Michael Kolk
Michaël helps clients in the chemicals, life sciences and technology-intensive industries to identify, realize and sustain innovation-based growth and value creation.
Education
Radboud University
PhD Physical Chemistry
University of Amsterdam
M.Sc. Biochemistry
Past Experience
Shell
Workgroup Leader
Michaël is a Partner who joined Arthur D. Little in 2000 and has been based in the Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur offices. He leads our Global Technology & Innovation Management Practice and coordinates as well our Global Chemicals Practice.
His consulting focus finds itself in the areas of Growth and Innovation performance enhancement, primarily in the chemicals, life sciences, and other technology-intensive industries. He is a regular speaker at innovation conferences.
Michaël’s mission in his professional life is to help clients find and capture opportunities for sustainable growth and value creation. Very often this involves the “what” (strategy creation, opportunity scouting, business-case creation, etc.) alongside the “how” (innovation management, organization and process redesign, capability building, change management, etc.).
Before joining Arthur D. Little, Michaël worked for Shell Chemicals as a workgroup leader in its Amsterdam Technology Center, providing technical support to internal customers in downstream oil and chemicals.
Michaël holds an MSc in biochemistry from the University of Amsterdam and a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Radboud University. In addition, he has attended the Executive Education program of Insead, France.
Michaël is married and has three young daughters. His other interests are literature, world politics, and popular science. In his spare time, he likes to run (regularly) and travel to the world’s more distant places (occasionally).
Opening the urban mine
Creating circular supply chains is essential to the green transition, particularly when it comes to recycling and reusing rare materials. Yet, while many circular economy initiatives may be sustainable, they are not profitable, which hampers their wider development and holds back the achievement of sustainability goals.
The people-centric lab of the future
As the world grapples with global mega-challenges, innovation[1] has never been more necessary. We need breakthrough innovation to solve pressing issues around energy, the environment, and social and health challenges. At the same time, and equally importantly, companies have to deal with a business world typified by increased complexity and accelerated time frames. Together these mean innovation must deliver more breakthroughs, rather than only incremental improvements, with more flexibility and responsiveness and at greater speed.
Big data? Big security!
The revolution introduced by the digitization process has made it possible to generate and collect increasingly expanding volumes of data. As a result, public and private organizations must define new strategies, design and implement protection systems, adapt their operational models, and learn to manage information by mitigating the risks linked to cyber threats — while remaining in compliance with the provisions of the main regulations in force. In this Viewpoint, we describe the measures organizations must take to mitigate risks.
Staying ahead of the curve
The future is no longer predictable. Businesses constantly face the challenge to interpret and plan for the impact of overarching trends, such as sustainability/climate change, geopolitical instability, resource scarcity, digitalization, and disruptive new technologies. Today’s CEOs must master resilience and growth in a world of uncertainty to ensure that they stay ahead of the curve. In this Viewpoint, we describe a systematic five-pillar approach to address this complexity.
HARNESSING EXTERNAL DATA SHARING TO UNLOCK TRANSFORMATIVE COLLABORATION
Data is at the heart of business success, enabling better decision-making, new business models, and underpinning effective artificial intelligence (AI). Sharing data across ecosystems creates more valuable data sets and delivers strategic benefits. However, external data sharing is still new to many organizations, leading to concerns about protecting data, loss of related intellectual property (IP), and ensuring regulatory compliance. Organizations can overcome these through a combination of regulatory/legal understanding and the right strategic/technology decisions.
Eyes in the sky: Opportunities from earth observation
Earth observation (EO) — combined with developments in cloud infrastructure, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI) — enables data-driven decision-making to address societal challenges like city development planning, land management, and climate issues. Higher data resolution fostered by technology enhancement, increased access to free low-/medium-resolution images, easily accessible computing power, and accelerating data-driven organizational transformation have enabled steady growth in EO market.
ESG: Last call to take effective action
From good to great: Enhancing innovation performance through effective management processes
Navigating the sustainability journey
Sustainability is one of the few topics that is high on the agenda across all companies, sectors, and countries. Eighty percent of companies in a recent global ADL study[1] had a sustainability strategy in place, and a further 12 percent were developing one.
