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Dave Sullivan on Military and Automotive Leadership · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Drill podcast. I'm your
0:10
Speaker 1: host Scott Brady, and I'm joined today by David Sullivan.
0:15
Speaker 2: Now, David has been in.
0:16
Speaker 1: The automotive industry for a very long time. He worked
0:20
Speaker 1: as marketing director for Subaru and he's now working at
0:24
Speaker 1: as marketing director for Inios for the new Grenadier and
0:28
Speaker 1: Grenadier Quartermaster. Now, David started his life off in the military.
0:33
Speaker 1: He was an officer in the Marines, so we really
0:36
Speaker 1: get a good chance to talk about his time in
0:38
Speaker 1: the military, his time at Ford developing some really exciting
0:42
Speaker 1: new products, his lessons that he learned working as a
0:46
Speaker 1: team working in the automotive industry, and then of course
0:50
Speaker 1: this new adventure that he is on with Inios is
0:53
Speaker 1: a new car company. So it's a really interesting kind
0:56
Speaker 1: of look behind the curtain of what an executive in
0:59
Speaker 1: the marketing capacity for an OEM does. We don't talk
1:03
Speaker 1: about his brands a lot because we really want to
1:05
Speaker 1: focus on his life and we want to focus on
1:07
Speaker 1: his lessons learned. So please enjoy my conversation with David Sullivan.
1:13
Speaker 1: I also wanted to take a brief moment to thank
1:16
Speaker 1: all of you for listening to the Overalan Journal podcast.
1:20
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2:11
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate your support. David, thank you so much
2:15
Speaker 1: for being on the podcast with me today. I think
2:18
Speaker 1: it's going to be fun to talk about. You spent
2:21
Speaker 1: a lot of time in pr in the automotive industry,
2:24
Speaker 1: but you started your life off in the military. Let's
2:27
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about where you grew up and
2:30
Speaker 1: what got you thinking that it was a good idea
2:32
Speaker 1: to become a marine officer.
2:34
Speaker 3: Oh good lord, Yeah, no, okay, that's interesting, and thank
2:37
Speaker 3: you for your service. I think it's Armed Forces Day today.
2:40
Speaker 3: I want to say, yeah, I think it is. Actually, yeah, exactly, yeah,
2:43
Speaker 3: thanks for your service. And yeah, I don't honestly, Scott,
2:47
Speaker 3: I don't know what got me like super interested in
2:51
Speaker 3: wanting to serve the country. I'd always been a history
2:53
Speaker 3: buff when I was a kid. Grew up in Virginia
2:56
Speaker 3: and Delaware, and I do have some memory, so I
3:00
Speaker 3: think generations before me, some members of the family had
3:04
Speaker 3: served in various conflicts going well as far as we know,
3:08
Speaker 3: going back to the War of eighteen twelve, because there's
3:10
Speaker 3: a family cemetery my grandmother's side on the eastern shore
3:14
Speaker 3: of Maryland still there. It's in somebody's backyard on Hooper's
3:18
Speaker 3: Island in Maryland, and one of the grave sites says
3:22
Speaker 3: Veteran War of eighteen twelve. So I know, at least
3:25
Speaker 3: on my grandmother's my dad's mom's side of the family,
3:28
Speaker 3: I had somebody that was all the way back to that.
3:31
Speaker 4: Part of our history.
3:33
Speaker 3: As a kid, I just I was super geeked about history,
3:35
Speaker 3: and we used to go to Gettysburg. I grew up
3:38
Speaker 3: in Delaware, so we were close by with a lot
3:40
Speaker 3: of Civil War sites.
3:42
Speaker 4: My dad was also a history boff.
3:43
Speaker 3: Just I think growing up in that kind of environment
3:46
Speaker 3: got me interested in military history. And I certainly when
3:51
Speaker 3: I was in high school, didn't envision myself being a
3:54
Speaker 3: military officer until very right basically, when I was getting
3:58
Speaker 3: ready to apply for college, my father who so, Yeah,
4:02
Speaker 3: So I went to Virginia Military Institute and which is
4:05
Speaker 3: basically everybody does a ROTC, but it's not a requirement
4:09
Speaker 3: to go into the military, and wasn't at the time
4:12
Speaker 3: that I attended, and still isn't. So my father had
4:16
Speaker 3: gone there and served for two years. He was like
4:20
Speaker 3: what they called the ninety day Wonder the second attend
4:22
Speaker 3: the army and did army boats, the landing craft and
4:26
Speaker 3: stuff like that. Yeah, and he's always and our families
4:29
Speaker 3: grew up around the water, so we always all of
4:31
Speaker 3: us have had love.
4:32
Speaker 4: Boats the water fun job.
4:34
Speaker 3: But yeah, so anyway, I think he was like, no,
4:37
Speaker 3: don't go, and that reverse logic made me want to
4:40
Speaker 3: go to VMI. And then and then I think once
4:43
Speaker 3: I got there, I think I just at that.
4:45
Speaker 4: Point in my life, I wanted to challenge.
4:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.
4:47
Speaker 3: Sure, And and the Marine Corps was the most challenging
4:51
Speaker 3: of the military services, at least that was my perception
4:53
Speaker 3: at the.
4:54
Speaker 2: Time, and I would agree with you. I think in
4:56
Speaker 2: many ways it is.
4:57
Speaker 1: And they're the first boots on the ground, they're the
4:59
Speaker 1: last boots to leave, and that's a distinction that only
5:03
Speaker 1: the Marines can claim.
5:04
Speaker 3: And combined forces. Yeah, so air boats land anything, the
5:10
Speaker 3: Marines habit.
5:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I have such respect for that branch of
5:13
Speaker 1: the military. My grandfather chief warrant officer in the Marines.
5:17
Speaker 1: He also grew up in Virginia and his mom faked
5:21
Speaker 1: birth year to get into World War Two. He was
5:24
Speaker 1: in it, I think sixteen and a half, maybe seventeen
5:26
Speaker 1: years old. Wow, she couldn't afford to feed him anymore.
5:29
Speaker 1: And yeah, he fought EU Gimaguadacnal.
5:32
Speaker 4: Holy moly.
5:33
Speaker 2: Wow, one of the Frozen Chosen.
5:34
Speaker 3: Do you know what unit he was If he was
5:36
Speaker 3: a Frozen Chosen, he was, Yes.
5:38
Speaker 2: Marine.
5:38
Speaker 1: He had a whole career, which is my regiment. Yeah,
5:40
Speaker 1: he had a whole career in the Marines. Wow, all
5:42
Speaker 1: the way to retirement. That spanned from him being very young,
5:46
Speaker 1: and then World War Two all the way through the
5:48
Speaker 1: Korean Conflict. Multiple purple hearts, because you do that for
5:53
Speaker 1: long enough, you're going to get wounded more than a
5:55
Speaker 1: couple of times. Just incredible, not only lessons for me
5:59
Speaker 1: growing up, but because of his ethics and because of
6:03
Speaker 1: his work ethic around business, it changed my life. His
6:07
Speaker 1: what he did, going from nothing where his mom couldn't
6:10
Speaker 1: feed him to having a career in the Marines, becoming
6:13
Speaker 1: a successful businessman, and then leaving generational support to his
6:17
Speaker 1: family is pretty unbelievable.
6:20
Speaker 4: That generation did amazing things.
6:22
Speaker 1: They really did, and I just have such respect for them. Yeah,
6:26
Speaker 1: and respect for what you did too. So now you're
6:29
Speaker 1: going through military through the military universities, and what did
6:33
Speaker 1: you graduate with and what did you start doing when
6:35
Speaker 1: you started?
6:36
Speaker 2: Yeah?
