Lars Eriksson: Leveraging the Power of Passion to Transform Automation

Passion is a strong driving factor on the road to success. Well, most of the successful leaders today have been passionate about something that kept them going. Lars Eriksson, too, recognized his passion for automation at an early age and decided to follow his passion that metamorphosized as a life changing moment for him. He took the step of faith and founded CarCare, a leading automotive company that works towards streamlining car sales. Lars shares a few inspiring insights with us that highlights his wonderful journey as a successful CEO and business leader.

What was your goal while growing up? Did you always want to be where you are right now?

Growing up I was just like any other kid, playing computer games which, I stuck with for quite some time. That interest brought me into programming, initially to tweak games and build simple electronic devices like an automated plant watering device or opening the curtains in the morning. As I applied to university, I took the route of economics and moved to Stockholm. That was interesting but it did not really have the same ring to it as the more playful programming side of me. I dropped out of university and began to work within programming which led me to the path of digital marketing and automation. The car industry was just a coincidence, sure I had been interested in cars growing up but hadn’t worked against the automotive industry before. 2008 I started my journey towards the automotive industry together with my partner Andreas Rödin. A decade later Carcare was formed which suits well with its goal to automate an industry that has been lagging from a technological standpoint for quite some time.

What would you say most motivates you to do what you do? What are you most excited or passionate about? What are the goals you most want to accomplish in your work? 

I really enjoy my work and believe in contributing to making the world somewhat more fun and freer of unnecessary work. To be able to create a system which isn’t hard was really the key point for us. When you try to implement a system in an organization, even if the system consists of one big green button, it is still a threshold. We had to rethink that into our automation process a merge Carcare seamless with the tools staff already were using.

Could you give us an overview of CarCare, and the inroads it has made in the automated process space?    

The purpose of Carcare is to automate business decisions and to safeguard and make the process more efficient in terms of car sales, remarketing and trade. The system applies logic to determine what to do with a car right when it turns up on the lot – wholesale, higher ad spend, export etc. Each vehicle will take the right path and that increases profitability in a huge way.

Our main target group is automotive dealers who can use Carcare connected to their DMS and testing software to identify bottlenecks and inefficient cars at an early stage. All dealers of bigger size could benefit from Carcare I dare to say.

If the process goes faster and has a high automation rate, that will be a great thing for the environment, businesses involved and the end customer. The cars will be used more efficient instead of being parked 96% of it’s lifetime. Dealers will increase profitability and the end customer can take part in a more transparent purchase with correct pricing.

Could you brief us about your role at CarCare? Also, tell us about the past experiences that help you today?   

I am the CEO of the company and work very closely with the Carcare team. We are still a small company but with great ambition and goals. I believe in creating innovations where all the employees can feel that they create something great for our customers. Customer success is key for us and to be an agile company. As we grow it’s a challenge to keep this agility and flexibility within the company but that is something, I work very hard to ensure. If you have too big of a truck on the road it’s harder to steer and the road keeps throwing turns at us as we drive.     

What are the three best qualities that you possess, according to you? Also, how do they help you in your leadership journey?

–          I take a lot of help from people that know better.

–          I believe I am fast paced in decisions and in operations.

–          I am competitive

Have you achieved all that you had desired? Tell us about the moment when you realized that your hard work has finally paid-off. What keeps you driven and determined towards work?

No, not at all. We are just at the beginning of our journey and the future lies ahead. Carcare is at an exciting and fun phase in its voyage. The automotive industry is going through a major change right now which paves the road for a lot of new smart companies. I haven’t looked that far ahead to be honest. It’s important to me to enjoy work so you don’t wake up one day and realize that you missed all those years. If I feel that I can’t have fun in a workday and work with inspiring things, I need to switch job.

What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

That’s a hard one, I feel there is as many tips out there as there are companies. I got a tip a while back to book spare time in your calendar but what happens the day you get sick for a week if you book everything. There is no place to reschedule anything. Work also is more and more merged with your family life now and perhaps that’s where they key is – to be able to find peace with the two by micro tasking and spending more hours with the family. Still a work in progress and I have not found an optimal solution, but you said the key word in the question – balance.

What are your plans going ahead? What does CarCare’s expansion and growth trajectory look like in future?

So in 2021 we are heading into Norway which I really look forward too. After that we are heading into more countries in Europe. As for growth we estimate to double our revenue this year and got a great start to the year.

Automotive is an evolving industry and it is the relentless efforts of leaders like Lars, who make it successful. Lars is redefining the industry in his own unique way by implementing creative methods of operations and he intends to continue inspiring the generation as he plans the journey ahead.