Genereert het business model naast winst ook andere waarde?
Hebt u door het business model nieuwe producten of markten aangeboord?
Wat zijn de resultaten met het business model?
Zijn er naar uw mening onderwerpen niet naar voren gekomen of heeft u nog aanvullingen of toevoegingen?
52 Interview protocols
LoopbaanNed (Jan Jissink)
LoopbaanNed is corporation of 12 independent professionals that is active on an national level. They do business with large multinationals in the Netherlands. They focusing their business on high educated people like directors and managers within these companies.
The business model that is being used in this network company is a corporation. The official formalization of this corporation is done in June 2012 but LoopbaanNed is already active on the market since 2008. They working since them on the principles of a corporation. Every member is a independent professional with many years of experience. All the members are for a part owner of the corporation and they an entry fee and monthly contribution. The cost to enter the corporation are not high but the selection before entering the corporation is very intensive. Every new potential member should have many years of experience and also be a independent professionals for many years. The network of these people are thus very extensive. When you finished a few intensive conversations and a assessment with a positive you can enter the corporation.
They advantages of this business model is that they can work with large companies. They can present their self as a large company with many knowledge that can handle every problem. When combining al the knowledge of the independent professionals you have a good product or service. Also as a corporation you have a advantage when you buying products or services. You can get a bigger discount together.
The corporation does not have a office but al the professionals are working for themselves. Every month they have a meeting where they talk with each other about the strategy for the future. They also doing workshops and trainings together to develop themselves. They also develop new products and services together. They also discuss the marketing with each other on these meetings. A few members that are specialized in marketing are suggesting ideas and together the corporation takes a decision about the marketing. The cost for the marketing are being equally divided among the members of the corporation. The marketing is thus done together but a few members are responsible for the idea generation and execution of these ideas.
The corporation is not generating leads for the members but the members should active search for there own turnover. They can use the corporation to present themselves as a large player in their profession. In the contract that all the members are signing to enter the corporation is stated that a minimum of time need to be done within the corporation. Off course they professionals can make their own decision how to organize this.
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The sales is done on a individual based, every member is sending their factures to the customer and is getting their money. The corporation is not sending factures to customers of the independent professionals. When there is a lead within the corporation a member is paying for this lead by an other member. The costs of this are written down in the contract that is signed. If a member is helping an other member this is done for free and to help each other. They want to stimulate interaction between the members to gain more knowledge than can be used to help customers.
The future plan for the corporation is to grow(there are now 12 members) and make groups of independent professionals that are specialized in a certain area. LoopbaanNed should be a large national platform where lots of professionals are working together and sharing their knowledge.
Jong Zakelijk (Be Rigter)
JongZakelijk is an network of students or young people that are just graduated and want to be a entrepreneur. There are also members of Jong Zakelijk that are opinion leaders in a certain area like online marketing. The student or just graduated can learn from these leaders and have contact with them. If you want to join this network you have to pay contribution every year. The reason that you need to pay is to create commitment to the network and that members are going to the
meetings and share knowledge together. For this money you get meetings and contact with other members. On these meetings a interesting topic is being discussed. The topics are being choose by the members of the network self. They can suggest certain topics and the founders of Jong Zakelijk are choosing the most popular topics. The members can also ask questions to the network if they have a problem that need to be solved. The main important task of this network group is to share knowledge together and helping each other with problems. The focus is to use each others network to help other members of the network. There is focus on sales and creating turnover but on helping young talented people after their study.
The marketing activities of the network is done by the founders self. They also managing all the other activities within the network. The members can offer input and are being asked for their opinion but do not manage anything. All the meetings are being organised on a Monday night every six weeks.
The plans for the future are to set up this network in other cities and perhaps develop an franchise concept for the Netherlands. The success of this network can be measured on the grow of members and the visitors to the Monday meetings. This varies but is slowly growing.