6:36
Speaker 3: No, so I So it's funny because I was really
6:40
Speaker 3: good at history as a kid. But when I went
6:42
Speaker 3: to VM, I I I'd always been interested in cars too,
6:46
Speaker 3: so I'm a lifetime gearhead and and that's what got
6:49
Speaker 3: me into mechanical engineering. So I ended up in the
6:52
Speaker 3: engineering program, graduated as a MECHI, and went in the
6:56
Speaker 3: Marine Corps. Is a second lietendant did my tours there
6:59
Speaker 3: and spent time desert storm and like that was a
7:02
Speaker 3: great way to kick off and begin begin life and
7:05
Speaker 3: big one, big adventure And you talk about adventure, Jesus
7:09
Speaker 3: Petz we uh, we saw a lot of the world
7:11
Speaker 3: and that I spent a year deployed and we saw
7:14
Speaker 3: a lot of the world on that in that year
7:16
Speaker 3: that we were deployed.
7:17
Speaker 2: What was one of your favorite places that you visited.
7:19
Speaker 4: I always got I.
7:20
Speaker 3: Was always struck by Singapore, in the city of Singapore.
7:23
Speaker 3: It's just it's a beautiful city. It's a diverse city. Sure,
7:27
Speaker 3: the food and the just the atmosphere. And it's a
7:30
Speaker 3: clean city because if you yeah, you cannot litter there.
7:34
Speaker 3: If you do, you'll get they'll nab you us. Yeah,
7:37
Speaker 3: and yeah, it's it's a fairly strict government there, and
7:40
Speaker 3: God bless him, they run that city like clockwork. And
7:43
Speaker 3: it's a beautiful place to visit. I just I really
7:45
Speaker 3: enjoyed my time there. Yeah, that's a good exotic.
7:48
Speaker 2: Place, I would say, yeah, I would say so. Absolutely.
7:51
Speaker 4: Crossroads.
7:52
Speaker 1: So when did your career in the Marines end?
7:56
Speaker 3: So, I I felt like I was working in small
7:59
Speaker 3: boats with some of the special operations units in the
8:02
Speaker 3: Marine Corps in early days, like they had just picked
8:05
Speaker 3: up boats and a lot of the tactics and a
8:07
Speaker 3: lot of the SVPs and a lot of they were
8:10
Speaker 3: just basically starting all that stuff in the early nineties.
8:14
Speaker 3: So it was early on, and I honestly I could
8:18
Speaker 3: have made an entire career out of just doing that
8:21
Speaker 3: in the Marine Corps. But I just felt like I
8:23
Speaker 3: wasn't I wasn't happy, and felt like something was missing,
8:27
Speaker 3: and I wasn't using the degree that I had graduated with,
8:31
Speaker 3: and I just I felt like I need to do
8:33
Speaker 3: something else with my life. So looking for another challenge
8:36
Speaker 3: and left the Marine Corps Act duty. Was lucky enough
8:40
Speaker 3: through a church I belonged to in San Clemente where
8:42
Speaker 3: we were based or where we had an apartment off base,
8:46
Speaker 3: there was a former Ford sales Guiy that was in
8:49
Speaker 3: the congregation and he said, hey, give me your resume,
8:52
Speaker 3: and over coffee after church one day and give me
8:55
Speaker 3: your resume and I'll try to get it into and
8:58
Speaker 3: urge me to apply.
8:59
Speaker 4: Sure, And so I said, okay.
9:01
Speaker 3: And I didn't really know what it was really for
9:04
Speaker 3: Ford Engineering.
9:05
Speaker 2: I had no idea.
9:06
Speaker 3: I was like Okay, sure, go engineer or something I sent,
9:10
Speaker 3: and I sent. I gave him a copy of my
9:12
Speaker 3: resume as part of my off boarding process at the base,
9:16
Speaker 3: and then ended up going back to South Carolina stay
9:19
Speaker 3: my parents had moved to South Carolina in the meantime,
9:21
Speaker 3: stayed with them for a couple of months, started applying
9:23
Speaker 3: for jobs, doing all that, not sure what I wanted
9:25
Speaker 3: to do, ended up reapplying the same job through I
9:29
Speaker 3: think it was Automotive News or somewhere I don't know.
9:31
Speaker 3: I found it in the library and saw a job description.
9:35
Speaker 3: Back then there was new Internet, so you found it
9:37
Speaker 3: in a magazine or a newspaper or whatever. So I
9:41
Speaker 3: sent in another resume, another version of my resume, and
9:44
Speaker 3: then I can't remember, but somehow had sent in a
9:47
Speaker 3: third version and for whatever reason, and got a call in,
9:52
Speaker 3: got a call back a couple of weeks later, and
9:55
Speaker 3: went up to foot So they flew me up Dearborn
9:58
Speaker 3: for an interview, and I swear I had four. I
10:01
Speaker 3: had four interviews with four different people within the truck organization.
10:07
Speaker 3: And at the time I was like a car guy,
10:09
Speaker 3: like I wanted a sports car, young guy, right, young, Yeah, yeah,
10:13
Speaker 3: I just wanted to be on the car side Ford.
10:15
Speaker 3: You didn't realize that the truck side at Ford was
10:18
Speaker 3: really the place to land, and just dumb luck.
10:21
Speaker 4: One thing led to another.
10:22
Speaker 3: And it's funny at all four interviews, three of the
10:26
Speaker 3: four interviews I went to, each person had a different
10:29
Speaker 3: version of my resume.
10:31
Speaker 4: So I don't know, I don't really know how that happened.
10:34
Speaker 4: It happened.
10:35
Speaker 3: God bless Ford HR. But I was blessed for it's
10:39
Speaker 3: a great organization I was. I made some phenomenal friends there.
10:44
Speaker 3: You still keep in touch with a few, and just
10:46
Speaker 3: good people there.
10:47
Speaker 1: And what kind of engineering did you specialize in your
10:50
Speaker 1: time with Ford?
10:51
Speaker 3: So I hired in as a as a sort of apprentice.
10:54
Speaker 3: There was a college graduate program where you rotated through
10:57
Speaker 3: a bunch of different jobs in your first two years
10:59
Speaker 3: two and a half years of the company. They put
11:01
Speaker 3: me in the Forge College, the FCG program for college
11:04
Speaker 3: graduate program, even though I was about five years older.
11:07
Speaker 4: Than all my peers.
11:08
Speaker 3: Yeah sure, but I hadn't had any practical work experience
11:11
Speaker 3: outside of being the Marines. That was fortuitous. My first job,
11:14
Speaker 3: I landed with gentleman named Bob Griffith, and we were
11:18
Speaker 3: engineering frame components on the ninety seven f one to
11:20
Speaker 3: fifty program. Cool and Bob was former Army officer, so
11:25
Speaker 3: he was veteran friendly and it was I couldn't have
11:27
Speaker 3: landed in a better place. And Bob was I would say,
11:30
Speaker 3: probably one of the best two bosses I've ever had
11:32
Speaker 3: my entire lifetime. Just a wonderful man, very considerate, always
11:38
Speaker 3: asked lots of questions, didn't just tell you what to do.
11:41
Speaker 3: He was just a great mentor and coach, wow, and
11:44
Speaker 3: a great engineer. And I just remember one day we
11:47
Speaker 3: were trying to solve I was designing a heat shield
11:50
Speaker 3: and they were the previous design had used a lot
11:54
Speaker 3: of a really expensive material. It's like a bubbly shape material,
11:58
Speaker 3: and it was just was very to form and source
12:01
Speaker 3: and work with.
12:03
Speaker 4: It was hard to work with.
