The British Toy Business

The British Toy Business
Author: Kenneth D. Brown
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 318
Release: 1996-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781852851361
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At its height British toymaking was a significant industry, with famous names such as Britains and Meccano known throughout the world. While in essence a specialised form of small-scale engineering, its products and market have always been unique, reflecting the current priorities of both parents and children. Yet, while individual toys and marques have been catalogued extensively, no previous history of toymaking as a whole exists. The British Toy Business provides a fascinating example of the development of a specific industry. Many early early toys were home-made. From the eighteenth century, with its growing recognition of children as something other than small adults, date the beginnings of specialised toys, usually produced by small workshops and sold by street-sellers. The nineteenth century, with its industrial growth and middle-class prosperity, saw an expansion of toymaking. The 1960s and 1970s were the most successful years of British toymaking, with companies like Lesney making record profits. Yet British toy makers failed to solve a number of fundamental problems. Following an unexpected sudden downturn in sales at a time of high interest rates, the major names in British toy making, Lesney, Airfix, Mettoy and Dunbee Combex Marx, all collapsed between 1979 and 1985, leaving the business to be dominated largely by importers.

The Art and Science of Running a Car Dealership

The Art and Science of Running a Car Dealership
Author: Max Zanan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2019-10-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781691591329
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This book is the pocket guide I wish I had when I first became a general manager of a Mitsubishi dealership in New York. Honestly, I am not the brightest star in the sky and made every mistake anyone could've possibly made. Unfortunately, I see dealer principals/general managers/general sales managers making the same mistakes today. The only difference is the time and consequences of these mistakes. I got my first GM gig in 2004. That was in the beginning days of the Internet, before millennials joined the workforce, and way before any viable disrupters entered the market space. It was a lot easier to get away with mistakes then. I don't think you could get away with making the same mistakes now. The stakes are too high. Automotive retail profit margins are tiny. According to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), automotive net profit margin as of March 31, 2019 was merely 1.38 percent. As a result, every misstep makes it harder to stay in business.The car business desperately needs better leadership skills, understanding of social media, inventory management, fixed operations, and so much more. There is no educational barrier to the entry into car business, and there are only a handful of universities offering a major in car dealership general management, such as Liberty and Keiser. On top of that, only a tiny percentage of dealer principals and general managers attend the National Automobile Dealer Association University. That means that a vast majority of general managers receive training on the job, even if we took business-related classes in college. The auto business is a different animal. General information will only carry you so far. That is exactly why general managers make the same mistakes year after year. My goal is to break this vicious cycle and provide as much information as possible to ensure that automotive retail survives the disruptions we are witnessing today. We need to be ready for the next generation of car buyers, people who are more computer savvy and not afraid to search for better deals. According to surveys, 80 percent of millennials plan to buy a vehicle in the next five years. In fact, millennials worldwide will buy about 40 percent of all vehicles in the next decade. At the same time, they spend an average of 17 hours on line before going to a dealership.Are you ready for them?