In 2001, I joined Tridion - the “cool new product” in content management. We quickly signed most large Dutch enterprises and government organisations.Over time, the company added products (Email marketing, webforms, …) to become a DXP. And the truth? None of those add-ons delivered real value to clients.
Lessons I’ve learned:
In 2006, I moved to Dubai to work for Emirates Airline - launching new country websites every month. We handed content management to local marketing teams. It seemed empowering… until it wasn’t. Inconsistency, broken workflows, and brand drift followed. Not because the teams weren’t capable, but because they weren’t trained, frequent CMS users.
Lessons I’ve learned:
A CMS is never simple if you’re not a digital native. For global brands, centralising operations with a trained, multilingual team keeps quality, tone, and brand intact, while still working closely with local markets.
After Emirates, I co-founded a digital agency Indivirtual Dubai, designing and building websites. Many prospects had platform implementations (CMS, Commerce, ….) that were almost unmaintainable. The reason? They’d been built by partners without the right skills or experience.
Lessons I’ve learned:
At first, it seems harmless. But tweak by tweak, a clean, standard setup turns into a tangled custom build (broken upgrades, development slows down, higher costs, ...). And suddenly, the platform that was meant to accelerate you becomes unmaintainable.
Lessons I’ve learned:
