"SME Excellence gave us insights into the true meaning of purpose."

As accountants and advisers, we support SMEs in their quest to achieve value-added entrepreneurship.

We help them with the start-up phase as well as growth, transfers, acquisitions, returns, assets, governance, efficiency, sustainability and security.

BOOX operates in Flanders from Hasselt, Beringen and Leuven, mainly serving Limburg, Flemish Brabant and the Antwerp region of Kempen. The company also works for foreign SMEs with branches in Belgium, as well as Belgian SMEs with an international scope.

Eleven employees, supported by a network of leading specialists and top-level IT hardware and software, look after the ins and outs of more than 300 companies (mainly corporations).

In a strongly consolidating landscape, BOOX believes more in the power of purpose than the power of the purse. And that means growing on the basis of your own strengths.  

Which insights did you gain during the programme that could help you tackle one of the challenges you are facing as a company?

Gert Engelen: BOOX has always been driven by more than just operational aspects: the ‘why’ also takes centre stage. SME Excellence gave us insights into the true meaning of purpose. Professor Marion Debruyne showed me the book ‘Grow the Pie’ by Alex Edmans, for example, which immediately made the purpose of BOOX crystal clear.

During the session on balanced scorecards, it became painfully apparent how harmful strategic swerving can be for a company’s figures. It was unbelievably confrontational.

And what about digitisation? Our operational model, which focuses on customer intimacy, can actually be enhanced by digitisation. So we are not afraid of the disruptive nature of digital – and actually use it to strengthen our position.

How did you apply this insight in practice? Which actions did you implement as a result? 

The strong urge to consolidate in our sector is based on the power of the purse. BOOX believes in the power of purpose. We described our purpose in detail and then rolled it out across our entire strategy. Our goal? To transform an accountancy firm into a business boutique to which value-creating entrepreneurs can turn for high-level advice in a personal and trusted context.

Although this is an ongoing process, we are already seeing the initial results. We said goodbye to several existing clients and welcomed new clients and interesting leads. These are entrepreneurs who we brought together during keynotes and workshops to give concrete shape to our business boutique, employees who are attracted by our purpose, and even people who spontaneously wanted to join us in our story. Other accountancy firms already started asking whether far-reaching cooperation would be possible.

We also brought in a consultant to align our internal processes with our strategy. HR advisers help the management team and our employees to work together more effectively, with purpose as the guiding principle. Our communications office is entirely on board and provides valuable support.

And as the icing on the cake, we are putting together an advisory board.

What impact has giving concrete shape to this insight had?

We note that it is easier for us to fill our vacancies, and also that we are getting more and more requests from interesting entrepreneurs who are seeking support with value-added entrepreneurship.

Existing clients and employees are very enthusiastic and are on board with the purpose-driven strategy – the ‘business boutique’ concept appears to be contagious.

Based on reactions on social media, it’s also clear that we are increasingly coming to the attention of stakeholders. And rightly so, because in terms of figures we can see improvements in both our sales and our returns.