46. Next stop Asia
450 London, Exeter
150 Amsterdam
200 New York
60 Atlanta
70 Copenhagen
140 Stockholm, Goteborg, Malmo
290 Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Munich
30 Beijing
70 Mumbai15 Abu Dhabi
60 Brussels, Gent
65 Madrid
15 Zurich
70 Milan
Hi goodmorning my name is Igor Milder and I am Ceo Amsterdam and Asia of Lost Boys International
I want to talk to you today about my experience as an entrepreneur and hopefully inspire you to do the same.
Although research shows that probably onlu 20% of this academic room will in the end become entrepreneurs
But that is a good average, Of the adult population in The Netherlands, about 5 to 8% are currently starting an enterprise, about 10% of the population is self-employed
- Of an alumni sample from RSM consisting of 334 survey participants, 21% become and entrepreneur (Oppelaar, 2009)- Extrinsically motivated alumni have a higher likelihood starting up an enterprise (Oppelaar, 2009)- Of MSc students of Entrepreneurship & New business venturing, 53% start up an enterprise (39 of 73) (Weber, 2009)- Of the adult population in The Netherlands, about 5 to 8% are currently starting an enterprise, about 10% of the population is self-employed in the broader sense (sole proprietorship included). (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Wennekers, S. 2006)
Lost Boys is the biggest independent digital agency in Europe. With approx 2.000 employees in 14 countries, we are publically traded in Amsterdam.
We build big transactional websites
Create digtital campaigns
And recently we make a lot of apps on iphone and ipad
With artists, nerds and robbers
Proud to be nerds
But I am going to talk about entreprenuering
The secret of succes in entreprenuering is likely to be failure after failure without ever loosing solid faith in de realisation of your succes.
So today I will tell you about my modest succes….. sofar
Because doing business in this economy is pretty risky it can be over before you know it. We have seen enough examples of that recently.
Pieter Winesemius ( former minister of Vrom) once told that running a business in the new economy is like balancing a hockey stick on two fingers.
It is an illusion to think that the stick will ever stand. It is actually a permanent falling movement.
It looks simple, but try to explain what you have to do to keep it steady.
You can’t close your eyes for 1 second than the stick will drop.
Well that sounds inviting? Not. Why should we at all consider building our own business then? Why not simply go and work for a bank ?
That’s because starting and running your own business feels like being on the edge or your toes, the outer limit of your capabilities. You feel alive….
Do you know that feeling when you perform in fornt of a big stadion or when you do your sport competition. The feeling that you have to reach really deep to win this challenge. Wel that’s what your own company feels like.
A tension in every partical of your body.
I compare to the experience I had as an amateur musician.
Stage fright, sweaty palms, dry throat….why am I doing this …
But the moment you enter the stage, the adrenaline starts flowing you feel the energy….
…and then afterwards after three encore’s when the applause kicks in, it is the best feeling ever. No better rush than a life performance.
Running your own business is like performing your own songs with your band buddies for a as big as possible crowd. And the succes is addictive
From that first time it feels like… I am an entrpreneur and I am on top of the world!!! And that ws my biggest pride ever…why?
I don’t know but somewher in my life, the need for being independant and make your own choices in life felt like the ultimate goal. I decide what happens when I want and how I want it.
When studying it is not always the best davise though
Because the chinese say, life has three phases, learning, fighting, getting wise. I think one of the lessons is takes as much time to learn as you can.
Dana Zohar, one of the worlds biggest mangement thinkers recently said that there are for principle questions to every mans dream.
Who am I
Where do I come from
Why am I Here
What can I do
Normally I always present about the company I run. But for his occasion I decided to tell a bit about myself, so you get the scoop…
I was born in 1971 and live almost all om my life in this tiny village in the south of the netherlands called uden.
Learning wasn’t my strongest of trades so I did HAVO.
Then moved to Utrecht and Studied at the HEAO, so no university for me ….
I am jealous of you guys.
After 5 years of partying my head off I started in 1994 to work for car company renault, at age 25 I was head of advertisng making television commercials and all other irrelevant stuff for about 35 million guilders approx 17 million euros a year ….. Quite a nice job.
I was then asked to come to the headoffice in Paris and become head of advertsing europe…I decided not to….and then everything went wrong.
Big motherfucking failure #1:
I decided not to take this briljant career move but decided to join as partner in an advertising agency instead. Why did I make this huge mistake?
