
Thierry Marchandise
Manager at Canon
“There is so much to learn out the story Pierre is sharing with us. You immediately want to share it yourself with your relatives, friends & colleagues.”

Michel BageinStartup in development
“The book reveals with sincerity the story of its author who founded his start-up and raised it to the top OCR systems in the world. The bible for (future) entrepreneurial minds, from 7 to 77 years old.”

Gérard ConstantIndependent Director
“Because entrepreneurship is often based on simple principles, because all too often books excessively complicate these steps, we forget that... That is why you have to read and re-read this book!”
From an University Spin-off to a 9-Figures Business
Pierre de Muelenaere is the Founder of IRIS Group, a company with more than 550 employees and a 110 million € in revenue.
After a few years of preparation, Pierre De Muelenaere founded the belgian company IRIS in 1987, to commercialize the results of his PhD. Since then, and for 33 years in a row, Pierre was leading IRIS through all development steps, from a university spin-off to a listed company and finally for its integration into Canon.
Here is a quick introduction of Pierre De Muelenaere with his talk about successful innovation.

The Travel Guide inspired by The IRIS Story
Becoming an entrepreneur is a very intense and exciting adventure ! An Entrepreneur may discover new “territories”, never seen before… In my case, I have been on this IRIS journey for 33 years ! This is a reason good enough to spend some time on some sort of “Travel Guide of Entrepreneurship” retracing the key-learnings of my journey. All of this is structured in 5 important aspects every entrepreneurs should pay attention to.
Written by a “normal Entrepreneur”
Nowadays most of the book based on a biography relate to the “stars of the business”, who somehow limit their practical use for the more “classical” entrepreneurs. There are indeed very few Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Marc Zuckerberg or Albert Frère in this world and most businesses are not comparable to these formidable success stories. My feeling was that a book, written by a “normal Entrepreneur”, who has “only” created a mid-size technology company (but still rather successful and an international leader) could be closer to most of our Entrepreneurs.


For young to confirmed Entrepreneurs
This book is presented in an organized and pedagogic way to make sure each one of you could easily dive in directly and read the section which is currently the most interesting to you. So whether you are a young entrepreneur, innovator or a confirmed entrepreneur, manager, professor in entrepreneurship, this book will suit you perfectly !

"This book is not simply a faithful and exciting account of the IRIS adventure by its creator and developer. Above all, it is a magnificent testimony to the entrepreneurial spirit and an extremely practical guide for all those who wish to create a company, and to survive and prosper in the business jungle."
Eric Domb – Founder, Chairman & CEO Pairi Daiza
6-Key concepts of the IRIS book
Each topic is divided in different sections that relate to a specific question or subject. The reader can select a section of interest from the Table of orientation and access it directly to learn more on that subject.

Overview & Key Concepts
Chapter 1 - Phases of development of the IRIS project
Chapter 2 - IRIS Key facts

Strategy & Management
Chapter 3-10 Key Questions & Lessons Learned

Technology & Innovation
Chapter 4-5 Innovations for Technological Leadership !

Partnership & Culture
Chapter 5-10 Companies & Organizations that speed IRIS

Disruption & Crisis
Chapter 6 IRIS & the Dark Side of the Business

Fun & People
Chapter 7 Just for fun... Around the world
Straight to the point, only real-life and practical advice
33 years of real-life experience shared in 474 full-color pages and 642 pictures or cartoons. The original format allows an easy selection of the subject matter and proposes many pictures and cartoons to make it accessible to a wide audience, especially to the new generation.

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The Author
Pierre De Muelenaere, Author of the IRIS Book, Founder, Past President & CEO, IRIS Group
“When I was young, I had the chance to create my own company based on the results of my PhD Thesis. The company was born as a spin-off of the Université Catholique de Louvain. This company has become over time one of the biggest Belgian success story in the field of Computer science technology.”
“I have led this project for 33 years and when I finally decided to leave IRIS at the end of 2015, I wanted to go back to my first loves which are Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Education, to help young people in their own projects.
For instance, I had the chance to join the Yncubator of the UCL in Louvain-La-Neuve, where we are coaching 40 projects of students-entrepreneurs and the QBIC fund based in Ghent”

