Since Arnold O'Byrne's departure Opel's share of Irish action has dropped. Now a young Dubliner has come home from Canada. His brief is to putOpel back on the road here. Michael McAleer talks to John C Maher.
Two week's ago John C Maher was second in command of GM sales in the Toronto area, the company's largest region in Canada and the second largest region in North America outside Detroit. Now he's immersed in reading material detailing everything from the Irish dealer network and product range data, to the rivetting world of block exemption and EU regulations.
Maher's sudden appointment as managing director of Opel Ireland, taking over from Iede Aukema, came after he got a call from GM's European office offering him the post. But why did they go to Canada to find someone for the hotseat? "I had known the GM head of the Irish and Nordic area for the past 12 years and I'd mentioned before that I would be interested in considering the post if it came up," says Maher.
His interest in the Irish job is not only rooted in a desire to continue what has been by all accounts a rapid progression through the ranks at GM in Canada. Despite his strong Canadian accent, Maher is a born and bred Dubliner from the Stoneybatter area.
At 38 he has built up an impressive résumé with the company, rarely staying in the same role for more a year before moving up the ranks.
It has been a fast track to Dublin since he joined GM in Canada back in 1990. Back in Ireland, Maher had completed an apprenticeship as a motor vehicle technician with the Aer Corps. Once his contract was up, however, he faced the same prospect as many in Ireland at the time: emigrate or vegetate. So Maher headed for Canada.
"Within the first couple of weeks I saw an ad for a job with a GM subsidiary in the finance and insurance end of the business." The insurance element was mainly concentrated on extended warranty claims so his mechanical background held him in good stead. Soon after, he took to the field offices, promoting the extended warranty programme and managing loss control.
A sharp progression up the ranks took him to GM's Canadian headquarters in Osahawa where he took on the role of a marketing manager for a year before returning to the field, this time in the sales area.
There followed various tours of duty with responsibiltiy for distribution, promotions and new sales including to fleets. Finally, he reached the position of assistant zone manager in sales for the Toronto region in March of this year. That's when the call came from Europe.
Why leave the market you know best, and a relatively prestigious position to run the Irish operation? Maher sees it as a promotional move, from an assistant zone manager to the European equivalent of a zone manager. But, we can assume, this is not the end of the line for Maher in any way.
"This new job is part of a career progression, something I made very clear to GM when I took the post," he says. "My plans now are to focus on the Irish market and the job at hand, and then in one or two years lift my head up and see where we stand.
"Iede Aukema has put in a lot of work to build market share and put the structures in place and I hope to develop on his good work."
As to the relationship with dealers, Maher has already met with some of them during his brief visit to Ireland last week. He says he used this time to reinforce his basic belief in the essential premise of the role of the manufacturer: to work with the dealers to sell cars.
His experience in the field obviously helps him to understand the importance of the relationship between dealers and manufacturers/distributors. "Success comes from a mixture of both elements, and to be competitive you need the dealer and manufacturer working hand-in-hand.
"Dealers have a better grip in local markets, but we can bring to the table our unique knowledge and information. Combining both resources makes us most effective."
COMPARISONS between the Canadian and Irish market are obviously hard to make. Volumes are significantly different and the range and marques are not the same. But the basic principle remains: to sell cars.
In management structure GM Canada has opted for the umbrella approach, with all GM brands - apart from Saturn - being centrally controlled by one GM group. Whether this is the way forward here, Maher declines to comment, saying only that throughout GM "ongoing research is underway to see which is the best way to structure the brands."
His years of experience in the warranty market means he has witnessed at first hand moves by some firms to compete using extended warranties as a marketing tool. However, Maher is not persuaded as to the success of such moves.
"In Canada Chrysler went from a three- to seven-year warranty," he says. "It was in fact more limited as the years progressed, with only a few areas covered for the full seven years. They introduced it last spring but there has still been no improvement in new vehicle sales."
One area that he believes there may be potential to develop in the Irish market is in leasing programmes. "While the economy in Canada is a little weaker than in the US, leasing programmes are very popular and
Maher shys away from outlining any hard and fast strategy for Opel Ireland or its operations until he gets better acquainted with the market and the situation on the ground. However he says he has been impressed by the product range.
A provisional date of January 3rd should see Maher behind his new desk in Sandyford. He'll arrive at the busiest time of the year for dealers and with eyes firmly fixed on market share for 2004. With overall sales likely to be down on last year he has a huge task ahead.