Keeping TomTom Alive, Harold Goddijn Navigates The Treacherous Waters Of Business!
Because of how fast the technology sector adapts and changes, sometimes it is hard to remember how significant some of the overnight successes for companies truly were. After all, one year the hot product is an iPad, the next year it is an Amazon Kindle Fire, the next year, the market explodes for an entirely different product. Because the attention span of consumers is so short, you might have forgotten one of the most significant product releases in the last decade. There have been sixty million of them sold since 2004. Give up? It’s the TomTom GPS navigation system. The founder and CEO of TomTom is Harold Goddijn and he is one of the coolest businessmen around.
TomTom was Harold Goddijn’s brainchild and his third attempt to make a company that would create and effectively market a satellite navigation system for consumers. Following an unsuccessful deal with Ericsson, the mobile phone manufacturer, Goddijn formed his own company to utilize the Global Positioning System technology that Bill Clinton declassified, so it could be used by civilians. In 2002, TomTom released its first GPS-based system. Two years later, under Goddijn’s guidance and sense of design, TomTom released a sleeker, more efficient TomTom satnav system. That unit sold millions, made TomTom an internationally successful company and made Goddijn an incredibly successful businessman.
Having studied economics at the University of Amsterdam, Harold Goddijn eagerly went to work for Psion, a powerful UK computer manufacturer at the time. Even though Goddijn established Psion Netherlands for the company, Apple, IBM and other computer companies decimated Psion’s market share and weakened Psion. Sensing which way the wind was blowing, Goddijn left to form his own company and try his hand at navigational computers.
Harold Goddijn is a pragmatist. TomTom had an incredible growth curve before other GPS manufacturers came to saturate the market. TomTom continues to survive by making strategic pairings Goddijn arranges between the company and car manufacturers. Goddijn knows that it is unlikely TomTom will ever see the gross income it saw in 2004 again. Still, Goddijn is diversifying to keep TomTom relevant. He spearheaded a new program that helps navigate cars around traffic jams based on historical data for local traffic patterns all around the world. Goddijn also has been successful at rebranding TomTom through fun voice applications that allow you to change the way your TomTom gives you directions.
With a firm head for business and the perseverance that helped make TomTom a world leader for a while, Harold Goddijn is young and talented enough to remain vital in the tech sector for years to come!
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