Guy Van Wijmeersch

Sorry to bother you, are you a green light, orange light, or red light? This is how conversations mostly start between me and Wesley Bouwmeester. The green light - red light system is a fun and very useful way of communicating time and priorities. I first learned about this in Tim Ferriss' book The 4-Hour Workweek. At 15, I wasn’t exactly swamped with work, but I put it to use right away—and it worked like magic! Here’s the quick breakdown: Green Light: Ready for anything! Got a question, a brainstorm, or just a random thought? Come on over; I’m all ears. Orange Light: Tread carefully. I’m working, but I can handle quick interruptions if they're important. Basically, it's “proceed if necessary.” Red Light: Nope, not now. I’m in the zone and need to stay focused. Catch me later unless it’s an emergency. Would you give this system a try, or do you have your own methods for handling "traffic" in the office? Share your thoughts! #OfficeHacks #CommunicationSkills #WorkLifeFlow

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Another circular economy good news story: the EU's Ecodesign Regulation came into force yesterday. It's exciting to see the EU extending repairability, durability & recyclability requirements to more products. I'm sure the talented designers out there in the marketplace will rise to the challenge. Meanwhile in the UK, we're still stuck with some very limited requirements related to providing spare parts for a handful of domestic appliances (https://lnkd.in/eVSxPvd7). I wonder, will the new UK government show more interest in the right to repair - something most people (irrespective of political leanings) see as an obvious good thing?

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Thanks Moria Levy for this spontaneous review and ... recommendation 😍 of the Untapped Team Advantage. Link to the review is in the first comment. Quite timely just before the release of the sequel "Your Untapped Team Advantage Toolbox". Onwards and upwards #LetsCreateABetterWorldOneTeamAtATime #teamwork #teamlearning #teamdevelopment #psychologicalsafety #highperformanceteams #collaboration #connections  

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#flandersmake #symposium #manufacturingtomorrow #industry40 #smartmanufacturing #researchlabs #machineering #industrialfairs Full monty at Flanders Make Symposium Mechelen 2024 where next manufacturing starts today

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🚀 Circular News Reimagined: Celebrating Pieter Waasdorp's launch of Secondarymarket.news, a new cornerstone for the circular economy! 🌍 Navigating the ever-evolving world of the secondary electronics market can be challenging, but Pieter's relentless engagement, insight, and now Secondarymarket.news make it a lot easier. His posts are always at the forefront of my feed, bringing valuable updates and thought-provoking takes on the industry's growth and innovation. 📈 With Secondarymarket.news, Pieter opens up a new channel for everyone interested in the #circulareconomy to stay updated. It’s not just a news site—it's a reflection of his dedication to advancing our industry and encouraging a more sustainable future. 💡 Whenever I need to catch up with what's happening, I know I can count on his contributions. His work has been instrumental in shaping perspectives and providing knowledge to all of us actively working in the circular tech space. Thanks, Pieter Waasdorp, for setting such a positive standard and continuously pushing forward the boundaries of what’s possible in our industry. PS: Pieter Waasdorp, I must admit—I've tried to keep this post in your signature GPT style to give you the honor you deserve. 😉 #CircularEconomy #SecondaryMarket #IndustryInsight #TechInnovation #Gratitude #MobileTech 🌍✨

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Belgium: imec & Megadeals present: Deal Orchestration: Redefining Go-to-Market Strategy for B2B Tech Ventures (free of charge)   When B2B tech ventures secure funding rounds to scale, founders often feel intense pressure. They must make critical decisions about GTM strategy, design, and investment—often navigating challenges they’ve never faced before. The common fallback is to rely on traditional approaches: hiring more sales and marketing staff, and prioritising lead generation. Yet, these tactics don’t always convert into revenue, and the stakes are high. Many ventures fail. Deal Orchestration provides a proven alternative to de-risking these investments. It offers a way to scale sales in finite markets for complex B2B ventures by reducing “rainmaker dependency” and aligning resources for maximum impact. Sign up here: https://lnkd.in/dYBgDsFS WHEN: Thursday, November 21 TIME: 2 - 4PM (registration desk opens at 1.30PM) . Followed by networking & drinks in Ghent’s own Wintercircus WHERE: Voka Box, Lammerstraat 18, 9000 Gent

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2/12 A post a day until the launch of our 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲:  How to find the sustainable change that works for your product? ↪ Sustainability works if it is aligned with the value delivery of a company. 🤔 But how do you find this area? You need to bring at least four dimensions together: - Customer: What do customers need? - Planet: How to reduce our footprint and improve our handprint? - Team: What motivates my team members? - Strategy: How do we deliver value? The intersection of these four dimensions is where sustainable business activities will prevail. 🔎 Where to find more? Find the detailed instructions and a Miro template of the Green Product Ikigai in the Green PO Learning hub. 🎓  Want to learn more about sustainable products? Join the Green PO Kick-Start Course about Sustainable Products https://lnkd.in/dErGtEZ9 #circularity #productmanagement #productownership #greenskills

