Podcasts about aisin

Shoot us a Text.Episode #1005: The biggest dealership groups continue their march toward market dominance while Toyota's hybrid boom is pushing suppliers to the limit. Meanwhile, Gen Z graduates face a tough reality as government hiring freezes throw career plans into chaos.Show Notes with links:The biggest names in auto retail continued their dominance in 2024, with the top 150 dealership groups expanding their footprint and market share. Growth, acquisitions, and shifting strategies defined the rankings, showing how consolidation is shaping the future of the industry.The top 150 groups sold over 4 million new vehicles in 2024, up 7.2% from the previous year, and now own 26.6% of all U.S. franchised dealerships, up from just 13.9% in 2011.Holman made the biggest leap, climbing 17 spots to No. 15 after acquiring Leith Automotive Group.Some of our other friends on the list: 140-DeMontrond, 134-Casa, 83-Sam Pack Auto Group, 80-Carter Myers Automotive, 70-DGDG, 60-Rohrman, 58-Bergstrom, 43–Ciocca, 32-Walser, 16-Ourisman“The top 10 reported owning 10.5% of U.S. dealerships, continuing the trend of industry consolidation,” said Mary Raetz, director of the Automotive News Research & Data Center.Toyota's hybrid strategy is paying off—maybe too well. Soaring global demand for its gasoline-electric hybrids has outpaced supply, leaving customers facing long wait times and suppliers scrambling to keep up.Wait times for Toyota hybrids range from 60 days in Europe to nine months in India.Parts shortages, including key components from suppliers like Aisin and Denso, are causing production bottlenecks.Toyota is ramping up output, including a $14B battery plant in North Carolina set to ship batteries in April.Global hybrid sales nearly tripled over five years, hitting 16.1 million in 2024.The surging demand has led to soaring dealership valuations in the US. According to Mercer Capital, Toyota dealerships in metro markets, particularly in Florida, can command valuation multiples as high as 10 times earnings in today's market.​​The class of 2025 is stepping into a tough job market, with tech downturns, federal hiring freezes, and economic uncertainty making it harder than ever for new grads to secure stable careers. Many are rethinking their career plans as public sector opportunities shrink.Government job applications nearly doubled in 2023, but hiring freezes have now put many positions on hold.Some federal job offers have been rescinded, and funding-dependent industries like nonprofits and universities are also feeling the squeeze.Economic shifts, including tariff concerns, have made companies hesitant to expand hiring.Many students are prioritizing stability over passion, with some opting for private-sector jobs over public service roles."The job market just seems super unstable in almost any field," said Tulane sophomore Katie Schwartz,Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle MountsierGet the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/ Read our most recent email at: https://www.asotu.com/media/push-back-email

January 16, 2025 ~ Guy, Lloyd, and Jamie talk with AISIN executive vice president Chuck Sanders at the Detroit Auto Show about adapting in the ever-changing auto industry as a Tier One supplier, their many technologies and components, and much more!

January 16, 2025 ~ John Fontes, General Manager, Sales and Marketing at AISIN and Michael Monahan, Senior Sale Engineer at AISIN stop by to talk to Anthony Bellino at the Detroit Auto Show.

Fujitsu Beats Aisin 65-55 to Claim Women's Empress Cup in Japanese Basketball

May 20, 2024 ~ AISIN World Corporation of America General Manager John Fontes and Vice President of Sales Brad Owens speak with Kevin and Tom at the Swing for Safe Driving 7th Annual “Ball Golf” Outing at Oakland Hills. Learn about AISIN's cutting-edge advancements in automotive technology, with a look at how AI and enhanced monitoring systems are revolutionizing road safety, from driver behavior analytics to in-cabin monitoring for all passengers.

Grace Hovis's journey in the family business, Hovis Auto and Truck Supply, highlights the balance between honoring tradition and seeking innovation. Founded in 1952, Hovis Auto and Truck Supply Inc. has evolved from a small operation into a major player in the automotive parts distribution space. This evolution was fueled by a willingness to adapt and innovate, a lesson Grace learned from an early age.  "My father brought me and my brother into the business as soon as we could push a broom," she said. "He had us in the warehouse. We were following around employees. He'd give us a few bucks at the end of the day, and we were thrilled. He made me business cards when I was in preschool. I'd walk around trade shows with him and hand them out to the reps and tell them that I'd be working with them someday."Today, Hovis is the marketing and training director at Hovis Auto and Truck Supply, and from those traditional aftermarket beginnings, she underscores the significance of digital tools – from e-commerce platforms to CRM systems – in enhancing customer engagement and streamlining processes. The digital transformation of the aftermarket is not just about adopting new technologies, but also about reimagining business models to thrive in a connected world. "I think it's always important to look back on where a company started, how it came to be the way it is and why they do things the way they do them," she said. "But I also think that a young, fresh perspective can come in and look at some of those things and say, 'That works great, but why don't we try it this way?' I think another perspective our generation brings is a fresh look on technology."Hovis noted that young automotive aftermarket professionals, like those involved in YANG, bring invaluable insights into emerging technologies and market trends. Their fresh perspectives are crucial for understanding the implications of advancements such as electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous driving technologies and AI. By fostering a culture that values innovation and inclusivity, the aftermarket can tap into the potential of the next generation to address future challenges and opportunities.In this episode of AMN Drivetime, sponsored by AISIN, Hovis talks through her journey in the automotive aftermarket and highlights the integration of fresh perspectives on automotive aftermarket technology that can significantly impact the industry's trajectory.

As MEMA commemorates its 120th anniversary, it's an opportunity to reflect on the organization's profound impact on the automotive aftermarket industry. Founded on March 2, 1904, MEMA has evolved from a modest gathering of parts manufacturers in Cleveland, to a pivotal force in the global automotive landscape. In this episode of AMN Drivetime, sponsored by AISIN, Bill Long, president and chief executive officer, discusses MEMA's recent reorganization to better serve its members amidst industry transformations, reflected on his 11 years at MEMA and highlighted efforts in advocacy, sustainability, U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, and global trade expansion. • Introduction to MEMA's 120th anniversary, the founding of MEMA in 1904, and its original directors and members. (00:56) • Expansion of MEMA's membership and the evolution of its purpose, highlighting key historical moments and contributions to the automotive industry. (02:56) • Significant milestones in MEMA's history, including the introduction of credit reporting services, co-sponsoring the automotive service industry show, opening the DC office, and the formation of various market segments within MEMA. (04:53)• Reflections on personal experiences and meaningful moments within MEMA over the past 11 years. (08:05)• Discussion on the organizational changes in MEMA, aimed at better positioning the association for the future. (11:03) • Future plans and focus areas for MEMA, including strengthening the supplier voice in Washington DC, addressing manufacturing competitiveness, and expanding global trade. (14:21)• The "Lightning Round" of quick questions. (19:00)

Serendipity led Jon Owens, national sales manager for Epicor, to find the automotive aftermarket. Jon started out in sales for Timken Roller Bearing in Canton, Ohio, and describes finding the aftermarket after graduating from college as being in the right place at the right time. However, it wasn't until he took over the NAPA Auto Parts account for Timken and started going to meetings, such as the AWDA Conference, where he truly recognized the power of volunteering for industry committees.“You're exposed to industry icons and you just can't beat that kind of exposure,” said Owens, who just began his two-year stint as president of the Automotive Aftermarket Charitable Foundation (AACF), and arguably, has become an industry icon himself. “For me, it all began at AWDA. I was smitten with it and convinced that industry volunteerism benefited not only the industry, but also benefited me personally and whatever company I was going to represent.”Since then, the list of organizations and committees Owens has served on is too long to publish here. Yet in his time at various automotive aftermarket companies, he has always been sure to remain involved outside of his 9-to-5 and has learned many lessons in business and life from the aftermarket professionals he has volunteered with. In this episode of AMN Drivetime, sponsored by AISIN, Owens delves into those lessons as well as his career trajectory from Timken to Epicor and describes his vision for AACF.EPISODE OVERVIEW How Owens found the automotive aftermarket (0:58)His college football career and what he learned most from playing the sport at a high level (3:46)Owens's mentors in the automotive aftermarket (5:06)His involvement in the automotive aftermarket organizations and what makes our industry different when it comes to service outside of your day job (10:48)His biggest lessons from his involvement in aftermarket committees and organizations (16:32)Owens describes his vision for AACF as president for the next two years (22:45)How you can help with the AACF's mission today (29:54)

