Senior leaders are often keenly aware of the evolution of their sector. They have a deep understanding of the shifts and trends that have shaped it. And for some, there comes a point when they want to do something meaningful with this unique insight.
This was the case for Benjamin De Brabander, a partner at KPMG Belgium. He specialises in digital transformation – and heads up the organisation’s Lead Powered Enterprise and Enterprise Solutions team. As soon as he discovered that Vlerick had launched an Executive PhD Programme in Business Administration, he knew what his next leap would be.
He says: “I’d always dreamed of doing a PhD and I knew it would allow me to explore trends I was seeing in my industry. I did my MBA at Vlerick – and as soon as I learned that they were offering a doctoral programme for experienced professionals, I knew it was for me. Vlerick’s faculty are very high quality – so there was a high degree of trust already.”
From the outset, Benjamin knew he wanted to investigate his specialist area – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). These are company-wide software systems that integrate all main business processes. This means that organisations often look directly to their ERP as a means of transforming operational processes and business models.
Benjamin has advised on hundreds of ERP implementations over a 20-year period – and had a “gut feel” that business needs and priorities were changing significantly.
He says: “At the beginning of ERP, the emphasis was on efficiency – optimising through integration and automation. I call this approach ‘exploitation’. But as business needs have changed, through regulation, shifts in society, technology and innovation, this kind of ERP can be too restrictive.
“Companies now need to be able to integrate with their supply chains so that they can report accurately on ESG targets, for example. Or they need to integrate with other sales platforms. Or they want to use AI – or they’re looking to a future of quantum computing. In these companies, the ERP needs to have a very open and interactive architecture. I call this using ERP for ‘exploration’.
“And it’s not an either/or situation,” says Benjamin. “Companies who benefit from open architecture don’t want to leave optimisation value on the table. So they need a balance between exploitation and exploration. I call this ‘ambidextrous’ ERP.”
While Benjamin could find thousands of research resources on ERP, there was little on its evolving nature. This, then, became the subject of his research proposal.
According to Benjamin, ERP is a global $40 bn growing to $80 bn business. An average implementation can cost millions of euros – while a large, international implementation can in some cases exceed 100 million.
Once implemented, ERP is unlikely to be changed for at least eight years – and with the advent of cloud technology, it may never be changed at all.
The implications of making the wrong choices are therefore huge. And Benjamin says his research has the potential to empower academics, companies that use ERP, companies that develop ERP – as well as consultants like him – to better understand which approach to take.
He says: “It's important for practitioners to make very conscious decisions about what is important for them – to understand the transformation they want to make, and to be able to choose the technology that will deliver it.”
Benjamin’s work has already reached an international audience. He’s written two papers – and presented the first at the 16th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science in Barcelona.
The paper – Toward Digital ERP: A Literature Review – was co-authored by Vlerick Professor Stijn Viaene and Associate Professor Amy Van Looy from Ghent University.
Benjamin says: “Publishing papers is very competitive – more competitive than I thought it would be. But this forces you to go to a very high-quality level, which was a real positive for me.
“The conference was also an incredible experience – and it was great to be able to meet so many interesting people.”
Benjamin says he has received unwavering support from faculty and the Vlerick Executive PhD team. However, finding the time to carry out his research needs careful planning and preparation.
He says: “Working as a partner is a 60 hour per week job! So I’ve found it’s about carving out quality time. You can’t get home after a busy day and think you’ll spend half an hour doing research. It doesn’t work like that for me– you need a clear head.
“Executive PhD students have the huge advantage of experience – and if you plan ahead, you can leverage that experience to make a lot of progress in a limited amount of time.
“The Vlerick Executive PhD team is great. They’re always on hand to support you through the process – and they have regular acceleration weeks, which are a great opportunity to focus on your research. There’s also a very good community and network – and we help and support one another.”
Benjamin says that his doctoral research has already made him a better consultant and mentor in his role. It’s also widening his network, and is opening up possibilities for the future.
He says: “My research is benefiting KPMG – in terms of the additional depth of understanding I offer clients and our internal teams.
“It’s also opening doors – like meeting people in conferences, and also directly with my research. For example, I interviewed ten CIOs as part of my qualitative research. Because I reached out to them with a research request, they were all interested and generously gave me their time. So it is allowing me to widen my network.
“And a PhD offers a route into teaching – which I could see myself doing in the future.
“This is an interesting, deeply rewarding journey and I’m excited to see where it takes me.”
Discover Benjamin’s research on the evolution of ERP >
Dive into the publications of Benjamin's supervisors, Professor Stijn Viaene and Professor Amy Van Looy.
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