Close
  • What drives us
  • Our services
  • How we do it
  • Our team
  • Career
  • Cases
  • Insights
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Make disruption work

  • Masterclasses
  • Book
  • Movement
  • EN | DE
    Logo
    • CEO stories
    • Industry focus
    • Digital know-how
    • Books
    • AI Masterclass
    Menu

    Expert perspectives, practical know-how

    The world is changing fast, and digital technologies are both driving the chaos and offering the key. But what’s behind the buzzwords?

    SparkOptimus Insights provides expert perspectives and practical know-how on how to make disruption work. Take control and lead the change

    CEO stories

    video
    Pieter van der Does, co-founder & CEO Adyen

    Pieter van der Does, co-founder and CEO of Adyen, offered clients a ‘subscription to innovation’, where traditional banks had neglected the payments sector as ‘dull’. He is now aiming for 1 trillion transactions.

    20 mins
    Read more
    video
    Daniel Ropers, co-founder & former CEO bol.com

    Daniel Ropers led bol.com from less than €10m to more than €1.7bn in sales, successfully turning disruption into growth. He explains how in conversation with Alexandra Jankovich, showing that to seize digital opportunities, you must be continuously ready to make changes, update goals, and explain why.

    20 mins
    Read more
    video
    Joris Beckers, co-founder Picnic

    Joris Beckers shares how the online supermarket Picnic is becoming the best milkman on earth. Amongst other initiatives, they offer minute-precise delivery, eliminate food waste by using data, refund customers without asking questions, test new concepts first and ask for “permission” later, and only sell products that customers really want.

    20 mins
    Read more
    video
    Tech Solutions for Global Challenges

    Petri Hofsté (Supervisory board member Rabobank, Achmea, Fugro, and Pon Holdings) talks about responsible leadership and advocates for a new way to approach education in the future, closing the gap between need and supply of knowledge and skills. “The responsibility aspects of leadership should be more prominent and in the crisis period they are now becoming more prominent, as of course the prime focus is on the well-being of people, their health and safety. Without that there is no continuity of the business.”

    7 mins
    Read more
    video
    Tech Solutions for Global Challenges

    André Hoffmann (Vice-Chairman of the Board, Roche Holding Ltd): “We have decided some years ago that the only way to measure business is for financial flows, but we do not account at any stage of the impact our businesses have on social systems, on human systems, and our natural system. As a shareholder, I would like to know the impact that the companies I’m invested in are having on the planet.”

    9 mins
    Read more
    video
    Tech Solutions for Global Challenges

    Benoît Coquart (CEO, Legrand): “You need to be humble enough to understand: if [your product] doesn’t fulfill the need of the customer, it will be good for the books, but not for the business.” Benoît Coquart explains how to stay relevant and serve the customer while being “technology-agnostic”.

    8 mins
    Read more
    See all

    “Disruption is on every business leader’s mind. Alexandra Jankovich and Tom Voskes have taken this complex topic and created a very clear, actionable path.”

    – Wiebe Draijer, CEO of Rabobank

    “I have seen SparkOptimus play a crucial role in bringing a strategic perspective to fast-growing digital disruptors and helping them overcome their scaling challenges. They are truly the market leader in hands-on digital  know-how.”

    –  Adriaan Nühn, Chair of the Supervisory Board of Just Eat Takeaway.com

    “SparkOptimus has been a true partner for our digital transformation journey, from strategy to actually doing the implementation work side-by-side with our digital and ecommerce teams.”

    – Prabha Parameswaran, Group President, Global Innovation Group at Colgate-Palmolive

    “With their digital know-how, enthusiasm, and informal pragmatic approach, SparkOptimus has the unique ability to help companies to truly embrace disruption.”

    – Susan Duinhoven, President and CEO of Sanoma, former CEO of Wegener and Thomas Cook Western Europe

    “SparkOptimus played a substantial role in shaping the omnichannel retail landscape we know today.”

    – Dick Boer, Former CEO of Ahold Delhaize, member of Nestlé’s Board of Directors

    “SparkOptimus’ practical view on disruption becomes very apparent in their masterclasses, which offer useful tools to make disruption work for any company.”