Joe has a book “Agile Kata” in the making, if you like to be the first to know when it launches, please visit www.agilekatabook.com.KataCon10 in Indianapolis April 9-10, 2024Transcript: Agile F M radio for the agile community. [00:00:05] Joe Krebs: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Agile FM. I'm here today with Jim Huntzinger, who is speaking with me about behavioral patterns. We'll talk a little about the history of Kata. This is the Agile Kata series on Agile FM. So my goal is to bring you people closer from the Kata community to the Agile community and build bridges.So Jim is here with me today. Welcome to the show. [00:00:35] Jim Huntzinger: Yeah. Thank you, Joe. It's great to be here with you. [00:00:37] Joe Krebs: Yeah, and Jim, you are with the Lean Frontiers and as the name indicates, Frontier on many things including the KataCon conference, or actually there's different kind of names, but it emerged.And for all the listeners here on Agile FM who have been going to Agile conferences for a long time, and they are hearing possibly about Kata the very first time they would be surprised that this is going into the 10th year, this conference, the KataCon this year in 2024, and it's going to be in Indiana, [00:01:12] Jim Huntzinger: Indianapolis, you have caught a content in Indianapolis.So yeah, part of will be celebrating I guess the 10th birthday for it at the conference. [00:01:19] Joe Krebs: That is awesome. 10 years in the making, obviously, we want to go down memory lane a little bit together. Today there was obviously a starting point where you got exposed into Kata and scientific thinking.And I would like to go back, like, how did this all start for you? And for all the listeners here, what is an interesting piece of information is there is A person out there who started it like way, way back, 1890s, even. So, let's go [00:01:50] Jim Huntzinger: 1830s around the [00:01:52] Joe Krebs: 1830s, Jim, how did this all start for you?[00:01:57] Jim Huntzinger: Yeah. So, so yeah, I'll tell a little bit about, I'll tell my background, which a little bit of my history, which will bring in some of the. Older history that correlates and also a lot with TWI training within industry, which correlates as well too, and that'll actually come together on kind of that scientific thinking and scientific behavior.So anyway, when I came out of school, I my first job out of school was with a company that was a Toyota group company. That was in the process of transplanting in North America to support the Toyota plants. At that time there was the Toyota in Canada, the NUMMI plant, the joint venture with General Motors in California, and the Georgetown plant, which wasn't even started yet.It was, They were still setting it up at the time I started. And I went to work for Aisin, and they were a Toyota group company. And it's obviously a supplier into the transplanting here to supply into those plants. So, you know, part of my responsibility, I was a manufacturing engineer was helping ramp up the manufacturing processes.As we as we ramped up the plant and when I got there, my half the plant wasn't even built yet. So I was there through the actual construction of half the plant and we were doing great components drums, rotors brake boosters, oil pumps, water pumps on my part of the plant. So I went to Japan for nine weeks to train on the processes we had, the products.I went to different Aisin plants. where the products were made Toyota plant and also get training on the Toyota production system, which at that time didn't really have any meaning to me, you know, but we learned it. So came back and went through that ramp up process. To do that. So from there I left because I want to get more involved in the upfront process development because that was done by the Japanese of engineers, of course.So I moved to Wisconsin and took a job with Briggs and Stratton, who at that time, this is in 1990, were one of the first companies to really do some of the this lean stuff, trying to physically do it. So I was brought in here because supposedly I knew something about TPS, you know, haven't worked for Aisin.But the nice thing about that is basically we had a sandbox to play in. The guy I worked for said go find something you're interested in. Obviously it's beneficial to the company and go do it. So we were, you know, implementing flow production at a relatively now, even looking back now, 30 years, 30 plus years at a very rampant rate across the plant.So we did machining. And assembly of small engines for Briggs and Stratton. Now, the nice thing with me working for Aisin, even though it was a Toyota group company had TPS in it versus Toyota. Obviously Toyota is the practitioner of TPS, but their product is a great big, huge automobile. So you don't physically get all those correlations as easily since it's this big product versus when I worked for Aisin who made components.So the components correlated to the components we made at Briggs of doing one piece flow. So we were doing that, putting in standard work. We got involved with the Shingijutsu out of Japan. And we were doing, we internalized our own Kaizen workshops to do all that, implementing this. So in the course of doing that we changed the plan around entirely and actually a very rapid time all considering.And even to this day, let's go back 30 years ago, the basic designs of the cells, you know, one of these slow cells were actually. Pretty good. The things and attributes we did were very much one piece flow. So partially correlating it to Kata you know, one thing with the improvement Kata is you need to understand your direction or the challenge.Well, essentially our challenge back then was One piece flow, everything we did, we wanted to achieve one piece flow. And in that we had machines, obviously mostly machining the, actually some of the grinders I worked with when I got the manuals to them, the date on the manuals was prior to the U S being bombed at Pearl Harbor.So we had machine tools of that old up to an old, every place in between, you know, newer CNC equipment. So we're trying to put all this into true one piece flow. Now, we did that successfully, but the problem is we couldn't get the consistency that I had seen at Aisin of the consistency of output, consistency to tactile.And I, I didn't really know why, but I knew, you know, working for, you know, Japanese company, actually even some of the managers and engineers here, 37 years later, I still stay in contact with. Japanese are humans like everybody else. I knew they had to have some thing, whatever this thing was. That they were using that we just didn't know about and all that.So over the course of time, I ended up a number of years later, writing a couple books were published, one by Jeff Liker and one by Masaaki Imai. Jeff Liker's, I think, first book Becoming Lean and the one by Misaaki Imai, Gemba Kaizen, around 1997. And I read Liker's book and in it, it mentions this thing called TWI, Training Within Industry, in about a sentence or two.And I thought, what, and World War II program. I thought, what the heck does some World War II program have to do with the Toyota production system? Well, that's interesting, move on. The, about two months later, I miss, Imai's book, it has a couple pages discussing training with industries. And I just, I've got to find out what the heck some World War II program has to do with the Toyota production system.So I started diving into it. Just to jump forward a few years, it took me a while to dig. I was calling Washington, D. C., the archives, just trying to gather up information. And eventually, finding that the Depository Libraries of the United States was supposed to have information on it in the Milwaukee Public Library I finally found some information that there was a report done, which I was able to, in the library alone, to get this 300 page TWI, post World War II, written 1945 report.Got it, went to Kinko's, made copies of it, and then sat on it because I thought, I don't know how excited I am to read a 300 page government report. But eventually I went through all the work to get it. So I eventually pulled down and read it and started reading it. And I couldn't believe what I was reading.What I was reading through the report was it was correlating some of the things I had learned, you know, somewhat indirectly at Aisin. And also when we use the Shingijutsu group, some of the verbiage, it gave me the link to the manuals they use during the war. So I was able to start getting those through a library loan.And as I got the first one, the job methods. One is about improvement and read it. The language verbatim in that manual from 1943 was verbatim. What we had learned with like in Shingijutsu and some of that stuff. But now I understood the source. I understand what it's doing. So that kind of started this, the TWI.Now that now the importance of this TWI is if you look at all the main programs, job instruction is about training. Job methods is about improvement and job relations is about leadership and people problems. All of them used. I have some of the cards here. All of them use a the four step four step methodology based on the scientific method.Now the history with TWI because I got into that is it goes back to at least 1830. So a German philosopher and educator named Johann Harbert had developed a five step program to educate kids. Pedagogy. Five step method. In the 1830s. So in Europe, there are people, they called him herbations.So European herbations that followed his philosophy American herbations that did too. And one of them was a guy by the name of Charles Allen, Charles Skipper Allen. And I, and he was one and he took Harbert's five step methodology and he put it into a four step method, methodology that he called job instruction.And he wrote a book. He wrote a book on it. Around 1918. It's like a 500 page book just on the four step method. It's an amazing book. So in depth, but basically that job instruction when we get when the U. S. Got into World War Two, the guys they put in charge of the T. W. I. Program 3 of the four that were in charge of it.One had worked for Alan directly. The other two have been trained by so they pulled that job instruction forward. Yeah. And that became TWI job instruction and eventually pulling from some other, I won't go through all that history job methods, which is I industrial engineering techniques. That really has their base in the Gilbreth, some of the pioneers in industrial engineering and a guy named Alan Mogenson put that into place.So that was the instructing, the improvement, and then eventually job relations was leadership. So that comes into Toyota post World War II in the early 1950s, as Ono had struggled implementing flow production, trying to emulate the Ford motor company. One piece flow, as we call it today. And he'd struggled with it in their machine shop for about eight years.When the TWI program came in during the post war occupation through their training department, Ohno grabbed onto that. J I all three of them, J I J M and J R. And that's when he started succeeding. Yeah. So see implementing flow production, trying to emulate early Ford motor company. Yeah. So it's all based on a scientific method.[00:11:12] Joe Krebs: Absolutely. And this is, I think this is where we're, we want to go with it. It's the second, this is a great that you're going back in time because I think this is important for everybody to see that this is not like the latest, greatest trend that just emerged just recently. And we'll you were talking about Kata, you know, in a brand new way this has been a well established thinking patterns.Now just to go quickly back to this Johan n Harbart he if I understand this, right, he applied this in a five steps. But that was more on the educational level. He's redesigned instruction for kids in schools, I would assume, and colleges. And so, [00:11:50] Jim Huntzinger: Yeah. So it's for educating kids pedagogy type of thing, although it's very much on.On practicing, which again correlates to what Charles Alan did. He Charles Allen was actually vocational trainer. That's why he was a probation and took that and put it into, because he was trying to train people, especially in shipbuilding on, in, in the, you know, night 1890s, 19. Early 1900s and all that.So he was trying to train people. So it was a very pragmatic way to, to educate children by practice. And he put that into, in a way, educating, training people in vocational training. [00:12:26] Joe Krebs: Yeah. So as a community of Kata thinking, we could say we're speeding things up quite a bit now. Like there were 1830s, 1890s, 1900s 20th century, right?But now things get really into motion and we, you mentioned some of those books the, we're increasing the rate of publications, I think that's what's what has been seen. So I think. Scientific thinking applied outside of education possibly even outside of lean manufacturing becomes really interesting.And that's why we have you on the, in the Agile Kata series, right? How can these things possibly influence things outside of lean manufacturing? [00:13:02] Jim Huntzinger: And I want to, and I'll bring this to Toyota. So, the TWI stuff, as I researched, it was the late 1990s. And very early 2000s. So Mike publishes Toyota Kata in 2009.So, so I got that and read it. And Mike's always been a person that just does a good job of taking things, parsing them down and articulating them very succinctly. Mike's always been very good at that. So I read Toyota Kata and I'm going, what I'm reading through there, I love because this is exactly the behavioral patterns we were doing back in my days.When we were implementing it, Briggs and Stratton. Now we weren't doing it near to the prescriptive level, near to the discipline level, near to any of that, that Mike was doing, but the fundamental patterns. We were doing like for example, like I said, our challenge was one piece flow. We would have to go out and establish the current condition.We didn't use that terminology, the current condition, the machines or the processes as they were, and then we'd have a what our target condition was, how do we put those into one piece flow and we would go through iterative steps. We were practicing scientific method is mainly because we didn't have a choice.We weren't quite sure what we were doing. So we had to go through these iterative steps to figure it out. So experimentation, like Mike says, and my favorite diagram he has in Toyota Kata, he has the one where, you know, on each end, he has the current condition and a target condition. Then kind of in between them is this unclear territory.And that's why I related to it so much. That's exactly what we were doing when we were doing that lean thinking what now all the, you know, there's a few books but not much. There was no internet. So we had literally do this, learn by doing, which actually came from TWI actually learn by doing. So we were doing it through iterative steps, this unclear territory to get it.So that's why the Toyota kind of related to me. And then it gave a pattern, a better, more prescriptive pattern. And also too, when Mike was researching that, as he looked at these different companies, practicing it, none of them did it exactly alike. They had their own way. But of course, again, that's what Mike's good.He had to put it into something a little more prescriptive in order to articulate it back out to everybody, so people could grasp it, you could practice it, people could learn it. Right. And ultimately it is, and that's why the book, I have it here. Sylvain Landry's book bringing scientific to life is so important because that's really, that's what TWI is practicing scientific behavioral patterns, Kata goes through that practicing scientific behavioral patterns so that.You don't think your way through practice, you practice your way to thinking.. And that's what these are about. And that's why again, Toyota Kata is. So important about practicing so you get in that pattern, it just becomes natural and instinctive. [00:15:42] Joe Krebs: Oh, yes. And the terminology as you said, you reused other terms, right? I think when people are looking at these behavioral patterns, they're realizing, Oh, these are things I have done in a very similar way.And that's good. Right. And you might have used different terminology. I think the benefit of using a consistent terminology within an organization, let's say. It's obviously we all know what, where we are in terms of the journey, but that might change over time. Right? So I think as long as the pattern stays the same, the behavioral patterns.Yeah, one thing with that, I'd like to say over the years is I'll use this and this illustrates the importance of practice and continuing practice. So I say if if you're not using Kata or even TWI the same in three months, that's a problem. Because you need to practice the pattern, practice the behavior.But the other part of that is, if you're using if you're using Kata or TWI the same in three years, that's a problem. Because you should be learning it, so it becomes instinctive, so you do expand out your ability to use it. And it can be used, I realize, anywhere there's people and processes. You can use it.It doesn't have to be in manufacturing. It could be in healthcare. People are successfully using healthcare. In some of the insurance companies, I know people are using these. Anywhere there's people and processes, it's a, it helps you to be more successful because you're using that pattern, those behavioral patterns of scientific thinking.Yeah. To solve problems and move to a better level. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Your KataCon conference, just to come back to that for one more moment, it's like, I think it's a representation of exactly what you just said. It's like who comes to these conferences, right? It's a broad mix of people. Yes.[00:17:25] Jim Huntzinger: Yeah. Yes. Broad mix of people out of different industries, broad mix of people at different levels along their journey. [00:17:33] Joe Krebs: Yeah. And you're all running as part of these conferences or you have ran these kind of onsite, but also workshops in parallel to these conferences, right? But they are more focused on the lean manufacturing side, if I'm not mistaken, right?But that is very hands on practical skills. Yeah, [00:17:49] Jim Huntzinger: Very hands on. In the case, the comp, so the conference we try, what we do is try to bring together the community. So we, with Lean Frontiers, I guess we like to say we like to build communities within the lean community. So, you know, we've had a lean accounting communities, of course, the Kata community with KataCon, TWI community, product, you know, lean product development, so communities within there.And it's a chance what we want to do is bring together thought leaders, practitioners, sometimes academics, people to come in and just share what they're doing and learning with each other within that community. With our intent is hopefully people make connections and get to know each other. So we don't, we just don't want them there together.You know, the two days or three days of the conference, we like to make them good networking connections. So as they go out the other 300 and some days out of the year they talk with each other. They communicate, they, they help, they share, try to bring what's going on together. So people go out and do good things with it and hopefully come back a year later.Continue to share what they've learned over the last year. Yeah. [00:18:47] Joe Krebs: And Jim how, like for somebody who is like maybe in the agile community right now, it says, this sounds very interesting. I'm listening to the Kata series. I'm starting to maybe read one of the books you you mentioned you on this podcast, how.What's the speaking situation? Like, who's speaking? What's the format of this conference? Because the scientific thinking is you know, is obviously in the forefront of that and the behavioral patterns you're pointing out. But what's the format? Or do people have to envision this conference to look like it's two days, right?[00:19:17] Jim Huntzinger: So what we do with the KataCon, actually, we actually run the KataSummit, KataCon same thing. And the TWI Summit, we run them concurrently. Because there's obviously, just because of the deliberate practice and scientific, there's so much correlation. But we always like to say, if people want to come and all they want to do is Kata, we got them covered.All they want to do is TWI, got you covered. If they want to mix it up, however much they want, they can do that. But we have, Keynotes and our keynotes are usually shorter. Try to make them just the pace, you know, like shorter 15 or 20 minute keynotes we have going on. We have breakout sessions where some are by practitioners.So you're learning what people are doing in companies, some by some thought leaders where they could expand a little bit more. A lot of times they're usually working with companies about what they're doing. We have some deep dive sessions where they're even a little bit longer. They're almost like a, kind of a mini sub workshop where people can go in and practice, you know, some of the aspects a little bit more.We actually have workshops. We have like a level set, a TWI level set and a kata, like their half day kata level set. So if you're kind of new, you could come in and kind of get up to a baseline. So you can, that's pre summit. So you can get more out of the summit, but we have some workshops and then even.Post summit. We have a Kata dojo workshop by Tilo Schwartz, who him with just another good book, giving wings to your team and all that. And we also do the 10 hour session so that TWI was trained actually the same format. It was used during the war, these 10 hour sessions. So there's five two hour sessions.So we run those think we're running for one for job instruction and job relations post summit and also one for Toyota Kata. Where they go through most of the improvement kata, but some on the coaching kata also a 10 hour training so people could come out and get, you know, like a certification on they can go, you know, know how to go practice and those are really practice based kind of workshops, a 10 hour training.[00:21:14] Joe Krebs: And I think that's also important, right? Because it is about practicing scientific thinking. So the practice piece needs to come in. I think for what was pretty awesome in this episode, I want to thank you for that is your background and how you know, take us on this journey of how this all started, but also how deeply rooted it is in many things we do as humans in various different kinds of industries.And even though it's only a small piece of history of what we just covered. The 10 years of KataCon is significant. It's a huge accomplishment. I want to thank you for putting this out there and putting your energy into organize something like this as an a past conference organizer myself. I know how much work that is.[00:21:58] Jim Huntzinger: One of the thing I might touch on because this is also about practicing is we have these are outside of that. the summit. But we have a couple workshops, one called skill point, one called skills lab where you go practice, you go learn TWI and also Toyota Kata. But it's actually on a full scale simulator.So it's a life size line. Now, the reason I'm bringing that up is you learn these skills because these are about skills. you skill of the Toyota Kata, the skill of improvement, Kata skill of the coaching kata. Same thing with TWI, but it's always interesting when we run those workshops we used have people from different companies come in and literally by the end of day one, and certainly by the day two there, these three day workshops, you would think these people had worked together for 10 years.Even though for different industries, different companies, and that's not something we're directly trying to do. So the whole working together as a team and all that, that when you practice these things together, by default, you'll reap that benefit of people understanding each other, people working collaborative together.So it's been fascinating to watch those. Workshops and watch that just spontaneously happen that these people look, I said, they look like they've been working together for 10 years and just met less than 24 hours before. [00:23:12] Joe Krebs: Yeah, it's amazing. Great bonding, right? If you have a shared goal and you work as a team and you collaborate and you have the same language and can navigate.That's fantastic. Jim, I want to thank you. On the show page people will find a way of finding the conference for sure. They can also just Google KataCon and and get in touch and get their tickets and meet you in April in 2024 in Indianapolis. Thank you, Jim. [00:23:39] Jim Huntzinger: Yeah. Indianapolis.Thank you so much, Joe. Yeah. Looking forward to it and thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today.