Big motherfucking mistake #1:
Well something went wrong in my life at an early stage…. I always had huge respect for entrepreneus…all be it the greenery shop, or construction company. Your own company with your feet steadily on the ground making your own money….yess that’s it. No bosses or people that tell you what to do but the ultimate freedom…… well I thought……
Well the ad agency was a complete wrong decision culturally.And I thought I was very capable but it turned out to be the big renault logo and the pile of money that made succes easy.
I had to beg for the business …and that can’t be ….can it?
So after this humbling experince I couldn’t just get back to a multinational zo insteda of the safe haven…..
I took an extra mortgage on my house ….
Create debt…..That really feels like failure, you lost your entire feeling of freedom in that one moment. From here on it is work your ass off to get it back.
So together with jalbert kuijper I founded INPACT a fullservice digital agency on the canals of utrecht. Rented this building and the pressure was on…
Exactly in the same month as my first daughter was born … I started my first own company, 10 years ago
A full service digital agency, we didn’t quite know that much about the internet but we knew it was big business. Everybody wanted websites and other online stuff….we were in the right place at the right time
Until….a few months later nina brink founder of worldonline went public…….and the the bubble burst…..
And I was thinking …oh my god…..
So we had to fight., fight and fight. We learned what the chinese meant
It was either going completely down the drain or fight your ass off.
And after fierce battles we conquered our prizes and big accounts
But we also had our downs…..people leaving, pitches lost, arguments between business partners, bankrupties of clients etc.
But after 5 years of struggling, tides changed…. We were with 50 people, highly profitable en we thought……
Lets cash in…..and sell out..
Wrong wrong wrong…..failure number three !!!
In retrospect I would like to say to everybody that owns there own profitable business …never …never selll..
But we did we sold out for a couple of millions and our dream came true, we are miljonairs…. Not only in paper but in cash.
But we had to stay on for three years… we didn’t get an earn-out deal but a lock up. … and it is not called a Lock up for nothning
In the years before we had started a few other small companies, which we were allowed to keep, so win win. We stayed entrepreneurs and made some cash.
But things got kinda ugly
We only realised how good our small company was when we sold to Lost Boys. Where we had battled for clients the last 5 years and had been given our clients the ultimate to die for service. Maybe weren’t the best in our trade but were ---extremely client focussed….
Lost boys was all about we are good maybe a bit to good.
The most talented people we ever worked with
but also the most not client oriented attitude
it was about us .. And not about the client
well when your are in the service industry you better change that
strangly t the numbers were good… but the feeling was bad
So I introduced. In the service industry profit is a historic fact, customer satisfaction is a future indicator.
I knocked on some doors and became Managing director of the dutch operation and jalbert left Lost Boys to continue our other ventures in fashion, software etc. it needed some attention.
We started in 2008 with an ambitious plan:
Fix our tech reliablity, the core of dissatisfaction
Tighten the operational controls
close the gap between margin sold and margin delivered
dedicate our mission to customer satisfaction, create account teams
Rejuvenate our creative abilities
Rebuilding Lost Boys from the ground
That sounds like boring management stuff. It was but I just couldn’t walk away without at least trying to set it straight.
It was clear I was still in my fighjters fase
And I two years time we turned it around and the loss we made was turned into profit within 6 months. And we now run a decent 15% margin.
And I left Lost Boys Amsterdam in the trusted hands of marcel houtman who is now managing director of amsterdam.
We did a lot of group things. Delisted in sweden, did a new listing in amsterdam raised 60 million euro in cash and I am currently building our asia prensence.
So that’s all about who I am and where I am from..
But why am I here and what can we do.
This is why I am here…
When I was first confronted with the power of world connectivity …my imagination led me into the belief that all the things we knew were about to change . This is what I completely missed when I worked in advertising the sense of being part of a movement, leading the digital age revolution…
The internet of things is the biggest inspirator voor freedom, possibilities en unlimited opportunities. Dream it and you an be it.
Welcome to the new economy….. The old economy is all about building barriers and making money by hiding acces and knowledge. The simple route from producer to consumer was non excisting.
Connectivity creates that everybody can be creative and entrepreneurial.
And with hugely reduced costs can reach a world market.
The vision of the world as a collective brain has become relaity!
You can start any business you want from your own basement.
All you need is a dream and the sense of adventure.
And if you want to be truly succesfull:
- Find something you are really passionate about….
