Original synergy

"When I started out, I was fortunate in that I was not hindered by any knowledge of proper management techniques"

Eckart Wintzen (left) of BSO/Origin is well-known in the Dutch corporate community, both for the success of his information technology company and for his entrepreneurial flair. James Geary reports on his winning ways

In his loud tie and multi-colored vest, Eckart Wintzen, president and chief executive of BSO/ Origin, seems slightly incongruous in the sleek business-like interior of his company's head office in Utrecht. When asked for an experience from his youth, which might have been decisive in setting him off on the path to entrepreneurship, Wintzen cites his study of mathematics. "The beauty of mathematics," he remarks, "is that you can accomplish anything you want; you just have to make up new rules." In establishing BSO/Origin as a leading international player in information technology, this self-styled corporate iconoclast has made up a few new rules of his own along the way.

Founded by Wintzen in 1976, BSO/Origin has since blossomed into a multinational organization specializing in the introduction of new technologies to the business setting. The company offers a comprehensive service package in the fields of systems integration and operations, consultancy and facility management.

The turning point for the firm came in 1991, when BSO acquired full ownership of Origin, the former internal automation department of the Dutch electronics giant Philips. It was this acquisition that transformed BSO from a regional Dutch company into a significant international player. Reflecting on the genesis of his company, Wintzen says, "When I started out, I was fortunate in that I was not hindered by any knowledge of proper management techniques. Otherwise, I might have ended up doing things the traditional way."

One of Wintzen's decidedly unconventional innovations is the t cell-division' philosophy of corporate organization. Speaking more like a Buddhist philosopher than a chief executive officer, Wintzen draws on a metaphor from the realm of biology: "In nature, things grow without any supervision. An onion, for example, grows because it has a message built into its cells, not because it has a chairman of the board. And if nature can do it, why can't companies."

On a more practical level, the celldivision approach means that a branch of BSO/Origin divides, just as a cell divides during replication, into two separate companies when the number of staff exceeds 100. This organizational structure makes the company more commercially flexible, while enabling the autonomous divisions to respond more rapidly to local market trends. As Wintzen points out, it has the added advantage of generating a high degree of motivation among staff members: "Our employees love the cell-philosophy approach, because it allows them maximum play for their own initiatives and creativity. By keeping staff limited to 100, people are really able to see the fruits of their own labour.

"Whether it's in Singapore or Seattle," Wintzen continues, "our clients demand intelligent, integrated systems from us. And because there has to be a great deal of coherence between our systems, there has to be a great deal of communication between our cells. Among other things, it is this communication that prevents the chaos of uncontrolled growth.

"Our business is really 80 per cent communication and 20 per cent computing," Wintzen says. "It is our job to build a bridge between people and machines. Machines are easy to understand, but people are unpredictable. Thus, the challenge for us is to understand the person who has to use the machine."

In addition to programming cultural sensitivity into his personal management style and his company's software, Wintzen also considers it his responsibility to contribute to a better ecological balance between human activity and the planet. As a result, in 1990 BSO/Origin became the first company in the world to include full environmental accounting in its annual reports. This "ecological book-keeping", as Wintzen calls it, is based on 'extracted value', the burden that the company places on the ecosystem. The damage caused to the environment by the company's operations is expressed in financial terms based on the theoretical costs of repairing that damage.

To many other executives, Wintzen's ideas about corporate management and the environment may seem idealistic, if not downright naive. But Wintzen the realist has the last word: "Simple idealism isn't going to get us anywhere. The only real driving force in the world is business. So in order to be able to promote environmental responsibility, I need my credibility as a successful businessman. Otherwise, nobody would pay attention."