Sitting in his sun-filled office in a suburb of Amsterdam, Bert Twaalfhovenbrimming with energylooks the part of a worldly and accomplished business leader.And well he should. He has founded and headed a wide assortment of small companies during a career of more than forty years, recently stepping down as chairman of N.V. Interturbine, an international group of nine associated firms that specialize in the manufacture and repair of turbine engines for the aircraft and other industriesan operation with sales last year of $150 million.
But Twaalfhoven is also every bit the revolutionary. Not long after he graduated from Harvard Business School, he began carrying the flag for the cause of entrepreneurial initiatives in Europe. Twaalfhoven eloquently and vigorously made the case for this source of economic development in a continent long dominated by big business and risk-averse managers and investors, and he eventually established one of Europe's first venture funds. As a result, the Financial Times reported, he is "revered as something of an elder statesman" among the growing number of European entrepreneurs.
Between 1959 and 1999, Twaalfhoven was a driving force in fifty start-ups in ten countries. He is quick to point out as well that seventeen of those ventures didn't survive with him at the helma part of the entrepreneurial process he puts into perspective by referring to an ancient Chinese proverb: The learning that comes from failure is the basis for future success.
"The Industrial Revolution changed the face of Europe," he asserts. "The entrepreneurial revolution is now revitalizing economies, creating millions of jobs, and forging a new prosperity built on the back of dynamic fast-track companies driven by ambitious entrepreneurs willing to take risks."
Born and raised in The Hague, the son of a physician, Twaalfhoven had just entered secondary school in 1940 when World War II broke out and the German army occupied Holland. Four years later, Allied bombs fell on the city, destroying all of his family's possessions. Tulip bulbs became a source of nourishment. In 1948, rather than remain in war-torn Holland, with the help of a scholarship he embarked for New York City to continue his education at Fordham University.
By the time he earned his bachelor's degree in economics in 1952, Twaalfhoven was eager to study business at Harvard. "I arrived in the United States with $25 in my pocket and was washing dishes on my first day in Manhattan," he recalls. "Since I had to take on many different jobs to support myself while I was a student, I had some sense of what business had to offer." At Soldiers Field, he was inspired by professors who pioneered the study of entrepreneurship, including Georges F. Doriot, founder of one of the first U.S. venture capital firms, and John G. McLean, who did early work on corporate competitiveness.
After HBS, Twaalfhoven headed for Montreal, part of a select group of recent graduates from universities around the world chosen to work at Alcan Aluminium Limited, where he spent the next three years in finance. A six-month stint on Wall Street followed. As valuable as those experiences were in his training, however, Twaalfhoven had his mind set on one long-term goalfinding the right opportunity to launch his own business. He passed on a chance to sell caskets in Canada, but the revival of Europe provided appealing options when he returned to Holland in 1958.
Twaalfhoven's first two ventures proved disappointing. The coin-operated washing machines he introduced under the brand name "Wasserettes" to the Benelux countries were slow to win converts among Dutch households, while an aluminum extrusion factory that made components for windows suffered from quality-control problems and an absence of local die suppliers. That wasn't enough, however, to dampen the interest of two major North American aluminum companies eager to enter the European market. Selling his share of the operation to one of them in 1963 left Twaalfhoven with an unexpected windfall that helped him get future projects off the ground.
Forming a holding company called Indivers to reflect the diversity of industries he planned to include under that name, Twaalfhoven established Europe's first independent maker of extrusion dies. When a fire forced him to rebuild his facility in 1966, he discovered that he could also use his new machines to drill precise cooling holes around the edges of jet engine and stationary turbine blades. "I've always looked to fill the needs of niche markets," Twaalfhoven explains. "To find the ones with the greatest potential for growth, I've hired more than 650 students from 25 nations over 30 years to do research for me. Several became successful managers of our subsidiaries; others did very well on their own." By 1970, Indivers comprised seven companies; five years later, it had grown to twenty, including Interturbine, which at its height was made up of twenty-eight associated firms on three continents.
Always eager to preach what he has practiced, Twaalfhoven has long spoken at scores of conferences, served on countless commissions, and spearheaded efforts to promote the teaching and funding of entrepreneurship throughout Europe. In 1987, for instance, inspired by findings that a high percentage of HBS alumni eventually ran their own business and that small companies generated a large number of new jobs in the United States, he cofounded the European Foundation for Entrepreneurial Research (EFER). That organization oversaw a series of influential research projects and conferences for almost a decade. In 1995, Twaalfhoven helped create EFER's successor, an annual directory and survey of Europe's five hundred high-growth entrepreneurs and the issues that concern them.
With a calendar still filled with speaking engagements and meetings, Twaalfhoven doesn't devote much time to his two favorite sportssailing and skiing. Even family gatherings aren't necessarily a respite. After all, he and his wife, Maria, have eight grown children, five of whom are entrepreneurs with MBA degrees. "Our annual family meetings always have an agenda," he laughs.
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