At the Upgrade Academy we bring our stakeholders together to meet, inspire, innovate and share experience and knowledge. 

On 12 February we had the honour of welcoming Kurt Verweire, Professor of Strategic Management, partner at Vlerick business School and co-author of the book Six Batteries of Change.

Professor Verweire was inspired by Upgrade Estate and immersed himself in their strategic model. His case study shows that Upgrade Estate is unique in its clear focus on ‘customer intimacy’ as a strategy and above all, it excels in its implementation.

A word of explanation: a ‘customer-intimate’ company is a business that is committed to an unsurpassed service, a personal approach and to connecting all its stakeholders.

Professor Verweire uses this study as a textbook example in the lectures on strategy that he gives all over the world.

During his keynote speech, he highlighted that no less than 80% of companies do not have a well-thought-out strategy and, therefore, cannot grow profitably. Often, the choice for a clear strategy is simply not there. And without that choice, it is impossible to stand out.

Professor Verweire explained this by means of an interactive exercise with the audience about the value propositions of their own companies or the companies they work for. As such, he provided the audience with concrete tools to apply in their own company or environment.

It was an enriching and fascinating evening, which we concluded with a number of questions from the audience. This was followed by a sociable get-together where everyone could talk about the interesting keynote speech and how to apply it in practice.