{"id":2073,"date":"2016-10-20T12:19:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T10:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/10\/20\/zonder-nieuwe-ambities-zijn-we-de-oost-duitsers-van-de-toekomst\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T16:07:03","slug":"zonder-nieuwe-ambities-zijn-we-de-oost-duitsers-van-de-toekomst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/10\/20\/zonder-nieuwe-ambities-zijn-we-de-oost-duitsers-van-de-toekomst\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Without new ambitions, we are the East Germans of the future\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Stefan Stremersch.<\/span><\/p>

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We have lost our winning mentality, says marketing professor Stefan Stremersch. In order to change that, he stepped out of his academic comfort zone and wrote the entrepreneurial book\u00a0Kiezen voor Winst<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>[Choosing profit], an immediate bestseller.<\/p>\n

Had you expected it to be so successful?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s written in a popular style and it contains lots of examples. But normally, a book like this only sells a thousand copies over the course of its life cycle. We\u2019ve already reached that number and the book was only published on 23 September. I wrote most of it last summer, over a period of four weeks in Benalm\u00e1dena, between M\u00e1laga and Marbella. That was a really nice creative process. From the heart, emotional. And not so much based on analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The book focuses on financial profit. Isn\u2019t that a bit shortsighted?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a capitalist book. It\u2019s fine to choose for happiness, sustainability and employee satisfaction. But to be able to fulfil those ambitions, you need to be financially profitable. That\u2019s the attitude that I\u2019m writing about. I don\u2019t believe in the Olympic ideal: it\u2019s not the winning but the taking part that counts. If you want to run a marathon, I feel that you need to set yourself a goal. Obviously not everyone has to run under three hours. But someone who drinks ten beers the night before, thinks \u2018I\u2019ll see how it goes\u2019 and then collapses halfway \u2013 well, I don\u2019t have much respect for someone like that.<\/p>\n

People often ask me: why does an organisation need to make a profit? If we no longer understand that, we have a big problem. Look fifty years ahead. There\u2019s a huge welfare shift towards Asia. If we end up being totally outmaxed<\/em>\u00a0in\u00a0spending power,<\/em>\u00a0that will have real consequences for our technological potential and for the quality of our care. I\u2019m appealing for a new wave of ambition. Without that ambition, we are the East Germans of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018Entrepreneurs suffer from tunnel vision, don\u2019t look around them enough and lose confidence in their own ability.\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Aren\u2019t entrepreneurs always trying to make a profit? What\u2019s going wrong?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly half of Dutch companies make a profit. The percentage that makes a substantial profit \u2013 say 200 thousand euro a year \u2013 is much smaller: ten percent. Circumstances are difficult. You find that people don\u2019t have sufficient skills to make important choices. And that\u2019s necessary when your business is under pressure. Entrepreneurs suffer from tunnel vision, don\u2019t look around them enough and lose confidence in their own ability. I try to provide tools to help them regain that confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

You developed a so-called IDC decision model. What do businesses need to do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at over three hundred businesses in Belgium and the Netherlands. What was very noticeable was that the businesses which were profitable last year fulfilled three conditions. Inspire: look beyond the walls of your own organisation to the successes of others and learn from them. Diverge: be open to diversity in your own team. And converge: take action. I\u2019ve explained that model in the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Was it your idea to use this cover?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first suggestion from the publisher. And I liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re saying: success is a choice. Isn\u2019t that too easy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve established a correlation and we see that businesses which don\u2019t work according to the IDC method make significantly less profit. But you\u2019re right; it isn\u2019t a scientifically tested success formula. One of the best known management books ever, In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman, was later analysed to see whether the \u2018excellent companies\u2019 they\u2019d identified were still performing better than average companies a couple of years later. That wasn\u2019t the case. My method isn\u2019t a miracle pill that will transform a company verging on bankruptcy into a market leader. But it helps you think about what you\u2019re doing as a company.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do colleagues feel about you having written this book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cErasmus University doesn\u2019t officially honour this kind of work, unlike publications in a top journal. Some people don\u2019t see the point of it or even look down on it. You often find that the discussions in the international academic world \u2013 insofar as it is relevant and that\u2019s sometimes debatable \u2013 are far ahead of the practice. And yet it\u2019s important to combine the two. By writing a book or doing some consultancy work. Fortunately much more attention is being devoted to that now, particularly in the Economics faculty. And it works both ways. The practice learns from me and I learn from practice. Writing this book gave me lots of new insights and ideas for a new academic project.\u201d<\/p>\n\t

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Stefan Stremersch (1972) is professor of Marketing at Erasmus School of Economics and the IESE Business School (Spain). In his book Kiezen voor Winst<\/em><\/a>, he wants to help organisations make strategic choices. An English version will be published in December 2016.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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