12:04
Speaker 3: So they were having a hard time figuring out how
12:06
Speaker 3: to shape this thing around this really tight packaging situation
12:11
Speaker 3: where the catialec converter was near the body and you
12:14
Speaker 3: had to shield the body or you're going to fry
12:16
Speaker 3: somebody's foot. And of course, back in those days they
12:19
Speaker 3: were just were getting heavy into emissions programs, and so
12:23
Speaker 3: the CAT was running pretty hot and so you had
12:25
Speaker 3: to make sure that you were protecting it properly. And
12:27
Speaker 3: so I worked on it for a week or two
12:30
Speaker 3: or whatever and was having a hard time figuring things out.
12:33
Speaker 3: And he went to Bob and said, Bob, I just
12:35
Speaker 3: don't know what's going on here. I don't know how
12:37
Speaker 3: to get this thing to form because this material is
12:39
Speaker 3: like really it's it would just crack. It was very
12:41
Speaker 3: hard to turn into a decent shape. And had you
12:45
Speaker 3: had this back in those days, we're still using drawings.
12:48
Speaker 3: We were just starting to use CAD, but so you
12:50
Speaker 3: were doing like very linear things with CAD. I had
12:54
Speaker 3: a great CAD designer, Canadian and young man. He was
12:59
Speaker 3: just he's had Dave. Well, Bob and I talked about
13:02
Speaker 3: the problem. Sorry, and he said, Dave, there's baking sheets,
13:06
Speaker 3: you know those things you bake your your croissan On
13:09
Speaker 3: or whatever. You throw them in the oven. What if
13:11
Speaker 3: we use that air gap to create just a little
13:14
Speaker 3: invidi Yeah, a little bit of insulation. And so I'm
13:16
Speaker 3: like puzzled over that for a while. Yeah, I think
13:19
Speaker 3: that's going to work. It just need enough air gap
13:21
Speaker 3: to make sure it insulate is properly. So I went
13:24
Speaker 3: to my cat designer, and I said, hey, I need
13:26
Speaker 3: this complex curve to get around this envelope that the
13:31
Speaker 3: cat's going to be in, because it rolls and it
13:33
Speaker 3: jumps and what does all sorts of things when the
13:35
Speaker 3: power trains moving around.
13:37
Speaker 4: So you had this envelope you had to work around.
13:39
Speaker 4: So he did.
13:39
Speaker 3: He spent a lot of time on it, and yeah,
13:41
Speaker 3: lo and behold we created this super complex curve. Part
13:46
Speaker 3: but we were using very simple materials and inexpensive materials
13:49
Speaker 3: that allowed us to fit in this envelope. And yeah,
13:52
Speaker 3: went to production.
13:53
Speaker 2: Bombn solved.
13:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, problem solved, went to production, and yeah, it was
13:57
Speaker 3: I saved. I ended up saving like seven dollars and
13:59
Speaker 3: fifty sense a vehicle on a volume vehicle like that
14:04
Speaker 3: is a lot of money.
14:05
Speaker 1: It's the F series is the most popular truck on
14:09
Speaker 1: the highest volume pickup truck.
14:10
Speaker 4: YEP.
14:11
Speaker 1: The chance to work on the F one fifty, that
14:15
Speaker 1: was again less lucky, what unbelievable as my first job.
14:20
Speaker 1: As my first job, one of the most important vehicles
14:23
Speaker 1: within the entire Forward portfolio and one of the most
14:26
Speaker 1: popular vehicles period.
14:28
Speaker 2: Is in F one fifty.
14:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so for four by Forrest, another little anecdotal
14:34
Speaker 3: engineering story. So one day I was in the design
14:37
Speaker 3: studio and I was chit chatting with one of the
14:39
Speaker 3: exterior designers, Craig, I can't remember Craig's last name, is
14:42
Speaker 3: a great guy. And we were just puzzling again, puzzling
14:45
Speaker 3: over a problem, and we we were looking at toe
14:48
Speaker 3: hook designs and g Pad a version and Chevy had
14:51
Speaker 3: a version four didn't have a toe hook that they
14:54
Speaker 3: had shown that was like basically visible. But it's it's
14:58
Speaker 3: a big, if prop early design. It's a big piece
15:01
Speaker 3: of metal hanging on the front of the frame and
15:03
Speaker 3: would affect the crash pulse in the vehicle significantly negatively.
15:07
Speaker 1: And there's so many other factors at play, because do
15:11
Speaker 1: you build it to one times grows vehicle weight? Do
15:13
Speaker 1: you build it to two times grows vehicle weight? What's
15:16
Speaker 1: the sheer loads design? As an angle?
15:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
15:20
Speaker 3: So we I looked at a bunch of competitive designs
15:23
Speaker 3: and I was out with my CAD design hur at
15:25
Speaker 3: lunch one day and just we sketched it on a
15:28
Speaker 3: napkin and I'm like, look.
15:30
Speaker 4: I want a combination of this.
15:31
Speaker 3: In a combination that I was a little like this
15:33
Speaker 3: and I'm like, no limited, And so we played around
15:35
Speaker 3: with a couple of design concepts on a napkin at
15:38
Speaker 3: a sandwich place in Deerborn and.
15:40
Speaker 2: They call that napkin ai Yeah.
15:43
Speaker 4: Something like that. Yeah, yeah, napkin aided design. That was, Yeah,
15:46
Speaker 4: the sandwich aided design. Yes, so sad.
15:49
Speaker 1: There's a lot of good ideas that come from a
15:51
Speaker 1: lunch break. Yeah, you get out of the office and
15:53
Speaker 1: you shake things up a little bit.
15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:55
Speaker 3: No, so we yeah, the same thing I found. I
15:58
Speaker 3: found a way to source sourced it out of aluminum
16:01
Speaker 3: to keep the weight down, yeah, because it was very
16:04
Speaker 3: If you did it in iron, it was going to
16:06
Speaker 3: be super heavy. And we ended up solving the problem
16:09
Speaker 3: about the crash pulse on the vehicle by designing a
16:13
Speaker 3: fastener that was very strong in tension with the right
16:18
Speaker 3: amount of sheer force, would just literally shear the hook
16:21
Speaker 3: off the frame and not affect the crash at all. Gotcha,
16:24
Speaker 3: And actually won an award for that design, a Ford
16:26
Speaker 3: Truck Significant Achievement Award, And that that same shape of
16:29
Speaker 3: toehok is on every single four to four by four today.
16:33
Speaker 4: How cool is that?
16:34
Speaker 3: I didn't napping. Yeah, it was like one of those things,
16:37
Speaker 3: like now they don't make them the same way. They've
16:40
Speaker 3: changed the design several times, several iterations, but the basic
16:43
Speaker 3: shape of the Toehok is the one I drew them
16:45
Speaker 3: napkin thirty years ago.
16:46
Speaker 1: And that's something in our industry that is a challenge
16:50
Speaker 1: at times. Even recently Toyota with the Tundra, they released
16:55
Speaker 1: the Tundra without front toe hooks because they couldn't meet
16:58
Speaker 1: pedestrian crash. They couldn't and now they have since resolved that.
17:03
Speaker 1: But that's a very difficult challenge for manufact.
17:06
Speaker 3: Not an easy engineering problem solved because of the forces involved.
17:10
Speaker 4: And you don't want that.
17:12
Speaker 3: You don't want that object to interfere with the job
17:15
Speaker 3: the frames designed to do, which is to mitigate the
17:18
Speaker 3: force coming into the occupants.
17:21
Speaker 1: Wow. Fun jobs just again, totally yeah, so much fun.
17:25
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking like, at this arc of your life,
17:29
Speaker 1: you're starting off in the military, which is teaching you
17:32
Speaker 1: how to become part of a team, how to not
17:34
Speaker 1: be an army of one team player, but an army
17:37
Speaker 1: of many, and be a team player and listen to
17:40
Speaker 1: your superiors because you don't have a choice. Those are
17:43
Speaker 1: the things that I benefited from the military, but taught
17:46
Speaker 1: me that there's a consequence to not listen into what
17:49
Speaker 1: people tell you to do. So you start off in
17:51
Speaker 1: the military, you build this experience as a leader, and
17:55
Speaker 1: then you have the chance to go work for Ford,
17:56
Speaker 1: which is one of the most respected automakers in the world,
18:00
Speaker 1: work on one of the most popular and important models.
