Automotive News Canada - February 2017 - 4

* FEBRUARY 2017

The seven-course program has
three more intakes planned in the
next 10 months, including one in
Halifax. ( P H O T O : G E O R G I A N C O L L E G E )

Managers line up for dealership studies
Georgian College
management
program attracts
future and
current dealership
professionals
By GREG LAYSON
ONLINE EDITOR

BARRIE, ONT. - DEMAND
for the relatively new
Automotive Dealership
Management program at
Georgian College in Barrie,
Ont., is exceeding expectations, leading to waiting lists
and pop-up classrooms at airport hotels in Eastern and
Western Canada.
The graduate certificate
program is designed to help
current and potential dealer
principals and general managers already employed in the
industry develop and upgrade
their skills.
After two years of research,
the 14-month, seven-course
program launched as a pilot in
February 2015. The inaugural
class of about 25 graduated in
June 2016.
Now, despite having three
more class intakes underway,
the school can't meet demand.
It has three more intakes
planned during the next 10
months, including one in
Halifax marking the first time
the course will be offered in
Atlantic Canada. Each course
has a maximum of 35 students.
"People who have gone
through it are starting to talk,"
said Joe Lauzon, marketing
director for the Automotive
Business School of Canada.
"I haven't even advertised the
one for February in Toronto
and we're full, with a waiting
list.
"We have to figure out how
we're going to scale this to the
demand of the Canadian market ... where we need to run it
and how quickly."

Before the Georgian College
program, dealerships had little choice but to send staff to
the United States.
(PHOTO: GEORGIAN COLLEGE)

Prior to the development
of the Georgian program,
dealerships sent their general managers to schools in the
United States, including the
National Automobile Dealers
Association Academy in
Virginia.

CANADA-FOCUSED STUDIES
Not everything taught at
the NADA Academy was relevant to the Canadian market. Labour legislation, free-

dom and privacy laws and
benchmarks - even consumer expectations - all differ on
opposite sides of the border,
Lauzon said.
That's partly why Canadian
auto dealers coast to coast
have been rushing to the
Georgian program, said Todd
Bourgon, executive director
of the Trillium Automobile
Dealers Association, which
represents dealers in Ontario.
"Historically, to get this
type of education, you had to
go to the U.S. and then filter in
what is applicable to Canadian
law and filter out what is not
applicable to Canadian law,"
he said. "People were going
south of the border and weren't
getting 100 per cent of what
they could apply back home.
"The other main thing is
convenience and cost. Having
people travel to the United
States and be in hotels for
an extended amount of time,
there's a cost to that."
The Georgian course consists of three nine-hour days in
a classroom, which can be in a
conference room at an airport
hotel in Eastern and Western

PROGRAM TITLES
* Dealership Management
* Dealership Financial
Management
* Customer Experience
* Parts/Accessories Management
* Service Management
* New and Used Sales
Management
* Growth and Opportunity
Capstone, which includes the
student submitting a longterm plan and strategy
for his or her dealership.

Canada, and six weeks of
online work.
Admission requirements
are a post-secondary diploma
or degree, or five years work
experience in the automotive
industry.
"This is not for someone
who has never worked in the
industry," Lauzon warned.
Lauzon also said some automakers are now starting to
mandate new general managers graduate from one of the
programs at either Georgian
or NADA in the U.S.

SUCCESSION SOLUTION
Bourgon and Lauzon both
said that because dealer principals are aging and nearing
retirement, the course is a critical step in succession planning.
"As an aging population
starts to show its colours in
retirement, it's important to
have these people engaged and
feel like their employer is supporting them," Bourgon said of
sales staff and potential general managers.
He said some of Canada's
largest dealership groups "are
sending a ton of people to this
course" as the groups continue
to acquire independent dealerships.
"It's not a full succession
plan. But it's allowing them
to get someone up to speed to
be able to take it over, whether to train someone to run the
dealership or buy you out,"
Lauzon said.
He said financial terms of
a sale are always between the
current and new owner. The
program at Georgian doesn't
touch on the change of ownership. - ANC

The Georgian courses consist of three nine-hour days in a classroom, which can be in a conference room at an airport hotel in
Eastern and Western Canada, and six weeks of online work. A post-secondary degree is required or five years experience in the
industry. ( P H O T O : G E O R G I A N C O L L E G E )

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - February 2017