Automotive News Canada - May 2019 - v2 - 12

* MAY 2019

With 'improvement' in her title, no interior can be inferior
By JIL McINTOSH

OSHAWA CORRESPONDENT

MARGARET SOARES
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
ENSURES TOP QUALITY

Suppliers are vital to the automakers. And in Cambridge,
Ont., supplier Canadian
General Tower Ltd.
(CGT) is marking
its 150th anniversary. The company makes synthetic vinyl and polymeric thin films
for auto interiors,
along with pool liners, and Margaret
Soares is its director of continuous
improvement.
"I oversee the efficiencies,
how to reduce waste, how to
improve the key performance
metrics," said Soares, 40. "The
more we reduce waste, the
more we reduce costs and stay
competitive."
Soares studied material science and handling at
McMaster University and
earned a diploma in chemical
science. She worked in quality control at a die-casting company, completed her engineering degree and joined CGT 14
years ago.
"I work with the product
development group to look at
how to improve the product, in
combination with the process,
so it can be more efficient,"
Soares said. "I love to trouble-

shoot and the satisfaction that
you've built something and it's
going to be in so many people's
lives."
CGT is a Tier 4 supplier
selling to Tier 3 companies
that cut and sew the material to make seats, door panels,
instrument panels and other
interior components. Honda is
the only automaker that buys
directly from CGT,
but "we work very
closely with all the
material engineers at
the [automakers] to
meet their specifications," Soares said.
"In some cases,
we have to customize, so we'll work on
that.
"My typical day
starts on the floor.
I'm always walking the process, working with the operators and processing engineers.
We have customer visits, and I
work with the quality teams to
resolve any issues, but I'd say
80 per cent of my time is on the
manufacturing floor.
"We ship vinyl all over
the world, and that makes me
proud to be in Canadian manufacturing and know we still
make a strong product line
here."

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RUTH MCBRIDE

DRIVING THE FINANCE IN A
FINANCE-DRIVEN INDUSTRY

Margaret Soares went into engineering "because I like to build
things and find solutions." P H O TO : D AV I D S O N E S

ERICA CHEAH

HELPING HER CLIENTS SELL
TO THEIR CLIENTS
It's said that good products
sell themselves, but Erica
Cheah knows better. As executive vice-president and media
director in the Toronto office
of the advertising agency
Saatchi & Saatchi, it's her job
to get the automaker's message
to consumers.
"We're a full-service agency; and we do everything,
including creative development, digital ad production,
media planning and strategy,"
said Cheah, 44.
"We're heavily involved
with the [automaker's] marketing team, and we're involved
when it comes to the strategic
decisions of where they take

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Along with designing
advertising, Erica Cheah and
her team determine the best
places to put it.
P H O TO : R O B B U T T E RW I C K

the marketing of their brand."
Cheah earned a psychology degree from McMaster
University in Hamilton, Ont.,
but didn't want to go into the
medical field.
"I had an interest in business, and advertising seemed
to be the perfect marriage of
psychology and business,"
she said. Cheah did an internship at a small Toronto agency as her first job and worked
at eight agencies before a former boss, who was leaving
Saatchi, recommended her as
his replacement a year ago.
She came in at her current
position.
"I grew up loving vehicles.
My dad was a huge car fanatic, and every two years we
were getting a brand-new vehicle," Cheah said. "It was luck
that I joined an agency that
had an automotive client, and
I've been in automotive for 17
years."
Cheah's biggest challenge
is focus.
"There's clutter on every
device we have, so much going
on, so many screens at once
and so much outside noise.
Getting people's attention for
that split second is really difficult. We have to understand
all the data we have available
to us to put the right thing in
front of people.
"My psychology background helps me know what
will affect people, what they
want and how they react to
messages. It's a waste of dollars if you haven't put it in
front of the right people."

The auto industry depends on
financing, and Ruth McBride
ensures it's done properly.
As vice-president of automotive finance at Scotiabank in
Toronto, she's responsible for
bank-automaker partnerships,
commercial auto products
such as floorplans and how the
bank's retail sales force supports dealers.
"If we don't turn that tap
of financing on, the industry
can't exist," said McBride, 58.
"We also help the manufacturers with marketing. We
have a lot of data on their customers, so we can figure out
what marketing strategy to use
to help them sell to [the right]
section of the market."
McBride originally studied
political science and English
at the University of Toronto.
She wanted to become a foreign-service officer, "but
I didn't speak French, so I
knew that wouldn't happen."
She had worked part time
at a bank while in school,
and when she graduated,
Scotiabank hired her to supervise a branch-operations team.
McBride worked to get into the
commercial-credit department
at the Toronto headquarters
while earning her MBA.
When a job opened for
director of manufacturer partnerships, "they were looking
for someone with retail, commercial and operations training, and I fit the bill," McBride
said.
"And I had always had an
interest in automotive. My dad
was an engineer and he made
me repair my own cars. He
never wanted me to be stuck
somewhere."
McBride has spent 19 years
in automotive finance and has
held her current position for
nearly six years.
"I'm good with people. I've
never had a job in the bank
where I didn't have customers.
"It's an area that people
in school should think about,
because it's like entrepreneurship. We have human resources, strategy, marketing, everything you typically have in a
business. The cool thing about
my job is that whatever you
do has an impact on the industry."- ANC

Ruth McBride's rapport with
customers includes their
knowing "I'm always available
for a call."
P H O TO S U P P L I E D B Y R U T H M C B R I D E

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Automotive News Canada - May 2019 - v2

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