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Thoughts - on people, labour and organisations
Drawing on more than three decades of experience on factory floors, in boardrooms, and across diverse industries on five continents, Maarten van Beek explores how organisations are ultimately shaped by human behaviour. In these essays, he examines themes such as culture, leadership, and decision-making through sharp observation and understated humour. He reveals how we often create complexity around simple issues, measure what is easy rather than what matters, and mistake activity for progress.
Yet this is not a cynical view of organisational life. The essays are grounded in the belief that work can be meaningful and that organisations, when functioning at their best, create value for both people and society. Rather than offering models or step-by-step solutions, Van Beek presents perspectives that invite reflection on organisations, leadership, and our own role within them. Ultimately, this book is about people, work, and the often-overlooked dynamics that connect them—a reminder that understanding organisations begins with the people who bring them to life.
HR Impact - De kracht van vakmanschap
Written in Dutch, HR Impact is a thought-provoking and forward-looking book that explores the full breadth of the HR profession. Alongside traditional topics such as performance management, talent management, and leadership development, Maarten van Beek addresses contemporary challenges including digitalisation, automation, and employee experience. Each theme is approached through a clear perspective, a theoretical foundation, and a practical case study that demonstrates where HR can make a tangible difference.
The book brings together the voices of numerous HR professionals, each contributing their own insights and experiences. This combination of perspectives, real-world examples, and practical lessons offers a rich and nuanced view of the field. As such, HR Impact serves as both an inspiration and a practical guide for HR professionals and students seeking to shape the future of work and organisations.
Author
Maarten van Beek
Maarten van Beek writes about work as if it were life – because, in truth, it is. For nearly three decades he has moved through organisations large and small, from factory floors humming with routine to boardrooms echoing with ambition – including ING, Unilever and Mölnlycke. He has served, among other roles, as Chief Human Resources Officer and carried responsibility for branding and communication. Along the way he discovered something unsettling: strategy is rarely the hardest part; behaviour is.
Gaining international experience
He has lived and worked across five continents, travelling from Geleen, where he first saw the light of day, to Leiden, Beijing, Geneva, Ithaca (NY), London, São Paulo, Singapore, Gothenburg and The Hague, where he now lives. While each place added a language, a rhythm, a different way of disagreeing, Maarten never truly picked up the local languages in the traditional sense. He reads people, senses a room, and understands how organisations move and connect.
He holds multiple master’s degrees – useful, certainly, though never a substitute for the slow education of experience. Alongside his executive work, Maarten teaches, thinks and writes. He has served on boards and supervisory boards including Cordaid, UAF (the NGO for Student Refugees), NPO (Dutch Public Broadcasting), the Dutch Employers’ Association (AWVN), and the International Leadership Association (ILA). Different sectors, different vocabularies – yet beneath the surface, the same human longings for recognition, dignity and meaning. Across these roles he noticed a pattern: spreadsheets rarely explain behaviour, culture resists command, and leadership is usually less heroic – and more fragile – than we like to believe. He is drawn to craftsmanship: the quiet pride of those who try, day after day, to do their work well – whether they shape strategy, negotiate agreements, bake bread or repair machines. His writing circles around a modest conviction: most people want to contribute; systems do not always help them do so.
HR Impact
He wrote HR Impact: The Power of Craftsmanship (2020). His columns blend lived experience, research, gentle provocation and a touch of dry humour. He believes sharpness can coexist with kindness, and that reflection often travels further than outrage. When not writing, he walks through The Hague’s ‘Zeeheldenkwartier’, studies art with patient curiosity, cooks for friends, or retreats to his wine cellar – where conversations slow, certainty softens, and honesty, like good wine, improves with age.
He writes not to close conversations, but to deepen them.
ABE Leadership & HR Advisory B.V. - The Hague
Maarten van Beek
Chambre of Commerce (KvK) 66775000