Solve all your business problems by changing the deeper logic that creates them, minimizing your dependence on consultancies while maximizing the value of your products and services.
Strategy that fails to become reality. Teams that pull in different directions. Margins under pressure. A brand that loses its relevance. Each problem seems to call for another specialist, another initiative and more of your people’s time. But what if these are different symptoms of the same underlying way of thinking, organising and working?
BECOME® addresses the architecture behind recurring business problems — and the architecture behind exceptional value creation.
BECOME® is an ontology and methodology developed from more than a quarter of a century of research by scientist, author and serial entrepreneur Eric Bartels into enterprises that perform exceptionally well: ultraperformers. That research continues today. It has included interviews with 700 CEOs and other business leaders, alongside long-term, in-depth study of 100 companies from within, combined with the available international scientific literature on the behaviour of leaders and enterprises.
A first introduction to BECOME®.
Discover the research, thinking and principles behind the methodology.
Free PDF
Both links open in a new tab. Printed edition €7.95, postage included, ordered at BECOME® Studio — select the introduction booklet under Booklets.
In Bartels’ research, the contrast in enterprise value per distinct product or service is striking: 750–1,500 for ultraperformers, compared with just 1–5 for conventional competitors. He studied how these enterprises think, create value and organise themselves to understand what makes this extraordinary difference possible.
His research identified a fundamentally different way of thinking, with a corresponding business logic and architecture. Rather than letting every external demand determine what they should become, these enterprises work from the inside out — from their intrinsic DNA, identity and purpose. This provides a coherent compass for responding to a changing world and concentrating their capabilities on creating exceptional value through their products and services.
The BECOME® Ontology explains the underlying principles; the BECOME® Framework models the thinking, business logic and architecture; and the BECOME® Program enables your own leaders and people to put them into practice, connecting identity, strategy, tactics and everyday operations.
The aim is twofold: resolve recurring problems at their source, reducing the time and money spent on repeated interventions; and concentrate the enterprise’s capabilities on creating superior products and services, greater customer value and stronger profitability. These are two connected effects of the same inside-out architecture — not two separate programs. Your enterprise still faces new challenges, but develops the coherence and capability to meet them without continually recreating the same internal problems.
BECOME® Practice is the implementation practice of BECOME® Institute and is delivered exclusively through BECOME Alliance.
The scientific foundation
BECOME® Institute was established on the basis of the ongoing research of scientist, author and serial entrepreneur Eric Bartels into how leaders and enterprises think, behave, create value and organise themselves.
Spanning more than a quarter of a century, this research has included interviews with 700 CEOs and other business leaders, alongside long-term, in-depth study of 100 companies from within.
These firsthand findings have been combined with the available international scientific literature on the behaviour of leaders and enterprises. The research continues today, and its ideas and findings have been developed across a series of books.
That work led to the BECOME® Ontology and the BECOME® Framework. The BECOME® Program translates the Framework into a guided process through which an organization's own leaders and people build and implement a different way of thinking and working.
BECOME Alliance brings that process into enterprises as the exclusive delivery organization of BECOME® Practice.
The underlying explanation of the inside-out way of thinking at the heart of BECOME®.
The modeled business thinking, business logic and architecture connecting Identity, Strategy, Tactics and Operations.
The process through which an enterprise develops and implements that architecture in its own context.
BECOME® Ontology → BECOME® Framework → BECOME® Program
By scientist, author and BECOME® Institute co-founder Eric Bartels
Welcome To The New Economy
English · Telogeny Trilogy · Book One
What if the greatest obstacle to your company’s future is the thinking that once made it successful?
In Welcome To The New Economy, Eric Bartels explores why the industrial business logic of the twentieth century is losing its relevance — and why some enterprises are already operating by fundamentally different principles.
Drawing on decades of research into leaders and organisations, he connects the rise of AI, changing human motivations and the emergence of a new economy to a question every business leader must confront: what does this mean for the company we are building?
Discover the wider research and thinking behind BECOME® — and a different perspective on what your enterprise could become.
