Execution & Engagement

An interviewee recently asked me what I’m most proud of about GWC.  I instinctively reached for two charts.


I have always believed that the truth is in the numbers.  Having worked with many people over the years who do everything they can to talk around and even avoid the facts, I’ve taken the opposite approach:  Transparency.  In fact, I like to tell people that I should be judged on more than my effervescent personality ;)   Instead, I believe that any individual or company should be primarily evaluated on the points they put on the scoreboard. 


To that end, the GWC profitability story since the current leadership team took charge at the end of 2009 is pretty spectacular:  In summary, GWC’s profitability grew by 127% between 2009 and 2014.  This is very exciting as it means that the team exceeded its stated goal of doubling profitability every five years.  And its even more impressive considering that Independent dealer vehicle sales, GWC’s industry benchmark, rose by only 19% during the same period.



Achieving those results coincided with an intense effort to define and establish specific cultural values at GWC.  Those values have helped us create a company that demands a lot of its people while rewarding performance.  So, when we had the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) conduct our first-ever Employee Engagement Survey at the end of last year, I had some well-founded anxiety.  I wondered if we were succeeding in creating a thriving company that was also a great place to work.

The results of the survey left no doubt:  GWC’s top-line score (88% of GWC employees “Satisfied” with their jobs versus 70% in other companies) was very gratifying.  Taking a deeper dive into the survey, GWC’s results on particular aspects of Job Satisfaction were even more impressive, garnering scores as much as 33% higher than those of average employers. I took particular satisfaction from the many verbatim comments that our employees shared with us.  To wit:

“This place isn’t for everyone (and I think that’s a good thing.)"

Supporting The Arts (Cuba, Part 3)

In Cuba, we encountered artists at every turn.  Some of them were brilliant and a number of us in our group bought paintings and prints directly from those artists.  However, as in any market, there were a number of less-talented folks hustling to make a buck.  On one foray through a public square in Havana, several of us were accosted by this young man armed with a sketchbook and a sharpie who was dashing off caricatures and then hawking them.

I’m a sucker for these pitches, especially when the kid with the pen says he’s a student trying to earn his way through school.  Hey, he even had a badge in a lanyard that seemed to suggest he had some official reason for pestering us!  So, after some negotiation, I bought the caricature of me for $5 even though it looks a lot like the caricature that John Lee showed me HE had bought from the same guy!  The more I looked at mine, though, I started to think it actually resembled Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) in Reservoir Dogs:

I think I’ll just tell people it’s a drawing from the movie!  Gotta admire that guy’s hustle (if not his drawing skills.)

What Am I Reading?

I’d had a copy of Simon Senek’s Start With Why on my stack of business books for at least a year and in all likelihood it would have continued to be buried by new arrivals.  Fortunately, several recommendations (from Marty Wolff and Kelly Gray) pushed this to the head of the list.  It’s a quick read with some fundamental thinking on the importance of thinking about “Why” we do what we do both as companies and individuals.  The book resonated with us and is helping to frame our upcoming National Sales Meeting.

Peak Design Frozen In Time (Cuba, Part 2)

Before we traveled to Cuba, everyone asked the same question: “Can you bring me some cigars?” (Answer: I’ll try.) Upon returning, everyone is asking “Do people really drive those classic cars?” (Answer: Yes.)

I’m actually giving short shrift to a complex set of issues with my second answer. The truth (as shown in these photos I took while wandering the streets of Havana) is that classic cars are everywhere and are the primary vehicles on the road. Any family that owned a vehicle prior to the Revolution that culminated in the overthrow of Batista in January 1959 appears to have done anything they can to maintain those vehicles. The U.S. embargo made obtaining new vehicles nearly impossible, but having a car is important not only for transportation but also status (just as it is throughout the world.)

And, while I lamented the lack of Cuban innovation in my last post, necessity has made engineering geniuses out of the Cubans who’ve managed to keep 60-year-old vehicles running by scavenging spare parts from other makes and motors (even lawnmowers!)

Broadly speaking, one of the appeals of modern Cuba to an outsider is the sense that you can witness peak design in action. Have there ever been more beautiful cars than those created by the U.S. design studios in the 1950’s? Forget functionality, mileage and safety: These rockets were beautiful. They reflected our space obsessions and inspired generations of designers to aspire to create things of beauty. Is it any wonder that visionary designers at Tesla, Google and even Apple are all turning to cars to fuel their ambitions?

It’s also worth noting the fantastic architecture (see a few representative photos). It’s hard to imagine that these designs were in any way practical but they are striking. Wouldn’t it be cool if the next iteration of Cuban design leaped right from the ‘50’s to the 2020’s and skipped all the cookie-cutter boredom of the intervening years?

