“We need to look under every rock and climb the highest mountains to tell our story and recruit people into our industry,” proclaimed Mike Quinn, 911 Collision Centers and National Auto Body Council board member, after Bob Schubert, Impact Auto Body, NABC member, and secretary of NABC Janet Chaney, teamed up with Quinn to give students at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, an “Overview of the Collision Industry.” In addition, Mitchell International Southwest territory manager brought his technological expertise to the group.

Bob Schubert, far left and Mike Quinn, far right stand with future dealership general manager entrepreneurs in the classroom at Arizona State University

The class was composed of exceptional students from all over the country participating in the Center for Automotive Entrepreneurial Leadership (CAEL) program at ASU. CAEL is an accredited program, initiated in part by Ford Motor Company’s Dealer Development Office. They are learning the automotive industry and developing leadership skills to help instigate changes in dealership management – quite possibly the “next generation” of new car dealership general managers. Collision repair is now part of the program’s curriculum – giving this new generation a basic understanding of that segment of their business. In addition to students, attending were Ford Executives Kenneth Walton, manager, Minority Dealer Operations, and Zenaida Wright, training coordinator Minority Dealer Operations, based in Dearborn, Michigan.

The two-hour presentation titled, “Auto Body Overview and Profitability Opportunities,” touched on many facets of collision repair – an open-ended presentation with much class discussion. Starting with a history of the body shop; showing older cars, a hammer and a dolly, a dial up phone and a Polaroid camera, Quinn walked through the industry past. Handing the future technology segment was Schubert who ended with an insightful look at accident avoidance technology, self-healing and paramagnetic paint.

The discussion centered around the hard facts of today’s collision industry recognizing over capacity, diminished value claims, aftermarket parts and total losses. These four issues have a direct correlation between the body shop and the new car dealer. Insurer relations and insurer’s involvement in collision claims was a major topic of discussion. This information was given out in a forthright delivery, not sugar coating the realities these young students have before them.

Schubert closed the presentation with videos of several crash tests of different models. The worst was the Chinese car crash, the best the 1981 Escort that bounced off the barrier and didn’t damage anything.

“I am very impressed with the quality of these students,” Schubert remarked. “These young people are bright and asked the right questions.”

“This was great – a fabulous presentation for these students,” beamed John Whelan, retired Ford executive, faculty associate at ASU for the CAEL program and responsible for bringing the National Auto Body Council to the program. “The students responded to this class, absorbing the information. They really loved everyone’s sense of humor.”

Success will repeat itself as Schubert, Quinn and Chaney, along with Bill Bauer have been asked back for the next CAEL program in February.