    – Franck Moison, Non-executive Director of UPS, Somalogic and Hanes Brands Inc., former Vice chair of Colgate-Palmolive

    “We want to express our sincere gratitude towards SparkOptimus for their hard work towards realizing Koningsdagthuis.nl, a digital platform that enabled the virtual celebration of King’s Day during the smart lockdown: stay home, stay in touch, celebrate online. It gave wings to the virtual celebration of King’s Day by connecting tradition with innovation – something that was not deemed possible until recently.”

    –  Their Majesties King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands

    Industry focus

    article
    Early disruptors
    Joris Hulst
    How online-first players succeeded

    SparkOptimus has worked with many digital native companies, helping them redefine their strategic focus, shape their growth strategies, and overcome scaling challenges. We have coached executive teams, professionalized structures, streamlined processes, onboarded new talent, and aligned business objectives with personal targets and incentives.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    Travel and media
    Joris Hulst
    Where digital disruption hit first

    What happened Around the start of the century, travel was ripe for disruption. Booking a holiday meant a trip to the travel agent, involving long queues, poor information and high cancellation fees. Fast forward to 2020 and the industry has changed dramatically: booking takes place overwhelmingly on digital platforms, and suppliers like big agencies and […]

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    Retail
    Maurice van Heijningen
    Shaping the omnichannel retail landscape we know today

    By the early 2010s, global ecommerce sales had already grown to a significant size. Front-running disruptors such as Amazon and Zalando were aggressively tearing down consumer adoption barriers, for example by offering free shipping and free returns, and it was becoming increasingly apparent to incumbent retailers that the shift to online could no longer be ignored.

    4 mins
    Read more
    article
    Consumer goods
    The key to survival in a disrupted CPG reality

    Over the last decade, the traditional strengths of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies have been slowly eroded. Companies no longer need to own factories to produce goods, Amazon sells anyone’s products, the power of mass-marketing through traditional media is dwindling, talent favours startups, and innovation happens increasingly outside corporate R&D centres.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    Industrial goods
    Tailoring digital solutions for the B2B marketplace

    By the mid-2010s, consumer adoption of digital was widespread, but in industrial B2B markets it was still in its infancy. However, strongly influenced by their consumer experiences, business customers were starting to ask why their B2B interactions were so slow, opaque, and dated in feel in comparison.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    Financial services
    Jur Gaarlandt
    Transforming the customer experience of financial products

    For many decades, banks, insurance companies and mortgage lenders enjoyed dominant positions in high-margin markets, protected by strict regulation, strong customer lock-in and high capital requirements. However, even they have not been immune to disruption.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    Mergers and acquisitions
    Steven Koolen
    Bringing investors and digital disruptors together

    Early disruptors were often owned by private capital or visionary private equity firms. As these disruptors scaled, more capital was needed, and with sufficient backing some were able to overthrow existing markets and create new ‘blue oceans’.

    3 mins
    Read more
    See all

    Digital know-how

    article
    How-to
    Tom Voskes
    How to transform your organization for digital success during a crisis

    COVID-19 exposed our resilience and flexibility creating momentum and openness to leap forward and set up your organization for digital success.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    How-to
    How to start boosting “direct-to-consumer” sales today

    Build the foundation to own the end-user relationship and data for the future and start going direct-to-consumer today.

    4 mins
    Read more
    article
    How-to
    Tom Voskes
    How to design the post-COVID-future of your business on three levels

    Positive side-effects of the COVID-19 outbreak create a perfect environment for disruptive thinking and to design your business’s future.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    Data Insights
    How to become an AI-driven digital business

    AI, machine learning, big data – is your head spinning from these topics popping up everywhere? We demystify AI and data.

    4 mins
    Read more
    article
    B2B transformation
    Tom Voskes
    How to virtualize (B2B) sales to ensure effective working from home

    Discussing the five process steps to put in place a fast and foolproof virtual sales engine (B2B) to help you selling successfully via a screen.

    3 mins
    Read more
    article
    B2B transformation
    How to start and scale that “future” online B2B platform now

    We talked to business leaders who are carefully creating a vision on life and business post-crisis. Read why these times could create unparalleled momentum.

    5 mins
    Read more
    article
    Digital Governance
    Tom Voskes
    How to Govern Digital Initiatives For Maximum Impact: 7 Key Principles

    As digital disruption has become a major force across industries, organizations have responded with significant investments in digital transformation. Unfortunately, recent research suggests that most of these efforts fail to meet or exceed expectations. Why?

