Discover the Chance of Successful Entrepreneurship through a Convenient Online Baseline Assessment

For most small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), governance is something far away. In other words, measures of good governance are not yet part of daily practice. Particularly explosive growth and/or external demands, for example from an external financier, have changed this to date. Especially to make the likelihood and impact of risks manageable. Oddly enough, because fundamentally every entrepreneur wants to be successful and certainly not fail. Thus, corporate governance aimed at SMEs is actually relevant for every entrepreneur: it is about having control over realizing entrepreneurial ambition. And there's quite a lot involved. Therefore, we will be paying ample attention to this unexplored area in the world of the entrepreneur in the coming period.

Today, Route ICR shares the ninth article from the series 'How to practically implement SME governance'.

Discover the Chance of Successful Entrepreneurship through a Convenient Online Baseline Assessment

Amsterdam, November 3, 2021 - Entrepreneurship is simple. But the hardest thing is to keep entrepreneurship simple. But why is that? Let's discuss this in the coming period. We will also explore how to solve this problem. Today, Route ICR shares the ninth article in the series 'How to practically implement SME governance'.

Starting entrepreneurs have the opportunity to choose the right approach from the very beginning. For entrepreneurs who have been in business for a while, it's a different story. They have developed their own working methods and rely on them every day. For this group, understanding where they stand is the starting point for improvement. They perform the necessary ICR baseline assessment online. It is an investment in and the starting point of successful entrepreneurship.

How solid is the foundation under your business's success?

With the comprehensive ICR baseline assessment, you map out the current situation of your business based on your ready knowledge. This includes understanding the strong points of your business operations and, more importantly, the areas for improvement. Conducting the baseline assessment takes about an hour, and possibly longer if your ready knowledge is lacking. Overall, it's a manageable investment in your business's success. Through the assessment, your business's grades for the 33 ICR objectives and the 5 ICR growth circles are summarized on one A4 sheet. This also immediately reveals your business's ICR, showing how solid the foundation under your business's success is and what you need to work on to strengthen it. This increases the chance of successful entrepreneurship.

Perform the ICR Baseline Assessment Online and Independently

You can perform the baseline assessment independently or with the help of a business coach. From the user-friendly ICR dashboard, you assign the most appropriate grade for how your organization meets each objective. Make sure to be critical and thus give as honest grades as possible. Only then will you see where the potential for improvement lies. The baseline assessment is, therefore, the first step in your organization's improvement process. The ICR serves as your growth compass. The better your ICR, the greater the chance of successful entrepreneurship, and thus the greater the chance of realizing your entrepreneurial ambition. This is what makes the implementation of SME governance in practice so valuable!

Paul Joore

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Master Your Purpose. Own Your Freedom. With ICR. I’ve always been driven by helping people grow, feel supported and perform at their best — with clarity, rhythm and confidence. But my journey didn’t start in boardrooms. It started in top-level hospitality, where timing, warmth and service matter. Helping people feel good is something I learned early, and that instinct has followed me ever since. Sports shaped the other side of me: discipline, teamwork, resilience and the desire to raise the bar — professionally and personally. After studying Business Economics and completing the Post-Master Accountancy program, I joined Arthur Andersen. There, I saw how organizations really function — the structures, behaviour patterns, hidden bottlenecks and the impact of leadership and culture. My next step as CFO of a 300-employee company showed me what responsibility truly feels like. Later, as an interim manager and coach across SMEs, corporates and scaleups, I kept seeing the same pattern everywhere: * Behaviour is difficult to change. * Structure is difficult to maintain. * And in most organizations, the day-to-day chaos is the real boss. Financial scans confirmed it. Mentoring startups at Startupbootcamp confirmed it again. Different symptoms. Same underlying issue: mindset, structure and execution are rarely aligned. And here’s the part I had to learn the hard way: In the years I spent shaping what would eventually become the ICR Growth & Success SaaS Platform, I personally experienced all the discomforts and struggles of entrepreneurship. The chaos. The pressure. The tension between short-term survival and long-term vision. The search for clarity, balance and daily rhythm. Ironically, I once heard the criticism that I “couldn’t speak about entrepreneurial pain because I hadn’t felt it myself.” Today, the opposite is true. I didn’t just build ICR — I lived the very struggles I set out to solve. And yet, I would never have been able to create ICR without the foundation that came before it: my academic background, my years as an auditor, my CFO experience, the interim assignments, the coaching work and the Startupbootcamp mentoring. That combination allowed me to see the system behind organizational success — long before I experienced the pain personally. During my 40s, after a deep period of personal and professional growth, one question became clear: What legacy do I want to build? If no system existed that could help organizations grow in an integrated, practical and sustainable way … ... I would build one. That became ICR — the Growth & Success Operating System that brings clarity, rhythm and sustainable performance into daily practice. A system not just to measure organizations, but to help people and teams thrive. If you’re exploring how alignment can transform your organization — or your own leadership journey — feel free to reach out. I’m always open to meaningful conversations.