Number one Dorpsstraat. You can’t be in a more central location in the village than we are. According to an inscription in the roof beams, the main Tweeperenboom building dates from 1779. In the 1970s, it was a shelter for a dozen children in the care of Sister Hortense Rochette. In the previous decades, Jeanne Schoeters had kept a retail cooperative there, “De Welvaert”. At that time, everyone in the village also knew Jeanne’s brother: Jef, the blacksmith. Jef was known as a master craftsman – and the cross on the church tower still bears witness to this today. Jef was also someone people confided in, and his blacksmith workshop at Warotstraat 4 was a meeting place. Dorpsstraat 1 has always played a central role in the village, linking social engagement with entrepreneurship. So it could not be otherwise for Tweeperenboom to originate here. And just as they did in the 20th century, we are expanding our borders to Warotstraat 4 with our “De Smederij” (“The Smithy”) project. In this way, we are steadily building a vibrant, entrepreneurial hub in the village.
Tweeperenboom guides people, organizations and sectors in making breakthroughs in an ever-faster-changing and complex environment, with an underlying effect on the skills that customers need to continue doing this themselves: robustness, agility and connection.
In this way, Tweeperenboom contributes to a more sustainable, agile and inclusive society that is able to renew itself.
The world is in transition. Change in itself is not new, but the diversity, speed, globality and complexity in which it manifests itself is. The usual management methods, business models and competitive ways of thinking are outdated. Linear processes no longer work. Collaborating has become a must.
We believe this context offers opportunities for everyone. It is crucial for people, organizations and society to build new skills, organizational cultures and forms of society. Three skills are central to this concept:
1. robustness
2. agility
3. connection.
Tweeperenboom supports people, organizations and networks that are pursuing fundamental change and helps them achieve concrete results. We work using our breakthrough model and draw inspiration from our setting of a village on the outskirts of the city. Our entrepreneurial ecosystem in Winksele provides the perfect space for experimentation.
Tweeperenboom was able to emerge and grow thanks to the support and trust of these strong, inspiring people.
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In the center of the green garden of Tweeperenboom is an old pear tree. That’s right – one tree, not two. And we certainly harvest more than two pears every year. “But what does the ‘twee’ (two) refer to, then?” we hear you ask.
Two types of pears hang from that one tree: green and red. The blossoms of one type appear every year, about a week later than those of the other type. And one type ripens more quickly than the other. Each at its own pace, but still together.
The twee-peren-boom (“two-pears-tree”) therefore symbolizes difference, connection and cooperation, and “innovation through association”. A lovely symbol for a cooperative, we think, and for the work Tweeperenboom does.