Ivo Brughmans (Antwerp, 1965) studied Philosophy (Ghent University), International politics (University of Antwerp) and Business management (Ehsal Management School). Since 1993 he works as a consultant for an international management consultancy firm. Ivo is an expert in transforming support functions and service organisations.  He is co-author of the book ‘HR New Style’ (Kluwer, 2006), which was nominated in the Netherlands as best HR book in 2007 and which was published in Germany in 2008 as ‘Profitable Personal Management’. Ivo lives near Antwerp and works out of   Utrecht. He has published several articles on organizational and change issues in The Netherlands and Belgium and regularly gives lectures and seminars on these topics. Ivo is a certified master practitioner in Psycho-energetics (EPECA), an intuitive and systemic approach to support individual and collective transformation.

‘Exploring the possibilities of connecting opposites runs like a thread through my life and work: as a Belgian working in the Netherlands, as a philosopher concerned with practical business issues, as a rationalist trusting intuition, as an atheist attracted to spirituality and as a passionate workaholic enjoying doing nothing at all. Someone once told me that the name ‘Brughmans’ suits me as it means ‘builder of bridges’.

I always want to know the how and why of things.  I just can’t accept the status quo without challenging it and I always wonder if things can’t be done in a different and a better way. That is what the philosopher and the business consultant inside me have in common. Studying philosophy after secondary school felt like a very natural choice for me, I never doubted it. At that time it was my ambition to at least unravel the most profound secrets of the universe and the human condition, just by pure reason and reflection. However, I also had that restless urge to do something practical, active and exciting, rather than just lingering in university libraries and living in a world of beautiful abstraction.

When I entered the labor market in the late 80’s – after an additional master’s degree in International Politics and a Bachelor in Economics – there was unfortunately little interest in my truth-seeking talents. On the contrary, when I applied for a telesales function the recruiter wondered aloud if I would question the actual existence of the telephone. However, I had an opportunity to start selling advertising space in a business directory, which meant a Copernican revolution in my life that put me straight with ‘both feet on the ground’ (in short, a hard landing in reality). That’s how I made my way into business and how I discovered my passion for consultancy.

Philosophy is in my blood which is why, after being dormant for many years, the philosopher in me awakened and maneuvered himself to the foreground with an unexpected assertiveness. As with my  first choice to study philosophy, there was no trace of doubt or practical concerns when I decided to start writing my first practical-philosophical book. I took some time off from my job and profoundly enjoyed writing the book that I always wanted to read myself, about a topic that’s at the core of my existence. It has become a bit of a book about everything, which really pleases me as a philosopher. I think there are already enough books about actual events without much depth or about very specific topics without much linkage to the wider picture. Wanting to formulate a comprehensive theory is the secret sin and the forbidden candy of every philosopher.’