At the end of April, Mats Rahmström will embark on a new journey of adventures, and we have taken the chance to discuss a few things with him before he leaves. In the latest episode of the Atlas Copco Group People Podcast, Cecilia Sandberg, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, had the opportunity to talk to Mats and hear him reflect on his extensive experience, what he has learned during his tenure as CEO, and what his future endeavors will look like.

We are going to dive into seven fabulous years for the Group under Mats' leadership. What is the first word that comes to his mind if we ask him to summarize his tenure as CEO of the Group? What achievements or milestones is he most proud of? What personal values does Mats rely on when leading through difficult times, and what aspects of the job will he miss the most?

Join us and get inspiration from Mats' journey as CEO of the Atlas Copco Group.

Listen to the episode

Get updates from upcoming episodes and engage in the ongoing conversation on Atlas Copco Group's LinkedIn.

At Atlas Copco we strive to be

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the most attractive industrial company

in our segments and target markets.

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Our strong culture of innovation

is a result of having great people on board,

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committed and encouraged to grow

and reach their full potential

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With the belief

that passionate people makes a difference,

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the people podcast is one channel

where we get to explore and deep dive into topics

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within people and culture.

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For those of you who listen

to our previous episodes, welcome back.

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We released new episodes

on a quarterly basis

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and the program today is our 15th release.

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So I'm Cecilia Sandberg, Head of HR

for the Atlas Copco Group.

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And today I have the privilege to have our CEO for the Group,

Mats Rahmström joining.

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At the end of April Mats is on a new journey of adventures,

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and I wanted to take the chance to bounce

a few things with him before he leaves.

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Our topic

today will be in the mind of our CEO Mats.

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We will have the opportunity to hear him

reflect on his extensive experience.

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What has he learned

during his tenure as the CEO

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and how will his future endeavors

look like?

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Please join us.

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[ Music ]

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Well Mats, most welcome.

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Thank you, Cecilia.

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So today we're going to take a dive

into seven fabulous years

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for the group under your leadership.

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So what is the first word

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that comes to mind if I ask you

to summarize your tenure as a CEO?

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I think that's an easy question.

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It should be an easy answer as well.

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I mean, I've done nine different jobs

over the last 35 years.

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And what really stands out, I think it's

the great people, great products.

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And I also love

the performance culture in the company.

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So this is sort of a fabulous journey

with fantastic for 35 years.

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Why don't we take a step back then

and look into your years as a CEO?

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And I'm eager to learn

what really stands out for you.

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Could you elaborate a bit

on what achievements or milestones

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you're most proud of during your tenure

as a CEO?

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I mean, there are a lot of things

that I'm proud of, people that worked with

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the things that we have done

but as the CEO,

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You have to realize that

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the end of the day, you are measured

by the financial results of the group

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and those being fabulous.

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It's been a fantastic year.

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So thanks to all the people out there

that helped out with that.

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And I think that's

what really, really stands out and

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I think I'm even more proud

about what they leave behind.

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Because that's where we started we are going to leave

something behind that's even better.

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And I know

that we have such a good position now

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in many segments,

and one of them being clean technologies.

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And I think, I'm going to keep my shares.

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Good.

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So support the group.

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One other thing that I think stands out

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was last year's celebration on the 150 years

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and I knew

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starting that planning

it was a lot of discussion.

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How should we celebrate our history?

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We did celebrate the history,

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but I think the main focus

was on the coming 150 years

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and all the things that we had planned

and to make this company,

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you know, vital and interesting

for employees and customers

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for another 150 years.

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And I think that was

really, really interesting.

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But I think I agree with you.

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I think we have great opportunities

ahead of us as a group as well. So

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I think also lately we have also faced

some significant challenges.

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I mean, COVID, just to mention one.

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Tell us a bit on your thinking

in relation to challenges

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and how to navigate to overcome them.

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No, about us, this

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challenge is always

an opportunity as well.

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Sometimes it takes a little bit of time

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to detect what it is

and how to handle things.

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And for me, the greatest challenge right now

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is the environment on our planet.

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And I think that it started off

as a threat.

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Then we took a load of educational

to understand what this was about with you

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and the management team

and the division pressed them,

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to make it available

for everyone in the digital way as well.

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So, I mean, I'm so proud that we have now

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signed up for the science

based targets

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and we are working

so hard to find solutions.

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And I think the complete organization

should be proud of that.

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And I think we should really, you know,

spread that message and how we can help.

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And it's also positive for business,

which is really, really good as well.

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One of the passions that we share,

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you and me, is actually around leadership

and the importance of leaders

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demonstrating behaviors

aligned with our company values.

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When you reflect on your own

leadership journey, what key lessons

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have you learned about leading such a

successful global industrial tech company?

