Welcome to PA’s alumni webpage for The Netherlands. We want to offer you a lifelong connection to past and present PA employees, providing you with the opportunity to strengthen and renew relationships with former colleagues and expand your network, while also keeping you up to date on what’s happening within PA.
PA Consulting Group's office in The Netherlands employs more than 50 people who are working for many of the leading organisations in mainly the Government, Financial Services and Manufacturing industries. Our services go from Business & Operational Strategy to Change Management, ICT & HRM Transformation and ERP Strategy & Project Management.
To learn more about PA's current work in the The Netherlands please refer to our country page on the PA website.
We will update this area with news from PA in The Netherlands, sharing some of our latest insights on a regular basis. As always, your feedback is appreciated and integral to the success of this initiative, so please email alumni.nl@paconsulting.com with any comments or suggestions.
Event update | Our latest thinking | News update | Recruitment
Dutch PA launches alumni programme
PA in the Netherlands launched its alumni programme at
an event on 31 March. Attended by about 30 former PA employees from both
The Netherlands and Belgium and hosted by 20 current employees, the
meeting provided an opportunity to meet and talk to former PA people,
and show attendees the new office space in The Netherlands.
In
their opening speeches, both Johan Lourens and Wim van Hennekeler
stressed the importance of having a platform for former PA employees to
network and share experiences from the past and present and get an
update on what people have been doing in their post-PA life.
During the event, Willem van Asperen, Managing
Consultant, interviewed two alumni, Marinke Wijngaard and Hennie
Caarels, and one new hire, Edgar Scheffrahn, a Managing Consultant who
has been on board with PA for just one month. The interview provided
interesting insights into what the alumni felt PA had brought to their
careers, how they look back to their time with PA, and how this compares
to a new joiner’s experience.
The alumni were then invited to look at five different
presentations on current and past client work, that gave them a good
overall view of PA´s success with clients in The Netherlands and how we
have developed our market focus in the past years.
It was clear that both groups really enjoyed this get together and are looking forward to meeting again in the near future.
To find out more about the alumni programme in The Netherlands, contact Jolanda Kraaikamp.
CEO statement from our 2010 Annual Report – Succeeding by creating value for our clients
"In 2010 we worked with leaders and organisations around
the world to bring about real, lasting change across a range of complex
projects", Alan Middleton, Chief Executive Officer
This
has been a challenging year for our clients and for PA. We have been
successful because we have stayed focused on what we do best –
delivering real value for the leaders of today.
And
we have taken a careful look at ourselves – what drives us forward and
how we approach our markets – to ensure that we are in a good position
to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Together with our clients
In
2010 we worked with leaders and organisations around the world to bring
about real, lasting change across a range of complex projects.
We
secured annual savings of 175 million Danish kroner for Post Danmark
through more effective workload forecasting across 11 million items of
mail per day. Our innovative work on the UK Identity and Passport
Service’s world-class biometric visa programme ensured the agency can
process over five million applicants in a year at £160 million less
cost. And our work with BAE Systems delivered more than 30% cost savings
on specialised components for civil and military avionics products. > click here to read more
Together with our people
This
was another year in which I am proud to say that our people delivered.
As always, we have taken a pragmatic and collaborative approach to
projects such as our support for the UK National Health Service’s need
to design – in a matter of just a few months – a single commissioning
system for postgraduate medical and dental education in London. The
health projects we have been working on have been successful because of
the way that teams of PA people with project management and health
expertise have worked together with our clients.
We
continued to invest in both our people and our clients. During the year
we provided 600 internal learning and development events and transferred
our skills to 600 clients worldwide.
I thank everyone in PA for their hard work and commitment in 2010.
Together with our communities and the environment
In
2010 our people have offered skills, equipment and money to contribute
to the communities where we work. For instance, our consulting expertise
has benefited such diverse organisations as local government councils,
industry campaigning bodies such as the UK Automotive Council, and
charities such as Christian Action Research and Education (CARE).
We
have also made real progress in reducing our environmental impact
through carbon reduction measures, more recycling and improving our
energy efficiency. PA’s broad expertise in green technological
innovation ranges from developing concept design for the fabrication of
large-scale solar energy projects in the US to reducing costs in the
manufacturing process for lithium-ion batteries for Magna Steyr in
Germany.
Together for the future
We
reviewed our strategy in 2010, leading us to be more carefully and
tightly focused on those areas where we make a real difference for our
clients and in which we will grow. We enter 2011 well positioned to
combine our public and private sector expertise with offerings in the
areas of business transformation, IT and technology disciplines to
support the needs of our clients in the Nordic, Europe, United States
and Gulf markets. This is leading to a PA that is even stronger, is
highly profitable and does unique work for a client list that continues
to build in quality.
I believe that makes the year ahead an exciting one for PA and for our clients.
Managing customer retention to realise top line growth within the insurance industry
Insurers can halve churn by aligning customer retention across all functions and ensuring it is founded on a real understanding of customer behaviour.
Across insurance, competition remains intense, the costs of doing business are increasing and technology is making it ever easier for consumers to find the best (or at least cheapest) products. When analysis shows that the value from a customer retained for three years can be more than 10 times that for a single year, it is unsurprising that the focus on retention is high.
Even so, depending on the geography and product, annual retention levels vary greatly. Many insurers in commoditised lines see up to 50% of their customers lost at renewal each year. Even those who perform best can expect 10% losses across their customer base.
This scale of ‘value leakage’ is not inevitable. In PA’s experience, by managing retention across the business, and properly understanding the reasons customers leave, insurance companies can halve the number of lost customers.
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First, retention activity must be aligned across all functions. Typically, programmes are owned by marketing or sales or operations divisions, with the result that solutions are focused in one function, implemented inconsistently, and without end-to-end understanding or measurement. A single owner, working across the marketing/sales/operations triangle and providing direction and leadership for the rest of the business is crucial
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Second, understanding of customer behaviour must be stronger. Many organisations jump to seemingly good solutions but, in practice, customers will often look for alternatives, feeling the current service is not good enough. Using techniques such as systems thinking, which map customer (and intermediary) behaviours and their interactions, is highly effective in developing the appropriate tactics
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Underpinning these activities must be good governance, management information and rewards. Getting these right means lasting change across the organisation so that retention remains a priority.
By focusing on retention in this way, a rapid and lasting positive impact can be made. At PA, we believe this provides the best organic opportunity available to insurers today to realise top line growth.
After 10 years of residing at the Coltbaan in Nieuwegein, later this year we will be moving to a new home in Utrecht. To commemorate the move we will be hosting an event for our alumni to join us for drinks. For more information, please contact alumni.nl@paconsulting.com.
As we continue to grow we are always looking for talented people to join our operations in The Netherlands.
We hire exceptional people and provide them with opportunities that they will not find elsewhere. PA offers a future in consulting, not just a job; a stake in our firm; and an environment where individuals and ideas matter.
For more information, please visit www.paconsulting.com/careers.
