With 10,000 employees in Europe and 9,000 in Belgium alone, the Cronos Group is a major local IT player. With a somewhat atypical structure, consisting of more than 600 companies, the group tries to serve the market in a unique way. Attracting young talent is essential to that strategy.
Spread over two days, around a thousand students descend on the congress center at the Elizabeth Hall in Antwerp to participate in the twelfth ‘Hack The Future’ hackathon organized by the Cronos Group.
Over the past twelve years, the hackathon event has become more professional, but the concept has not changed. Cronos wants to bridge the gap between students and the academic world and challenge them in a different context. In the margins of the event, we sit down with co-founder and owner of the Cronos Group, Dirk Deroost. How does the Cronos Group position itself as an IT company in Belgium? And what role does the hackathon play in that story?
Many Companies, but not through Acquisitions
“Cronos’ model has always been to recruit many young people. It is not that we buy out many companies, but rather that we train young people. During their studies, students should already have in mind that Cronos is a company that offers them opportunities to get started.”
Today, the Cronos Group has around 600 companies and 10,000 employees, 9,000 of whom are in Belgium, 500 in the Netherlands, 300 in Luxembourg and the rest spread over several other European countries. The structure of the Belgian company, which Deroost founded more than thirty years ago together with Jef De Wit, a colleague from long-gone days at Oracle, is based on a multitude of small and highly specialized companies.
Experts in a Niche
“These are in fact competence centers,” says Deroost. “Each company has a very strong specialization. For example, a company within the Cronos Group will not be specialized in SAP, but in a very specific problem of SAP. For example, within the group we have a company that only deals with AI within the context of Amazon Web Services. Specialization and focus are the strengths of the companies.”
Each company has a very strong specialization.
Dirk De Roost, co-founder of The Cronos Group
That structure has existed since the Cronos Group was founded. “When we started and wanted to work with, for example,
For Large and Small(Er)
The tactic is still in Cronos’ DNA today. Due to their specialization, the small companies are attractive partners for both their customers and for large technology players. The Cronos Group therefore serves numerous customers. Major parties such as Proximus and Johnson and Johnson are on the customer list, but also family-run companies such as Soudal.
“As soon as a company has an IT professional or an IT team, we can mean something to them,” says Deroost. “We often start small, after which trust grows.” In any case, the Cronos Group companies are active in a competitive market.
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According to Deroost, local anchoring is certainly an asset. With the 9,000 employees linked to the group, this is a strength of the company. Compared to international organizations, the group’s companies can boast of this local presence.
Economic Challenges
Of course, there are also challenges, both globally and at the level of Belgium. “The total cost of our activities is rising enormously,” says Deroost. “The economy has been a bit slower for a few years and the financial model is under some pressure, with the costs of cars, buildings and wage indexation. However, in a sector that is constantly innovating, continuing to invest is important. We will continue to do that, but perhaps a little more cautiously for the time being.”
In any case, the investments are in the hands of Deroost, De Wit, CEO Sam Bamburst and their team. After all, Cronos Group is a private company. “We have always reinvested the money we earned. It was always an objective of De Wit and myself not to allow external capital. It takes a little longer to grow big, but it allows us to make our own decisions.”
AI and Talent
In any case, the hackathon is an important event for the Cronos Group. Young talent remains necessary according to Deroost, also with developments in the field of AI. He does not believe that AI is the catalyst for job losses. “The economic situation plays a much bigger role. 2024 was difficult, 2025 even more difficult. 2026 will hopefully be better. As a result, there is indeed more talent available on the market.”
I hear from customers that they hope to use AI to make up for their backlog, not to replace people.
Dirk De Roost, co-founder of The Cronos Group
“I hear from customers that they hope to use AI to make up for their backlog, not to replace people,” he continues. “With the people that organizations have on board today, they can deliver less than they would like. The use of AI can increase efficiency somewhat”. 20 to 25 percent is realistic according to him.
Within Cronos, around 400 people are already active in AI. Deroost: ‘There are quite a few prototypes running, although large projects unfortunately remain somewhat absent. They will come.”
Learning and Making Connections
Jorit Geurts also uses AI himself. As a student of applied computer science in Leuven, specializing in cybersecurity, he is participating in the hackathon for the third time. “I use AI, but more as a tool. I ask questions about why a particular solution works that way, and use it as a kind of coach, instead of letting AI create something for me.”
He fears that AI sometimes makes the direction too easy, when people have solutions devised without thinking for themselves. At the hackathon, Geurts is looking for a unique challenge. “With the right teammate, the hackathon is a fun day. You learn a lot from it. It makes you think deeply about how to solve problems.”
Geurts finds the guidance from the people of the Cronos companies valuable. “They are IT experts themselves. They give tips and can show you the way based on what they know, or tools they would use.” In addition to experience and knowledge, Geurts hopes to make connections with companies and people at the hackathon, including with a view to an internship.
Whether that is with the Cronos Group or not does not matter so much. Deroost: “Some students end up within the group, others with customers or other companies.” The hackathon should mainly support the students and additionally profile Cronos as an interesting party.
More than Pure IT
That profiling remains relevant, also towards potential customers. The hackathon therefore takes place over two days. After the first day for IT professionals, there is a second day for students from more creative fields such as marketing, provided there is of course an IT hook to their field.
“We don’t come out with our own marketing relatively often, but we can offer more than customers think,” says Deroost. CEO Sam Bamburst joins the table at that moment and adds: “We have more than a hundred people walking around in digital marketing. I recently heard from a customer where we are carrying out a large ERP implementation that they didn’t even know that we also work with websites.”
Geurts is now ready and heads to the event. He hasn’t won yet, but that doesn’t matter so much. He will probably be here again next year: “It’s just fun. There are always better IT professionals around, but that’s okay. Moreover, I can present well, and that is also necessary here. Such soft skills are also very important.”
Future in the Benelux
Whether he can work at a Cronos company after his fourth passage next year, the future will tell. In any case, Deroost and Bamburst are optimistic about that future. The specialization, continuous innovation and local anchoring of the Cronos group will remain an asset.
“And not only in Belgium,” concludes Deroost. “We are going to invest in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. It is really important for us to become a Benelux player.”
In the series ‘ICT in Belgium’, we focus on local, Belgian players in the sector. Want to discover more Belgian specialists? Here you can find all the interviews from the series.