Then find the biggest wave you can find.
Big hairy audacious wave goal
Fail, fail, fail, and fail
Fail, fail, fail, and fail
Fail, fail, fail, and fail
Fail, fail, fail, and fail
Fail, fail, fail, and fail
Till you finally ride that wave…to succes
For me in the year 2000 my wave was internet. And although I was already late and a lot of people were competing for the same wave…. It is always better to be in the water with a lot of people, it means that that’s the spot where the big waves are.
It beats the lonely battle in still water. A lot of people are constant ly loking for new unique ideas….but it is not in the thinking, it is in the doing.
Or even worse trying to make a lving in a dead market…. To me a lot of traditional business are still water.
Look at top line growth….
And although you might not see it ob the surface yet. Underneath is a sad story.
Look at tdetroit for instance…mother of the car industry.
Generations before have build their competitive edge and they..
Have raised enormous barriers of entry. But connectivity equals the market place. It creates opportunities never seen before.
The story of feel good…
Better place.com How to challenge the iol car industry. Ith a plan to change batteries..
Feel good versus coca cola no sugar scam here
Ex cocoa cola guys
Outsourcing everything
A drink between a juice and a soda
Feel Good Drinks Co is an independent soft drinks company based in the United Kingdom. It was originally founded by three executives from Coca Cola UK, and the products are now sold in over 20,000 outlets in 14 different countries, including in supermarkets and bars.
It produces various ranges of drinks - still, sparkling juice, 100% juice, and a kids range that are made up of 2/3 juice and 1/3 water. All products contain no added sugar, and some have added Vitamin C. T
There is a lot of lame people working in these traditonal companies and a lot of briljant people creating new ones
And ofcourse there are companiea that are succesfull that do not stand still but change all the time
Darwinian. This ability to change is more important than anything else in this every changing economy. Adapt yourself constantly.
I am now becoming 40 and entering my midlife crisis. Combine this with the credit crunch, this ammplyfies the questions
Why an I here
And what can I do..
The last time my favourite wave was the internet.
It still is the wave I surf on, but something changed. No longer do I want to create fast cash and short time rushes. I want to create sustainable business a company to live and die in.
I don’t need a bigger car, or house, no more materialistic stuff. I want to show my kids the world we live in and share the value of live.
For the coming years I would like to use my network and knowledge of internet to solve social challenges.
How can we help customers in stead of spending money on comemrcials
Build applications that help you be more aware of your energie use etc.
Build a company and never sell
I want to help our clients discovering this new era of collective
What’s that got to do with LBi.?
Although we are a listed company chasing short time effects and profits. We are fighting to change the values of our company and those of our clients. We are simply made out of people with needs….
And these people feel and talk about changing consumer behaviour. We have our own believe that the world is changing for the better
No more empty messaging and being the shit between the content, we have
to be the content.
This is what marketing looked like in the 90’s. A cover of harvard business review by then. Trying to look at customers as objects you could squeeze
This requires a complete change in marketing behaviour. For a start, stop bombarding customers and potential customers with messages
There’s already too much meaningless noise out there and for every message that reaches a customer effectively, many more are simply ignored.
.The new marketing is about being authentic, true, interested, and no longer have gaps between your promise and your proof.
That’s why we believe that we’re in the business, as a marketing and technology agency, of Building Believable Brands
Don’t be the shit between the content, be the content
Puma is doing with soccer
Puma is doing with soccer
Puma & Syrup commissioned celebrated artist Kehinde Wiley to develop an Africa Unity Kit, limited edition sneakers a range of clothing, coupled with original artworks as a build up to the World Cup in South Africa.
Like akzo is doing in the favelas in brasil
And voor talent?
We are no longer a siloed, hierarchy with king ceo on the trone.
We are a peer to peer network of extremely talented people in 16 countries convincing clients with all we have got to change the way they act.
We create new cells for bright people
And beld all that talent together.
We are re-attaching to our old Lost Boys values.
The Lost Boys from the peter pan story,. A strange bunch that fled to neverland because you never age in neverland. And if you don’t age you never grow fear and if you do not fear you remain creative.
Never loose your creativity, never age. Lost Boys
This lack of fear is crucial when you start your own business.
You are up against the big bad world.
There are more reasons not to … the there are to do.
But that’s the point.
The only thing we have to fear is fear it self.
DARE TO LEAVE A MARK