Value Square CEO Koen Hoffman talks about why students are a good investment! 

 

 

“I’ve been Value Square’s CEO for just over a year now”, Koen Hoffman tells us. “Before joining the Value Square team, I was CEO at KBC Securities – that’s KBC bank’s stockbroking company. I’ve worked at KBC for about 24 years, so it almost looked as if I was heading for a one company career. But then this opportunity at Value Square came along”. Hoffman has always had a soft spot for everything concerning value investing. “At Value Square, we are a boutique value asset manager focusing mainly on family businesses.”

Throughout his career, Koen Hoffman has always tried to work with job students. “We make sure there’s always a job student working at Value Square,” he says. “They keep you young and what’s even more important: by explaining what you do to them, you reflect about your own job and your company. It’s something I would recommend to anyone. Students are not just the future, they’re your future customers. They have an open mind, a young creative brain and a fresh outside inside look at  your company.

 

“Students are not just the future, they’re your future customers”

 

So hiring a job student has a lot of advantages, but does that mean it’s a guarantee for success? It’s not that easy. “Students can be a great value for money, but a thorough screening is crucial. By only looking at their cv, you don’t know what kind of person you’re dealing with. ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast’, the famous management theorist Peter Drucker once said. To be part of the company, your employers have to match your company culture.”

In Deltaworx, Value Square found a partner that shares that philosophy. “By screening and evaluating every student, the people at Deltaworx prove they look at the bigger picture. They don’t just send us someone who is looking for a job, they try to find a perfect match. Someone with the right attitude, who is motivated and interested in what we do. When it comes to selecting qualified people who can really bring something extra to Value Square, Deltaworx has never let us down.”