If it would have been easy, everyone would have done it. But nobody did it; starting a digital marketing company in times of the dot-com. Heleen van Oord, now has, 13 years later, no regrets. DQ&A grew into a company that is active far beyond the country’s borders on several continents. It makes her the perfect speaker at a lecture on business expansion. The growth was due to the impetuous advance of the biggest client: MSN. Afterwards Van Oord says that the dependency on such a world player entailed a risk, but the benefits are well worth beat that. MSN disappeared over time from the scene, DQ&A steamed on. What followed were offices in different countries and some modest acquisitions. Even though the numbers may seem fine, with internationalization the socio-economic and cultural factors play an equally important role. The intuitive feeling should be good, but Van Oord swears by facts. Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups. When in doubt, don’t do it. Perhaps generally applied this means you more often don’t do stuff then you do it. Put a clear dot on the horizon; do not give in to every whim, every opportunity that comes along. Entrepreneurs are by nature opportunistic. Sometimes it pays out to be conservative and adhering to the adopted strategy.

But maybe the most important remark of Van Oord of all: Form a team that has one and the same mission in which everyone does what he or she is the very best at.