This was one of the most attended roundtable discussions with over 20 individuals at one point with two other groups that weaved in and out of the discussion.

The discussion centered on how management changes, as well as on major developments within a dealer organization including acquisitions and mergers. The group was split on whether to offer quarterly/annual all-employee meetings to give everyone a briefing on management decisions as well as input from middle management to keeping all management decisions strictly on a senior management level.

The three main takeaways stemmed from this discussion and included:

• Leadership

• Have the leadership in place to implement change
• Find leadership and identify leadership skills on any level of an organization
• Lack of mid-level management leadership skills can be a challenge.

• Numbers — establish benchmarks and goals and use these metrics to change behavior either through the use of “carrots” or “sticks.” Establishing goals and using metrics or “numbers” creates opportunity for change (good or bad).

• Communication — managers must have good communication skills. With the right management in place with the right communication skills, change can happen and be viewed as progress toward goals and numbers.