The U.S. government is releasing millions to train thousands of textile workers in some Central American neighboring countries. This is done with the help of the Ghent-based scale-up Manual.to.
Written by: Ben Serrure
Originally, Jorim Rademaker wanted to build a platform to digitize picture books. ‘I am the son of an inventor and an art teacher’, says the Ghent entrepreneur. ‘I carry that with me, professionally as a software developer, and privately as an illustrator and lover of children’s books. The idea was to bring those two things together in a platform where my children could easily upload and share visual stories themselves.’
However, Rademaker’s idea soon turned out to be much more widely applicable. If small children were able to upload images and accompanying text step by step with ease, why shouldn’t adults be able to do the same with more complex step-by-step plans? This is how the idea for Manual.to was born, a platform to digitize manuals organically.
‘Who likes to use a manual on paper or in a PDF file?’, Rademaker asks. ‘If I ask that question in a room with 300 people, then at most five hands go up in the air. But when I ask who has repaired or fixed something at home with the help of YouTube, almost everyone responds. That says something about how people want to learn, also in the workplace. What we make possible is that you can easily pass on all the practical knowledge that is in your company digitally, in a way that is then actually used.’
In concrete terms, Manual.to built a platform that allows you to upload digital step-by-step guides, accompanied by video and photo, at lightning speed. ‘Imagine that you, as an experienced hand, know exactly how to replace the filter of a complex industrial machine,’ Rademaker gives as an example. ‘Then, with the help of a smartphone or tablet, you can document all the steps, as you would explain them to an intern. Once you’ve gone through that process, save it and our software will give you a QR code that you can stick on or near the machine. In this way, anyone who has to do the same can fall back on the practical knowledge of an expert, even long after their retirement.’
It is a way to share ‘instant know-how‘ in your organisation, as Rademaker likes to put it. “Tasks that might be done by just one or two experienced technicians today can be done by 80 percent of your people with a good and easy-to-use manual – one that those people like to use. That makes a real difference, as our customers tell us. One of those customers recently told us that where it used to take four months to train a new employee, it can now be done in two weeks.’
The Manual.to solution is now used by a whole range of companies and organisations, including big names such as Microsoft, the British health service NHS, Umicore, ABB, DuPont, Recticel, ArcelorMittal, CEVA Logistics or BekaertDeslee, a global player in mattress textiles. ‘The latter has 19 factories, spread all over the world, where the same machines are often located,’ says Rademaker. ‘In the past, the knowledge from the floor remained local, because it was not visual and was not translated. With our technology, it is very easy to exchange best practices and share knowledge throughout the organization.”
With the American government, the Ghent-based scale-up now has a great new customer. In the coming years, Manual.to’s platform will be used to train thousands of workers in Central America to work in the region’s growing textile sector. The U.S. government agency for development cooperation USAID is making $2 million available for the project, which bears the name Hilando Oportunidades. The aim is to combat unemployment in the region, and in this way also proactively prevent migration from the region.
In the first phase of the project, 1,500 people will be trained in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador with the help of the Manual.to platform. The American university NCSU, with which the Ghent-based company has been working for some time, pours the necessary knowledge into the simple digital manuals.
The project is a nice extra showcase for Manual.to, which is growing at a brisk pace. In recent years, sales have consistently doubled, earning the company a spot in the Deloitte Fast 50, a ranking of the fastest growing companies in the country, for the past two years. This year, Manual.to is aiming for a turnover of 3 million euros.
Until now this growth has been completely organic. ‘For the time being, we are doing very little marketing, and have hardly raised any external capital,’ says Rademaker. ‘At the same time, we have been profitable for years. That’s a pretty unique combination in our sector.’ Nevertheless, Rademaker is considering a ‘serious financing round’, ‘in order to be able to fully capture our market’.
External capital should help to take a step towards Rademaker’s final dream. “I want to build the most impactful company in the world. We actively express our commitment to improving the lives of 1 billion people. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, we think it’s possible. What we’re building is actually a kind of combination of YouTube and Wikipedia. Or a TikTok for training. There’s a huge market for it.’
Will Manual.to soon become World Champion in Entrepreneurship? It just might. At the national preliminary round of the Entrepreneurship World Cup, the Ghent-based growth company has been chosen as the Belgian entry for the competition, which will take place at the end of this year in Saudi Arabia. The Belgian preliminary rounds were organized last week by the Flemish network of enterprises Voka, the Walloon Union Wallonne des Entreprises and the international Global Entrepreneurship Network. If Manual.to wins the world championship, there is a prize of 1 million dollars involved. But above all, the competition is known as a global showcase for potential customers and financiers, and as an international networking event that offers growth opportunities for young companies.
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