Get to know: Erik Karlsson
Erik Karlsson, our Fire Protection Sales Director has been with the Diamorph Group for the last 12 years, and been involved across all divisions of the company! He took the time recently to sit down and tell us about some of his proudest achievements in this time, the unknowns of the industry, as well as the main inspirations for his career!
Who or what inspires you in your career?
I find it inspiring to engage with people both internally or externally to drive development of products or businesses. That’s my “fuel” I guess!
What’s something an outsider wouldn’t know about your industry?
As a manufacturer of components to some of the leading OEM’s of this world I would say the amount of knowledge and expertise that goes in to products we don’t think twice of in our everyday lives. A modern building for example contains a lot of clever fire protection products, some of them invented by us, that you will probably never see but that help to stop the spread of fire. Think of us next time you roll up your window on your car, there is a reason why it doesn’t squeak…
What’s your favourite thing about your current job?
Bringing solutions to our customers’ problems that makes their applications safer, easier and/or better is never getting old for me. Sounds like a cliché, I know!
What’s the career highlight you’re most proud of?
To see our Ferobide and Ferosafe materials, which I have been involved in since the initial idea stage, reaching commercial success must be up there. I think all successes come from good team work and I am very proud of the cross-functional team coming together here to piece together the scientific, technical, manufacturing and commercial puzzle!
On a smaller scale – here’s an anecdote from early on in my career which I don’t think I will ever forget. I presented a new product for use in aluminium production to a customer and in the initial meeting I was met with a lot of scepticism. After much debate in the room whether to go for a test or not an older gentleman said “if the product is half as good as what Erik is telling us, it will be great”. I returned 1.5 years later when our solution had outlasted the incumbent by 10 times as well as reduced scrap rates and the site manager shook my hand on the shop floor and said “I wish all of our development projects could be this successful”.
What’s the first thing you do after getting home from work?
Take my shoes off!
