The guest on Episode 5 of the Compounders podcast was Jim Hallett, the former CEO and now Executive Chairman of KAR Auction Services. KAR is a $2 billion market cap company that operates within the wholesale auto remarketing industry. Specifically, KAR operates more than 70 physical used car auction locations in the US and is the number two player behind Manheim in the space. Jim is very well known in the used car auction industry and has built up a wealth of knowledge over his close to 30 years at KAR. He joined the company back in 1993, then became CEO in 2009 and just this past April stepped back to Executive Chairman.
During his tenure, Jim has overseen the company’s spin-off of IAA, which is now a $7.3 billion market cap company on its own. He also has helped spearhead the company’s aggressive initiatives to extend its digital offerings and add scale beyond KAR’s physical car auction facilities.
In this wide-ranging discussion, we covered:
- Jim’s thoughts on KAR’s very important pivot to digital that occurred in 2020;
- What has changed about the used car auction industry over the last three decades;
- Why he thought it was the right time to pass the CEO torch;
- Maintaining the company’s culture within a rapidly changing industry; and
- Why KAR believes that the model of the future is hybrid: both digital and physical
If you are at all interested in how incumbent companies defend their turf against digital upstarts, this was a great discussion.
Please enjoy the interview at the following sites:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FJyeoG5VDc
Podbean: https://compounders.podbean.com/e/leading-the-used-car-auction-digital-revolution-with-jim-hallett-executive-chairman-kar-auction-services-inc-nyse-kar/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/leading-the-used-car-auction-digital-revolution-with/id1579124518?i=1000533835491
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6yIHwDAUsdijwFSL0P6xh3
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Also, if you have any comments, feedback, or guest recommendations, please contact us at podcast@covestreetcapital.com. You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/CompoundersPod.
You can watch the interview below.
If you missed the last podcast with Sean O’Connor, CEO of StoneX, you can access it here.
