A Case for General Manager?

[calgm988]

In a recent article in Dealer magazine titled "A Case for the General Manager", Greg Gilmore spoke of the underlying talks of eliminating the GM position. The artilcle speaks of 20-group conversations creating a "movement" towards centralization of GM's to reduce the cost structure and increase the R.O.I.

I'm curious. What are your opinions?

I'm outraged at the insinuation. Who would drive the boat anyway? Who would mediate customer concerns? Who would "manage" the other department heads? I'm really curious...who would lead?

I should say Greg Gilmore spoke eliquently of the benefits of a real GM. In fact, he suggests the DP should provide ownership as a way to keep a truly good GM from seeking better opportunities with a competitor. To quote Mr. Gilmore "However, without dedicated leadership in your dealerships on a daily basis, the savings you have realized will almost certainly be lost in overall productivity". How's that for saying it?

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"focus on the purpose, not the outcome."

[btk]

Why not look at the position a little closer. Lets face it, the parts manager position , as we know it, will be gone in a few years,some are gone already. Not too many service dispatchers left, cashiers are in some cases disappearing.
I think you can make a case for any position in a dealership.
With 60-70% of a dealers net coming from fixed operations. A strong fixed operations leader doesnt need a General Manager. Most, not all, Gm's tend to come from a sales background and rarely bring anything to fixed operations because they dont want to learn it.
The reality with the dealer model is this:
1-We have a reputation as unethical people
2-Our customer retention at 20-40% is horrible.
I think when the traditional dealer model is turning out these results- it needs looking into.
The manufacturer hasnt come up with Blue Oval or Brand Standards or whatever else just for fun, they have done this because of poor leadership at dealership as a whole.
"Without dedicated leadership in your dealerships on a daily basis, the savings you have realized will almost certainly be lost in overall productivity". How's that for saying it?"

I could not agree more with that statement, I suppose the argument at what level does the leadership come from.

[calgm988]

While I will agree that some positions have become obsolete and that there are some who clearly don't understand the role of a GM (knowledge of all depts., roi responsibility, etc.) I can't agree with your statement in whole.

1.Manufactures didn't design those programs due to lack of trust. They designed them as a way to gain control of the purchase process. Which by the way, they FAILED miserably at. Not to mention the fact that they had/have zero understanding of the retail experience.

2. Customer retention is horrible because the industry (prior to the last 7-8 years) didn't care about retaining it. Manufactures instead told dealers to live off vehicle sales volumes and warranty work. They supported that with below par vehicles.

3. No dealership could or would survive on service/parts alone. Sales generates the vehicle sale so that service can keep it.

I can agree though on the topic of "few" GM's who don't know the full parameter of the dealership operations. However, quite frankly they're slowly eliminating themselves. That is to say: the truly successful dealers will employ a well-rounded, knowledgeable GM to perform the daily operations wich will result in the highest ROI percentage...that's a fact even the "experts" can agree on.

btk - I agree that leadership can come from all departments. Generally you need a head coach to help guide the offensive and defensive coordinators how to game plan, what to game plan for and to pull the team together so they're ready to play.


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"focus on the purpose, not the outcome."

[calgm988]

While I will agree that some positions have become obsolete and that there are some who clearly don't understand the role of a GM (knowledge of all depts., roi responsibility, etc.) I can't agree with your statement in whole.

1.Manufactures didn't design those programs due to lack of trust. They designed them as a way to gain control of the purchase process. Which by the way, they FAILED miserably at. Not to mention the fact that they had/have zero understanding of the retail experience.

2. Customer retention is horrible because the industry (prior to the last 7-8 years) didn't care about retaining it. Manufactures instead told dealers to live off vehicle sales volumes and warranty work. They supported that with below par vehicles.

3. No dealership could or would survive on service/parts alone. Sales generates the vehicle sale so that service can keep it.

I can agree though on the topic of "few" GM's who don't know the full parameter of the dealership operations. However, quite frankly they're slowly eliminating themselves. That is to say: the truly successful dealers will employ a well-rounded, knowledgeable GM to perform the daily operations wich will result in the highest ROI percentage...that's a fact even the "experts" can agree on.

btk - I agree that leadership can come from all departments. Generally you need a head coach to help guide the offensive and defensive coordinators how to game plan, what to game plan for and to pull the team together so they're ready to play.


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"focus on the purpose, not the outcome."