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Know the word that comes to mind

first is trust.

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To work with people that I trust.

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And I think in the beginning of my career,

I would say

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everyone was saying

you had to earn my trust.

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That's fair.

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But I think I start in another way.

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This time it's more like I have faith in

you and I believe in you.

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That's why I hired you.

That's why I want to work with you.

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And I think in that way,

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I think you empower people,

you know, greatness and full potential.

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So for me, that has been a much better way

than waiting for the trust to build.

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Yes, I believe in you.

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I think it's

just a good start or something.

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And I also really am proud

that we welcome people to our group

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should be an inclusive culture of gender.

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Culture, religion,

and everyone should have the opportunity

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to reach their full potential

and have a professional career.

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And I think that's been something

that we've been really pushing,

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and I think we are a little bit

of a counterbalance to

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what this is going

on in society as well today.

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And it's difficult to, of course,

accomplish anything.

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I mean, without great people,

passion and competence and that drive,

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I don't think we doesn't matter

if we have good strategy.

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I think that what it takes and

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I mean, if you're fully invested

and committed to something,

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I think that is you always get paid,

but you don't know the currency.

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It might be that you get a new job,

it might be that you get a new friend

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and you experience or new knowledge.

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But it's a much more interesting life.

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So if you start with something

go all in and say yes to an opportunity,

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I think that is it's

a very interesting route to take.

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Okay. We hear you. Great.

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Well, if we move on,

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then in relation to innovation

being one of our values and we always talk

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or often talk about the importance

of being close to our customers,

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to be able to develop workplace solutions

to create that customer value.

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So how do we manage to nurture, grow

and culture of innovation

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within the organization?

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No, but I think the only way to be resilient

and sustainable over time

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is to increase the tangible value

for our customers.

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I mean, you can do a lot of other things,

but the end game

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is always to the customer's benefit

from what we do,

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how we interact with them,

what products, what services.

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And I think that's that's absolutely key.

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And then we cannot just innovate for us.

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And the same thing

that we need to innovate for customers.

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There's a lot of interesting technologies

and new trends,

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but if it doesn't help our customer,

then we cannot.

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We need to find the path

to generating tangible value.

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And I think that has been I know

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during my time we have increased

the R&D spend in both processes.

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Innovation in processes and in R&D.

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We have never spent more money

than we do now,

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and that is

because I believe in our own people

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and I believe that we should have people

that has that power of innovation.

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So innovation

for me, at the end of the day,

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it's also a people game,

but you balance, you need to take risk,

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but it needs to be balanced versus

just the opportunity.

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But without risk, there's no success.

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So I think you need to find that

same thing there.

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You need to believe in the people

that, okay, we need this innovation.

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We need to do something together here.

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We talked about how challenges

can become opportunities

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and how you have an opportunity

to learn and grow from them.

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And could you share a specific challenge

that stands out to you

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and the personal lessons you gained from navigating through it

during your tenure as a CEO?

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No, but when I

when I was offered the position,

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of course, I had never been the CEO

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at the time, but I was willing to learn.

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I was willing to commit

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to something different.

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And maybe that's an encouragement

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that every time you take a step

in your career, you don't know everything.

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But if you're willing to commit and if you

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if you're not willing to commit,

why complained about the outcome?

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So I think it's important then to commit

and do your absolute best.

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I have always been tough

on myself and actually tough on people.

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You know, that that worked for me as well,

being quite challenging.

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And I think that we have seen

sometimes we talk about mistakes,

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but the last two years

I think that I've learned that mistakes, it's more of experience.

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And if you see mistakes taking a risk,

you make mistakes.

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And that's an experience to learn.

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You're doomed to repeat them,

but you learn from them and move forward.

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Then maybe mistakes aren't dangerous.

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I mean, it's not.

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It's not the big thing.

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As long as you're transparent with it,

I don't think you should hide it.

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Be transparent. Learn.

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Move on.

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Then I think a mistake

could be experienced instead,

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which I think is a much better word.

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And I really like that

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Comment around mistakes, transforms

to experiences to learn from.

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If you reflect back on your time

in the role, are there any situations

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or decisions maybe that in hindsight

you wish you had approached differently?

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I believe we see patience, that's a good characteristic,

but I start to doubt that I see the,

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you know, patience

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might not be such a good characteristic

because we need more speed.

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People have more talent,

more opportunity to execute.

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If we challenge and ask, what resource

do you need to make this down?

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And if we want to stay competitive

over time

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and we need more speed,

that's absolutely clear.

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And what I regret

that is not when I acted.

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It's just that I've acted late.

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And that I've done several times.

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So for me, that's something.

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And I also think that leadership

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leadership today is not so

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much about myself

or you or any colleagues.

