Cover Story

New Kids

on the Block

By Jeff Breeze

The automotive industry is one of the fastest moving places in the country, whether it is the adaptation of technology or the acceleration of vehicles driving away in the hands of new owners. It can also be tortoise slow when it

comes to personnel turnover with people securely in jobs for generations, and at many events it is the same faces with a little less hair

and a little less ornate

necktie.

New blood always flows into the in

dustry as well, with demand for service

technicians always high, and for people who can bridge the traditions of a dealership with rapidly changing technology and new processes. The people who ascend highest are often those who spent formative years inside stores with family members and who have cars in their blood. While the three people that we are featuring all have the title of General Manager at this point, they each have taken a different path to get to where they are.

Alex Ci olo

General Manager, Porsche Norwell

When you grow up with an uncle, and godfather, like Ray Ciccolo, it is bound to make a significant impression, and for Alex Ciccolo it certainly did. While his path to proving his mettle went through a few different dealerships, he has transformed Porsche in Massachusetts in his few years at the helm.

“I always really looked up to my uncle. Ever since I was a little

kid, I knew I wanted to be like him and to follow in his footsteps. My family has always been in the business, so ever since I was a kid I was being brought up in a car dealership.”

Ciccolo studied economics at American University of Paris, but when he graduated and returned to the U.S., he was not given any sort of free pass and cushy job by his family.

“They did not make it easy for me. They did not have any interest in hiring me because they wanted me to do it on my own. They did not want me to just walk into a business that we owned. I started working on my own and was doing pretty well. There was not much interest to leave the career path I was on because I was doing well working for other people.”

There was no guarantee for him that this was the career track he was seeking, but he knew that he needed to find out if it was where he was meant to be. He started as a log guy and went into the BDC. From there he moved into sales and then became F&I manager, and a sales manager. He moved from Cadillac of Norwood to South Shore BMW and on to Brigham-Gill Motorcars in Natick in the process of learning and proving himself.

“I was not sure. I always knew that I wanted to try it to see if I at least liked it. When this GM position was available, it was a career move but also an opportunity to prove myself to the industry and to my family.” In June of 2016, he came back to the Village Automotive fold and was really a part of the family business. He had big ideas and quickly upended the entire way that Porsche had done business locally.

“When I took over, it was a very different store. We had a small staff with not a lot of cars and not a lot of expense. We probably sold 160 total cars a year. We brought it to a big store and a bigger staff, and I am saying we will probably sell over 800 cars this year. We had only three technicians and have eight now (six of those as Porsche’s top level certification), and we still are struggling with capacity issues. We have expanded everywhere, we tripled the staff, and it is a much different store than it ever used to be.”

Now the store is a Premiere Porsche dealer, ranking in the top 25 in sales nationally the past three years. Ciccolo also credits a good sales process velocity on used cars, going to an aggressive one price philosophy on used cars, to turn them over faster while growing the new car inventory to give customers the best experience that they can.

Looking forward, change is everywhere, and not merely spurred by the technological necessities of the pandemic. “Porsche just came out with their first 100% electric vehicle, the Taycan. It is truly the leader in that segment of electric vehicles. It has been called ‘the Tesla-killer.’ It is truly the best electric vehicle in the world today. It is the future of where a lot of cars are probably going.” Bringing in a new vehicle with entirely new systems means “we need to make sure staff has the proper training, and that is across everyone - sales, service, and parts.”

In the wake of the Coronavirus, Ciccolo sees lots of opportunities and possibilities for change. It is being ready to be able to respond to whatever happens and find ways to make the best of those situations that drives him to continually find new paths to success.

“The business is still good, but it is something that could change any day and every day. The virus has really changed our business a lot, in some ways for the better, in some ways for the worse. There are a lot of things that the Coronavirus expedited. I think we were always moving towards an online sales, by appointment type of thing, and this really sped up that timeline. It is changing every day and we are having to adapt and react on a daily basis to what is happening now and what we think is going to be happening in the future.”

As he looks forward to future growth and responsibilities, Ciccolo has the same foundations in the community that his godfather instilled in him back as a child.

