#50: Matt Symes on confronting change – and why every business must embrace A

Serial entrepreneur Matt Symes (BA'04/BEd'04) is an expert on helping leaders confront change and develop sound strategies to navigate through uncertain times. As founding partner and CEO of Symplicity Designs, based in Atlantic Canada, he and his team have helped over 500 organizations and institutions both scale and recover from some of their darkest moments.  

In addition to Symplicity Designs, Matt also manages a portfolio of companies of which he holds a majority or minority stake, in a range of industries. He was named Business Leader of the Year in 2020 from the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and one of Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEOs in 2022 and 2023 by Atlantic Business Magazine. Matt goes out of his way to embrace leading-edge environmentally sustainable practices at his companies, no matter how much effort and resources are required. He believes in stoicism – that we all have 100 percent control over our mindset. With that frame of mind, it’s possible to do almost anything, and he enjoys solving complex problems. 

Hosts Kayla Ossachuk (BA’15) and Andrew Martel (BCS’15) chat with Matt about embracing change, planning for the future, and, in particular, how to adopt AI for efficiency and growth. 

Highlights from the episode:   

• The issues that leaders are currently grappling with and what they are looking to in the future 

• How disruptions – in particular AI - are massively uprooting how we create value 

• How fast the world is now changing for business and lives 

• The areas that business leaders need to lean into AI, and how to integrate and benefit from it 

• Looking at the challenge of AI from impact and looking back through to the people who use it and benefit from it – and how leaders can do this with their people, not to them. 

• How we can personally look forward and navigate learning and building a career around AI and other changes 

Links and resources:   

• Matt’s LinkedIn 

• Symplicity Designs 

• Nexus, by Yuval Noah Harari 

Thanks to:   

• Our alumni hosts Kayla Ossachuk (BA’15) and Andrew Martel (BCS’15) 

• Music by alumni artist, Beats of Burden  

• Our alumni Affinity Partners, TD Insurance and Manulife 

  To listen to past episodes of UNBeknownst and for more info on the podcast, the hosts and how to subscribe to new episode alerts, visit our website.