PowerPoint strategy decks

won’t grow your business.

Execution will.

Marketing and digital transformation are the

real growth drivers. With a proven, no-nonsense

playbook I make it happen. Promised.

The challenge

**Digital transformation and marketing: the growth engines.**

If you’re serious about scaling, you have two levers: marketing to create demand, and digital transformation to deliver on it. Simple to say. Tough to nail.

Execution falters when strategy, operations, and tech don’t align.

Transformation always impacts people and processes. And success hinges on a tight integration of strategy, operations, and IT. That drives customer experience and, ultimately, sustainable growth.

Most digital transformations fail. Yours doesn’t have to.

Why do so many stall out? Common pitfalls include:

No clear ambition or North Star
No value-driven roadmap
Tech mistaken for a silver bullet
Overhyped vendor promises
Siloed KPIs killing cross-functional collaboration
The eternal rift between Marketing and IT

The result? Failure. And that seriously hurts.

The consequence

A failed transformation gums up your growth engine.

Transformation journeys often come with migraines. You feel it in blown budgets, delays, painful write-offs, and growing risk aversion. The questions come fast:

Can we still hit our budget?
Is the business case still alive?
Is hyper-personalisation delayed again?
Will cutting loyalty kill the growth we promised?
Is CX just a buzzword?
Are we downsizing our exit expectations?

Suddenly, your bold growth targets feel out of reach.

McKinsey and Forbes say it. And chances are, you’ve seen it yourself: 80% of transformations fail. The good news? 20% succeed. And you can be one of them.

It’s not luck. It’s sharp decisions and firm direction, turning complexity into a punchy plan for growth.

The power of versatility

The solution

A senior co-pilot with a proven playbook steers the course.

Growth-hungry companies need more than tech partners. They need real-world expertise that bridges marketing, operations, and IT. That’s where I come in.

The TrueNorth Transformation Trail: built for sustainable growth.

This is not theory. It’s a battle-tested, straightforward approach that:

Connects the dots between strategy, operations, and tech.
Ensures technology delivers on promise.
Focuses on improving customer and brand experience.
Delivers growth in revenue and efficient processes.
Aligns transformation with your brand DNA.

Get it done. On-brand. On-target. On time.

I’ve led transformations at local, European, and global scale. Across industries. In the trenches. No buzzwords. No BS. Just outcomes. Ready to lead where others stall?

My toolkit

Royal IHC

An E-commerce self-service portal for dredging ship spare parts and a customer mindset foster loyal clients.

Love1

Consultancy
Interim Management
& Fractional Leadership

See the Cadillac case.

Complexity of marketing and digital transformation in the experience era.

Marketing today is brutal. Whether you’re selling to people or businesses, it’s all about customer experience. And let’s be honest, it’s a buzzword. Fluffy. Overused. Still unclear to many.

But in practice, customer experience comes down to three inseparable things:

Marketing – How well you perform across areas like brand communication, CRM/loyalty, and e-commerce.
Operations – How seamlessly your organisation supports customers throughout their entire journey.
Technology – How effectively your tech stack enables both marketing and operations to deliver.

I help companies cut through the noise and turn siloed efforts into one sharp, on-brand experience. Built to convert, scale, and stick.

More information

Recommendations

What others say about me.

“Few people bridge the gap between marketing strategy and marketing technology as seamlessly as Gerben. He deeply understands both the fundamentals of the craft and the full implications of the martech stack. He asks the right strategic questions before any software is selected, preventing companies from buying a Ferrari to fetch a carton of milk, so to speak. Combine that with his calm presence, sharp insights and collaborative mindset, and you’ll understand why he's an invaluable asset in any conversation on marketing transformation.”
Luuk RosEditor-in-Chief Marketingfacts! / Teamlead Content & Community DDMA

“Gerben was instrumental in designing a brand process enabling both global and regional marketing to create and deploy campaigns to support the business and strengthen the brand. He led a great international team of marketers across different locations, delivering global campaigns. And was also involved in strengthening our global creative agency and implementing a new brand platform. Job well done! And, he is very much liked and quickly became an important member of the Stokke family.”
Helene Abel HansenCMO @ Stokke

“I got to know Gerben as a major asset to our team. He’s a self-starter, hands-on, and brings an infectious energy that gets things done. Gerben is a connector—effortlessly building buy-in from stakeholders within the larger Epam organization. He played a key role in shaping clear market propositions and products around themes like growth services and CRM & loyalty. And he was the driving force behind launching our marketing services into the market.”
Sjoerd van GelderenCEO Emakina NL, part of Epam Systems

“I had the pleasure of working with Gerben while he was helping Stokke plan out their marketing roadmap for the upcoming years. Gerben is a smart, well organized, insightful, and transparent partner that not only helps move the work through the system, but also helps it get better along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Gerben and look forward to hopefully doing it again in the future!”
David NewsomeBrand Director @ B-REEL (Stokke's creative agency)

“I have come to know Gerben as a valuable counterpart. Together with his team he implemented our CDP as the core of our customer program. He skillfully balanced business needs versus technical requirements and capabilities. Of course, with these kinds of implementations things can get strenuous and hectic with deadlines in view. But he handled that pretty well, at all times keeping an overview on how to move forward. And, what’s important as well, he is a nice person to work with.”
Ewa BadarukDirector CRM, Loyalty & Customer analytics @ PVH (Tommy Hilfiger & Calvin Klein)

“Gerben helped us develop our CRM strategy and implement our VIP Club customer program. Since my role was still relatively new to me, I was especially grateful for Gerben’s hands-on coaching in CRM. What stood out was his deep experience not just on the marketing side of CRM but also his understanding of the IT setup and how to lead development teams—because he speaks their language. Working with him was a real pleasure.”
Jessica LangenbergCRM Manager @ IJsvogel Retail (Pets Place & Boerenbond)

“In nearly 10 years of working together, I’ve come to see that Gerben possesses some truly exceptional skills. From strategic deep dives to implementation, Gerben supports you in a practical, hands-on way. And he always delivers on time and within budget. Reliability is one of Gerben’s core values. He ensures progress with a clear roadmap and implementation plan. Hands-on. And, above all, it’s just a pleasure working with Gerben as a person. A man with a big heart.”
Philip KokCEO The Valley

“I’ve worked with Gerben since he joined Bookmark in 2005, where he elevated clients and played a key role in improving agency operations. At The Valley, I got to know him again as a solid and reliable cornerstone in various roles. Gerben brings a strong drive, endless energy, and is a talented writer. I’ve come to know him as someone who always delivers quality. I highly recommend Gerben to any professional organization.”
Auke MeijerCFO/COO Bookmark/Isobar & The Valley

“One of the qualities I truly value in Gerben is the high level of quality he brings to strategy development, execution planning, and benchmarking service design projects. His proposals are always clear and to the point, with an eye for the big picture, the essentials, and the relevant details. He crafts his proposals and presentations as narratives—a real asset when selling strategies, ideas, and plans both internally and externally.”
Brian OostenbrinkCXO The Valley

“Working with Gerben on GM's Cadillac, Corvette & HUMMER accounts was an incredible experience. At Bookmark, he developed several brilliant, impactful strategies. Gerben understands client service, and when he combines that with his strategic strengths in loyalty marketing, customer engagement, lead generation, and brand activation, he becomes an invaluable asset to any company.”
Samuel TaitManaging Director media transformation Dentsu Aegis Network