Profile: Jan Rijkenberg

/Company name://
BSUR (Be As You Are).

Company founding date:
1 January 1995.

Place of business:
Amsterdam.

Names of founders:
Jan Rijkenberg and Joost Perik.

Ages of founders:
52 and 44.

About the company:
The creation of brand and communication concepts for local and international principals. Be As You Are does the following: concept development from the fundamental conviction that each brand should have its own mentality, which should be expressed in everything that can be lumped together under the concept of communication. Only then will the brand become a powerful brand. We work outward from the very ‘soul’ of the brand. We never cover the brand with a thin cosmetic veneer.
Be As You Are also means that we build our company with people with strong personalities, people who stand for the things they believe in. Our people, like everyone else, have their own personal strengths and weaknesses. We want to help people nurture their strengths. Trying to improve people’s weak points is mostly a waste of energy. By matching different talents, one person’s strengths can compensate for another’s weakness and vice versa. And: the more nationalities, colours, characters and convictions, the merrier!

Current project:
Working on my second book, the sequel to ‘CONCEPTING’, the management of brands in the communication-oriented age’.

Source of inspiration:
Desmond Morris’ The Naked Ape. Never mind all those excessively economy-based marketing books: brand building is all about how individuals think, feel and act in groups. In other words, about psychology and sociology. Desmond Morris’ books remind us of the fact that we, as human beings, still act based on all sorts of primal instincts, even though we’re not always prepared to admit it. Why do we buy things? Why do we behave the way we do in the presence of other human beings? That kind of thing. It’s the best book for anyone to read who wants to work in the world of communication and marketing. In other words, if that does not interest you, what are you still doing there?

Favourite tools:
I’m not really a gadget type; however, as a jogger, I wouldn’t really know what to do without my sports watch.

Favourite website:
www.funda.nl: Not because I’m looking for a house, but because I’m always on the lookout for another old ruin that could be converted into something stunning. And also to see how people set up their personal environments. I’m always amazed to see how many people living in beautiful houses can have such bad taste!

Hobby:
Jogging and writing.

Best advice I ever received:
‘Dare to have a vision’ from Bill Tragos, the cofounder of TBWA in 1987. He gave a talk to his European staff and inspired me to chuck the figures and briefing on the windowsill and gaze outside and ask myself: ‘if this had been my brand, if this had been my money, what would I have done? From that point on, all my advice has been written as an answer to that question.

Biggest blunder:
I once stayed too long in a job that I (and my colleagues) could only survive by acting and politics. I can’t even remember one week’s holiday in that period. I was simply no longer myself.

Tips for professional colleagues:
Let’s not pretend that we’re some kind of fantastic chosen little creative nation. Writing and composing Jesus Christ Superstar, that’s really amazing; or being able to squeeze that amazing book ‘Een schitterend gebrek’ by Arthur Japin out of your pen.

As an ambassador of Amsterdam, I would...
I would advise the mayor of the Urban District Councillor of Amsterdam Central, that lady who is trying to turn Amsterdam into some kind of bourgeois village, like Heusden, to keep her paws off the SOUL of Amsterdam.

Company website:
www.bsur.com

Company email address:

Web 2.0:
www.youtube.com/user/bsur

Back to the Creative Amsterdam Hall of Fame