Socrates Says

I once started at a large urban dealership. Within my first two weeks, I noticed a daily pattern. The general manager would walk into the service lane and ask the same question: “Where’s the number? Where are we at? Where’s the number?” Every day. Production. Gross. The metric. The scoreboard. And don’t misunderstand me — […]

“In God we trust. All others bring data.”  (W. Edwards Deming) Ask a veteran salesperson to see their black book. The worn pages. The names are called for fifteen years. The dozen accounts they trust. It is a remarkable thing, and it is also the whole problem. We send good people out with dirt under […]

As many of you know, Socrates has long served as our logo. Socrates is remembered for his devotion to ethics, human behavior, and the care of the soul. Rather than lecturing, he professed uncertainty and pursued wisdom by questioning the assumptions of others. He taught through inquiry. That has been my teaching style for more […]

“In God we trust. All others bring data.”  (W. Edwards Deming) Here’s how it works today. The share chart goes up at the quarterly review. If it ticked up, everyone relaxes. If it ticked down, someone gets a talking-to. Either way, the meeting ends without a single account named. Market share is the number OEMs […]

“In God we trust. All others bring data.”  (W. Edwards Deming) Picture your best salesman. He works on a black book, the names he has called for years, the dozen accounts he trusts, and he fills the rest of the week with instinct. Nobody is loafing. The effort is real. The problem is the map […]

A Paper by C. Lustgarten in the Shingo Institute It’s a well-known paradox that meaningful change requires confronting difficult truths. Josh McEwan, Director of Manufacturing Product Development at O.C. Tanner, meets this idea head-on. “There is a lack of good leadership in the world,” he says. “There’s a lot of leaders out there, but I […]