Honda dealers are making great strides forward with the Honda Leadership Programme
Ian Whitley, Manager of Learning and Development at The Honda Institute, has confirmed that the Honda dealers that are fully engaged in Honda’s new training programmes are performing better than those dealers who are not taking part.
Honda’s new training initiative called ”The Honda Leadership Programme” (HLP) aims to cover all disciplines from Line Management to the Dealer Principal and Board of Directors.
Whitley says, “Two years ago we had a number of different training companies supplying training for Honda, but the problem was that our efforts were fragmented. We decided to reduce the number of our core training suppliers and we wanted the best in the industry:
Whitley says, “We’ve made these training companies accountable by measuring dealer performance and over the first 6-month period of the programme this is what has happened:
In October 2007, we looked the departmental profitability of Honda dealers who are engaged in the HLP, at this stage, they were already 15% more profitable than those dealers who were not in the programme.
6 months later, in March 2008, we made the same comparisons, extracted any anomalies and the results were evident.
Those same Honda dealers are now 25% more profitable than those dealers who are not participating in the HLP.
Now we have evidence that The Honda Leadership Programme is working. Our next phase is to expand it and make even better.”
Jeff Smith and his team at Insight Training are responsible for the Financial and Commercial Awareness part of the programme, here’s what he has to say:
“Improving dealer profitability is not about charging customers more money; it’s about understanding how business works so that you can be more effective with your funds and your resources.
In the Honda Leadership Programme, we teach the management teams how to interpret their management accounts so that they can identify the results of their actions in the commercial world.
Knowing how to identify weak areas of your business and knowing which KPI to prioritise in order to fix them is a massive leap forward.
When the management team all have the same commercial understanding, the dealership is able to move is a single direction with greater momentum. The staff are happier, profitability improves, the job is made easier for everyone and as a result of all these things, we see Customer Satisfaction increasing.”
At a time when most franchised dealers are struggling with profitability, it would appear that Honda are onto a winner with The Honda Leadership Programme and the future looks even brighter as they plan to expand and enhance it.
Your comments are most welcome on this subject.
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Wow, it’s great to read articles like this. It proves that training done properly really works. Well done to Honda.
This is a great example of the benefits in understanding the financial workings when running a business! So many Managers have a shortfall of knowledge in this area. This is not the first time I have come across this Jeff Smith character that clearly has the ability to develop managers at the highest level.
If you read this Jeff you will see my email, please drop me a line.
Peter Dobbs