Strategic communication and advice

October 2010 to today

The Brainport region around Eindhoven has a unique eco system. A growing and ever finer meshed network of national and multinational suppliers and service providers is establishing itself around the flourishing knowledge and manufacturing industry. The whole chain is represented: from suppliers to fundamental research through to marketing. Directors of Dutch suppliers for innovative original equipment manufacturers (OEM) in the Netherlands (such as ASML, Philips, DAF, FEI, Océ) have joined forces in the cooperation Brainport Industries, the global supply shain.

In 2011, I co-authored a strategic document about the ambition of Brainport Industries, which served as the basis for messages being communicated and their focus. I refined the long-term vision of the director and the executive committee with reflection and questions and by spending time on the members’ feedback. Monitoring the goals for consistency shows where bottlenecks in communication can arise. Synergy was created by my involvement in other technology initiatives in the network and by involving Brainport Industries in Dutch initiatives such as the Holland High Tech branding.

Mutual trust in the chain is important in order to forge precompetitive alliances. In a cooperation, the members’ strengths are bundled enabling them to achieve results that individual companies would otherwise have difficulty achieving on their own. Such as the integration and the optimization of business processes in the chain, putting a long-term roadmap in place for all manufacturing and other suppliers, and doing joint research into new production technologies and high-tech modular systems.