Podcast
Manuel Dias has 30 years of making things happen in private sector companies. He replaced the technological direction of Microsoft with the State machine, to lead the digital transformation of Public Administration. He admits the ‘shock’ of the clash, but believes that it is possible to successfully carry out the mission. The president of the Agency for State Technological Reform is the guest on this episode of the podcast “The CEO is the limit”
When, at the end of last year, he agreed to leave Microsoft to assume the technological leadership of the Portuguese State, Manuel Dias I knew I was exchanging the speed and execution capacity of the private sector for a much more complex context. Still, he admits that there was an initial shock: “The State bureaucracy surprised me.” The president of ARTE – State Agency for Technological Reform, recalls that he comes from “a 30-year culture in the private sector, where bidding issues are not the main obstacle, where agility is an important point”. And he acknowledges what has crossed his mind several times since he took office: “I have sometimes thought that this in private could be resolved in weeks”.
Son of an Alentejo family “without great possessions”, Manuel Dias describes himself as someone who is not very theoretical and deeply oriented towards execution. “My eyes light up when I see things happen,” he says. Throughout his career – in companies such as EFACEC, OutSystems and Microsoft – he shaped a vision of leadership based on proximity and valuing teams. “Success belongs to the team, not just to the leader”, he points out, arguing that a leader does not need to be the best technician, but must know how to surround himself with more intelligent people and diverse profiles. “I am a member of the teams I lead”, he summarizes.
Currently heading the ART and the technological strategy of the Public Administration, Manuel Dias believes that the transformation of the State will not happen only with technology. “There is a lot to reform besides technology”, he emphasizes, pointing out legal, labor and structural limitations that condition the Public Administration’s capacity for change. In his view, the biggest obstacles continue to be “the bidding process and the qualification of people”. And he leaves a warning: “State reform is much more than technological reform”.
The State’s technological director defends a Public Administration that is simpler, more agile, more data-driven and more open to experimentation. “There should be much more space in public companies for error, for innovation and experimentation”, he highlights. Despite his commitment to artificial intelligence and automation, he rejects the idea of a State completely given over to algorithms. “Decisions where the risk of error is very low can be automated. Others must have a human at the end of the decision.” Because, for Manuel Dias, transforming the State does not just mean digitizing processes, it means changing the way the State itself thinks, decides and executes.
The CEO Is the Limit is Express’s leadership and career podcast. Every week, journalist Cátia Mateus shows who the Portuguese managers who marked the past, those who direct today and those who promise to shape the future are, how they started and what they did to reach the top. Inspiring stories, told in the first person, by those who dare to make things happen.
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