Management Centrum VNO-NCW T.a.v. de heer Wouter Limmen Programma-manager Koningin Astridboulevard 23 NL 2202 BJ NOORDWIJ Datum: 15 juni 2000 Betreft: ONTWIKKEL UW BEDRIJF Kenmerk: JH/WL20000615
FOTO BOVEN: 2005 LA PAZ DE VALLADOLID
Nijmegen, donderdag 15 juni 2000 Geachte heer Limmen, Hiermee bevestig ik onze telefonische afspraak voor een gesprek op dinsdag 27 juni aanstaande om 13.30 uur tezamen met uw collega Coen van Ruiten m.b.t. de leergang "Ontwikkel uw bedrijf". Zoals ik u heb laten weten ben ik tegenwoordig woonachtig in Torremolinos aan de Costa del Sol in Spanje. Van daaruit tracht ik een bijdrage te leveren aan de opbouw van het Cervantes Management Centre, een ontmoetingsplaats voor managers uit de Benelux, het Verenigd Koninkrijk en Spanje. Bestudering van uw documentatie heeft mij tot de gedachten gebracht dat uw programma binnen dit beleidskader kan worden geïmplementeerd. Het gehele Baakprogramma overigens. Het eerste jaar zal dat nog wel in het Engels mogelijk zijn. Het jaar daarop zal met name de Spaanstalige versie ook een rol van betekenis gaan vervullen zodra vanuit Noordwijk en Torremolinos de Latijns-Amerikaanse markt voor het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven wordt opengebroken. Dit is de strategische doelstelling die ik al vanaf het begin van de ontwikkeling van mijn bedrijfsorganisatie in 1992 heb gesteld. Op uw verzoek treft u daarom hieronder mijn curriculum vitae en mijn persoonlijke biografie aan, zoals beschreven in mijn Letters tot Diana, Princess of Wales.
Curriculum Vitae English version
9-11-1947 Born in Nijmegen, Netherlands
1960-1965 Secondary School Nijmeegs Lyceum Nijmegen
1965-1966 Polytechnical College Arnhem (architecture)
1966-1969 Teacher Training College Nijmegen
1970-197 7 Spanish Language and Literature at the University of
Nijmegen, First Degree
1970-1979 Teacher in Primary Education
1977-1978 English Language at the University of Nijmegen
1978-1979 Managing Director Language Institute
1979-1981 Organizational Development and Managing Director of
the private French-Spanish Language Institute, since 1981 Linguarama
Netherlands
1981-1987 Managing Director private Dutch Language Institute
1984-1988 Member Working Party Deficiencies of the Open University
1985-1988 Representative International Association of Language
Centres Madrid
1986 Sworn into the office of Interpreter into the Spanish Language
by the District Court of Utrecht
1986-1987 Founder and President of the Foundation for Professional
Education
1987-1988 President and Treasurer Cooperation Adult Education
1987-1988 Teacher in Spanish State Examination Interpreter-Translator
1988-1989 Course of General Management De Baak Noordwijk
1988-1989 Staff member project of collaboration Dutch and Spanish
Employers' Organization (VNO/CEOE)
1989-1990 Teacher Spanish Adult Education in Hilversum
1989-1991 Staffmember office- and information management Foundation
de Baak Noordwijk
1991-1996 Organizational Development Instituto Cervantes Benelux:
1994-1995 Member of Committee and Editorial Staff of the Dutch
Association
of Teachers in Spanish
1995-now: Dissertation about the Van der Heyden Family in European
History
Personal Biography
1947-1965
Nijmegen. Born in the latter days of the birth gulf after the
Second World War in a town environment. My father was a Dutch
protestant and mother changed from Roman Catholic to the Dutch
protestant church for the benefit of her marriage. I received
my education in a Roman Catholic kindergarten, a protestant primary
school and a oecumenic secondary school: the Nijmeegs Lyceum.
A period that strongly determined my vision on the world. Ideologically
the Nijmeegs Lyceum parted from general christian principles.
Socially the college wore a free-thinking, liberal character.
The school was achievement-oriented, but principally characterized
by a strong group performance: the Association of Nijmegen Lyceists.
From the beginning pupils were introduced into a democratical
process. Study groups existed and every year two school parties
were organized. Contacts came about, lasting relationships and
also marriages have found their origin in the Nijmegen Lyceum
time. It was the time of the birth of a new time spirit: Bob Dylan:
"The times they are a changing", "Like a Rolling
Stone", the Rolling Stones: "It's my life and I do what
I want", The Beatles: "And I love her". Youth got
its own identity and became very creative. Existing structures
were broken off: the May Revolt in Paris 1965.
