Converting
Competitive Challenges into an Opportunity
Dear friends,
This
is my first opportunity of communicating with you through
this column. I am grateful to Council of FADA for reposing
its faith in me by electing me as President to steer FADA
for the next one year.
I
assume office when the retail automobile trade is at crossroads.
We are confronted with new challenges unleashed by the
competitive forces. The viability has become a bugbear
for a majority of automobile dealerships in this competitive
scenario.
We
cannot escape from the fact that the competition is here
to stay. Automobile dealers have to learn to live with
the competition and, as a result, shrinking margins. We
have to equip ourselves to convert the competitive challenges
into an opportunity. No doubt, while the sales margin
are under tremendous pressure, the new opportunities are
emerging on the horizon for automobile dealerships. The
automobile dealers have to make most of these opportunities
in order to stay viable/profitable in a scenario where
competition is the order of the day and not an exception.
This is what has been reiterated time and again through
this column by my predecessors and by industry leaders
at various forums of FADA.
There
has been a phenomenal growth of FADA over the past few
years. As a result, the expectations of membership from
FADA are also rising. Members in various regions are confronted
with new issues and problems. It is natural for automobile
dealers to look to FADA`s support in addressing these
new issues and challenges cropping up every now and then.
I
would, therefore, like to focus on the following areas,
in particular, during this year:
HELPLINE
My
first priority is to strengthen FADA Secretariat. Some
time back, a delegation of FADA visited the headquarters
of Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) – a body
of authorised automobile dealers and garages in U.K. It
was quite a learning experience for FADA delegation.
One
of the activities of RMI, which is worth replicating in
India, is the “HELP-LINE”. We would like to
have in FADA, a panel of experts in the areas of taxation,
environment pollution, economic policies etc., so that
the advice is available to members in these issues promptly
through the medium of this “Help-line”.
FADA
ACADEMY
The
other major programme which is high to my agenda is to
give a shape to FADA ACADEMY`s Pilot Project under which
training courses, in association with other reputed institutes,
for catering to the manpower needs of automobile dealerships,
are proposed to be started. The programme will initially
be launched at Mumbai and Pune and extended to all major
towns and cities in a phased manner. In view of the acute
shortage of manpower being faced virtually by all automobile
dealers, this programme, I am sure, will go a long way
in benefiting the automobile dealer fraternity. FADA is
going ahead with the programme in all earnestness with
the first batch of courses slated to start from January
2006.
STATE
CHAPTERS
I
do realize that it is difficult for office bearers of
FADA to reach out to all members spread across the country.
We will continue our endeavours to strengthen the state
and city level associations of automobile dealers in order
that the local issues facing the automobile dealers are
taken up by these associations for speedy redressal. I
feel that these Associations at the regional, state and
city levels should assume the role of a bridge between
FADA and its members all over the country.
AUTO
SUMMIT 2006
FADA
has been organizing a biennial All-India Convention of
Automobile Dealers i.e. Auto Summit coinciding with the
Auto Expo at New Delhi. I am pleased to inform that the
next Auto Summit on the theme “Changing
Face of Auto Retailing – A Global Perspective”
is scheduled to be held on 14th January 2006, at Hotel
Taj Palace, New Delhi. In view of the paradigm
shift in automotive business with the entry of global
auto majors into India and the intense competition resulting
therefrom, we could not have had thought of a theme better
than this. I would request my fellow dealers to participate
in this mega event in large numbers. The deliberations
of Summit, I am sure, will go a long way in enriching
the knowledge and experiences of the automobile dealer
fraternity, as during the previous Summits.
Adverting
to the automobile market, it is heartening to note that
the vehicle sales have picked up in August 2005. The fact
that we have been able to achieve a decent growth in August
in spite of floods ravaging Mumbai, and other parts of
Maharashtra and Gujarat is comforting. While the automobile
industry may not be able to repeat the health growth figures
attained in the last three years or so, I am hopeful that
we shall end up with a fairly decent growth in the year
2005-06, particularly when the economy is going reasonably
well and is expected to grow at 7% in this year, capping
the impressive run in the last two years. However, we
have to be guarded in our optimism inasmuch as the oil
prices continue to the spiral. The recent jacking up of
prices of petrol and diesel is likely to dampen somewhat
the buoyant sentiment. The good thing is that the automotive
sectory has learnt to cope with the uncertainties and
has performed reasonably well against heavy odds, which
makes all of us confident about the continuing tempo of
growth.
FADA
is thinking big and has drawn up ambitious plans for initiating
measures aimed at benefiting the retail automobile trade
as a whole. I do realize that there is an onerous responsibility
cast on me as a President of this august body, especially
in view of the high standards of leadership set by my
worthy predecessors and the rising expectations of membership.
However, I am sure, the new Council will live to the challenge
with the able support, guidance and wise counsel of past
Presidents, senior members and automobile dealers at large.
I
count on your support and guidance to covert our ambitious
programmes into a reality, and look forward to your suggestions
and inputs for sustained growth of automotive business.
With
best wishes,
Yours
sincerely,
Binod
Agarwal
President