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To fully understand the capabilities of a technology you sometimes need to do a deep dive and design your own hardware. At design.nexus-UGent we are eager to explore the implementation of non planar FFF printing. Together with Industrial Design UGent student Laus Pauwels we are building a test setup around a OmronTM12 cobot. Path planning is done using Rhino and RoboDK

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You manufacture lawn-mowers. Self-driving ones. Tractors. For residential gardens. For soccer fields. For Golf courses. Cutting-as-a-Service (CaaS) solutions. To keep up with complexity, you decide to introduce Systems Engineering! Great move! Do you need? 👨‍🏫 a consultancy to analyse and build a lawn-mower development process specific for you? We learned: process first, then tool selection. 🕸 a Systems Engineering platform that looked good in the marketing demo and checked all your ‘must-have-feature’ boxes? However, onboarding will take an 8-day course for every employee and the consultancy might need to code a plug-in to adapt the tool perfectly. No! Right now, you need: 🌴 your engineers to have time and headspace to create the next big innovation in the lawn-mower sector! 🧠 your engineers to understand methods of systems thinking/engineering and be empowered to use them! (use your consultancy here) 🛠 tools that help you communicate: System Boundaries, Development Responsibilities, Interfaces, Traceability. Preferably, within an hour of onboarding. Watch your engineers smile as they come to work on Monday. Only once this foundation is established, formalize a more elaborate process. Make sure your team understands all additions and changes to it. 🦗 Grow from there, like the grass which keeps you in business.

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Last Friday, we had our last meeting at the fourth Community of Practice Innovated by Design. Rudy Moenaert introduced us to the important role of a business model in innovation. When innovation is seen as change that creates value, chances are that you will more often innovate by changing your business model than by inventing a technological breakthrough. The most important reason I created the Community of Practice Innovated by Design is that innovation should be seen as creating value, not as developing technological breakthroughs. And nothing better than design to enable technological transfer, as design helps us to do our research, clarifies and translates. Sure, these new technologies are almost always the enablers of disruptive innovations. That is what the internet did, and that is what AI is doing. However, the internet was bland before it started creating real value; at the time, it merely functioned as a digital business card. Only when sales began to spark, communities were built, and knowledge was shared more easily and broadly did the internet show its true value. It will be no different with AI. We all love to play with that new technology, but only when devastating new ways of working emerge, an amazing number of repetitive tasks become obsolete, and knowledge finds its way even much easier than through the internet solely will AI show its true value. Business models and business model innovation help us to make sense of new technological breakthroughs and bring real value to our beneficiaries, preferably at a lower cost and to a broader group of stakeholders. 🚀 It was, again, a very inspiring session sparked by an ever-energetic Rudy Moenaert. There is no better way to end this program. But no worries you couldn’t attend. On November 22nd, we start a new Community of Practice Innovated by Design at the iconic Wintercircus Ghent. You can always contact me to discuss your participation. The link to the website is in the first comment. #businessmodelinnovation #design #innovation #communityofpracticeinnovatedbydesign

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🔓 Unlock the future of circular manufacturing with the 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐛 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐚𝐭. This project is breaking down the biggest barriers in product life extension, sparking dynamic collaborations between Flemish manufacturing companies and social enterprises. By overcoming barriers like high labor costs, staff shortages, and logistical headaches, the Living Lab is trailblazing a path to scalable, sustainable solutions. 🌱 🔍 Curious about how to successfully engage social enterprises for product life extension? Eng: https://lnkd.in/esnedURt Nl: https://lnkd.in/ei-JdMAA Fr: https://lnkd.in/eZscp2kP 🔗 Or dive into the project details: : https://lnkd.in/egYbrRNM Remanumaat is a project financed by VLAIO - Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship.  And in collaboration with Agoria, Groep Maatwerk, Ryhove maatwerkbedrijf, conTeyor. Thomas Vandenhaute Patrick Cosemans. #CircularEconomy #SustainableManufacturing #ProductLifeExtension #Collaboration #Innovation #Remanumaat #FlemishIndustry #Innovation #InnovationForward

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Unlock powerful insights that can elevate your business today. This is just one example of how innovative design seamlessly integrates with various disciplines to drive success across diverse markets. Discover the critical role designers play in transforming your team and achieving outstanding results

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𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝟮 𝗼𝗳 𝗧𝗡𝗪 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁!   First, I had the great pleasure to meet Tom Spierings of Timepath, a company that makes timelines for your website and news articles. Then, a fantastic workshop from David Beckett on pitching. A staggering 99% of startups fail at three points of the investment marathon, this workshop gives key tips on how to overcome these three hurdles. This was followed by a great talk from Marc Wesselink of venturerock with 13(!) lessons learned from high-profile start up failures. One of these; forgetting your most important stakeholders are your family, an important point to make and often overlooked. #Leadership #ExecutiveCoaching #ProfessionalDevelopment #StakeholderManagement #TNWConference #LeadershipDevelopment #Growth

