Longevity for Sustainability: Adding Value That Lasts

Interview with Geert Van Den Goor, Group Managing Partner at Valcon

Geert van den Goor, Group Managing Partner at Valcon, shares his insights from a prolific career in consulting and his vision for navigating the evolving landscapes of technology, data, and business transformation.

It’s an honour to have you with us today, Mr van den Goor. Can we start with a few words on how your interest in consulting began? How did you get into the industry?

Thank you for having me. My journey into the world of consulting began during my studies in computer science. Initially, my focus was on the technical aspects, but through my university years, I became more interested in the business side of what we now call “digitisation”.

This was fuelled by a transformative experience I had while spending several months in the United States as part of my graduation programme. It was evident that the US was ahead of the Netherlands in leveraging digital technologies for business purposes. On graduation, I really wanted to be involved at this intersection of business and technology and do this at an international level.

I did an interview for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and the company’s vision was compelling enough to ensure that I worked there for 20 years. It gave me the opportunity to hone my skills, collaborate with diverse teams, and tackle complex challenges.

Can you tell us about your career and how you have progressed through the industry?

I started out as an analyst at Andersen Consulting, intending to move to the client side after a few years.

But I enjoyed consulting immensely. The dynamic nature of the work, tackling complex problems, and engaging with various clients appealed. The culture of “work hard, play hard” and collaborating with young, driven individuals who were committed to going the extra mile for clients drove my passion for consulting.

As time went by, I realised that not only did I enjoy it, but that it fitted my capabilities. The opportunity to work closely with clients and the continuous loop of learning kept me interested. Fast-forward 30 years, and I still find consulting incredibly fulfilling, mainly because it’s constantly evolving. In each of those three decades, every year has been different. Stand-out milestones are 2002 when I made partner at Accenture, and then in 2012/ 13 when I left and joined one of the predecessors of Valcon, First Consulting.

What was your initial vision for Valcon when you joined the business?

When I joined Valcon, then known as its Dutch predecessor First Consulting, our vision was to become a more modern and mid-sized alternative to the larger consulting firms. At the time, First Consulting was around 80 people, operating in one industry with one capability.

Before officially joining, I collaborated with two other partners to create a strategy we referred to as First Consulting 2.0. It outlined our ambition to add value to enterprise clients, expand our industry coverage, incorporate more technology into services, and grow an international footprint. We wanted to be a competitive alternative to the bigger players, offering a blend of expertise, innovation, and personal attention that would differentiate us.

At the time, the idea of an organisation with 1,700 colleagues across seven countries would have been beyond my wildest expectations. But the fact that we have achieved that is testament to the vision, hard work, and dedication of our team.

Can you tell us about the three main capabilities of your business – consulting, technology, and data – and how you put that into practice at clients?

We add most value to our clients when we take a holistic view – the transformation, business processes, and the technology and data – and at Valcon we group this into three capabilities: business consulting, technology, and data. In projects, we weave these together to come up with the best solution for the client.

The business problem or challenge is the starting point and we then roll up our sleeves to get it solved. We are not just about writing reports. We do the operational strategy, but we also do the implementation of the change, which might be implementing a new process, a new IT system, or an exciting new AI system. We have a broad range of business consulting services, from operational strategy and excellence to transformation management.

With data challenges, we are not just about AI and data science. We also build the data platforms and look after the data management and engineering, as well as data visualisation. Where technology is concerned, we focus on intelligent automation, combining technologies like RPA (robotic process automation), low code, BPM (business process management), and AI, and complement this with custom development on platforms like Azure and AWS.

What types of clients do you work with and what kinds of remits do you work on?

We pride ourselves on having long-standing relationships with our clients and we typically specialise in working with enterprise clients and government organisations. And that’s across sectors, so from retail and industrials to financial services, utilities and transportation, in addition to public sector clients.

