Working in silos, particularly in auto finance, will burn you....

So imagine this… You have over 200 customers who have sent your business partner payoffs to pay off their leases. All the paperwork looks good and is dropped off in a shipping package like it has been done routinely for years. The problem on this evening though is that the package will end up catching fire while in the possession of the shipping agent. Bad news, all 200+ customer and dealer checks are destroyed, not to mention all the supporting documentation to transfer titles, etc. Oh, crap! (Actually, worst was probably said, but we will keep it PG). I remember my operations manager walking in and telling me about this the next day.? How could this happen is asked just about as fast as how can we fix this situation as painlessly as possible.

The short answer is co-operating businesses working in silos was largely to blame. This happens a lot with niche products like auto leasing where there is a lot of different processes and not a lot of broad knowledge about how they need to operate effectively. Fortunately, I was working with one of the best lease end operations teams in the business and they immediately went to work on getting things redone. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lengthy and painful process that required the assistance of their peers in other internal and external groups, but they were empowered to remedy it. You learn quickly that the shipping companies don’t really have any skin in the game. They are happy to refund your one-time shipping charge, which covers 1% of the total cost of correcting this issue. If that.

While simultaneously correcting the big problem at hand, we immediately went to work on how we would prevent this from ever happening again. Something teams not working in a silo probably would have solved long before this near tragic event occurred. This was before electronic transfers had become a given and OCR for all documents in a transaction was just getting started. We worked together as one group (lease end operations and the payoff processing team) to move up these initiatives to help us all sleep better going forward. The big issue though was that we had ignorantly gone to sleep peacefully for years and not worked through how this scenario may have played out and even why. One group was only worried about sending the documents and the other receiving them. Ignorance is bliss, as they say, until it isn’t.

One of the things I have learned that by working as equal teammates with your internal and external partners on a daily basis is the ability to objectively identify potential risks, challenges, and solutions to problems like these. It can never be about them and us, but it is easy to get caught up in all the busy work of the daily routine and say things like, that is not our job, but another group’s (the silo mentality). Top of the house leaders discourage this way of thinking by saying things like, “you must take ownership.” That is all well and good, but how do you ensure that happens as a senior leader?

?At the simplest level, by taking the time to schedule regular touch points with all those that support your operations and ensuring your own team is equally contributing to those combined discussions. Putting aside ownership pride and being flexible enough to question your own processes and procedures is golden & has to be rewarded and recognized. And sometimes you have to ask for help from an internal or external source to review those same procedures. They often see things you may not have even thought of being in the thick of the daily grind. Don’t be afraid to ask for help as you bridge the gap from working in silos to working one process for the greater good. It can make all the difference in saving your bacon from a fire. #worksilos #autofinance #remarketing #Storiestolearnfrom #hireme

About the author:

Jason Herman is a 24-year veteran in the remarketing and automotive finance world and an avid car enthusiast. Having managed bank and fleet lease end operations, 1st?and 3rd?party remarketing, residual value setting & risk mitigation, and the sale of well over 1 million off lease & repossessed vehicles in his career, he enjoys providing guidance and expertise to both those new to and experienced in the automotive finance industry, as well as helping end consumers purchase or sell vehicles. Should he be able to help, Jason can be reached at [email protected].

Please check out my automotive finance & car buying blog: https://www.carguy4u.com/car-buying-and-auto-finance-blog