Turning knobs to enhance efficiency in workplace communications

After a few years of trying his hand at mergers, acquisitions and employment law with the Dutch office of the US-based multinational law firm Baker McKenzie, Kees Rijssenbeek realized that corporate law just wasn’t his thing. “In hindsight, I guess you could say the company was much clearer on it not being my cup of tea – more so even than me,” recalls Rijssenbeek jokingly. “In law, you either move up the ladder or you’re out. And while I was just starting to entertain the idea of becoming a partner, it turns out the firm didn’t share the same vision, so out I was, along with about two-thirds of my colleagues.” Rijssenbeek continues, “It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Looking back, the 80-hour work weeks with troves of legal paperwork was never going to make me happy.”

For his next move, Rijssenbeek had a go at the retail domain, where he contributed to the marketing and commercial team of the cosmetics brand Rituals. This was during the brand’s early days, when it was just working to make a name for itself and had only one office in Amsterdam with about ten employees. “While it was a big change from corporate law, I found I was having the same kind of feeling. For the most part, it was just a job and didn’t really give me any energy,” remembers Rijssenbeek. It was then that he began thinking about what would motivate his interest. “I started to take some personal training courses in my free time to discover who I was and what I wanted. I came to the realization that the most exciting and interesting part of any of my jobs was the personal human interaction.”