Jeff Koviak describes his “master's degree” in the automotive aftermarket as owning two muffler shops in Port Huron, Michigan, for a few years. He was at the ripe, young age of 24 and this stint came after he served as a Walker Exhaust territory manager with Tenneco in Detroit.Koviak calls that his first official job in the aftermarket, but in reality, his first experience in our industry dates back to his days in vocational auto mechanics class in high school. At the time, Koviak told his teacher he wanted to be involved in cars but didn't want to work at a dealership or be a technician. That's when his teacher reached out to Northwood University, where Koviak found a great fit in their automotive aftermarket management program. Since then, Koviak has spent his career in the aftermarket, navigating the changes Tenneco has experienced throughout the years.Today, Koviak serves as vice president of sales, customer service and sales operations, the Americas, at DRiV, and in this episode of AMN Drivetime, sponsored by AISIN, he delves into how his role and the company's strategies have shifted, especially when Tenneco merged with Federal-Mogul in 2018 and formed DRiV, as well as how the company has changed since being bought by private equity in November 2022. EPISODE OVERVIEWKoviak's career trajectory in the automotive aftermarket (0:39);Koviak's thoughts on the “transformational” merger of Tenneco and Federal-Mogul and how he played a role in combining the two businesses (8:01);Changes Tenneco/DRiV have experienced since being acquired by private equity and how the company is able to make quicker decisions (11:42)DRiV's plans for 2024- new products and a focus on improved fill rates (15:07)Koviak delves into the strategic direction of some of Tenneco's storied brands and what to expect from them in the future (19:32)The importance of giving back to the industry and Koviak's continued connection to Northwood (25:31)Lightening Round questions⚡ (28:57)Watch more episodes of AMN Drivetime here.

