[quote style=”boxed”]Our motto is “just do it”… When there are new ideas within our organisation, we move to action almost immediately. We’re not writing plans of 20 pages long. Nothing in life or business is permanent. It’s all about using one’s common sense and the strategy of ‘calculated trial and error’. If a great idea happens to result in a bad outcome, we adjust the idea or approach and we will move on until it’s successful.[/quote]
Kim is Co-Founder of FLOOW2 World’s Reset Button and is responsible for Strategy & Operations. FLOOW2 is an online B2B Sharing marketplace where companies and institutions can share underutilized capacity – from equipment to services and personnel.
Motivated by his passion for the sharing economy and based on trust and collaboration, Kim leads the network organisation FLOOW2. Kim has a legal background. In 1991, Kim graduated at the University of Amsterdam, Dutch and International Law. Between 1994 and 2004, Kim worked in the legal profession. In 2004, Kim decided switch to entrepreneurship and was active as an Interim Legal Professional until 2011. Since January 2012, Kim is one of the founders of FLOOW2.
Kim leads the FLOOW2 organisation based on his beliefs about the shift to a new economy: a circular economy. We’re moving from a lineair to a circular economy, from top-down to bottum based, where collaboration, liberty, connection and trust are the key. He lives the values that come with these changes, and that’s reflected in his way of ‘managing’ the FLOOW2 team.
Where did the idea for FLOOW2 come from?
We’re shifting from a linear economy, where everything is based on ‘Take-Make-Dispose’, towards a more circular economy. We move from ownership to access, from possession to usage. We can do that by sharing, lending, exchanging and renting, also called the sharing economy.
The sharing economy is very popular amongst consumers. There are many Internet platforms that enable us, as consumers to share our stuff, homes, cars, knowledge and meals with each other. Sharing what we already have is beneficial for our wallet, the environment and the social cohesion between people.
We, as founders of FLOOW2, saw the opportunities within the sharing economy for companies. For companies and institutions it’s an opportunity as well to share their underutilized equipment, services and personnel. Also called ‘Asset Sharing’.
Companies can realize additional turnover by renting out their assets to colleague companies, or they can lower costs by renting it temporarily from other organizations instead of buying new.
By doing more with what we already have, we reduce overcapacity of goods and equipment. Fewer new things have to be produced. This results in more efficient use of raw materials and energy.
What does your typical day look like and how do you make it productive?
I have no typical days. Every day is a different one and productive in it’s own manner. Some days contain business appointments and presentations. Some days I’m spending some (creative) hours at the bar, smoking cigars, to generate new ideas, meeting new interesting people and expanding my network. Some days I play golf to clear my mind and to generate new creative ideas to grow our FLOOW2 business. My working week consists of 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
Our team meetings are on the road, while we’re traveling to business meetings through Europe. At that moments were discussing the development and progression of FLOOW2, we brainstorm about new business ideas and opportunities, about things we can improve, etc. The spontaneity of the moment is leading. Not only our minds but also our hearts need to speak out.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Our motto is “just do it”… When there are new ideas within our organisation, we move to action almost immediately. We’re not writing plans of 20 pages long. Nothing in life or business is permanent. It’s all about using one’s common sense and the strategy of ‘calculated trial and error’. If a great idea happens to result in a bad outcome, we adjust the idea or approach and we will move on until it’s successful.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The trend, or even better the development, that really excites me is the trend towards a circular economy. A bottom based and freely organised economy ánd society: a society where collaboration and trust are key values. Where is no place for command and control, top-down micro management based on ’everyone for themselves’.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
Self-confidence and being trusting the people I’m working with. I know that they are able to use their common sense and use their professional skills. .
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
The worst job I’ve ever had was delivering the newspaper in all weathers. During that job I’ve learned that giving up is no option. Perseverance and tenacity is very important for having success in your personal and business life.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I’m taking full responsibility for all decisions I have ever made in my life. For the good decisions as well as for the bad ones. That’s part of being a life. I have a past, but I am not my past. This is who I am now.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
Don’t assume anything. Search for the why, the how and what discover all the facts. I always keep in mind this great line in the script of Siege 2, staring Steven Seagal “Assumption is the mother of all fuckups”. You have to be right about the facts and or the personal interests involved in a given situation.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
My strategy is simply to follow the proved laws and principles of business development and economics. When you have your product or service in place, focussing on communication, marketing and sales is the only way to grow your business.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
In my first years as an entrepreneur I’ve made the mistake to act as a micro manager. I was controlling and manipulating people, just to be successful by myself. I had no eye and attention for personal relations and organic growth in my business life. In the past decade I’ve been through a personal transformation:
From…
Thought to feeling of (Mind to heart)
Fear to love
Command and control to Laissez faire
Everyone for themselves to collaboration
Distrust to trust
These new values are reflected in myself as an entrepreneur these days.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
If have nothing to hide. But if I had something to hide, there would be a good reason for it.
What software and web services do you use? What do you love about them?
The only software I’m using is my iPhone. The IOS technology is great. You’re reachable anywhere, at any time at any place.
Next to that I prefer the ‘neuro software’ that runs warm and personal relationships we have with meeting each other face-to-face Technology is just a tool, not a means on itself. Human relationship are.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
Harry Browne – “How to find freedom in an unfree world”
Why? The title speaks for itself. Just ready and you will discover why…. This book form 1973 is more actual then ever.
What people have influenced your thinking and might be of interest to others?
- The scholars of liberty and the Austrian shool of economics: Frédéric Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard )
- Lew Rockwell Woods & Peter Schiff
- And of course Ayn Rand, the author of “Atlas Shrugged“
Connect:
Kim Tjoa on Facebook:
Kim Tjoa on Twitter: @KimTjoa
Kim Tjoa on LinkedIn:
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.