Teaching Automotive to 18-Year-Olds with Elgie Bright

Michael Cirillo: 0:00

So I'm going to Buffalo Wild Wings the other day

‍Unknown: 0:08

this is Auto Collabs

Kyle Mountsier: 0:10

I was your first problem.

Michael Cirillo: 0:11

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that hatch case so just doesn't sit right at 3am and this Foo Fighters song comes on and I'm like I don't know how I have not put these dots together. But you know on our little road caster do Hickey and there's the one sound the song you know the intro song.

Paul J Daly: 0:32

Oh, this one you mean Hold on. I want to pull that up this guy

Michael Cirillo: 0:39

yeah, that was until that point up until it goes into the dance and then in in in fighter song. Yeah. And I'm like, I don't know how I didn't connect these dots.

Paul J Daly: 0:49

No, no, I never did either. Until you just said that is because you've always listened to it to where it goes into like the grindstone Interesting.

Michael Cirillo: 0:57

Yeah, there you go.

Paul J Daly: 0:58

I have no idea how we're going to transition that into show intro. But because LD doesn't remind me the Foo Fighters, he doesn't remind me of Buffalo Wild Wings at all. He

Michael Cirillo: 1:09

does work at Northwood, and he's helping all sorts of young automotive professionals connect dots in their careers on

Paul J Daly: 1:19

just changing the topic and to just see what we should have said when we first hit record. Remember that? Oh, man, lie is one of my favorite people. Like he's the kind of personality that whenever you're around him, you just get the smile, and the warmth and the laugh. And so I'm really excited that we get to spend some time with him. Because anytime without you is good time. We hope you enjoy this interview. All right. Oh, yeah, I'm so excited. We get to do this together today. Thank you so much for giving us some of your time.

Elgie Bright: 1:52

I appreciate it. I look forward to it. This is a highlight of my day.

Paul J Daly: 1:56

Oh, man. Well, we'll see about that. We'll see you. Know, you have you occupy, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating positions in the auto industry, because you're the chair of the automotive program at Northwood. So you kind of get to see the future before the future is actually even like ready to see itself. How did you even get into this position? I don't know the story. So I'm going to ask,

Elgie Bright: 2:21

Well, I was working for General Motors actually. And I had got transferred to the flip zone Flint, Michigan and Midlands part of that. And there happened to be a couple of people on my zone team that were Northwood grads I knew of Northwood. But maybe like a lot of people just as a dealer school, I, you know, I embrace that now, but I just knew there's a lot of dealers, you know, sons and daughters that come out of there, and they will get ready for their auto show and these to you know, walk me around me the tour, I've had meetings at Northwood, but never really, you know, connected on any other level. And I was sold them both from the level of the students that I got to meet that day, and just the fact that they were really excited about their upcoming auto shell. So I went that year, got a chance to do my MBA, and then just got connected where the automotive faculty was having to come in and do guest lectures and presentations. And when the guy before me retired, you know, I was raising my hands over here, we and so that's a wonderful opportunity and I've been here 12 years now, and like you say, Paul, Kyle, it has just been a been a pleasure to watch these students you know come in as 18 year old whether they come from a dealership background or not, but as an 18 year old with all of the you know worldviews of an 18 year olds

Kyle Mountsier: 4:00

18 year old Enos

Elgie Bright: 4:05

and then connect them to thought leaders subject matter experts, the X's and O's of this bill business and and watch them flourish as they take that first internship and first job and you know, whether they go back to a family dealership or make their way in some other some other way it's, you know, maybe a small bit of living vicariously through their their choice.

Kyle Mountsier: 4:30

What's the what's the split nowadays what you know, between like people that have dealership or family dealership background to kind of new entrants just going yeah, this is what I want to be a part of.