In its 81 years in business, MANN+HUMMEL has prided itself on being family-owned, remaining steadfast to its mission: separating the useful from the harmful with its filtration products. Yet, over the years, its products have evolved as the company has innovated to meet the demands of its customers. About 25 years ago, the innovation and heritage of MANN+HUMMEL attracted its current president and CEO to the company and he hasn't looked back. Kurk Wilks joined the company in 1998 on the OE side of the business as a senior account manager. Then, he transitioned into sales and took on a global role managing the General Motors account. Over the years, he has held director roles in the areas of sales, engineering and operations on local, regional and global levels. Finally in December 2018, he was named president and general manager of the company's OE business."Then, in 2020 I was asked by our chairman to become the CEO. So it's unique. I'm the first American CEO of this German, family-owned business," he explained. "But I think with my 25 years of experience, the deep respect I have for our heritage of what it means to be family-owned and be technology driven, I'm able to take those assets with our people, our most important asset, and make something different for our customers to experience." Today, MANN+HUMMEL calls itself the leader in filtration, as it continues to invest in R&D, engineering, digitalization and advanced technology. "We use analytics tools, AI and other processes now to really bolt on and streamline how we run the business," he said. "But in the end, for me it's about reliability and trust that when customers use our product, it'll make their asset perform as desired and as needed." In this episode of AMN Drivetime, presented by AISIN, Wilks delves into: His first roles in the automotive aftermarket and what attracted him to MANN+HUMMEL (0:51)His career trajectory at the company (2:30)Experiences that have shaped his view on the business (4:18)How MANN+HUMMEL has benefitted from its expanded distribution strategy after opening a distribution center on the West Coast (8:16)The ways the company is innovating in filtration through digital solutions and the importance of its digital hubs (10:12)Additional opportunities for the company's growth (14:12)What he's seeing as the state of the automotive aftermarket with his role as vice chairman of MEMA (15:01)The Lightening Round ⚡ This episode is sponsored by AISIN. To watch more episodes of AMN Drivetime, click here.