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How many insights can you get from building 166 MVPs? 🤔 In the new episode of Business Savages a dear friend who also happens to be a seasoned product designer, facilitator, and innovation consultant, Charles Engelen shares quite a few, here's the top ones: 🤔 why failing in a startup can be a valuable experience 🎣 how creating new products is like fishing on Lake Geneva ⚡ best strategies for maintaining your composure while moving at breakneck speed 🔮 how to know if your innovative idea might be "too early" Curious to know more? Tune in: Spotify - https://lnkd.in/dtdS4PSa Apple Podcasts - https://lnkd.in/d5Wgq-GG YouTube - https://lnkd.in/dNXyJFfG P.S. What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from a failed project? Share in the comments! 🤓​ #Innovation #ProductDesign #StartupLife #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth

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𝗚𝗼𝘁 𝟵𝟵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗶𝗻’𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗲 ! From a box to a small suitcase to a super organized trolley… 🧳 I now use a trolley to transport all my workshop materials. At first, I wasn’t convinced, but it’s AWESOME. And like all great ideas, this one wasn’t mine : it was my wife’s. She got tired of my stuff being all over the place, so she put everything in a small holiday trolley and said, “You’ll thank me later.” I was skeptical, but I hate to admit it—she was right, again. 😅 The thing is, everything is convenient when it’s new : new sticky notes and dots but once they’ve been opened, it’s a nightmare. They get folded and damaged, creating a big mess. That’s why I solved these issues with my trolley (though my wife would say, "You didn't, I did!" 😂) . I use small travel bag organizers, making it easier to sort everything and keep it in perfect condition. I’ve also noticed that with such an organized system, participants often help clean up at the end of the session and even sort sticky notes by color. So, make your life easier, invest in a good trolley. Your back and your materials will thank you. #Facilitation #Workshops #Hack #CollectiveIntelligence

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🌍 The Belgian Awards for Sustainability Reports in the news! 🏆 The Belgian Awards for Sustainability Reports (BAS) are making headlines in both L’Echo and De Tijd! This year, more than 70 organizations are participating in the BAS, with 20 of them taking part for the first time. Patrick Van Impe and Eric Van Hoof, president and vice-president respectively of the Institute of Registered Auditors (IBR-IRE), discuss the importance of these awards and their impact on sustainability within Belgian companies.🌱 For over 20 years, the BAS have rewarded organizations that stand out for their transparency and commitment to best practices in sustainability. In light of the forthcoming European CSRD directive, these awards are becoming increasingly essential for Belgian enterprises. Patrick Van Impe emphasizes: “The council members were visionary. At that time, sustainability reports were the domain of a select few. With the upcoming European CSRD directive, this will soon be a requirement for around 2,800 Belgian companies.” 🔍 💡 Discover how these awards stimulate innovation and transparency in sustainability reporting. Check out the full articles in : 🔗L’Echo: https://lnkd.in/ePwCvG5p & 🔗De Tijd: https://lnkd.in/ewsK22NM 💡 Also, don’t hesitate to follow our LinkedIn page for the Belgian Awards for Sustainability Reports to stay updated on the latest news. https://lnkd.in/e3vA6jAy #SustainabilityReports #SustainabilityAwards #Transparency #CSRD #IBR #IRE #Belgium

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Read the full article via the link in the first comment. Breathing Bricks collaborated with Groep INTRO vzw to install Belgium's first green fencing solution. At Groep INTRO, the goal is to create an all-inclusive society. Breathing Bricks shares this vision of inclusivity, alongside its commitment to environmental sustainability. This partnership highlights a shared dedication to fostering community inclusiveness while advancing sustainable practices. #GroepINTRO #GreenFencing #Sustainability #InclusiveSociety #EnvironmentalInnovation #Belgium #EcoFriendly #CommunityGrowth #SustainableDevelopment #BreathingBricks #BreathingBricks4Future #LetsGreenUP #GreenLiving #GreenInnovation #SustainableLiving #UrbanGreenery #WellBeing #SustainableCities #GreenCities #BreathingFence #BreathingBlock #BreathingPot 

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Inspiring speech from a dear industry colleague about circularity. Or fitting to the theme: A wake-up call.

Want to know more about AI and the automotive industry? Listen to the panel session at the #DCDW - Digital Car Dealer Workshop - de online automotive beter maken!-event, where CarQall participated. If you're interested in how AI can improve phone availability, customer, and employee satisfaction at your dealership, just contact me! Here is the link to the paneldiscussion (in Dutch): https://lnkd.in/e_8QmWxi #CarQall #AI #Automotive #DCDW #Innovation #CustomerExperience

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