Schouten & Nelissen heads in a new direction. We keep moving forward with other brand names, websites and expressions. To zoom in on SN's new brand identity, we talked to Camiel Gielkens, CEO of Schouten & Nelissen, and Jan-Hein Schouten, President of the board of Schouten & Nelissen. Why were SN, SUAS and the other labels split? How do they maintain the culture of the original family business and what can we all expect from SN in the future?
SN as an umbrella
First, there will be a split between sn.nl and SUAS. From now on you can visit SUAS.nl for the best education, training and coaching. SN is the parent brand, which includes a total of nine labels. In addition to SUAS, these are Competence, New Dawn, Relevance, Realise, Someone, Ixly, New Heroes and Thema. Every organization has its specialization, from mindfulness to HR Consultancy. “We are no longer a training agency, which is often still the perception,” says Jan-Hein. “Over the last 40 years, we have developed ourselves into a broad international player with 400 employees. We help people and organizations to stay relevant. In more ways than just with training.”
Reasons for the brand split
“We chose this split because we want to provide a relevant solution for all learning and development questions,” explains Camiel. “Personally, I think this is the best time ever to be active in Learning & Development, the need has never been greater. Thanks to digitization, knowledge has a shelf life of about five years. We must continuously work on our skills. I see it as a challenge and a personal responsibility to contribute to this.” Jan-Hein nods. “With this split, we can be relevant to more people and make more impact. In 2022 we were allowed to mean something to 400,000 people. That number is growing by 30% per year.”
Another reason for the brand split is recognisability. “We noticed more and more that Schouten & Nelissen is well known, but it was unclear where to go for what”, Jan-Hein continues. “Many new forms of learning have emerged in recent years, and it has become too much under one umbrella. We also have to deal with an increasing diversity of questions. Questions like: What is the best way to learn for me? Do I go for an e-learning, bachelor, master or coaching? How will my team work better together? We cannot answer all these questions with one brand.”
Specialization leads to the deepening of expertise and a better partnership with our customers. “We see that the market is really asking for specialists instead of generalists,” says Camiel. “Since our employees focus on one brand, they have a clearer goal and more scope. This way we have more focus on the customer. We see the result in our NPS scores. We were also the best trainer in the Netherlands in the MT1000 in 2021.”
In addition to the benefits for the customer, Jan-Hein also mentions making room for internal entrepreneurship as a reason. “During COVID, we noticed that our specializations were becoming too broad, and people were getting in the way of themselves and each other. Roles intertwined. To keep up with the times and stand by our ambition to make people stronger and help them stay strong, flexible and relevant, we also have to be agile. Would someone rather do something else? Fine, then he or she will receive all the support. Anyone at New Dawn want to try coaching with AI? Do it! They don't have to sign off with us for that. We must be able to respond immediately to questions and developments.”
Advanced experimentation
“We really are an experimental company. In addition to starting new things, we often stop doing something if it turns out it doesn’t work.” Camiel gives an example. “Recently, a new platform turned out to be too complex, so after a few weeks we decided to shut it down. Even when I was responsible for developments in Asia and saw that it wasn’t working out in China and Russia, we changed course without much hesitation. My vision is that you have to stop as many things as you start.” Jan-Hein adds a few words of wisdom: “If you make it easy to stop, you also make it easy to start! By being enterprising, you encounter new questions. That is where your growth lies.”
Constant mission
“As my father and founder Jan Schouten said in the late 1970s during his TV shows about assertiveness at the AVRO: the well-being of employees is just as important as productivity. We still see people as the most important value, not our turnover. I sometimes say that because we believe in people, we make money. This credo is anchored in our organization.” Camiel agrees with this. “Our goal is always to make an impact. Helping people turn a 6 into a 9, that's what we get out of our beds for on Monday morning. Turnover, profit and growth will follow. We also all know where we come from and what shapes us. Marieke is active as a DNA officer to safeguard the family culture. From cozy barbecues to joint onboarding for all organizations: we are building on our legacy.”
Future plans
When we talk about the future, the gentlemen's already present smiles get even wider. They proudly explain their plans.
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International expansion
“Since we want to touch as many people as possible where and when they need us, you will see us in more places worldwide,” says Camiel. “We are active in more than 60 countries. More than 40% of the turnover comes from abroad and this percentage is rising rapidly.” “We no longer blindly open offices to have a foothold somewhere,” adds Jan-Hein. “We first provide partnerships and a network of specialists. This way, something arises, and we are more flexible.”
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Optimal synergy between technology and people
“We have the ambition to make learning more personal, adaptive and social,” says Camiel. “Classrooms are outdated, and technology can no longer be ignored in training land, but the focus should always be on the participant. We bring people together: with our platforms, content, interventions and collaborations with over 700 freelancers. To continue the route to blended learning with more focus and speed, I spend two days a week working on new technology. There is still plenty of room for improvement, especially at intervention layers.”
Jan-Hein emphasizes that Schouten & Nelissen are right behind the frontrunners in this field. “We first want to make sure that it works before we use it to get people from A to B – or rather from that 6 to a 9.”
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Expansion of portfolio and target group
“We don’t just solve today’s problems, we prepare our customers for tomorrow's challenges,” says Camiel. “This is reflected, for example, in more master's degree programmes, more international degree programs and the increasing role of games. We are continuously broadening our range of services so that the customer can come to us for even more answers.”
“It's about what’s relevant to the customer,” concludes Jan-Hein. “It’s also possible that an organization is dropped because the service becomes less relevant. Will we have nine or twelve labels in a few years? We will see. I think it is more important to expand the 500,000 people we now 'touch' worldwide per year to one million. Or rather to five to ten million. The more people who are relevant, strong and flexible, the better.
