João Dias, Transformation Director at Novobanco, will speak at the Reinvent Forum Vienna 2025 (13–15 May 2025) to present the Portuguese bank’s cutting-edge digital transformation strategies that enhance customer experience, streamline operations, and drive innovation in financial services. But before that, he speaks with Qorus’ Boris Plantier about his journey and shares some advice for succeeding in the financial services industry.
Please tell us a little bit about your background.
I studied economics in Oporto and obtained my MBA from INSEAD in Singapore. My first career was with McKinsey, where I was for 17 years, mostly serving financial institutions across Europe. In 2018 I joined Novobanco as Chief Digital Officer; currently, I serve as the Transformation Director, and I orchestrate Novobanco's transformation agenda and delivery across the whole organization.
What does your workplace look like?
Our workplace embraces a modern and flexible environment. We have a free seating policy, allowing team members to choose where they work each day, fostering collaboration and creativity. Desks are kept clean and organized. Mine is just equipped with my PC and a paper notebook.
Could you describe your usual working day?
I wake up early at 5 am to do sports, which helps me start the day with energy and focus. After my workout, I help prepare the kids for school and leave home at 7:30 am. My day is generally structured in chunks of time – blocks of meetings, alone time to focus on strategic thinking, or unstructured time to meet people or catch up on emails. I make it a point to leave the office before 7 pm to have dinner with my family and avoid any evening work, which helps me maintain a reasonable work-life balance.
What is your favorite food?
I probably shouldn’t say it (because Portuguese food is really good), but (good) Italian food is probably my favorite. And I particularly like to cook it! I was lucky to study with Italian colleagues when I was in university and learned to cook some ‘proper’, home-made Italian food and have kept working on it since.
What do you do when you need a break from work?
When I need a break from work, I usually engage in activities that help me unwind and recharge. I enjoy running, as it allows me to clear my mind and stay fit. Reading is another favorite pastime, particularly non-fiction (biographies, science, history). Additionally, travelling is a passion of mine. It allows me to spend focused time with my family, exploring new places and cultures – building common memories.
What is the key to building a successful team?
My experience led me to this three-part recipe: diversity, clarity of expectations, and a healthy combination of psychological safety with ambition. The first key to building a successful team lies in embracing diversity, which includes having various skillsets, different backgrounds, and, specially, complementary strengths. It is equally important to provide clarity on objectives and expected behaviors – i.e., ensure that the team defines clearly its own norms and goals to abide by and stride for. Finally, creating an environment of true psychological safety, coupled with high ambition and drive, is essential for fostering collaboration, innovation, and overall performance.
There is a saying that we learn more from failure than success. Tell me about one of your failures and what you have learned from it.
One of the earliest initiatives we drove in Novobanco was to reinvent SME lending – a radically new journey to provide loans/credit facilities to SME customers in a fast and efficient way. The project ended up failing because it did not get buy-in from the commercial network and the solution was rejected by the users. This was a formative experience with several learnings. To name three key learnings: 1) we need to be much clearer about the 'why' of the project; 2) we should test key premises much earlier, with really ‘minimum’ MVPs to experiment and iterate; and 3) we need to invest much more on change management to get commitment from all stakeholders early in the process.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to succeed in financial services?
I’d give two types of advice: generic (across industries) and specific (to financial services). As generic advice I would focus on taking accountability, thinking like an owner or CEO, engaging deeply with the organization, its people and its purpose. At this time, I don’t know any truly successful leader that is disengaged or siloed in their thinking. Specifically, in financial services, I would advise people to (re)think strategically and embrace change. The pace of change is only accelerating in financial services and most people are not grasping it nor adapting to it. Being able to embrace change and speed-up to the front of the market is the strongest characteristic of successful financial institutions. Finally, a word of advice to anyone who wants to be successful at anything: focus! We live in an era of distraction. Thus, to be able to focus and be present and engaged with the people around us is becoming rare. As we become more aware of the costs of distraction, we will be appreciating focus as a super-power, and institutions and society will reward that ever more.
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