A story of brand risk
In a world of social media, where anyone can publish to the world and any given story can take off and reach an audience of thousands, companies need to be particularly careful about how their actions might be seen. It …
Category: Publisher’s letter
Sneak preview of CADEX chat
Steve Greenfield, Founder and CEO of Automotive Ventures and I sat down to plan Steve’s appearance at CADEX in Halifax in April, and we got to talking. Some of that chat is reproduced here as a teaser to what we’ll …
A little bit of one-on-one
For many of us in the automotive industry, there is plenty of time spent poring over charts and tables of data, trying to glean the insights the data is willing to yield. The Canadian auto dealer team has the benefit …
Year end grab bag
As I write my last publisher’s note of the year, I’d like to clear out some odds and ends I thought worth highlighting. Back together again I’d like to thank the provincial dealer associations across the country for their commitment …
Economy, whither art thou?
Over the last six months or so, we’ve seen the economic outlook go from strong to not strong. The expectation now is that we’re facing a recession through 2023. I thought it might be worth a slightly deeper look at …
Join me in Detroit (and other places)
For the first time in a few years, I’m looking at a very active in-person fall event schedule. Face to face with peers, thought leaders and influencers. I’m very excited about it. A number of key Canadian events are taking …
Really, it’s all about the people
Over many years and many roles, I’ve had the chance to collaborate and commiserate with a remarkable list of professionals, partners and friends. I’d like to take a moment to recognize three of those people. Two of them played pivotal …
Kilometres driven vs. fuel prices
How much Canadians use their vehicles is a strong predictor of revenue opportunities in both vehicle sales and fixed operations. Particularly fixed operations. Dealers know that all too well. At a time when inventories are basically non-existent, the need to …
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 …
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 …
