'Creativity is the city’s strength'
De Baak, the management centre of employers’ organization VNO-NCW, will descend on Amsterdam next week. General Manager Harry Starren wants to bring creative companies into contact with superpowers in the Zuidas area.
Michiel Couzy
When people think of De Baak, they automatically think of big companies, multinationals and managers in suits. Since it was founded in 1948, the centre has been closely affiliated with employers’ organization VNO-NCW and provides training programs and coaching to managers. That explains the association. But the economic importance of those big companies is decreasing. They are hiving off divisions or outsourcing work to low-wage countries, and they are fulfilling their own needs for training. Size is no longer the most important criterion in today’s knowledge economy. “A manager’s status used to be defined by the number of people he had under him, but that certainly isn’t the case anymore. Hierarchy is vanishing in organizations and management is democratizing,” says Starren. So it is time for De Baak to adapt its rank and file to the new times.
The small business community, which represents about eighty percent of the employment in the private sector, is still relatively unclaimed territory. The creative sector is particularly interesting; it employs geniuses, people with great intelligence, but those same masterminds are not usually masters of organization or managing their personnel. “So they wind up having problems with suppliers or are not understood by their own staff. And they have great difficulty getting financing from the bank.” As a result, while they may create beautiful products, they don’t earn a penny. This requires a form of structuring, and some understanding of how to manage employees who want to work autonomously. Starren sees a task for De Baak here. Not by placing an instructor in front of a class of creative spirits, as that won’t work; but, for example, by organizing trips to Scandinavia - the birthplace of many creative companies. “We look at how things are done there, and talk to the participants about how they can apply those experiences in their own businesses. Instead of using a blackboard to explain what Nokia does, we go and visit the company.”
To reach this new rank and file, De Baak will organize events or take part in creative festivals such as Picnic. However, this does not mean that De Baak is going to ignore the big businesses. It is for good reason that the management center is opening a branch in Amsterdam-Zuid, just a stone’s throw from ING and the Zuidas district. “We want to serve as a bridge between the multinationals and the creative entrepreneurs. Creative companies can learn from multinationals with regard to organizing their business, yet those big companies are inclined to suppress any form of creativity.” Those two worlds – creative and big business – can now be brought together in Amsterdam.
Starren does have some concerns about Amsterdam’s appeal to creative companies. Administrators have a tendency to control the city, to regulate too much, so that Amsterdam can no longer set itself apart from the competition. “The municipal authorities should focus on the city’s strengths, such as tolerance and generosity. Currently, the authorities seem to keep pushing towards a sterile city, completely built up, without any frayed edges. The approach taken in the red light district is a good example. Of course we need to tackle crime and the trafficking of women in those areas, but with a sensible approach and without taking away the essence of the city.” “Administrators should treat a city as they would a child: don’t impose too much on it or push it in a certain direction, but take advantage of the talents within it.”