Strategy · Proposition · Innovation · Ecosystems

The interesting answers rarely sit at either extreme.

Working where analysis meets imagination, and where strategic discipline meets intuition.

Helping organisations, regions and entrepreneurs understand what is changing, recognise what might become possible — and turn that into positioning, propositions, innovation and action.

Selected work ↘Speaking ↘Essays & columns ↘

How I work

Analysis tells us what we know. Intuition suggests where to look next.

I don't see analysis and intuition as opposites. Analysis makes assumptions visible and establishes what we know. Experience adds pattern recognition: the ability to notice what may deserve attention before it is completely visible in the data.

Intuition is not a substitute for evidence. It is a way of generating better questions — and those questions still have to survive reality.

Evidence × Imagination

Know what is true. Imagine what is not here yet.

Evidence protects us from believing everything we think. Imagination prevents us from believing that everything worth doing already exists.

Structure × Possibility

Enough structure to move. Enough openness to discover.

Structure makes ideas executable. But when structure determines in advance what may be discovered, innovation quietly becomes optimisation.

Analysis × Intuition

Make assumptions visible — then question what they leave out.

Analysis clarifies. Experience-informed intuition can reveal where the frame itself may be incomplete. They become useful when they challenge one another.

Direction × Emergence

Set direction without pretending to own the outcome.

In complex organisations and ecosystems, strategy creates choices, boundaries and conditions. Then you observe, learn and adjust.

I am suspicious of strategies that explain everything.

Advisory

Make complexity intelligible — then turn it into movement.

I work with founders, boards, public organisations and entrepreneurial teams on questions that need both rigorous thinking and room for a better possibility to emerge.

Brand & positioning

Finding the idea that makes the choices clearer.

Positioning, brand architecture, strategic narratives and the choices that make a brand distinctive.

Proposition development

Turning insight into something another person can value.

Value propositions, service concepts, product-market logic and routes from idea to market.

Innovation

Making new ideas testable, useful — and real.

Concept development, experimentation, new ventures and the bridge between vision and execution.

Ecosystems

Creating conditions in which collective value can emerge.

Regional branding, governance, shared identity and long-term ecosystem development.

Selected contexts

Saatchi & Saatchi · BBDO · THNK · ScaleUpNation · EY VODW · TU Delft · TU Eindhoven · Wageningen University · ABN AMRO · Triodos Bank · NN · ING · Zurich · Swiss Re · GGZ · Agis · Zilveren Kruis · Heineken · Mercedes-Benz · United Biscuits · General Biscuits · Crédit Agricole · Baloise · onna-onna · a.s.r. · Achmea · Atletiekunie · Consumentenbond · ANWB · Philips · Groningen · Oddny

“What is done is nothing.”— Paul Valéry

Entrepreneurial practice

Ideas become more interesting when reality gets a vote.

Alongside advisory work I have built and co-founded ventures, taught and developed new propositions. That entrepreneurial practice keeps strategy honest: ideas eventually have to meet people, budgets, organisations and the market.

Thinking & writing

Writing is thinking with nowhere to hide.

I write about brands, innovation, ecosystems, creativity, technology, culture and the systems we build around ourselves. Writing forces an idea to become precise without removing all of its ambiguity.

MarketingfactsEssays and articles on brands, innovation, ecosystems and strategy↗Daily CappuccinoColumns on Italian culture and absurdity↗MarketingTribuneColumns on marketing↗KunstzoneArt, education and the right to remain uncomfortable↗

Speaking

A good keynote does more than inform. It changes the field of attention.

Clients and audiences often tell me that my sessions inspire them. I appreciate that, but inspiration is not the product. What matters is that people begin to see something differently, ask better questions and leave with more possibility than they brought in.

Keynotes

Shift perspective. Create movement.

Brand strategy, proposition development, innovation, ecosystems, creative entrepreneurship and the changing world of work — combining ideas with cases, evidence and practical consequences.

Masterclasses

Think differently, then make it useful.

Interactive sessions in which strategic thinking, practical tools and room for unexpected insight reinforce one another.

Panels & guest lectures

Better questions over easy certainty.

Conversations on culture, technology, society, entrepreneurship and education.

Selected speaking & teaching

Speaking and teaching have run alongside my advisory work for more than two decades — from international client conferences to executive education, masterclasses and guest lectures.

Speaking

Swiss ReZurich / Rüschlikon — invited speaker twice: Globals Conference 2015 (eQuotient) and a later Top Client Event on proposition development.

EmerceBaarn and Amsterdam — two speaking appearances.

Positive Finance DaySpeaker / workshop on differentiation, branding and proposition thinking.

Erasmus UniversityGuest lecture on small business economics, innovation, marketing and branding.

AithraLecture / professional session.

Amsterdam School of Real EstateLecture / guest session.

Teaching & masterclasses

AOG School of ManagementNumerous lectures and classes in Brand Management over many years.

Foodvalley NLFour-part branding masterclass series.

THNK School of Creative LeadershipVisiting Faculty — creative strategy, ideation and brand management.

Invest-NL FastlaneCoach and expert on proposition development, positioning and branding.

Nyenrode Business UniversityLectures / guest sessions.

Amsterdam University of Applied SciencesMasterclasses, including Creative Careers by Design.

Willem de Kooning AcademyTeaching and guest education.

Leiden University of Applied SciencesTeaching and guest education.

If people leave energised, good. If they also leave thinking differently, even better.

Discuss a speaking engagement ↘

About

Curious enough to explore. Experienced enough to doubt.

Over the years I have worked as a strategist, entrepreneur, advisor, teacher and writer. Those roles increasingly feel like different expressions of the same activity: trying to understand how ideas acquire meaning — and how meaning can become action.

Based in Leiden, home to the Netherlands’ oldest university and a historic stronghold of liberal thought. I enjoy working with people who value independent thinking, substance, imagination and the occasional inconvenient question — and who are flexible enough to change their minds.

Education

PhD — Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)

MA History of Art — Leiden University

AOG — Brand Management

“Alles van waarde is weerloos.”— Lucebert

Contact

A good conversation is often a reasonable place to start.

If you are working on a strategy, proposition, innovation or ecosystem — or simply have a question that refuses to become simple — feel free to get in touch.

peterguidodeboer@gmail.com ↗ in LinkedIn ↗