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.

First contacts in Slovenia are promising

Today we are exploring Ljubljana, the capital of the small EU country Slovenia, which is trying to stay afloat with a domestic market of only 2 million inhabitants. With a work ethic similar to the Austrian one, a passion that characterizes the Balkans and a lot of diligence, it is a country where you can expect to see results achieved. At least that is Participium’s impression after having spent an interesting day in Slovenia.

This afternoon we were guests at Polygon Center, the largest co-working space that runs completely without government funding and attracts a lot of IT professionals and creatives. At the Polygon Center we almost immediately found a potential team for the further developments of FunkyTime. Nothing definitive, but we definitely felt a connection so strong that we had a hard time leaving and returning home.

The fastest grow happens when focusing on customer value

Participium was a guest at Forte with share#square on 23 October, where managing partner Jan Lagast explained the way Forte has been assisting the growth of companies for years. In essence, it comes down to this: if an organization from the highest top in the decision hierarchy, focusses on customer value, then growth can be achieved more easily. In fact, if the organization continues to maintain that focus and regularly communicates with its customers, then growth becomes almost self-evident. Forte’s earliest customers prove this case, because they have succeeded in realizing growth year after year.

Share # square itself is also starting to take off. With more than 30 participants, the place was stacked at Forte. It is becoming an interesting network.

Next year Participium is planning to have four editions. More news later on.

Free whitepaper on growth in b2b companies

At the end of last year, management consultancy company Forte published a whitepaper on growth for B2B companies. The document provides an effective way to reconnect with growth. Clue: it starts at the top, with a strategic focus on realizing customer value. On these few pages you will find out how your company can start thinking about growth again.

This whitepaper was given to all participants of the share # square event at Forte today. The document provided the attendees with a synopsis of the enthusiastic presentation of Jan Lagast (Managing Partner of Forte and Participium).

Quickly request your free copy!

iMinds indicates that companies must think bigger than Flanders

Wim De Waele, CEO of iMinds, stands up for more internationalization in today’s edition of De Tijd: “Flemish startups must be internationally relevant, or not exist at all.” In this he follows Participiums’ vision, because Participium wants to give companies a European dimension from the start.

Read the full article

An effective way to growth

On 23/10 Participium will be a guest of the management consultants at Forte. Jan Lagast will explain how a company can (re)connect with growth. A fascinating discourse of an hour and a half, with plenty of cases from Jan’s own experience.

Free inspiration for…

• entrepreneurs, managers and directors
• investment companies and bankers
• potential partners and external consultants
• representatives of government and civil society

Program Thursday, October 23, 2014

• 17:30 Reception and snack
• 18:00 Herman Demarbaix (Participium): Short presentation
• 18:15 Jan Lagast (Forte / Participium): Effective way to growth
• 19:30 Questions
• 20:00 Networking reception

Guest speaker

Jan Lagast is a partner and senior advisor at Forte. He regularly gives keynote sessions about growth based on his practical experience and, together with his team, he has realized growth doublings for numerous references.

Practical

Forte, Brusselsesteenweg 197, BE-9090 Melle.

Participation is free. Please do register in advance via e-mail.

After the registration, you will receive a notification of participation and the directions.

Quarturn vision ensures a better growth

The more you focus on shareholder value, the worse a company performs in the long term. Conversely and paradoxically, the more you focus on customer value, the better it goes with… the shareholder value.

Added value for customers

You can observe that in various companies the focus on customers is the only good choice for achieving a nice growth. Making profit is important, but by setting the profit as the highest goal, shareholders and directors are just getting the opposite. By considering the profit as a consequence for another highest goal, the same profit turns out to be much easier to achieve. That other “highest goal” is the added value for customers.

By considering added value for customers as the most important goal in a company, things will get better for everyone: for the customers who feel that the focus is on them, for the employees who are involved in an interesting adventure and for the shareholders who will notice that the company is doing better and better.

This vision arose after a few months of brainstorming, in the course of 2010, when Jan Lagast was looking for a new dynamic for Forte. You’ll find a short piece of that history on the website of Quarturn. Participium will now continue to carry out this vision and, together with the non-profit organization Quarturn, it has taken the initiative to start a movement to promote this vision – at least throughout Europe and possibly far beyond these borders.