Organizational Consultant & Economist
Mark Huijben is an organizational consultant and economist/econometrician. He works with participants to practically and humorously solve complex questions.
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Mark is an organizational consultant and economist/econometrician. He works with participants to practically and humorously solve complex questions. This characterizes his presentations. Mark earned his PhD in Economics and published books on Strategic Management and Overhead, as well as articles on the major issues facing the Dutch government.
Bringing a complex issue forward together with an audience truly energizes me. The presentation serves as a warm-up. And then we get to work.
He is involved in several nationwide programs aimed at improving the functioning of the government, such as the State of Execution, the government-wide benchmark of public service providers Venster/RBB, the Election for Best Government Organization, and Best Government Innovation.
Prior to this, he worked for 16 years at the consulting firm Berenschot, most recently as director of the Knowledge Center for Management. The overhead benchmark he developed with a group of consultants ultimately involved over 2000 organizations across 30 sectors, ranging from small organizations to multinationals. These organizations had a significant need for management information and insight in this area. This resulted in a dissertation on the management and organization of management functions and in the book ‘Has anyone seen the overhead?’
He followed this with several more books: ‘Does anyone still need the overhead?’, ‘Check your Management’ and the children’s book ‘Appie wins the World Cup’. In 2009, he was nominated for the Professional Award for organizational consultants and in 2009 and 2014 for Management Book of the Year. He also conducted masterclasses on his dissertation in the Netherlands and Flanders for many years.
Since 2014, he has been an independent organizational consultant for the public sector and business services. He undertakes assignments in the areas of strategy, management, public service, benchmarking, and overhead. He began his career in 1994 as a staff member in Marketing and advisor for schools at CPS Education Development and Advice. There, he was involved in the implementation of the Student Tracking System for Secondary Education.
As a consultant, he has carried out numerous assignments regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the public sector and companies. This ranges from municipalities, provinces, water authorities, safety regions, courts, the asylum chain, welfare organizations, childcare, ministries, nearly all national execution organizations, and industry organizations.
Inspiration meeting lasting from one hour to approximately half a day about Managing Overhead, based on his publications on the subject. He tailors this to the issues present within the organisation. Target audience: for example, executives and management teams. The presentation contributes to a shared vision and approach to managing overhead.
Topics include: what is overhead? What makes it so elusive? How do you determine the right size? Which rational and irrational factors determine the size? What is the relationship between size and quality? What can be said about management and organisation? How do you ensure that costs and value are balanced? What developments are occurring?
This is based on his book ‘Check Your Business Management – practical approach for the 10 strategic themes of every organisation’. Meeting lasting from one hour to approximately half a day. Mark preferably starts from issues present within the organisation. If internal documents about business management are available, he is happy to include these to address during the meeting.
Every organisation faces important questions directly related to good business management. According to him, the core of good business management lies in these ten strategic themes:
– New themes: become agile and shock-resistant, work hybrid and data-driven, shape digital transformation and become sustainable.
– Timeless themes: remain effective and productive, keep your foundation in order, remain an attractive employer and consider your own role as responsible for all this.
The theme of business management is therefore broader than overhead, as it involves themes that run throughout the organisation. The staff departments play an important role in this, as do the executives and line management. It requires collaboration across departments.
This presentation focuses on the major bottlenecks of the government in public service delivery, such as the complexity of laws and regulations and the poor data exchange between government agencies. This leads to an increasingly large Civil Service that becomes gridlocked. Using concrete examples and international best practices, he discusses the problems and shows where and why it becomes stuck. Consider the complex system of Allowances and Taxes, the handling of earthquake damage, healthcare, asylum, physical infrastructure….
At the same time, there are also promising practices from the Election of Best Government Organisation and Innovation. Participants gain insight into current problems and possible future scenarios and are challenged to think about solutions for a more efficient and better functioning government.
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