18:04
Speaker 1: So you've gone from leadership now into engineering. So what
18:09
Speaker 1: comes next for you? How do you get from engineering
18:12
Speaker 1: to working in the roles that you are today.
18:15
Speaker 3: Yes, during this timeframe, I was in a different rotation
18:19
Speaker 3: outside engineering, so some friends of mine and I were actually, Yes,
18:24
Speaker 3: this is very insider story from Ford from the four days.
18:28
Speaker 3: We were standing outside of a meeting in Building three
18:32
Speaker 3: I think, which is one of their primary engineering buildings
18:35
Speaker 3: in Dearborn, and we were saying, there's just there't as
18:39
Speaker 3: young people and a lot of we're all car people,
18:42
Speaker 3: so we're all always talking about vehicles, and so we
18:45
Speaker 3: were like, there's nothing I really want to drive. The
18:47
Speaker 3: Mustang at the time was a very specific thing for
18:50
Speaker 3: a very specific person and cool cars, but when Dearborn,
18:53
Speaker 3: especially in the winter, hard to drive, and so we
18:56
Speaker 3: were all like really into the crossover scene, which had
19:00
Speaker 3: just literally just the RAB four just come.
19:03
Speaker 4: Out that year, I think if I remember eight, this
19:06
Speaker 4: is like.
19:08
Speaker 3: And we we were jealously looking at that vehicle, going, boy,
19:12
Speaker 3: I wish there was something that we had that we
19:14
Speaker 3: could all embrace and enjoy and drive, but something a
19:19
Speaker 3: little sportier and a little bit more on the for
19:22
Speaker 3: American taste. And we were sitting outside and I just
19:25
Speaker 3: went to my friend Jim. I was like, why don't
19:27
Speaker 3: we just come up with it. Let's just put it
19:29
Speaker 3: on paper, Like, why don't we stop complaining about it,
19:31
Speaker 3: and let's just put it on paper. John Crow, Jim
19:34
Speaker 3: bomback myself, and then we grabbed a couple of other friends,
19:37
Speaker 3: Debbie Coleman and Brian Nottmeyer, and the five of us
19:40
Speaker 3: we were all kind of college in the college graduate program,
19:43
Speaker 3: all about the same age, all car nuts, but we're
19:46
Speaker 3: all working in different parts of the companies. Brian was
19:49
Speaker 3: in finance, Jim I think, was working with manufacturing rotation
19:53
Speaker 3: if I remember right, Debbie was working maybe in marketing.
19:57
Speaker 3: I can't remember where Debbie was working, but she was
19:59
Speaker 3: wor in an irrelevant area of the company. Maybe John
20:02
Speaker 3: was in manufacturing, and I was working in I was
20:05
Speaker 3: actually working in marketing too. We all had a sort
20:08
Speaker 3: of different experience level and skill set, and we ended
20:11
Speaker 3: up we started spending some time together on weekends and
20:14
Speaker 3: we wrote this business case and basically created an entire
20:16
Speaker 3: vehicle from scratch, escape including the bill of materials. Yeah,
20:20
Speaker 3: we created the entire bill of materials from scratch, like
20:23
Speaker 3: a couple thousand parts. Feesed it out, figured out where
20:26
Speaker 3: we would manufacture this thing, and figured out the dollars
20:29
Speaker 3: to make sense of it at least a rough business case.
20:32
Speaker 3: And so one weekend, I think it was Jim's boss
20:35
Speaker 3: came in. Who is John Lawler who was recently the
20:37
Speaker 3: CFO came in and caught him in the office.
20:40
Speaker 4: He was like, what are you doing?
20:42
Speaker 3: And who's a He fessed up, of course right and
20:44
Speaker 3: told the truth and said, hey, this is we're just
20:46
Speaker 3: doing this for fun. We just were curious how does
20:48
Speaker 3: this all work? And Lawler, to his credit, said I'll
20:52
Speaker 3: sponsor you. I'll put you in front of the head
20:55
Speaker 3: to truck if you guys put this thing. Let's clean
20:57
Speaker 3: it up and turned it into a real business case.
21:00
Speaker 3: We did, and we went in front of Jim Englehart,
21:01
Speaker 3: who was the VP of truck at the time and
21:04
Speaker 3: pitched it and he was like, love it, and they
21:06
Speaker 3: sent it over the product planning office and one thing
21:09
Speaker 3: led to another and I was working on it. I
21:12
Speaker 3: was working on the Jaguar S type and the Lincoln
21:16
Speaker 3: ave No not aviator whatever the sedan was at the time,
21:20
Speaker 3: and in another job and turned they decided to turn
21:25
Speaker 3: it into a real program, and so they asked us
21:27
Speaker 3: to work on it. So I started working on it.
21:29
Speaker 3: They bought Mazda and then Mazda, but they found out
21:32
Speaker 3: Mazda was working on similar things, so we all they
21:35
Speaker 3: asked who wanted to go over to Japan and work
21:37
Speaker 3: on it.
21:37
Speaker 4: They raised my hand and went So I moved to Japan.
21:41
Speaker 4: Moved to Japan, and yeah, that is that.
21:44
Speaker 1: I have to say that Japan is one of the
21:46
Speaker 1: most to me personally, one of the most fascinating cultures
21:50
Speaker 1: on it is it is?
21:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, And now what did you think? And I've only
21:53
Speaker 2: been there one time.
21:54
Speaker 1: I went to Nagoya to take delivery of some land cruisers,
21:58
Speaker 1: but even that experience was mind blowing.
22:00
Speaker 2: How was it to live there?
22:03
Speaker 3: It's actually a very livable country. Yeah, I was like,
22:06
Speaker 3: I wondered to this day, I was like, did I
22:08
Speaker 3: really know what I was getting myself into? But it's
22:10
Speaker 3: a wonderful country, wonderful people. I still have very close
22:14
Speaker 3: friends from both from that program and from later on
22:19
Speaker 3: working at Subaru later in life. Japanese people are just
22:22
Speaker 3: they're genuine, They're just they're very incredible people. Yeah, very humble,
22:26
Speaker 3: very genuine people. And it's an incredible culture. And I
22:30
Speaker 3: really enjoyed my.
22:31
Speaker 1: Time there, and I love the fact that it's completely
22:33
Speaker 1: first world but totally different than what The culture is
22:38
Speaker 1: completely different and you in so many good ways too.
22:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so it's interesting you there. There's a lot
22:45
Speaker 3: more nuance and a lot more like you don't come
22:49
Speaker 3: at to someone like straight away as we would say,
22:52
Speaker 3: let's oh, let's just be honest with each other and
22:54
Speaker 3: get to brass.
22:55
Speaker 4: Tacks or whatever.
22:56
Speaker 3: You know, it's very nuanced and you have to approach
22:59
Speaker 3: people from this. You don't want to You don't come
23:01
Speaker 3: at somebody too hard because the concept of face, and
23:05
Speaker 3: I think in most Asian societies is a very real thing,
23:08
Speaker 3: and you don't want someone to lose face or embarrass them.
23:12
Speaker 3: That is the worst thing you could possibly do. To
23:14
Speaker 3: someone in that culture and they will immediately shut down
23:17
Speaker 3: and you won't get anything or anywhere.
23:20
Speaker 4: And so I learned that very quickly.
