Ayuda
Sullivan Ford Auto World
CHRISTOPHER LOVELOCK
A oung health care manager unexpectedly finds herself running a family-owned car dealership that is in trouble. She is very concerned about the poor per-formance of the service department and wonders whether a turnaround is possible.
Viewed from Wilson Avenue, the dealership pre-sented a festive sight. Strings of triangular pennants in red, white, and blue fluttered gaily in the late af-ternoon breeze. Rows of new-model cars gleamed and winked in the sunlight. Geraniums graced the flowerbeds outside the showroom entrance. A huge rotating sign at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Route 78 sported the Ford logo and identified the busilaess as Sullivan Ford Auto World. Banners below urged "Let's Make a Deal!"
Inside the handsome, high-ceilinged showroom, three of the new-model Fords were on display: a dark-green Explorer SUV, a red Mustang convert-ible, and a white Taurus sedan. Each vehicle was pol-ished to a high sheen. Two groups of customers were chatting with salespeople, and a middle-aged man sat in the driver's seat of the Mustang, studying the controls.
Upstairs in the comfortably furnished general manager's office, Carol Sullivan-Diaz finished run-ning another spreadsheet analysis on her laptop. She felt tired and depressed. Her father, Walter Sullivan, had died four weeks earlier at age 56 of a sudden heart attack. As executor of his estate, the bank had asked her to temporarily assume the posi-tion of general manager of the dealership. The only visible changes she had made to her father's office were installing a fax machine and laser printer, but she had been very busy analyzing the current posi-tion of the business.
Sullivan-Diaz did not like the look of the num-bers on the printout. Auto World's financial situation had been deteriorating for 18 months, and it had been running in the red for the first half of the cur-rent year. Despite low interest rates, new-car sales had declined, reflecting a turndown in the
CHRISTOPHER LOVELOCK
A oung health care manager unexpectedly finds herself running a family-owned car dealership that is in trouble. She is very concerned about the poor per-formance of the service department and wonders whether a turnaround is possible.
Viewed from Wilson Avenue, the dealership pre-sented a festive sight. Strings of triangular pennants in red, white, and blue fluttered gaily in the late af-ternoon breeze. Rows of new-model cars gleamed and winked in the sunlight. Geraniums graced the flowerbeds outside the showroom entrance. A huge rotating sign at the corner of Wilson Avenue and Route 78 sported the Ford logo and identified the busilaess as Sullivan Ford Auto World. Banners below urged "Let's Make a Deal!"
Inside the handsome, high-ceilinged showroom, three of the new-model Fords were on display: a dark-green Explorer SUV, a red Mustang convert-ible, and a white Taurus sedan. Each vehicle was pol-ished to a high sheen. Two groups of customers were chatting with salespeople, and a middle-aged man sat in the driver's seat of the Mustang, studying the controls.
Upstairs in the comfortably furnished general manager's office, Carol Sullivan-Diaz finished run-ning another spreadsheet analysis on her laptop. She felt tired and depressed. Her father, Walter Sullivan, had died four weeks earlier at age 56 of a sudden heart attack. As executor of his estate, the bank had asked her to temporarily assume the posi-tion of general manager of the dealership. The only visible changes she had made to her father's office were installing a fax machine and laser printer, but she had been very busy analyzing the current posi-tion of the business.
Sullivan-Diaz did not like the look of the num-bers on the printout. Auto World's financial situation had been deteriorating for 18 months, and it had been running in the red for the first half of the cur-rent year. Despite low interest rates, new-car sales had declined, reflecting a turndown in the