Easily classify digital vacation photos without looking at all the files manually? This question prompted Gerrit Baarda (1969), founder and owner of ZIUZ, ten years ago to write a handy software tool that automatically recognizes faces and situations in photos and places them in a logical order. Today, police forces around the world use his software to detect child abuse.
By Berend Henk Huizing
His products must not only sell globally but be socially relevant and also the best. Baarda is not satisfied until his products have demonstrable impact. ,,That is why we consciously choose to use our knowledge and expertise for organizations that fulfill an important social function. We do that by creating practical and user-friendly solutions for police and security services and drug packaging companies’’.
business plan
Together with business partner Ed van den Brand (1959), Baarda founded ZIUZ in 2002. Soon they were transferring 20,000 home video tapes a year to DVDs for Kruidvat customers. ’’With our software we extracted the interesting moments from a long videotape, this way we filled DVDs with precious moments for customers.’’ Through TNO, the police came to him. ’’They were struggling with hundreds of thousands of photos and thousands of hours of video after confiscating usb-sticks, hard disks and DVDs when child abuse was suspected. Everything had to be reviewed for evidence, an impossible task. TNO had made something that worked well but was very technical and difficult to use. Then they came to me.'' Baarda did not have a business plan, but the police's request was music to his ears. ''Here I am solving a problem and also contributing to making the world a more beautiful place.'' We just started and a year later our product was ready for use in all Dutch police regions.'' Meanwhile, the software works at investigative agencies in 49 countries.
Road to impact
To stay ahead in this niche market, Baarda sets high standards for his now 50 employees spread across offices in Gorredijk, Amsterdam and New York. ,,I like to work with curious autonomous people. The bar is high and our ambition is great. I expect my employees to check with me whether we are on the right track. That road is sometimes more important than the dot on the horizon. Ten years ago I knew nothing about our camera and pill machine either, and now look where we are!’’ As the market and his customers move, Baarda asks the same of his employees. ’’You simply don't win a marathon with half commitment. Running recreational laps is fine, but you don't win. And I want to win. He firmly plans to be active in 60 countries by 2018 with the software that helps fight child abuse. With his pill machine, Baarda wants to process 20 million bags a day in two years, and 250 of the super camera that takes just as sharp images at night as during the day should have been sold by then. ’’That is our road to impact.’'
””Other manufacturers claim a zero percent margin of error, that does not exist and we demonstrate that with research””
Making the pill machine is an entirely different story, but fits right into his ‘road to impact. Almost flawlessly, the device packages drugs so patients can always take the right medication. ,,In addition to the software, I wanted to make just a product, a machine. One that you can hold with gears and radars that you can inject oil into, so to speak.’’ In the village near Baarda, a pharmacist was looking for a device with which to package pills. ’’By hand, he filled pill pouches and made individual medicine packs. Putting those bags together makes a roll that holds medicine for a whole week, which is super smart thinking.’’ However, existing packaging machines made so many mistakes that people received incorrect or insufficient medication. ’'By taking a picture of the pills the our machine checks the contents of the pouches and we have been able to reduce the error rate to 1.3 in 1 million pouches.'' Other manufacturers claim zero percent error rate, that doesn't exist and we prove it with research.''
Defense Technique
Image recognition is the common thread in everything ZIUZ does. ZIUZ's third line of business, then, is surveillance. If the police suspect someone of a serious crime, Baarda hangs up cameras. Thus, he collects 168 hours of video a week and then creates a summary of the highlights. ’’We can recognize objects, see if people are talking. If we edit all the important moments in sequence, we are left with half an hour of video. That saves the police a lot of work.’’ But that's not all. Baarda noticed that the video quality of surveillance footage was so poor that many details were lost. ''I developed a camera that could see at night. I wanted to make a camera that just went all the way. If you can't see anything with this camera, you can't see it. It contains defense technology developed by Innovation Cluster partner Photonis.''
Innovation Cluster Drachten
,,I think the Innovatiecluster Drachten is a fantastic concept. You think all along that what we are doing is normal, but now we are finding out that we are adding something. Besides, I don't have all the wisdom either. The smaller companies within the Innovation Cluster can learn from the big ones how to put processes in order. And the big guys can learn from the small ones how to remain flexible and agile. New employees come forward automatically, Baarda does not have to make an effort. But finding the right, autonomous and creative minds is something else. ’’It really is a complicated search, placing an ad doesn't work. We are in the middle of a professionalization process. Production must improve, logistics must improve, and R&D must be more process-oriented. In the areas of HR and smart factory, we can learn a lot from our partners in the Innovation Cluster. At the same time, we bring a totally different way of innovating and our view of business cases is different from the rest.’’ Baarda encourages own employees, for example, to have their resumes in order. ’’Do you want to get rid of me,‘’ they respond. I tell them they don't have to leave, but that I think it's important for them to be independent of me. Then employees are stronger and give better advice and are much more likely to grow.’’ When the company is doing well, Baarda wants to enjoy that with his employees. ''I don't believe in bonuses, salaries just have to be good. This year our employees are allowed to divide 10 percent of the company's profit among themselves. They know very well who will go the extra mile and who will not. They are allowed to divide up the money in four groups, which is quite exciting. We don't let them go completely; where necessary we support them in the distribution. I realize that this is asking quite a lot from the people. There is an escape: they are allowed to know unanimously and anonymously whether everyone agrees. If there is only one "no," then I distribute the money myself. What we are aiming at with this is awareness on the process of giving and receiving feedback. That's what it's really all about if you want to be the best.''