Effectively managing the sustainability transition in an ambiguous world
The need to transition to sustainable business models is a key topic for every senior manager. However, prioritizing sustainability is challenging due to its complexity, competing priorities, and uncertainty around legislation and technology progress. Despite the challenges, it’s crucial for companies to understand the necessary actions they have to take to meet long-term demands and targets. Adopting scenario-based planning is essential to gain this understanding.
Time to renew your pilot’s license?
Excelling in a software-driven future
Software is rapidly becoming a critical asset as industries converge and perception of value shifts from hardware to software. Surgeons, for instance, can perform lifesaving surgeries via virtual reality (VR). But such a revolutionary procedure demands zero risk for error or downtime in connectivity, leading to new network requirements. Retail and commerce has also conjoined with computing, logistics, and finance for seamless online shopping.
Why the bio-based materials market is finally poised for growth
This is now changing rapidly, reinvigorating the market. Demand is growing, driven by increasingly environmentally conscious consumers and governments’ Net Zero targets requiring consumer-focused product companies to achieve sustainability. Finally, technology breakthroughs are bringing down production costs for bio-based materials, while improving their performance to make them comparable or superior to fossil-based counterparts.
European battery recycling: An emerging cross-industry convergence
The rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and associated battery gigafactories is pushing forward the creation of a European closed-loop battery recycling value chain. Increased recycling demand, intensified EU regulations, and a strong desire to localize supply chains and safeguard critical raw materials is driving multiple opportunities. In this context, as we explore in this Viewpoint, new ecosystems are emerging, and players interested in scaling need to act quickly to take advantage of the current environment.
11 technology trends for post-crisis success
BUILDING THE BATTERY ECOSYSTEM OF TOMORROW
Combining technology, scale-up capabilities, and capital to power change
Realizing the strategic importance of batteries, Western governments are aiming to build their own ecosystems, competing (and collaborating) with Asian leaders. So, what will the battery ecosystem of tomorrow look like? To discuss current and future trends, Arthur D. Little (ADL) brought together representatives of established and emerging players. This Viewpoint provides a high-level summary of the discussion.
From Insight to Impact
The Green Gambit – Investing for corporate strategic advantage in the post-COVID-19 world
Gambit: “A clever action in a game or other situation that is intended to achieve an advantage and usually involves taking a risk” [Cambridge Dictionary]
The pandemic has transformed the environment for green investment, unlocking new opportunities as governments, corporates and investors all take a fresh look at their priorities. As this article explains, now is the time for companies to adopt a new focus on nurturing disruptive innovations, making bold strategic gambits that will drive green transformation.
The role of green capital in financing a circular plastics economy
Key findings from an ADL executive webinar with corporates and investors
The Breakthrough Incubator: A proven approach
Explore and conquer new business territories
Green financing of corporate breakthroughs
Making investors part of your innovation ecosystem
Chemicals: The old normal or the new normal?
Given its central position to the global economy, the chemical sector has felt the full force of COVID-19, though some players have suffered more than others. We analyze who the winners and losers currently are, and focus on the steps that all chemical companies need to take now to seize future opportunities – rethinking their purposes, promises and portfolios to drive future growth, value creation and resilience.
The Company of Tomorrow
The COVID-19 crisis hit the world as this edition of Prism was in preparation. Needless to say, the outlook for business, at least in the short term, has changed radically in just a few weeks. Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that one effect of the crisis has been acceleration of trends that were already there, such as virtualization of the workplace, further penetration of digital technologies (for example, AI and the IoT), and “asset-light” business models that make businesses more responsive and resilient to rapid shocks.
The laboratory of the future
Industrial research and development has been transformed by factors such as globalization, specialization and open innovation. To meet growing challenges, R&D needs to change again to create the laboratory of the future, which will focus on putting people at the heart of innovation. We explore three next practices companies can implement now to position themselves for future R&D leadership.
Converging on the Future
Convergence seems to be everywhere in the business world these days. It covers a wide range of factors which can come together to change the status quo in an industry or value chain. Think of food and healthcare in functional foods, or telecoms and energy in smart grids. Digital technology has been a huge enabler of convergence.
