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

There are many costs to running a successful dealership. To name a few: rent, labor, benefits, DMS systems, services and supplies to keep the operation running and finally…your suppliers. Yes, while suppliers play a key role in your success as a bu

As a specialist in spend management and operations, I have developed a respect, a trust and a reliance on well-conceived and well developed performance metrics. Performance metrics allow us to check in on performance levels and quickly know where we

Dealers look at metrics all day long: number of units sold, front gross, F&I penetration rates, service gross, etc. And if they don’t like what they see, the department manager hears about it pretty quick. In a typical scenario, the dealer asks

My team and I recently concluded a large number of spend assessments, across many dealerships, in various cities, under various ownership structures.  We interviewed many dealer principals and CFO’s as a routine part of our process and as such, I

Dealerships are routinely overcharged by suppliers for supplies and services – costing dealerships thousands of dollars annually. In our spend management practice, we have the opportunity to audit supplier compliance across 100-plus expense categor

Successful leaders realize that they have a unique obligation to establish a challenging course for their business, to create a new and compelling direction, embrace challenges and establish “BHAGs” that reach for new levels of organization and m

Businesses are faced with varying forms of risk everyday. We take steps to mitigate that risk using a number of tools at our disposal including experts such as accountants, lawyers and the like. We take steps to mitigate risk through processes, polic

“Can anyone tell me why I need 16 towing companies?” “Why do I need 68 advertising and marketing vendors for this operation?” These were just a couple of the questions that were asked by a frustrated COO of his management team after reviewing