Could you briefly introduce yourself and the career path you chose? I am a doctorate in nuclear physics and an entrepreneur. I founded INCAS³, a Dutch based private research institute, and am the founder and CEO of Ingu Solutions, a Canadian based company. After obtaining my doctorate from the University of Groningen, I began working in R&D at KPN. This was during the height of the 1990s telecommunications industry, the period when technologies like voice over IP started. After six years I switched from industry to education, and became Dean of the School of Computer Science at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in 2004. Four years later, I started INCAS³, a high tech sensor institute, with the ambition to solve the world’s most challenging sensing and monitoring problems. Ingu Solutions came later in 2014, to commercialize our activities in Canada. In my career path there was also a brief period when I was a consultant. However, as a consultant you are primarily on the sideline, only advising. The great thing about being an entrepreneur is that you get to make your own decisions. Of course you bear the risks and consequences, but you are able to create your own path. Could you describe to our readers the relationship of INCAS³, with its subsidiary Ingu Solutions in Canada? How do they compare? Simply put, INCAS³ is responsible for the research and Ingu Solutions handles the business side. Together, they create synergy. It is in the essence of bringing leading edge research that identifies unsolved issues, and devising solutions by creating products and services. These then create a business opportunity, which Ingu Solutions focuses on. The products also need to be tested in the harshest conditions, which ensures their reliability. Canada offers the perfect location for testing, with its abundance of oil, mining and remote areas. The businesses themselves are therefore very connected, but the atmosphere between the two is completely different. INCAS³ was funded with 19 million euros, whereas Ingu Solutions was fully a start-up. When you begin with money it creates a vastly different atmosphere compared to when you start from scratch. Ingu Solutions has encompassed a truly entrepreneurial attitude in its operations. Having that additional pressure of trying to grow the company makes a difference. Could you elaborate on the foreign investment climate in Canada? Canada and The Netherlands are very similar in terms of the business climate and culture. In the last couple of years both countries have reconnected and continue to create significant export opportunities for SME’s working in either country. Furthermore, Canada is an excellent entry to the North American continent, while the Netherlands has a similar position in Europe. What are some of the considerations that had to be analyzed when picking a location to setup the subsidiary? Why Waterloo? Initially we opened an office in Saskatchewan, given that most of our clients are there. We intended to grow this office with product management and development capabilities, until we were invited to the Waterloo region by Canada’s Technology Triangle (CTT), an organization which promotes trade and investments to this Ontario region. They gave us a tour and on that same day we decided that this would be the place for our new office. Waterloo combines three unique features that influenced our decision: Human capital (students), technology industry (manufacturing companies) and investment climate (investors). These are very important for establishing a business. The area comes the closest to another Silicon Valley that I’ve ever seen. In general, the brochure is always nicer than reality, but Waterloo delivered as promised. Growing internationally requires you to learn very quickly about foreign economies. What are some differences you find operating in Canada compared to The Netherlands? There is the obvious difference with the Dutch directness and Canadian politeness. However, in Canada that does not always mean you will get what you are looking for. In the Netherlands you always know what is going on. You just need to understand the mechanism of Canada; different systems of business are at work. In terms of laws, there are some interesting differences. In The Netherlands a notary is responsible for all of the arrangements, but in Canada this is not the case, meaning contracts need to be much more detailed. For instance, there are some interesting clauses that can be used, such as the “shotgun clause”. This clause activates when two shareholders want to separate, but can’t agree on the price. The clause then basically states if one shareholder offers x dollar for the shares of the other one, the other one can buy the first one shares for the same price. It forces a fair deal. Additionally, when compared to Canadians, Dutch employees are also in a sense spoiled. In Canada there are no such things as permanent contracts so there is less security, and holiday pay means you actually get paid when you have holiday and not, like in the Netherlands, that you get an extra salary in May. Your operations are largely revolved around the commercialization of intellectual property. Can you explain this process? Our business model involves developing products that have an application already. In the classic model, a university has a research strategy and afterwards tries to raise market interest for their inventions. This is not the case for us. We look at the market and see what it is interested in and set out to develop a product to satisfy this need. It is self-fulfilling. However, we have to be cautious about being too far ahead of the market. Take for example Voice over IP technology. Even though the technology was there, it took over a decade for the market to catch up. As for intellectual property, we currently own 6 patents. However, you have to think of why we own these. It is not that we want to protect the IP. If a large corporation was using this IP we would not be able to compete in a legal battle. It is more a
Campus life: Should grades matter?