1965/1966
Study- and careers counselling still
were not so strongly developed in those days. Advices were given
on the basis of study notes. It became clear to me that I had
a strong need of building, designing, a creative occupation and
enrolled in a study in architecture at the Politechnical in Arnhem.
This was to me a complete culture-shock. The politechnical culture
was dominated by an excessive attention for technical aspects
and a minimum for human communication.
1966-1969
This experience urged me to decide to
invest in the guidance of people, in building human organizations,
starting at the basis: the education of young children. I became
interested in developmental psychology, psycho-analysis, pedagogics,
didactics, educational systems and communication processes by
means of the language. In 1966 I entered the Peter Kanis Teacher
Training College in Nijmegen. I was the first non catholic student
of this college with a Roman Catholic signature. I passed for
my religion examinations of the Old and New Testament with the
maximal result. So my knowledge of christian religion was rather
good. In this aspect it was an interesting time. The reformer
Professor Schillebeekx lived litterarily in the back garden and
determined the new theology of the Roman Catholic church in the
Netherlands. Ideologically my vision of a universal, holistic
religion was born here. The college offered me the possibilities
to take personal inititatives. In close consultation with the
principal I organized a Students Council, a platform of consultation
between group representatives and management and control unit
of sport, play and workgroups. In this quality I represented the
collegestudents in a Union of Students of Dutch Teacher Training
Colleges. It also was the period of my first European travels.
First England and Scotland (Fort William 1966), afterwards Italy
and Spain (1967 and 1968). To Spain many would have to follow.
These travels formed the basis of my first cultural and social
studies (Michelangelo, El Greco, Cervantes, la Corrida de Toros)
and language studies: first Italian, next Spanish. In 1969 I received
my headmasters qualification and as a travel guide I made trips
to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy: my first experience
as a leader of a group of adults.
1970 Military
service
From January 1970 I joined the military
service at the cavalry in Amersfoort. At the School of Reserve
Officers of the Regiment of Boreel I gained important strategical
insights.
1970-1979 Education
and Spain
November 1970 I took up my duties as a teacher at a primary school:
working hard during nine years in the education of about 300 young
people. At the same time working hard on a part time study in
Spanish on an academical level. By choosing for the Polytechnical
College I had lost the chance to obtain an academical degree.
The part time studyprogramme at the University of Nijmegen offered
me that possibility. Studying in the evening hours (from 20.00
until 23.00 h.), weekends and holidays (20 Spanish books went
along to Mallorca): translation, literature, grammar, historical
grammar, fluency, didactics, etc. etc. Working, studying and rolling
up the sleeves. Little time for social contact. The third of July
1971 engaged in Patio de los Leones of the Alhambra in Granada.
Married in 1973. Introduction to a form of catholicism unknown
to me until then. We went to live in a village near Nijmegen.
1976 birth of Mark, 1979 Ramon. Stable period characterized by
working and relationships in the educational field, building a
family and studying. In 1977 I graduated on the themes "Bodas
de Sangre" of Federico García Lorca and
"El erasmismo y cristianismo nuevo en el Don Quijote de la Mancha de don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra" related to the theme of "La edad conflictiva of Américo Castro.
My line of development or career path seemed to get into a dead end at that moment. The Dutch educational system did not offer any employment for hispanistic graduates. So I started again a language study. English this time to create a combination possibility in the future. It was however also the time of the rise of the so called "éducation permanente". Adults came to be aware that life is one long path of learning and that regular intellectual repleneshing of one's reserves is a necessity to keep socially and culturally pace with the developments of the time. After having attained the Spanish study success the first challenge presented itself: a solution for the social problem (that I took up in 1988): for a graduated hispanist there was no work! Therefore I started a small language school in 1978. Characteristics of that time: first experiments with legal constructions, setting up an organization, accounting, talks with members of the council and recruitment of students. A nice start: 120 adult students in English, French and Spanish. In 1979 I took the decision to give up all the certainties of the regular educational system (I was still a children's teacher) and started as an "independent" educational manager by the foundation of the 'French-Spanish Institute B.V.' FSI.