Elgie Bright: 4:42

Yeah, I just anecdotally that it's 5050 that 50% come from a dealership background, and then I split it to another 5050 50% of those are going back 50% Dad or Mom has said No, don't come here first goes somewhere else, or they're going to the manufacturer, a finance company, a vendor, and then 50% have discovered us now either through the auto show or through through the worldwide web, I think that thing's gonna make a

Paul J Daly: 5:17

little machines kind of working, working, that 50 That didn't grow up in the stores, and they come through the car show whatever, like, what are the this is what I'm fascinated about? Because we're always talking about how can we make the industry? Like, how can we get it out front, so that so many people who never considered automotive industry see it as a place where they can have a really prosperous future? So like, where did the other 50% that don't have an automotive background? They came from Europe, like, what is their mentality and mindset, when they step in, like, let me learn about the auto industry, I

Elgie Bright: 5:49

think they discovered some of those great jobs, whether it be from an operational level or an income level or ego level, you know, doing an internship that, hey, I can find my career in retail, or they look at it, the number of vendors and manufacturers, finance companies as employers, so whether it's an ally, or Cox, automotive are Reynolds and Reynolds, you know, where they're going to maybe some of the bigger schools, the state schools, and just presenting themselves at this career fair here, not only do they have some knowledge of them, maybe using Reynolds in our lab or seeing a Cox executive on campus, or some of the big dealer groups that come here. And I know, I'll leave someone out, but the LaFawn teams, the Pinsky is the Hendricks flows, you know, they come on campus, you know, they see them as corporate, you know, not having that legal family background. And so they they find their way in the industry, a lot of startups that they've met have come on campus, and they think, Oh, that's really cool. To see a, you know, an AI startup that's working in, you know, it's a widget on the computer, but, you know, for for 18 to 22 year old students, I can see myself in that. And so I think they get a, they get a indication and we were being on industry news. So whether it is, you know, your podcast club house, you know, automotive news, I you know, just the industry is the, you know, the books of today for us.

Paul J Daly: 7:37

It's very real time,

Elgie Bright: 7:39

it's real time,

Kyle Mountsier: 7:40

how do you define those tracks, because like the difference between working as a salesperson at a dealer, as a corporate finance executive at Reynolds, as a startup employee are or as a marketing professional at a at a vendor are very different tracks and journeys as far as like career path to find in the education path, or is it much more general and then there's kind of like, a funneling down, because I think people typically think about higher education as like, I'm going to be a doctor or nurse, I'm going to be a business person, or I'm going to be like, how do you funnel that and filter people into these, like, career paths in this education?

Elgie Bright: 8:20

There was a business school, I mean, we're just all those functional areas. We don't we don't get granular like that. I mean, finances finance, and so they're gonna understand that, and then they're gonna understand that from an auto lingo, you know, f&i, so they're actually certified.

Paul J Daly: 8:36

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I think there's an important piece of context that people listening need to know about Northwood in general. So Northwood is a university it's a business school. Right? Automotive is a track within the business school that you can take. So like I just want to make sure like people understand the difference between like this and like in NADA academy or something like that. Northwood is a business school, that Business School has an automotive specific track in it.

Elgie Bright: 9:05

Very good distinction that, you know, they're coming to college to get a four year degree, a BBA, a bachelor's in Business Administration, and just happens to be in automotive, rather than in marketing or in healthcare management, or in finance. It's a track and because of our great long term relationship with NADA, one time, there was an NADA Northwick transcript we were to partner, we still are but a partner with NADA. In terms of the education, people would go to NADA, and then complete the Northwood, go to Northwind and go to NADA. I mean, there was a transcript Actually, today. We support the great things that are happening in the NADA Academy. In online and you know where somebody enhances their skill, students here are getting a four year degree.

Paul J Daly: 10:08

Gotcha. I'm sorry, I interrupted a train of thought to ask you that question. And I don't remember what that other train of thought was.

Elgie Bright: 10:15

The guy was asking about, you know, those functional areas. So, granular in terms of finance, or marketing in terms of, you know, where your career, it's more of who your career starts with. So, you know, you're applying, if we'll just come in here with their recruiters, they're also going to those big state schools and just get marketing students or finance students here is that we think it gives a leg up because they understand auto lingo if they've gone through our track, but they'll also, you know, hire our finance, or accounting student, our marketing student. So our students, it just prepares them, you know, for a mirror or track skills are transferable. You can also go to a really broad Career Fair and say, you know, what, you know, could I get an opportunity at, you know, a hotel, that skills are transferable, the customer experience and managing that hotel?

