Introducing Peter Dam, who is leading our Scandinavian Fleet Complete team. If that didn’t wow you yet – he was once a National Magic Champion in Denmark!
Peter is a warm, tall (2,11 meters!) and funny guy who brings people together, and thrives when the people around him thrive but likes to be a grey cardinal behind the curtains himself. He doesn’t feel comfortable focusing on himself but nonetheless – the interview with Peter was full of surprises and very inspirational.
Lets hear about the magic – we all want to know how one becomes a magician?
Magic was an interest of mine, I started back in 1990 when I quit smoking, so I needed something to do with my hands. My hands are larger than normal because I am a big person, so I can do really weird stuff because of that, and I utilized that when doing magic.
I had a company in Denmark that focused on doing magic events at trade fairs. We worked across Denmark, and also traveled the world with NovoZymes doing magic shows at big conventions and fairs. We were a group of 6 people and we were active for about 10 years – 1990-2000.
However, magic was not my primary job. At the time I was working at Xerox. I was the manager of a call center and was responsible for generating new sales leads. In addition to managing a sales team and doing magic shows, I was also the editor of a Scandinavian monthly magazine about magic. The magazine was published in all 3 Scandinavian languages.
I was hardly ever at home – I worked in the office during the day and did magic shows in the evenings and on weekends. It was a busy period of my life, but it was really fun!
What about now?
I’m in a different place now. Since we stopped the business in 2000, I have done some magic shows here and there, for events and birthdays, but the last one was in 2018/2019. I have been so privileged to have had the opportunity to do hundreds of shows for thousands of people and have enjoyed being able to give people a little magical moment with me on stage. Some magicians perform to attract attention to themselves, but I was just trying to do something fun and entertaining for others to give them something to talk about.
How did you end up in Fleet Complete?
I started in Fleet Complete in 2017 as a Nordic Project Manager. I took a few steps down the ladder as I used to be the COO of a part of G4S in Denmark where I had 130 employees. When I left that job, the idea was to come to Fleet Complete on a temporary basis until I could find a suitable position within management – but it turned out that there was room to grow within organization.
Before G4S, I was working in Ruko, ASSA Abloy (locks). So, I have always been in security and electronics. I also have several educations in IT and Management.
After a year as a Project Manager in Fleet Complete, I was offered the role as Senior Manager for installations and logistics in Europe, and we reshuffled the way we did logistics across the countries, and did certification trainings of all of the installers in Europe.
In the beginning of 2022, I was asked to take over as Managing Director of the Danish company, and as Head of sales in Scandinavia.
It comes naturally to me. This is what I’m trained to do and what I’ve always enjoyed doing.
Are you a good sales person?
Within Fleet Complete nobody actually knows this fact, but before I started at Xerox I was a sales representative in the IT-business, and I was also a sales manager for a couple of years, so I have been working in sales directly and then working with managing sales teams as well. But I’m not a sales guy myself. In sales there are “hunters” and “farmers”, and I’m 100% farmer – I enjoy working with our major existing clients, and working with the sales team behind the lines – I thrive seeing other people thrive!
I really love working with my team because they are excellent at what they do – they are independent people, and top professionals. I just support my team, keep them moving in the right direction and they are excellent at reaching their goals on their own. I don’t have to be in the frontline, I’m the person who monitors that all the processes are moving, and help my colleagues succeed.
In my mind, anyone can be a salesperson – some are just better at connecting with a client than others. Anybody can sell “a product”, but only a few have the business understanding that it takes to be a a Sales Manager like the ones we have at Fleet Complete. We are selling a product that has a major economic impact on our clients’ operating economics in the daily management of thousands of vehicles, so it’s important that we have the right people to advise our clients to choose the solution that suits their individual needs best. And we do.
What keeps you in Fleet Complete?
What I really want, is to focus on the people, the colleagues that we have. This is why I’m still here – the culture we have in Fleet Complete. As I said, it was at first a temporary job for me, but it grew on me with the culture that we have in Fleet Complete.
Some might disagree with me, but I really believe that our core value is not the product, it’s the people. And we have a very special culture in Fleet Complete. This company, and the people in it, has become my “baby”. And, nobody is going to mess with my baby unless they answer to me! It’s my company, these are my colleagues, they are my extended family.
The spirit that we have, the focus I have as a manager – is to bring the people together.
I thrive in seeing THEM doing great stuff and being successful. If they’re successful, I’m successful. My goal as a local manager is actually to be obsolete.
How do you motivate your team?
I don’t have to do much to motivate my team – it comes naturally for them because of the way we do things around here. It’s a cultural thing. If we have confidence in people and show them trust, if we give them a set goal and let them be the ones who come up with ideas and solutions in how to reach that goal – that is motivation in itself. It’s empowerment. We empower the people, but you have to be there to back them up as a manager. I show them trust and try to keep all the “crap” away from them so that they can focus on what they do best. This is what I try to do as a manager. Utilizing the individual strengths of the team member to reach our common goal. As a manager, when I know how people react, I can help them reach the best of their potential, and hopefully they will thrive in doing this – and the company thrives when people thrive in it! It’s a win-win.
What are the challenges?
The biggest challenge for me personally is that I am a perfectionist. The biggest issue I have is to figure out when things are good enough and leave it at that, instead of trying to make things perfect. This has been my personal development for a long time.
From entering this company in 2017 until now, I have been on a process of learning to accept that people do things just as well as I would have been able to – or even better! Now I feel confident that no matter which task I put forward in the system, to whom ever I push it to in Fleet Complete, they will solve it just as well as I would. This is the trust I have in the people in this company now.
Success stories in Scandinavia
We’ve really had success in providing Carsharing- and Fleet Management solutions to a lot of both private corporations, public entities, and governmental sectors. In Denmark we have a total of 98 municipalities and approx. 50% of those are our customers. This means thousands of vehicles running with Fleet Complete and we are growing every day. I feel like there has been a major success with that particular line of business over the past years.
We have several huge customers who consider us more as a “work colleague” than a provider of a Fleet Management solution – and we are really proud of having such close working relationships. This level of collaboration only comes with constant communication as well as the customers’ willingness to work closely with us.
Why has Carsharing been such a hit in Denmark?
Carsharing is big because our solution helps efficiently plan how many vehicles are really needed in a fleet and directly helps our clients to reduce CO2 which is highly monitored in Scandinavia.
In Scandinavia, our main product has always been insurance and leasing vehicles (due to certain regulations that other EU countries don’t have) but we see this moving more and more towards Fleet Management at bigger companies and municipalities.
We provide our customers with services that they can use on a daily basis when it comes to the regulations of owning and driving a car in Denmark, and to make a difference and an impact on their fleet’s CO2 emissions. So, it actually makes them money, spending money with us.
Peter’s TOP 5 things that keep people in the company:
- Culture
- Respect
- Trust
- Utilizing peoples’ potential + teamwork
- Clear picture of the goal and how to be successful
