I often travel with colleagues and have many fond memories of trips throughout Europe to visit customers, partners, trade fairs and new Van Duuren destinations. Such a trip is even more enjoyable when your travel companion is your own son. I recently experienced this when I visited the world’s largest logistics trade fair with my son Matthijs; an event with 77,000 visitors in Munich. A few days of action, looking for new business. After a few intensive days at the fair, we had had 50 conversations, which wasn’t bad…
These are not things I constantly think about, but at the end of the first day of the fair, it did cross my mind: “It’s quite unique to be walking around here together as the fourth and fifth generations of Van Duurens”. I also regularly get comments about it: “How wonderful that your son is now working in the business too!”. The nice thing is that for a long time, Matthijs’ arrival at Van Duuren was by no means a certainty. On the contrary, in fact; Matthijs didn’t want to join Van Duuren at all. He wanted to choose his own path. I wasn’t even allowed to talk about it at home. If I ever brought it up at the dinner table, I would get an annoyed look and I knew to “keep my mouth shut!”.
The fact that things turned out differently was a combination of circumstances. Matthijs had just bought an apartment and, around the same time, he realised that he wasn’t entirely happy with his employer at the time. He called me and said, “Dad, what should I do?” I advised him to talk to our HR colleague and have his talents tested. After a few conversations, Natasja, our HR manager, said to Matthijs: “Everything you want to do, pioneering, entrepreneurship, you can do at Van Duuren.” And so it happened.
And I can’t help but say: I’m very happy with it. “Matthijs is a better version of myself,” I sometimes say. He is more structured. I am more of an entrepreneur, he is more of a manager. Recently, a business relation visited Van Duuren and asked us what it’s like to work together as father and son. Matthijs said: ‘We brainstorm together about new opportunities. Jeroen opens a door and I take it from there. He really lets go. He takes the first step and then puts all his trust in me.’ Matthijs said of the differences between us: “You’re quicker to react. That’s your strength and also your pitfall. You react very primally. You see something and immediately spring into action. If you have 40 stimuli in a day, I have 20.”
When asked what makes working together as father and son so special, Matthijs simply said: ‘I dare to say anything to you.’ And that’s true. I’ve had employees with whom I had a strong bond of trust, but who sometimes found it difficult to raise really difficult issues.
Back to the trade fair in Munich. At the end of the first day, we had a drink in the hotel bar and evaluated all the conversations we’d had. As I said, it struck me how special it was to be here as father and son. Because let’s be honest: who wouldn’t enjoy spending time with a better version of themselves?
On regular base I write a column about my experiences as founder and director of Van Duuren. This column can also be found on our social media. Would you like to receive my column ? Let me know by sending an e-mail to jeroen.van.duuren@vanduuren.com and I’ll send it to you from now on.