Podcast interview (May 26, 2025) where Ben Morton and guest Frank Mattes discuss hiring strategies to scale IT and create innovation within large corporations. Frank emphasizes that many firms are lean and focused on efficiency, which limits internal innovation; he recommends using interim/freelance experts (3–12 month engagements) and creating startup-like entrepreneurial spaces inside the company. Key candidate traits highlighted: growth mindset, entrepreneurial drive, technical depth (T- or V-shaped skills), willingness to go the extra mile, and the ability to look beyond current business-model limits.
Chapters
So I guess here's the million dollar question that every CEO is like desperate for me to answer. They're listening rather than saying, Ben, ask this question like where do they find these people? Like if you're that MD or CEO that's looking to seriously scale in IT within the corporate context, where do you go looking for those people? And are there particular traits or previous experiences that you should be looking for in their cv?
Sure. I mean many companies as I see are really running very lean these days, right? So they have a narrow focus, efficiency, productivity. So there's not much bandwidth to do innovation here. Let's be right. So if the ambition is or the need is to create new growth outside of the box, it might be really a point to ponder, to think about where in these critical interfaces additional resources should be built up in here. But one option that is often overlooked in here is in my few interim resources. Okay, yeah, we have large pools of experts or managerial types of people that you can build in on a time based basis, right. Someone that ran the manufacturing operation operations at a different company and is now working at a freelancer, why don't you hire him or her for 3, 612 months, right. To make that bridge into the industrial logic, One of the key things that you also need to solve is how to create a kind of startup like entrepreneurial space for these people who want to scale up the new inside the corporate context. And it turns out that this only works if you have the right people in the relevant functions. Right. Those 4, 6 12% that I was speaking about, the interesting point that I observe is when the call goes out, we need people like that who are interested in that these people show up. And if we look at these people, well, they have a growth mindset, they see the opportunity, they have a certain entrepreneurial drive, right. So they want to go the extra mile, burn the midnight oil because they believe it's the future. At the same time, do have a strong eye in the eye shaped personal model, if you will. Personality model. Right. They do know their stuff. And they also have a big horizontal bar which makes them T shaped or what I just learned the other day. There's also V shaped people, right? So they're deeply rooted in the functions. But look beyond the limitations, the deliberate limitations of the business and operating model.
More from Ben
PodcastHow to Make People Feel Heard — Without Saying a Word