Lithia Motors, Inc. is an American nationwide automotive retailer headquartered in Medford, Oregon. It is the fourth largest automotive retailer in the United States. In 2015, Lithia Motors broke into the Fortune 500 list at #482. After hearing David speak at an executive education event, Lithia Group Vice President Ken Wright approached David and Joan to learn more. Ken is a proactive leader, always seeking new tools to help his team better address changes and challenges in the highly competitive and dynamic automotive sales market. He saw the potential for the V-REEL® Framework to help his managers think strategically through challenges at the dealership level and devise sound strategies for overcoming obstacles to success in the near and long term. Because Ken is already a great trainer and dynamic leader, he only needed a brief introduction to V-REEL® for his team.

The Value Creation crew worked closely with Ken to understand his objectives for the seminar and gain a sense of some of the challenges he commonly faces with his team. With those insights in mind, Joan and David designed a custom seminar to meet Lithia’s budget and timeline. David provided a brief introduction to V-REEL® and then David and Joan facilitated team break-out sessions that allowed the managers to practice working through V-REEL®, addressing some of the actual challenges they face day-to-day in their dealerships. By the end of the V-REEL® Seminar, the managers had a new, easy to understand common language to use in discussing opportunities in the automotive retail market, along with critical thinking tools to take back to all of their dealerships to use with their teams.

In a follow-up survey after the course, 100% of respondents indicated that the V-REEL® Seminar helped them focus their thinking on key issues facing Lithia, and the managers indicated they are very likely to take it back to their businesses to use with their employees.