By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Garret Flower, Founder & CEO of Wayleadr.
Garret Flower is Founder & CEO of Wayleadr, a leader in arrival technology
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
At Wayleadr, we are on a mission to make arriving easier than leaving. We want to optimise the commuting experience, and put 1,000 car park spaces in the hands of employees all over the world. As CEO and Founder, I’m responsible for leading the company towards these goals by developing and executing our strategic plan, driving revenue growth and profitability, building a strong company culture and building and managing a high-performing team. Most importantly, I’m making sure we are constantly innovating and to make Wayleadr the authority in the arrival technology space.
What are your biggest challenges as CEO?
It’s fair to say that being a CEO can be both a rewarding but challenging role. One of the biggest challenges I’ve encountered throughout my career is constantly navigating change. It is so easy to get distracted and be pulled in so many directions when trying to balance creating an exciting future while maximising results and ensuring that we’re staying on top of trends, creating the best technological solutions we can. As a leader, I try my best to stay forward-thinking and seek the best opportunities to grow and strengthen the business. We are incredibly lucky to have such a talented team to assist with making these decisions and every day is a learning experience.
How do you keep your team/staff motivated?
I’m proud to say we have established a wonderful company culture at Wayleadr. Having diverse staff located across the world has brought huge benefits to the company and we do our best to ensure ultimate employee satisfaction. This is done through consistent and transparent communication with employees on a day to day basis through our comms channels, rewarding staff for good performance, and opportunities for career development and learning. We want the best people to work with us. We want them to feel valued, well-compensated, and invigorated to do what we do. It is so important to us.
What are the challenges facing the industry?
A lot of businesses across the world to date have been slow to embrace innovation when it comes to managing their employees’ commutes. We’re thrilled to be leading the charge in optimising this, but there is still so much work to be done. The problem with car-parking is not space alone, it’s access. Google and Apple Maps have mastered navigation, while Uber and Lyft have mastered leaving. There’s a big space for what to do when you arrive, and it’s a universal problem we’re seeing all around the world. With a growing number of people returning to office in the cities, we’re finding too many cars and too few spaces, thus discouraging people returning back to the office. We need a whole-of-industry approach to effectively tackle this, ensuring that the greatest innovators are put front and centre to put effective systems in place.
We want the best people to work with us, and we want them to feel valued, well-compensated, and invigorated to do what we do. It is so important to us.
What new trends are emerging in your industry?
Our recent Arrival Index Report revealed a number of emerging trends that are shaping the future of workplace arrivals, to name a few: Office occupancy rates rose 4.75% in 2022 from the previous year, with Wednesday being the most popular day to go into the office globally. Our report found that only 1% of parking spaces are equipped for EVs, with EV charging spaces occupying less than 9% of employee car parks. EV charging occupancy itself regularly hit 100%, highlighting the need for increased EV spaces in office car parks. An emerging trend we are seeing globally is an increase in the purchasing of EVs, yet the production of EV charging points remains stagnant: this must change.
The findings of the reports significantly highlights the fact that companies across the globe are not yet ready to meet the changing landscape of the future, particularly when it comes to EVs. However, with the help of the same spirit of technological innovation that fuels these companies, hopefully we as a society will cross the threshold and begin embracing innovative technologies to safeguard our future commutes today.
Are there any major changes you would like to see in your sector?
In order to plan for the future, it is crucial that businesses employ solutions, to optimise how their employees arrive at work by analysing parking and transit patterns and statistics. By doing so, employers and landlords can make more informed decisions on how they can effectively manage their parking and space allocation and occupancy of cars, EVs, bikes, and scooters, which will in turn, eliminate the frequent frustrations associated with an expensive and time-consuming impact of utilising an office space.
How has the COVID-19 crisis affected your business/sector?
Over the past year, some normalcy has been returned to the workplace. Thankfully, people are starting to go back to work, and workplaces are starting to feel a little more lively. However, it’s not surprising that some things have altered in the wake of a momentous occasion like the global pandemic. For instance, most companies now incorporate hybrid and remote working into their working strategies. As businesses push to return to the office, new work models are emerging that alter how employees commute to work and how employers allocate office space. The fact that employers are having to rethink their working models means that we are consistently adapting to suit their needs but also predict which way the general market will go. This allows us to innovate while staying on top of the trends that we forsee will dominate the way we work.
How do you define success and what drives you to succeed?
I measure success on a daily basis, and I think it’s important to understand you’re a co-creator in the universe, and all you can do is your best on a daily basis. If you win your days, the rest comes with that.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given, or would give, in business?
I was fortunate to be born to two entrepreneurial parents who blessed me with the thought process that anything is possible, and to dream big and believe that you can have a positive impact on the world. Every day, I wake up and try and do that, and it gives me energy to tackle my goals.
The best advice I’ve received is don’t waste your time living someone else’s life, and avoid the expectations of others.
What have been your highlights in business over the past year?
We have achieved some amazing milestones over the last few years at Wayleadr. We have powered 1 million car journeys around the world and have landed some amazing clients such as Uber, Sanofi, eBay, Indeed, and L’Oréal. It was also a pleasure to appear on Sky News last month to discuss the findings of our Arrival Index Report and educate employers and the public on the trends and developments in commuting so they have better control over space allocation and occupancy, eliminating all the common frustrations with a time-consuming and expensive aspect of maintaining an office space.
What’s next for your company?
My goal for Wayleadr is to become the authority in the Arrival Technology space making building facilities and vehicles smarter to ensure a frictionless end to every journey. I hope to change the way companies globally get employees to and from work in an effective and sustainable way.
