The Philosophy of Bureau Hofkes

Bureau Hofkes, located in Haarlem’s historical centre, is an independent research and consultancy company. The company was founded in 2006 and has been unique in taking on the stakeholder perspective in relation to reputation management. We believe that strategic reputation management is an important aspect of a company’s strategic governance. Therefore it should be addressed in the boardroom. This method has proven to be successful, in big, medium and small companies.

“If you lose money for the firm, I will be understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I will be ruthless.”
Warren Buffet

Mission

It is our mission to provide companies with a new outlook on their strategic governance and actions, by using external reputation research as a tool. This tool accommodates them with a (critical) reflection of their reputation and enables them to be more aware towards their employees and environment.

Bureau Hofkes’ message gains more relevance every day. Recent reputation scandals demonstrated that with reputation damage, great financial loss comes along. Dutch examples are the bonus scandals that occurred in the financial sector, the InHolland diploma-gate and the financial mismanagement at Amarantis. A perfect example of an internationally known reputation scandal is British Petroleum who saw her market value plummet towards an all time low as a direct result of the oil spillage in the Gulf of Mexico.
In accordance with her vision, Bureau Hofkes aims to restore the balance between shareholder value and stakeholder value.

Vision

Society’s demand for more transparency in business management becomes stronger and stronger every day. And, if a source gains more trustworthiness, its message will gain more leverage. These coming years the difference between low performing companies and high performing companies will be defined by their level of transparency.

__________________________________________________________________________

Credentials

Below, we provide some quotes from our clients. For more information about our references, please visit the Dutch page.

The charity lotteries became inspired by the results of the research done by Bureau Hofkes. It confirmed our recently acquired governance strategy and provided clear points of reference for our future strategies. The research was conducted in a clear and professional manner.”
Ellen Damsma, Managing Director Nationale Postcode Loterij, Sponsor Loterij en Bankgiro Loterij

 

The reputation research conducted by Bureau Hofkes helped us gain valuable insights about the experiences and perceptions our clients have of us and why. Consequently, we were able to internalize these insights into the core of our company and had practical objectives to improve our reputation from the inside out. Now we are ready to execute a second measurement to see to what extent our clients noticed our improvements.”
Jan Luiten, Managing Director Mobilis Infra

 

Thank you very much for your commitment, clever and balanced structure, and smooth execution. We were very content with the output and results. We appreciate the way in which Bureau Hofkes manages to professionally control the process, without being too overpowering.”
Wilfriend van Winden, Architect at WAM-Architects and co-founder of Molenaar & Van Winden Architects

 

The following characteristics are applicable to Bureau Hofkes: the ability to think along with the client, a critical yet supportive outlook and challenging towards its clients. Problems are subjected to thorough analysis, solutions are proposed however, without being compulsive. Bureau Hofkes was able to deliver good advice and structure in a short time span.”

Hans van Overeem MBA, Director School of Economics InHolland

 

We chose to do business with Bureau Hofkes, because they use a practical and trustworthy method. The Hofkes method directly provided us with information on our reputation and gave us practical feedback for further improvement.”
Tessa Maas, Communications consultant Public Affairs at the Chamber of Commerce

 

__________________________________________________________________________

Pioneer since 2006

In 2006 Bureau Hofkes was founded by Mildred Hofkes. Mildred Hofkes graduated at the University of Groningen in 1997 as a communications expert. Her final project consisted of a large-scale reputation research at Akzo Nobel. From there on her career was further developed at the National Lottery, where she was director communications and member of the management team. Furthermore, she also joined the management team of Novamedia.

Since 1997, Mildred Hofkes further developed her method into the Hofkes Reputation Barometer. This Reputation barometer is a unique tool to measure an organization’s reputation from different stakeholder perspectives. The tool aims not only to create awareness around an organization’s reputation, but also supports companies to grow towards the new era. The first media coverage of the Hofkes vision stems from 2006. Please visit the Dutch page to view the video.

Ever since 2006, the Hofkes vision has gained in relevance and importance.