How do you prepare for a competitor that doesn’t exist yet?  

At some point, an industry can no longer rely on the way it has always worked.  

The cleaning industry is facing a growing challenge. Its workforce is getting older, fewer people are available to do the work and traditional ways of recruiting and organizing that work are reaching their limits. For Mark Keur, CEO of Atalian Nederland, that means the competitors to watch may not even exist yet.  

Together with Frank van de Ven, CEO of i-team Global, he explores what needs to change. Technology and automation are part of the answer, but the conversation goes much further. How do you make cleaning more attractive to a new generation? How do you create more flexibility? And how do you make sure innovation actually improves the work of cleaners? 

Because behind the technology is a much more human question. Mark and Frank discuss the physical demands of cleaning, the lack of recognition cleaners still experience and why creating meaningful work requires more than simply introducing new equipment.