Recently, during the 2013 NADA Convention and Expo in Orlando, Fla., John Krafcik, CEO of Hyundai Motor America, talked about the strength of the franchise dealer model and the automaker’s emphasis on creating greater transparency with its retail network.
“You provide jobs, provide a stable tax base and contribute to philanthropic causes in your local communities across the country,” he said during his keynote address. “Yet it seems like every day someone is bashing the U.S. automotive retail system as being out of touch or inefficient. From our perspective at Hyundai, the franchised dealer system in the U.S. works because it’s the concentrated distillation of another system that we know works. One that’s been proven over the last couple of centuries — the American free enterprise system.”
Following examples of the way Hyundai is creating a more open and transparent relationship with its dealers, Krafcik commented on Hyundai’s philosophy of defying convention. “We like to say that when the whole industry moves to the left, we’ll have a look in that direction, but we’ll look even more intently at the opportunities on the right. From our point of view, that’s leadership. We’ve distilled that philosophy into a three-word mantra: defy, design, delight.”
Krafcik cited Hyundai’s all-four-cylinder engine approach with Sonata and its unconventional premium product retail strategy with Genesis and Equus as examples. Keeping Hyundai’s premium products under the Hyundai banner paid off, resulting in stronger buyer demographics and a nine percent market share in the premium segments in which it competes.
Krafcik concluded his speech by offering a glimpse into Hyundai’s future premium product design direction with the recently unveiled HCD-14 Genesis Concept and how he thinks the industry can overcome future challenges. “At Hyundai, we know our success is a direct function of your efforts, and your achievements. Your skill and commitment, and your entrepreneurial spirit, give me confidence that going-forward, as an industry, we’ll continue to defy conventional thinking, and delight consumers in ways that we can’t even imagine today.”
