Interview with Jeannine Peek

Jeannine Peek has been Managing Director of Capgemini Netherlands since May. Previously she fulfilled various roles within Dell Technologies, including Managing Director. In addition to her work for Capgemini, she has been able to call herself Boegbeeld ICT, leading the Dutch Topsector ICT, since March 2020. In that capacity she supports the sector in its ICT innovation and growth. Peek therefore has a clear goal: to attract more people to the ICT sector and thus broaden inclusiveness. Because “a diverse team is more fun to work in and comes up with more innovative solutions.”

The power of a simple player

Capgemini Netherlands is part of an organization with more than 290,000 employees spread over almost 50 countries. Peek sees this international footprint as one of the biggest benefits of working at Capgemini. Partly by bringing together the expertise from the different continents, they are able to help large organizations with the digital transformation.

Another aspect that Peek attracts to the sector is that you work together continuously. Large customers often ask Capmini to implement a digital tool of another company, which requires collaboration. In this way they work together to make large customers future-proof. According to Peek, the key to good cooperation is communication and trust. “Problems can only be solved by talking about them.” Because of this attitude, employees see their colleagues, but also partners from other companies, as partners who work together for success.

The new digital market of the Netherlands

Working from home in the past year has given digitization a huge boost. The biggest change is that digitization is now chefsache and is no longer exclusively in the portfolio of the CIO. Demand has shifted from practical to strategic. Where do I want to go with my company? And what is needed for this?

A second point of attention is cyber security. “Many companies struggle, given the recent attacks, with the impact of a cyber-attack.” Capgemini tries to support this with the Cybersecurity Experience Center where companies can gain practical experience with security incidents without actually running any risk.

War on talent

At the interest group Netherlands ICT, but also at Capgemini and her former employer, she sees that the demand for IT professionals is increasing enormously. It is also an enormous challenge for Capgemini to bind the right people to the organization. Peek sees it as a personal mission to show everyone how much fun the IT sector is.

Personally, Peek is committed to making Capgemini an attractive, inclusive employer. She believes it is very important to welcome various groups to the organisation. “We can become much more inclusive, which only improves the quality of the teams.” She emphasizes that inclusiveness is not only a gender issue, but also has to do with, among other things, sexual orientation, age and origin.

Personal leadership

Peek’s ambitions are sky high in the coming years. “In five years I hope that even more Dutch companies will be able to use our services and see us as the spider in the web in digitization projects.” In the short term, she will focus on hiring the right people in new areas of expertise to continue to serve the customers.

In addition, Peek is convinced that this ambition can be achieved if employees see it as a mission to go along with the change. That is why she works with her teams to draw up an integrated plan. “The vision should not only be my vision, but also a shared vision of the Dutch Capgemini employees.”

Finally

Within the Executive Board network, Jeannine Peek likes to discuss issues surrounding diversity in the broadest sense. “I like to exchange experiences about how inclusivity can be brought into an organization.” How do you ensure that everyone feels at home in a company and that every group is included in the developments that you are going through as a company? In addition, administrators can always call Peek to see how digitization can help solve social problems.