Recent news
2011-03-14 -- New tab added for students
We are more and more often approached by students who want to write their master thesis or their PHD based partly or in whole on the research undertaken by professor Geert Hofstede on organizational culture.
On the one hand we are very happy that more and more colleagues of Geert Hofstede refer to his work. On the other hand this creates a lot of additional work on our side as we have to answer all kind of request.
Thus, we have added a new tab called “Students” in which we explain whether and to which degree we can be instrumental in assisting them with their studies.
2011-02-07 -- Certification courses
Our last two certification courses has been conducted in Finland in mid December 2010 and in the Netherlands in the beginning of this month.
We are very glad that participation becomes more and more diverse. In Finland, next to management consultants, a research fellow participated as well as two employees from a multi- national company busy in acquiring lots of other smaller companies to strengthen their portfolio.
In the Netherlands, next to management consultants, an advisor on communication participated who acknowledges that culture is one of the most important factors defining his clients’ success in this field. Another participant from Malta, a medical doctor, got funding from the European Commission to start a pilot research project in assessing the influence of both national cultures and organizational cultures on the rate of infections occurring in intensive care. He will make use of our quick scans to assess such influence.
2010-12-23
Oops, we suddenly realise that we have posted no news during 2010. It therefore looks as if we are out of business, but that is far from the truth. We have been extremely busy, yet we will do a better job in 2011.
A number of certification courses have been successfully conducted in Finland and the Netherlands during 2010. Experience has taught us that formal certification cannot take place after having concluded the certification course. Formal certification will now only take place after participants have conducted an assignment successfully.
We are involved in two assignments in the field of mergers and acquisitions. This has allowed us to fine-tune our approach. Integration of cultures and activities require an even more sophisticated approach. One additional requirement is to scan the cultures of both parties separately to manage integration successfully. Yet, at the same time one has to make sure that differences identified will be neutralized so that they will not hinder the creation of an attractive common identity.
Another innovation is that we have trained employees of our clients to take over, if so desired, part of our work internally. By doing so internal ownership is strengthened, while making the whole process considerably cheaper for the client. What, however, cannot and should not be transferred to internal consultants is the interaction with top and senior management. They are too much dependent on those managers to allow them to act in a fully autonomous and independent way.
The cooperation between us and Feedbackdialog in Finland runs smoothly. Soon a number of integrated change tools will be available on-line.
2009-12-14 -- New certified consultants
Five more consultants have been certified after successfully completing the standard certification course last December 3/4. During these two days the participants were submerged in the Hofstede Model, both theoretically and practically.
A nice sidenote: one of the participants has already acquired an assignment for an organisational culture scan, and another has three promising leads.
Two new consultants have already signed up for the standard certification course in March 2010.
2009-10-18 -- Testimonial
We received some very positive feedback of ideas4, one of our certified consultants. If interested you may read their testimonial here.
2009-10-15 -- Certification rescheduled
The date for our standard certification course has been rescheduled from November 26/27 to December 3/4.
2009-05-05 -- New dates for certification course
New dates for certification for using our standard package have been set. Please check our calendar and contact us if you wish to attend or for any questions you may have.
2009-04-12 -- First certification course
The first certification course of our standard package, held on April 9 and 10 in Laren, the Netherlands, was a success with participants from Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
2008-11-05 -- New website launched!
Today we launched our new website, www.itimfocus.org .
2008-07-12 -- Cooperation with Feedback Dialog
Itim Focus and Feedbackdialog have teamed up to improve service to our customers.