What caused you to start your company?
Daria Torres: Great question. I love just the way you’ve captured that, because I was listening to you kind of play back what you heard me say in your way and it made me think about my roots in consulting. It goes back to … At least in the most tangible way I can point to, it goes back to starting out at McKinsey. McKinsey and Company is one of the foremost, most well-known global strategy consulting firms. Starting in consulting, having had a background first in engineering, the black and white, the analytical clarity of engineering, it was a transition for me.
I won’t say a difficult transition, but it involved some growing pains. In the consulting space the path between Point A and Point B is not a straight line. In fact, the path between A and B can be an infinite number of things and you’re role as a consultant is to absorb information as quickly as you can from a number of different sources to help your client optimize the path from A to B, and first even recognize what Point B is. The linearity that really is reflected in engineering, it goes away in consulting.
However, the roots in terms of having a very rigorous and structured approach to problem solving end up becoming hugely helpful in going through that optimization process, that prioritization of what is the right Point B? What is the most sound, feasible, high return path to that Point B? That’s where the roots stem from. It’s first having that formal training in consulting, but even prior to that kind of having the imprint of engineering as part of my background.
Aaron Thomas: I note that you mentioned a few times, you talked about being continuous learners and that’s what organizations that grow, they have to constantly learn. How have you actually practiced that as far as learning and all? What’s your background as far as with your education?
Daria Torres: Just voracious reading, not because … Well, it hasn’t always been a passion. I shouldn’t say that. To be authentic, I mean I’ve always been a student and I will always continue to be a student. In fact, that’s probably what drew me to the University of Virginia, where you’re not a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, you are a first year, a second year, a third year, a fourth year, because the founder of UVA, Thomas Jefferson, believed in the principle of lifelong learning. I’m sure that was a piece of what really resonated for me there.
To this day I do consider myself a student, a student in any of the areas that help to inform the work that I do, whether that’s paying attention to the trends in business by picking up the latest issue of Business Week or whether it’s understanding how non-profit boards can work most effectively by absorbing everything on the boardsource.org website, or whether it’s simply just being an observer of leaders and paying attention to what kinds of defining moments lead to the kind of transformational impact that many leaders end up having within their organizations. These are the kinds of things that I pay attention to, that I invest my time in when I can break away from the other important things in my life, which are family and service.
Aaron Thomas: Â The name of your organization, Walls Torres Group, what was the origin of the name of your company?
Daria Torres: I’m often asked that question because my name is Daria Torres and many will ask who is Walls? Who’s your partner? Walls is actually my maiden name. I’ve appended the two together because for the first part of my professional life when I was not yet married I was known as Daria Walls and in order to have there be some continuity or some connection to those relationships that were formed at that point in my career the firm was founded as Walls Torres Group. I’m really kind of paying homage to what was and what is and what will be.
Aaron Thomas: All right. Daria, I definitely appreciate you taking out the time to be a part of this. How should people who may be interested in learning more about what you do, how should they contact you?
Daria Torres: The best way is to go to my website as a starting point. It’s wallstorresgroup.com. Certainly there you would have a really good avenue for getting information about the types of services provided, seeing client endorsements, and of course the contact information to access me and the rest of my team.
Aaron Thomas: Are you on social media?
Daria Torres: At this point I haven’t made a major push in social media. I have a presence there in terms of handles that exist, but I haven’t made a very active push there as of yet because I’ve had the good fortune of most of my work being through referrals and previous clients putting out the good word.
Aaron Thomas: I can say that I’ve actually taken a peak at your LinkedIn profile and I’ve been very impressed about the amount of recommendations that you’ve gotten…so you’re being very modest.
Daria Torres: That’s very kind of you.
Aaron Thomas: It’s very impressive to see what the people who have worked with you have to say about you. Thanks again for taking out the time to do this interview.