54 03kr8 (Raoul Veldink)
03kr8 is an network of four independent professionals that are positioned in Zwolle. All the professionals are working business to business are offering different kind of products and services. The reason for starting this network is to share knowledge together and make of each others network to generate sales. If you combine all the four networks you can reach many people and present yourself as a network with knowledge. Every two weeks this network is having an session with each other where they share knowledge and discuss the strategy of the network group. On the website of the network every professional is writing a blog about different subjects. This is also a way to share their knowledge with their followers. But not the focus is not only on sharing knowledge but also on creating sales and help each other with business. They don’t work with financial agreements about leads that are being generated. They don’t pay each other for new leads but believe that the other will also help them in the future. This network is small but the contact is very intensive.
In the two week sessions they discuss the new marketing activities but also look to
opportunities to enter the market together. They also help customers together and therefore they can do large projects which a independent professional cannot by itself. The cost for the marketing activities are being shared and payed by all the members. The future plans for this network group are not clear. They found it difficult to let new members in the network because the click is very
important. They work now very intensive and good and with an new member this all can change. They need to discuss this very good with all the members.
Wildwater (Peter Fransz)
Wildwater is an network group of independent professionals within the communication business. All the independent professionals have different expertise’s like designing or online communication. The founder of this network started this network almost five years ago when he noticed that many companies in the market wanted direct contact with the creative people that designed things. That was not possible because al the contact was done by a project of account manager. He started an network company where all the professionals can be direct contacted. The professionals are part of the network group but responsible for their own business. The network group is not paying them but is generating leads and business. The customer can have direct contact with the creative professional and therefore can make quick changes to the product. They have many expertise so every problem of the customer can be solved. To present yourself as a large company is very interesting for companies that has problems in certain areas. This network group have an own building where they work together. The founder believes that working together in a building is the best way to run an network group. It creates commitment and you can communicate much quicker.
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Also sharing knowledge and brainstorming about a problem can be done much more quicker. The cost of this are shared with all the members like all the others cost also. There is not an contribution or an entry fee but all cost are shared. The advantage is that therefore the price of the professionals can be low. The network is also looking for new opportunities in the market and want to create new products or services. They recently launched an relax drink on the market as an answer to all the energy drinks in the supermarkets.
The sales is done individual by the professionals but if the customer wants one bill that is also possible. In most of the cases the bills are done individual. When an member of the group is generated lead he gets paid for it. There are agreements about the financial aspects of the leads that come in.
The marketing is done by an expert within the network but the decisions about the strategy and plans are done together. They have sessions where thy discuss the plans for the future on marketing. Every member can give input and come up with ideas. The cost for the marketing are shared with all the members.
There is no hard selection before entering this network so everyone who is interested and can offer something to the group is welcome. For the future there are plans to develop an franchise concept and that every member is an franchiser that pays every month fee to cover all the cost.
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Appendix 3: Interview questions for short diagnosis
Hoelang bestaat de Revisie Groep al?
Hoeveel professionals zitten erin de Revisie Groep en wisselt dit veel?
Wie stuurt de Revisie Groep aan?
Hoe vaak zijn er vergaderingen met de Revisie Groep?
Wat zijn de problemen binnen de Revisie Groep op het moment?
Op welke gebieden liggen de meeste problemen? Intern of extern?
Wat zouden volgens u oorzaken kunnen zijn hiervan?
Welke stappen heeft u al ondernemen om dit te veranderen?
Wat is er geregeld op marketing en sales gebied binnen de Revisie Groep?
Wie is verantwoordelijk voor de marketing en sales?
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Appendix 4: Overview interviewed people
Revisie Groep
Ben Bekema-eigenaar en oprichter van Revisiegroep
Henk van Gerner- eigenaar en oprichter van Revisiegroep
Audrey Rouweler-Arbeidsverzuim deskundige en lid Revisiegroep
Bert Tol- Jurist en lid Revisiegroep
Marijke Nusselder- Psycholoog en lid Revisiegroep
Alet Roukema- Loopbaancoach en lid Revisiegroep
Cases
Jan Jissink- oprichter van Loopbaanned
Raoul Veldink-oprichter 03kr8
Peter Fransz- oprichter Wildwater