My perspective on the SAE World Congress in Detroit

Last week Heidi and I went to the SAE World Congress in Detroit. Networking, exploring the news from the automotive front and a meeting with a prospect were on our agenda.

It was quite interesting to see that the SAE was about 30 % smaller than in previous years. Our conversations with people at the booths led us to believe that there were also way less potential clients. On the contrary, we saw a lot of people who dropped off their resumes.

Unfortunately, we did not get to see my fellow countryman Arnold Schwarzenegger who opened the SAE with a keynote speech on Monday. The people we asked about him had only good things to say and all of them were pleasantly surprised at how well prepared and informed he was.

For me it was quite interesting to see the different approaches the automakers take. At GM, there were a lot of marketing people around but they seemed more interested in talking to each other than to the visitors at their booth.

At Ford, they had some really good cars - for small cars, the new Ford Fiesta with the new blue colour for 2010 looked great - but they failed to leave the car doors open so that visitors could experience the "indoor feeling". There was only one marketing guy who was either on the phone or working on his laptop, not even bothering to look up. What a great impression he made on me! Maybe it was also because I am a woman and therefore he did not see the need to answer my questions. I had flashbacks to my car shopping experiences.

Nissan had the most appealing transmission showpiece with different colours to attract curious visitors. The marketing and sales people there approached me immediately in a very friendly manner to promote Nissan and they answered all the questions I had.

However, my personal favourite was Honda. It is not surprising for me to see WHY the Japanese are so far ahead of their North American competitiors. It's their attitude and their indisputable ability to be innovative and creative.



These two guys walked around with a Honda walking assist devise. These are basically supplemental robot legs for humans who have difficulties walking.

They told me that Honda does EVERYTHING that has to do with mobility. Both of them visited the US from Japan and their English was not the best but...... their friendliness and their willingness to answer any question visitors would have, could not have been overlooked by anybody.

Honda had approximately 10 people at their booth, all very friendly, everyone smiling but the smart thing was that although they paid for their booth, these two guys promoted Honda with this unique walking device throughout Cobo Hall.

Hmmm, do you think there may be one or two things we could learn from them?

ME first - TEAM second - VISION last

Correct me if I am wrong but in order to be a successful organization........, shouldn't this be the other way around?

In our work we focus on employee engagement and motivation and it is devastating for me to see that morale in most companies is at an all-time low at the moment. Why?

In my opinion we are faced more with a leadership crisis than with an economic crisis.

Due to the lack of leadership and the lack of communication nobody knows what the future will hold. How can we be productive and go the extra mile if we are paralyzed by fear and worry?

Everybody needs to see the brightness of the future and row in the same direction. Instead, companies are in fire fighting mode and the focus is on problems instead of solutions.

Many people are in it for themselves and for the money. It almost seems to me there is no more loyalty. There are too many fact driven managers and not enough visionary leaders.

It is never one person only who makes a company a success. However, if this leader has emotional intelligence and works with and for the people, miracles can and will happen.

Let's talk to people, get to know the issues, ask questions, try to learn as much as we can from the people and try to involve them to create effective solutions. In order to be respected leaders we have to earn the respect of the people first.

How many of us are really doing that?

VISION first - TEAM second - ME last.......... That's the route we have to choose!

No training need during difficult times?

Isn't it mind-boggling that we spend 12 years or longer in school and university before we even start our career and then in a constantly changing world forget about training as a way to keep current?

Life is a learning process and as the world changes we will lose our effectiveness unless we keep up our skills.

Is there really no time or money for personal development? Or is it much rather the lack of drive and initiative to work on our skills to become the best person and leader we can be?

Good companies recognize the need for training and should measure the ROI based on their ability to improve the weakness identified.

I always say ROI = ROI; your return on investment are your relationships, outcomes and improvements in your organization.

One single training session does not change anything. Trainers need to work with the commitment of all the people involved. If you have a progressive management team who is willing to take the challenge of change and they actively work with the feedback of a trainer to put an action plan together, results can be seen in 6 months - 1 year. And believe me, this would be noticeable results!

A skilled and motivated workforce will be essential to ensure organizations are well placed to take advantage of the recovery when it comes.

Unfortunately most companies want to have a quick fix and by the employees this is most of the time seen as the "flavour of the month".

If organizations want to have a home run, everybody needs to be in the game!

I would love to hear your perspective......

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