Delivering The Fourth Industrial Revolution to your doorstep
“Rather than resign to fate, I stood up, picked up the pieces of my life and began all over again. During that period, I re-invented myself and learnt some valuable life lessons.” Michael Knulst , The Netherlands
Interview with Michael Knulst, Sophiq International
Creating viable new products and services, delivering your unique solutions to existing clients and new markets, is a chain of sustainability exercises that not many entrepreneurs have the chance to survive. Being two steps ahead of your competition and increasing your profits it is about competing against your own limitations, rather than competing against others. Growing your business is not for the heart fainted, and what drives successful entrepreneurs to adventure into the unknown, create and deliver value, building up a foundation of excellence for their solutions and the beneficiaries of their genius, could only come from within. Keeping up is no longer enough. Organic growth is a long term strategy fuelled by your own ability to lead your business into top position in the market place.
How to lead your business to grow at a faster rate ahead of competitors who bite into your market share?
Sovereign team reached out to Michael Knulst, from The Netherlands, a renowned business strategist and the founder of Sophiq, the world’s ONLY Leadership 4.0 software platform that provides modern executives total control over their goals, objectives and metrics, which drive revenue and growth. Entrepreneur, international speaker and executive coach, Michael has been in business for more than 30 years, has built multi-million dollar businesses, not once but three times and he knows how success looks like. At present he runs several companies. But not everything flourished in his life. After he made over 75 million dollars on business for the companies he has worked with, he had setbacks, both in life and in business. When the dot.com collapsed in 2001 Michael lost everything……
“Rather than resign to fate, I stood up, picked up the pieces of my life and began all over again. During that period, I re-invented myself and learnt some valuable life lessons. Being in business now for more than 30 years of making people and companies successful, at some point I have come to the realisation that losing has nothing to do with failure or making mistakes. These occurrences are a necessary part of the process of building your character, testing your endurance and persistence on your way to the top, on your way to success. It is important to understand that in business and in life, it is not only about the money, or about you. It’s always about people, about giving the best you have to give. No matter what you do always provide maximum value!” Michael says.
Enjoying this article?
Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss a story. No spam, ever.
Editor-in-Chief of Rich Woman Magazine, founder of Sovereign Magazine, author of many books, Dr Marina Nani is a social edification scientist coining a new industry, Social Edification.
Passionately advocating to celebrate your human potential, she is well known for her trademark "Be Seen- Be Heard- Be You" running red carpet events and advanced courses like Blog Genius®, Book Genius®, Podcast Genius®, the cornerstones of her teaching.
The constant practitioner of good news, she founded MAKE THE NEWS
( MTN) with the aim to diagnose and close the achievement gap globally.
Founder of many publications, British Brands with global reach Marina believes that there is a genius ( Stardust) in each individual, regardless of past and present circumstances.
"Not recognising your talent leaves society at loss. Sharing the good news makes a significant difference in your perception about yourself, your industry and your community."
Renowned keynote speaker, Michael travels globally, inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs to give their best selves in order to have successful businesses and fulfilled lives.
“I have been speaking on stages in South Africa, France, Germany, UK, USA, Hungary, Belgium and Amsterdam. I have shared the stage with Billionaires, Millionaires and Business Tycoons such as JT Foxx – World’s Number 1 Wealth & Business Coach, Patrice Motsepe – Africa’s first black billionaire, Property tycoon and Real estate billionaire Hugh Hilton, South African billionaire Jenna Clifford and Ndabe Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson who’s taking care of his grandfather’s legacy.
Meeting these inspiring people and travelling all over the world, sharing my message have broadened my world’s perspective and enriched my life.” Knulst says.
With his vast expertise, Michael realised that a large number of companies operating worldwide are not ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and do not know how to adapt their operations to new technological breakthroughs.