“We want to be able to give employees a good way of life. We want to be able to serve and take care of our customers. But the main thing is we want to expand, and we want to grow our dealer group. We want to employ as many people as we can and contribute as best we can to society, whether it is by charitable endeavors and being involved.”

Emily Dube

General Manager, Bill Dube Hyundai

Emily Dube has been on a fast track for the automobile industry since she was young, and now with nearly 2 years under her belt as the GM, she is still the youngest in the state at age 27. She is proof that a nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic still pays dividends in a digital era.

Her earliest memories involve cars, and it seems they were well embedded in her skin. “When I think back to being a lit-

tle kid and going to my grandparents’ house for dinner, most families talk about baseball and everything, but meanwhile my family is sitting around the table rehashing customers and cars. From really early on it was something that was a huge part of my daily life and something that my entire family had in common together. That was my stepping stone.”

Like many children in a car dealership, she found some work to do, but instead of sweeping up and following the service techs around like a lapdog, she was working with her aunt, learning the business and helping to manage the car wash attached to one of the family’s dealerships.

“I was lucky because I was exposed to the dealership financial statements before I had even graduated from high school. My mentors in my life gave me a lot more education and a lot more information. So I was able to get a taste of that before going off to college. I knew that was something that I liked and was good at, and that is how I started on that track.”

She set off to Washington, D.C. for college and studied business at American University. While she was a good student in the classroom, it was out seeking experience where she learned what she was looking for in a job and in life.

“Everyone goes on an internship as much as they possibly can - if you have not done three internships then you have not done anything. I did my share of internships and they were fine, but I always had this feeling that if I were to call in sick, it did not really matter. If I were at an accounting firm, all of the math and all of the work would still be there tomorrow, and no one would skip a beat. After my sophomore year, I decided to come home for the summer and work for the dealership, and that was a completely different experience. I had worked there before, starting when I was 12, but not doing anything overly consequential. That summer I was working for my father and working in the sales department, and it was the first time I felt that if I did not get out of bed that day, and show up for work, you-know-what was going to hit the fan, people would notice, and it mattered. It affected people’s lives and people’s day whether I was there or not, and that was something I found motivating and kind of exciting.”

In her junior year of college she realized that she could graduate a semester early if she constructed her schedule a certain way. “That meant I could move home and start working and instead of paying D.C. rent and just messing around for an extra six months.” While she walked with her class that May, she was working at the dealership in January after a week off, and was enrolled in NADA Dealer Academy the following month.

“Then, I was at the service week, which was the second week of dealer academy in April of 2015, when my dad called me and said, ‘While you are out of town this week, you should go buy a new alarm clock. The service manager just gave his two weeks, so you are up.’ I was 21 at the time and knowing nothing about the service department. We were actually on a class break when he called, so I went and made a stronger cup of coffee.” After three and a half years of learning a ton about service and the rest of the business, she took over as the General Manager on November 1, 2018.

While challenges rise constantly, Dube has a network of people around her to help the dealership succeed, while bringing a youthful energy that is unmatched. Her fiancé is the finance manager for one of the family’s other dealership and has a similar ethic that drives him. “It works pretty well for us, because both of us end up staying late at work pretty often, and neither of us get mad about it because we both do it.”

Ch Bou h r

General Manager, Ron Bouchard Auto Stores

“I was born in ’85 and my dad opened his first store in ’86, so I guess I was really born into this,” Chad Bouchard said. His father had been a race car driver who won NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie Driver of the Year in 1981 thanks to a victory at the Talladega 500. Chad had the competitive spirit in his blood as well, toiling for six years in the ranks of the professional golfing tour, but it was cars that had got their teeth into him from the time he was little.

“I spent time at the stores from when I was 10 or 12 years old. I went from cleaning around the shops to doing reconditioning to working on the sales floor to where I am now. I did not know it was always what I wanted to do, but I am glad that I am doing it because I love getting up and going to work every day.”