Finally, for anyone who wants to read an expanded journalistic version of my last post, I would highly recommend the April 6th issue of Time magazine, which devoted its cover story to Cuba and did a wonderful job of covering the impending arrival of hordes of American tourists.

That article contained an hopeful quote from a senior government official who explained that the new Cuba will be based on elements of Capitalism but still be Cuban and insightfully offered:

“We have to find ways to make the life of our people better. The world is not the way you want it to be. The world is the world, and you have to find a way to be in harmony with it.”

Can we have some serious U.S. politicians embrace the same philosophy?

Your Man in Havana

Colleen and I just returned from an amazing trip to Cuba that was organized by our friend Larry Dorfman from GWC’s sister company APCO. Our travel companions included dealers, agents and others who, I have to say, were among the nicest people I’ve ever bonded with in the auto space. They were also prodigious rum consumers but what happens in Havana stays in Havana!

Overall, much of what I had imagined about Cuba was true: The cars were mostly pre-1960 American models, the architecture hearkened from the same atomic age and the people were relatively poor but surprisingly happy. We didn’t experience a sense of oppression (in fact, I’ve found Washington DC to be a much more intimidating, security-conscious venue since 9/11) and met a number of Cubans who travel freely in and out of the country. More surprisingly, the television in our hotel included U.S. channels such as Disney, HBO, CNN and ESPN (generally translated to Spanish); i.e., this is NOT North Korea.

Rather, it’s a solidly Communist country where, for more than 50 years and several generations, people have lived peacefully. They’ve received good educations and world-class health care along with provisions for their minimum needs even as they live under an extremely authoritarian dictatorship. However, it’s strange to experience a dearth of stores and markets with virtually no brand competition or other commercial opportunities. As a lifelong American, it’s hard to reconcile the minimalistic living, oppressive government and reasonable contentment of many of the people.

What really struck me was the lack of initiative and innovation. I joked that if Raul Castro simply named 2015 “The Year of Painting” and required every Cuban to pick up a brush and adopt a building, the place would look 10 times better than it does today! And, despite the well-educated population, there do not appear to be any significant inventions being developed to make life easier or better for people (despite the obvious need.) I can only chalk this up to the lack of profit and status incentives to stand out, to innovate, to be better than the rest.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., despite our many internal political challenges and increasing wealth inequality, we continue to rapidly evolve, with new thinking and new businesses leading us to even more relative prosperity. It’s a fascinating comparison with our neighbors only 90 miles south of Miami.

What Am I Reading?

I’ve been re-telling the “20-Mile-Marchers” story about the 1911 quest to reach the South Pole as relayed by Jim Collins for several years and apparently have unconsciously developed a keen interest in arctic expeditions! “In The Kingdom of Ice” by Hampton Sides takes place a few decades earlier and tells the tale of the ill-fated explorers on board the USS Jeanette who attempted to reach the North Pole. It’s a gripping story of bravery and heroism in the name of exploration. It also demonstrates how little we knew about the world’s geography; some people actually believed that the North Pole was an open circle of warm waters that may have even led to a Jules Verne-esque underground civilization! If only that were true….

Lists, Lists & More Lists

I have always been a “list” person.  In fact, if you’ve ever read Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (or seen the movie starring John Cusack) you will understand when I say that I’m a clone of that “Rob”, at least when it comes to list-making.  I’ve been putting together “Best-Of’s” for friends annually since I was a teenager and decided this year to share a few of my 2014 faves with a wider audience.

Albums
Beck:  Morning Phase
Interpol:  El Pintor
Lana Del Rey:  Ultraviolence
Dum Dum Girls:  Too True
Parquet Courts:  Sunbathing Animal

Songs
Mac Demarco:  Passing Out Pieces
Anna Calvi & David Byrne:  Strange Weather
The Soronprfbs:  I Love You All
Hamilton Leithauser:  Alexandra
Ariana Grande:  Problem

Concerts
Sky Ferreira, Music Hall of Williamsburg
Slowdive, Vic Theater in Chicago
Beach House & Friends, No Other (The Songs of Gene Clark), Union Transfer in Philadelphia
Peter Hook & The Light, Trocadero in Philadelphia
Katy Perry, Consol Center in Pittsburgh
Britney Spears, Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas

Movies
Birdman
Under the Skin

Book
Ben Horowitz:  The Hard Thing About Hard Things

What Am I Reading?

I’ve been slowly moving through this book, which has topped several other lists this year and really like it.  Yet another dystopian novel, it’s an extremely warm, human look at, among many characters, a troop of traveling actors performing Shakespeare in a post-disease-ravaged world.