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Source: Aftermarket Business Hit a business home runOctober 27, 2009As I write this, the baseball playoffs have just begun. And it occurred to me that baseball teams offer a few lessons in business management from which we can all take a little batting practice.
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Source: Aftermarket BusinessA training showOctober 15, 2009Trade shows are cool. They have all the new toys, displays, spokesmodels and problem-solving parts. Everybody knows about that stuff right? It seems to me that one of the most overlooked and valuable parts of a trade show is the part most people don’t attend — the training. This may range from formal, stand-up training to product demonstrations at a booth. In the grand scheme of things, overlooking the often no-additional-charge, educational sessions is missing out on the show.
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Source: Aftermarket Business
A case for global tradeOctober 14, 2009A recent editorial ("Trade Wall," Aftermarket Business, August 2009) by Larry Silvey, editor-in-chief of Aftermarket Business and editorial director for the Advanstar Automotive Group, takes the position that U.S. companies are selling and U.S. consumers are buying too much product made overseas, particularly in China.
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Source: Aftermarket BusinessIn with three-stepOctober 12, 2009When I interviewed for my first job in this business in 1979, my soon-to-be boss said, “It’s a simple business based on a simple three-step distribution model. It’s a tried-and-true model that is at the heart of this industry’s ability to fix cars quickly.” Anyway, I started the job and had hardly found the bathroom when my boss turned over a call from a jobber who was complaining about her warehouse “selling around her.” Huh? What kind of crazy anomaly was this? Didn’t this WD know his role as the second link in the distribution chain, that is, to mark up the parts to sell to the jobber, the third link in the chain who will mark the parts again to sell to shops?
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Source: Aftermarket BusinessFrom Clunkers to technologySeptember 29, 2009Attention in Congress post-Clunkers is already shifting from propping up new vehicle sales to strengthening supplier-base component technology development. Now that dealers have cleared their lots of inventory — the short-term goal of the Clunkers program — and some auto factories temporarily begin to hum, long-term questions are coming to the fore. The biggest one is “What can the U.S. do to assure the domestic auto industry, including OEM and aftermarket suppliers, develops next-generation technology to assure that Detroit never goes in the tank again?
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Source: Aftermarket BusinessMoving a parts storeLearn how to make it as painless as possibleSeptember 29, 2009 Let me first preface this article by saying one thing: ?Circum-navigating the globe using a tricycle and a sexton compass is easier than moving a parts store.? That being said, we recently moved our parts store to a new location. If any of you reading this and have never been involved in such a move you may not fully understand the pain and suffering endured. If you would like to experience this pain, without the move, try sticking a red-hot, iron poker in your left ear and you?ll be close.
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