You’re going to need a vegetable garden

Side note: This interview took place in the summer of 2020. At the time, different COVID-19 rules applied. 

Social innovator, innovation ecosystem builder, startup mentor & founder, occasional blogger, speaker, and whatnot. Bert-Jan has an impressive track-record in helping to build successful ecosystems, ventures, and networks. He also happens to be a huge Eindhoven fan, and is actively involved in its future and competitiveness. We invited him for an interview on the future of the Brainport region (Eindhoven and surroundings) and the importance of campuses and ecosystems in realising that future.

We’ve just taken a seat at Fifth NRE (recommended), when Bert-Jan comes racing by on his bicycle, wearing flip-flops and a shirt that says “I See Smart People”. Upon entering the terrace, he is greeted left and right by acquaintances; Bert-Jan knows everyone in Eindhoven, and everyone knows Bert-Jan. 

His heart for Eindhoven shows in everything he says and does, even though he’s not originally from the region. Initially, he was looking for a Randstad-based company to do his graduation project, but Brabant-based Philips was the first to accept him. “And after graduating” he says, “Philips offered me a job, which my mother ‘strongly advised’ me to accept.  So I did.” After years at the company in an HR function, he started working on communities and campuses like the High Tech Campus Eindhoven (HTC), and later also the and later also the Brainport Industries Campus and TU/e Innovation Space at the Eindhoven University of Technology Campus.

The latter has been in the news, so that’s where we start the conversation. Bert-Jan explains how building communities on these campuses is essential to boost innovation and progress. “It’s not enough to build enormous shiny new buildings and expect innovation to happen. After all, everyone can build shiny new buildings”. Bert-Jan mentions a study done by the Erasmus Competition and Innovation Monitor which showed that innovation success is determined for 75% by social innovation, as opposed to only 25% by technological innovations. He draws a connection to hardware and software: “You can compare the fancy campus to the hardware of the system, it can be a great facilitator, but you need to actively work on building a well-functioning and close community (the software) inside that hardware.”

Before we dive into how to actually build and maintain this well-functioning community, Bert-Jan explains the main principle of how communities function using the Social Physics theory, a theory that uses mathematical analysis of social phenomena to understand the behavior of human crowds. It distinguishes 2 different kinds of connections between people, strong and weak ties. Everyone has a few strong ties, people you know pretty well, and with whom you share the same information and even other connections. Strong ties are great for getting things done quickly and efficiently, as you know exactly what to expect from the others and you’ve probably worked with them before. Weak ties are more like acquaintances, the kind of people you have in your contact list but who would be surprised to hear from you, or, the people who you meet at the coffee machine. Working with these people is less efficient, because you don’t know each other, and do not share the same information and network. “The importance of these ‘weak’ connections cannot be underestimated though” Bert-Jan says, “these weak ties bring previously unconnected networks of people into contact with each other, sharing ideas and information, making it a true kickstarter for innovation”.

We ask Bert-Jan if he thinks it’s difficult to build these communities. “Not at all”, he answers, “it’s a matter of continuously connecting people, supporting and organising all kinds of fun activities, events and initiatives, and making sure people attend it.” It is however sometimes quite difficult to get management support for these initiatives, as the direct return on investment is often very difficult to measure. He gives the example of an employee at a big firm knocking on the management door with the idea of installing a vegetable garden on their terrain. “The first question management will ask is what the company will get out of that investment” he says. “The obvious answer is fresh produce, but it is more difficult to argue for the social innovation that could take place there. An Italian engineer and a Chinese marketeer who both love gardening could meet there, talk about their work, resulting in new collaborations. This is hardly quantifiable however, making it very hard to justify the investment for this purpose” Bert-Jan goes on to explain that the reason this social innovation is so hard to quantify is because social systems are incredibly complicated, and draws a comparison to the machines made by ASML. “Even something seemingly complicated like ASML’s machines is dwarfed by the complexity of social systems. The outcome of every single ASML machine can be predicted with great accuracy, while we do not have a clue what our wife will say to us this evening when we get home. This is still so complex, modern science hasn’t even dared to address this complexity.”

ASML, “the favourite tech company of your favourite tech company” as described by The Economist (link), is one of the biggest economic engines in the region. The world’s three leading chipmakers – Intel, Samsung and TSMC – have become as reliant on ASML’s wares as the rest of the technology industry is on theirs. In turn, much of the Brainport region has become reliant on ASML. Bert-Jan argues that this is the biggest risk for the future of the region; being too dependent on a single company and not  having diversified enough, should this company move or go out of business. “This is why we as a region should innovate relentlessly to stay relevant. Silicon Valley has software, Eindhoven has photonics, but what’s next?” Bert-Jan is very optimistic though,  pointing to a sentence in the before mentioned article by the Economist: “Isn’t it awesome that we are named in the same sentence as Silicon Valley, Seattle and Shenzhen? What region in the world with so little inhabitants plays in the Champions League like us?” 

When we ask Bert-Jan why he has this passion for Eindhoven and working towards its future, he answers: “I would love to see Eindhoven continue to compete in the Champions League among the Silicon Valley’s of this world, so my children and grandchildren don’t have to go to China or the USA to get a good job, and I can visit them on my bike”