Breaking the mold – Using the power of convergence to accelerate growth
Despite an impressive record of value creation and its central importance to meeting mankind’s future “mega-needs”, the chemicals industry is undervalued by investors, which holds back its strategic freedom to grow. Focusing on four key trends to power transformation, this article looks at how this challenge can be overcome by embracing convergence, through lessons that can also be applied to other high- capital-investment, asset-heavy industries.
Sense of Purpose
From time to time concepts that, at first sight, seem quite old fashioned suddenly get a new lease of life. For example, open innovation has been around for decades, but it’s come to the fore again in recent years in the context of converging industries, start-up collaborations and the rise of the innovation ecosystem.
Innovation purpose
Innovation is central to success for businesses today, yet many large, asset-heavy companies with decentralized business units struggle to combine R&D agility with common, clearly communicable corporate strategies. This article, based on experience at a large global energy company, explains how a purpose-driven approach to R&D can deliver innovation agility across the organization.
Innovating in the digital age – Successfully combining intelligence, foresight and interaction
Digital technologies are poised to have fundamental impact on innovation management. Drawing on a unique global study carried out by Arthur D. Little, this article explains the three areas where digitalization will impact innovation management, the state of adoption, perceived benefits, and the risks to organizations that are left behind.
Innovating in the digital age –a cross-industry exploration
Our recent survey of 150 companies and 300+ solution providers revealed five key lessons on “innovating in the digital age”
Digital technologies (such as AI, advanced analytics, self-learning systems and IoT) are expected to partly or even completely transform the way innovation gets done, according to 93% of all surveyed companies
The most important technologies can be grouped into three families, depending on what they bring to innovators
those that boost intelligence, for instance about customer needs;
Future of batteries
Battery technologies are central to delivering significant advances in a wide range of industries, from electric vehicles to renewable power. This has catapulted battery technology to the top of the priority list for many players, leading to a huge boom in investment, as companies try to build key positions in the market.
The Breakthrough Incubator - how to create and rapidly launch new step-out businesses
Despite businesses focusing their efforts on improving breakthrough innovation performance, many still fail to create sustainable new businesses of scale. The Breakthrough Incubator model, a new approach built on radical collaboration across the innovation ecosystem, covering the entire process from idea to commercialization, is already demonstrating that it can overcome the challenges that hold back performance.
Balancing the positives and negatives – The rise of the battery ecosystem
Expanding markets such as electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and consumer electronics are driving enormous interest and investment in the battery sector, from both incumbents and new players. Based on a new ADL study, this article explores the drivers, challenges and likely outcomes in the market, providing key lessons to inform future strategies.
Dynamic innovation strategy
Having a clear strategy for innovation seems like an obvious priority for any large company. However, the classical “top-down” analytical approach, which starts with business objectives and cascades down perfectly through to a series of narrowly defined innovation projects, is seen by many as too rigid for the post- digital “lean start-up” world. So has innovation strategy had its day? Should companies instead just focus on capturing new opportunities and working with start-ups?
Ecosystem innovation
While companies have embraced the opportunities offered by the concept of open innovation over the past 20 years, the overriding need for agility and responsiveness means this is no longer adequate to meet future challenges. In this article, the authors explain why companies need to focus on hyper-collaboration, adopting truly outside-in philosophies at all levels, and work with wider ranges of partners with different capabilities, if they are to succeed in building agile ecosystems that drive real innovation
New Product Development – Organizing to identify customer needs
Obtaining a deep understanding of B2B customer needs is central to any new product development process. In a complex customer relationship, fi nding the best way to organize and manage customer interaction is anything but simple, especially when the product is technically complex. Rather than adopting a “one-size-fi tsall”approach, companies need to choose the best organizational method for their particular needs. This article outlines four approaches – and the circumstances in which each should be applied.
The Growth Accelerator - Benefit
Implementing a targeted and impactful Growth Accelerator initiative typically yields an average return of 13 percentage points incremental CAGR (compound annual growth rate). While organizations concentrate on serving existing business to fulfill annual targets and shareholders' expectations, they often have limited or no strategies to address the tremendous potential outside their core business in the mid- and long-term.
The Growth Accelerator - Framework
In the midst of the financial turmoil and macroeconomic challenges most companies improved their cost structure and cash position. Now, despite the continuous political and economic challenges, organic growth and innovation returns to the corporate agenda.
