Ordina’s 'dream flight' in Belgium

Hans Vets (45) is a Flemish-speaking Belgian who has been in charge of Ordina’s operations in Belgium and Luxembourg since 2004. Simple models and a powerful message are his recipe for achieving his desired growth. His mission is to take the business from 5 x 5 up to 10 x 10. We talked with this man with his dreams and gut instinct.

Throughout his working life, Hans Vets has had a connection with the Netherlands in one way or another. After completing his study in nuclear physics, he couldn’t find suitable employment in this field. His in-depth knowledge of Informatics, gained during his studies secured him a position at Philips as an IT specialist. Subsequently he joined DAF Trucks as Head of IT Services. “In Belgium, you are taught to keep your mouth shut and think before you speak. The Dutch, though, seem to know all there is to know about everything. I couldn’t understand why they decided to take me on,” Hans Vets smiles. What can one say – the Dutch give their Flemish neighbours food for thought.

After holding a series of IT functions in the Netherlands, Hans Vets decided to start his own business. In 1999 he launched the Belgian branch of The Vision Web, focused on SAP. The Dutch wing was run by two business partners. Vets: “After four years, my Dutch colleagues decided to sell their share of the business to Ordina. I was not interested at first, as I wanted to stay independent. But I felt such a click with Ordina that I decided to draft a list of demands. Ordina met all of these and I became Executive Director of Ordina Belgium in 2004. I still enjoyed a lot of freedom, but had many more opportunities for new ideas. My first brainchild was the 5 x 5 Plan: becoming one of the top five Belgian players within five years, generating a revenue of 50 million Euros, a profit of 5 million Euros and employing 500 staff members.”

Patchwork

Vets wanted ‘his’ branch of Ordina to be a Belgian company right from the start. “Having inherited two completely separate business units, I decided to start by reorganising the business. It was named Ordina Belgium as it reflected Ordina’s international status. Local connection was also of great importance and I felt that the only way to do so was to have a true Belgian corporate culture. Which is why the management team consists entirely of Belgians.”

Vets dreamed of playing in Belgium’s Premier League. This required large numbers of employees. “Competing with blue chip companies required rapid growth. That meant taking on new staff and acquiring new companies. This strategy worked well, but all the acquisitions gradually led to a patchwork effect. For this reason, we decided to rationalise our operations in 2006, using Ordina’s core values in Belgium as our point of departure. Since then, our corporate culture has become one of our main attractions as an employer.”

So is there any difference between the Dutch and Belgian cultures? Vets: “Well, the Dutch are more American or Anglo-Saxon in their outlook than us, which is why they soar high, but sink just as low. I think that Belgians are better at assessing our chances realistically. The Dutch tend to get overexcited – someone has an idea, and everyone immediately shouts out ‘Great – let’s do it!’ Belgians are more reticent and only speak their minds after thinking things through. Which is not to say that Belgium is full of dull or timid people. We have lots of fun. There is a bar with beer on tap in each lobby of all our offices. I find that intimate, familial atmosphere incredibly important.”

Three chances

Over the last few years Ordina has achieved exponential growth in Belgium. How does Vets do it? He reveals one or two trade secrets. “First of all, I follow my instincts. Whenever things have gone wrong in the past, it has always been because I have ignored my gut feeling. Winning is about feeling, not theoretical models. Business plans are not half as important as gut instinct.”

Part of his secret, Vets reckons, is sharing his vision and direction for the company with his staff. “You’ve got to be able to dream about your ambitions. Once I can see the future ahead of us, I share this with everyone. Everybody needs an ambition, a goal to work towards. The dream shouldn’t be too distant, though: you need to be able to attain it in three or four years’ time. In 2007, we decided that our 5 x 5 Plan wasn’t ambitious enough. It was time to upgrade to 10 x 10, or Dream Flight 2010 as we are now calling it. Expanding the workforce to 1,000 is a realistic target, now that we’re looking at moving into the French-speaking region of Belgium.”

Vets knows just how essential good employees are in this game. “I trust my staff 300% and give them as much responsibility as possible – blindly, bordering on the naïve. My leadership style is based on values like openness and honesty. That is something I learnt in the Netherlands – Belgians tend to be more reserved. I always want to see results – if someone does not get results, even if he is my best friend, that is the end of the road. But we remain friends. I give everyone three chances and tell them when they’ve used up two of them. It’s something everyone knows.”

Vets also believes in being accessible to all his staff. “People can call me at any time, day or night. And some of them do. Some of the calls I get are about fairly trivial things. But I hear about everything that is happening. Nothing gets tangled up in thick layers of middle management. I cannot stand that sort of hierarchy. If you hear things straight from the horse’s mouth, you know what is going on and you know why people act the way they do.”

Unforgettable experience

While Vets expects a lot from his staff, he gives them a lot in return: work hard, play hard. “I want to create a familial atmosphere that goes beyond the employees themselves. If someone considers working elsewhere, I would like to think that their partner might ask them whether that is such a good idea. That is why we take all our staff and their partners away for one weekend each year. It could be to Texel, to Disneyland in Paris or a boat trip to England. Around Christmas, I hire a skating rink for the day and staff are free to invite neighbours and friends to come along. There is always the possibility of discovering a top-notch IT specialist out there on the rink. Next year a team of 200 of us are heading off to France. We will be attempting one of the toughest climbs of the Tour de France, the Mont Ventoux, on our Ordina bikes. The big question is: will we crawl exhausted over the finishing line or will this be the start of an amazing experience? This really typifies the spirit of Ordina in Belgium – it’s how we work and it’s the sort of thing we want to achieve.”

Next Chapter: Zorgkompas, Benefits for clients