Graduation for aspirant motor dealers

Twelve aspirant motor dealer principals have successfully achieved the latest Sewells Group Advanced Dealer Management (ADM) course and will be recognised at a graduation function in Johannesburg next month.
‘The ADM programme has been running in South Africa for six years and has already produced close to 90 full graduates,’ says Tania Barlow, MD of Sewells Group South Africa, a global dealer management company which runs a parallel ADM facility in Australia and produces a similar number of graduates.

‘We are in the process of re-establishing our South African ADM’s relationship with the Melbourne University which will allow our course followers to add post graduate certification to their achievements here. The University will also contribute and deliver around two to three days of course content typically including inputs on leadership, culture management and change management.’
Tania said the ADM curriculum was designed to achieve some challenging although simple objectives:

‘Our motor dealer principals have to be especially skilled to lead and succeed in highly complex and challenging businesses.  This includes achieving objectives of balancing:  
•    the elegance of high level education with street-wise operational experience;
•    vehicle sales with fixed operations;
•    profitability with asset management;
•    customer demands with OEM demands;
•    the ‘art’ of the game in harmony with the systems and disciplines;  and
•    looking for the best combination of investment in capital resources with investment in the people resource.’

She said the year-long ADM course – ‘an apprenticeship for budding DPs’ - includes the following:
•    One hundred and fifty contact hours of intensive, focused management instruction (seven clusters over 10 months).
•    Leading industry and subject matter expert facilitators.
•    Exposure to a unique line-up of guest speakers.
•    Business visits, case studies and workplace assignments.
•    Insight into international best practices.
•    A holistic development approach including a personal development component to the programme.

‘Executive coaching sessions are also offered to integrate the learning components and enhance goal-achievement. If you enter our ADM programme you can literally learn all the elements of what it takes to become a motor dealer principal – the top person in large, dynamic and intricate businesses serving South Africa’s motoring customers.’
The graduation dinner is being held at the Protea Balalaika Hotel in Sandton.  Apart from each graduate receiving a certificate, two special awards will be made – one for the Best Business Plan submitted at the end of the course and the other for the Highest Average Score achieved in all assignments completed through the year.