With a festive program in which journalist and innovation watcher Erwin Witteveen took the invitees on a tour of the principles of our digital network society, DGA Henk Smid presented the new look of 'his' Variass.

Numerus fixus

Ineke Dezentjé Hamming, chairman FME and Kor Visscher, chairman Innovatiecluster Drachten and director at Philips in Drachten gave their vision on how to captivate and retain the right technical personnel. They did not have a good word for the numerus fixus that technical universities may want to introduce to limit the number of students. "Our companies have many vacancies for technically highly educated people and I expect that number will only increase in the future," says Kor Visscher. According to the Financieele Dagblad, technical universities cannot cope with the influx of new students and they want more money from the government to keep quality high. Education Minister Bussemaker has stated that he supports a numerus fixus.

Partnership

After a lesser period at the end of the eighties, financial manager Henk Smid took over the company in 1991, under a new name – to really start with a clean slate: Variass. Smid used his financial, business administration background to increase customer service. In the course of the 1990s, Variass focused more and more on more complex parts and modules, from purely technical work, for which it also built its own supply chain. “We take care of our customers. Our revenue model has gradually changed: in the early years we earned money by supplying capacity, nowadays it is all about providing added value.” Smid explains that Variass currently works in a partnership with the customer. “If we deliver added value, we are the best partner for our customers.”