8 Insights from Tech Leaders Öresund #006: When Technology Meets Business, Architecture, and Chaos

How do we build relevant architectures? How do our organizations mirror our systems? And how can mistakes become a strength? These were some of the questions discussed when IT decision-makers from across the Öresund region gathered to talk about software architecture, organizational design, and what actually creates value in a complex everyday environment. On March 20, 2025, we explored these topics at the sixth edition of Tech Leaders.

The evening’s speakers were Martin Mazur (entrepreneur and organizational coach), Henrik Sällman (CEO of Reeinvent), and Lars Larsson, Field CTO at Elastisys.

Here are the 8 most important insights, and what you as an IT leader can take with you.

Henrik Sällman reminded us of something many engineers forget: customers don’t care how beautiful the code is, only that the solution works. Technical teams that understand the real needs of the business build better products, faster.

💡 Tip: Create internal forums where developers and the business side regularly share context. For example, cross-functional strategy meetings every quarter.

2. Build Translators — Not Only Specialists

A recurring theme during the discussions was the importance of having someone in every team who can “translate” between technology and business. It’s not about simplifying, it’s about communicating at the right level.

💡 Tip: Identify key people who have both technical depth and business understanding, and give them the mandate to act as bridges.

A common trap, especially in technical teams, is the desire to plan everything in advance. But as Henrik pointed out, business teams often must act on incomplete and rapidly changing information, while technical teams prefer to predict and control. This difference in working styles often creates friction.

💡 Tip: Prioritize infrastructure and workflows that support quick iterations and controlled risk, instead of heavy up-front planning.

Martin Mazur illustrated Conway’s Law in a way that resonated with many: our systems tend to mirror how we communicate, not how we want them to work. This means that organizational structure is not a side issue, it’s a design concern.

💡 Tip: Before making major architectural decisions, examine team structures, communication paths, and decision-making responsibilities. That’s where real change begins.

“We’re making a chocolate cake” vs. “We want something for the coffee break” — Mazur’s metaphor for Goal-Oriented vs. Goal-Seeking thinking captured the core issue: too much focus on detailed planning kills creativity. If we want to develop rather than just maintain, we must think differently.

💡 Tip: Allow some teams to work more vision-driven, where the goal is direction rather than a fixed deliverable. Combine this with clear learning loops.

Lars Larsson explained that traditional testing often misses real-world failures. By introducing controlled disruptions in production, we can build systems that learn from reality, not just theory.

💡 Tip: Start small! Simulate a network outage or a CPU spike. Observe what happens, analyze, improve. Resilience is built through iteration.

A powerful quote from the event:
“We validate what we think might go wrong — but the real failures are usually the ones we didn’t expect.”
Building robustness means expecting errors without allowing collapse. This creates safety, learning, and ultimately greater innovation.

💡 Tip: For team culture: reward identifying weaknesses, not only delivery. Security and resilience shouldn’t only happen “after the fact.”

Lars ended the evening with a clear message: resilience is a strategic advantage. It enables scaling, experimentation, and courage. Organizations that think this way don’t just build better systems, they build stronger people.

💡 Tip: Put resilience on the leadership agenda. It’s not only an operations issue, it’s part of your business strategy.

At Elastisys, we help organizations build secure, scalable, and resilient application platforms, with Kubernetes at the core. We combine deep technical expertise with experience from regulated environments to enable innovation without compromising on security or compliance.

🔗 Want to know more? Reach us at sales@elastisys.com.