vacancy is worth your attention. The Transformation Architect ensures that our customers can (continue to) take the lead as Industry 4.0 shakes up their sector. You outline the transformation plan with which we redesign the strategy, the sales & marketing functions and even the internal organization of our clients.
We will gladly give you more information about this top job and the responsibilities that go with it, if you send a mail with a short motivation and very brief CV to diether.claeys@forte.eu
Change Lead. You have experience in B2B sales & marketing and you are an expert in getting the board members on board of a change process. At Forte, change processes starts from the market. We ensure that companies remain relevant and can take the lead, as Industry 4.0 thoroughly shakes up their sector. It is essential that you know how to lead a mixed team of colleagues and employees at the customer to results, regardless of the DNA of our customers. You will be responsible for planning the change project, monitoring and anchoring the changes, achieving and visualising the quick wins, adjusting the plan to a changing market and competition, etc. It is your responsibility that the margin of our strategic customers increases drastically over a period of two to three years.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. We will gladly provide you more information on this top job and the responsibilities that go with it, if you send a mail with a short motivation and very brief CV to diether.claeys@forte.eu
Business Developer “Utility Building & City Infrastructure”. Do you want to become our Mister or Misses Network? If you know the ins and outs of the intriguing new ecosystems “Utility Building and City Infrastructure”, this is your chance to help the leading mid-sized players in the world to stay relevant, now that Industry 4.0 thoroughly shakes up their industry. At Forte you can offer them a unique combination of customer intimacy, technology and advice. You are supported by the strong quality brand Forte to help you achieve that one goal our whole organisation is passionate about: increase the margin of the customers drastically in a few years’ time.
We will gladly provide you more information about this top job and the responsibilities that go with it, if you send a mail with a short motivation and very brief CV to diether.claeys@forte.eu
Participium in the media
Earlier this week, we wrote about the article Computable.be posted on the new role of Paul Indekeu as CEO of Participium. Other business and tech news channel followed the example of Computable.be. Read the article
The news and knowledge platform for Flemish entrepreneurs dVO De Vlaamse Ondernemer focussed on the financial aspect of the changes, with Paul increasing his contribution to 500.000 euros and the possible growth this can bring along. Read the article
And even abroad the changes at Participium didn’t go unnoticed. Business and technology website Dutch IT channel dedicated a page length article to the internal changes at Participium. Read the article
Changes at Participium don’t go unnoticed
We are pleased to see that the important changes that took place in Participium’s board of directors don’t go unnoticed. Computable.be the online platform for ICT professionals, posted a news item on its website about the new role for Paul Indekeu and our future plans.
Journalist Suzanne Martens correctly assessed that this is indeed relevant for the readers of Computable.be. The companies Participium has started up are directly or indirectly linked to technology. And we are convinced that technology is a necessity to increase the services delivery quality and to enable a steady scaling up for the long term.
Thank you Suzanne for writing about us!
Serial entrepreneur Paul Indekeu on board of Participium for growth
Paul Indekeu joins Jan Lagast in the Board of Directors of company builder Participium and of all its participations. Lagast has successfully started up the organization and found an experienced colleague in Indekeu, who will help support the further growth.
Last week Participium completed a series of operations at the notary through which Paul Indekeu joins founder Jan Lagast in the board of Participium and of all companies in which it participates. Paul Indekeu joined Participium as a co-investor about a year ago. In the meantime, he has increased his contribution to 500.000 euros and was appointed managing director in Participium and its participations. Founder Jan Lagast remains chairman of the Board of Directors.
Jan = from 0 to 1, Paul = from 1 to …
Indekeu and Lagast are passionate entrepreneurs. Both started their own company early in their careers, long before the word start-up existed. In contrast to the classic start-up and VC world, they both believe in return over the medium term. No matter how similar their vision and values may be, their experience and expertise is very complementary. Where Jan, a visionary, is very strong in coming up with ideas and giving them shape – from 0 to 1 – Paul Indekeu is very strong in realizing growth. He brought SoftCell at the end of last century in just 10 years from 3 to 150 employees and at the beginning of this century he was the man behind the success story of Compex. When he started there, it was a Flemish SME with 50 engineers. A few years later, it had 150 employees in 4 countries, and was subsequently noticed by Siemens. Now Indekeu will help realize growth at Participium.
Industry 4.0, GDPR, self-management and blockchain
Participium has so far created three groups of companies:
- The first group works under the Forte brand. Forte helps technological and industrial companies to become even more relevant now that Industry 4.0 shatters their existing value chain. Forte has, among other things, an advisory branch specializing in ‘customer intimacy’, a training center for industrial sales & marketing, and a staffing company for project sales engineers and B2B marketing managers.
- Then there is the branch IDlegcy. IDlegcy helps companies to correctly deal with the digital identity of customers and employees – even after their death. One of the companies in this branch has its own proprietary technology (patent pending) using blockchain to ensure that online accounts are correctly closed upon death. IDlegcy is now working on an app to fully comply with GDPR obligations.
- The third branch is Funky & C °, consultancy and IT implementation support that helps companies team managers and project managers to provide the information they need to be able to deal with new organizational forms such as self-management. FunkyTime NV is the creator of tools in this branch. The last legal entity FunkyTeam NV will be established shortly for the advisory services.
In 2018 we will focus on realizing growth in these companies. Meanwhile, Indekeu and Lagast take the time to look for a new investors, faithful to the name ‘Participium’ and the logo ‘+ = x’ which implies that with some extra people, a few extra investors and a few extra projects a nice multiplier can be realized for the human and financial capital of the company.
Are you our next business leader (m/f)?
