How Ninke prepares to take over the family business

Ninke Martens, ABDM Architecten / CBAM Engineering – Challenge Bootcamp 2022

10 August 2023
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Ninke Martens is an architectural engineer at ABDM Architecten, as well as an acoustics engineer at CBAM Engineering. Today, she runs these two sister companies/family businesses with her parents and brother. Their multidisciplinary architecture and research business specialises in offices, schools and production facilities for property developers with far-reaching sustainability and circularity ambitions. In a bid to take her management skills to the next level, Ninke signed up for our Challenge Bootcamp. At the end of the bootcamp, we asked her what she had learned, which definitive actions she had taken, as well as what impact the course had had on her.

“In the run-up to taking over the family business, several new aspects emerged, and I felt that I lacked sufficient insight into managing a business. I was looking for a framework that could help me take some carefully considered decisions and set the company moving in a direction we could all fully get behind. The bootcamp gave me an enormous amount of interesting information in a short time, with practical tools I could implement straight away. As the programme challenges you to put your knowledge straight into practice, you leave with a head full of inspiration and tangible ideas.”

“After the bootcamp, my brother and I worked off-site on a clear vision and plan for the future, based on the inspiration, guidelines and recommendations garnered from the experts during the programme. By having the courage to question everything, we're now more confident about the decisions we've made. What’s more, we can always rely on the extensive Vlerick network to provide us with support on developing our vision when we need it.”

“Having other like-minded and equally enthusiastic participants at the Challenge Bootcamp allowed us to look critically at ourselves and our business. By sharing positive and ‘less positive’ stories with a small group, in a spirit of openness and trust, I was able to grow my self-confidence and learn which personal aspects I needed to fine-tune. For me, it's now clearer which direction we're going in, and want to go in, with the business – not only in terms of customers and projects, but also when it comes to recruitment and employment policy. We now have a crystal-clear picture of what we do want, as well as what we don't. This gives us the courage to conduct a targeted search for candidates who share both our DNA and our passion for sustainability and innovation.”

Have you developed a business model that works, and you now want to expand further?  The hands-on Challenge Bootcamp programme prepares you for future team and revenue growth within your organisation, while also examining your role as founder. At the end of the programme, you will have devised your own growth plan. Time to discover your first professional training course as an entrepreneur.