by Alexander Lethen, Regional Director of Benelux
Last week I met with the Dutch Minister of Finance, Mr. Jan Kees de Jager, at our Redwood City HQ. De Jager was on a short road trip through Silicon Valley to experience the innovation ‘vibe’ and pitch the Netherlands as the right location as a European HQ.
In our conversation we talked through the differences between Silicon Vally and the Netherlands – in particular – and Europe at large in terms of entrepreneurship and levels of innovations. Geographically, Silicon Valley is much smaller than the Netherlands, which is by itself already a pretty small country. Silicon Valley has produced over the last decades many of the most successful high-tech companies worldwide and is continuing to do so, especially in Anything-as-a-Services.
Although these are several other ‘pockets’ of high-tech innovation in the USA and abroad, the Valley – in my view – brings together the perfect ingredients for a highly innovative and attractive blend of success. There are many ingredients, and the most important ones are:
On top of that it is located in a gorgeous part of the country, only miles away from San Francisco.
Unfortunately for the Dutch Minister of Finance, I was not in the position to gift wrap this blend in a handy little package, for him to take home.
Whoever could package ‘Culture-as-a-Service’ is certainly on to a killer-app. In the mean time, you can always subscribe to this culture by signing up with many of the Valley’s most innovative companies to optimise your business.
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