23:22
Speaker 3: And yeah, well and so you just you learn how
23:25
Speaker 3: to maneuver and how to talk to people. And generally,
23:28
Speaker 3: in at least at that time in Japanese society, you
23:31
Speaker 3: would go out, you would talk about things at work
23:33
Speaker 3: and like you would get nowhere, Oh we need to
23:36
Speaker 3: study and we need to consider and we need to
23:38
Speaker 3: talk to you know, this person that person, and so
23:40
Speaker 3: it was very hard to make progress. But then you
23:42
Speaker 3: go out drinking together. They do like to do that,
23:45
Speaker 3: and then everything opens up and that's when you get
23:48
Speaker 3: business done. And that a couple drinks in everybody can
23:51
Speaker 3: be you can lower the curtain a little bit and
23:53
Speaker 3: just you beat everybody could be themselves and that's actually
23:56
Speaker 3: when you get you get a lot of time. Yeah,
23:58
Speaker 3: it's a wonderful society. It's a fascinating society.
24:01
Speaker 2: Respect for that.
24:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a wild place. And there they're obviously downsides
24:05
Speaker 3: to the culture as well. It can be a bit
24:07
Speaker 3: stifling and people will not always be honest because they
24:12
Speaker 3: don't want to lose that that that honor, that face
24:15
Speaker 3: or whatever you want to call it. And so you
24:17
Speaker 3: have to be careful because a lot of it's nuanced.
24:20
Speaker 3: If somebody says, nobody will always say nobody will ever
24:24
Speaker 3: say no to you straight off, generally unless they know
24:27
Speaker 3: you really well, they'll just say and it'll just keep
24:30
Speaker 3: going and going. But it's a brillianell. So you have
24:32
Speaker 3: to have to learn how to do the language of Japan.
24:36
Speaker 1: Now, was that about the time that Ford was coming
24:38
Speaker 1: into this whole premium auto group concept? Is that about
24:42
Speaker 1: the PEG I think was a Jack Nasser and was unbelie.
24:47
Speaker 3: Bought up Jaguar land Rover. Yeah, Masda was part of
24:51
Speaker 3: the fold. It was a look. Ford at the time
24:54
Speaker 3: was a very dynamic company. We were lucky, all of
24:58
Speaker 3: us two that they were even receptive. And again John
25:01
Speaker 3: was a great leader. The fact that he became CFO,
25:05
Speaker 3: I think is his testament to how just what a
25:08
Speaker 3: great leader the dude is. And Jim's very high up
25:11
Speaker 3: in the organization. Now, Jim is one of the smartest
25:13
Speaker 3: people I've ever met. So Ford is full of just
25:18
Speaker 3: really down to earth great people, very.
25:20
Speaker 2: Smart people in my experience.
25:23
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a great organization. So I was blessed
25:25
Speaker 4: to have been part of.
25:25
Speaker 1: It, and what a moment in time, and what a
25:29
Speaker 1: company to grow. Get your chop cut your teeth yet
25:33
Speaker 1: in the automotive industry.
25:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, So anyway that I ended up in program management
25:37
Speaker 3: and helping to manage that program through the initial stages.
25:40
Speaker 3: We got the whole thing sourced while we were in Japan,
25:43
Speaker 3: taught the Japanese engineering team how to navigate the Ford
25:47
Speaker 3: sourcing system and procurement systems and engineering systems and got
25:52
Speaker 3: them into the world the Ford, if you will. And
25:54
Speaker 3: then at that point I was offered a job as
25:57
Speaker 3: a frame engineer on the two thousand Explorer and ended
26:00
Speaker 3: up moving back to Dearborn. I had just gotten married,
26:03
Speaker 3: just had a kid, and ended up in Dearborn working
26:07
Speaker 3: as a frame engineer and took over that project when
26:09
Speaker 3: it was very nascent stages, but ended up taking that
26:12
Speaker 3: project from con basically concept all the way to production
26:17
Speaker 3: and then at that.
26:17
Speaker 2: Point frame for a full size.
26:20
Speaker 3: Everything attaches to the frame, so you would what the
26:23
Speaker 3: great learning process for me was As a frame engineer,
26:27
Speaker 3: you get to know everybody. So I knew the powertrain engineers,
26:30
Speaker 3: the mount engineers, like the electrical and everybody talks to
26:34
Speaker 3: you because you're the backbone in the vehicle.
26:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:36
Speaker 3: So I got to learn a lot about the entire engineering,
26:38
Speaker 3: the entire vehicle.
26:39
Speaker 1: And then so, now, how what comes next after Ford
26:43
Speaker 1: for you?
26:44
Speaker 3: So Ford was I guess I was doing pretty well,
26:46
Speaker 3: and they they offered me a stint to go back
26:49
Speaker 3: to school, and I had asked, I said, look, I'm
26:51
Speaker 3: going to go back to school and get my MBA.
26:54
Speaker 3: I I got a taste of I gotta taste the
26:57
Speaker 3: business side. And I was really curious about the business
27:02
Speaker 3: side of the business, sure, and so wanted to get
27:05
Speaker 3: more and really did eventually want to work in marketing.
27:08
Speaker 3: That wasn't going to ever probably be possible at Ford.
27:11
Speaker 3: It just wasn't the way at the time. Engineers were
27:14
Speaker 3: engineers and they stayed in the engineering track. But anyway,
27:17
Speaker 3: ended up going to business school and at Cornell.
27:21
Speaker 2: Had a wonderful business school, Oh my god.
27:23
Speaker 3: And again my classmates fell into the right place at
27:27
Speaker 3: the right time, great group of people. I still keep
27:30
Speaker 3: in touch with a bunch of my classmates and including
27:32
Speaker 3: our fantasy football We've been doing that for twenty one,
27:35
Speaker 3: twenty two years now. Yes, but I had wonderful, smart, kind, considerate,
27:42
Speaker 3: humble classmates. Just a wonderful experience. And I still talk
27:46
Speaker 3: to most of my classmates, i would say, or at
27:48
Speaker 3: least our circle to this day.
27:51
Speaker 4: Yeah.
27:51
Speaker 1: What are some of the things that you worked in
27:53
Speaker 1: all of these dynamic team situations? What were some of
27:58
Speaker 1: the things that you learned around leaders ship that you
28:00
Speaker 1: think applies in life in general from working with all
28:04
Speaker 1: those amazing people. Was there a couple of takeaways for
28:06
Speaker 1: you around leadership and around working in dynamic teams like that?
28:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of smart people out there if
28:12
Speaker 3: you just listen and let other people talk.
28:14
Speaker 4: I'm not really doing that right now.
28:16
Speaker 3: I have a job right now for you, right now,
28:18
Speaker 3: your job right now, to your job to top guy now. Yeah,
28:21
Speaker 3: I have a lot of questions shoot for you, Bud,
28:22
Speaker 3: but maybe for another time. The script on this Dave's
28:26
Speaker 3: podcast Dreams Scott Brady. But now I think it really
28:30
Speaker 3: business school for me really opened my eyes because I
28:33
Speaker 3: got to interface with a lot of folks from different industries. Sure,
28:37
Speaker 3: and at the same time, I had a buddy, Dave Young,
28:39
Speaker 3: who was at GM at the time, and so I
28:41
Speaker 3: was the Ford guy and he was the GM guy.
28:43
Speaker 3: We would always through to throw a lot of sticks
28:46
Speaker 3: and stones at each other during classes.
28:48
Speaker 4: And Dave's a wonderful dude.
28:50
Speaker 3: And and just I just had a wonderful experience and
28:53
Speaker 3: learned to listen and consider and open my ears in
28:57
Speaker 3: my mind a little bit.
28:58
Speaker 4: And I think as a leader.
29:01
Speaker 3: Just try to just try to take people's ideas and
29:05
Speaker 3: input and consider it.