Where enterprises begin
BECOME® examines these challenges through the business logic and architecture that connect them. Its central proposition is that many recurring problems can be addressed together by changing how the enterprise works as a whole. The Program helps your own people develop that coherence from the inside out.
From understanding to implementation
See how the BECOME® methodology is developed and implemented within your enterprise.
Program booklet · The practice
The practical companion for leadership teams. It explains what a BECOME® Program is, the four phases, the supporting products and services, the underlying principles and the complete pricing structure.
Printed edition available at BECOME® Studio · €4.95, postage included
Both links open in a new tab. Printed edition €4.95, postage included, ordered at BECOME® Studio.
One integrated Program
The BECOME® Program starts by finding and establishing the enterprise's intrinsic identity and purpose, and then connects that source to strategy, tactics and daily operations. Each phase follows directly from the previous one, so the Program is always undertaken as a whole — including the brand, whose purpose and positioning develop from the same intrinsic identity rather than from a separate branding exercise.
Discover and articulate the enterprise's intrinsic DNA, identity and purpose. This establishes the source from which the rest of the architecture develops.
Define the business model the enterprise intends to realize as an expression of that identity. Establish a clear direction for what it will create and the value it will bring.
Determine the objectives, targets, approaches, indicators and initiatives needed to realize that strategy.
Put the architecture into daily use through decisions, responsibilities, collaboration, behavior and practical execution.
Clients
A selection of the companies and brands that use the BECOME® Framework and have undertaken a BECOME® Program.
Experience in practice
Original testimonials published by BECOME® Institute, with their original wording and attribution. Each refers to the specific brand, division or organization named.
“A few years ago I was interviewed by Eric Bartels. I realized that this approach could lift us to a whole new level, not only because it is much faster and more effective than anything we had done before, but also because there is full ownership among employees and you see real improvements in daily operations, including unprecedented sales increases. And that's exactly what it did for us. Truly unique!”
“We did a BECOME® Program to find and activate the purpose of Unilever in the Benelux, connect it to the overall purpose of Unilever Globally and further optimize our operations. We also continue to use the BECOME® Framework to fine-tune and optimize our brands. The very fact that we use the BECOME® Framework canvases for the most important parts of our business says it all. The BECOME® Framework is a refined, yet simple approach that works wonders.”
“In the old days we used to hire traditional consultants or other specialists when we had a problem that needed to be fixed. The Become Institute approach works differently. It takes advantage of the knowledge and expertise present in the company and channels that to optimize the business. In this way, you as an enterprise become your own consultancy. It is a unique, systematic and highly effective approach that I truly recommend.”
“We implemented the BECOME® Framework through a BECOME® Program with a leadership coalition of 90 participants. A unique program that worked out even better than we expected. It created great ownership within the organization and met all the objectives we had set and more. Absolutely unique!”
“We ran a BECOME® Program to streamline our fast growing organization. It has led to a profound positive change in our company.”
“We did a BECOME® Program with our regional managers to improve our customer intimacy. They were truly challenged and the results were radically streamlining and accelerating our sales efforts.”
For consultants & prospective Practice Leaders
Your own Practice. One shared company.
Practice Leaders participate through their own legal companies and build and lead BECOME® Practices as organisational units within BECOME Alliance — not as separate legal entities.
Your company employs your team. Together you represent BECOME Alliance in client work. The relevant Alliance entity contracts with clients, invoices and collects payment.
Your business receives an agreed share of revenue generated through your Practice, participates in a profit-related bonus pool distributed based on revenue contribution, and can build a potential ownership position through share options, subject to the agreed terms.
Training, the BECOME® methodology, materials and shared support help you develop your Practice. A Practice Leader can also be a BECOME® Practitioner; Practitioners deliver the client work.
Explore building a PracticeCurrent Practice Leader opportunity: The Netherlands
We are currently recruiting Practice Leaders based in the Netherlands, within practical travelling distance of Utrecht. Fluent Dutch and English are required.
This is a hybrid opportunity: regular in-person collaboration at our Utrecht office, combined with working from home and at client locations.
Start a conversation about your organization, the challenges you recognize and what you want to make possible.