We make strategic decisions faster and better thanks to Flow+

“In our industry, green and blue branding dominated when we started the company, so we painted our trucks pink. They are still noticeable today. When we drive up to a company, they waive us straight in.” Dick van Aggel and his wife, Dorien, own Medicura, a medical device supplier located in Nederweert, the Netherlands. They are guided in their entrepreneurship by Jeroen Beckers of Flow+. Jeroen brings structure to their company in his role as a sparring partner. But according to Dick and Dorien, he is more than that: “Jeroen is an accountability partner. If you know he is coming, you want to make sure the agreed actions are completed. This keeps you continuously focused on developing your business, regardless of the issues of the day, which often consume too much of your time.”

Dick started Medicura in 2003: “I already worked in the sector and saw that the nursing market was opening up. Previously, the government had a monopoly position through the Green Cross, which was expiring. Everyone thought I was crazy to give up a nice job and car for this. I wanted to start here in the area, but I wasn’t able to secure favorable contracts with local healthcare organizations. In the town of Roosendaal, I found a customer who had confidence in us. I bought a pink truck and started delivering my things during the day. In the evening, I did the administrative tasks. After a year, I was able to hire an employee.”

Dorien joined the business in 2005. With a Ph.D. in health sciences, she was familiar with the sector and especially with setting up processes: “I joined the company when processes needed to be streamlined and IT further professionalized. We set up an ERP system, hired new people, and opened the first stores in Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom.”

The Role of Flow +

Jeroen Beckers briefly explains what Flow+ entails: “Flow+ aims to support the entrepreneur and the company. The entrepreneur knows his business well, but may sometimes struggle to maintain a necessary distance. We serve as a sparring partner, providing a supportive environment for reflection and encouraging the entrepreneur to pause and explore. Additionally, we are motivators, ensuring that strategies are implemented well.”

“We started working with Medicura in October 2018,” continued Jeroen. “We meet monthly for two to three-hour basecamp sessions. We first began by looking at the entrepreneur’s vision, and, by extension, the business operations which include the management team and employees.”

The Flow+ Influence

Dick explains how the relationship with Flow+ began: “We had just started an advisory board in which Jeroen Beckers represented Flow+, providing insight into our strategy. It’s valuable to regularly reflect on this since the strategic aspect often gets overshadowed by operational tasks in the day-to-day. Flow+ was there to help us with this.”

Dorien outlines the benefits of Flow+: “We can see that we now make strategic choices more quickly. We have recently taken over some activities and outsourced others. For example, we first did medical device inspections ourselves, but we had not yet fully developed the process. A partner is now helping us with this. There is a lot of synergy in this for both parties. And in addition to the periodic basecamp sessions with Flow+, we can also consult with them in between as needed.”

The Growth

Dick describes their growth: “We are expanding our chain in a ‘flower-like’ way – as soon as we have sufficient volume and activity in a region, we expand into an area next to it. Together with Jeroen, we are always exploring ways to approach this. He taught us to analyze things thoroughly before making decisions. A gut feeling is good, but you also have to validate it. In the future, we want to be the best supplier in the industry. We are well on our way. In doing so, we want to retain our core values: reliable, involved, driven, and knowledgeable. We have some favorable market trends: an expanding aging population, the desire for longer independent living, and more. But the insurance companies don’t make it easy for us. As an extension of our mission, we have developed a medical aid vending machine, inspired by egg vending machines at farms. We placed the first machine in a hospital in Boxmeer, allowing people to access crutches and similar items 24/7. Hospitals find it convenient, and people don’t have to wait until the next morning to be released. It’s a robust machine, but we decided not to paint it pink, haha.”