Consider the schedule of the past few weeks: • The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) held its annual gathering in Orlando, Florida; • The Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) held its inaugural CADA Summit in Toronto; • The Toronto auto …
2012 HAS BEEN A GOOD YEAR, BUT COULD 2013 SHAPE UP TO BE BETTER STILL? Perhaps by the time you read this you won’t even have brought back the empties from your New Year’s Eve party. Twenty-twelve and all of …
HEALTHY DEBATE IS GOOD FOR OUR INDUSTRY Magazines that don’t generate discussions generally don’t matter much to their markets. At Canadian auto dealer, we like to inform and entertain, but we also like to challenge assumptions, and to use the …
Click below to see and hear my publisher’s note to accompany the January/February 2013 issue of Canadian auto dealer.
Demographic trends reveal our destiny and the future isn’t as rosy as we might expect Too often lost in the daily national conversation on economic matters is an irresistible force that will define the decades before us: demographics. The lightning …
Forming new habits isn’t easy but it’s essential As the French philosopher Voltaire once contemplated: “Common sense is not so common.” This is why we gather for conferences, sit amongst our peers and listen to experts present insights that should …
Top-notch speakers will challenge and inspire dealers For the better part of a year, a small team has been meeting regularly around the boardroom table in the offices of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA) offices to plan a kick-ass …
With summer break over, MPs roll up their sleeves The daylight hours are getting shorter. The temperature has dropped a few degrees. By the time you read this some leaves will have already turned into bright autumn colours. What was …
DEALERS REMAIN CAUTIOUS, BUT 2012 SALES ARE ROCK SOLID Much has been made this year of the very strong rebound we’ve seen in Canada in the retail automotive market. After a modest year of gains in 2011, most were predicting …
Fighters like Frank Lauria just rise to the challenge The generation of larger-than-life entrepreneurs who ran dealerships in the “good old days” in Canada might be getting a bit gray, and some might not push as hard as they once …
When we list the attributes of great leadership, the ability to change one’s mind rarely makes it to the top of the list. Decisiveness? For sure. Clarity of vision? Yes, no question. Changing your mind? Not really. But in a …
Two solitudes exist between the front of your store, and the back I’ve had a number of conversations over the past month that ended in a similar manner; talking about the (generally) poor job being done at many dealerships when …
