Will today’s spending pay off tomorrow? Each and every dealer in Canada is constantly being asked to invest in their dealerships. These requests largely come from OEMs but sometimes they come from other sources, like municipalities, while even competitive dealers …
DEALERSHIPS ARE NOT ALL ALIKE AND SHOULD NOT BE MANAGED IN THE SAME WAY Traditionally, management systems used by dealers are organized by departments, reinforcing somewhat of a silo approach. Human resources are also managed by department. Dealer financial statements …
Public ownership of dealerships should be business as usual Over the past few months the topic of Canadian public companies has been the subject of many national and local news articles, conferences and general chatter amongst the finance and professional …
Dealers who don’t plan ahead are gambling with their wealth Dealers by their nature are gamblers. All have risk as their middle name and go to sleep every night with millions of dollars of debt. Our business is not for …
Groundbreaking report on social media usage challenges some traditional outlooks. Are you ready to change your opinions? One snowy day, a long time ago, Trish’s grandmother was reading the newspaper. Her reading glasses were precariously balancing on the tip of …
Monday January 9th marked the first media day in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show. Most brands have increased their exhibits from the past few years. The show is very upbeat, the brands have invested heavily in their …
Making predictions in this uncertain climate is a mug’s game, here’s a snapshot of what unraveled in 2011 Late in 2010, I was fortunate to participate in an event sponsored by Canadian auto dealer that looked at predictions for 2011. …
Dealers must adapt to changes in demographics North America is going through a rightsizing that is based on economic realities. In recent weeks, the U.S. government came woefully close to defaulting on its debt payments. They did not escape a …
There are great managers and great leaders. Which are you? Over my 25 years as an observer and advisor to the automotive retail industry, the partnership between automotive vehicle brand owners (VBO) and their independent dealers has amazed me. From …
There’s never a bad time to work on succession planning Over my many years of practice I have witnessed many different ways that dealers plan for the road ahead. One thing is true — when ahead becomes now, very few …
But social networking was clearly the overriding attraction I have just returned from attending NADA 2011 in San Francisco, which was a better conference than those of the last two years. Surprisingly, a little of the wild, wild, west seems …
In the dealer game, the money is real. A few months back I wrote about the possible outcomes arising from the Canadian dealer network rightsizing initiatives that had just been announced. As that downsizing now begins to unfold, activity is …