Participium is on the lookout for two business leaders, for the recently created venture Idlegcy, and for Funky & C°, the new company that we are about to create to complete the branch that now holds the product company FunkyTime.
What is a business leader?
A business leader leads a business. Focus is on clients (and the adding of value to them) and people (and the motivation to lead them towards adding value for clients). Leading is inspirational, not hierarchical. We don’t like a boss at all. We like coaches and leaders.
What is important before considering to apply/forward?
You (or the person to whom you would consider to forward this post) should really like the idea of setting up an organization that creates a self-steering responsible culture. Results are important. Trust too. Passion even more.
Looks interesting (for the person you have in mind)?
- Here is the Idlegcy blog post for the business leader that is going to grow the company that has the technology to ensure all online accounts of a person are closed when a person dies.
- And here is the Funky & C° blog post for the business leader who wants to sketch the business plan for this new venture together with us, and then make that business become true.
Thank you for considering and sharing.
We are looking for a business leader (m/f) for Funky & C°
About Funky & C°
Funky & C° is on the drawing board, and we are looking for a business leader who wants to help us design, create, and start Funky & C°, the final corner stone of our “Funky” branch of companies.
Funky & C° wants to help services-focused companies, that are now introducing new ways of organizing and structuring their operations. Funky & C° wants to develop the software tools, dashboards, and cockpits that are required to allow teams to self-steer. Todays preferred sectors for Funky & C° are engineering & architecture, ICT, consulting, legal & finance, R&D services, marketing services — but of course, while drafting the business plan, we might discover that there are better market segments.
What’s so new? This kind of self-steering support software is far away from the classic ERP systems. That’s why a lot of modern companies are now basing their internal information flows on Excel. We want to provide them with much much better tools, and gradually create our own portfolio of software products that are needed for the self-steering organizations of tomorrow.
So now, we are looking for someone who wants to take the lead from the very early stage of the creation of this company.
Could that be you?
Do you want to start from (almost) scratch? Do you have the guts, the experience, the attitude, and the skills to create and run a venture and make our joint vision come true? The business leader of Funky & C° is not standing alone. He or she reports to the investment company (Participium), and is supported by our company creator Jan Lagast to build a great services team and design a future-oriented software portfolio.
We have two products already in another company of the Funky branch, and that’s where we also have a some early-stage clients. This allows you to scale-up much faster and run positive on a shorter term, than you would be able with a start-from-totally-zero start-up. Even more, we have the network to get in touch with self-steering companies, from day one, and there is Forte, that is also addressing your potential clients with a portfolio of advisory services that urge many companies to switch to self-steering mode.
About the role of the business leader
The business leader will first help us design the business plan, check the market, and assemble the first team. After the creation of the company, he or she ensures the Funky & C° potential reaches the clients and keeps our small team focused on making the promises come true. After a while, the business leader will hire more commercial people (in more countries), grow the team, and imply more and more partners to get more and more clients motivated. But first, we want you to develop a battle plan together with us and start rolling up the sleeves.
Are you an inspiring leader or a classic manager?
Our investors at Participium are promoting self-steering organizations. So they want the company Funky & C° to be organized accordingly, and proof that self-steering brings results. That means there is no classic hierarchy, no command & control structure, no boss-to-boss-to-boss reporting. We want the individual co-worker to be a team player and understand his or her responsibility in relation to the purpose of Funky & C° – leading to all of the collaborators to love their work.
Do you have the right experience?
You’d have to feel at ease with the combination of advisory services and IT project management in a services and knowledge worker business environment. You’d better also love adopting modern technologies of the web, such as web services, blockchain, and APIs. We need a hands-on start-up mentality at first, but beware, we also need you to grow the team and the business towards financial profit on a short term.
Sounds interesting? Get in touch with paul.indekeu [at] participium.com.
My search for participation and a self-steering organizational structure
Today, prof. Jan De Visch has given me the opportunity to tell my own story. My 50 years of searching. Searching for the right company structure to make people love their work. It has not been an easy search. Today, it seems bon ton to dislike Taylor and classic company hierarchies, but that was not the case when I started my business experience.
Over the years, I have been working on many of the levels of maturity that are described by Frederic Laloux in his book “reinventing organizations”. Red — the maturity level of the medieval lord who is the dominant boss of a group of power seekers — is great when you need a high quality and a high control over a very small team. Great for fast start-up, yet weak for scaling-up. That’s when the “amber” level can be much more successful. In amber, everyone has a rank because he or she got to that rank. Great for creating large churches and armies, but not great for output-driven organizations. We tried some of that by allocating people to a rank, but soon we discovered there were more ranks than people. Orange works better for knowledge workers, since that level rewards people for their merits. This is thé level for Industry 3.0 companies in which bosses design the organization and have workers do the job that was designed for them. Not a great system for knowledge work, though. The boss cannot be everywhere controlling everyone’s work. We experimented with ‘green’, by introducing co-ownership and having people feel they own part of the business. That worked much better. We had our people take responsibilities over the client’s results and take team responsibilities over the long term. But, when times were bad or changes were needed, this level of maturity stalls the company. So, I almost went back to “red” out of frustration, until I read about the color “teal”. And that’s where I felt back on track. This is the organizational concept that we are now looking into. And that’s why the journey organized by the Argonauts is so important for us.
Self-steering looks promising, but we are not there yet. We have a lot to discover, learn, and try. But what I already learned, is that there is no text-book always-right model for company organization. I also discovered self-steering is more wrongly than rightly understood. Self-steering is about getting and taking responsibility. It has nothing to do with ‘go as you please’. Although there is no daily boss or chief in a self-steering organization, for everyone from cleaning lady to general manager, there are much more people to take into account and ask for their opinion than ever before.
Participium 