1979-1990 Educational
Management
This was an interesting period of learning. A period of taking
ventures, strive for ideals, take risks, confrontations, conflicting
situations and the permanent search for creative solutions. A
period in which the accents of teachership gradually moved into
the direction of entrepeneurship. 1979 became a fantastic year:
freedom, working from my own house, daily on my way from studycenter
to studycenter. In no time a back office was set up and a network-organization
built up in 24 places within a range of 125 kilometers around
Nijmegen up to Roosendaal, Bussum and Emmeloord. Well qualified
teachers were selected and placed on the locations where weekly
a good educational product was established. On Saturdays studydays
with the teachers took place, during the evenings I assisted the
lessons and I spoke with students and teachers. I could completely
expand my expertise in the field of education and Spanish in combination
with my love for organizing and entrepeneurship. The start was
very encouraging: 750 adult students. Next year was even more
successfull. The number of courses was extended with Italian and
Portuguese. The FSI tended towards an Institute for Roman Studies.
A redactional free publicity campaign under the slogan "Increasing
interest for French and Spanish" caused a "Spain-vogue".
Result: double the amount of students. An intensive collaboration
arose with an institute in Madrid (and afterwards in Málaga,
Gran Canaria and Salamanca), that lasted until 1986. 1980 was
not only the year of success because of the marketing approach,
but in my view particularly as a result of the new didactical
methods I introduced in close cooperation with my teachers: the
traditional grammar-translation method made room for a functional-notional
approach: Spanish and French for the use in recognizable situations
for the students and directly appliable in the daily communicative
practice. Developments in the market of private education led
in 1980 to a strong decrease in numbers of students of the sister
institute 'Institute of English Studies'. The FSI had changed
into a member of the British Linguarama organization and I was
appointed Managing Director of a company with 6000 students all
over the country. The office was established in the center of
the Netherlands and I moved with my wife at that time and my sons
Mark and Ramon to the village of Maarn in the province of Utrecht.
An enormous workload was laying ahead in which I could explore
myself in all possible fields of management. Product groups, coursegroups,
teachersfiles were joined under my responsibility and the courses
were adapted to the demands of that time. One course was set out
and colleagues of different cultures were placed on one line.
I divided the country in 24 districts and travelled from one part
of the country to the other: teachers' meetings in Groningen,
Nijmegen, The Hague, Breda, ROTTERDAM,
Eindhoven, Amsterdam and Alkmaar
and meetings of projectmanagers central and decentral. Everything
was headed to achieve one commitment of all employees. Within
a short while the company functionned nationwide as one entirety.
Economically the organization recovered within two years (a deficit
of 24% of the total turnover) and in intensive consultation with
the fellow partners a new expansion in the market was started.
We invested in automation of the accounting and organizational
system, product development and promotion. New objectives were
formulated:
* reduction overhead costs by
automation to be able to compete price technically with subsidized
institutions in other segments of the market;
* development new educational products, for example the course
of translater-interpreter for the State examination for the languages
English, French and Spanish;
* anticipate on direct trends in the market: introduction courses
Open University;
* obtain governmental recognition;
* quality improvement of the courses and adaptation to the future
demands of the Law on Recognized Educational Institutes.
The product gamma meanwhile existed of courses in English, French and Spanish on seven year levels: two years elementary, Conversation and Fluency, First Certificate and Proficiency of the University of Cambridge, Certificat d'Etudes Françaises, Certificado de Español, three years translator-interpreter English, French or Spanish and courses in other languages: German, Italian, Portuguese, New Greek, Servo-Croatian, Turkish, Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch for foreigners.
Spanish in Spain
French in France
English in England
From the FSI-time dated the collaboration with the Instituto Sampere in Madrid, with whom I organized educational language travels and maintained an exchange of know how that contributed directly to the quality of the Spanish courses. This activity led to the issue that from 1985 I worked some time together with members of the International Association of Language Centres (IALC), a worldwide spread network-organization. As I already stated, in Spain I worked together with schools in Madrid, Gran Canaria, Salamanca and Málaga. In 1986 I organized language travels in collaboration with NRV Holiday and schools in Madrid, Salamanca, Paris and London (The Pitman Institute). With the management of NRV Holiday I worked out a concept for a division of language travels. This plan has not been carried out as a result of financial problems of the NRV organization. The programme afterwards has been executed by the organization 'don Quijote', founded the 18th of September 1986.
