Industry Issues - Articles |
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IS SIZE ALL THAT MATTERS?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 27/11/1995 11:48:14
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Automotive Management 27/11/95
It is almost daunting to open a paper nowadays - profit warnings, downsizings, restructurings. The announcements do not make pretty reading. If the effect on the city at times is spectacular, the effect at ground level can be devastating.
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Here we go again
Posted by: MTS Admin on 17/08/1998 13:50:44
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Automotive Management 17/08/98
This week I repeat an article from October 1994. The picture was very different in the midst of a deep recession. We may possibly be about to go backwards again.
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Why hindsight is such a weak science
Posted by: MTS Admin on 16/11/1998 13:52:15
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Automotive Management 16/11/98
I have only got to hear "I could have told you that wouldn't work" or that grotesque Harry Enfield character saying "you don't want to do it like that" for my flesh to crawl.
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Is there a leader out there?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 14/05/1999 14:01:31
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Automotive Management 14/05/99
At times of great crisis, our country has always managed to produce a great leader to pull us through.
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A market ahead, but at what cost?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 19/04/2000 16:26:32
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March looks encouraging on the face of it. A market ahead of last year's, and strong registrations for some of the volume players. Even Rover seems to have cheered up substantially.
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The Gloss Falls off The Market
Posted by: MTS Admin on 29/11/1998 11:20:47
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Registration figures are fascinating things. Being the creatures we are, we never like to give out bad news (ironical really - it seems to be the only thing many people like to hear!) and so they never tell the full story until the true picture is so terrible, it cannot be concealed.
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Let Us Bring Calm To The Chaos
Posted by: MTS Admin on 04/06/1998 12:05:36
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Automotive Management 04/06/98
It is quite frantic the pace of change. Changes in society, in technology, in our industry.
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An industry in turmoil
Posted by: MTS Admin on 14/10/1999 12:06:39
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There are a number of new profanities entering the industry's vocabulary - let me mention a few of them - Gr*y Imp**ts, B**ck Exempt**n, OFT, Quotas (Japanese, the lifting of) and EMU. There will no doubt be a few more over the next couple of years.
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So what happens next?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 28/04/2000 12:11:29
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Automotive Management 28.04.00
So what happens next?
The picture is quite confusing, isn't it? Speaking to a number of senior people in the industry, it is clear that many on the ground just cannot make sense of what is happening in the industry.
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So what shall we talk about?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 11/02/2000 12:12:27
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Automotive Management 11/02/00
I thought long and hard before writing this article. With all the problems this industry faces, I wondered whether you would want to read about career development, about how to handle that difficult interview, or about the effect of recruitment on the Internet.
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Manufacturers are from Mars, Dealers are from Venus.
Posted by: MTS Admin on 22/02/2002 16:35:21
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In the wake of Block Exemption, and strong rumours that the Commission is looking on in horror at how the new rules are being implemented, I thought we should remind ourselves of our differences again. Automotive Management September 2001
Great title, isn't it? And I've borrowed it unashamedly from the book of a
similar name.*
I've never read it, so I cannot tell you if it is any good, but the title made
me laugh and stop and think. And it seems so right.
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Don't Just Sit There - Change Something
Posted by: MTS Admin on 19/04/2002 17:59:58
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(Automotive Management June 2002)
Let me quote this week from Automotive Online's newsletter, e-mailed to me and many other readers every Friday.
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Just Talk.
Posted by: MTS Admin on 09/12/2002 17:29:24
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A bit of a ramble this week, I am afraid. Just comments on some of the news headlines that I've been reading this morning over the Internet.
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Football Holds The Key
Posted by: MTS Admin on 09/12/2002 17:42:54
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I had a lot of e-correspondence after last month's article. My little aside about football players not being able to play properly if they had to report back to head office every two minutes seems to have struck a chord. Emails from employees of at least five of the major Plcs and one of the manufacturer owned groups reckoned that I had singled out their own company in a thinly veiled attack.
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Happy Y2K1
Posted by: MTS Admin on 09/12/2002 17:45:33
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Three subjects to cover this week: the idea of trust, some predictions for the coming year , and the factors driving the recruitment market at the moment.
