IDIS has long been active in the Dutch and the international design industry as a recruiter of high-quality professionals for design consultancies and internal design and communication departments, as well as matching supply with demand in the freelance market. Increasingly, we're also taking on the role of advisor and intermediary when it comes to business and entrepreneurial issues within the design field.

Through the years, IDIS has made contact with a great number of actors in the Dutch and international design fields: design professionals and organisations in which they work. These contacts emerge mainly from our activities helping companies and professionals fill and find positions.

However, as a recruiter, we encounter issues which demand more than can be supplied within the recruitment business model (professional is sought for position or project - IDIS supplies person - company pays for IDIS services). Issues like:

Where do I find a successor who will one day be able to take over my company?

Where do I find the right business partner?

Which company might I merge with?

With which parties might I join forces, for example to form a new company?

Which companies might be interested in buying my company?

Which company should I buy in order to expand my activities?

How can I seek to join forces with an international (design or communication) group?

Which potential partner is right for a joint venture or other co-operation?

In recent years, it has become clear to us that these kind of business and commercial questions are high on the agenda of companies and individual design professionals. And that many are struggling to find solutions, largely because:

they are totally absorbed in the daily running of their business and have little time or energy to spare for structural, longer-term issues;

they have little contact with other entrepreneurs and the contact they have doesn't permit discussion of these kinds of sensitive issues.