The invention of the wheel is arguably one of the most profound developments in the history of man. It’s hard to say where we would be without it. Certainly, there would be no automotive industry, no aftermarket and no need for someone like me writing a column like this. Its simple, yet elegant design is almost transparent. You don’t have to be a physicist or an engineer to recognize its genius. Nor is it necessary to have an advanced degree to see that all the force, all the pressure, appears to be directed inward toward the center of the wheel at the point it rotates on the axle. If the wheel has spokes and you look hard enough, you can actually see how all the dynamic forces applied to the outer surface of the wheel ultimately radiate inward toward its center. Consequently, it may be the perfect metaphor to describe the everyday experience of those individuals working in today’s automotive service environment currently constituting the bulk of your customers. When looking at the wheel, it may also be interesting to note that most businesses fall into one of two major categories: they are either labor intensive, those businesses requiring a highly skilled craftsman or technician; or, they are equipment intensive, businesses requiring sophisticated and expensive “hardware.” Our business, the automotive service business, is both labor and equipment intensive — perhaps, more so than any other contemporary business enterprise today. Our business is also environmental responsibility intensive, liability intensive, physically intensive and intensive in a host of other ways. If you look closely enough you can see each of these demands taking their position somewhere on the circumference of the wheel. Out there along the outside diameter of the wheel, you are likely to find a number of other requirements our industry demands, and with each of those demands, a spoke leading directly to the center of the wheel: focusing pressure directly on the shop owner or manager. Each spoke clearly defines a subset of responsibilities and actions every shop owner must address in some way or another just to survive. Realistically, that same metaphor applies to every automotive service business operating today regardless of its size. It doesn’t matter if it is a one-man shop or a chain. The wheel may be larger in some cases, smaller in others. But, the number of spokes, the specific areas of responsibility, will almost always be the same. As we witness competitive pressures increase throughout the industry, as we watch the pressures at the center of the wheel increase with them, it becomes the responsibility of everyone participating in this industry — everyone with a stake in the future health of this industry, regardless of who they might be — to reduce friction, to help share that burden, to mitigate those pressures. Otherwise, the results are obvious. The laws of physics demand that as the load becomes greater or the pressure increases, so too will friction. With friction will come heat, and with the heat the inevitable threat of failure. |
