Our Leaders of Leaders interview this week is with the amazing Cameron McIntyre, CEO carsales.com Limited and he is featured in our latest Leaders Hub Magazine.
carsales.com Ltd (ASX: CAR) is the largest online automotive, motorcycle and marine classifieds business in Australia. Attracting more Australians interested in buying or selling cars, motorcycles, trucks, caravans and boats than any other classified group of websites. Together with its subsidiaries employing over 600 people in Australia, carsales develops world leading technology and advertising solutions that drive its business around the world. carsales.com Ltd has operations across the Asia Pacific region and has interests in leading online automotive classified businesses in Brazil, South Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico.
1. What do you love best about what you do?
“As CEO of carsales, I get to work with some of the smartest and most capable people in the in the world, which motivates me to always be my best self, in order to support and effectively lead the whole global carsales team.
“Additionally, I love that every day at carsales presents new opportunities and challenges that tests our abilities and help us thrive as an organisation and as individuals.
2. What’s your purpose – your WHY?
“Great question, I’ve never been asked what is my ‘why’.
“I could be commercially correct and say my why / purpose is to ensure I’m maximising return and shareholder value for those who have invested in carsales, which is correct but I feel that is only one part.
“I like to look at things holistically. I feel my purpose is to also lead carsales so that the business positively impacts the lives of people in our eco-system.
“I would like to see our employees grow and evolve into the people they want to be, and for our customers to always have an exceptional experience when interacting with carsales.
“At a local and global level, I want to see the technology sector continue to grow sustainably and thrive to ensure success for our generation and those to come.
“These are the things that I am the most passionate about.”
3. How would you describe your Leadership Style?
“My style tends to be very open, engaging and transparent. I’m quite comfortable to lead from either in front or from behind depending on the need and circumstance.
“At carsales I actively empower and encourage our people to stretch, learn and evolve.”
4. What does Leadership mean to you?
“First and foremost, leadership to me means being authentic – be who you are and not someone people want you to be.
“I believe leadership is also about creating a business culture that people want to be a part of, one that is collaborative to promote diversity of thought, as well as aspirational.
“Additionally, it’s important to develop strategies that the team all buy in to, that they work together to achieve and execute in a timely manner, whilst having a bit of fun along the way.”
5. Why does Leadership matter?
“From my experience, people want to work for an organisation that motivates and inspires them, creates value for themselves, their customers and/or the broader community and society as a whole.
“Therefore, quality leadership is vital to create workplace culture and an organisation that embodies these values, attracts quality employees and has a positive impact on people’s lives in its eco-system.”
6. Key achievements and successes – any come to mind?
“What immediately comes to mind is when I secured the job as CEO of carsales. I replaced one of the most successful technology founders Australia has produced, so I had big shoes to fill, and often these transitions can be can be very difficult, and to date I’ve had positive results.
“Another key achievement that I’m very proud of was our successful Initial Public Offering of carsales. This took place in 2009 during the Global Financial Crisis, and at the time I was the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of carsales.”
7. Who has made a difference in your career?
“Greg Roebuck the former CEO and founder of carsales – he continues to be a close friend and mentor.
“My wife – she has been a significant enabler and without her support my career would not have reached its full potential.”
8. What are your strengths and unique talents?
I’m not good at answering what strengths and unique talents pertain to me because I feel mine are not unique.
“However, I think the strengths that most people in my position as CEO would have would include an ability to effectively communicate, agility, diligence and a strong sense of resilience”.
9. What does the future hold for you?
“I love what I do at carsales, the people I work with, and the customers and industry I serve. In the future I hope to have more of these positive experiences and relationships.”
10. Key Learning in your Career
“IQ is a ticket to the ballgame and gets you a job. EQ means you can work with people and you understand how you impact others in the environment around you. But it’s GQ, the ability to grow and push forward in spite of everything, and your ability to leverage the combined talents and capability of others in a productive and constructive manner, that builds real success in careers and business.”
11.What would you say to your younger self?
“Life is short do something cool!”
Stay tuned for Interviews with Simon Sinek, Maxine Horne and more…
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