    12 mins
    Read more
    article
    Disruption barriers
    How our new digital-first routines add urgency to digitization

    With people all over the world being urged to stay at home, digital is quickly becoming the new normal, resulting in a sudden increase in the urgency of digitization and a further acceleration of digital businesses, both in direct-to-consumer and in business-to-business markets.

    5 mins
    Read more
    article
    Data Insights
    AI and retail: past, present, future

    The biggest risk businesses face today in relation to AI, is thinking of it as somehow separate, or worse, not relevant to their main operations. This attitude can be characterised as, “Oh, AI is that misty thing that does self-driving cars and robots that fall in love.” It is in fact much broader and far less mysterious.

    5 mins
    Read more
    article
    Way of working
    Jur Gaarlandt
    Don’t Put a Digital Expert in Charge of Your Digital Transformation

    Who should you pick to lead your company’s digital transformation? An insider, a digital guru or an ex-consultant with experience in advising clients?

    8 mins
    Read more
    See all

    “The digital expertise and structured, practical approach of the SparkOptimus team have helped us to understand and improve our customer journey. We are now focused on how educators can use Stories that Move to help students feel empathy, be moved, and want in turn to contribute to improving their corner of the world.”

    – Karen Polak, International coordinator of Stories that Move at the Anne Frank House

    “I was very impressed by the way SparkOptimus was able to translate complex knowledge and diverse insights, captured over a decade of activity, into clear, simple, and easy to implement principles.”

    – Michael Wade, Professor of innovation and strategy at IMD

    “SparkOptimus’ combination of an incredibly deep understanding of digital and an ability to extract key insights from thorough industry analyses continues to impress me, and I believe positions them very well as a key strategic partner for digital investing decisions.”

    – Volkert Doeksen, Co-founder of AlpInvest Partners, Senior adviser of the Carlyle Group

    “SparkOptimus has really helped us think through how to practically implement our digital transformation with a strong analytical and pragmatic approach. Their digital knowledge and hands-on experience truly helped us better understand and target our B2B customers.”

    –  Maarten Stramrood, Managing Director DigiB B.V. and CDO Brenntag AG

    “It’s astonishing to see how well SparkOptimus understands the essence and urgency of digital and the power of data.”

    – Jeroen van der Veer, Chair of the Supervisory Board of Philips and Boskalis, former CEO of Shell

    “ SparkOptimus successfully shared their well-thought through and demystifying view on disruption through a balanced, interactive and highly relevant masterclass.”

    – Hans Wijers, Chair of the Supervisory Board of ING Group, former CEO of AkzoNobel, former Minister of Economic Affairs for the Netherlands

    Books

    A Decade of Making Disruption Work

    It’s been ten years in which digital start-ups have become global brands, and high street titans have toppled like T-rexes, while practically every business left standing has undergone some form of digital transformation. This is the story of what happened and our role in it. It’s also the story of who we are, and our vision for the next ten years of making disruption work.

    More info

    10 Recommendations to make disruption work in the next decade

    We have developed 10 “conversation starters” on the opportunities we think matter most. Our goal is to Spark a conversation, inspire and challenge you, and work together to initiate these bold moves now.

    More info

    Make Disruption Work

    We have entered a new era of technology-driven disruption. This presents risks, but also a tremendous opportunity for you to change your company. This book is about how to make disruption work for you. It’s based on our experience of transforming some of the biggest companies in the world.

    More info

    NEWSLETTER

    Stay up to date with the latest SparkOptimus Insights

    Want to know more? Let’s connect!

    Amsterdam

    Jacob Obrechtplein 1

    1071 KS Amsterdam

    The Netherlands

    +31 20 305 9000

    London

    95 Mortimer Street

    Suite 100

    London, WIW 7GB

    United Kingdom

    +44 20 7183 9186

    Düsseldorf

    Fritz-Vomfelde-Str. 34

    40547 Düsseldorf

    Deutschland

    +49 211 5388 3436

    Zürich

    Bleicherweg 10

    8002 Zürich

    Switzerland

    +41 793419950

    E-mail
    Blog
    LinkedIn
    Instagram

    © 2020 SparkOptimus. All rights reserved – Privacy statement

    We use cookies to analyse the usage of our website and to give you the best possible user experience. If you continue to use our website we will assume you are happy with these cookies being stored on your device.Close