The next era of software
I believe we’re coming to the end of what I’ll call the Digital Chaos Phase of the automotive industry. Please note that I don’t use the word chaos as a pejorative. It has been chaotic for a couple of …
Category: Publisher’s letter
More questions than answers
The war in Ukraine has taken some of the foundational changes that our industry is trying to understand and measure, and thrown them into a dramatic new light. For now, I find myself with more questions than answers. It might …
New look, new outlook
If you’ll indulge me, I’m going to use my space in this issue to highlight a few things we’ve been up to that I believe you’ll see benefit in. First off, we relaunched the websites for Canadian auto dealer and …
On my mind at year end
I love the end of the year. Beyond the holidays and all the food and family gatherings this entails, I find it a great time for reflection and renewal. And it’s safe to say that, for those in the automotive …
Starting a deeper look at AI
We know it’s coming. We know it will infiltrate many aspects of our businesses, from supporting the decisions of our staff to engaging directly with our customers either with or without a member of your human resources team. We’ve been …
We’re going hybrid!
Given all the work we do with the industry associations and our common mission to serve Canada’s new car dealers, cohabitation made great sense. Universus, the parent company that publishes this magazine, is now fully committed to what is often …
Cultivating the EV influencer
For decades, the automotive industry has understood the value of the automotive enthusiast. The enthusiast, for whom their vehicle is much more than just a transportation resource, is the reason that magazines (and now their digital media channels) like Car …
The devil in the post-pandemic details
As we contemplate a return to the office in the coming months, there’s lots of discussion around a hybrid model that blends remote work with office-based work. At first glance, that seems easy enough to implement, but on closer inspection …
Help your team surf the third wave
We thought we’d be on the downside by now. Case loads dropping. Economies opening. Stress levels associated with the pandemic easing back. We thought that’s where we would be by mid-April, but it’s absolutely not where we are. Instead, for …
This is a big deal
We’re living in the combined contexts of the pandemic and its many impacts, and the dramatic transformation that is taking hold across the automotive industry. Amid all that, it’s easy to throw superlatives around. And as the line in the …
A higher standard than the rule of law
Man, do we live in interesting times. As I write this note, we are a week past the Capitol riots in Washington. A week away from former Vice President Joe Biden’s inauguration and the concerns surrounding that transition: from a …
Silicon Valley, eh?
Amid the flood of information that comes through our inboxes, once in a while something really stands out. At a time when so much is expected to change in the automotive customer experience and the tools that support the retail …
