190: Henk-jan ter Brugge: The Head of Martech at Philips thinks martech has outgrown marketing and it’s time we lead like pirates

What’s up everyone, today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Henk-jan ter Brugge, Head of global digital programs and Martech at Philips.

• (00:00) - Intro
• (01:17) - In This Episode
• (05:11) - Embracing the Digital Pirate Mindset in Martech
• (16:18) - Why Clean Data Is the Real Treasure Map for AI in Marketing Ops
• (19:20) - Why Composable Martech Stacks Work in High Seas Regulated Enterprises
• (24:35) - Rethinking Martech as People Tech
• (32:51) - Elevating Martech Teams Beyond Button Pushing
• (37:16) - Where Martech Should Report in the Organization
• (42:58) - Unlocking Innovation Through the Long Tail of Martech
• (47:42) - The Limits of Vendor Isolation in Martech
• (52:12) - Philips Digital Marketing & e-Commerce Stack
• (55:10) - How to Use Weekly Prioritization to Protect Energy

Summary: Henk-jan works like a pirate inside the navy, exposing inefficiency with data, redesigning roles around real capabilities, and breaking AI promises into measurable wins backed by clean data and clear standards. He treats composability as an operating model with budgets tied to usage, gives local teams autonomy within guardrails, and measures martech by how it serves people and drives revenue. Ops leaders earn influence by pulling in allies and securing executive sponsorship, while reporting debates matter less than accountability and outcomes. Real innovation comes from embracing the long tail of smaller tools, working with vendors who integrate into the ecosystem, building adoption models with champions, and protecting energy through ruthless prioritization.

About Henk-jan

Henk-jan ter Brugge is Head of Digital Programs and Martech at Philips, where he leads the global digital marketing and ecommerce technology team. With over a decade at Philips, he has driven transformation across CRM, ecommerce, sales enablement, web experience, ad tech, analytics, and AI innovation. 

Henk-jan is a lean and agile certified leader who believes technology is an enabler, but it’s people who create the real impact. His career spans international experience in Seoul, Paris, and Shanghai, and he is a frequent keynote speaker on martech, salestech, and digital transformation. Passionate about improving health and wellbeing through meaningful innovation, he connects strategy, technology, and change management to deliver customer value at scale.

Embracing the Digital Pirate Mindset in Martech

Pirates were early system hackers. They rewrote rules on their ships, experimented with shared decision-making, and introduced ideas like equal pay centuries before they reached land. That spirit of rewriting norms has carried into Henk-jan’s work in martech. He frames the pirate as someone inside the navy, pushing the big ship to move differently, rather than a rogue causing chaos on the outside.

Corporate inertia creates its own myths. Vendor onboarding still takes 12 to 18 months in some organizations. Translation cycles hold content hostage for weeks. Colleagues accept these delays as culture, with a shrug and a “that’s just how we do things.” Henk-jan refuses to let tradition dictate output. He arms himself with data and turns it into proof. If a team claims a translation cycle takes three months, he presents the real number: 10, 15, maybe 20 days.

“Everything we say can be data driven. If someone tells me translation takes three months, I can show with data that it takes 10, 15, maybe 20 days. The data talks there.”

The pirate mindset works only when it builds coalitions. Lone rebels fade out in corporate structures. Movements form when people across teams share the same impatience for inefficiency and the same hunger for progress. That is why Henk-jan focuses on allies who welcome change. With them, he introduces controlled experiments that rewire expectations step by step until the new way becomes the default.

One of his boldest moves came in team design. He rebranded product owners as platform managers. They stopped acting like ticket clerks and became capability builders, consultants, and business partners. They handled strategy, education, and enablement, while still owning the backlog. A time study revealed that 70 percent of team energy had been going into internal operations. After the shift, 60 percent went directly into business-facing work. The lesson was clear: titles shape behavior, and behavior shapes impact.

Key takeaway: The digital pirate mindset thrives when you expose inefficiency with data, recruit allies who share your appetite for change, and redesign roles so teams build capabilities instead of servicing tickets. Work inside the system, use transparency to gain trust, and experiment in controlled steps. That way you can redirect energy from internal bureaucracy toward direct customer value, creating momentum that compounds over time.

Why Clean Data Is the Real Treasure Map for AI in Marketing Ops

Speaking of chasing treasures… AI has forced leadership teams to finally pay attention to the quality of their data. Henk-jan described it with a simple observation: “Everybody in the company becomes a technologist in a way, even the CEO.” Executives want automation, optimization, and sharper analytics, but none of those things matter without reliable data flowing through the system.

Requests for a CDP illustrate the problem. Leaders hear the acronym and assume it represents an instant fix. Henk-jan has seen this cycle many times and insists the smarter move is to break the vision into small, practical wins. CEOs need short stories they can tell at the end of a quarter, stories that show how clean data lifted conversion or reduced wasted spend. Large programs gain momentum when they stack up these smaller wins rather than selling one massive transformation.

“The only way to do that well is to slice it up, basically to show some promising use cases. Talking CEO, they need some impactful stories they need to have at the end of the quarter to show what we have delivered.”

Clean data depends on discipline across the organization. Henk-jan stressed the need for rules: standards for how data is collected, shared definitions across content systems, and taxonomies that keep categories consistent. Integrations and lifecycle management depend on that structure. Without it, AI experiments turn into siloed pilots that never scale.

AI becomes useful only when the groundwork is finished. Leaders may chase demos that look impressive, but real value comes from standards, integration discipline, and lifecycle maturity. These foundations create systems that grow stronger over time rather than projects that fizzle out after launch.

Key takeaway: Clean data gives AI something to stand on. Break big promises into small, measurable wins that executives can celebrate at the end of a quarter. Pair those wins with clear rules on data standards, integration discipline, and taxonomy. That way you can build credibility quickly, prove value, and create a foundation where AI programs expand instead of stall.

Why Composable Martech Stacks Work in High Seas Regulated Enterprises

Composable stacks sound exciting in theory, but at enterprise scale the question is always about execution. Henk-jan calls it the “cradle to grave” lifecycle of martech, and he is not exaggerating. Every new tool at Philips runs through a process: onboarding, building and deploying, adopting, improving, and eventually decommissioning. Each step matters because every skipped detail becomes someone’s day-to-day problem.

He warns against the common trap of treating tools like silver bullets. Buying a platform for insights or personalization only matters if there are people inside the business who can operate it. Henk-jan has seen too many o...