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Chapter 23: Year 1—A Search for Synergies

Trivia

Opening Quote  

Who said "It’s hard to make predictions—especially about the future"? Was it Niels Bohr? Samuel Goldwyn? K. K. Steincke? Robert Storm Petersen? Yogi Berra? Mark Twain? Nostradamus? Anonymous? I attributed it to Robert Storm Petersen, but it could have been someone else too—read all about it on Quote Investigator.

Mobile World Congress

The Hancom booth at the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, and one of the goodies distributed at the booth: a real 10,000 Korean Won bill in a golden enveloppe.
Hancom at MWC 2016 Hancom Goodie at MWC 2016
© 2016, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert

iText Goodies

Our LEGO figurines were very popular at events:
LEGO figurines iText LEGO figurines iText LEGO figurines iText

Great Indian Developer Summit

I was a keynote speaker at GIDS three years in a row (2016, 2017, 2018).
Bruno Lowagie keynote speaker at GIDS 2016 Bruno Lowagie keynote speaker at GIDS 2017 Bruno Lowagie keynote speaker at GIDS 2018
© 2016-2018, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert

This is a video of one of my keynote talks at the Great Indian Developer Summit in Bengaluru.

Korean Culture

The book The New Koreans by Michael Breen was an eye-opener for us. It helped us understand the cultural differences between the acquiring company and the acquired company.

Buy The New Koreans on Amazon .com / .co.uk / .fr / .de (these links generate a commission)

Korean Food

We were served upscale food, such as sashimi sprinkled with flakes of gold.
food in South-Korea food in South-Korea
© 2016-2018, personal collection Lowagie-Willaert

Blockchain

I wrote four blockchain patents, and I gave several talks about the technology.

Book Quotes  

  • The previous board consisted of people that were chosen based on their diverse skill set. The board had always put strategy first, and the revenue followed as the strategy was executed. With the new board, it was the other way around. Most of the board members had a financial background.
  • I was happy having fewer responsibilities and more freedom to do further research and development. I enjoyed my work on the blockchain patents and I enjoyed the opportunity to evangelize technology at events all over the world. That part of the work was exciting and challenging, but it frustrated me that the desired synergy was more difficult to achieve than I had hoped.

Soundtrack for this Chapter  

I listen to music, but my taste in music is questionable. I've selected a handful of songs for every chapters. Sometimes, there's a link to the chapter, sometimes I just like the song.

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