You grow, we grow— that's the mantra
That’s why, at least four times a year, every single one of us gets a chance to put our full focus on “innovation” for the day, whatever that means for us. And in this way, our skills and knowledge grow exponentially — as individuals and as teams, as specialist chapters, and holistically as a global technology consultancy.
Driving Success
We consciously cultivate a culture of excellence and happiness …as we strive to be thought leaders in our fields. Staying abreast of “what’s next” in our industry, sharing our knowledge, teaming up to collaborate, and encouraging each other to achieve our highest potential — these values drive everything we do.
And one of the best ways we do all of these things together at once is through our Global Innovation Days.
Unlike some companies — we don’t restrict innovation or knowledge to only an elite inner group. Everyone here has the potential to innovate and we make time and space to nurture that potential. Encouraging growth and sharing our knowledge — that’s in our company’s DNA.
Innovation Days are quarterly events where we are all together from different countries. Sometimes it will be in the office, and sometimes at an external location. And that day is all about learning something new.
Nobody is going to tell you what you need to learn. Nobody is going to expect products that we can sell. Just go explore a new technology or a new methodology. And then, all we ask is, at the end of the day, you tell about it.– Matthijs van der Veer
During an innovationday we sit together and work on cool stuff. This could be around some technology that was recently launched and you want to investigate. It could be a hobby project — it doesn’t have to be work-related. It doesn’t have to deliver anything tangible at the end of the day.
It’s just working on innovative stuff, enjoying yourself, and of course, there’s the social part where we have fun, dinner, and drinks together. It’s always an energizing day.– Dennis Thie
Global Innovation
As thought leaders in Microsoft technology, we also hold Innovation Days simultaneously in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany together with the US Microsoft headquarters and its innovation incubation lab, The Microsoft Garage.
We have a significant number of Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals on the consultant team at Xebia | Xpirit. Once a year, they have an opportunity to go to the Microsoft Campus in Seattle and work with the Microsoft product teams on the latest and most innovative Microsoft technology. The last time we were there, Microsoft kindly provided its innovation lab —The Microsoft Garage — as the environment for our USA Innovation Day.
Quotes
The Innovation Days are basically meant for technical development, to be frontrunners. When there’s some new awesome technology, we can dive in during Innovation Days. So we always stay ahead of the mainstream developers.
– Reinier van Maanen
I find that we have lots of ability to continue our learning journey in many ways, shapes, and forms, in whatever way works best for us. To continue our certification journey, continue supporting our technical knowledge, gain knowledge back from the community, and give back. So all those things contribute to an amazing place to work.
Heidi Araya
Every person at every level of Xebia | Xpirit, from a regular engineer or consultant at the very top of the management hierarchy, is very approachable and they love to learn. They are passionate about the things they know. They’re passionate about learning new things, and they are approachable. They’re absolutely top-class technical talents, but also excellent people and wonderful coworkers as well.
– Charlton Trezevant
The best-kept secret of Xebia | Xpirit is that we’re all normal people. We don’t have too much egos here. We don’t put people on pedestals because, hey, they’re just normal colleagues, consultants and developers. And that’s one of the best-kept secrets out there. I think a lot of people have a different way of looking at us because we speak at international conferences and train thousands of people and companies. We share a lot of knowledge and we share that with pride and confidence because we have the hands-on experience as well. But once you’re in, you’re in, and you’re just a normal person and we just treat like anyone else in the group.
– Rob Bos