LAS VEGAS (Nov. 1, 2022)—The 11th annual MSO Symposium kicked off SEMA/AAPEX week in Sin City with some networking and learning opportunities for multi-shop operators. Serving as master of ceremonies was Driven Brands Collision Group President Dean Fisher, whose organization recently surpassed 1,000 locations across its brands.
“I remember attending the MSO Symposium championing an independent model with a franchise network of 200 locations, and now I’m here moderating the event ahead of my retirement and at the peak of my career, supporting a network of 1,000 independently owned locations,” said Fisher. “So much has changed in our industry through the years, but the fundamentals of operational excellence and premier customer experiences are still the same. We’ve proven that MSOs enhance the marketplace with their service model.”
In addition to networking time, attendees were treated to several panel discussions and talks from industry experts. That included a discussion on ESG practices in a business—E for environmental impact, S for the business’ relationship with stakeholders, and G for the governance and leadership of a business. Simply, ESG is the totality of a business’ efforts to be responsible, to the planet, to customer, to its community, to employees, and so on. It’s a trending topic in the business world, not only because doing these things has moral value but can also have revenue value. The more admired a business is, the more it will attract customers, top employees and more.
“(ESG) is tied to our core values, which is doing the right thing,” summarized Eddie Hightower, Caliber Collision SVP sustainability and social responsibility.
Other topics covered at the symposium included claims automation as Mitchell’s Manager, Product Management David Beumer attempted to separate fact from fiction. In one exercise, Beumer displayed images of a front-end collision and invited attendees to mentally draft a quick estimate. He then produced an AI estimate for that repair to see how close it came, the lesson being that even human estimators can produce varying results. Looking at an AI estimate as a starting point, it can be just as reliable as an in-person evaluation.
In one of the final sessions of the day, Andy Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. spoke about the state of the U.S. labor market. While the market remains hot, Challenger said that some cooling is to be expected as layoffs restart following a long period below normal levels. Even in a cooler market, Challenger said, employers are going to have to continue to compete for talent by offering things today’s employees demand such as flexibility, higher salaries and established career paths.
For 2022 the MSO Symposium was co-located with AAPEX, both located at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
