A full house. A room packed with more than 200 customers and business partners. It’s November 17 and we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary. The world is going from shock to shock. From crisis to crisis. To get our audience to feel this even more keenly, we hired an actor. After five minutes, he bursts into the room, tries to shackle himself to our colleague Hester and introduces himself as an activist representing Extinction Rebellion. Shock waves ripple through the room. People get up from their seats. Their primary response? Get that guy out of here.
Confusion, anger, agitation, resistance.
Many of us deal with these emotions every day. We’re in the midst of a transition. The old is no longer feasible. The new is too uncertain, too untethered. Or as our speaker Martijn Lampert put it: homo economicus is dying. This old dinosaur still believes in the old economy with its myopic focus on the economy and profits. Mankind has depleted the earth and its workers. Over the next decade, homo florens will flourish, espousing well-being over wealth. The transition will take us from ‘take-make-waste’ to living streams and it is already underway – as evidenced by the countless tremors and quakes around us. The Dutch horticulture sector has sustained a massive blow. We are rapidly losing social support, and the same goes for support in The Hague and Brussels. Now is the time for new leadership. This won’t be fixed by the government or other institutions. New leadership will have to come from entrepreneurs. We will have to take charge of R&D and advocacy, of external communication and vertical partnerships. The big players will have to reach out and connect, by working together and manifesting leadership. Things will get worse before they get better, but there is still a bright future to look forward to. What was that old adage? If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far,…