Michaël is a Partner who joined Arthur D. Little in 2000 and has been based in the Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur offices. He leads our Global Technology & Innovation Management Practice and coordinates as well our Global Chemicals Practice.
His consulting focus finds itself in the areas of Growth and Innovation performance enhancement, primarily in the chemicals, life sciences, and other technology-intensive industries. He is a regular speaker at innovation conferences.
Michaël’s mission in his professional life is to help clients find and capture opportunities for sustainable growth and value creation. Very often this involves the “what” (strategy creation, opportunity scouting, business-case creation, etc.) alongside the “how” (innovation management, organization and process redesign, capability building, change management, etc.).
Before joining Arthur D. Little, Michaël worked for Shell Chemicals as a workgroup leader in its Amsterdam Technology Center, providing technical support to internal customers in downstream oil and chemicals.
Michaël holds an MSc in biochemistry from the University of Amsterdam and a Ph.D. in biophysical chemistry from Radboud University. In addition, he has attended the Executive Education program of Insead, France.
Michaël is married and has three young daughters. His other interests are literature, world politics, and popular science. In his spare time, he likes to run (regularly) and travel to the world’s more distant places (occasionally).
Opening the urban mine
Creating circular supply chains is essential to the green transition, particularly when it comes to recycling and reusing rare materials. Yet, while many circular economy initiatives may be sustainable, they are not profitable, which hampers their wider development and holds back the achievement of sustainability goals.
The people-centric lab of the future
As the world grapples with global mega-challenges, innovation[1] has never been more necessary. We need breakthrough innovation to solve pressing issues around energy, the environment, and social and health challenges. At the same time, and equally importantly, companies have to deal with a business world typified by increased complexity and accelerated time frames. Together these mean innovation must deliver more breakthroughs, rather than only incremental improvements, with more flexibility and responsiveness and at greater speed.
Big data? Big security!
The revolution introduced by the digitization process has made it possible to generate and collect increasingly expanding volumes of data. As a result, public and private organizations must define new strategies, design and implement protection systems, adapt their operational models, and learn to manage information by mitigating the risks linked to cyber threats — while remaining in compliance with the provisions of the main regulations in force. In this Viewpoint, we describe the measures organizations must take to mitigate risks.
Staying ahead of the curve
The future is no longer predictable. Businesses constantly face the challenge to interpret and plan for the impact of overarching trends, such as sustainability/climate change, geopolitical instability, resource scarcity, digitalization, and disruptive new technologies. Today’s CEOs must master resilience and growth in a world of uncertainty to ensure that they stay ahead of the curve. In this Viewpoint, we describe a systematic five-pillar approach to address this complexity.
HARNESSING EXTERNAL DATA SHARING TO UNLOCK TRANSFORMATIVE COLLABORATION
Data is at the heart of business success, enabling better decision-making, new business models, and underpinning effective artificial intelligence (AI). Sharing data across ecosystems creates more valuable data sets and delivers strategic benefits. However, external data sharing is still new to many organizations, leading to concerns about protecting data, loss of related intellectual property (IP), and ensuring regulatory compliance. Organizations can overcome these through a combination of regulatory/legal understanding and the right strategic/technology decisions.
Eyes in the sky: Opportunities from earth observation
Earth observation (EO) — combined with developments in cloud infrastructure, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI) — enables data-driven decision-making to address societal challenges like city development planning, land management, and climate issues. Higher data resolution fostered by technology enhancement, increased access to free low-/medium-resolution images, easily accessible computing power, and accelerating data-driven organizational transformation have enabled steady growth in EO market.
ESG: Last call to take effective action
From good to great: Enhancing innovation performance through effective management processes
Navigating the sustainability journey
Sustainability is one of the few topics that is high on the agenda across all companies, sectors, and countries. Eighty percent of companies in a recent global ADL study[1] had a sustainability strategy in place, and a further 12 percent were developing one.
Effectively managing the sustainability transition in an ambiguous world
The need to transition to sustainable business models is a key topic for every senior manager. However, prioritizing sustainability is challenging due to its complexity, competing priorities, and uncertainty around legislation and technology progress. Despite the challenges, it’s crucial for companies to understand the necessary actions they have to take to meet long-term demands and targets. Adopting scenario-based planning is essential to gain this understanding.
