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The following is the module-by-module program structure:

Module 1—Leading in a Dynamic Environment

• What makes a great leader? Explore the personal leadership characteristics needed to be a successful automobile and truck retailing executive.
  • Identifying personal leadership characteristics, e.g. the Emotional Intelligence framework for personal leadership, understanding one's own leadership style, role modeling exemplary leadership
  • Creating a vision and mission for the organization, e.g. the roles of managing vs. leading, creating an adaptive organization.
• What makes a great entrepreneur? Seek to understand the entrepreneurial mind set and process, and learn the capabilities of great entrepreneurs.
  • Moving from ideas to revenue growth through the identification, shaping and capture of new business opportunities.

Module 2—Developing Strategies for Innovation and Growth

• What are the “strategic lenses” used to evaluate a business? Delve into the nature of strategy, identify the external and internal influences on dealer success and use innovation as a driver of growth and competitiveness.
  • Focusing on the essentials of strategy, e.g. frameworks for setting "real-time" strategy, understanding the process of going from vision to implementation.
  • Understanding the macro-economic drivers of the automobile and truck retailing industry, e.g. globalization of the supply and demand chains, changes in consumer needs and expectations, proliferation of choices and information.
  • Aligning innovation with the micro-economic conditions at your dealership, e.g. understanding what type of innovation to apply at the current time and place. Types of innovation include disruptive, application, product, process, service, marketing, business model, and structural innovation.
  • Creating platforms for growth, e.g. new products and new markets (blue ocean strategies)
  • Debriefing and one-on-one session with coaches to understand the 360 feedback results

Module 3—Strategic Human Resources Management

• Will your team get you where you want to be? Understand the principles of talent acquisition and management.
  • Identifying recruitment, development and retention best practices and how to apply them to your dealership.
  • Building an organization platform for growth, e.g. coaching, recognition and reward.
  • Leading your people through change and crisis, e.g. communicating the vision, leading during uncertainty
  • Engaging the team for success
• What are the challenges of managing within the context of a closely held business?
  • Working within the family context, governance of owner-operated business, opportunities and limits for personal growth
  • Perfecting the art of negotiation, e.g. stakeholder analysis, negotiating with partners, manufacturers, employees, etc.

Module 4—Optimizing Assets to Improve Profitability

• Are your assets fully leveraged? Acquire executive-level capabilities to interpret financial information to successfully manage your business.
  • Understanding your dealership's financial footprint, e.g. key metrics and ratios, using industry comparables, spotting emerging trends
  • Moving from managing profit centers to managing profitability, e.g. creating synergies and understanding linkages across profit centers, understanding portfolio and risk management techniques
  • Understanding options for financing operations and growth
  • Optimizing and structuring the use of capital for real estate and other assets
  • Buying and selling dealerships and other assets, e.g. valuation and financing methods, evaluating opportunities and offers

Module 5—Managing for Long Term Success

• How do you build a strong and healthy dealership? Uncover the key ingredients that are found within companies that are built to last.
  • Designing and aligning the organization, e.g. building high performance teams, aligning personal and organizational goals
  • Developing bench strength, e.g. preparing for known and unknown personnel departures, mentoring, plus trans-generational family succession
  • Creating a collaborative environment, e.g. influence without authority, dealing with conflicts, developmental and on-the-fly coaching
  • Maintaining high levels of ethics and integrity, e.g. fairness, situational ethics, creating a moral compass for the organization
  • Using effective decision-making processes to facilitate dealership success

Module 6—Marketing and Experience Innovation

• Does each of your customers experience the best service you can offer? Deliver world-class service every time you interact with customer or prospect.
  • Moving from providing services to building customer experiences, e.g. creating a customer-oriented culture and making the most of all customer touch points
  • Pursuing process excellence and process innovation, e.g. measuring existing processes, implementing continuous improvements and radical innovations
  • Segmenting customers, e.g. understanding your target markets and tailoring processes and services to fit them
  • Marketing as a tool for creating loyalty, e.g. utilizing technology, the Internet and other disruptive/emerging technologies to optimize the customer experience and create new business models
• Are you ready for the future of automobile and truck retailing?
  • An appropriate experiential exercise -- to be determined at a later date

Inter-module assignments will be a critical component of the program. Two primary assignments will be employed:

• “IDP”—Individual Development Plan —will focus on creating and executing a plan for personal improvement in the areas of leadership and management.
• “FBP”—Firm Business Plan — will focus on identifying, shaping and implementing a specific new business opportunity for the participant’s dealership or dealership group.

Classroom Educational Experiences will include:

• Interactive learning in the classroom
  • Analysis and discussion of real-life case studies with a high degree of student participation
  • Interactive lectures, discussions and multimedia presentations
  • Learning teams of 4-6 people to prepare cases, exercises, etc.
• Guest speakers from within and outside of the industry
• Application learning in residential sessions
  • Coaching, simulations and other interactive exercises

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