3 thoughts on “The automakers make us feel sorry for the dealers”

  1. Just out of curiosity, what would you have done instead?

    Phone calls would take (at 1 min per) about 33 1/3 hours to complete. With an 8 hour day, assuming 50% non productive time, the total time to complete would be about 8 1/3 days.

    If you insist that some “F&*%#ing Person” make the call then you would have to find someone that knows the owner of the dealership personally to make the call. That would take a LARGE amount of time.

    Possibly the person that makes the call can be a stranger if of sufficient rank. Maybe cabinet rank or deputy cabinet rank persons. That might take even longer.

    I got it! Obama can deputize each member of the legislative branch of government and each could make four calls. This is the perfect solution.

    What do you think?

  2. you would have to find someone that knows the owner of the dealership personally to make the call.

    OR

    Taking a page from Jack Welch from the GE restructuring period in the ’80s, you have already spent the previous year on the road KNOWING every single operation before you shut down anything.

    Then you not only have someone who actually knows the dealer, you are not making the decision based on the government telling you to shed them.

    OH, no – if you had done that, maybe you aren’t in this position in the first place?

    It isn’t “Be a person” for me – it is “Manage your business”.

  3. Its interesting that you mention Jack Welsh. Some years ago I took some management classes at Pepperdine. One of the people we studied was Jack Welsh.

    Welsh had the reputation of firing some of his managers every year. He did that by ranking them from their annual review and then firing the bottom 10%. Other managers in the company were also required to cull their staff the same way. During his tenure GE grew 30 fold.

    He never talked personally to anyone that he fired. They found out about their fate by whether the guards let them in the building the next morning.

    As I’m sure you can imagine, this kept the managers wired.

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