With clear and personal vision, Peter van Haaften looks toward the future with HSO

In business, there’s those who color within the lines, and there’s those who dare to try something new.

This philosophy is a personal quality that has guided Peter van Haaften throughout his career and taken him down a road less traveled. In fact, Peter trained as an educator in university, but his curiosity for everything tech drew him into the IT world. His ability to understand what makes people tick and connect with them took him through several roles in sales and business development. For several years now, he has been exploring how we apply technology to boost business growth.

Today, as the Engagement Director at HSO International, Peter is responsible for global engagements and serves as the account executive for international clients. In this role, he continues expanding the company’s reach and impact, keeping customer success as his guiding principle.

Good ideas are worth nothing if they cannot come to fruition. Peter is a pragmatic self-starter, and he found a perfect match in HSO International. “From the first day I started working at HSO, no one ever asked what I’ve been doing,” he joked. “There is a strong mentality of just taking ownership of your own duties, and the culture makes space for people to trust each other.”

The entrepreneurial culture and flat structure at HSO enable a high level of collaboration and transparency. “You are encouraged to innovate in applying the technology, but it’s not about selling dreams,” Peter affirmed. “It’s about doing what is best for the client, even if that means advising them against something that is not good for them.”

Being able to build that rapport with the client is key to helping projects realize their full potential. “We don’t just hand out plug and play solutions,” he added. “It’s more like dancing a tango, where you can guide them to the right place, with a strong partnership and sponsorship from the top.”

As a father of five, Peter understands how important it is to set the next generation up for success. That’s why he’s been stepping away from tactical and local issues to a more strategic and global perspective. “I’d like to mentor and coach the next generation to help them become trusted advisors for our customers,” he shared. “If you have some business experience and are good at understanding processes, we want to talk to you.”

But who has what it takes to join the ranks of customer engagement in one of the best digital solutions companies in the world? “We need people with a fundamental entrepreneurial nature, who create their own opportunities. The focus should not be on selling but instead on truly becoming a trusted advisor to our customers,” said Peter. In his experience, success today demands a cocktail of “soft” skills: “Curiosity to get into the weeds of what you’re selling, eagerness to learn and communicate, a high level of trustworthiness, and emotional intelligence.”

Peter doesn’t like to take credit, but we can tell you: He excels in these areas and offers an additional key ingredient to success—the boldness to continuously push boundaries.

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