This is Joris De Sutter’s motto. Joris is a GROUP T graduate and managing partner at Vanguard Leadership and Smartphone Help, two consultancy and service offices that advise businesses on implementing various smartphone applications and social media. He is also the author of the Dutch language edition on Android, Google’s mobile operating system for smartphones. A portrait of a passionate enterpriser.
Joris graduated in 1992 from Electromechanical Engineering in the then graduation track of Production and Materials technology. “Finding a job at that time wasn’t easy at all”, he recalls. “So I grabbed at the first chance I got. I could start as sales application engineer, so a technical/commercial position. Although this wasn’t my first choice, I imagined myself rather taking a position in a production environment, contact with customers turned out better than I expected. I gained a lot of experience in various industrial sectors and in international environments also. As the years went by, a plan to become my own boss and start up my own company took seed and grew.”
Another world
In 2003, Joris took the final step towards independence. He became managing partner at a recruitment company, a job he would hold for 8 years. “It was a completely different world I entered”, he relates. “At first, there was a struggle. But once the first customer came in, business improved continuously. These 8 years as a recruitment partner were very productive for gaining insight into various businesses, from small to large and in regional, national and international contexts. My approach was, and still is, not very psychological but rather it is practical. My first question to the client was always: ‘What do you need to know before hiring somebody or before taking a decision to change? Well, I will show you.’”
SmartphoneHelp
In 2008, the financial crisis hit and the recruitment market collapsed. Joris realized that the time had come to try another tack. Shortly before this he had bought himself a smartphone to replace his mobile telephone. “When I saw how much time was required to set up the phone the way I needed and wanted it, I could see there was a hole in the market here. Smartphones have started a revolution in the mobile world, so there will be a growing need for professional and customized advice to make optimal use of these units in the business world. So I came up with the idea of starting up
SmartphoneHelp.”
SmartphoneHelp is a real niche player. Joris describes his role as follows: “to help you understand and streamline the use of diverse smartphone units inside your company. What I provide is: consultancy on the purchases, fine tuning of the devices and training of the users.”
But Joris also wanted to do something for private users as well. “The manuals that come with the phones are generally pretty brief. So I decided to write a book, a kind of ‘smartphone for dummies’. My initial thought was a technical manual about Nokia smartphones, but the Dutch publishers Van Duuren suggested I use Android, the mobile operating system, as the topic. Android’s share in the smartphone market is expected to rise to over 50%.”
Two thousand five hundred copies of Joris’s ‘Ontdek de Android Phone’ (Discovering the Android Phone), the first Dutch language book about the operating system, came out at the end of August 2011. The book was among the top 50 on the internet shop ‘computerboek.nl’, and there are plans for a French version.
Social media
Shortly before his book appeared, Joris started up a partnership with another self-employed entrepreneur and became managing partner at Vanguard Leadership. “We give companies advice on how they can best use the new social media and what policy they should follow”, Joris explains. “We also train the employees and monitor what's being said on social media about the customer. In this respect, we target larger companies and organizations that sometimes remain somewhat reluctant as regards social media. Unknown is unloved.”
Joris and his partner have no large investment company backing them, so they are relying on their own manpower and resolve. Still, they see a bright future. “I have never complained about taking the step in 2003 to being self-employed”, Joris confirms. “It has changed my life completely, both professionally and privately. If I were to do anything again, then it would be this. I should have taken the plunge with a partner sooner. That is definitely a requirement if you want your company to grow. Doing it alone is so much more difficult. That is also the advice I would give starting entrepreneurs.”
Raised awareness
Since he graduated in 1992, a great deal of water has passed under the bridge and GROUP T and the engineering program have changed considerably. Still, Joris believes that GROUP T’s broad approach with ample attention paid to management, communication and teamwork have together determined his career path. “After studying, I initially had a technical job in mind, but it didn't turn out that way at all. GROUP T made me aware of entrepreneurship, that much is certain. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, I took the plunge.”
Yves Persoons
Joris De Sutter, ‘Ontdek de Android Phone’. Culemborg, Van Duuren Informatica, 2011. ISBN 978-90-5940-517-2