THOUGHT LEADER SPOTLIGHT
Kristian Aquilina, Vice President, GM Canada Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing, shares his thoughts on significance of innovation and opportunities for GM Canada.
- What does GM's “innovate now” behaviour mean to you as a leader?
- We can all read the definition: “I see things not as they are, but as they could be”. But I think it conceals the fact that truly living the “innovate now” behaviour invokes curiosity and courage that doesn’t come easily to everyone. Things we take for granted today like the simple umbrella , or the bicycle…even the automobile were ridiculed or dismissed as a fad as they were being invented. There are plenty of other exampl es. These inventors were not discouraged, and thanks to their perseverance their innovations have had a profound impact on the world. So to me, innovation goes beyond ideation and execution. It requires these human attributes to punch through the status quo and at GM, we'll benefit from an environment that encourages either individuals or whole teams to bring all these attributes together.
- Given that you have had the opportunity to work in various roles around the world, how have you inspired an innovative culture? Can you provide an example of in an idea/innovation that you are particularly proud of from these experiences?
- I've had the opportunity to work across many smaller GM operations which don’t benefit from the bigger resources or scale of our home markets. While it would be great to be always able to rely upon HQ for the distribution of resources and allocation of focus across other operations, its simply not reality. There are often good reasons for this. But it means smaller operations must rely on self help and their own innovation to execute their business plans.
- There are good examples in the customer experience space, where we’ve established low cost digital solutions for managing reservations for highly sought after EVs in the Middle East. Or in Japan, where the Cadillac team and their dealers have developed great non digital personal (face to face with the customer) solutions to wow the customer in the absence of slick IT solutions.
- What innovation(s) do you believe will have the most meaningful impact on the automotive
industry today and in the future?
- To zoom out for a moment, the rapid modernization of mobility brought together by the convergence 4 key trends will have a profound impact on our industry: 1) electrification, 2) autonomous driving 3) connected software driven vehicle platforms and 4) new “ownership” options. Just imagine how this changes the relationship between OEM, dealer and customer (however we will define them). Thankfully, GM is at the vanguard of these.
- Appreciating that you have only been in your new role as Vice President of VSSM in Canada, what excites you the most in terms of innovation opportunities that Canada can play a role in?
- In reference to the earlier responses, GM Canada is the Goldilocks of the GM world for innovation. By that, I mean it is perfectly sized and located to lean in to its innovative pre-disposition big enough to make a difference with a meaningful sample (market) size and small enough for a nimbleness that many organizations yearn for. It is close enough to HQ to gain attention, attract resources and be a meaningful test market but far enough to maximize the benefit of our size and culture.
- What is your advice for someone who had a great idea, pursued it, but it didn’t work out?
- There are so many inspiring examples of ideas that “didn't work out” but made a positive impact on the world.
- There's the ones that “didn’t work out” for their original intent, but “worked out” in an unexpected way (bubble wrap comes to mind)
- There's the ones that “didn’t work out” according to some people, but through persistence changed the world (like the original personal computer)
- There's the ones that “didn’t work out” but informed the next great idea (the Apple story is famous for this)
- There's the ones that “didn’t work out” but iterated its way to success (look up by WD-40 is so named)
The best piece of advice here is inspired by Einstein himself that said,
“Failure is success in progress. So, learn lessons and be brave. And do your best to gain support along the way”
VSM INNOVATION SHOWCASE
Monthly Dealer Contact Templates saves Western Region DMs +40 hours per month!
Background
Sales DMs spend several hours per week preparing for dealer contacts. All 12 DMs creating a similar version of the same presentation was repetitive and inefficient. Ultimately, DMs want to spend more time with dealers at the dealership rather than preparing repetitive content for meetings.
Solution
Monthly dealer contact presentation templates were born. The template updated by one lead DM and is provided to all Sales DM’s at the beginning of each month. The deck includes templates for all focus areas of the business: Key Dates, Priorities, Sales & Inventory, Aged Inventory, Marketing , Accessories, OnStar, Leasing, EV Readiness, Action Items.
Results
Presentation templates are saving each DM +40 hours per month. Feedback from the team has been very positive. Most DMs are trimming the deck down to under 10 slides to remain focused on spe cif ic Dealers opportunities. The template creates structure in the meeting and drives discussion on key metrics. As an ongoing initiative each DM will take the lead on the template each month and continue to refine it further.
