ICDP's blog

As some level of activity returns to the car market in Europe, with some manufacturers beginning production, dealerships reopening in some markets and online sales with home deliveries being introduced in others, the biggest question over the shape of a post-Covid recovery is around consumer confidence. 

It might seem a bit inappropriate to be thinking about selling cars when Covid-19 is still on a rising trend in many markets, but it is already a topic of discussion during the lockdowns in a number of markets both from the perspective of what is appropriate now, and what might happen when dealerships reopen. 

Now that hopefully everyone has made the adjustments necessary to cope with the immediate effects of Covid shutdowns in terms of working arrangements, provisions for furloughed employees and continuation of services for essential workers, it is fair to think about the next stage – a return to work at some point in late Spring or early Summer

Over the last couple weeks I’ve participated in and listened to a few webcasts discussing how players in the automotive sector are dealing with the effects of the lockdown, and what they anticipate will happen on the return to work whenever that happens.

Firstly, I hope that you are all well and safe – many of us now have family, friends or colleagues who have suspected or confirmed cases of Coronavirus, so it’s beginning to become more personal and real for all of us. 

No blog last week as we were in the midst of our virtual Spring Members’ Meeting (which worked well based on the feedback received), and returning to the keyboard now it would be tempting to focus on the immediate issues around the impact that Covid-19 is having on everyone – personally and from a business perspective.

Since the cancellation of the Geneva Show last week, there has been a lot of speculation about whether this will signify the end of motor shows. 

I was tempted to focus on “black swan” events for this week’s blog, given that I should now be on my way to the Geneva Show (cancelled) and the team are all working on the materials for our Spring Members’ Meeting (now converted into a virtual format as member companies’ travel policies are becoming restrictive).

ICDP has been challenging the value of overly-rigid customer-facing processes for some years. Real customer satisfaction is not about tick-box surveys that reflect someone’s idea of the perfect process and the things that matter, but how the customer actually feels following some interaction in a commercial process.

The last couple of weeks have given me plenty food for thought about different forms of distribution model, and in particular whether there is a “right” answer to the question of who is best placed to handle the customer interaction face to face, the role taken today in the vast majority of cases by franchised dealers.

I have spent the last few days at the NADA (the US dealers’ association) Show in the USA – always an efficient way to get a lot of meetings with friends and contacts from around the globe from only one trip, but also an opportunity to check what’s going on in the US. It’s not a market that in my view presents many benchmarks for distribution, but there are still some lessons to be learned, and innovations that may be transferrable.

We are in the final editing stages of our “Aftermarket of Tomorrow” report which is the stage when you have to think about the “so what” after pulling together all the data and analysis. 

You may have seen the sad news last week that Clayton Christensen, author of “The Innovator’s Dilemma” that laid out the theory of “disruptive innovation” had passed away at the age of only 67. 

In the ICDP workshop, I described our “clean slate” as what I would be looking at from the perspective of the start of the distribution channel, with the factory behind me, facing the challenge of how most effectively to make money from the 4,000 or so cars a week that might be coming off the production lines. 

As everyone returns to work after the holiday period, it is firstly appropriate to wish everyone a Happy New Year, but also a natural time to think about what that year may bring for us all.  From a business perspective, some things seem to be known now.

One of the persistent disruptor stories of the last five years or so has been that Uber and other ride-sharing companies would replace individual car ownership, at least in metro areas, and particularly amongst the young.