Paul J Daly: 11:11

May that may that be more a part of the curriculum, because we're constantly talking about the hospitality mentality in automotive, and how that should be a lot more of a transferable skill set and mindset heading in. So it's great to know that you're already thinking in this trajectory, because again, this is kind of where we're heading. You recently announced, I saw this announcement, I think it was on LinkedIn, or I can't remember how I heard about it, maybe it was, I think, maybe LinkedIn. But there is a master's program, about to be launched. So now you can have a master's degree with a specific in automotive, right.

Elgie Bright: 11:45

Yeah. And we, so they launched we launched I mean, we have a master's in science, in organizational leadership, with an automotive focus. The particular Master's that I got was called a Demba. dealership, Executive MBA. So you got the basics of, of a master's program. I mean, we use Harvard case studies here. And you you you take a concentration or a focus on automotive, and what happens between, you know, manufacturer, dealer relationship, the relationships, and while Ah, you have a, you have a master's program, so we don't lose our automotive focus in some areas, when we advertise for that, you know, you're getting, you're getting an automotive, you're getting a master's to an automotive lands. And I know, that's just, we have the traditional, we have online, we have so many offerings.

Paul J Daly: 12:49

I think it's the organizational side, that I remember now that we covered this on our morning show. And we talked about the the great dealerships, and the great dealers that we see out there are great organizational leaders, yes, they have the building blocks, and all the blocking and tackling of inventory management, and you know, like franchise agreements and real estate, and they have all that stuff going. But the ones who understand how to get an organization pointing in a direction, keeping people attached to the vision of, you know, the leadership, or the founder in a lot of cases, or the owner, and a lot of cases, those are, those are the ones when you walk in, you're like, This is a really special place. So I remember in the show, we were talking about the fact that the organizational leadership is the center point of it. It just, it just feels very appropriate for the times we're in,

Elgie Bright: 13:40

you know, we we've discovered one of the Simplicity's of the auto business, it's the people business, you know, your employees, now

Kyle Mountsier: 13:50

you're gonna start preaching on us, or you're gonna go to a bank, now you got to do it.

Elgie Bright: 13:57

It's a people business and and so I think when you mentioned organizational leadership, organization, development, organizational behaviors, I mean, you're, you're all of those things, you're talking about people and all the things that you mentioned, the brick and mortar and amenities and all that, but it's a people business, the customers are people, employees, of people, the leaders of people. And, you know, once we coach and mentor and, you know, kind of put people on the right path, but those that are on the wrong path on the right path. You know, great things can happen to our bottom line, our financials, you know, all our analytics and analysis, but it really is a people business. So,

Kyle Mountsier: 14:39

see, here's the thing, this is you, thank you for that because I've been waiting for a moment, because you're a person to you're not just this, like organizational leadership, you know, education guy and our team. We got a great team around us, and they gave us a little they were like, there's a nugget on your LinkedIn that many people may not get to that Every once in a while there's a nugget when you scroll down in your little about thing and it says saxophone. So you play the sax.

Elgie Bright: 15:09

I haven't played in a long time. Now I fully admit to that because he's like,

Paul J Daly: 15:14

but I happen to have it right.

Elgie Bright: 15:19

I'm a I'm a huge jazz fan. I played the sax through high school. I especially enjoyed the the jazz band. My dad was a big jazz guy, and probably the guys that I admire most in music, or sax players. But yeah, yeah, that's

Paul J Daly: 15:41

what do I wish I was here all of a sudden. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 15:43

cuz we've got a guy on our team to play sax. And I feel like when you come to ASOTU CON this year, because it's not right bumped up next to me, we just removed it for you baby band plays and they got a sax player on the backline we're just gonna have him flip that to you and you're gonna be up there grooving.

Paul J Daly: 16:04

People flip a saxophone to somebody else. I mean, you could flip a guitar, the saxophone is a little tricky, right?