Time to renew your pilot’s license?
Excelling in a software-driven future
Software is rapidly becoming a critical asset as industries converge and perception of value shifts from hardware to software. Surgeons, for instance, can perform lifesaving surgeries via virtual reality (VR). But such a revolutionary procedure demands zero risk for error or downtime in connectivity, leading to new network requirements. Retail and commerce has also conjoined with computing, logistics, and finance for seamless online shopping.
Why the bio-based materials market is finally poised for growth
This is now changing rapidly, reinvigorating the market. Demand is growing, driven by increasingly environmentally conscious consumers and governments’ Net Zero targets requiring consumer-focused product companies to achieve sustainability. Finally, technology breakthroughs are bringing down production costs for bio-based materials, while improving their performance to make them comparable or superior to fossil-based counterparts.
European battery recycling: An emerging cross-industry convergence
The rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and associated battery gigafactories is pushing forward the creation of a European closed-loop battery recycling value chain. Increased recycling demand, intensified EU regulations, and a strong desire to localize supply chains and safeguard critical raw materials is driving multiple opportunities. In this context, as we explore in this Viewpoint, new ecosystems are emerging, and players interested in scaling need to act quickly to take advantage of the current environment.
11 technology trends for post-crisis success
BUILDING THE BATTERY ECOSYSTEM OF TOMORROW
Combining technology, scale-up capabilities, and capital to power change
Realizing the strategic importance of batteries, Western governments are aiming to build their own ecosystems, competing (and collaborating) with Asian leaders. So, what will the battery ecosystem of tomorrow look like? To discuss current and future trends, Arthur D. Little (ADL) brought together representatives of established and emerging players. This Viewpoint provides a high-level summary of the discussion.
From Insight to Impact
The Green Gambit – Investing for corporate strategic advantage in the post-COVID-19 world
Gambit: “A clever action in a game or other situation that is intended to achieve an advantage and usually involves taking a risk” [Cambridge Dictionary]
The pandemic has transformed the environment for green investment, unlocking new opportunities as governments, corporates and investors all take a fresh look at their priorities. As this article explains, now is the time for companies to adopt a new focus on nurturing disruptive innovations, making bold strategic gambits that will drive green transformation.
The role of green capital in financing a circular plastics economy
Key findings from an ADL executive webinar with corporates and investors
The Breakthrough Incubator: A proven approach
Explore and conquer new business territories
Green financing of corporate breakthroughs
Making investors part of your innovation ecosystem
Chemicals: The old normal or the new normal?
Given its central position to the global economy, the chemical sector has felt the full force of COVID-19, though some players have suffered more than others. We analyze who the winners and losers currently are, and focus on the steps that all chemical companies need to take now to seize future opportunities – rethinking their purposes, promises and portfolios to drive future growth, value creation and resilience.
The Company of Tomorrow
The COVID-19 crisis hit the world as this edition of Prism was in preparation. Needless to say, the outlook for business, at least in the short term, has changed radically in just a few weeks. Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that one effect of the crisis has been acceleration of trends that were already there, such as virtualization of the workplace, further penetration of digital technologies (for example, AI and the IoT), and “asset-light” business models that make businesses more responsive and resilient to rapid shocks.
The laboratory of the future
Industrial research and development has been transformed by factors such as globalization, specialization and open innovation. To meet growing challenges, R&D needs to change again to create the laboratory of the future, which will focus on putting people at the heart of innovation. We explore three next practices companies can implement now to position themselves for future R&D leadership.
Converging on the Future
Convergence seems to be everywhere in the business world these days. It covers a wide range of factors which can come together to change the status quo in an industry or value chain. Think of food and healthcare in functional foods, or telecoms and energy in smart grids. Digital technology has been a huge enabler of convergence.
Breaking the mold – Using the power of convergence to accelerate growth
Despite an impressive record of value creation and its central importance to meeting mankind’s future “mega-needs”, the chemicals industry is undervalued by investors, which holds back its strategic freedom to grow. Focusing on four key trends to power transformation, this article looks at how this challenge can be overcome by embracing convergence, through lessons that can also be applied to other high- capital-investment, asset-heavy industries.