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Back to the Future
Posted by: MTS Admin on 10/12/2002 14:38:17
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As we head towards another new year (they seem to be approaching at an alarming rate nowadays) I thought I would look back at some end of year reflections in the past. I was curious to see if the things that people were discussing then seemed as important now.
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How many days are you missing?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 06/03/2003 15:59:59
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A recent report estimated that 65% of a dealers’ costs were spent on salaries and staff. That is quite an overhead.
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Are we losing our appeal?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 27/05/2003 12:21:17
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They say that there is a real shortage of good people. Society simply is not throwing enough talent at our industry.
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Its all about control
Posted by: MTS Admin on 23/06/2003 12:01:59
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A couple of things have happened in the past week that have made me think about the shape of our industry. We all know that it is changing, and after September of this year it will change again. The problem is, unless you have a crystal ball, no one really knows where it will go then.
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Making the most of online sales leads
Posted by: MTS Admin on 05/09/2003 17:12:38
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Auto-Knowledge came across some quite dismal data recently. The research firm GartnerG2 tried out all the car manufacturer websites in the UK in January 2003, to test how effective the brands were in responding to online sales enquiries. Too many were not effective at all. This article puts down some markers for achieving best practice in an area of increasing importance to the new car sales top line.
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Dead Donkey - or an Opportunity?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 14/11/2003 16:05:57
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As you probably know, I'm quite a student of e-mail. This weekly newsletter now has nearly 1,000 subscribers, and is sent out by e-mail every weekend.
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Some reflections on 2003
Posted by: MTS Admin on 10/12/2003 10:06:59
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December is always one of those times when we wait expectantly for the immediate future, the festive season, and look backwards at the past 12 months.
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The problem with technicians…..
Posted by: MTS Admin on 05/04/2004 11:17:35
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The recruitment of technicians is such an important issue, I thought that I would distill my presentation to the AM Aftersales conference for you. It is a serious problem.
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The tyranny of KPI’s
Posted by: MTS Admin on 30/04/2004 18:16:50
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Look around any part of the industry today and you will find that there is a percentage involved.
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Here I go again.
Posted by: MTS Admin on 11/06/2004 16:54:51
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Just every so often I write an article that seems to touch a nerve. This article a couple of years ago elicited just such a response.
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If you think the weather is changeable......
Posted by: MTS Admin on 09/07/2004 19:02:33
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So, ten months on from the much vaunted and slightly dreaded changes to Block Exemption (and don't forget there are some other changes coming next year), has much happened?
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CARWISE collapses?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 17/09/2004 17:15:49
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The much vaunted Carwise scheme supported by the RMI appears to be at an end. As many other attempts to self regulate have foundered in the past, so, it seems, has this one.
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I don't go on enough courses.
Posted by: MTS Admin on 20/09/2004 12:08:04
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Generally I don’t get a chance to go on enough courses. But a couple of weeks ago I went away on one and met a very interesting group of people.
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Time for a model change?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 05/11/2004 12:04:16
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Motor manufacturers should become specialists. They should give suppliers and retailers more independence and focus only on products or brands where they have a competitive advantage. That is the stark claim made by two industry consultants in their new book, “TIME FOR A MODEL CHANGE - Re-engineering the global automotive industry”
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Our industry needs leaders
Posted by: MTS Admin on 11/01/2005 11:43:41
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Just before Christmas, the FT ran an article by James Macintosh entitled “Carlos Ghosn: superstar car executive”.
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How will this year start?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 17/01/2005 12:32:07
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I wrote two articles around the war in Iraq. One when it started and this one as it finished. And I wondered whether, like all major conflicts, its completion would herald the start of bad times for the UK (WW1, WW2, The Falklands, Kuwait - the precedents are not encouraging).
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We walk a tightrope with our staff's affections
Posted by: MTS Admin on 24/01/2005 11:12:17
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As the Sewell's/R. M. I. Annual Pay Guide is published with its wealth of information, analysis and comparisons, another report that says that nowadays work/life balance is more important to most people than pay or career.
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Do champions really have feedback for breakfast?
Posted by: MTS Admin on 29/03/2005 10:35:29
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We have probably all heard the quote, I think from the author of "The One-minute Manager" Kenneth Blanchard, that "Feedback Is the Breakfast of Champions".
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