"MindLabs has too much potential to be satisfied with 'good enough'"

For the time being, Visschers' departure has not been widely publicised. "Of course, my retirement age did not come very suddenly, so it was not a real surprise to most people. I have also told people here and there that my departure was imminent. And there will be some farewells this month. But I don't want to say goodbye in detail. It's mainly about the new director now; he needs all the attention he can get. That has priority. 
 
Looking back on the directorship 
Together with Visschers, we go back in time. To August 2019, the moment he became the face of MindLabs. His objective was clear from the very first moment, he tells us now. "Knowledge is a great commodity in Brabant. So too in Tilburg. But retaining talent to move the economy forward has not been very successful for years. MindLabs could become an incredible push factor for that economy, it was foreseen back then. A great opportunity for the municipality, but also for our educational institutions. I wanted to work on it. In my own home town. How nice!" 
 
At that time, the association was still an ecosystem in the making. But since the summer of 2019, a lot has changed. As highlights of his time as director, Visschers names the stability that was created under his watch. "In the beginning, there were 1,000 flowers, but they were also blooming everywhere. Meanwhile, teams have been formed and I have brought more structure to the whole. Apparently, I can function well in the turbulence of the complicated MindLabs structure. And I enjoy knowing that too. We have started some incredibly beautiful projects. First mainly with Tilburg University and Fontys, but nowadays with many more parties," says Loet. "Yes, these are beautiful things to look back on.

Large parties at a small front door 
Visschers is also proud of the partners that he and his team have managed to bind to the partnership. And the fact that parties such as the police and Dutch Public Broadcasting come knocking on the door. "Because it is still only a relatively small front door. That offers perspective. Of course, we've had a lot of bad luck with Corona; for an ecosystem that revolves around encounters, that was really terrible and not good for morale. But all in all, I think we are well on the way to the ideal I had in mind." 
 
'Pretty much on the way'. Those words are carefully chosen, because the former director is not entirely enthusiastic about the current status of his goals. "As far as I'm concerned, the glass is both half full and half empty. No matter how satisfied you are with what you have achieved, you always hope for more and better. More projects, more partners and an even better dynamic. We now have a good reputation and a beautiful building is on the way. But I would have liked to get off that roller coaster. After all, mass is cash. That will probably happen now under the wings of the new director," he admits somewhat disappointed. "Yet I also realise: if I had actually managed to do even more, I would not have been entirely satisfied now. MindLabs is just too big an opportunity for that. It's never good enough."

Loet's final sprint to more 
His directorship was not only beautiful and fruitful. Visschers was also regularly confronted with himself. "By nature, I am not someone whose basis has to be in order to three decimal places before taking action. Sometimes, for my taste, we got too much into the circuit of complying with statutes, recalculating everything over and over again, writing reports, and so on. Whereas the strength of the core team is developing, creating and taking risks. This made me nervous and a bit grumpy. Because that hour in which I had to write a report, I could have spent on other things. I then think: come on, we have to do business! But you have to adapt to the whole thing." 
 
With the finishing line in sight, Visschers did make a dash for it in recent months, he says. "I really concentrated on getting everything out as well as possible for my successor. For example, together with the Board of Directors, I looked very critically at our vision and strategy. How MindLabs should move forward. Because as the outgoing director, you can say a lot more and put everything on edge. He was also busy bringing in partners from the middle sector. "I observed: start-ups have ideas, but not the masses. And large, established companies do have the manpower, but often prefer to be spoiled with new ideas. Scale-ups are in between. They have power and can respond quickly. That makes them very interesting to MindLabs." He also invested at the last minute in a collaboration with Spoorzone collective The Tailors, which seeks to keep talent in the region through shared digital experiences. "Such next-economy companies, we can learn a lot from them. Because that's how it's going to be from now on." 
 
It will not surprise anyone that Visschers is not retiring completely. "In the coming period I will continue to work two days a week for the municipality of Tilburg, as an economic and labour market strategist. This with the emphasis on the Spoorzone and the knowledge district. Also on MindLabs." He hopes that in the coming period there will be a lot of knocking on doors. "So that everyone can do what they do best. Because it is very simple: MindLabs cannot and must not fail. After all, there's too much potential, time and money in it."