“Today, the market is practicing the ‘winner-take-all’ scenario implemented within the artificial intelligence revolution and adaptive platforms. A company aspiring to become a leader needs an intelligent platform, which will enable real-time transfer of the corporate business processes to the block chain platform and introduce artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies into decision-making and corporate management processes. This inspired me and my team to create our proprietary solution, “the Sophiq Leadership 4.0 Platform”. Knulst explains.
In a highly competitive world, business leaders are urged to make right and accurate decisions in a fast way. Traditional leadership mind-sets, styles and ways of working within most organizations are simply not suited to coping with the speed, volatility, complexity and ambiguity of this new operating environment. Michael is aware that companies can no longer differentiate themselves through scale-able efficiency and their goal now is to become more innovative, responsive and agile than ever.
“The demand for solutions that enables businesses to make this transition is exponentially growing. And these solutions have one thing in common; they are powered by Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. And this is my world, the world of Sophiq. Our state-of-the-art Leadership 4.0 Platform enables leaders, teams and networks to make smarter decisions, solve tougher problems and do their jobs better. It empowers firms to transform into self-managed, agile and lean organizations that thrive, engage and contribute to their customers in a better, faster, easier and more cost-effective way, while maximizing the productivity and profitability of their business.” Michael says.
Designed for Business leaders, people working in self-managing teams and off course their customers, The Leadership 4.0 Platform of Sophiq is a Data-driven, Industry 4.0 Solution that maximizes Performance and it enables to streamline a business strategy into an easy to understand format.
We have developed an approach to map a business process onto a peer-to-peer execution infrastructure that stores transactions in a blockchain, offering unprecedented benefits.“ Michael Explains
Pioneering the new reality of leadership, Michael and his team, took a less travelled road. “ On the one hand, as a challenger we have to compete against the established order of consulting and software companies whose business models are based upon obsolete principles and technologies. They are driven by hourly rates and it is in their benefit to spend as many hours as possible. I prefer the performance model, where as a service provider you get paid for performance.
On the other hand we have to break through traditional leadership mind-sets, styles and ways of working where the majority of organisations are still captured in. Our credo is “Less management, more control”. I believe that the traditional management role will become redundant. Not really a message that many people like to hear. So there’s a lot of missionary work to do.”
Michael takes inspiration from his faith and biblical leaders. “I am a born again Christian, is my foundation. The stories in the Bible about great leaders really inspire me. They all have commonalities with the world we are in today; they are people, just like you and me, with dreams, visions, doubts, uncertainties, fears and challenges. But they succeed, sometimes against all odds. Because they pushed through the hardships, they were courageous, persistent and did not ever gave up.”
Michael’s success was impacted by working with Mr. JT Foxx, who made all the difference in up scaling his business and delivering his concept to the marketplace. “After more than 30 years of building businesses, having all the successes, I really thought I had seen it all, until I met JT Foxx. He pushed me to step up, to raise my standards, to do more, to give more and be more. He challenges me every day and he follows every step I take. The beauty of working with JT Foxx is that he gives you everything he has; the best of the best coaches, a great staff who is dedicated to serve you, an international network of like-minded entrepreneurs and business leaders to work and partner with. The past 3 years have been amazing; I have made lifelong friendships with JT Foxx students all over the world and last but not least, both my wife and 2 sons are inspired by JT Foxx and have grown so tremendously. That is where my real blessing is.”
Most entrepreneurs are so busy with running their day-to-day operations they lack time to generate new ideas and implement innovations. Michael understands really well that up-scaling your business is about changing your perspective on what is possible. “Growth is a challenge! His consulting company, Organizational Wealth, has developed instruments to identify and execute your ideas in an easy and sustainable way. But first we make sure your current Business is totally under control. Today in more than 64% of SMEs profits are leaking away because of inefficiencies and lack of overview and control. What makes Organizational Wealthunique is that we first leverage what you already have, because your wealth is in your organisation. We prepare you for the next step in your business: Growth of your Profitability with at least 10% and create Sustainable Growth!
What challenges are you facing today? Just drop a line and Michael will contact you and start discussing how to help you make all of those projects you have in mind, a better reality!