When Mike Palm tells you he's a jack of all trades at CRP Industries, he's not lying. Just look at his resume. He started with the company in 1986 as a graduate of Shippensburg University, just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He found a marketing assistant job at CRP through a newspaper ad. In the early days, he became involved in product development, digging into vehicles to look at parts that CRP could create. He also dipped his toe in cataloging, sales support and supplier development in CRP's early years. "I even learned how to drive a forklift," Palm says laughing, recalling the memories of his various roles at CRP.After 10 years of working his way up at the company, Palm asked himself, "What's next?" His marketing mastery led him to find a role at Berlitz, a global supplier of language instruction, cross-cultural training and other educational materials, as its director of worldwide marketing. There, he gained experience in consumer marketing, yet always kept in touch with his CRP colleagues. After a decade at Berlitz, Palm, as he describes it, was lured back to the aftermarket by Daniel Schlidge, president and CEO of CRP, who presented a future-looking vision to Mike and told him how he could play a role in developing it. Since 2005, Mike has been a staple at CRP working his way up to vice president of sales and marketing, leading the company's aftermarket product management efforts and ensuring that CRP remains a respected brand in the industry. In this episode of AMN Drivetime, presented by AISIN, find out how Mike and his team are doing that by getting close to the customer and looking ahead at innovations the company will need to produce down the line. In this episode, Mike shares:How he started at CRP Industries and his experiences working at the company in "the early days" (0:40)Why he decided to leave the automotive aftermarket and what brought back to CRP from this experience (4:26)Why he returned to CRP and why he "wakes up everyday enjoying what I do" (9:18)The way his role as vice president of sales and marketing has changed and how he deals with change management both at CRP and in the industry (12:22)How CRP's Innovation Council has spurred multiple product innovations for the company (15:09)The value that the Innovation Council has brought to CRP's supply chain (19:39)Big opportunities for CRP to serve the marketplace in the near future (24:13)The Lightening Round ⚡AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN. Find more episodes here: https://www.aftermarketnews.com/category/podcasts/amn-drivetime-podcast/

When you've worked for a company for more than 40 years, you certainly know “where the bodies are buried,” as they say. But more fascinating, you're a walking history book, seeing the company through its ups and downs, successes and flops and stellar innovations that have defined the next generation of the aftermarket.Jeff Kritzer, president and CEO of BendPak, is one of those guys.Kritzer started at BendPak, a California-based company best known for its car lifts and wheel service equipment, when he was a 20-something recent college grad. As he describes it, he found out about the job thanks to family connections: Owner Don Henthorn's daughter was best friends with Jeff's sister at the time. He knew Jeff was in search of a job, and Jeff soon started in the company's shipping and receiving department. Thanks to his innovative thinking and hard work, Jeff worked his way up in the company, seeing through dozens of brands, products and industry firsts over the years.In the latest episode of AMN Drivetime, sponsored by AISIN, Jeff delves into:His “rags to riches” career trajectory at BendPak (1:10)Advice and good business practices Jeff has learned from his mentors, including Henthorn (2:54);How BenPak's product lines have evolved over time to meet market demand (4:52);How the BendPak name was born and its offerings for the aftermarket today (6:00);Innovations around BendPak's CoolBoss product line (11:51);Why BendPak recently opened an industrial complex in Alabama and how it feeds into the company's strategy (14:17);Potetial growth Jeff sees for BendPak and its aftermarket brands (15:51);Reasons why the company purchased a new California HQ and wants employees to come into the office each day (17:13);How EVs are affecting lifts and wheel service equipment (20:03)Rapid Fire Questions (22:23)AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN. Find more episodes here.

As a 30-plus-year automotive aftermarket veteran, Ted Hughes has seen change after change in the industry. He's experienced countless technological improvements. During his almost 24 years as head of marketing for MAHLE, he charged head-first into the digital era -- embracing digital media, e-commerce and a "data is king" mindset. Yet despite the evolution of the industry, one aspect has remained true: nothing beats the solid relationships that form long-lasting business partnerships and make this industry strong. About a year ago, he joined the Auto Care Association as executive director of the Aftermarket Warehouse Distributors Association (AWDA) and also took on the role of senior director of community engagement for the association, putting his love for the industry and his expertise for creating industry engagement to work. Although challenges abound, Ted looks at them as opportunities. In this episode of AMN Drivetime with Bill Babcox, presented by AISIN, Ted delves into:Making the change to association work and its biggest rewards (0:54);How he was fitted for skates at a young age and what playing hockey and other sports taught him that he takes into his career (3:13);Ted's career trajectory and how he found the automotive aftermarket (6:54);Shifts in the overall business that impacted Ted's roles and how he and his team addressed them (10:36)The future of AWDA (15:47);The importance of face-to-face interaction (18:39);Rapid Fire Questions (24:40)AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN. Find more episodes here.

September 21, 2023 ~ WJR Senior News Analyst Lloyd Jackson gives his Auto Show report on Aisin to Paul W. Smith.

September 21, 2023 ~ Lloyd Jackson, 'JR Morning Co-Host, spotlights Aisin at the 2023 Detroit Auto Show.

The Schwartz name is synonymous with the automotive aftermarket. It started with Mort Schwartz, an engineer by training who served as chairman and CEO of four different automotive aftermarket companies from the 60s to the 90s. Mort's service to the aftermarket, including as a member and chair of various aftermarket committees, spans more than 40 years, and now his son, Rick, is following in his footsteps to make the Schwartz name a leader in M&A advising and business growth strategies in the industry.Rick received his MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business, and while his father grew and ran companies in the aftermarket, Rick's career spans multiple industries working in management positions for the likes of Macy's, Nestle and The Upper Deck Company early in his career. He gained C-suite level experience as the COO of a health and fitness company before joining forces with his dad to create Schwartz Advisors, an M&A and growth consultant for companies in the automotive aftermarket.In 2006, Schwartz Advisors was born, and since then, the firm has added 12 industry experts from different segments to consult on various deals and strategies. In this episode of AMN Drivetime, sponsored by AISIN, Rick delves into:The reasons why he initially studied international relations (1:00)Lessons he learned from working at large companies in different industries early in his career (1:44)How Schwartz Advisors was born (2:54)The breadth and depth of Schwartz Advisors' expertise (4:02)Trends in M&A in the macroeconomy and the automotive aftermarket (8:02)The types of business that are a good fit for the "buy-side" and "sell-side" of acquisitions (10:22)Lessons Rick learned from his father, Mort (12:42)Rapid Fire questions (14:18)AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN. Find more episodes here.

Michael Ceritano's resume includes an array of positions from around the aftermarket: marketing manager, car wash consultant, owner of an auto accessory business, aftermarket sales director and now COO. With a career spanning 30-plus years in the automotive aftermarket, Ceritano has used his industry expertise combined with his business savvy and willingness to learn new skills to grow GSP North America's business exponentially in the almost six years he's been with the company.In this episode of AMN Drivetime, presented by AISIN, Ceritano describes how he worked his way up in the industry, the ways he has helped grow the GSP North America team and what he feels has been integral to the company's success.Ceritano delves into:His forray into the automotive aftermarket with Chrysler (0:30)GSP's key product offerings and its history in North America (3:13)Why GSP has been "one of the most rewarding places" he has worked and how he has helped build the current team at GSP North America (5:36)The four P's that are driving factors of GSP North America's growth (9:37)The lessons he and his team learned during COVID with a majority of their production in China (11:32)Why GSP has launched value-added services like training for technicians who use its products (14:56)Rapid Fire Questions (16:11)Find more AMN Drivetime episodes here: https://www.aftermarketnews.com/tag/amn-drivetime/This episode is sponsored by AISIN. Learn more about AISIN here: https://www.aisinworld.com/

Upon celebrating his 80th birthday and 64 years in the automotive aftermarket, Jim Franco is as energized as ever about the business opportunities he sees in the market today. As president and CEO of Autologue Computer Systems, Jim has been in the software industry since the mid-80s and has seen a huge technological evolution–not only on the parts side but also the hardware and software side. While some may lament the changes that have been made, especially over a 64-year-career, Jim approaches it with gusto and believes others should, too.While Jim boasts that he is building a “rocket ship” with the great people at Autologue, he is quick to acknowledge that the root of this industry is in relationships–buying and selling parts from your local shop and getting them delivered in 30 minutes or less.“Nobody can compete with that,” Franco says. “Amazon is trying to, but they don't even come close.” In this episode of AMN Drivetime Quick Hits, sponsored by AISIN, Franco delves into:Reflections on his 80th birthday and how his business has evolved (0:46)His thoughts on the market today including technology and EVs (4:02)His plans for Autologue, including how he and his team are taking PartsWatch to a whole new level and building a “rocket ship” (6:06)The “Win the Day” Dashboard and why every auto parts distribution manager should use a tool like it (8:13)How Jim creates a culture of taking pride in your work at Autologue (10:32)Rapid Fire questions (12:53) AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN. Find more episodes here.

