From underdog start-up to industry leader, 40 years of strategic choices, innovative breakthroughs, and bold choices revealed. Lessons Learned of ASML traces the journey from an underdog start-up to the dominant supplier in a volatile Tech industry. Built on interviews, internal notes and archives, it reconstructs the managerial choices-how ambitions were set, investments staged, partnerships orchestrated, technologies chosen, and setbacks absorbed-and tests them across four decades. Each chapter applies a clear analytical lens and brief reflection prompts, bringing strategy, innovation and ecosystem coordination into one readable, evidence-driven narrative that opens theory for practice without pretending there is a universal recipe. AUTHORS: Susanne van der Velden is an independent strategist and researcher focused on how organisations build and sustain innovation under uncertainty. She worked as a consultant and founder on organisational-learning software, then held leadership at FME (Smart Industry & AI) and digitalisation for Royal Heijmans' residential business. She obtained her PhD at Tilburg University and currently serves on the board of VNO-NCW Brabant Zeeland. Mohammad N. Nasiri is Assistant Professor of Strategy at the University of Amsterdam Business School, specialising in inter-organisational collaboration and innovation ecosystems. His research spans R&D alliances, consortia, and standard-setting, and he was UvA's Lecturer of the Year in 2022. He holds a PhD from Tilburg University. SELLING POINTS: . Reveals the exclusive inside story of Tech company ASML, shows how a joint venture became the key supplier of leading-edge lithography in a volatile, strategic industry . Unpacks the mechanisms-decision logic, partner orchestration, and the long shadow of early choices-in a holistic, long-run view . Closely told: rigor tough without jargon, translated into clear, usable insights 20 colour illustrations
