BusinessWeek praises Debatrix founder

Article in BusinessWeek

Here’s the full text of the article about Lars Duursma in BusinessWeek:

Teaching people how to constructively argue is the novel business concept behind Debatrix, based in Rotterdam. The company was started in early 2005 by Lars Duursma, the reigning world debate champion in the non-native English-speaking category. Clearly, Duursma is a believer in the power of persuasion. While a student at Erasmus University, he was hired by several Dutch firms and agencies to give speaking and debate training. “Then the entrepreneur inside me said, ‘Why not do this yourself?’” he says.

Less than two years later, Debatrix is one of the top four Dutch providers of persuasion training. It also coordinates debates for governmental bodies and companies such as ING that want to use an interactive format to present new ideas and generate discussion. Duursma is boosting his own visibility right now with a series of weekly newspaper articles analyzing the rhetorical skills of Holland’s major politicians.

With 15 freelance trainers on board and a growing roster of clients, Duursma looks to be well on his way to improving the quality of arguments in The Netherlands. That’s a goal every country might aspire to.

Dutch entrepeneurs at the top

There’s more promising young entrepreneurs in the Netherlands according to BusinessWeek. Aside from Lars Duursma, internet entrepeneur Ben Woldring was also selected to be one of the top 3 entrepeneurs.

Duursma credits his succes to a combination of professionalism and enthousiasm: “All of our trainers and moderators have a passion for debate, and that gets people excited. Every training yields us fifteen new ambassadors.”

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