While golf was a great chance for him to do what he loved, it was not any easy existence hoping to make the cut from week to week with pay based on how well you were putting on any given weekend. When the automobile business reached out to provide a sense of stability, he took the chance.

“You can only play golf at that level for so long, and I had my While re-opening after the pandemic shutdown has been a boon opportunities, but it never really got to the point where there was to dealerships across the state with many approaching record numany stability in it. Then my dad got sick, he had had cancer, and bers as a result of pent-up demand, Bouchard is more pragmatic it came back around. He asked me what I wanted to do, because and realizes that some successes are industry-wide and not really now was the time to get back in the car business because though of their own doing. he was sick, he could help me learn. I came back, and he passed “You can look at the financial statement and say, ‘Wow, I am away about four months after I returned. That was a really tough doing great,’ but you look around and see everyone is doing great part of my life but I am glad that I did it and I am glad that at least so maybe I am just average. You need to realize that is very much he knew that I came back.” driven by the market and not us. So do not get lazy and just keep

In college at the University of Tampa, he double majored in trying to improve. You do not want to be caught with too much inmarketing and management with an advertising minor. Initially he ventory or too much expense going into a slower time of the year, had wanted to stay in Central Massachusetts and work, but his especially if the market flips again whether it is due to the pandemfather told him to go to college and get an education. When he ic or just financial reasons. We are trying to keep ourselves trim returned to the business, he had a base with expenses and inventory, manage in education, but knew he was in over it properly and be as fluid as possible.” his head at the start. It is the same thought process that he

“I did not know what to do and no brings to future innovations like electric one really knew what to do with me, so cars - they will do all they can to sell I started in the marketing, because I had the supply that manufacturers provide, some experience here before and knew but the market is controlled by factors that I could help a little. Marketing is althat dealerships cannot dictate, no matways changing so you have to get with ter the regulations put on them by the the times right away, because what you government. learned in college four or five years ago “At the end of the day, I do not think is completely different, and what you that we have any control with electric learned in other industries is completely The [COVID-19] virus has really cars. It is all about supply and demand, different. I focused on helping with the changed our business a lot, in and demand is derived from the cusbuildings and just really getting my feet some ways for the better, in some tomer and supply is determined by the wet. Then I got involved in manufacturways for the worse. It is changing manufacturer. We have recently had er relations, and just getting to know evevery day and we are having to forced supply, but with infrastructure ery aspect of the business. While I had adapt and react on a daily basis to not being as great, you just cannot crebeen a salesman and a reconditioner what is happening now and what ate the demand by putting the cars in and a lot boy, I had never done it from we think is going to be happening the marketplace because it is not as dea management level, so I learned from in the future.” sirable for some people.” the ground up.” Part of that learning involved enroll–Alex Ciccolo Bouchard has a good handle on the situations around him and is constanting at the NADA Dealer Academy in ly learning from the employees on his 2018, and he “learned a lot there, met a lot of people, and made a team and from other industry folks. He has come to terms with lot of connections. It was really instrumental in my growth. It is the fact that his golf handicap will rise due to not getting out on a huge foundation for anyone that wants to be a manager in any the links every day, because instead he has found that automobiles department, especially general manager.” more than fill that void.

His focus is on Honda, Kia, and the used cars, and he sees lots “I do not think I realized it until I was in the business for a while of opportunity for growth within his markets. With great facilities, and realized that I had some pretty good strengths. I have lots of there is lots of room for expansion. weaknesses, which is good to know and acknowledge, so you

“I do not think that we are even close to capacity in terms of new know what you need to work on, but I also have help from every and used car sales and service. Through education and just knowdepartment. ing good people in the business who have grown big dealerships “Even when I am not at work, I spend time trying to buy cars into even larger dealerships, I can see that we are only at a small and watching cars. I just really love it. If you love it, it is not really percentage of our potential. I think that is the most fun - just getwork. It is like a hobby that I just get paid for. I am so proud I am ting bigger, selling more cars, reaching more customers, employdoing this rather than playing golf every day, which seems weird, ing more people, and just making a bigger impact in the industry, but it is not if you have done both.” for the local market, and in the community.” t