Automotive News Canada - December 2021 - 14

14
* DECEMBER 2021
No 'typical day' amid inventory challenges
By JIL McINTOSH
OSHAWA CORRESPONDENT
REBECCA WU
HELPING TOYOTA DEALERS NAVIGATE
PANDEMIC-RELATED VEHICLE SUPPLY ISSUES
GETTING CARS TO CUSTOMERS INVOLVES
understanding sales targets, dealer volumes,
competitors and what products are available.
As the national manager for sales and inventory
planning at Toyota Canada in Toronto, Rebecca
Wu puts all those variables together.
" There isn't a typical day in my job, especially
as we're dealing with shortages in production, "
Wu said.
As with other automakers, Toyota's vehicle
output has been hit by the global microchip
shortage and industrywide supply-chain issues,
which impact dealer inventory. In Canada,
Toyota builds the RAV4 and the Lexus NX and
RX crossovers.
" I have a team of 30
people, but we're still all
working from home, so it's
back-to-back [online] meetings
about sales, inventory
and what next year will
look like.
" We work with our
dealers and help them plan
in these times as well, with
the vehicles we'll launch and the inventory we'll
get. It's a lot of planning effort. "
Wu, who speaks English, French and
Cantonese, studied translation techniques at
York University in Toronto. She was hired by
Toyota in 1999 to translate documents such as
manuals, training programs and technical bulletins.
" Two
years in, I went into public relations.
Toyota has a rotation culture because we want
people to understand the business and try different
things and see what works for them. In [the
public relations] role, you have to understand
the corporation in addition to the vehicles. "
Six years later she moved into marketing,
working her way up to national manager for
Toyota. She took on her current role in August.
STANLEY ING
THE CALL OF DUTY: WORKING WITH WHAT
IS LIKELY CANADA'S TOUGHEST CLIENT
By rotating through Toyota's various
departments over the years, Rebecca Wu
brought more company knowledge and
experience to each position.
PHOTO: TOYOTA CANADA
MERCEDES-BENZ CANADA HAS A UNIQUE
fleet customer: the Canadian Armed Forces.
And as the automaker's manager for Defence
Program, Stanley Ing, sells and oversees conversion
of the G-Class utility vehicle for military
duty.
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Stanley Ing coordinates
production of military
versions of the
Mercedes-Benz G-Class
utility vehicle for the
Canadian Armed Forces,
which involves meeting with
government on technical
specifications.
PHOTO: MERCEDES-BENZ
CANADA
technical modifications and
repair and overhaul. I'm also
involved in future sales, and
we have two sales projects
coming up with the Canadian
Armed Forces. "
The contracts include a
cargo vehicle and vehicles for
the military police, and command
and reconnaissance.
The military versions are similar
to the consumer G-Class,
but they are stripped down on
the inside, fitted with communications
systems and can be
modified with weapons stations
and armour.
Ing coordinates their production,
which includes
suppliers in Germany and
Canada.
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" My days include conference
calls with German
colleagues, meetings with
Mercedes-Benz for parts, participating
in progress-review
meetings with the Department
of National Defence (DND),
and as needed, calls with the
DND Technical Authority. "
Ing, 68, earned a master's
degree in international relations
from the University of
Toronto and was hired as a
research associate on strategic
studies at York University.
In 1985, he was asked to join
a National Defence thinktank
as a policy analyst and
then became a senior adviser
on aerospace industries
for the Ontario government.
He worked for Airbus for
eight years until MercedesBenz,
which at that time partly
owned Airbus, asked him
to help with the G-Class program.
When a Canadian
Armed Forces contract for
1,159 G-Wagons was signed
in 2004, Ing joined MercedesBenz's
fleet program.
" Defence is tougher than
commercial fleet because
there are more policies and
layers of administration.
All the parts have to be catalogued
by the army so they
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can order them. It takes more
time, and you just have to be
patient. "
JUD BUCHANAN
EXPERIENTIAL MARKETER
'LOVES' THE ADVENTURE
BEFORE A NEW VEHICLE
goes on sale, there needs
to be hands-on experience
for dealership personnel,
media, automaker employees
and even some customers.
Setting up such an event
is a huge amount of work
that's now second nature to
Jud Buchanan, president of
Vehicle Dynamics Group
(VDG) in Campbellville,
65 kilometres southwest of
Toronto.
" We were an experiential
marketing company before
most people even knew what
that was, " he said. " We can
do everything from a simple
drive program to completely
turnkey with travel, accommodations,
meals and entertainment. "
Buchanan,
68, always loved
cars. He raced autocross as
a hobby, starting in 1976,
and won the Canadian Auto
Slalom Championship in 1983
and the Ontario title a year
later.
In 1985, he joined
Yokohama Tire as national
marketing communications
manager, in charge of public
relations, motorsport and
advertising. But he longed to
be his own boss and founded
VDG in 2000.
" Every program is built
about the vehicle, so I first
get educated on it, so we can
put it in an environment
that represents what a broad
swath of consumers might
expect from it. We have digitized
topographical maps of
North America and we build
the route on our proprietary
GPS, work out the timing and
where we need to put our personnel. "
Buchanan
has eight
employees, plus 10 contract
workers who ship the vehicles,
clean them and ensure all
participants are accounted for
along the driving routes.
" I'm passionate about the
adventure, the challenge of
organizing things, and everything
about the cars. " - ANC
" We were an experiential
marketing company before
most people even knew
what that was, " said Jud
Buchanan, president of
Vehicle Dynamics Group.
PHOTO: JIL McINTOSH
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Automotive News Canada - December 2021

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