Kyle Mountsier: 16:13

Yeah. That's so good. So what what is like, because as the industry and I think there are more and more people gaining knowledge of what Northwood is doing specifically in auto right, there's there's a general knowledge, especially with some of the larger companies, but maybe not some of the smaller and as it grows to be an education path, not just for you know, people that family has a dealership and it's an it broadens in that what type of support or or how can others kind of get connected? Or do smaller dealerships or dealer groups get connected with the education path are telling more people in their community about it or, or bringing along maybe that maybe there are others that want to create internship paths or career paths? What's the connective tissue for industry that

Elgie Bright: 16:59

I'm always I'm always willing to talk. One, they ought to be tuning in to you guys all the time. A promotion, that northwood.edu/automotive is one way that they can get some of the information, we we certainly go to the NADA convention. So if anyone's out there. The other thing that we think we're doing for the industry is we've started a camp last year, through the generous support of General Motors, that takes that 1418 year old and exposes them to the industry. You know, many of those students, we wish that all of them would consider Northcliffe but some are going to want to be engineers, designers, technicians all have different career paths. And there's wonderful universities out there. But to see what happens no matter what you are in the retail industry, and especially those that are underserved. And that is in communities where maybe General Motors or any other manufacturer is pulled out of take a Flint, Michigan, Pontiac, Saginaw, Michigan, to say that, if your experience was like mine, where you've never been into a dealership, but Oh, wow, that's the put those cars back together in the body shop, they put those cars back to OEM specs in the service department. Yeah, they sponsor my little league baseball team. But you know, someone is in that office, you know, business manager controller with the numbers. And we want to expose young people to those great jobs that are in the specifically the retail industry. But like I said, some want to be, you know, designers engineers, go to the OEM. But we would do in our small part, you know, to try to expose people to this industry. But

Kyle Mountsier: 18:53

we'll link that up in the show notes for sure. Because I think that that's something that anybody can be sending their people to, or, you know, just encouraging those in their community were a part of because that's getting them like starting them young. Why not? Let's go right after that. Well, again, we really appreciate you coming on hanging out with us. You are a wealth of knowledge, and just a just a, one of the best smiles on the planet to hang out with. So we got to hang out with you a little bit today. And thanks for joining us.

Elgie Bright: 19:24

Thanks, Paul. Thanks, Kyle. I appreciate you guys. Appreciate everything you guys do.

Kyle Mountsier: 19:33

I really love the fact that his origin story was all around that he was just interacting with these people. And then he saw an opening. It was like me, me, me, me, me. I want that I want in on that and then has been there for as long as he has. It's a testament to like he has a passion and intention for this. He didn't just fall into watching and guiding these young people. into a career in automotive. That's, that's exciting for me because I love hearing the stories of people going, No, I'm pursuing pouring in to the next generation. And not just that a really fun generation, we've had the opportunity to be around a couple of these people at like NADA, and then we've had a couple calls with them. These people are fired up for on the hunt,

Paul J Daly: 20:23

man, they are hunt. You

Michael Cirillo: 20:25

know what, that's funny you say that, like, I remember coming in automotive being like the freshman class, and it was suits and pocket squares and all of these sorts of things. And now monogrammed shirt cuffs. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Which is still cool. By the way. Don't get me wrong. I love wearing a suit. I don't have them. You're talking about now, other generations coming into this business. And we've got people who dance at conferences now. Like, we've got Dewey ever? Yes, like when you say this is the most fun generation. But I also think it's kind of cool, that we are part of this industry that now has so many generations of people working in it.

Paul J Daly: 21:03

That's right. You know, I think from LDS position, you know, when you have a college professor in general, their kids or their students, they just blast out across the country in all different industries and probably very lucky if they see them or not, again, it's got to be fun to know your students are going into an industry where it's kind of such a close family and even like not to toot our own horn, but like, organizations like asoto who intentionally try to bring people that think the same way together. I mean, it's gotta be fun for him to watch the students just like land in their spot, engage in the community, like move on move up and he's got every every time you around him, he's like, Oh, that person's Northwood grid. That one's in North. Oh, I had this student there. It's just got to be so rewarding. Yeah,

Kyle Mountsier: 21:47

absolutely. If you have not connected with Northwood, make sure you hang up this podcast as soon as I'm done talking, check out the website, check out what they do and follow. Follow them on the socials. Because they got a lot of cool stuff going on. On behalf of Paul J. Daly, Michael Cirillo, and myself Kyle Mountsier. Thanks for joining us here on Auto Collabs we'll see you next time.

Unknown: 22:15

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