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It's more about getting the full potential

out of others.

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And I think that's a learning

and that we can make okay.

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That's my job. That's my real job.

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Otherwise, you become the bottleneck

in an organization.

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Well, let's continue on the path

of never Stop learning then

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and link it

then to your approach to leadership.

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What personal values do you rely on when

leading through difficult times, Mats?

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Yeah, it's a good question

because it feels

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like over the last few years

it's been a crisis mode.

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It's COVID, it's been conflict.

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There's a lot of things that

and I think we learned that

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me and my team,

there are eight people that reports to me,

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and I think everyone is willing and able

to lead from the front to show by example

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that we don't just expect others to do it,

we do it ourselves as well.

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And one of our key tasks

is actually to support the team

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that needs to take

the difficult decision decisions.

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And I think everyone looks at the leaders.

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This is what we expect of you as a leader,

that you are the one that needs to step up

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and take those decisions and bring,

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you know, act with force, act with speed,

but also with clarity

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so people feel okay, at least,

you know, it might not always be positive,

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but we know and you know what?

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There's so much

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uncertainty in the world today

and no one knows the outcome.

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But if we run different scenarios,

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the outcome might not be better

in the world or in an external world.

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But we know that we will be okay

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because we have plan

for how we're going to handle that.

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And if we are not going to get surprised,

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we can be quick

and we can respond in a very good way.

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So to run scenarios I think is a a talent

that we need to, I think are good at it.

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But I think we can do more on more levels.

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Probably need to

now in a very challenging world for sure.

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Yeah,

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I know that you have super interesting stuff

going on and opportunities ahead of you

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that will be fulfilling both from a personal

as well as a professional point of view.

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But I also know

you will miss us quite a bit.

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So could you share with us what aspects of the job

that you will miss the most?

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Well, it's

it's a true luxury and a privilege

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to be CEO,

especially for a group like Atlas Copco.

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There's so much respect for what we do

and how we do and everyone believe

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that there is some magic in there

and they like to do more of that.

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And it also gives you access

to a fantastic

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external network and internal network

that I've benefited from a lot.

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I think we learn every day from,

you know, the previous generation of people

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and the new generation

and the means to and challenge us.

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And I'm truly grateful for all of them

that have helped me

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to understand new opportunities, new risks

and whatever it might be.

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And I surely will miss that.

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And I love to brainstorm with people.

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We have an opportunity,

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we have something, and to come together

as a team to discuss something

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with competent and passionate people

I think brings a lot of energy.

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And so I will miss the people.

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I will miss those sessions. Of course.

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And you also asked what they will do.

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right now I am two

boards and I have accepted four more.

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So all in what I will be to start with,

at least on six different boards,

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and I hope we'll find new energy

and new interesting people to meet up.

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Absolutely! Great.

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Well, as announced, the Vagner will soon

take over as the new CEO for the group.

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And as you transition out of the role,

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what advice do you have for Vagner

as a successor?

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I mean, he's been truly

successful himself.

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I don't think you need much

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advice from me, but if he would ask,

I've been not pushed this, of course, but

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I think I learned a lot by being curious,

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surround myself with big, great people

and as we discussed

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earlier, saw them

create customers, value real values.

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So I think to take care of the things

we do well,

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but I only communicate

that to Vagner to say, Well,

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don't be afraid of change ,

but you need to change things

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because those are both the next level

that is expected now.

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So you need to change shifts.

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I had one advice from my uncle

when I was very young and he said to me,

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It's much better to fail

with your own ideas than someone else's.

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So stand up for what you believe in.

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And I think there's a lot there that you

we believe in something to go for it

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and stand by that a little bit.

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I think that's important.

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We're getting closer to that,

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believe it or not, Mats but,

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and here goes My final question then.

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What message do you want to send to

all employees in the group?

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That's not an easy question,

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but I have had 35 great years in the Group.

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It's been truly a rewarding to work

with people around the world,

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different cultures, different competencies,

and that has been the best for me.

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So best summarized,

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I think it's a big thank you

and for everyone, just stay amazing.

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Thank you so much, Mats.

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I've had the pleasure to work with you.

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We worked together for 15 years.

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It's been a fabulous journey,

a lot of challenges,

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a lot of opportunities,

a lot of learning, a lot of hard work.

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But I would say most important,

so much fun.

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So thanks for being a great

speaking partner.

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Always ready to challenge,

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but also giving a lot of freedom

to act and try new things.

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And maybe most important, knowing that

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you would always hold my back so much.

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So Mats, it's been a true pleasure.

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I wish you all the best for the future and

thank you so much for joining me today.

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Thank you for having me.

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And to listeners, thanks for tuning in

to another episode of our People podcast.

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Take care. And all the best.