Agility is an emerging key dimension of business excellence. Yet, many organisations are still struggling with implementing agile approaches in the area of performance and reward management. That’s why the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Talent Management, the Centre for Excellence in Strategic Rewards and Chair partner Hudson joined forces for a new study that results in 10 key findings, each representing a phenomenon, trend or influence currently playing in agile working contexts.

Today, the government has to rein in a health crisis on the one hand, and has to compensate for its economic impact on the other. The crisis is acting as a catalyst on top of the evolution that the sector is going through, a transformation that should serve to make the respective organisations in the sector proactive, agile machines in which new digital and organisational models play a key role. In the midst of this transformation, the need for vested digital leadership is greater than ever. LoQutus and Vlerick Business School have joined forces to explore the way in which the public sector is experiencing the changes, how it is tackling them, and where the main obstacles lie.

“Just like De Tijd and L’Echo, Vlerick encourages entrepreneurs to remain inquisitive and, in a well-informed way, to take the lead and keep trying new things. So, it's not that we have to but that we want to do things together; we share the same ambitions. For us, these are the best partnerships”, says Isabel Albers, General Editor of the business newspapers De Tijd and L’Echo.

How can Paradise City Festival combat cup pirates using digital tools? This was just one of the challenges our students had to find a solution to during the digital strategy elective. Organised as a one-week “sprint”, it had the support of Vlerick’s Professor Arne Buchwald and seasoned Accenture coaches.

The electricity directive from the Clean Energy Package (clean energy for all Europeans) was recently adopted. It is down to the individual Member States to implement the new deal for energy users described in this directive.

Government bodies are in the midst of a digital transformation. But the design of new solutions often gets no further than merely the technical level. “If government bodies still want to be relevant in five years’ time, they will need the courage to set the bar higher and act as choreographers within their own ecosystem”, says Vlerick Professor Stijn Viaene. But what does it mean to take on the role of a choreographer? That is what we will be investigating with LoQutus over the next two years.

From 11 to 16 November, 40 iGMO members headed to South Africa for their annual inspiration field trip. Their aim was to take a step back from their own companies for a while and acquire some food for thought, both from academic lectures at our partner institution Stellenbosch University, and from visits to local entrepreneurs in the townships. Professor Hans Crijns: “Here, entrepreneurship is born of necessity, but at the same time it expresses something incredibly hopeful.”

After six editions of the Future Grid Managers Programme, it was time to revamp it. “UK Power Networks Services, the Elia Group and Enel will now each host a module, allowing Vlerick to really focus on content and optimum cross-fertilisation,” explains energy professor Leonardo Meeus.

A company’s Advisory Board and Board of Directors can have significant impacts on its performance. However, not so many young Belgian companies with growth potential have such governing bodies. Only 8% have Advisory Boards, and one in five have Boards of Directors. Although the compositions of the Boards of Directors are relatively diverse and complementary, only one in five has independent directors. Moreover, only 16% have a female presence; compared to the US (37%) or the UK (47%), women are under-represented on Belgian Boards of Directors. On the positive side, the Boards of Directors meet much more frequently than is generally recommended, which means that these young growth companies fully exploit their expertise. These are the main conclusions of the fourth edition of the Rising Star Monitor

For the fifth consecutive year, Hudson and Vlerick Business School have joined forces to organise the HR Barometer, a survey that analyses the trends and challenges in the Belgian HR sector. So what are its main findings? Firstly, HR focuses on many different things, going beyond mere recruitment and staff administration. Secondly, HR analytics is not a priority for Belgian companies (or at least not yet). Lastly, HR managers would love to focus on agile working, but meet with resistance, even from senior management.