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What can companies learn from honeybees?

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Qhuba’s vision 

Values ​​and motives of people determine the success of cooperation

Qhuba has many stakeholders: partners, associates, employees, customers and companies we work with. Most of them have a good idea of ​​who Qhuba is and what we do. To understand our motives (isn’t that what we call Purpose nowadays ?) we like to go back to the origins of Qhuba to explain which core values ​​are important to us and why.

Qhuba was founded by Wouter Hasekamp . When he started his career in the SAP corner of Shell, he noticed that many SAP implementation processes cost much more money than necessary due to a lack of cooperation. This was the reason for him to become an entrepreneur and he started a SAP implementation company with two partners. During these projects, too, he noticed that everyone fully defines their own area of ​​responsibility. As a result, everyone only manages their own targets, which means that a lot of time and money is wasted unnecessarily.

Qhuba = Drive

These observations, and especially the amazement and annoyance about them, form the basis of Qhuba’s vision. No longer focused on SAP implementations, but an organization that started supporting Digital Transformations from AZ and transformed itself to an organization who helps organizations more sustainable. He has named this organization Qhuba which literally means drive. It is a South African word that describes the dynamics of wildlife at a pond. All animals come together at such a puddle, the lion and the antelope. They leave each other alone there because they have a more important common goal: to quench their thirst. Of course they don’t suddenly become best friends because of the puddle, but they have a common interest that they put above the short-term individual interest.

Network organization

Only one organizational structure fits this vision: a network organization without any form of hierarchy, in which people are constantly looking for common interests. It is not important to the network which role you play exactly. It is irrelevant whether you work for yourself, are employed by Qhuba or one of our partners or whether you work for one of our clients. What is relevant is whether you have a passion for what you do every day, whether you see common goals and common interests and whether you want to contribute to them. It is striking that this is not logical in all organizations or in all circumstances. Fortunately, for some people it is. Those are the people we like.

New passion

In 2019 Wouter Hasekamp decided it was time to make a shift from the boardroom to nature. When his daughter came home from school explaining he should save bees, otherwise we will have shortage of food, it made him think how he could contribute to that. He dove into the world of honeybees and the challenges they have. Starting with a beekeeper course, placing some hives in his garden and read about the difficulties around biodiversity in the Netherlands, Bijenbaas was founded. Because of the shortage of biodiversity in the Netherlands all kinds of insects are having a difficult time to survive. Bijenbaas started buying pieces of land that they could cultivate and make more attractive for all kind of insects and so create biodiversity. Fast-forward a few years later Bijenbaas has around 700 beehives in almost all provinces in the Netherlands and Belgium. The honey, with track and trace code which shows where the honey is from, when it is harvested and what kind of trees and flower bloomed before harvesting, is sold in 350 delicacy shops.

When the Qhuba network found out we where working on creating more biodiversity they asked how they could help. Clients we helped for years regarding digital transformation embraced our new idea and so we also founded Bijzaak. Putting beehives on roofs of organizations who want to contribute to create more biodiversity. But for Bijzaak it is also a change to educate all those employees about the difficulties all kind of insects have if we not start creating more biodiversity so we can keep eat all kind of food to keep us healthy.

Simple Business Design – Sustainability

Because of the shift towards the bees and creating more biodiversity we also became natural sparring partners for companies around sustainability. Asking us how they can start becoming more sustainable. At that same time, a longtime friend of Qhuba, Chris Parker founded ebullient. He created the Simple Business Design, a framework which helps business leaders to simplify their thinking to create momentum towards achieving their goals. After Qhuba used this approach themselves we created together with Chris Parker, Simon Brod and Wim Lubbersen a Simple Business Design version specific for Sustainability.

For Qhuba now the circle was completed. Starting a new business who took us out of the boardroom and made us play in nature, doing something to help the next generation, combined with something that has been a passion for a long time: helping companies being better, specifically around sustainability.

Would you like to read more about the Simple business design – Sustainability? Or are you curious about an overview of our current Blogs? You can also contact us directly so that we can share our passion with you.

 

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JESSICA VAN BEEK

WOUTER HASEKAMP

WIM LUBBERSEN

SIMON BROD

CHRIS PARKER