DealerSocket of San Clemente, California, won the Stevie Award for Management Team of the year in The 2009 American Business Awards, and Jonathan Ord, Dealersocket’s CEO and Co-founder, is on the Board of Judges for The 2009 International Business Awards.

While the plight of the American automotive industry has been making headlines around the world, auto-related businesses and auto dealerships have been particularly hard hit by the combination of low consumer confidence, a tough credit market, and the struggles of the Big Three Detroit automakers.

Despite this, one company serving the automotive industry is thriving. DealerSocket is an automotive customer relationship management solution provider that credits its success to the steady leadership, unwavering customer commitment, and innovative approach of its management: Jonathan Ord, Co-Founder and CEO, Brad Perry, Co-Founder and President, Cameron Darby, Chief Operating Officer, and Matt Redden, Vice President of Sales.

Building from the Ground Up
Before founding their company in 2001—with no outside investment—Ord and Perry spent a year working without pay in all departments of a dealership to gain a thorough understanding of dealers’ unique needs.  The management team continues to apply this principal of building from the ground up to every department of their organization, providing each employee the opportunity to do, contribute, lead, and solve problems.

The DealerSocket team’s mantra is: “Treat people ethically and fairly and give them room to grow,” a philosophy that positively affects both its employees and customers, as is evidenced by a low voluntary employee turnover of less than 2% and a customer retention rate of over 90%. 

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by Tad Waddington, winner of the Stevie Award for Human Resources Executive of the Year in The 2008 International Business Awards. He is the author of Lasting Contribution: How to Think, Plan, and Act to Accomplish Meaningful Work.

In 2002, the self-described social ecologist, management consultant, and author Peter F. Drucker argued that “developing talent is business’s most important task—the sine qua non of competition in a knowledge economy.” (Harvard Business Review, They’re Not Employees, They’re People.

In other words, “Knowledge-worker productivity requires that the knowledge worker is both seen and treated as an asset rather than a cost.” (Extract from Drucker’s Management Challenges for the 21st Century.)

And yet as soon as the economy goes down, so does training. This is weapons-grade shortsightedness, because training has benefits that can be direct, indirect, and very indirect not just for individuals, but also for their organizations and their countries.

Direct Benefits
Scientific Management, a theory developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor at the end of the nineteenth century, is a training technique that was used throughout the twentieth century that allowed American blue-collar workers to increase their productivity by a factor of 50. (See also The Principles of Scientific Management, first published in 1911.)

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Called the “apostle of appreciation,” by the Globe and Mail, Canada’s largest newspaper, Chester Elton is a Senior Vice President of the Carrots Culture division of the OC Tanner Company, a leader in corporate recognition programs. With his partner Adrian Gostick, he wrote The Carrot Principle which has recently climbed The New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. He serves as a recognition consultant to Fortune 100 firms such as DHL, KPMG, Wal-Mart and Avis Budget Group.

Chester will speak at The American Business Awards in New York on June 22, and we recently spoke with him about how he got his start in business, what the OC Tanner Company does, and what advice he offers about how to institute a Carrot Culture in your workplace.

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Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs that we think might be of interest to you.

Sorry, There's No Way to Save the TV Business : Henry Blodget writes in Advertising Age on the future of the TV industry.
Geocaching - the official global GPS cache hunt site: A high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. Locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online.
Water Footprint Network : Not worried about your carbon footprint? Try worrying about your water footprint instead. The aim of this site is to promote the transition towards sustainable, fair and efficient use of fresh water resources worldwide.