Meet Senior Manager Niels
Niels Loader has experienced the growth of Eraneos up close. “I have known Eraneos, formerly Quint, since November 1997,” Niels says, “With a small ‘excursion’ here and there, I have always come back to Eraneos. I feel at home here.” Niels has been part of the Organizational Excellence & Transformation team since 2008.
“My choice to leave at the time had nothing to do with Eraneos, but with my ambitions going in a different direction,” Niels explains. “Despite the fun I had in my new role, I gradually noticed that I am a real consultant, and that that is where my passion lies.” With that realization, Niels soon returned to Eraneos. “Eraneos was doing exactly what I wanted to do, so I knew pretty quickly that this was the match I was looking for.”
From 2009 onwards, Eraneos started to focus on Lean, Agile, and DevOps, “and I fully focused on that, which now makes me one of our thought leaders in this area”. In recent years, Niels has increasingly shifted his focus to leadership. “Issues that concern us a lot include how we can help leaders who are dealing with a Lean/Agile/DevOps transformation.”
“I want to ensure that as many people as possible on this planet have access to excellent IT services.”
“Through my thought leadership, I can introduce new and innovative things and profile them in a specific area of expertise,” Niels explains, “As a result, our customers in the market get to know us for our most important characteristics: our knowledge, expertise and experiences.”
We involve our new employees in that process as much as possible. Niels recently organized a creative session to demonstrate this in practice. “During this day we showed how we get a team organized in an active way: the people played the team, and I coached them to find each other as a team, based on the previously shared knowledge.” According to Niels, coaching is also necessary in his role within Eraneos. “Everyone must follow the standard training courses, but what does the real world look like? I always try to translate everything learned on paper into products and services that you perform for the customer.” This way we have a concrete product to present, but at the same time it is also a practical way to allow consultants to develop further.
The leaders of the future
Niels’ favorite client assignments are those where a leadership team sees that the organization is struggling in its current situation. “Together with the leadership team, we look at how we can, for example, apply Lean principles to create a different organizational form where employees can perform better, so that they can provide better services to their customers.” If the design is made first, then comes the elaboration of the target operating model. “You start with a basic design and then you look at further implementations with the leadership team,” Niels explains, “and then see how, based on the model, you can ensure that the organization will work.”
Niels has completed assignments in various sectors, including IT service providers. “Now I do the same sort of assignment at an insurancy company, where we create the design and strategy,” Niels says, “What I enjoy most is proving that the design works. Especially because it is an opportunity to bring a positive vibe to an organization.” Niels notices that it is often good if an external expert comes in, “An organization often needs that: someone who comes in without a history with the organization and helps with the core issues. Someone who understands the problems and listens to the people, and usually also finds solutions with the people.”
Professionals through and through
According to Niels, we don’t have one type of person walking around at Eraneos. “We have all kinds of different people who want to create real value for customers,” Niels says, “We are not the people who color exactly between the lines, and we are not looking for that either. We are looking for people who have a broad think about our field. People who are involved in the field, who delve into the subject matter and who also look at what others are doing in the market. People who work with us have a certain slant and passion for our profession.”
If Niels could choose one key word to describe his colleagues, it would be ‘enthusiastic’. “We always take on an assignment with good courage, internally or externally. We sometimes get a slap in the face, but we always try to pick ourselves up and continue, if we see that it is the right thing.” There are of course also difficult moments, but together, as a team, we put our shoulders to the wheel and carry on. “That’s a cultural thing with us, if you need someone to get something done, people make time for you,” Niels says, “People are always looking to see how they can help you, no matter how busy they are.”
Bookworm
Niels prefers to spend his free time reading. “Because I am originally British, I actually read everything in English,” Niels laughs. When he reads professional literature, he tries to learn new things from other fields and perspectives, and ultimately implements them in his work himself. “That’s how I am. For example, I ended up with ‘Organizational Behavior Management’, which is now one of our courses,” Niels explains, “If you look at our work, it is about behavior. We often do that based on feelings and how we are as people, but you can also look at behavioral science and see what you can get from it.”
Niels also reads other genres, from thrillers to historical novels, which doesn’t matter to him, as long as it’s a good story. “One of the books I recommend is ‘Utopia Avenue’ by David Mitchell. It’s about a band in the 60s,” Niels explains, “Great period, great writing, beautiful, funny, crazy – really a must-read if you ask me.”