If you want to move on in your career and make a real impact, start by understanding how the business works. That mindset took Erry de Boer, CEO of Eqeep, from the shop floor to the boardroom. Erry started at the foundation, learned the profession from the inside and grew step by step. Today Erry leads Eqeep with the same pragmatic, results-oriented mindset.
Where did Erry de Boer start?
I studied Commercial Economics at a university of applied sciences and knew one thing for certain: I wanted to work in commerce and sales. I wanted to understand the practice first, so I deliberately started in customer support at a project furnisher, as a place to learn. There I discovered how the products were made, how the service worked and how the production process ran. That experience became the foundation I could build on.
Discovering what works and what doesn’t
Within that organisation I grew into project management and eventually became a department head. Wanting to explore the commercial side further, I then made a deliberate move into telecoms. There I mainly learned what didn’t suit me: hard sales.
I really don’t enjoy that pushy way of selling, so I moved away from it quickly. Still, the experience was valuable, because I learned something about myself: selling is fun, but above all I want to add real value for customers.
Passion for design & build
After that search I also knew where my heart lay: in design & build. I went back to work at a company in interior architecture and project furnishing, and that gave me a lot of energy. What appealed to me were the tangible results, the creative process and the collaboration with customers.
I grew from project controller to co-owner, and there I laid the foundations for my later vision. Around 2015 I was approached by the founders of Eqeep, who knew me from hockey and from the Tiel area. “We’d really like to have you on board,” they said. It felt like a natural next step in my career.
From CFO to CEO
So I made the switch to Eqeep. I started as CFO, which gave me the chance to master the financial and operational side of the business. The role gave me a 360-degree view of what organisations really need to be successful.
In 2021 I became CEO, and since 2024 I have been the full owner of the organisation. Growing into the role gradually gave me time to understand both the company and the dynamics of the market. Here too I followed my principle: understand first, then act.
What design & build taught me about IT
The best thing I took from design & build is the conviction that everything starts with a good design. A building has different functions that need to come together, such as workspaces, meeting rooms and warehouses. You start with a bubble diagram, a conceptual sketch in which “bubbles” show where each function goes. Only then do you fill in those bubbles with concrete functionality.
This principle translated surprisingly well to IT. You always want to see the bigger picture first. How does the ecosystem work, how is the organisation structured, what wishes and requirements are there and how does the service to customers work? We need to think far more from the business and the customer, and less from the software.
Over the past three years we have refined this philosophy and anchored it in the way Eqeep works. Just as with a building, we always start with the bigger picture. With this approach we now see organisations progress faster and grow more sustainably.
What drives me
What drives me most is strategy and genuine contact with customers. I have closed the chapter on hard sales. There is nothing better than sitting at the table with people and talking in depth about where their company is heading and what trends they see in their market.
I enjoy philosophising about possibilities, and also the very practical side: what are your concrete challenges and how do we solve them together? Those conversations, giving advice and suggesting a direction of thought make me happy. In the end, everything comes back to what I knew intuitively at the start of my career: truly understand first, then act.
Erry
Want to grow at Eqeep too?
Do you also want to understand how a business works before you act? Contact Eqeep for a no-obligation conversation about working with us.
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