In the latest episode of our podcast Group Chat, we invited our founder and CEO Stefan Dierckx to tell us the tale of Projective Group. How did it all start, and how did it become what it is today? What makes Projective Group different as a consultancy and as an employer? What is Stefan’s number one advice for emerging professionals? And why is an office bar one of the best investments you can make as a business owner? Let’s find out.
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Stefan, tell us about your career path so far.
“My career path started a very long time ago. I studied Applied Economics in Antwerp and graduated in 1996. Here’s a fun fact about me: I’ve never in my life had to do a job interview.”
How did that happen?
“After graduation, I started a student job to earn some money. The plan was to get some funds so I could travel and have fun a bit more before starting my career. But after the month was over, the company I was working for offered me a position. They were a growing consultancy company with a number of interesting projects coming up. They told me if I wanted to join, I needed to start the next week, and so I did.”
How did you come up with the idea for Projective?
“Through my first job I stumbled into the financial industry. I did some projects within the banking industry, and that later evolved into a new story about Capco—which was called the Capital Markets Company at the time. They were a very ambitious company trying to conquer the world in a very short period of time. And in the dot-com bubble era, money wasn’t an issue. Until of course the bubble exploded. I decided to leave the company in 2004 to go off on my own. I wanted to start something different than what Capco did in those days—something better. What they did was focus on the consulting parts: the advice, the analyses, business cases, etc. But after that, when the actual work needed to be done, Capco was no longer involved. But that’s where the fun starts, that’s where you see the change, the results. So, we started to explore the idea of building a company that focuses much more on helping to deliver that hardcore change. That’s how Projective was born.”
The advice, the analyses, business cases, etc. But after that, when the actual work needs to be done, that’s where the fun starts.
Now we’re a very international organisation with lots of people on board. How did we get here?
“We wanted to work in an international context, so we quickly expanded to the Netherlands and the UK. The first decade we spent building that international network, building a team of about 150 colleagues. But gradually our clients started to ask us to be even more involved, not just with one or two PMO roles but to really assemble larger teams. The issue was that we only had very senior profiles—we needed to start attracting emerging talent. That resulted in our first acquisition of Exellys, which was very focused on supporting emerging talent here in the Belgian market. We now had the recruitment engine of Exellys, but also the coaching, the training—everything to support emerging consultants. And that’s a model that still works very nicely today. We can combine emerging talent with the seniors we have in our organisation, and thus offer team setups to our clients.”
Is that when Projective became Projective Group?
“The acquisition of Exellys gave us the taste for accelerating our growth and reaching our ambitions much quicker by acquiring existing entities. So, we started to focus on a buy-and-build strategy, where we continue to grow organically but also complement this growth with additional acquisitions in the various countries where we operate. That’s the story that we’ve been building now for the last four to five years. The idea is that we establish a relevant footprint in Europe and that we can support our clients with nice services that are hot topics on their agendas today, such as payments, risk and compliance, and so on.”
How has the growth of Projective impacted your own role within the company?
“Compared to the early days, it’s night and day. As a start-up, you have to do everything yourself. In the beginning, I did the invoicing, the payrolling, the sales, and client work of course. But when you reach a certain threshold, it becomes impossible to do everything yourself. And once you reach over 1,000 people, it’s a completely different ballgame. Then you need to focus a lot on communication and aligning people around the strategy that you’ve defined.”
How have coaches or mentors helped you along the way?
“From day one, we established a formal board. I would recommend every founder of company to do that, and not with their best friends, but with people who know about the industry so they can challenge you and can give you some tough messages. Otherwise, it doesn’t have any value. Within that board, there are definitely a few people that I’ve looked up to—Jürgen Ingels, Frank Verhaegen, to name only a few. It’s very important for me to have them as mentors. There are always things that they can advise me on, because they’ve been there, they’ve seen the struggles. They can warn me about things I need to look out for. I think everybody should have a coach or a mentor in order to evolve. It’s important that you surround yourself with people that motivate you and push you to go further.”
I think everybody should have a coach or a mentor in order to evolve. It’s important that you surround yourself with people that motivate you and push you to go further.
Why should Projective Group be an employer of choice? What sets us apart from other consultancies?
“What makes us different from big consultancies, is that we have an extremely flat organisation. We do not have any levels. Within our group, people have a role, a responsibility. But we do not want them to go through 27 levels before they can start to make an impact. The ladder principle is something we don’t like, we don’t want it. We’re not in an up-or-out model where, if you don’t advance quickly enough, we’ll throw you out. Our company is very individually modelled with the necessary support, training, coaching. There’s an entire model built around that and I think that’s what makes us unique. We want you to focus on the things you want to focus on, at your own pace and within the domains that you wish to examine, within the context of our business of course.”
We’re not in an up-or-out model where, if you don’t advance quickly enough, we’ll throw you out. Our company is very individually modelled with the necessary support, training, coaching.
So you could say that we allow people to have more impact.
“Absolutely. We have examples of very young people that quickly make an impact. What we’re looking for is people that take initiative. You don’t need to ask for permission, it’s better to ask for forgiveness if you make a mistake. And people do make mistakes. That’s okay. We are constantly looking for entrepreneurial people and we will always support them.”
One thing I see in all our offices all over Europe, is a bar. What’s the idea behind that?
“Up until eight or nine years ago, we didn’t have an office. It was all very lean and mean, we were very careful with overhead costs. When we needed to hold a meeting, we would do it in a bar, a restaurant, a hotel. So, when we became so big that we needed our own office, our architect suggested that we create our own internal bar. And we thought that was a good idea.”
What is the goal of the bar?
“What’s important, is that the bar is a meeting point. A place where people can connect during and after work. It’s not about the alcohol, it’s about the connection. It’s much better to have that within the office than to have one team go to one place and another team go elsewhere. Then it’s fragmented, here it’s concentrated. You could see it as our most important internal communication channel, that’s why I believe this is the best investment you can make as a growing organisation.”
You could see it as our most important internal communication channel, that’s why I believe a bar is the best investment you can make as a growing organisation.
What advice would you give to emerging professionals who are tuning in?
“In the first ten years of your career, it’s extremely important to focus on your learning path. Unfortunately, I see too many recent graduates who are focusing on getting the most out of their comp and ben, cars, etc. My advice is: don’t do that. You need to be paid fairly, of course, you need to be compensated in a correct way. But the first ten years of your career, please spend it on learning. And from my point of view, please spend it on working in an international environment. Every country has its specificities, its own style and culture. The more you’ve worked in an international context, the better you become as a professional.”
The first ten years of your career, should be spent on learning.
Projective Group’s story is one of growth and bold choices. Stefan Dierckx highlights the importance of having a formal board with knowledgeable people who can deal you hard truths. He advocates for the importance of international experience—both in the context of financial service consulting and on an individual level. Projective Group is a place for opportunities, whether you’re freshly graduated, or you already have thirty years of experience. Everybody gets the chance to make an impact.
Established in 2006, Projective Group is a leading Financial Services change specialist.
We are recognised within the industry as a complete solutions provider, partnering with clients in Financial Services to provide resolutions that are both holistic and pragmatic. We have evolved to become a trusted partner for companies that want to thrive and prosper in an ever-changing Financial Services landscape.
