Let’s Call Missing Auto Parts for What it Is: Theft
While the parts in question may only amount to a couple of dollars worth of nuts and bolts, the havoc that follows and the lost productivity and revenue that results, is substantial.
Mitch Schneider: Martial Arts Helps Me in the Automotive Aftermarket
The more you are able to anticipate the unexpected, the more you are able to simulate the impossible, the more likely you are to survive if the fates conspire against you and you find yourself in a compromising situation.
One Ringy-Ringy…
It’s amazing how many of us live our lives by rote — an endless succession of repetitive acts that all too quickly become patterns and then habits. I know. I’m as guilty as the next guy.
Let Me Count the Ways
It’s easy to focus on the negative when that’s what you’ve been trained to do, especially after you’ve been at it for nearly 40 years.
Business as Usual?
Columns come from lots of places. Sometimes something happens that is so upsetting or so compelling I have to write about it just to get through it — or past it. Other times something happens and there is an obvious lesson that I feel is important for both of us to consider, important enough to
How Are Things? Well, Incredible!
I have an acquaintance who insists the best possible response when asked how you are, how business is, or how things are going in general, is, “Incredible!” Why? Because, it doesn’t really say anything, it doesn’t tell whether things are incredibly good or incredibly bad. Or, whether or not they are just plain incredible: as
These Are His Words, Not Mine
help us become more successful?” I wrote. He said he believed the questions had already been answered, both within the body of the piece itself and through his e-mail. “Just as with anything else in life the need to effectively communicate is the key to success,” he wrote. I believe his response was so universal
COM-PEN-EEEEEEE!
Mondays can be brutal in my world. Mondays after a holiday weekend are generally worse: Ripping days out of a normal work week and then trying to make those missing hours up, regardless of the time remaining will almost certainly make you crazy. Mondays, after a holiday weekend, in the middle of a recession, are
The Rules of Engagement
A long overdue invitation to the service
and repair sector.
Our Business Relationships are Like Dominoes
Last night was special. My wife was “out.” I was “in.” Neither of our two grown children was in crisis and it looked like I could do just about whatever I wanted to. As luck would have it – and, despite the fact that I have access to more than 200 stations through my super-duper,
When Too Many Is Not Enough
What the dreaded stock room reveals about our businesses (and the supplier-customer relationship).
That ‘Free’ Lunch Could Reap Dividends
I went years without eating lunch, decades actually. I wasn’t a breakfast-eater either: a cup of coffee and something … a bear claw, a bagel; every once in a while, maybe even a custard doughnut. I became a breakfast-eater just about the day after I started in this business.