The art of pattern recognition: Darren Roos of IFS
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What early experiences shaped Darren Roos’s leadership style?
you've been through multiple economic downturns and interest rate fluctuations, um and, you know, uh wars and all of the things that happen when you've been doing this for twenty five years. Um, which is how long I've been doing it. Um and so so, you know, I've I've seen what happens. I've s uh you know, I've been through these things. I know what the cycle looks like. I know, you know, I know what we can what we have to pull back on. I know what we have to power through. I know what we can, you know, what what what what is okay to do in these situations, but I only know it because I made the mistakes before.
Welcome to Orbit, the HG podcast series, where we speak to leaders from across the tech ecosystem to hear how they've built and scaled some of the most successful software companies in the world.
Hi, I'm Nick Humphries. I'm the senior partner of HG, and I'm delighted to be joined today by Darren Roos, the chairman and previously the chief executive of IFS. So Darren. A South African, who's the chairman and chief executive previously of a Swedish company. Yep. Um we both know that different countries have different cultures. Any particular kind of culture clashes or other similar things you had to deal with as uh as part of that introduction of the company?
I think one of the things about uh being a first time CEO is that you do get to um I guess hit the reset button and reinvent yourself a little bit. Um and it's uh it's something that I definitely took the opportunity to do coming into IFS, you know, coming out of my previous role where I ran the global ERP business at SAP. I think I was probably um a little bit more South African, a bit more direct. What do you mean? Um yeah. I'm I'm mellowed now. Um but uh you know coming into to IFS, you're right, you know, uh Swedish, very uh consensus-driven uh culture. Um that was how the business had been run in the past. Um but it required a significant amount of change. And I think uh what I was able to do um was was moderate, I guess, the the way I I naturally would have been, being South African and very direct.
uh but coming into an environment where I recognized very quickly that I was gonna have to kind of win the hearts and minds of people to take them on the transformation journey that we were going on. Um so, you know, adapted my style so that there was a a lot of communication, constant communication. Uh I learned early on and I think about those those early days at IFS where um there was a a lot of frustration uh for me in in in how many times I had to repeat the same message. Um and and now I kind of take it for granted and, you know, go on transformation journeys with other businesses and recognize that in those early days they do need to hear it a lot. Um but I think that the the fact that I you know, being South African I was very direct and I wasn't trying to kind of flower any of the messages that I was giving it to people with a level of authenticity and directness.
Um Um that meant it was unambiguous. They just had to hear it over and over again. Um but that definitely helped and you know, very quickly the business kinda rallied around that that clarity and and directness. So it it ended up working well.
Is there any like particular tips or tricks, you know, is there you know, town halls that you use, is there ways in which you try and kind of communicate messages, is there any very practical things that you say, look, I've found that this particular technique or this way of communication has been more effective for me in that environment?
Yeah. So I think the the the town halls definitely work and I think uh you know, a few things about the town halls. Um at at IFS we we use Facebook Workplace, which they're gonna end of life soon. So I I can't recommend anybody uses that. Um but we used Facebook Workplace and then we would live stream on Facebook Workplace and I would take the questions um live directly, uh unfiltered and and everybody could see the everybody could see the the c the questions coming through.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What early experiences shaped Darren Roos’s leadership style?
0:03–5:27
2
How did Darren adapt to Swedish corporate culture as a South African CEO?
5:27–17:18
3
What communication tactics (town halls, Q&A) does Darren use to drive transformation?
17:18–31:54
4
How does Darren’s pattern‑recognition mindset help him diagnose business problems?
31:54–36:45
5
What lessons did Darren learn from his early tractor‑driver days and early career failures?
36:45–38:53
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