29:07
Speaker 4: You know, have to agree, but you should always.
29:10
Speaker 1: Consider, yeah, true, and take the time to hear them out,
29:14
Speaker 1: because that's when real conversations can happen, for sure.
29:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, and at the end, but understand, at the end
29:19
Speaker 3: of the day, somebody's got to make a decision. And
29:21
Speaker 3: so I think the balance between that and like us
29:25
Speaker 3: serving in a military, somebody's got to go, okay, got it,
29:29
Speaker 3: got all this information, who we're going this way, and
29:32
Speaker 3: please have the respect to say, okay, let's respect the
29:35
Speaker 3: decision to go. And as long as everybody on the
29:37
Speaker 3: team is willing to do that, then you can accomplish
29:40
Speaker 3: a lot.
29:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, and then you're all pulling on the same rope.
29:44
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right, which makes a real big difference.
29:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you're taking all of now this new knowledge
29:50
Speaker 1: from business school and this time at Forward and what
29:54
Speaker 1: comes next for you.
29:55
Speaker 3: So I was at Forward and went back into project
29:58
Speaker 3: management and management and we started working on the one
30:02
Speaker 3: of the Escape programs, and I love to this day
30:06
Speaker 3: is like what it could have should have had the
30:07
Speaker 3: chance to work on the GT forty, I turned it
30:11
Speaker 3: down and went to the Escape. I'll admit that in public,
30:13
Speaker 3: probably a career destroyer. En it was, you never know,
30:16
Speaker 3: I loved. I was so into the Escape. I was
30:19
Speaker 3: so bought into that vehicle line and the concept that
30:23
Speaker 3: it was just so personal. Yeah, it was personal for me.
30:26
Speaker 3: So I went back to the Escape team, but four
30:28
Speaker 3: at the time, it was going through some pretty big
30:31
Speaker 3: changes in management and tried to bootstrap program a couple
30:35
Speaker 3: of times unsuccessfully. Got a little frustrated with that and
30:40
Speaker 3: was looking for I think for a change again, looking
30:43
Speaker 3: for a challenge, new challenge and new change in life.
30:46
Speaker 3: Had a second kid, and was looking to get closer
30:48
Speaker 3: to friends and family, and again Automotive News I think
30:52
Speaker 3: it was in the print edition. The internet was a
30:54
Speaker 3: real thing at that time. But ended up seeing a
30:57
Speaker 3: job opportunity at Subaru and in product playing, applied for it,
31:02
Speaker 3: got it, and it was on the East Coast, and
31:04
Speaker 3: it was close. My sister was living in Delaware at
31:07
Speaker 3: the time where we grew up. We went to high
31:08
Speaker 3: school and had grown up, jumped at it and said
31:11
Speaker 3: all right.
31:11
Speaker 2: It relocated the family.
31:13
Speaker 3: To the East Coast and yeah, and spent almost twenty
31:15
Speaker 3: years there.
31:16
Speaker 4: Well, that's super of America.
31:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and from it's interesting in the travel community Subaru. Everybody,
31:24
Speaker 1: no matter if you own a land Cruiser, if you
31:26
Speaker 1: own land Rover, everybody respects a super U Like they.
31:31
Speaker 2: Just make a good car.
31:32
Speaker 1: They make a great car, and you can be it's
31:34
Speaker 1: surprising the places you can be in the world and
31:38
Speaker 1: here comes a little Super Forester or something bouncing along
31:42
Speaker 1: along the road. And one of the things that you
31:45
Speaker 1: mentioned to me in one of our first conversations that
31:47
Speaker 1: I thought was so interesting was you getting involved with
31:52
Speaker 1: the wilderness concept for Subaru. And I just have such
31:55
Speaker 1: compliment such I'm impressed that Subru took the risk to say,
32:01
Speaker 1: we know, we have these very durable, capable cars, but
32:04
Speaker 1: we're going to take them. We're going to make them
32:05
Speaker 1: a little wilder, We're going to make them a little
32:07
Speaker 1: more interesting to certainly the North American consumer.
32:10
Speaker 2: I would think I.
32:12
Speaker 3: Give a lot of credit to Ken Lynn, who's head
32:14
Speaker 3: of product planning at the time, former boss, great boss
32:18
Speaker 3: and great guy, very smart man, and the product planners
32:21
Speaker 3: that are there now because it was a transition. Those
32:24
Speaker 3: guys took it from concept to reality. And Alan Bethkey,
32:28
Speaker 3: Jeff Walters, very smart leaders at suber of America. Tomdall
32:32
Speaker 3: the CEO at the time. He's since retired. But I
32:35
Speaker 3: think all those people got on the same page as
32:38
Speaker 3: we just discussed, and we're pulling on the same rope,
32:41
Speaker 3: and there was you could tell, you could tell in
32:44
Speaker 3: the industry that there was a certain direction right And
32:46
Speaker 3: now we're at Overland Expo and there's thousands of people
32:49
Speaker 3: here and it's crazy to see how this has evolved
32:53
Speaker 3: in the last ten years. But I think really good
32:56
Speaker 3: research insights. Super's got a very good research team. Merely
33:00
Speaker 3: should divine Chris Hurst. These are very smart people.
33:03
Speaker 2: What did they and what did they identify?
33:05
Speaker 1: Because to me, they got it pretty close to her
33:08
Speaker 1: and there's not driven the wilderness a few times in
33:11
Speaker 1: various forms, and it seems like it's not only done well,
33:15
Speaker 1: but permeated the entire line just about. So what did
33:18
Speaker 1: they identify in the research that they really wanted to
33:22
Speaker 1: see in the final product. What did they feel like
33:24
Speaker 1: people really needed out of a crossover.
33:26
Speaker 4: I think it was just two.
33:28
Speaker 3: So if you think about Suberu's marketing strategy, and it's
33:33
Speaker 3: sort of the brand itself. Subers are safe, suber us
33:39
Speaker 3: are are long lasting, but most importantly subers are venturous.
33:43
Speaker 3: And so if then that was our mantra. And Alan
33:46
Speaker 3: was a master at who's head of marketing was just
33:50
Speaker 3: a master at consistency and getting that message across in
33:54
Speaker 3: all creative.
33:55
Speaker 4: Regardless of format, you're right, constantly true.
33:58
Speaker 3: And so if you Luddy Roads you look at their marketing,
34:01
Speaker 3: the visuals, everything matches right. And Carmichael Lynch their primary agency,
34:06
Speaker 3: brilliant agency, great people, very smart people, and very good
34:10
Speaker 3: creative people. Everybody pulls the same direction, and Alan was
34:15
Speaker 3: very good at getting everybody to keep moving in the
34:18
Speaker 3: same direction in that regard on the marketing side and
34:21
Speaker 3: sales side as well under Jeff's leadership. So I think
34:24
Speaker 3: I just think every people are at the right place
34:26
Speaker 3: at the right time, and there was there was that, Hey,
34:29
Speaker 3: we'd like to be even more adventurous because we think
34:33
Speaker 3: there's opportunity on that side of the industry. Sure for
34:37
Speaker 3: a company that's already considered to be the safest brand,
34:40
Speaker 3: and we were always swapping place with Toyota and Honda
34:43
Speaker 3: on who is the most the safest brand in the
34:45
Speaker 3: United States, who's the most reliable brand or longest lasting
34:49
Speaker 3: When I did all the awards and accolades stuff, so
34:51
Speaker 3: I would always see all that data, and it was
34:53
Speaker 3: we were very consistently at the top of the industry,
34:56
Speaker 3: amping up the adventure side and showing people that supers
34:59
Speaker 3: could be super capable as well. I think was one
35:02
Speaker 3: of the goals and I think they pulled it off.
