We have a strong vision on putting people first

“In the summer of 2000 I was the CEO of Vedior. After 12 years in the lead, running and building Vedior into a global staffing company, I had just decided to leave the company. My 26-year career, which led me to the top of several big companies, had been successful and gratifying. I always enjoyed my jobs. However, during my walks in London’s Hyde Park, after a long day of intensive roadshows I came to the rather surprising conclusion that I had enjoyed my first job more than my last one.

I realized that, along the way, the ‘old’ environment in which management development was a key Human Development function, which was shaped by extending different departments with quite a number of young graduates to create a talent pool. They were challenged for a number of years on different projects by more senior people. I observed that this approach of management development was marginalised or externalised by the laws of economics and effciency. The talent pools were considered to be too expensive and the loss of talent was considered to be too big.

On top of that I became convinced that the rat race in the fastlane should be structurally counterbalanced by walks in the park in order to reflect and recharge. So, all in all, the opportunities for personal growth and furthering in companies and other organisations were being reduced by the laws of ‘economics’ and ‘efficiency‘. The aforementioned observations are exactly the reasons why I decided to create a company based on one basic idea: the growth of people, which is currently our Purpose and Why. Now you understand why our group management company carries the name ParkLane Insight. We believe in the balance between Park and FastLane, between speed and quality, driven by insight in people.

With my original finance background and my long experience as an entrepreneur and leader, the decision to start a finance company felt very natural. I introduced the Hub Philosophy: a working environment for personal growth. It’s an environment where people are being challenged by seniors so that they can grow and further themselves and where, after a number of years a better matching destination could be found elsewhere. This is all in the Hub-game, but of course preferably later than earlier.

Operating as Career Accelerator and Destination Finder, which is the core of the Hub Philosophy, are in fact the main furthering functions of our company. Together they form our furthering ambition.

Our professionals grow faster, TriFinance benefits and grows subsequently, and the customers reap the rewards of our people’s drive, coming from their intrinsic motivation. That’s why we choose for Economies of Motivation® instead of Economies of Scale. The Hub Philosophy is from the very beginning the cornerstone of TriFinance, which started its first full year of operation in 2002. It has chosen to put the people first and customers second, which is a matter of sequence and not of hierarchy, the one over the other. Motivation is a key driver for personal growth to further yourself and consequently your customers."

Gert Smit
Founder & chairman