Rapid changes create both risk and opportunity. Your dealership is impacted by big changes in technology, the workforce and higher expectations of your customers, employees and suppliers.
The risk for your dealership is that if you don’t see and adapt to the changes, then the future of your business could be in question.
The opportunity is to build a sustainable future for your business amid rapid change. As a leader, step away from working ‘in the business’ and work ‘on the business.’ Strive to create the necessary changes in culture, people, processes and measures necessary to secure a sustainable business in the future.
Building a 2nd Machine Age dealership is not an opportunity. It is an imperative. It must be done! If you don’t react, then your business may be toast.
Thus, my Leadership Lesson challenge to you in 2022 is to ‘Build a 2nd Machine Age’ or SMA dealership.
What is a 2nd Machine Age Dealership?
We presented the foundations for a SMA dealership in this Leadership Lessons series:
The Good to Great Flywheel elements – our 2020 theme, and
Creating a Customer Centric Culture/CCCC – the 2021 theme.
Specific articles pointed out the way to a SMA dealership.
“Leveraging Technology” (G2G June 2020), and
“The Customer Centric Dealership of 2030” (CCCC July 2021).
And in 2014, two ‘Technology for Profit’ articles are relevant.
Are You Ready for the 2nd Machine Age? (April 2014) – We are now in the 2nd half of the chessboard and experiencing the implications of exponential change.
Using Technology to Connect & Collaborate (Jan 2014) – 5 characteristics were described
We’ll expand our thinking into how a SMA dealership must be:
Connected — to customers, employees and machines
Collaborative — with customers, suppliers and other services of your customers
Changing — the 2nd Machine Age is all about change.
What Changes Should be Considered for a SMA Dealership?
Among the changes to consider are how your business is organized, how success is measured, what new processes to use and the different roles for your employees.
For example, instead of having a separate precision farming or Integrated Solution department, the whole of an SMA Customer-Centric dealership will organized around:
Customer Support
Customer Success and
Customer Solutions
New metrics could be speed of response measured in seconds or minutes, not hours or days. New processes could include the management of data inside your dealership and among customers, suppliers and others. This might create the need for new positions and roles of the people you hire and deploy.
In 2022, look for articles that explain each of these elements in more detail. Meanwhile, start today to begin building a 2nd Machine Age dealership. With the pace of change, if you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.
This article was first published on farm-equipment.com.