For many in this industry, the automotive aftermarket is in their blood. They grew up in the business, whether it was wrenching in the summers in high school or hanging out with their parents at their place of work. This was the case for Travis Roffler, who has been the director of marketing of Continental Tire the Americas for almost 18 years and is a tire guy through and through.Growing up, Travis remembers wrenching with his dad in their garage and being fascinated with cars and racing at a young age. Little did he know that after graduating with a marketing degree from Florida State in 1992, his first job would be with Michelin North America as a customer service representative. He worked his way up at Michelin to become the company's marketing manager. Soon after, he was recruited by Toyo Tire USA to be its director of marketing. Travis credits his following his passion for automotive and the people in the industry for his “blessed” career.Travis has worked as the director of marketing for Continental Tire for almost 18 years and manages a team that is responsible for marketing for both the Continental and General Tire brands, including brand development, programs and promotions, product planning, communications and more.In this episode of AMN Drivetime, hear Travis discuss:How Travis' got his start in the ‘s passion for automotive led him to a career in automotive (0:29)Key mentors that helped Travis learn the tire business (4:40)Changing moments in Travis' career, including one that would affect his family (9:00)The meaning Continental's new taglines for its Conti and General brands and the process and research Travis and his team did to change them and make them meaningful (14:27)What Travis sees as a few key trends in the tire industry today, from manufacturing to retail (20:54)Travis' proudest career moment (26:50)AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN. Find more episodes here.

Continuous improvement, known as “lean” in the manufacturing world, has been a guiding force for Ben Pryor, vice president of commercial for the Coats Co. Earlier in his career at Hennessy Industries (parent company of Coats), Pryor spent four months learning lean principles by going to the “gemba” – a Japanese term that refers to the place where the work is done. Pryor, appearing on “AMN Drivetime” with Bill Babcox, says the four-month lean immersion was “a rich experience” that continues to inform his thinking and decisions. The experience built on his previous exposure to lean while working for a manufacturing business in the St. Louis area earlier in his career.In this “AMN Drivetime” episode, Ben and Bill also talk about:00:36 – Ben's path to the automotive aftermarket2:14 – People who have influenced Ben the most during his career4:00 – Life-changing, momentous moments in his career8:16 – Process of company rebranding10:38 – Branching into other service categories11:59 – Coats' shop-productivity software15:18 – How tire equipment likely will evolve17:25 – The Lightning Round! AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN.

In the last three years, Aisin World Corp. Of America has experienced its fair share of changes. As a result of the pandemic, the company expanded its operations. In 2021, it merged two business units to create Aisin Corp. to better foster synergies within the group and address future challenges like electrification. That same year, the company rebranded, and now, it's ready for the mobility challenges that await the aftermarket. “We're putting ourselves in a place where we're not only going to be known for our timing belt kits and water pumps, but also for future product categories as well,” explained Larrow Kaufman, senior sales manager for the North American Aftermarket at Aisin World Corp. Of America. “That is going to allow us to be relevant now and in the future for installers and WDs.” In this AMN Drivetime episode, Dwayne, Larrow and Bill discuss: The career paths for Dwayne and Larrow and how both found their way to Aisin (0:29)How Aisin expanded its operations and implemented new warehouse software because of the pandemic (4:30)The history behind the Aisin Seiki merger with Aisin AW Co. and how the move brought the “best of both worlds” together (7:03)Reasons for Aisin's rebrand in 2021 and how it unites all of Aisn's business units (11:20)Larrow describes Aisin's biggest growth opportunities (14:17)Dwayne explains how Aisin is looking outside the box to service EVs now and in the future (15:57)Dwayne and Larrow dig into the marathons and races they've participated in (23:09)Larrow talks about his collection of Datsun vehicles (28:23)More AMN Drivetime: https://www.aftermarketnews.com/category/podcasts/amn-drivetime-podcast/More from Aisin: https://www.aisinworld.com/

At the helm of one of the automotive aftermarket's leading remanufacturing firms, GB Remanufacturing President and CEO Michael Kitching says he's proud to see remanufacturing getting the attention it deserves as a key player in the growing sustainability conversations taking place today. GB Remanufacturing was founded by Mike and his father Bill Kitching in 1986. The company remanufactures and distributes premium gasoline and diesel fuel system related products to its customers around the world and is based in Long Beach, California. “Remanufacturing is the ultimate environmentally friendly type of business,” said Kitching. “We take units that are previously deemed either defective or just used and remanufacture that to OEM specs or better sometimes. It saves the environment, it saves the consumer a lot of money, so yeah, we're proud to be in this industry.” Kitching recently joined Babcox Media CEO Bill Babcox in the AMN Drivetime podcast studio to talk about changes in the industry, the story of building a family owned and operated business and much more. During the interview, Bill and Mike talk about: 0:10: A bit of history about the family business, what the “GB” in the company name stands for and why 01:37 What Mike originally set out to do as a career before joining the family business 03:42 The renewed interest in reman today as a key element of sustainability efforts 06:48 The importance of keeping GB Remanufacturing jobs in the U.S. 08:40 Other critical industry and business issues the company is watching closely right now 11:55 Mike's diehard love of the Long Beach Grand Prix and how that got started 14:30 Mike's favorite hobbies (skiing and golfing) and where he enjoys them 16:59 The ever-popular Lightning Round AMN Drivetime is sponsored by AISIN.

Are cybersecurity concerns being used to unfairly squeeze out the independent aftermarket from competing against franchised dealers? This episode we are looking at how vehicle manufacturers are restricting access to vehicle data and what effect that is having on workshops. Professional Motor Mechanic editor Kieran Nee visits Neville Smith at his workshop, Nev'll Fix It, along with Neil Pattemore, technical director at UK AFCAR, to find out more. Neil is working on the frontline when it comes to ensuring the aftermarket retains fair access to vehicle data and is the country's leading expert on the issue. This episode also sees the return of the Professional Motor Factor segment with editor Tom Henman recapping his recent trip to Automechanika, as well as catching up with Auto Spares Wales' Steve Jones and Tony Griffiths. You'll also hear from Headline Sponsor Corteco, one of the leading suppliers of components for the Independent Automotive Aftermarket. Big thanks to AISIN which also supported this episode!