Sense of Purpose
From time to time concepts that, at first sight, seem quite old fashioned suddenly get a new lease of life. For example, open innovation has been around for decades, but it’s come to the fore again in recent years in the context of converging industries, start-up collaborations and the rise of the innovation ecosystem.
Innovation purpose
Innovation is central to success for businesses today, yet many large, asset-heavy companies with decentralized business units struggle to combine R&D agility with common, clearly communicable corporate strategies. This article, based on experience at a large global energy company, explains how a purpose-driven approach to R&D can deliver innovation agility across the organization.
Innovating in the digital age – Successfully combining intelligence, foresight and interaction
Digital technologies are poised to have fundamental impact on innovation management. Drawing on a unique global study carried out by Arthur D. Little, this article explains the three areas where digitalization will impact innovation management, the state of adoption, perceived benefits, and the risks to organizations that are left behind.
Innovating in the digital age –a cross-industry exploration
Our recent survey of 150 companies and 300+ solution providers revealed five key lessons on “innovating in the digital age”
Digital technologies (such as AI, advanced analytics, self-learning systems and IoT) are expected to partly or even completely transform the way innovation gets done, according to 93% of all surveyed companies
The most important technologies can be grouped into three families, depending on what they bring to innovators
those that boost intelligence, for instance about customer needs;
Future of batteries
Battery technologies are central to delivering significant advances in a wide range of industries, from electric vehicles to renewable power. This has catapulted battery technology to the top of the priority list for many players, leading to a huge boom in investment, as companies try to build key positions in the market.
The Breakthrough Incubator - how to create and rapidly launch new step-out businesses
Despite businesses focusing their efforts on improving breakthrough innovation performance, many still fail to create sustainable new businesses of scale. The Breakthrough Incubator model, a new approach built on radical collaboration across the innovation ecosystem, covering the entire process from idea to commercialization, is already demonstrating that it can overcome the challenges that hold back performance.
Balancing the positives and negatives – The rise of the battery ecosystem
Expanding markets such as electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and consumer electronics are driving enormous interest and investment in the battery sector, from both incumbents and new players. Based on a new ADL study, this article explores the drivers, challenges and likely outcomes in the market, providing key lessons to inform future strategies.
Dynamic innovation strategy
Having a clear strategy for innovation seems like an obvious priority for any large company. However, the classical “top-down” analytical approach, which starts with business objectives and cascades down perfectly through to a series of narrowly defined innovation projects, is seen by many as too rigid for the post- digital “lean start-up” world. So has innovation strategy had its day? Should companies instead just focus on capturing new opportunities and working with start-ups?
Ecosystem innovation
While companies have embraced the opportunities offered by the concept of open innovation over the past 20 years, the overriding need for agility and responsiveness means this is no longer adequate to meet future challenges. In this article, the authors explain why companies need to focus on hyper-collaboration, adopting truly outside-in philosophies at all levels, and work with wider ranges of partners with different capabilities, if they are to succeed in building agile ecosystems that drive real innovation
New Product Development – Organizing to identify customer needs
Obtaining a deep understanding of B2B customer needs is central to any new product development process. In a complex customer relationship, fi nding the best way to organize and manage customer interaction is anything but simple, especially when the product is technically complex. Rather than adopting a “one-size-fi tsall”approach, companies need to choose the best organizational method for their particular needs. This article outlines four approaches – and the circumstances in which each should be applied.
The Growth Accelerator - Benefit
Implementing a targeted and impactful Growth Accelerator initiative typically yields an average return of 13 percentage points incremental CAGR (compound annual growth rate). While organizations concentrate on serving existing business to fulfill annual targets and shareholders' expectations, they often have limited or no strategies to address the tremendous potential outside their core business in the mid- and long-term.
The Growth Accelerator - Framework
In the midst of the financial turmoil and macroeconomic challenges most companies improved their cost structure and cash position. Now, despite the continuous political and economic challenges, organic growth and innovation returns to the corporate agenda.
More About Michael
- Radboud UniversityPhD Physical Chemistry
- University of AmsterdamM.Sc. Biochemistry
- ShellWorkgroup Leader