Lessons from a Pro: Insights from Canute Haroldson

This week, I interviewed Canute Haroldson. Haroldson is a Senior Operations Manager at Scale AI , focused on how to leverage AI and effective management principles to increase sustainability.

22 Mar

⚠️ Key Takeaways

💡How Haroldson thinks: exposure to new viewpoints enables multidisciplinary thinking; exposure is just as important as experience in developing impact-oriented thinking

🛫 Journey to the space: biz dev in solar energy → program management in solar software → senior operations manager at red-hot AI company

😁 What excites Haroldson: community building in climate and sustainability; introducing people to new viewpoints on major problems; “green” innovation acceleration from greater capital allocation

👋🏽 Quick Intro!

Being a successful PM requires aggregating influence through empathy and respect. Context switching and understanding others’ perspectives and motivations are critical. Canute Haroldson has keen insight into how it is those perspectives that often drive our decision making, and how we can leverage that knowledge to create greater impact and sustainability.

Experiences ranging from BD and program management in solar solutions and solar software gave him perspective on the challenges and thought patterns in solar and other renewable industries. Leading initiatives to improve operational quality for Scale AI’s customers helped Canute understand how some of the brightest and most aggressive executives think.

Canute associates his transition to Scale AI with a desire to learn from a highly innovative company in a highly innovative industry. He gives insight into how we can both aggregate fruitful experiences and maintain a healthy perspective on the larger goals in life. Haroldson is working on his MS from Columbia University in Sustainability Management and BS from Carnegie Mellon University studying Mechanical Engineering and Public Policy.

🎙️ The Full Story

💡 How has Haroldson’s experiences affected the way he thinks about and approaches problems?

Seek nontraditional viewpoints

Haroldson’s exposure to nontraditional viewpoints has anchored his decision making.

He believes that the resistance to transitioning to more impact-oriented thinking in product is due to the “absence of viewpoints rather than the lack of opportunity — it’s more about a lack of exposure.”

For many, Haroldson has identified that “pushing people into [impact-oriented] spaces requires them to think about the fact that they aren’t in them.” He says there is friction because people “won’t see problems if their communities don’t see them as problems.”

He quotes scientific literature when posing these assertions, citing how this resistance to change has been demonstrated in research contexts. He remembers a special few: you can read this1, this2, and this3 to learn more!

Aim for profitability, not profit maximization

His transition from energy to data & AI highlighted this key difference.

“The goal of most companies is profit maximization, which is the goal of most AI companies as well. It’s a Silicon Valley approach.”

While he explains that profit is not inherently malicious, it is often hard to walk the balance between being profitable and being profit-maximizing. Profit-maximization devalues social investment because it is difficult to quantify the financial impact of social initiatives. When an organization is profit maximizing, it deprioritizes social benefit in the interest of providing near-term financial returns for shareholders.

Haroldson puts it simply, “profit maximization means we build because we can, not necessarily because it’s good.”

🛫 Haroldson’s journey

Haroldson calls his views “esoteric”, but it is his philosophical beliefs that have shaped his desire for impact. He credits his beliefs to growing up in Seattle with a “connection to the native people and their [ecocentric] culture.”

Given this desire for impact, Haroldson gravitated towards engineering for his education, where he felt he could “have more control over his impact.” He later chose solar as the start of his career to “increase energy development access for traditionally disadvantaged people.”

When Haroldson transitioned away from energy, it was to learn from a more fast-moving industry, with the intention of one day returning and applying those skills for impact. Haroldson strongly feels that data verification and traceability will be the “make-or-break factor for energy based initiatives.” Understanding how we can use AI and data to improve those verification methods is of the utmost importance to him. His move to Scale AI will give him the skills he needs for those future aspirations, intently focused on how to leverage AI to socially beneficial causes.

😁 What is Haroldson most excited about in the next year? next decade?

Next year

The recent inflow of capital allocation towards green business is very exciting to Haroldson. He is keen to see how communities build around the momentum of the recent interest in climate tech and sustainability. Lastly, Haroldon is also keeping an eye out for the impact of international legislation, as he hopes that recent steps taken within the EU (such as France moving to ban short haul domestic flights4 to encourage more sustainable transportation, or the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) set a precedent for the US and other nations.

Next decade

Haroldson believes in "building a sense of community rather than focusing on elevating a single leader/owner,” and sees the climate and impact movement emulating that belief. He hopes that there will be greater focus elevating new people and new perspectives as communities build and mature in the years to come.

‼️ Learn More

If you are interested in the AI/data space or would like to learn more about Canute Haroldson, please reach out to Canute on LinkedIn. For those interested in the intersection of AI and sustainability, Canute recommends looking into the work published by Climate Change AI.

A huge thank you to Canute Haroldson for contributing to our community! I am always trying to make this content more useful and impactful. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I would love to know!