BrazilING's head of innovation Hugo Raaijmakers joins PA Consulting
Hugo Raaijmakers, the Global Head of Innovation Management at the Netherlands’ largest bank, ING, has ventured into the world of management consulting.
“I’m looking forward to leveraging PA Consulting Group’s innovation DNA in helping clients to innovate further, faster and to stay ahead of disruption,” said Raaijmakers about his move.
Raaijmakers route to ING followed a varied path. Having served the Dutch army for 1.5 years, he studied psychology and attended the art academy – later on Raaijmakers also obtained an MBA. After working in several marketing roles, he joined Vodafone as Head of Online Marketing, after which he was promoted to hold responsibility for Vodafone’s company-wide digital user experience in the Netherlands.
Throughout a ten year spell at consumer electronics and healthcare giant Philips he held several management roles, latterly serving as global Director of the Digital Innovation and Transformation wing of Philips Personal Care. In the position, he led a team of internal consultants and digital professionals that designed and delivered products and services for the unit, spanning incremental through to breakthrough innovation.
At ING, in his most recent position as Global Head of Innovation Management, Raaijmakers was responsible for defining and implementing the bank’s global innovation transformation programme. Initiatives he contributed to included helping the bank transition to a new way of working called PACE – “a combination of agile, lean startup, and design thinking,” said Raaijmakers – as well the roll out of ING’s open banking platform strategy and the setup of accelerators and boot-camps.
“We’re delighted to welcome Hugo to our team,” remarked Mark Griep, who leads PA Consulting Group in the Netherlands. “He is a visionary leader when it comes to innovation and transformation. His experience and insights will help our clients to adapt and transform, further and faster to create value.” Anita Chandraker, Global Head of Innovation Services at PA Consulting, added: “Hugo’s extensive experience in helping clients to use digital innovation to adapt and transform their operations will further enhance PA’s reputation of helping clients achieve sustainable digital transformation.”
At PA, Raaijmakers has been appointed a Partner in the firm’s Innovation Services practice, based in the Utrecht office, where the consultancy houses a team of over 50 partners and consultants. Globally, the UK origin management and technology consulting firm has over 2,600 advisors and staff across offices in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East. The private equity backed consulting firm generated record revenues of £455.8 million last year.
As part of his mandate, Raaijmakers highlighted the need for companies to embrace innovation to stay ahead of the competition, echoing the results of a recent PA study which found that innovation is becoming increasingly important for long-term business survival. “Transforming companies to become structured innovation machines has become essential. By placing customer-centricity, experimentation and validation at the core, companies can more efficiently create products and services that match customer needs.”
