About me
Hi, I am Bert van Appeven, owner of van Appeven | Idea to Business.
When I joined the printing industry at the beginning of my career, it felt like a warm bath. That warm bath was caused by the way they did it. They worked in projects! All together, with service and production representatives, in a "one room", around the prototype. The departments were only a manager in an office. And their R&D was called their "project factory". Wow! I only had some experience by internships in functional organizations and this way of working, from idea to business, was very new and inspiring to me. During my years in printing I learned a set of principles that appeared to be very effective for Time to Market and Quality at the same time.
Later on, when I studied literature and did courses about modern and lean product development, I learned that also other famous companies like Xerox and HP, and also the Japanese car manufacturers used these principles, which are in it self not difficult to implement. Not surprisingly I found out that also succesfull scale ups applied them. These basic principles have shaped me to what I am now in my professional life.
After these years in printing I worked quite some years in Semicon, Automotive, Biotech and Medtech. In start ups, scale ups and corporates. In the Netherlands and abroad. Most of the time as Project Manager, Program Manager or consultant. I started to see similarities and differences, leading to an even better understanding of the principles, what works and does not work in a certain situation. This also learned me to adapt my approach to the character and maturity level of various kind of industries.
What motivated me to start consulting and training with my own company is that I see lots of companies struggling with setting up an effective and efficiënt product innovation organization. The principles are not hard to understand, but often not known or well applied. This has to do with leadership, organization and culture. Such a waste that there are technologies, ideas and markets available and that innovation gets stuck on these aspects.
My style can be described as result driven, pragmatic, no nonsense and always taking into account the overall vision and goal. See also references. I like to make complex matters clear (in Jip & Janneke language) and always look at he bigger picture. In my personal and business life I like to contribute to a sustainable and fair world.
Contact Bert van Appeven
I would be glad to discuss your challenges in innovating in the Tech world.