One of the main concerns that many pundits had when Alan Mulally was named Big Boss at Ford was that he isn’t a car industry guy. In fact, that really is an issue throughout the manufacturing side of the industry. Mulally seems to be a pretty smart guy though and is planning to see what happens in the trenches. At his first visit to the NADA conference in Las Vegas, it was announced that the Ford chief would spend a few days on the sales floor at a Ford dealership. Which dealership is yet to be decided.

It’s interesting to note a current trend within the car maker’s side of the industry as opposed to the retail side. If you look at the older guys who work in the dealer support end of things, you might find one or two at each office who were dealership techs years ago. Beyond that, all the more recent folks have a university background. Even more interestingly, the hiring rules for most field reps at most manufacturers state that new hires must be university educated. Now don’t get me wrong, a university degree is a wonderful thing, but it doesn’t teach beans about the retail environment of a car dealership.
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