Fleet Financials, July/August 2018

JULY AUGUST 2018 FLEET FINANCIALS 17ally a one way street in for a penny in for a pound Lets begin to think differently In a recent interview with Harvard Business Review Freek Vermeulen an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School stressed the need for companies to seek out change before they became forced to change due to difficulties in the business Dont wait for trouble Be proactive Because if youre proactive then you end up having to do less of it HELP YOUR ORGANIZATION STAND OUT Now we are not suggesting that we put the brakes on sharing experiences and innovations with peers as we all have advanced by learning from each other What we are saying is that to break away from the pack and bring your organization to the pinnacle you need to implement successful practices formally best and dedicate resources and creativity to focusing on your great practices and next practices Next practices are those that will be bringing significant change opportunity savings efficiencies and or services to an organization The leaders who put together these practices tend to be those who shape the future of not only their organization but also their industries We believe the key to safely implementing next practices indeed the reason why new thoughts ideas and ways of doing business can be explored now is technology The rapid growth of supporting technology will allow for a safe move to inspired next practices An excellent example of technology which allows for the flexibility of testing out new methods and ideas is telematics For relatively little exposure you can develop and launch a program that if not successful can be adapted to what was discovered in a pilot changed to suit the evolving nature of your fleet or eliminated entirely at the flip of a switch if it doesnt work as planned Advances in technology and the ability of big data to analyze possible scenarios for new ideas will allow organizations to more quickly develop and launch their ideas in a safe a relative term but certainly more cushioned today than in the past and low risk manner We are not saying to stop sharing best practices unquestionably we need to share our internal best practices and review and evaluate others as well perhaps you can make a tweak to someone elses best practices to propel you forward Back to McDonalds Ray Kroc adopted the vision of Harry Sonneborn one of his employees as the next practice for his empire This vision ended up leading to the McDonalds brothers demise The growing chain was just barely turning a profit Kroc went out and bought the land that franchisees would lease back from McDonalds turning them into a real estate powerhouse As you continue to learn through industry events conferences and educational programs think about your organization Challenge the speakers your colleagues and yourself to determine what are your next practices the key differentiators that will drive you into the future What are you doing that will set the new standard for the industry Michael Bieger is the immediate past president of the Automotive Fleet Leasing Association AFLA Bill Elliott serves as the AFLA Executive Director through his role as Vice President of Operations at Association Acumen LLC n treated the leasing and service of vehicles as a commodity as unit items with a number of single cost drivers Typically these costs were grouped in several buckets the price of the vehicle and the per month service fees paid to the FMCs and rebate dollars negotiated The vehicle was effectively perceived as a standard cost widget Smart procurement organizations nowadays and not all of them are now smart by any stretch of the imagination realize that the service aspects of the fleet significantly affect the lifecycle costs as does driver behavior and the efficiency of the service providers operations A more enlightened worldview is emerging within some organizations MOVING AHEAD OF CURRENT BEST PRACTICES If you build your entire organization off of the best practices of others you may be better than the average better than those who have not incorporated the process into their norm but you are always going to be an industry follower instead of an industry leader It will not in and of itself push your organization to the fore Companies try to reach across industries to gain an upper hand by copying what is done by successful companies in adjacent or even competing industries if following two best practices is good certainly four or more would be better The world is changing at a faster pace than it has at any time in its history and we believe that the same will be said five years and 10 years from now Technology is driving the pace of change and how we adapt to it will dictate how successful we will be Best practices can no longer be considered best practices they are now just the price of admission they are the minimum needed to be successful to not be left behind In effect best practices are standard operating practices for solvency they allow you to keep treading water while awaiting the next sea change We believe that no longer are best practices enough With technology driving us faster and faster what is needed is for us to move from best practice to next practice In the past this might have been called the bleeding edge a place very few wanted to be The technology of the past didnt allow one to just dip their toe in the water of new ideas One had to jump in feet first and no matter how carefully analyzed or planned out that leap in was terrifying because it was usu