Navigating Success: An Insightful Interview with Thomas Larsson
Could you introduce yourself and your role at Magle Group?
“My name is Thomas Larsson, and I am currently acting as head of the Magle Chemoswed Laboratories in Lund. Magle Chemoswed, and Magle PharmaCept are part of Magle Group. Before I came to Magle, I worked for 23 years at a global pharmaceutical product development company.
After that, in 2012, I was co-founder, and co-owner, of the startup of a small company. The company name was Adroit Science and it provided specialized services within the solid-state and material science areas for small, mid-size, and large international pharmaceutical companies. Then, in 2019 Magle Group purchased Adroit Science and since then, I have been here as a happy team member”.
Magle values, what aspect of the company’s values matches most with yours? And how is your role aligned with the Magle aspiration to make a positive impact?
At Magle we strive to do it right-first time. We wish to deliver on time and with a quality that makes a change in a positive direction related to the customer objectives. As a person myself, I wish to believe that I am proactive by nature and this philosophy helps to make things right from the beginning. I also have a genuine interest in people and in stakeholder perspectives. This should be a benefit in terms of engagement to understand the real needs of the customers.
In my role as a leader, I have the possibility to ensure that my team acts according to company values and we engage a lot in developing the critical knowledge that the customers need to reduce risks and identify opportunities, which in turn leads to lower development costs and a faster route from idea to final product”.
Looking ahead, what are your aspiration for both your team and the future contributions of Magle Group to our customers?
This is a short question that normally would require a long answer. Basically, there are three cornerstones that we focus on.
The most important one is to develop and to take care of our personnel. The company members should assess complementary and up-to-date strengths within the service areas that we are engaged in.
In addition, they should have fun at work, be in good balance with life, and always feel that they have confident management support. So that is the first part of the answer and then, secondly, we will continue to develop our management systems to enable optimized and streamlined working processes both within GMP and R&D CDMO service areas. And then finally, we will also align our skills to enable the best possible support for the development of Magle Group product pipeline based on biodegradable starch microspheres (DSM). For our company, the development of our pipeline is a great challenge, but it is also a great inspiration for me and all my colleagues”.
Let’s add a personal touch!
Could you share a fact about your experiences or interests that might surprise our audience?
“I Like birdwatching and earlier in life I have also made 27 parachute jumps. If we combine those separate activities, I may have an inner dream of being reborn as an eagle or something”.
Is there a piece of advice you’d like to share with young professionals aspiring to make their mark in the industry?
“Young professionals should never stop reading scientific literature. There is a lot of time to save by keeping up to date with scientific progress.
If you read a lot, you will train your ability to detect the useful parts in literature and filter off the less useful ones. In addition, always listen to and take time to discuss with mentors who have experience and proven success records, but always balance their advice against your ideas. Trust yourself, but also engage in collaborations, there is no contradiction in this. When I come to work in the morning, the best word I know is collaboration“.