Soetekouw obtained his master’s degree in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1966. This was followed by an impressive career in the financial sector, with key roles at NMB Bank, as CFO of ING, and later as a private equity investor. He retired in 2006. Or rather, he reached retirement age. “I never really retired,” he says with a smile. Staying active, contributing ideas, and taking on new challenges is second nature to him.

Back to university

Five years ago, Soetekouw returned to university, more than half a century after graduating. With no academic background and little experience in research methods, he began a PhD in business process management at the age of 79. “Some people plant a garden, others do PhD research,” he says stoically.

What makes his PhD extra special is that he did it out of pure interest; he had a zero-hour appointment at the university and received no remuneration. His motivation? Curiosity and the desire to contribute something meaningful. “The world around us is changing rapidly. Our systems have the potential to be much more flexible and efficient, but they often fall short. My research attempts to bridge the gap.”

He admits that he was certainly no typical PhD candidate, but it was precisely his practical experience that proved to be of great value. During his years in the financial world, he began to delve into a fundamental question: what do people in organizations actually do when you reduce their work to its essence? Not in terms of profit or targets, but in terms of processing information flows. That question marked the start of his PhD, in which he investigated how organizations can make their business processes more flexible without having to reinvent the wheel every time they make a change.

Building blocks for change

“It all comes down to processing information and making decisions on the back of that,” Soetekouw explains with infectious energy. Anyone sitting opposite him would find it hard to believe that he’s over eighty. “But in our information systems, everything’s so interrelated that it’s extremely difficult to adapt strategies and working methods,” he explains.

In a rapidly changing world, companies need to be flexible and adaptive, but in practice they get stuck because old ways of working are deeply embedded in rigid systems. Soetekouw researched how these systems can become more agile.

Inspired by physics, he searched for the smallest building blocks of functionality. “In physics, you have atoms. You first need to understand these basic elements before you can see the bigger picture.” In his thesis, he describes what are known as ‘primitives’. “These are like atoms in the digital world: the building blocks on which everything is based, allowing you to build and change flexibly.” By systematically analyzing them and storing them in a digital library, organizations can respond to changes more quickly and efficiently.

‘Sharp as a knife’

Professor Paul Grefen, his first supervisor, praises the enormous drive and perseverance that characterize Soetekouw. “Ton stepped into a completely new world, with fundamentally different methods than he was used to, and he did so with great flexibility and eagerness to learn.” According to Grefen, Soetekouw never let the obstacles that he met on his way to the PhD degree get him down. “He always approached things with enthusiasm and good spirits.”

Soetekouw’s practical experience not only provided a new perspective in terms of content, but also had an impact outside the university, Grefen emphasizes. “The organizations where he conducted his case studies, the Directorate General for Public Works and Water Management and construction company Heijmans, were inspired by his work. Representatives from both organizations even attended his PhD defense – that says it all.” According to Grefen, the framework developed by Soetekouw cannot be implemented directly, “but it’s already changing the way people think – and that’s often the first step toward real change.”

It was his personality in particular that made a deep impression on Grefen and the other supervisors. “I have supervised almost thirty PhD candidates, but Ton was without doubt one of the most remarkable. His enthusiasm at this age is truly inspiring. He’s incredibly energetic – and still as sharp as a knife.”

State of mind

Soetekouw himself prefers not to talk about his age. “I don’t think my age is important at all. I don’t feel any different than I did when I was forty. I don’t think it’s anything special.” Those around him sometimes begged to differ. “Some people said: ‘Hey, what are you getting yourself into? Why don’t you just go gardening or do something else fun?’ And then I’d say: ‘This is exactly what I enjoy doing.’”

The fact that his academic adventure is now over still needs to sink in. “I’m coming back down to earth in fits and starts,” he says with a smile. One thing he does know for sure is that it doesn’t end here. “The dissertation is only a third of the entire project. Now that we have identified the building blocks, we need to see how we can make them work together. And how we can remove a building block, for example, without the system collapsing. We then want to bring the idea to life, implement it in the business world, and develop it further.”

He intends to continue working on this and has no plans to retire anytime soon. “It’s incredibly intriguing to see what’s possible with new technologies and how we can use them to change the way we work. I’m like a kid who got a new toy: I get to experiment with it and come up with all kinds of new ideas that were unthinkable in the past. It’s a huge challenge, but it also offers fantastic opportunities, because almost anything is possible.”

In addition to how happy the work makes him, he also finds it enormously stimulating. “I see a lot of people taking up sailing or other hobbies after they retire, but intellectually they become less interesting as conversation partners. For me, it’s a state of mind to keep challenging myself,” he concludes.