In campus life we pose four different students a topical, interesting and important question. We inquire whether students believe the educational system of direct Bachelor-Master admittance should be altered to a performance based system, where Bachelor marks determine if you are eligible for the Masters program. Hoang L. Nguyen, MSc. Finance (20 years), Vietnamese Yes, I believe they should implement a performance based system. I think the minimum average grade makes sure that the student can handle all the working load of a master program, which is very heavy. Some people may defend that grades cannot reflect one’s true potential. In my opinion, grades reflect not only potentials, but also attitude and skills to manage time, and their ability to balance between study and extra activities. If the committee select students that are not capable, it is not only a waste for them, but also their family, the school and society. In addition, as an international student it is required in most cases that we complete the GMAT, a test which takes roughly three months to study for. If as a Dutch student this is not required, that is not as big a deal if they have had some sort of qualification level to obtain in order to take part in the same master program. Tessa Teuwen, MSc. Supply Chain Management & MSc. Finance (26 years), Dutch For Master studies to select their students is not particularly a bad thing, for Master studies to select their students solely on their grades is a bad thing. Personally I believe that students are more than just their grades. The experience you gain from going abroad, doing a board year or taking extra courses cannot be expressed in grades. However, these teach you practical skills and give you the opportunity to develop yourself in different ways. For Master studies to select their students solely on their grades is only going to shift the attention away from these experiences towards the grades. It is going to create students who score a 7 on average, but do not benefit from the gains of these experiences. Personally I believe that these experiences are more valuable than the difference between a 6.5 average or a 7 average. In case Master studies want to select their students, they should take into account more factors than grades solely. Chanisa Sayatanan, MSc. Economics (22 years), Thai I think it is okay for Dutch peoples’ admittance to not be based on grades, or for any international people that finish schooling at a Dutch university. Since Dutch universities tend to have certain standards, if those people who already received a degree in Dutch university apply for a Masters program, then they are already qualified and it would not be a problem to study further at the university. For international students or students that have studied elsewhere, it would on the other hand be appropriate to require them to have reached some certain grade level. Because different countries have different standards of education, grades could be one of the easiest ways to proof that you are qualified to study a Masters program in The Netherlands. However, I do not think grades should be the only tools to judge the capability of the applicants but it obviously should be as one of the requirement criteria. Coming from a partner university allowed my application to be easier as Tilburg University has already deemed the University to be of a certain quality of learning, which I think is a great help for foreign applicants. Jordy van den Bogaert, MSc. Dutch Law & MSc. Tax Law (25 years), Dutch No I do not think it is a good idea because the Bachelor qualifies you to do the Masters program. That is how it works in the Dutch education system. If you cannot access the Masters because of low grades then that would mean the Bachelor does not match with the Masters, and that is the whole purpose- to act as a prerequisite. In your Bachelor you have more general subjects, very limited to what you can choose, and in your Masters you specify and do the courses you want to work in. So the Master is less like an extra level, and more of a deepening of your program. I think that the 6 is a pass, and that it shows you are good enough to do the Masters, otherwise why would it be a pass if it was not enough? In terms of international students, I think the GMAT and standardized tests help equal everyone out, as Bachelors across the world vary a lot. It acts as a benchmark for them. But we do not need that as our Bachelor is the benchmark for the Masters.