35:04
Speaker 1: And what an interesting challenge because to make something more
35:08
Speaker 1: capable and adventurous it may it has the potential to
35:12
Speaker 1: come at the cost of it being safe and it
35:15
Speaker 1: being long lasting.
35:16
Speaker 3: The super engineering team, the engineers are very good and
35:19
Speaker 3: the interesting yin and yang between what the what the
35:23
Speaker 3: marketing and the vision of where the marketers would like
35:25
Speaker 3: to go and where the product engineers are willing to
35:28
Speaker 3: let you go. And again, obviously the dollars and cents
35:32
Speaker 3: have to all the pencil out as well.
35:35
Speaker 2: But it seemed like they really pulled it off.
35:37
Speaker 1: We have always seen people travel in subreus, but now
35:41
Speaker 1: more than ever, like you'll see them with a winch
35:43
Speaker 1: on them, You'll see them with a little bit taller tire,
35:46
Speaker 1: You'll see them with a build out. You'll also see
35:48
Speaker 1: them driving down the length of the Pan American Highway.
35:52
Speaker 1: And so I give them a lot of credit for
35:54
Speaker 1: taking that risk.
35:55
Speaker 3: We have to said we started so my team was
35:58
Speaker 3: responsible for doing the STI enthusiast events, but we as
36:02
Speaker 3: we started to work on these wilderness models, we tried
36:05
Speaker 3: to pull in so it wasn't just about the WRX
36:08
Speaker 3: or the STI or the BRZ.
36:09
Speaker 4: Sure, we tried to actively engage and pull.
36:13
Speaker 3: In the crossover audience or the more let's say, the
36:17
Speaker 3: more adventurous side of Subaru, so the foresters and the
36:20
Speaker 3: outbacks and the cross tracks, and I think did that
36:23
Speaker 3: fairly successfully and got the entire community engaged in adventure.
36:28
Speaker 3: And again I give a lot of credit to the
36:31
Speaker 3: agency partners that we worked with, and we had some
36:34
Speaker 3: great partners with the n Sierra, Karmica Lynch, the designer
36:37
Speaker 3: in Long Beach great just very smart people and good
36:40
Speaker 3: people and listened right, collaborated, listened, talked, to each other,
36:45
Speaker 3: bounced ideas off of each other, and yeah, I got
36:48
Speaker 3: to see this.
36:49
Speaker 4: We would see these these.
36:50
Speaker 3: Crazy builds come into the enthusiast events seriously, not just
36:54
Speaker 3: the STIs where people would put in twenty five thousand
36:56
Speaker 3: dollars of speed equipment on a vehicle, but now we
36:59
Speaker 3: were seeing ross tracks with maybe as much money put
37:03
Speaker 3: into offer like wheels, tires, suspension lifts, and it's crazy.
37:09
Speaker 3: Some people were doing like they were taking the back
37:11
Speaker 3: end of an all app back and turning it into
37:13
Speaker 3: a trailer like it was just there was some crazy
37:16
Speaker 3: stuff and I love seeing the creativity and the invention
37:22
Speaker 3: and you see a lot of that here today at
37:24
Speaker 3: Overland Expo. It's just the amount of creativity that's here
37:28
Speaker 3: is incredible. And we knew we were on the right track.
37:32
Speaker 3: And because we were seeing all these you know, people
37:34
Speaker 3: modifying their suber Rus and doing this wild stuff with it,
37:37
Speaker 3: but they.
37:37
Speaker 2: Look super cool they do.
37:39
Speaker 1: And the number of people that you hear that are
37:41
Speaker 1: into suber Us that say their next one they're going
37:43
Speaker 1: to buy is going to be a wilderness, so they.
37:45
Speaker 2: Subaru really nailed it with that.
37:47
Speaker 1: So you went from helping this iconic brand elevate their
37:52
Speaker 1: adventure and bring the Wilderness to market, which is I
37:58
Speaker 1: think an incredible accomplishment. And now you're working for Enios,
38:03
Speaker 1: which is a car company that was started by an enthusiast. Yes,
38:07
Speaker 1: and that I've never seen, no question that Henry Ford
38:10
Speaker 1: was an automotive enthusiast. But when you think of Sir
38:13
Speaker 1: Jim Radcliffe, this guy, he's an overlander. The car that
38:17
Speaker 1: he always loved was no longer being made, and he
38:21
Speaker 1: actually had the courage is I'm going to make my own.
38:24
Speaker 1: So you go from working from with an enthusiast brand
38:27
Speaker 1: like Subaru to now working with a true adventure machine
38:32
Speaker 1: like the Grenadier.
38:33
Speaker 2: How has that? How has that been? What do you
38:35
Speaker 2: think of this?
38:36
Speaker 4: Six weeks in? I know it's like a month and
38:39
Speaker 4: a half later. Scott.
38:41
Speaker 3: Now, first of all, I told Lynn this our CEO
38:44
Speaker 3: when we interviewed him, like the Cahonys, that that did
38:49
Speaker 3: to start your own car company from scratch, nobody does
38:55
Speaker 3: that and without funding rounds and all of that and
38:59
Speaker 3: all this stuff that a lot of the TV companies
39:02
Speaker 3: unfortunately have had are fortunately maybe I don't know because
39:04
Speaker 3: they're competitors, but have had to go through but I
39:07
Speaker 3: think Sir Jim had a vision and again I think
39:09
Speaker 3: people listened and collaborated, and very similar running theme to
39:14
Speaker 3: what we've been talking about here. But yeah, I think
39:17
Speaker 3: it's a group of very smart, very good, very genuine people.
39:21
Speaker 2: It seems like it.
39:22
Speaker 3: It feels landing at Anios feels a lot like when
39:26
Speaker 3: I landed at super Real. Sure, it feels like a
39:28
Speaker 3: place that you could work productively and happily for a
39:32
Speaker 3: long time, just because of the quality of the people.
39:34
Speaker 3: And so look, if there's one thing that I'm blessed with,
39:38
Speaker 3: it's working with amazing, smart, kind, genuine people.
39:44
Speaker 1: That's been my experience, just how helpful they were, you know,
39:48
Speaker 1: helping me get the vehicle to Africa, and the engineering
39:51
Speaker 1: team when I had questions, or the service team making
39:55
Speaker 1: sure that I had their phone numbers if I had
39:58
Speaker 1: any issues, which fortunately I never any issues. I've never
40:00
Speaker 1: had to call Rick. We were pretty lucky along the way.
40:04
Speaker 1: You know, we're at the Overland Expo. This is an
40:06
Speaker 1: enthusiast event. The Grenadier and the Grenadier Quartermaster are both
40:12
Speaker 1: enthusiasts driven vehicles. They're made for this market. What are
40:16
Speaker 1: some of the things that you're seeing as opportunities. So
40:19
Speaker 1: when you look at what you've seen in at Overland
40:22
Speaker 1: Expo for the last couple of days, where do you
40:24
Speaker 1: think that the Grenadier's positioned, What problems you think it's
40:28
Speaker 1: solving for the people. As you've talked to these customers
40:30
Speaker 1: over the last couple of days.
40:32
Speaker 3: I would say, I think, first of all, I think
40:34
Speaker 3: the sky's the limit for this brand. The vehicle is
40:38
Speaker 3: genuinely capable, unlike any other vehicle I've ever driven, or
40:43
Speaker 3: at least it's maybe of a military hummer year and
40:46
Speaker 3: the hum Vy's were incredible off roaders in military spec.
40:51
Speaker 3: Bare bones but incredible.
40:53
Speaker 2: Off Your spine took the impact for everything else.