Who doesn't love being surrounded by greenery? For many, gardening is a form of therapy because in caring for the plants, we learn to care for ourselves. Could botany be a form of rehabilitation for ex prisoners? For this prisoner, it made all the difference. Tune in to hear the rest of the story! http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2054364,00.html

A tiny enemy nearly brought down the Qing empire.Read the article by Jeremiah Jenne: https://www.theworldofchinese.com/2020/06/a-pox-on-the-house-of-aisin-gioro/Narrated by Sylvia Franke.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Bill Reichert, General Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures. Pegasus Tech Ventures is a global venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley with over $1.5 billion in assets under management. Pegasus offers intellectual and financial capital to emerging technology companies around the world. In addition to offering institutional investors a top-tier venture capital investment approach, Pegasus also offers a unique Venture Capital-as-a-Service (VCaaS) model for large, global corporations that wish to partner with cutting-edge technology startups. Some of the 35+ corporate partners that have partnered with Pegasus include ASUS, Aisin, SEGA, Sojitz, and Omron. These corporations are able to have access to over 200 Pegasus portfolio companies such as SpaceX, 23andMe, SoFi, Bird, Color, Carbon, Vicarious, and many more. Bill has led Pegasus investments in AI, robotics, quantum computing, neuromorphics, space, life science, and other sectors. He is also the Chief Evangelist for Startup World Cup, a platform that connects and supports startup ecosystems all over the world. Bill started his investment career as the co-founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures and has served on the boards of many startups. He also has several years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and operating executive. Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology companies, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, Bill worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. He has authored many articles and delivered many speeches on entrepreneurship, venture capital, innovation, and other topics. Most recently, he co-authored a book for entrepreneurs called, “Getting to Wow! Silicon Valley Pitch Secrets for Entrepreneurs.” The book premiered as “#1 New Release in Venture Capital” in 2020. Bill holds a B.A. degree from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He has been a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught Venture Finance. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York and is a former Chairman of the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley. He is a Beachheads Advisor for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and is also an Advisor to the Women's Startup Lab, Nordic Innovation House, and the Korea Innovation Center. Bill advises investors and startups and discusses the state of startup investing.  You can visit Pegasus Tech Ventures at , via LinkedIn at , and via Twitter at .  Bill can be contacted via email at , via LinkedIn at , and via Twitter at .  ________________________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at:    Check out our other podcasts here:   For Investors check out:   For Startups check out:   For eGuides check out:   For upcoming Events, check out    For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group    Please , share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of .

Even though we’ve been away for a few weeks, we’re back with our most relaxing episode to date. So, put on a good pair of headphones, get cozy in bed and allow our tingle-inducing conversations about ‘Parasite’, Chex Rice, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, steroid cremes and Tooth Tunes guide you into a deep slumber.

When we represent our organization in a public venue delivering a talk there are two brands on display.  Our companies brand, because everyone will make a judgment about the entire organisation based on what they see us do.  The second brand is our personal brand, how professional we are.  If we are ever in a position to give a public presentation, we need to be very conscious we need to be doing a proper job, because we can damage both brands do easily. Intellectually, most people get this but the reality is that every day someone is burning their organization and personal brands through sheer unadulterated, incompetence.   Welcome back to this weekly edition every Tuesday of "THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show" I am your host Dr. Greg Story, President of Dale Carnegie Training Japan and best selling author of Japan Sales Mastery. We are bringing the show to you from our High Performance Center in Akasaka in Minato-ku, the business center of Tokyo. Why the Cutting Edge?  In this show, we are looking at the critical areas for success in business in Japan.  We want to help advance everyone's thinking so that we be at the forefront, the Cutting Edge, of how to flourish here in this market.   Before we get into this week's topic, here is what caught my attention lately. To attract more twenties and thirties consumers, the one hundred and forty year old Shiseido is overhauling its entire makeup lineup and discontinuing one hundred products. These are being replaced with a new collection using bolder colours and matte cosmetics.  The Shiseido President Masahiko Uotani says “what's important is we recruit new users to the Shiseido brand.  We can now get into this new segment of younger consumers who are going to become long-term users for us”.  The idea is to use the newly launched cosmetics line as a way to hook younger consumers into using Shiseido branded items.  Shiseido wants to grow its makeup revenues from the current ten percent share to thirty percent.  These new products will be rolled out in eighty eight markets globally.  President Uotani is a very Prominent Dale Carnegie graduate, so we wish him good luck with this bold redirection. In other news, although Japanese car makers have established a dominant global position in terms of the number of cars sold, their foothold is being eroded by German automotive part producers such a Bosch and Continental.  They are starting to overwhelm the Japanese auto industy in the field of autonomous driving technology.  The Japanese makers are seeing their young engineers leave their companies. They are electronics engineers, specializing in semi conductors, sensors and designing electronic circuits.  They are moving to the German companies, because they want to work on state of the art technology for self driving cars.  Japanese makers have dramatically increased their purchases of components from the German suppliers of Advanced Driver Assisted Systems.  To make it worse, Google and Apple are also spending one trillion yen each on R&D for autonomous driving.  In some defensive moves, Toyota and its key autoparts suppliers are looking at jointly developing autonomous driving technology. Denso, Aisin Seiki, Jtekt Corp and Advics a subsidiary of Aisin say they are planning to set up a joint venture next March.  In particular they are going to work on sensors, brakes and steering. This whole industry is going to be challenging in the future for Japan to maintain its dominance. Denso President Koji Arima said the race is “not about win or lose, but live or die”.  Toyota has also invested five hundred million dollars in Uber to jointly work on developing self-driving cars. Finally ZMP Inc a Tokyo based developer of autonomous driving technology has joined up with Hinomaru Kotsu taxi company to launch the world's first taxi services to fare paying passengers in tests between Otemachi and Roppongi.  They are planning to launch a full service in twenty twenty for the Olympics. This is episode number #47and we are talking about  How To Incinerate Your Brand Soredewa ikimasho, so let's get going. Seriously sad really.  Our speaker had some excellent points to convey but due to silly basic errors, killed his organisation's messages.  I believe there is no excuse for this anymore.  Today there is so much information available, so many role models, so much video instruction, so much access to insight, so much training, you really have to wonder how some organisations can do such a poor job.       The impressive thing was our speaker was delivering the talk in English, when that was not his native language.  Actually, the level of English fluency was highly impressive. The speaking speed was good, the English pronunciation was fine, the speaking voice itself was clear.  He came with a grand resume, part of the elite of the land, a seriously well educated, very senior guy.  This was game, set and match to be a triumph of positive messaging and salesmanship.  It was a fizzer.      I thought what a waste, so approached him after it was all over. Being the eternal Aussie optimist from the land of vast horizons, blue skies and wonderful sunshine, I thought our speaker would benefit from a bit of friendly, positive feedback on how he could help his organisation to do better.  His body language screamed out that  he wasn't buying any of that and asked me for one example.  Clearly he believed his talk went down a treat with the crowd, a group by the way, full of long term Japanophiles and enthusiastic boosters for things Japanese.  He was in fact preaching to the choir, in audience terms, but his messaging went astray.     I asked him for the first slide to be brought back up.  A confusing coat of many, many colours, seriously dense with data, totally impervious to easy understanding – a florid, turbulent, roiling mess in other words.  The other slides were all like this.  The heavy data volume on one slide was simply killing the key messages. When I suggested the slides were perhaps attempting to put too much on the screen at the one time, he said I was looking at the cleaned up version.  He had taken the organisation's standard slide deck and pared it back. “Pared it back?”, I thought incredulously.  Well it was still simply ridiculous.         The other issue was the delivery.  Our speaker chose to stand in front of the monitor and read to us what was on the screen, while having his back to us for most of the presentation.  Fortunately, he was handsome, urbane, charming, international and articulate. He had all the natural advantages to carry the room to his way of thinking. Unfortunately, he failed completely.        What could our erstwhile hero have done?  He made the slide deck the centerpiece of the presentation, instead of making his messages the key points.  We should all take note and carefully cull our ideas and distill them down to only the most powerful and important. We should present only one idea per slide, restrict the colour palette to two colours for contrast and try to keep it zen-like simple.  If our audience cannot grasp the key point of any slide in two seconds, then it needs more paring back.         Find out more when we come back from the break Welcome backGraphs are great visual prompts during presentations and the temptation is to use them as unassailable evidence.  This usually means trying to pack the graph with as much information as possible, showing long periods of comparison and multiple data points for edification.  Instead think of them like screen wallpaper.  They form a visual background. We can then go to another slide showing the turning point in isolation, reducing all the noise on the slide, so our eyes can focus on the key data.   Also, we can have a pop up cover the background data, with a special key number, emphasised in very large font.  In this way, we can cut through all the clutter and draw out the critical proof we want our audience to buy.  Trying to pack it all on one screen is a formula for persuasion suicide, because we lose our audience.           We need to learn some very basic logistics about presenting.  Despite how the organisers have set up the space, move things around if possible to give yourself the best shot to present as a professional.  Try to stand on the audience left of the screen.  We read from left to right, so we want them to look at our face first and then read the screen.          We want to face our audience and if anyone drops the lights so your screen is easier to see, stop everything and ask for the lights to be brought back up.  We need the lights on in order that we can see our audience's faces.  We can then gauge if they are with us or resisting our messages.  They can see us and we can use our gestures, facial expressions and body language to back up the words we are saying.           Changing the layout of the slides and the delivery would have made the speaker's messages clearer and more attractive.  None of the things I have suggested to him are complex or difficult.  Why then are we still assailed with unprofessional presentations from smart people? He remained resistant, so I saw him riding off into the sunset on his quixotic quest to convert others to his organisation's point of view.  Good luck with that one buddy! Action Steps Make yourself, not the slides, the centerpiece of your presentation Don't bombard your audience with a visual multi-coloured extravaganza – go for zen when designing your slide deck Don't put too many graphs on one slide – two at most is a good rule Try to position yourself facing your audience to the audience left of the screen Keep the light up, so you can see and be seen THE Cutting Edge Japan Business Show is here to help you succeed in Japan.  Subscribe on YouTube, share it with your family, friends and colleagues, become a regular. Thank you for watching this episode and remember to hit the subscribe button. Our website details are on screen now, dalecarnegie.com, it is awesome value, so check it out. In episode 48 we are talking about Key Things Not To Do When Negotiating. Find out more about that next week. So Yoroshiku Onegai Itashimasu please join me for the next episode of the Cutting Edge Japan Business Show We are here to help you and we have only one direction in mind for you and your business and that is UP!!!

