Peter ten Wolde

About Peter ten Wolde

Peter ten Wolde is an inspirational speaker who shows his audience how to look at the world from a different perspective, implementing a high-energy approach, humour and candid observations. Peter’s ‘Factfulness’ lecture is a very relevant in this tumultuous age of cursory news and a snowballing, ever-changing globalised world. Factfulness is a practical method for critical thinking which provides a positive mindset for the organisation of the future, delivering these benefits:

• Increase the chance to correctly predict the future by obtaining a more nuanced view of the current reality.
• Improve decision making by looking differently at data, assumptions and long-term trends.
• Strengthen flexibility, collaboration and diversity in the organisation by encouraging diversified ideas and perspectives.
• Enlarge the innovation and change capabilities of the organisation by thinking off the beaten path.

Peter has fulfilled various roles at diverse leading-edge software companies, using his technical knowledge and business acumen to support the sales process. In 1993, during his internship at 3-ANGLE Software & Services and before graduating in Information Management at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, he developed a small-scale application development methodology. This methodology continues to enable IT departments to develop applications more rapidly and efficiently than the traditional linear waterfall approach, resulting in solutions which perfectly support business demands. This pre-millennium methodology contains many concepts of what is now known as Scrum and Agile.

After graduating, Peter was head-hunted by 3-ANGLE where he became Head of Product Management for Alert. Alert is a software solution developed to support the primary business processes involved in the optimal management of IT service desks, facilitating a better, faster and more efficient customer service. In this role, Peter was responsible for the overall success of Alert; his tasks involved overseeing multiple departments including sales, marketing, implementation, support and product development.

In 1996, Peter joined Cognos as coach, advisor and senior pre-sales consultant. In these roles he advised customers on topics such as reporting, analysis and budgeting. During this period Peter visited a plethora of organisations within The Netherlands, from federal and financial institutions to production companies and logistic service providers. He was awarded the Cognos ‘Most Valuable Player of the Year’ award for his dedicated work at Dutch Casinos. Peter is still extremely proud of this prestigious title.

Helping organisations to outperform themselves through improved management information and decision-making processes was Peter’s primary goal during this stage of his career.

From 2002, Peter focused on a number of strategic initiatives while at Cognos to better serve the company’s key customers. As Technical Strategic Account Manager he was responsible for global Consultancy and Support for a select number of clients which included Electrolux, TNT and IKEA.

In 2006, Peter founded his own research and consulting company. For nine years he worked as project manager in London and Cambridge during the implementation of a Cost & Profitability management software solution. He helped clients such as Tesco and Unilever increase both insight and grip on profitability.

The common thread running through Peter’s career is to help both organisations and people perform at a higher level.

Peter is a long-time fan of Hans Rosling, professor of international health and master-statistician-story-teller extraordinaire. Hans became famous in 2006 after his TED talk in which he shares his vision concerning long-term development. This was the first of many TED talks and lectures that captivated his audience through his infectious enthusiasm and renowned bubble charts.

After Hans sadly passed away in February 2017, Peter made it his mission to continue spreading the Factfulness message, collaborating with Gapminder, the foundation set up by Hans, his son Ola and daughter-in-law Anna.

Peter’s Factfulness lecture looks deep into our worldview and explains

• The mechanisms of pre-conceived ideas;
• An alternative approach to these mechanisms;
• How, in many respects, the world is in much better shape than we are often inclined to, or led to, believe.

The lecture engages the audience to look at their immediate environment, organisation and society using an open and curious perspective.

This way, Peter continues to weave his common thread by helping others look at their environment from a different perspective, making the world just that little bit better in the process.