40:56
Speaker 3: Yeah that's yeah, that's right they did, but the thing
40:59
Speaker 3: would keep going. I think our biggest honestly, obviously, maybe
41:04
Speaker 3: our biggest challenge is awareness. Before I came to this show,
41:09
Speaker 3: everyone that I knew it was like any of us,
41:12
Speaker 3: Who what is that? And breaking that that awareness barrier
41:18
Speaker 3: for people that are not immediately in this community, because
41:21
Speaker 3: I'm honestly I've been gobsmacked at the number of grenadiers
41:25
Speaker 3: I've seen on the ground here. And we brought a
41:28
Speaker 3: few quartermasters to share one at your booth and then
41:31
Speaker 3: that's great, like they they that's the debut of this vehicle,
41:34
Speaker 3: the public debut. But the fact that we've got grenadiers
41:37
Speaker 3: that people brought their own private vehicles here and have
41:40
Speaker 3: heavily modified them, are put you know, their own spin
41:44
Speaker 3: on them, or their own creativity into and are showing
41:46
Speaker 3: them off as part of their their displays that when
41:49
Speaker 3: some cases literally are their business and the face the
41:52
Speaker 3: face of their business to the community, I think is
41:55
Speaker 3: really incredible. Being such a new player, We've only been
41:59
Speaker 3: selling the since November, so I.
42:02
Speaker 1: Think it's very encouraging to see the rate of adoption.
42:06
Speaker 1: There's lots of great vehicles on the market. Toyota makes
42:09
Speaker 1: great vehicles, Ford makes great vehicles, but to now have
42:13
Speaker 1: another option that's made specifically for overlanding is unheard of.
42:18
Speaker 1: So we're we are as a community are excited about
42:22
Speaker 1: the fact that there's a manufacturer making cars just for us.
42:27
Speaker 3: I do see I see a lot of Again, I
42:29
Speaker 3: think there's a lot of parallels with and not to
42:32
Speaker 3: say we certainly wouldn't repeat or or try to ape
42:35
Speaker 3: anybody else's marketing strategy, but I think there's a lot
42:38
Speaker 3: of parallels when again, when I landed at Subru, there
42:42
Speaker 3: was a lot of opportunity. The brand had been at
42:45
Speaker 3: that time, the brand had been struggling for a while
42:47
Speaker 3: and their flatlined and sales and then the love campaign
42:50
Speaker 3: and all of that happened, and very good insights in
42:52
Speaker 3: marketing and hopefully, hopefully working with our global team over
42:56
Speaker 3: in the UK, we can repeat some of that success
43:00
Speaker 3: by listening to each other, collaborating with each other, looking
43:04
Speaker 3: at data sharing, data sharing insights and consider being considerate
43:09
Speaker 3: of other people's points of view and then coming up
43:12
Speaker 3: with the best solution and going right. And I do
43:14
Speaker 3: think there's a lot that we can do. We certainly
43:18
Speaker 3: have a lot to learn in this market. We have
43:20
Speaker 3: literally just started our first marketing campaign two days ago,
43:24
Speaker 3: so we are early days and but you know, seeing
43:28
Speaker 3: the response from consumers here at the show and at
43:31
Speaker 3: the ride and drive, Yeah, I think what we solve
43:37
Speaker 3: most is you buy this vehicle. You don't have to
43:41
Speaker 3: do anything to it. You can if you want to
43:44
Speaker 3: make it look a little different or feel a little different,
43:46
Speaker 3: or put something on top of it or behind it
43:48
Speaker 3: or on side. You could literally put things all over
43:51
Speaker 3: the darn thing, which is cool by itself because I
43:54
Speaker 3: don't think there's any other vehicle that exists that you.
43:56
Speaker 2: Can do that aircraft.
43:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there is. There's literally nothing like it in
44:01
Speaker 3: the industry. And it looks I think imposing is not
44:06
Speaker 3: the right work, but it looks substantial. Yeah, sure, it
44:09
Speaker 3: feels substantial. It is substantial, right, So to be authentic
44:14
Speaker 3: towards what the product is I think is very important.
44:18
Speaker 3: So from a marketing standpoint, I think, at least from
44:21
Speaker 3: my early insights are learning so far as if we
44:26
Speaker 3: stick to that authenticity, I think people will gravitate towards
44:30
Speaker 3: it because it's different.
44:31
Speaker 1: And for me, it's just a gratitude that it exists.
44:35
Speaker 1: It's a gratitude to Sir Jim for taking the risk
44:39
Speaker 1: to build a vehicle for himself that happens to also
44:42
Speaker 1: be a vehicle that I would want to own and
44:45
Speaker 1: drive across Africa like I did. But you guys are
44:48
Speaker 1: also supporting the community. You're supporting the Overland Expo. You
44:52
Speaker 1: have the vehicles here for ride and drive, so people
44:54
Speaker 1: get a chance to drive them and decide for themselves
44:56
Speaker 1: if it's something that works for them. So your support
45:00
Speaker 1: of the community, your support of me and our crossing
45:03
Speaker 1: of Africa. It means a lot to us, it means
45:06
Speaker 1: a lot to the community that we have the chance
45:08
Speaker 1: to see how these vehicles work and to give open
45:11
Speaker 1: feedback to our audience about how the vehicle performed. It's
45:15
Speaker 1: been a lot of fun to get to know you.
45:17
Speaker 1: I'm really grateful for your service and I'm excited because
45:21
Speaker 1: of what you've done like a Subaru and how you
45:25
Speaker 1: really help to elevate an enthusiast brand. I think that
45:28
Speaker 1: it's a great fit to Innieaus and I'm excited to
45:31
Speaker 1: see what you guys do next.
45:33
Speaker 3: I can't there's so many things I want to do
45:35
Speaker 3: or like with the brand, with the product, with relationships,
45:38
Speaker 3: with partnerships. Like I said earlier, I think the sky's
45:42
Speaker 3: the limit for this brand, and we build a good vehicle.
45:44
Speaker 4: Yep, it is.
45:47
Speaker 3: Again, it's capable unlike anything I've ever driven that's capable
45:50
Speaker 3: of driving on road legally, and that being authentic to
45:55
Speaker 3: that reality I think is going to be very important
45:57
Speaker 3: for us. Not trying to be who we're not, but
46:00
Speaker 3: being who we are.
46:01
Speaker 2: Yeah.
46:01
Speaker 1: Sure, and you're doing that by being here at the
46:04
Speaker 1: Overland Expo. It's been fun to watch people see the
46:07
Speaker 1: Quartermaster for the first time. They're losing their mind on it. Yeah,
46:10
Speaker 1: so that's been pretty fun.
46:12
Speaker 2: That's great.
46:12
Speaker 1: That's been pretty fun for me to see. I think
46:14
Speaker 1: people can really get a sense for it, and I
46:16
Speaker 1: think they can envision themselves driving it themselves. Dave, I
46:19
Speaker 1: really appreciate your support of the community you and that
46:23
Speaker 1: position of authority around the marketing team means that you're
46:26
Speaker 1: making decisions that support the Overland Expo, that support people
46:30
Speaker 1: like Andy and Mercedes and their success on the Alcan
46:34
Speaker 1: your guys' support of our expedition across Africa. That says
46:38
Speaker 1: a lot about who Anios is as a company, and
46:41
Speaker 1: we really appreciate it.
46:42
Speaker 3: I am again, I'm blessed to be here. We will
46:45
Speaker 3: be a title sponsor of Overland Expo for the rest
46:47
Speaker 3: of the year. Yeah, we're all in on the community.
46:49
Speaker 3: This is our core. We'll certainly look at other marketing
46:52
Speaker 3: collaborations and partnerships across other parts of the industry, but
46:56
Speaker 3: this is our center. We understand that, we know that,
46:58
Speaker 3: and we'll be here for
46:59
Speaker 1: The long Dave, thanks so much for being on the podcast,
47:02
Speaker 1: and we thank you all for listening, and we'll talk
47:04
Speaker 1: to you next time.