This is theAUDIO ONLY version of the FIRSTDRIVE of the 2018 (Dodge) RAM 3500 pickup truck. Fey talks about the towing capabilities and all the amenities in his recently acquired towing machine. This vehicle has a 6.7 litre in-line 6 cylinder Cummins turbo diesel engine mated to a 6 speed automatic AISIN transmission. This is the 4-door Mega Cab layout with a 6foot-4inch box.

This is an ENHANCED PODCAST. This is the FIRSTDRIVE of the 2018 (Dodge) RAM 3500 pickup truck. Fey talks about the towing capabilities and all the amenities in his recently acquired towing machine. This vehicle has a 6.7 litre in-line 6 cylinder Cummins turbo diesel engine mated to a 6 speed automatic AISIN transmission. This […]

Diesel nation asked for it and here it is! We chat with Kamil from Diesel Resource about driving the HD lineup from Ram. We talk about the new 68RFE vs Aisin feel and response, acceleration loaded and unloaded, suspension, trim levels, if it's worth upgrading from the 4th Gen, layout of the interior, 385hp vs 400hp engines, even the headlight options and transmission temps pulling in the Nevada desert! Visit www.dieselresource.com for more information on Ram, GM and Ford diesel trucks. SPONSORED BY: Diesel World https://www.dieselworldmag.com Alligator Performance https://www.alligatorperformance.com/ Outlaw Diesel Super Series https://www.outlawdieselss.com/ PPEI Custom Tuning https://www.ppei.com BD Diesel Performance https://www.dieselperformance.com/ Fleece Performance Engineering https://fleeceperformance.com/ Nitro Gear https://www.nitro-gear.com/ Dan's Diesel Performance http://www.dansdieselperformance.com Amsoil https://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-equipment/diesel/?utm_source=streetdieselpower&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=diesel_podcast Diesel Crate https://www.dieselcrate.com Diesel Doctor of TN - Diesel Engine Building (Cummins, Duramax, Powerstroke) http://www.diesel911.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dieseldoctortn Magnolia Diesel Performance http://magnoliadieselperformance.com Nasty Truck Network https://nastytrucknetwork.com/ Opti-Lube Diesel Fuel Additives https://opti-lube.com Precision Industries https://converter.com/ Facebook: http://bit.ly/2DjnoFM TruckPorn https://www.instagram.com/truckporn Diesel Resource https://dieselresource.com/ OUR SOCIAL THINGS: Facebook: http://bit.ly/2GByFgI Instagram: http://bit.ly/2rXUzXl Twitter: http://bit.ly/2KIBCP4 YouTube: http://bit.ly/2rWl3Z8 Soundcloud: http://bit.ly/2s0MJeK Website: http://www.thedieselpodcast.com

The custom coachwork, while sporting an elegant and sleek design gave way to so many classic cars of history that are greatly prized and collected to this very day. Take a trip with us as special guests Roger Falcione, founder of ClassicCars.com and the legendary classic car restoration talents of Ken Vela of Wikd Kustoms pay a visit. We celebrate and travel the interesting history of legendary design and art that have given these particular vehicles a special place in automobile history during these popular time frames over he last 100 years. The Brass Era Car. 1896 -1915  Steam Car Development & the early days of electric engines. With brass touch points covering multiple points of the vehicle --THE STANLEY STEAMER Vintage Car Era 1919 -1940’s--The advertising years. More than just industry and work --a time to celebrate success and https://www.blubrry.com/wrenchnation/34840049/112-classic-cars/--with a dramatic turning point from the devastating depression years. 1950’S -1970’s Big Chrome and Horsepower. A time for big blocks and chrome with innovations in technology for its day. For our fellow mechanics across the world --we would love to hear your tips ! Chime in the comments , as the goal is to help as many people out with their car care , auto repair & maintenance needs with some great tips ! Please take a moment , and come join our weekly mechanical tribe by clicking here https://apple.co/2EdrZJE Itunes weekly Sunday upload Listen Live every Wed 4pm Arizona time and join in the show with us --we would love your car care questions or help http://bit.ly/2Eqp4Ki Our great sponsors who keep us rolling - we are grateful. As we do business with the best right here in our garage--these folks are long term relationships that we can vouche for 100 percent ! Host of the show Frank Leutz puts is heart and soul in to relationships and will only recommend those that he has had a rolled up sleeves experience with. This means  simply put --how well does  these productsservices serve his garage clients and what happens when mistakes are made These are companies that live by their clients in the automotive industry & and are accountable. You can call Frank at the garage 480 726 6400 anytime for the straight and skinny. Professional Installers check out Parts Authority with Locations Nationwide & the quality auto parts like DENSO,SMP,AC DELCO,DORMAN,CENTRIC,AISIN,HITACHI to name a few. The experienced &  knowledgeable parts counter folks while providing an iron clad warranty where the answer is yes !       http://bit.ly/2HQUdYn #poweredbypa Automotive Service Centers check out  digital inspections for your service facilities creating higher levels of consumer transparency and productivity http://bit.ly/2IE6zHD

Jakob og Frederik har interviewet to danske skuespillere, Niclas Kølpin og Louisa Yaa Aisin der begge er aktuelle i Casper Christensen og Frank Hvams nye komedie Dan-Dream. En snak om fortiden, fremtiden, Dan-Dream og alt muligt andet for to unge skuespillere. Enjoy.Mange tak til Niclas Kølpin, Louisa Yaa Aisin, Uniradioen og Nutmeg Movies

In the second of four daily podcasts from the ITS World Congress in Vienna, Paul Hutton finds out about a collaboration between the ITS associations in Australia and Canada, talks to Traficon, Mott MacDonald and TRL while Sarah Hawkes finds out about a new Advanced Driver Assistance System, Kevin Borras gives his two cents and Austriatech help with their guide to Vienna. It really would be a crime not to listen.