Matias Pollmann-Larsen is a transformation and large-scale change expert at Boston Consulting Group, and part of the Nordic leadership for social impact. Matias has led a number of large scale transformations across industries and is an expert on how organisations can transform with purpose, through a total societal impact lens. He leads BCG’s social impact work in Copenhagen and leads the team in charge of the Gender Diversity Roundtable initiative.
Do you think failure is important for an organisation to succeed?
Failure is a powerful tool for learning. Being able to systematically address failures and learning from that can get you to a very rewarding learning curve. The key is to be able to break down successes and failures in smaller instances, enabling you to keep learning from the small things, while being able to maintain a successful trajectory. Colleagues and mentors can help you in your successes, and highlight what to improve from your failures. The culture that underpins this is dual: one where is usual to challenge with hard-to-achieve goals (yet not impossible), and one based on feedback, to coach and develop you along the way.
How do you relate to "don't hire for skills, hire for attitude"? And if it should be both, what's the percentage distribution in your opinion?
You can learn both skills and attitude with hard work. Hiring for mindset can be more powerful. Skills and attitude are important but, are nonetheless things you must master to succeed: when you codify which recipe of skills and attitude you need to succeed, you will be able to develop on those dimensions. But if you do not have the right mindset to learn these, you won't. The right mindset will drive your learning, your commitment, your perseverance in learning skills and mould your attitude.
Do you 'walk the talk' when advising organisations?
Integrity is at the top of my agenda – my work is to bring the best to organisations, and you need to build fundamental trust, which is impossible without integrity. Most times, though, what I partner with clients on are very specific challenges and opportunities that are inherently specific to the organisation.
How can businesses make themselves more resilient when a sudden societal crisis arises?
The basis of competitive advantage has been shifting. The combination of technology-fueled change, the rise of new learning technologies, and declining long-term growth rates, which require accelerated innovation, calls for companies to compete on their rate of learning. COVID-19 has made every organisation aware of the limits of its ability to learn quickly in an extremely fast-moving environment. Companies can build resilience through redundancy (buffers), diversity, modularity, prudence, adaptivity, and "social embeddedness."
In 25 words or less, why does diversity matter?
Diversity in ways of thinking allows for generating superior outcomes. It's a value imperative for everyone, and a business imperative for organisations to master.
