The common rap about the family business is: “Don’t get caught in the crossfire of interfamily turmoil.” As an employee, advisor or vendor, you can easily become a victim of the collateral damage. And we all know that we don’t have to be bloo

If your service department makes the majority of its revenue fixing broken cars, then get ready for massive layoffs and a huge downsizing. If your business plan is heavily dependent on warranty revenue and customer-pay repair work, then for your serv

The price of going higher is change Begin, start, commence, institute, inaugurate, initiate. There is something refreshing and optimistic about these words, whether they refer to the dawn of a new day, the birth of a child, the prelude of a symphony

With less than two months away from the new year, the time is probably right for executive management to ask a few key questions about current results and future direction: How much in sustainable costs savings were actually generated in 2012? What w

Every couple of years or so, I enjoy presenting a compelling list of leadership traits for reader-evaluation. While there is no perfect list of great leadership traits—and I could never fit a complete inventory into the confines of this column even

In the past several months, I’ve spent a great deal of time discussing and researching the current and future challenges confronting dealers. This work has fed my upcoming third book, “Velocity overdrive: The road to reinvention.” It highlights

Ok, I felt it, witnessed it, calculated it, preached it and now sophisticated and comprehensive research, studying more than 75,000 customers over several years, has provided absolute proof. Bells, whistles, fluff and items unrelated to actual proble

It’s been one hell of a ride, gang Looking back at Progressive Basics when the company was first started. I was a very young man, only 35, but had already sat in every seat in a dealership. I had developed my own vehicle (Nissan Pathfinder) and own

When I met Patricia I was head over heels in love, totally committed; crazy beyond recovery. We came from similar backgrounds, we had countless common interests and our relationship was story book magic. However, just a few short years after our hone