Marco de Haas

About Marco de Haas

Marco is an entrepreneur, board advisor, and PhD in business administration. He is a co-founder of The Better Company, a spin-off from Erasmus University Rotterdam. With his team, he helps organizations align strategy, leadership, and culture – always evidence-based and always people-oriented.

His driving force: bridging the gaping gap between science and practice. “We know so much,” he says. “But surprisingly little of that trickles down to real application in practice.” It is his personal mission to ensure that knowledge does land in organizations – tangible, applicable, and with noticeable impact.

Leadership and organizational culture form the context in which his story comes to life. They are crucial, yet often unnecessarily made large and complex in organizations. “There is no reason to create cumbersome, massive programs,” he says. “Real impact is made by doing less – but doing the right things.” Intervening with surgical precision on the few factors that truly matter according to data – not according to opinion or conviction. Less is more.

That is the core of his message: sustainable change does not arise from doing more, but from looking smarter. The power of a scientifically validated employee survey is that it shows where the leverage lies – the places in the organization where relatively small behavioral changes will make a significant impact. In a time when time, energy, and attention are scarce, this is not a luxury, but a necessity. Sustainability begins with how you treat people and resources.

Marco speaks about leadership and culture in direct relation to themes such as inclusivity, diversity, psychological and social safety, vitality, growth mindset (learning organization), integrity, sustainability, engagement, and strategy (alignment) – the subject of his own doctoral research. At first glance, these may seem like disparate topics, but at their core, they all revolve around one and the same lever: leadership and culture.

On stage, Marco is calm, contemplative, and analytical – but never distant.
He does not talk about data, but about what data means: where leaders can steer, what needs to change in behavior and collaboration, and how small interventions can achieve systemic effects. He provokes, confronts, and connects; actively seeks dialogue with his audience. No monologue, but dialogue. Insights do not arise from broadcasting, but from thinking together.

Marco earned his PhD at TU Eindhoven on the subject of strategic dialogue – a proven intervention technique for team alignment that he still applies today. After several years in consultancy, he chose his own path: entrepreneurship at the intersection of science and practice. Through The Better Company, he collaborates with professors in organizational behavior and leadership, contributing to better companies and scientific advancement.