Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, USN

I’ve been privileged to work in the car business. I say privileged because I have had the opportunity to work with and learn from some great leaders. I’ve worked for a baseball legend, an amazing CEO when I was with one of the public companies, and entrepreneurs that have had to learn the business using their own money.

While with a public company, I was honored to go to their Dealer Academy where I learned every aspect of the car business, the New Car Business, the Used Car Business, Fixed Operations and Accounting. In completely burying myself in learning about the numbers end, I realized I had a natural knack for numbers and understanding how much revenue was generated and knowing what percentage of each expense needs to be in order to create a net profit. Sounds simple enough but with upwards of $70M in annual revenue and know where each tenth of a percent needs to go can be a bit overwhelming at times. Like I said, I had a knack, not quite a “Rain Man”, knack but a knack nonetheless.

One career-changing event occurred during my schooling at the Dealer Academy that made all the difference, though. I got an opportunity to listen to a speaker by the name of Captain D. Michael Abrashoff, USN. He spoke about leadership as outlined in his book “It’s Your Ship”. If you are in a position of leadership, this is a must read. I read it and immediately put into practice some of the things mentioned that made huge impacts in how I related to my staff. You can have incredible understanding of a business or position you hold but if you cannot get the people around you to rally to your cause you will fail out of the gate. One particular action that made a difference was sending a letter to the spouses, significant other or parent/caretaker of the people whom reported to him. The letter thanks the relative for the support of the sailor and details to that person how much the sailor made a difference in his/her job role. He developed loyalty from his crew because, in order to do this, you must take the time and energy to pay attention to their individual roles and how they affect the operation. With the receipt of the letter, the relative will relay the message to the sailor. Can you imagine the impact?

I did this for each and every employee who worked for me ever since reading this idea. I realized a number of things. First, I can guide my employee by understanding what they need from their job, irrespective of money, and help them get it. Second, I had to pay closer attention to what I have tasked them to do. This will give you much more insight. Third, I realized how much more people are capable of than they realize. People will perform with proper coaching. I’ve had employees force me to make decisions they didn’t like, so I am not in some euphoric state that helps everyone every time, but if I, as a leader, can compel 90-95% of my staff to buy into the overall objective of a business by doing their part I am way ahead of the curve. Lastly, I realized that even though I referred to the great people I’ve been associated with earlier in this post; I was even more privileged to work with, hand in hand, with some exceptional people. People that earned not much more than minimum wage that showed up for work just a little early because they felt they were a part of something, to single mothers in the business office that gained my respect because of what they needed to accomplish for themselves and their children to managers earning over six figures that took my leadership and imparted the same ideas to help all of their staffs to become better and earn more.

The effect of having a group of people that I regarded as exceptional in their individual roles and them knowing I knew their roles, challenges and loyalties was and is dramatic. Be a leader to the people whom report to you and not just another manager. Lead them to their own level of greatness.

Hank Aaron BMW

Cars and the car business have always been my passion. I’ve spent 15 of the past 23 years honing my skills as a Manager, Finance and Insurance Department Director and General Manager. I’ve been a part of transactions with people with incomes close to the poverty line up to people with incomes exceeding the tens of millions annually. I have so many stories that I will share over these blogs that will, I hope, be entertaining especially because the auto business is something the general public thinks anyone can do.

Along those lines, I was privileged enough to work for Hank Aaron at his BMW/MINI Dealership in South Atlanta. I started as the New Car Manager but Hank and his partners realized my previous experience as a GM will make me a good candidate to run his total store some 9 months later. What we accomplished was amazing as the store quadrupled its net profitability in my first year their over its previous year. But I am getting ahead of myself.

When I first interviewed with Mr. Aaron or Henry as his close knit friends refer to him, I was awestruck. Here was a living legend, someone I read about as a kid, one of those people that will go down in history as a great person. I sat with him and asked him the secret to his baseball success. He told me the story of how, during a game, he would watch and study the pitchers he was facing. He would learn their tendencies and focus on what pitches were coming. I told him a professional player does that. “No!” he said. Some of his teammates would be looking at the girls in the stands, talk about what and where they were going after the game and any number of things outside of the game. These things went on in the dugout during the game. He said his secret to his success was he was always learning as a player about his competition.

I took that conversation to heart. As many know, the car business is always changing. More information becomes available to the buying public which makes people much better informed than ever. Let’s go back to my comments about the general public thinking they can do the car business. Mr. Aaron and his partners had the dealership group for a couple of years before I got there. Before I had access to the statements I never thought they had so little experience in the business. They had experiences and success in other businesses but not the car business. I brought the seasoning needed to make some tough decisions, change some policies and process that made that significant difference in the profitability of the store. The best part Mr. Aaron came to the dealership 5 days a week from 8:30am to 5:00pm and he and I visited regularly. I spent many of those meetings teaching Mr. Aaron what I knew. I suggested operational changes for him to receive the ROI he and his partners were looking for. I took that initial meeting with him telling me how he became a great homerun hitter by always being a student of his craft. In return, I became a student of my craft, refined my skills as a leader, not just a manager but a leader of 130 people whom I still remember fondly.

Because my store had such significant increase in volume and profitability, it became a great dealership that had upside to any potential buyers. And Mr. Aaron and his partners had perfect timing…they sold the store along with their Honda and Hyundai franchises for a reported $75M. After the assets and expenses I believe they received $40M-$45M. What a tremendous windfall. It seemed so easy but took so much work on my part to get it there.

I look now at the auto business. I have enjoyed it so much and look forward to what the future of the industry brings. I look at my craft and still think about Mr. Aarons comments…keep studying, keep reviewing and keep looking for the way to groove your swing. It worked for him.

Who says perfomance is going away?

I remember when I was a kid, Volkswagen brought the GTI to market. It had a rip-roaring 88 horsepower. A few years later Honda/Acura came out with their VTEC engines that had as much as 118 HP. I read the car mags and drooled over the cars with the handling to match the power. Note this, I was not born when muscle cars ruled so this was my first exposure to "real" horsepower.

Fast forward 10 years and I bought my first, of now 11 (!), BMW's...a 325 sedan, sport package, white with black leather and the sport package. I thought the car flew and it had only 189 HP. A couple of cars later, I had an M3. Now that car had POWER!!! With a rousing 240Hp, not many cars on the road could match the straight line speed, much less the handling and braking.
Let's go to today's medium priced V6 Japanese cars. The Mazda 6-276HP, the Honda Accord-267HP, Lexus ES350-268HP.

For today's performance cars, the V-6 Mustang has 305HP, Camaro SS V8 with 426HP, the BMW M3 (gotta have this one listed) has 414HP.

Hyper performance cars have in excess of 500HP and many approach or eclipse 600HP.
Lately, we hear about excessive emissions, fuel economy requirements and such. Yet, the manufacturers continue to build some pretty powerful cars and we are all the better for it. I realize these cars represent a very small percentage of the units sold but for the horespower junkies, we have a lot of choices.

Now looking to the future, some concept cars from Ferrari and Porsche have more horsepower than ever with the advantage of Hybrid Technology. The Porsche, I was reading, will be faster than the fabled Carrera GT both in a straight line and around Nurburgring.

For the performance car lover, cars now and in the near future are just going to be unbelievable. Just like each month when I was a kid, patiently awaiting the next issue of the car mags, I cannot wait.