If you know anything about this month’s cover subject, California shop owner Kye Yeung, there’s likely one word that comes to mind: technology. When I heard that Kye was starting to think about retirement at the end of this year, I knew we had to reach out to get him in one last FenderBender story, a feature on ADAS. There are very few shop owners who have prioritized investments in technology as much as Kye has, and as you’ll read in the story, “The Complexities of Calibrations", it’s quickly apparent those investments weren’t misguided.
You’ll find there’s also a reason we used the word “complexities” in the title of that story. The solutions, the processes, the requirements, the laws surrounding ADAS calibrations are just that—complex (just ask staff writer Maraya King, who did a bang-up job reporting the story).
And it’s not just the collision repair industry that’s impacted. As FenderBender’s parent company, 10 MIssions Media , has grown from a fledgling collision repair publisher in 1999 to a media company that has us covering the entire aftermarket, I’ve had a firsthand look at how most of the issues, concerns, strategies and success stories are all very similar across the different industries, if not the same.
It’s become more and more glaring how, as each segment continues to specialize and focus more granularly because of shifting technology, marketplaces and outside pressures, that everyone has become more isolated. There’s an air of, “This is what we do, and we do it for this person.” Yes, specialization and focusing on your customers is critical to success, but it’s easy to lose sight of big picture needs and solutions. Something we will continue to push for, and pride ourselves on, is bringing those lessons from each industry segment together for the betterment of everyone.
That’s the idea behind our ADAPT: Automotive Technology Summit this coming May in Nashville. We want to bring the entire industry together to discuss the solutions to the industry’s most progressive and pressing technology trends. Our goal is to give you a seat at the table in discussing the future of this industry. The auto industry isn’t just the automakers and giant corporations deciding who wins, who loses and how you run your business. This is not the OEM’s industry. This is your industry, and we’re all in this together.
Anna Zeck
Editorial Director
