7th May 2007

Decade

SUMit has celebrated its 10th anniversary. 10 years is an eternity in the Internet world. What is the secret formula behind SUMit? How did SUMit survive the dot com crisis and all hypes where others crashed?

I am convinced that the SUMit motto played a key role:

Business must be worth repeating.

This sounds simple, but it is a world of difference to me. No quick and dirty successes, don't chase every hype, but do business in a pleasant way, worth repeating to both customer and myself.

SUMit started small, with a laptop in the highlands of Sumatra. Now, over 10 years later, SUMit is a small multi national. During the past first quarter of this year SUMit welcomed new customers from Australia and Poland. Welcome Royal Australian Navy and Cap Gemini Poland. Let your business be worth repeating too!

The SUMit organisation is still small, lean and mean. A grow in quality is more important to me than quantity. So I don't want a grow of staff here. With Mary around, SUMit is big enough as it is.

For decades I have developed computer systems with great success, that is no problem with my airline IT experience as a solid foundation. Human factors were more puzzling for me when I started the company. Things like management, sales and marketing, psychological insight were tough for me. This is the field where I owe a lot of gratitude to a wide range of advisors, a great number of people who have given me lots of advice over the years. I'd like to highlight a couple of them.

Henk & Hannie Nootenboom

My parents are on my board of advisors, from the very beginning. They saw the start of the company, when I travelled along leads with my one business shirt.

In the past decade they have edited lots and lots of my quotations.

Rudi Anspach

My sparring partner for all kind of subjects that are too tough to tackle on my own.

For example: Marketing & Sales strategies, all kind of business advice, complex legal matters and the best approach for different types of customers.

Tan Boon Chin

Beer and coffee are two elements that come to mind when I think of the numerous sessions with Tan Boon Chin in Kuala Lumpur.

Boon Chin advises me on all kind of management issues, strategic decisions, usability questions. He is also an excellent editor for any text in the English language.

Michiel Scager & Mark van Dijk

During lots and lots of triodical beer sessions these two gentlemen have supplied me with recommendations on the psychological aspects of pricing, GUI design discussions and lots of human insights.

Mr Scager has recommended Tolle's book The Power of Now, a booklet that has guided me towards a new direction.

Antoinette Coetzee

has given me lots of personal advice, a clear view in my own powers as INFP.

She has recommended books like Emotional Intelligence and The Four Agreements. Baie dankie and regards to all in Cape Town!

Laurella Asselman

Former colleague at Royal Dutch Airlines, leading the way towards GUI designs in the early 90s, with shared enthusiasm about the advantages of paper prototypes.

And... she invented the name SUMit. Without Laurella SUMit would just not be SUMit.

And yes, there are many others who assisted me. I'd like to thank all of them as well, without listing them all.

Till next nut,
Nut