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WORTH Partnership Project
News article4 October 2018European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency

WORTH MENTOR INTERVIEW: MARK TERBERG

WORTH MENTOR INTERVIEW: MARK TERBERG

This week we spoke with WORTH Partnership Project mentor Mark Terberg. Mark is the co-founder of the Dutch Fashion Foundation and has an amazingly long experience with business development and is currently working towards New Fashion Entrepreneurships, developing new ventures, to bring fashion supply and demand together, internationally.

He is also a Board Member of Nova Figura Foundation, assisting victims of breast cancer with customised wearable technology solutions to maintain their ideal and feminine silhouette at an accessible price. We wanted to find out more about his experiences and what advice he has for WORTH Project participants:

You have worked over 15 years in business development, why is this important to you and the future of the creative industry?
My biggest passion is helping people and teams with great ideas realise these ideas and doing this with optimal impact. Business development is an essential tool in upscaling the reach and potential of organizations and therewith increasing their impact in a sustainable/durable way. This impact enables them to establish a movement that offers not only more business opportunities but also more potential to become exponential. The creative industry in my opinion is like a continuously filling incubator for new ways of looking at things we already know and new products and services that surprise us in the sense that we wonder why these are only just now being offered and not long before. This creative process fascinates me. There are many new creative enterprises emerging every day in a seemingly saturated market. Guiding these ventures in creating a market is a creative process in itself that is very fulfilling. Also, now that I’m establishing new ventures in bringing together supply and demand across continents is a big passion taking shape.

Your inspiring work with Nova Figura Foundation demonstrates the major benefits technology can make to people’s lives, what would you personally like to see in the future in regards to technical advancements?
The Figura Nova Foundation is a very interesting and valuable initiative dedicated to making new technological innovations accessible for those who benefit from it most, regardless of the financial resources at their disposal. This is the key for most innovations, making sure that all those who can benefit, actually do!
In The Netherlands we have numerous initiatives that are dedicated to promoting and kickstarting new (social enterprise) ideas and optimising their impact. Some great examples of initiatives I collaborate with include The National ThinktankIdeas from EuropeSocial Enterprise NL and Big Improvement day, but also hubs like the Dutch Design Week and not to forget, The Netherlands Enterprise Agency showing that here in Holland there is a passionate attitude towards collaborating in order to increase impact.
It is this attitude that makes me so excited about the Worth partnership project that stimulates enterprises to look beyond their borders and see the world as their playground, starting in Europe where so many great ideas are looking to be realised with even more impact than initially imagined. This is essential, now more than ever.

With your broad range of experience within business development, what is your best advice for WORTH participants to ensure their businesses succeed?
You will have a far bigger chance of succeeding when you collaborate, share and join forces with those who are already active on similar topics and parties that have access to your target population. Realise that you don’t have to do it all on your own, and business wise it is always better to have a small piece of something huge than a big piece of something small. So, open your agenda and try to turn what you are working on into a movement driven by shared values and motives, rather than sales targets.

Do you have a key strategy for working together in a team developing a mutual outcome?
Have common objectives, be clear in what these are and help each other achieve your goals without losing sight of your own. So communicate actively to continuously ensure you are all on the same page, and feeding the same ’movement’.

And Europe?
For me the world is my playground and being based in The Netherlands offers me a central base in Europe. Being part of the European union offers so many opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs to join forces with peers within the union. I am grateful for the Worth partnership project that offers a strong stimulus and support for increasing our competitive advantage toward the rest of the world.

Find out more about Mark Terberg here.

Details

Publication date
4 October 2018
Author
European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency
News Type
Worth News