I worked for 13 months as a parts department manager for a multiline GM dealer a few years back. In the 5 years before I came there, the department was run badly and had NEVER broken even, much less showed a profit. I showed the dealer how much dead inventory we had, and how his previous managers were losing the return allowances they hadn't used. Then I showed him that, with less that $100K in inventory, we had over $30K in obsolescence--parts on hand that hadn't turned in 12 months.
I got the dealer to agree to return the $30K which was above and beyond our accumulated return reserve...at a cost of 30%, which was right at $10K. So when the numbers came in for my first year's operations, if not for the $30K return and its $10K cost, we'd have made money for the year. BUT since it was a loss, I was fired a month later. So the NEXT manager came in with a "clean" inventory, and because I laid the groundwork for him to MAKE money, he's been there ever since.
I did what was right, made the hard decisions that needed to be made to set the place up for profitability, and still got the axe because things didn't turn around quickly enough. The guy who followed became a "hero" by reaping the fruits of the seeds I planted. But that's all water under the bridge, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd still do the same things...because they needed to be done, no matter the personal consequences. [And six months after I left, the boss finally got wise and fired the $5k a month consultant who was bleeding the parts and service departments while hurting our Customer Service Index ratings. If THAT 5K a month had been available, I'd have shown a profit within 12 months despite the $30K return.]
So I'll always sleep well at night knowing I did the right thing...but integrity is hard to use to pay the mortgage and utilities.
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Today's Featured Article - The Day Mom Drove the 8N - by Brian Browning. My Dad was wanting to put in a garden but couldn't operate the 8N and handle the old horse drawn plow he had found and rigged up to use with the tractor. Well, he decided to go get Mom out of the house and have her drive the tractor while he walked behind the plow. You got to understand that while my Mom is a hard worker who will always help whenever she can... she had never operated farm machinery before that day. Dad got her out there, explained how the clutch was the same as in our o
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