Features

Carrying on the Inside Line series, we move on from looking at the BMW Mini and turn our attention to another supermini which is one of the nation’s favourites – the Renault Clio.
The Clio was once crowned and is still considered one of the best small cars on the market despite so much competition

The IAAF has warned the sector it is at risk of unravelling. Chief Executive Brian Spratt expressed his concern that the fighting in the sector over the matching quality debate, and now with the storm brewing over Unipart’s comparative brake test, will be to the detriment of the aftermarket

Tim Richards explores the dangers of failing to protect the integrity of your products down the supply chain and how you can safeguard against them. Exceptional customer service and a strong, recognisable brand identity can create a stellar reputation. Most would agree, though, that a good quality product is critical. In the current environment, can a company simply sit back and let a product move from design to end-consumer without taking steps to ensure the product is tamper-free?

John Genge looks at how to go about recruiting the right people for your job, and make sure your investment pays dividends. Any manager is only as good as their team. If you want your business to succeed, then you must ensure that you recruit, retain and appraise the right employees

Just like the ‘find the lady’ card trick where sleight of hand defeats the eye, in the background of my mind there has always been a nagging question about registration statistics. I’ve always considered that bumper vehicle registrations, year on year must expand the service market downstream – but it didn’t appear to happen.

Being SMART with your management is a sure fire route to success, says John Genge

There are many definitions of management. Mine is very simple: The job of a manager is to create the environment in which each member of the team achieve their own, their team and their corporate goals.

It really is as simple as that, but of course one needs to ensure that those goals are SMART. I mean:

Specific

Measureable

Appropriate

Realistic

Timed

So the first necessity of successful management is to clearly identify and set your corporate goals and then to dovetail your and your team’s goals to ensure congruence. Easy in theory, a little more difficult in practice.

find out how people tick

CAT Council member Ed Savage draws some interesting comparisons between the aftermarket and the meat industry.

The British public has woken up in recent weeks to find the media informing it that everything was not exactly what it seemed to be, with regards to the “beef” it had been eating.

The British public was, naturally, outraged. It was not that horsemeat was dangerous, – because of course it isn’t – the strong reaction came because the public felt it had been conned and by names that it has trusted for a long time.

Motaquip General Manager Peter Cox leads the CAT Council in setting his New Year resolutions. When compared to motor factors is there any other industry offering a more efficient supply chain to technicians and service points in the UK? The answer is almost certainly no, so we should congratulate ourselves on what we’ve achieved. Or should we?