Ymar Frenken
Some things about me:
- From the south of the Netherlands
- Studied communication and multimedia design. Was into video and imaging, ended up writing code
- Built WordPress sites as my first business, then found out I was better at fixing how companies work than building websites
- Worked CRM at Zalando, HolidayPirates. Lived in Berlin and Haarlem before moving to the South
- Now focused on revenue systems for manufacturing companies
- Collector of electronic music. Deep house, progressive trance
- Member of the Round Table, raising money for local charity
- Tinkering with home automation and electronics when the kids are asleep
- Two kids, Breda
Most B2B companies don't have a technology problem. They have a process problem dressed up as a technology problem. If you fix the process first, the tooling becomes obvious. If you start with the tooling, you automate the mess.
I'd rather build it than describe it. I started as a developer. I still configure systems, wire automations, and stay until it works. Understanding something deeply means being able to build it, not just talk about it.
Discovery is the whole game. Talk to sales, marketing, and operations. Not just management. The real problem is almost never the stated problem. If you skip discovery, you're building someone else's assumption.
Companies don't need more tools. They need to use what they have. The gap between what companies buy and what they actually use is enormous. New software is often a way to avoid fixing the real problem.
Speed beats perfection. A fast implementation shows you what's actually broken. A slow one teaches you nothing. Ship, learn, adjust. Perfectionism in consulting is usually fear of client contact.
The best work happens in small teams. Fewer meetings, faster decisions, nowhere to hide. One person who builds and thinks is worth a team that only coordinates.
Visibility solves most internal conflict. When marketing and sales blame each other, the problem is almost always that neither can see what the other is doing. Build shared visibility first. Alignment follows.
You can do more than you think. Most companies underestimate what's possible with what they already have. The constraint is rarely budget or technology. It's imagination.