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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Metacomet who wrote (23561)	10/18/2009 11:09:02 AM
From: robert b furman	12 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71475

Hi Metacomet, I worked my way through college being sponsored by Chevrolet Central Office Sales and Service - I started working for Chevrolet at age 19. I pretty much did every field job in multiple zone locations til I was 36. At that point in time,I was given several excellent promotions all abck to Detroit (which I had been to 3 times and didn't care for). It was time to take the Nestea plunge in Retail. I was offered a GM job in a small dealership that had already been sold to Bill Heard's organization.It was an 18 month opportunity to make the transition. After turning the store into a profirable operation Heard accelerated the buy sell and after working for GM for 16 years - I was ourt of a job in 4 months. Mr Heard gave me a managers job in the country's largest dealership Landmark Chevrolet. As a F&I manager I was trained a very aggressive business approach which I disliked. I then went to start up a smaller rural dealer outlining in the Houston rural market. I have been there since 1988.I have built it into a high quality yet rural store with a strong leaning towards commercial speacilty vehicles,Explorer conversion vans,and in particular the Texas market is an over achiever for full size trucks. I'm definitely blinded with loyalty to GM as they were a tremendous trainer and provider of an opportunity to me when I was in need of an education with out the bloodlines to provide it. In my first 3 years of school at GMI (which was 6 weeks of school and 6 weeks of work all year long for 5 years) I worked along side UAW brothers and literally poured V-8 blocks,Cast Nodular steering knuckles,machined brake calipers,assembled corvettes,did many qualiy controll /repair tasks on components such as transmissions. I done the horribly boring mind deadening,loud,noisey dangerous jobs that required safety glasses,ear plugs and hard hats. NONE OF THEM are good jobs.They all were boring and drove most employees into "pot smoking on breaks or running out of the plant for 2-3 shooters of booze ,to make it through the boring day. The loss of these types of "dirty manufacturing jobs are lost by those who had no other education. They were in my recollection only GOOD PAYING JOBS. My wife and I never had children - we instead saved and invested so that when I found a good retail opportunity I could buy in as my blood lines didn't provide the silver spoon norm you rightly point out. Initially I only was allowed to buy in a small percent of the first dealership.As I developed the first store, we purchased other stores and sent manager out to run thr new entities. I have been very fortunate,to have been given the opportunities I've had in my life. I have been in the car business for almost 40 years. I think I have a quite balanced perspective having been both reatil and wholesale. I think GM has/had gene/cultural problems. Management wanted bonusses for less performance. The government gave away a lot of these jobs to foreign workers as the world became globally competitive. There is a hugue problem with the cost of health care and competing with emerging nations with socialist healthcare. I do not pretend to know the answer but it and the Dollar FX currency differences over years have both been major issues that have lead to the outsourcing of many manufacturing jobs. Jobs that if I had children - I would not want for them - as I experienced them. They were great motivators for me to finish my education. I'm now at Washington DC for a NADA 20 group meeting (I'm the Chairman this year) and my friends are calling me - so this is another post I'm not checking spelling or punctuation on. Thanks for asking - I'm proud of my career track. Bob