Fight for the
market
In 1986 I founded a new institute with the objective to develop
new educational programmes for unemployed academics. This led
to a conflict of interest with my partners with the consecuence
that I had to withdraw from the language institute and at that
point I decided to tend a course in general management of 'de
Baak', the official Management Institute of the Dutch Employers
Organization. I dealt intensively with theory and practice of
general management, public relations, marketing, organization,
organizational development, social skills, financial management,
automation and recruitment policy. In collaboration with the Dutch
Trade Centre and the Spanish employers organization 'Confederación
Española de Organizaciones Empresariales' I worked out
a new educational concept for unemployed hispanists: International
Marketing for the Spanish market. On behalf of Radio Nederland
Wereldomroep at the time I gave an interview in Spanish that reached
the public of all countries in Southern Europe and Latin America.
On the first of October 1989 de Baak got a new management. In
close collaboration with my new colleague I introduced new workprocesses.
An intensive reorganization was necessary. The existing management
made room for new blood. On the first of April 1990 I was accepted
in the managementteam in which ideas have been developed leading
to a considerable result improvement compared with the former
year. I participated in brainstorm sessions and the execution
of a number of measures:
- financial investigation, break-even
analysis and costs cutting;
- development new products (product differentiation);
- find new market segments (market differentiation);
- scaling down and efficiency improvement by function adaptation
of employees (internal organization);
- restructuring internal communication processes (started with
bottleneck analysis internal processes and incoming and outgoing
information processes);
- restructuring automized information system;
- working from product oriented towards market oriented.
The first of July 1991 this very pleasant job unfortunately came to an end.
New dream
In december 1990 a new future vision was born: an educational
institute in Spain in which (Spanish) language communication and
management skills play an important role. I developed an initiative
for a business plan of an 'Instituto de Comunicación Internacional
y Gestión de Empresas" under the tradename
Instituto Cervantes consisting of a policy plan, in which the basic assumptions of policy and the underlying argumentation are described, and an execution plan with the concrete actions that had to be undertaken to execute the policy plan. Within this matter I have had to overcome strong resistances.
I divorced on the 22nd of April 1992. From the 29th of April until the 15th of June 1992 I made a trip through Spain (Valladolid, Salamanca, Madrid, Alcalá de Henares, ARANJUEZ, La Mancha, Sevilla, Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, Málaga, Frigiliana, Granada, Alicante). The trip was recorded in a travel report and videoreport. The 6th of October 1992 the foundation of the 'Foundation Cervantes Benelux' took place. The attacks on my institute came particularly from criminal organizations and I decided to combat their resistance. This battle has continued until their complete defeat the first of August of 1996. The day before I had invited the crown princes of the Benelux and Spain to accept a seat in the Foundation Cervantes Benelux. They reacted with enthousiasm. The formation is still in process however. Having established a permanent right of the trademark 'Instituto Cervantes' in the Benelux I sent my first STATE OF THE UNION to the Dutch Prime Minister last September. The plan now reaches the moment of execution and afterwhile I may think of a new personal relationship as well.
Vanaf dat moment tot 31 augustus 1997 heb ik de eer gehad mijzelf de functiebenaming Personal Advisor of the Princess of Wales te mogen toekennen op grond van de benoeming die ik in januari van dat jaar tot company director van Instituto Cervantes Limited England and Wales heb ontvangen On Her Majesty's Service.
Na het overlijden van My Lady heb ik mij in het zuiden van Spanje teruggetrokken en heb daar een begin gemaakt 'to get the action plans into action' conform de toezeggingen zoals beschreven in mijn First State of the Union ten behoeve van de Minister-President van Nederland d.d. 19 september1996. Voor de volledigheid stel ik u daarvan hiermee in kennis: STATE OF THE UNION. Ik verheug mij wederom op mijn terugkeer naar de Baak op dinsdag 27 juni aanstaande en onze ontmoeting om 13.30 uur. Hartelijke groet JOHANNES L. VAN DER HEYDEN
Het EERSTE PAARSE KABINET van het KONINKRIJK DER NEDERLANDEN. Voorste rij van links naar rechts Minister van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen JO RITZEN, Minister van Buitenlandse zaken HANS VAN MIERLO, Minister-President WIM KOK, Oprichter Instituto Cervantes JOHN VAN DER HEYDEN, Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken en Vice Premier HANS DIJKSTAL, Minister van Justitie WINNIE SORGDRAGER, Minister van Financiën GERRIT ZALM. Achterste rij van links naar rechts Minister van Volksgezondheid en Sport ELS BORST, Minister van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij JOZIAS VAN AARTSEN, Minister van Verkeer en Waterstaat ANNEMARIE JORRITSMA, Minister van Defensie JORIS VOORHOEVE, Minister van Economische Zaken HANS WIJERS, Minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid AD MELKERT en Minister van Ontwikkelingswerk JAN PRONK.