Where we tend to work on mid-sized projects, we might help our clients with several projects of a similar size. Each project is different, but the common denominator is that they always add value. This could be a supply chain improvement to reduce stock levels, an AI dynamic pricing model to increase revenue, or an IT solution which helps to schedule and plan workforces more intelligently.

Given Valcon’s commitment to combining technology, data, and consulting, how do you see the increased focus on sustainability?

We are super-conscious that all our clients are engaged in sustainability programmes and have their eye on working towards net zero. For us as a business, that’s important for Valcon, too. So sustainability is always a consideration in client engagements.

But sustainability in engagements is also about the longevity message. We want to make sure that our work stands the test of time and we want to leave our client organisations better prepared for the future than they were when we started. We focus on results that are tangible, add value, and last. That’s a strong sustainability message, too.

Valcon takes pride in being a “no-nonsense” consultancy. How does this philosophy translate into practical strategies for delivering sustainable change for clients?

We live and breathe our brand values: together, joy, curious, integrity, and can-do. They aren’t just for marketing purposes. We really aspire to bring them alive and embed them in our culture, so they are conspicuous in our work and in the way we interact with each other, our clients, and partners.

This is where our secret sauce is and is what binds us together as “Valconeers”. You can see and feel this in all the stories from our people and see how they use our Valcon values in their working lives.

In your article “30 Years as a Consultant: A Journey Through Time”, you reflect on your extensive experience in the consulting industry. How has the landscape of consultancy evolved over the years, particularly in relation to the integration of new technologies?

New technologies keep our industry moving and evolving and the role of tech and data has become increasingly prominent in the last three decades. Consulting has always had a deep relationship with the digital world. It’s always been about looking at a problem and coming up with a solution that invariably involves a technology component.

But what has changed in the last 30 years is that it is no longer good enough to be a pure-play IT company; you have to be more business-focused and look at scenarios and challenges from a business perspective. And I think a lot of tech companies struggle with that. It’s probably changed as the role of technology within a business has changed. Thirty years ago, the IT department was a stand-alone function, but now technology has evolved and become an integral part of all departments and business areas. This is why a business perspective is vital. But new technology and data solutions is what underpins our industry and keeps it moving. Consulting helps the business world make sense of these new technologies and assists companies in harnessing them to improve their efficacy.

Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee in the consulting industry? How is Valcon preparing to address them?

We think that technology, data, and consulting will continue to evolve together and the challenges that clients face will continue to be solved by a combination of elements of these areas. AI is in this picture. It isn’t just about technology, or data or consulting; it lies in the intersection of these three disciplines. And this is what is exciting for people working in consulting. It is a fascinating space because it is always evolving, and consultants have to stay on the front foot with developments.

A key focus for us all in consulting is adding value to clients. It’s not just about implementing the latest AI pricing solution, a new cloud platform, or a new ERP system. We have to analyse why we are doing it, what the business benefits are, and then ensure that those targets are met. Things change in consulting, but the factor that stays constant is that a good consultancy intrinsically wants to add value.

And finally, how do you define success?

For me, success is always tied into adding value to our clients. When I hear all the amazing projects we are working on, that is what makes me proud to be a Valconeer, and extremely proud of our team. Our people are the ones that make a difference. Of course, we have a business to run but, if you have the right team, doing excellent work for the right clients, everything else falls into place. Running the business is the easy part.

Our Valcon journey is far from over. We aspire to grow further, to build on and enhance our capabilities, and enter new markets in new geographies. Our future is exciting and I can’t wait to see where Valcon will be in five years’ time.

Executive Profile

Geert Van Den Goor is an experienced partner and consultant, with over 30 years in the consulting industry, having specialised primarily in working with public and semi-public organisations.

After studying computer science at university, Geert joined Andersen Consulting (currently Accenture) and after a 20-year stint, he joined First Consulting, which grew into the current Valcon.

The values that define Geert’s approach are passion for the client, professionalism, being results orientated and working as a team.

Geert lives in The Hague with his girlfriend and two children and has a passion for cars and mountain sports – he’s a keen climber, skier and enjoys mountain biking.