Harvey Nash IT Leadership Event Nederland

We are here at the superb Castle ‘t Kerckebosch located in Zeist for the annual IT Leadership event being run by Jan Leen 't Jong, Managing Director Harvey Nash Nederland and his team of professionals.

There is a strong attendee here tonight with IT leaders from a wide variety of industries coming to hear from Harvey Nash and a number of industry experts. We are also being treated to a fantastic four course meal…!

Jan Leen welcomes guests to the dinner after an enjoyable networking session in a reception room of the hotel. He outlines how important the IT Leadership survey is in helping Harvey Nash and other industry figures understand the challenges and opportunities being presented in the current economy. After a brief overview of Harvey Nash Nederland, Jan Leen passes the podium to Albert Ellis CEO who has been asked to present the key trends highlighted by the IT Leadership report.

Albert states that technology and outsourcing have never been more important than they are now. In this recession innovation in technology can lead the charge with efficiency savings and flexible working that can mean the difference between surviving the recession or not. Things may not be quite that serious for many companies but when times are tough every cost saved can be put to good use.

Albert also confirms that the survey emphasised that having the right skills in your business is incredibly important when facing difficult trading. The 1,300+ IT leaders who completed the survey said that communication and leadership skills were the most important in the current environment.

It was also emphasised that innovative technology-led business solutions, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, are central to the path to recovery and should be understood by all IT leaders. Harvey Nash is leading its industry with these tools, and is twittering from the room throughout the event!

Albert thanks the audience as the first course of dinner is served. This blogger is excited to get a nice four course meal while writing!!!

The next speaker is Peter Hagedoorn who has had a long and distinguished career in technology. His previous roles have included Director of the Netherlands Millennium Platform, CIO of Hagemeyer, and CIO for Océ NV. In 2004 he created the Dutch CIO Platform and in 2005 he was awarded with the “CIO-of-the-year” Award. He is also a columnist for CIO and CFO magazine.

Peter provides a commentary on the Harvey Nash survey as an independent expert. He comments that it is clear the Board is looking to technology to address cost saving and that there is a significant skills shortage in the Netherlands.

Innovation and collaboration are central to success he says, and he also emphasises that during the next 12 months 28% of Dutch IT leaders will increase their offshoring activity; but that because of budget restraints this trend is down. He concludes with some positive statements about the careers for IT leaders in the Netherlands; 83% are satisfied with their job and fewer are looking to move jobs than in the rest of Europe. This could be partially explained by good remuneration as 78% of Dutch IT leaders earn more than €100.000.

Following a delicious fish course and some nice wine, Alfred den Besten, Managing Partner of MarketCap International & COMvenience provides an interesting vision for the role of collaboration. He says “good and easy communication leads to effective and productive collaboration and a better return”.

A very important point from Alfred is about The New Way of Working (“Het Nieuwe Werken”) and the necessary tools needed to make The High Performance Workplace possible. A large part of this approach is shaped by the new generation worker (something Albert Ellis had touched on earlier).

Alfred goes into depth on the importance of the next generation of talent and how important they will be to the future success of organisations after the recession ends and the recovery begins. He outlines that "Generation Y" is demanding and productive, very knowledgeable with high expectations (of themselves and others). Workers who are Generation Y are focused on quality (money isn’t everything) and looking for self-development. They are high performance and high maintenance!

This community of employees demand flexibility but it makes them and their company more productive. Unfortunately, only 28% of all workspaces within large enterprises are currently “flexible” so more work needs to be done to improve performance.

Robin van Raaij is Senior Manager Information Management & Process Realisation at RWE Energy Nederland and is our final guest expert speaker for the night. He provides an interesting presentation of the importance of innovation in RWE. It reflects many of the points in the survey that also highlights the importance of innovation in improving business in a recession.

Robin uses a quote from IT icon Steve Jobs to frame how RWE sees innovation. Jobs is quoted as saying "innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have… It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it".

Robin goes on to point out a number of innovation projects RWE are pursuing in wind (onshore & offshore), Hydro, Biomass and new technologies. To finish Robin has some excellent advice for the room when they are undertaking their innovation: “to succeed we must be BOLD but not RECKLESS, decisions must be based upon strict investment criteria and financial discipline. Success strongly depends on our culture, the capacity to cooperate and the leadership that everybody is willing to take.” He finishes with “BOLD but not RECKLESS means we don’t always win... but we always learn!”

At the end of the meal, and the end of the evening, we hear from Roland Steenvoorde, Managing Director Executive Search, Harvey Nash Nederland who provides an overview of all the key themes outlined by the speakers.He says that IT leaders who produce continued project excellence, lead business innovation and develop an outstanding pool of talent will be the ones who achieve the greatest and longest lasting success.

These will be the leaders who run into recovery rather than crawl.