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Hi friends,

Greetings from an increasingly sunny Utrecht!

I've been pretty busy in the last few weeks, and I'm happy to say that most of what I'm currently working on is very exciting. Here are a few highlights from my past two weeks:

• My role at Global Talk has just been expanded to include not just Innovation management but Business Development as well. I’m very excited about the projects we have lined up, and I’m eager to share more when we’re a bit further in.
• I decided to split up the mission/vision/values essay into two, possibly three separate ones. There was too much to cover in one go, and this way I think I can do more justice to the various elements that are necessary to get it right. Hopefully, this also means that they are more useful for those of you that might be looking for practical handholds rather than theoretical considerations.
• I’m currently reading Deepak Chopra’s The Book of Secrets, on a recommendation by a good friend. There’s a lot of wisdom there, and I’m feel like I’m getting better at looking past the “intent of the universe”-type of philosophizing. That’s not my cup of tea, and in the past I’d have put the book away. I’ll share my book notes on the website when I’m finished.
• I started building a gunpla kit that I’ve been saving for a while–yeah, yeah, I’m a huge nerd, I know. It’s the main gundam from the anime Iron Blooded Orphans. The show is great, if a little uneven, and the mecha designs are some of the most visually interesting in the series.

Here’s what I want to share with you this week:

​Mission, vision, values, part 1: Taken together, and defined and implemented the right way, a company’s mission, vision and values are much more than corporate bullshit or idle daydreaming. In fact, they can be a tremendous competitive advantage. In this first part I examine Jim Collins’s framework for defining your mission, vision and values. The next part will examine how best to implement them and make them an intrinsic part of your company.

The Best Bits

Uniquely Dutch: Here’s some cool imagery for you. I didn’t know this, but aparently Rotterdam has an inland shipyard, which means that every once in a while you get to see a superyacht make its way through our picturesque canals. Some gorgeous shots here, providing a nice visual clash between our homey canals and top notch ship design.

​Tencent Investment: As far as I’m concerned, Tencent is one of the most interesting companies around right now. This overview shows that Tencent Investment was the most active Chinese venture capital firm in the first quarter with 103 deals internationally, spending more than RMB 60 billion (USD 9.2 billion). Around 30% of its targets were game developers, suggesting that Tencent invested into a game company every three days in Q1. The scale of this is simply insane.

​Global Trends Shaping Humankind: This is the type of content that you only come across every once in a while. Psychologist, economist and Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman joins historian and public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari in discussing the global trends shaping humankind. Some incredible insights here, and well worth your time.

​Bits 'n Bricks podcast: This one is a bit niche, but I’m absolutely loving it. Game journalist Brian Crecente dives into the history and stories of LEGO’s involvement in videogames. Every episode sheds light on LEGO’s vision on interactive entertainment, as well as the development process, which makes for an interesting mix.

​Dutch perspective on investment: I started investing recently (see my portfolio here), and I think I also mentioned that, somehow, the topic isn’t really discussed much in my social circles. Apparently, that is just a Dutch thing! According to this article, the Dutch overstimate the risk involved, and underestimate the potential rewards, when compared to other populations. Go figure.

See you in two weeks!

Martijn

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