In this episode, the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard is joined by Hermann Haraldsson, co-founder and CEO of Boozt. The conversation is about building the most profitable online shop in the Nordics, the company’s investments in technology and leading with freedom and responsibility.
Hermann opens the conversation by describing himself as a kind and decent man who cares about behaving properly and looking after the people closest to him. He also describes himself as disciplined, ambitious and competitive, qualities he has brought into business and into building Boozt.com.
How Boozt became the most profitable online shop in the Nordics
Hermann talks about the journey from taking over a sinking ship to having built the most profitable online shop in the Nordics. After being fired from Brøndby, he wanted to join a small company in the digital industry where he could be a co-owner. A hopeless project in Malmö turned out to be the start of something big. The team behind Boozt chose to build its own platform so it would have 100 per cent control, and the goal became an online version of Magasin, the Danish department store. According to Hermann, Magasin wasn’t convinced by the digital world back then, so the team behind Boozt saw their chance to create an online department store.
According to Hermann, Boozt started out as a tech business that did fashion. Today it’s half tech, half e-commerce. Hermann explains that the team behind Boozt quickly realised they had to use technology to solve their problems and get 100 per cent control. Today they have built their own ecosystem, taken control of the vertical value chain and invested DKK 1 billion in an automated robot warehouse that gives them an efficient workforce.
Care-why culture and freedom with responsibility
At Boozt, they have built a company culture of freedom with responsibility. According to Hermann, that means employees can choose when and where they work, and how many days of holiday they need. But it matters to Hermann that the team also comes into the office, because a team can only be built together.
The culture at Boozt is built on three words: freedom, trust and responsibility. According to Hermann, the care-why culture is the final step in a new employee’s onboarding. For Hermann, care-why means that everyone on the team shares ownership of things and treats each other as equals, whatever their position.
1,300 people of 60 different nationalities
The conversation about company culture leads us on to Hermann’s work as a leader and CEO of 1,300 people of 60 different nationalities. For him, the hardest part of being a leader is accepting that he can’t do it all himself. His most important role is to be the ship’s engineer and create the right conditions for his people to perform.
Hermann says there’s a big difference between Swedish and Danish work culture, which is why he’s glad of the 60 different nationalities that make for a good balance. On his leadership style, Hermann says he tries to be the same person he’s always been. What drives him is depending on a team and being able to trust that agreements are kept. Hermann explains that at Boozt there’s room to fail, because everyone fails, but everyone is expected to pull together and work towards the common good.