Career Spotlight | 5 questions to Ken Shen

Ken Shen | Senior Planner, Aftersales Pricing and Margin Management, Nissan Canada Inc.

1)??How did you find your way to where you are today? Share a little about your professional journey.

?Can’t believe 4 years passed by so quickly, and I love every day of it!

?I joined NCI in September 2018 as senior planner pricing operations, transitioned in April 2019 to the current role responsible for Aftersales Pricing and Margin Management. Together with my team, I focus on optimizing Sales/Profit mix, supporting sustainable sales and profitability growth, while enhancing customer experience and retention.?

?My first car in Canada was a 1998 Nissan Altima with 5-speed manual transmission - loved the acceleration and sense of control! At that time, I was studying MBA at Schulich School of Business after emigrating from China. Since then, I worked in corporate finance and strategic development for a variety of industries from telecommunication to insurance and banking, until I found my passion in automotive industry. I look forward to coming to work every day at NCI because it is truly a great place to work! It allows me to leverage my financial and analytics skills as well as sales marketing experience to contribute to the sustainable profit growth of the company and dealer partners. I also enjoy greatly working with the team!

?2)??What was the best advice you have received? What would you tell someone starting out in their career?

?A friend of mine once said, “Life is just like driving. You need to know where you are going, but sometimes there is traffic and detours. You need to stay focused but also enjoy the scenery along the way.” I like this analogy because it echoed with “Begin with the end in Mind” – one of the seven habits by Stephen Covey. For those just starting out in their career, finding your passion early and having a clear goal is important. If it takes a bit longer, that is okay too. It is important to remember that you are the CEO of Me.Inc, so be a self-starter with a lifelong learning mindset, take initiative and be accountable, get in the driver seat and have fun along the way!

?3)??You are a part of a very diverse and dynamic team, how does your team dynamic influence your job? How does this environment foster career development and idea creation?

Compared with other organizations, one thing stands out which I particularly value and appreciate is the culture of diversity and inclusion at Nissan and at NCI. In addition to the voluntary and employee-led committees providing a variety of events that foster the career and personal development at NCI, I believe the diverse team also provides checking balances and constantly brings new ideas, insights and productivity to the process and to the project.

?One of the typical examples was the successful launch of the Aftersales pricing tool in FY20 and FY21 where we had a very diverse team from various regions (NCI, NNA, and NMEX) as well as various functions with different tenure and expertise. The cross functional team consists of finance, IT, business, project/program management, as well as Vendor. With clearly defined deliverables, timeline and resources from idea generation (scope), Business Requirement Testing (BRT) to implementation, I believe all functions have exercised their best efforts based on their expertise and in the meanwhile open to others have to say during the process. The seamless level of collaboration from the diverse team definitely drive the results #Oneteam united!

?The healthy environment where different ideas are welcomed and embraced also certainly helps for cross learning opportunities and ultimately the career development opportunities at NCI. In the long run, I strongly believe the culture of diversity and inclusion will also benefit the business and the company greatly given the changing industry landscape, the convergence of automotive and tech, as well as the potential new service model and ecosystem.??

4)??Reflecting on your career what unique challenges did you overcome or what accomplishments do you think would inspire others? ?

Like most of the colleagues at NCI, in addition to the challenges on the personal level, the last three years of unprecedented Covid-19 has also presented as a very challenging situation for the business with disruptive logistics, shortage of material and parts, soaring costs due to inflationary environment and imbalance of supply and demand just name a few. The frequency and magnitude of inflationary impact in regards to cost impact to the aftersales business has been unprecedented!

?For my team and myself the unique challenges we face are short turnaround times to deal with large datasets with more frequent changes specifically on the costing side. With the tremendous support from Aftersales leadership and cross-functional teams, we have adapted the changes quickly and I believe we have been managing the process very well, even though it is still challenging!????????????????????????????????????????????????????

5)??You have mentored directly and indirectly and been mentored over the years, any tools or resources would you suggest to someone interested in becoming a mentor, mentee or in developing themselves further.

?For those would like to developing themselves further within NCI, there is an excellent tool being developed in regards to the business introduction of each functions – “NCI Career Pathing Toolkit” in learning @alliance where you can also check in the recently developed new tool – “Career Planning Toolkit for Employees”. Of course, the most effective way is to find a mentor to guide you in the process, and talk to someone in the functions and paths you would like to explore to get better insights. So, don’t be shy!