WORST DAY: December 11, 2000
WHY: It was the day that GM announced that the Oldsmobile
franchise line was being eliminated. That was a bad day on many levels. It was
difficult because it put a lot of our employees’ futures in question. And when
you consider that the car line was over 100 years old, and that at one point it
was not unusual to sell 750 Oldsmobiles out of our stores in one month, to have
watched its decline and then to ultimately hear of its demise was painful. It
was the end of an era, and for that reason it was scary. Ends of the era
frequently are.
AFTERMATH: We had two stores selling Oldsmobiles at the
time—Golden Valley and Rochester. I spent the better part of a week going
between those stores and assuring our long-term employees that we would do
whatever we could to continue running a business at that location. Within three
years at both locations, we were able to acquire a full complement of Buick,
Pontiac, and GMC franchises for them to service and sell.
LESSON LEARNED: The incredible power of loyal employees.
Throughout that entire time, we did not lose any employees. We were honest and
candid with them. We said we expected there to be some rough patches, and there
were. But we also told them we would do our very best to remedy the situation.
Ultimately, their hard work and dedication allowed us to acquire those other
franchises to have complete locations again. I had always valued employees
because ultimately they could do their jobs without me, but I could never do my
job without them. And this really proved that to be true.
