Career advice - International Advancement

Willem Lankhorst is an all-rounder. He intentionally chose a broad major—International Business—so he could keep his options open. As a consultant at BCG, he took a deep dive into a different industry, a new issue or a different culture with every project. And as he progressed in his career elsewhere, he’s continued to seek out new challenges and cross-cultural collaboration. “If you want to progress, you have to be proactive,” he says.

Tip 1: Be realistic about your talents
“As a child, I told anyone who would listen that I was going to be a cartoonist when I grew up,” Willem says. “My favorite comic was Donald Duck, and all I could think of was reading that for the rest of my life. But in high school, drawing was the first subject I was allowed to drop. The teacher didn’t make me finish the course because I didn’t have the talent for it.” A major setback? “It wasn’t so bad; I abandoned that dream pretty quickly. From then on, what I wanted to be when I grew up became a big question mark.”

Tip 2: Choose from the heart
Willem majored in International Business, a broad degree that opened multiple doors. He talked to a range of employers and developed an interest in consulting. BCG invited him to a five-day introductory event in Paris, and that’s where sparks flew. Willem explains, “It was clear: this was what I was meant to do. I wanted to solve a variety of different business problems, by combining the social elements with a foundation built on hard numbers. And that’s exactly what BCG offered.”

Tip 3: Adapt your story to your target audience
“If BCG was anything, it was a training ground,” says Willem. Storylining according to the pyramid model was one of his most important lessons. In other words, start with the core message and then build out from there. “You learn to be very clear about the message you want to share. It’s crucial to ask yourself: who am I going to be talking to, and what are their interests? So at board level, you want to have an elevator pitch ready with all the conclusions, but in the finance department, you need to be able to explain the financial model in detail.”

Tip 4: Open up to other cultures
In 2015, Willem set out for New York to earn his MBA at Columbia Business School. “I already had a business background, so the MBA itself didn’t add much value for me, but it was still an invaluable experience. I finally had time AND money—although money is a limited concept when you live in New York. But in that year and a half, I got to know a whole new city and met people from 70 other nationalities. That really opened my eyes to how to work with different cultures, and what makes Dutch people weird to other cultures. Since then, I’ve never been part of a team that didn’t have international colleagues. My current team at HelloFresh includes people from Iranian, Indian, German, Dutch, Canadian, and American backgrounds, and the list goes on. Diversity is really a proven point for me. That’s how you really build engagement and discover different perspectives and new ideas.”

Tip 5: Give yourself time for radical change
“After our MBAs, my wife and I were under contract at BCG for two more years, but we were also ready to start a family. That happened pretty quickly. Nine months later, we had our first daughter, Elisa. Family life with two consulting jobs was challenging, though. Especially since the BCG office in Amsterdam was merging with London and Brussels. You have the option to turn down international projects, but it limits your options. And it often doesn’t feel great.” Willem made the conscious choice to quit his job at BCG before he found something new. “To get yourself in the right mindset, you have to take the time to talk to different people. Everyone’s willing to grab a cup of coffee, but there’s no room for that in addition to consulting and a busy family life.”

Tip 6: Dare to be proactive
Willem had three requirements for any new job: that he could continue to work with extremely driven people, that he could be involved with both implementation and strategy, and that he’d always be able to find new challenges in his work. “And I found that here, at HelloFresh,” he says.  In four years, he’s already had multiple promotions. His secret: “If you want to progress, you have to be proactive. In my first year, everything was new. I learned how to manage a team, I learned how to get results, and I learned about content. In year two, I was a lot better at all of that—which was interesting. But when the cycle started for the third time, the challenge was gone. So when the Director of Product went on maternity leave, I offered to fill in. For six months, I was responsible for a whole new subject area and a team with a whole different culture—that kept me on my toes.”

Tip 7: Seek out your international colleagues
That mindset allowed Willem to advance to the strategy team at the German headquarters in January 2022, as Director of Strategic Product Development. He heads the international team focused on developing products that help HelloFresh grow. That could be anything from meal solutions for seniors to expansion into the family segment, tapping into other mealtimes or an innovative e-commerce platform. Willem is based in Amsterdam, but once every three weeks, he travels to Berlin. “The pandemic has permanently changed how we work—especially with an international team. I work with 17 markets, and I can’t visit them all every day, so most of our collaboration happens online anyway. But for team building, it’s important to be in the same place fairly often.”

Tip 8: Make home life easier with HelloFresh
Willem himself has HelloFresh four days a week, and he’d recommend it to anyone. “I started using HelloFresh when I came to work here and wouldn’t want anything else. I have a family, so for me, the most important thing is not having to think about what’s for dinner when I get home. It’s taken care of and tastes great, too. I’ll definitely be a customer until the kids move out,” he laughs. But on a more serious note, adds: “It’s a lifesaver, I’m 100% a promoter, even after work hours.”