Building a $6 Billion Car Sales Software Empire

How do you build a $6 billion software empire? Power the technology behind half of all car sales in North America and still be completely unknown outside of the car business. Today we find out because I'm speaking with Brian McDonald, CEO of CDK Global, the largest car sales SaaS provider in the United States and the biggest tech company you've probably never heard of. We discuss how CDK helps to sell over half of US auto sales over $500 billion a year, deciding when to buy, build or partner in new business verticals, the future of small dealerships and the crosshairs of consolidation, how Chinese car brands will enter the North American market and much more. Don't forget to click subscribe so you never miss an episode.

如何打造一个价值60亿美元的软件帝国？在北美汽车销售业务中提供技术支持，占据一半的市场份额，但在汽车业务以外的领域却完全无名。今天我们就要揭晓这个秘密，因为我将采访CDK Global的首席执行官布莱恩·麦克唐纳德(Brian McDonald)。CDK Global是美国最大的汽车销售SaaS提供商，也是你可能从未听说过的最大科技公司。我们将讨论CDK如何每年帮助销售超过5000亿美元的美国汽车销售额的一半，以及在新的业务领域决定何时购买、建立或合作伙伴关系，小型经销商的未来和整合的焦点问题，中国汽车品牌如何进入北美市场等等。别忘了点击订阅，这样你就不会错过任何一集。

What's up everyone, this is Car dealership guy, you're listening to the Car dealership Guy podcast which is my effort to give you access to the most unbiased and transparent insights into the car market. But before we get into the show, this episode is brought to you by Valvoline. You might know Valvoline is the original motor oil. After all, they've been at it since 1866. But to their dealership customers, there's so much more. When you partner with Valvoline, your dealership not only gets access to legendary Valvoline products but also to their customer business solutions, marketing resources, consumer promotions and other programs that go beyond the traditional supplier partnership. Valvoline can help you drive your service department by streamlining operations and increasing revenue with hands-on technician and sales advisor training, state-of-the-art service lane technology and a robust preventative maintenance chemical program. They even have programs to help you sell more cars and increase trade-ins. What other fixed ops vendor can say that? So what's all this mean for you? Fewer vendors, more value and a brand your customers know and trust. Valvoline's reinventing how supplier partners with the dealership. For more information about how Valvoline can become your ultimate fixed ops partner, visit partner.valvoline.com or click the link in the show notes below.

大家好，我是汽车经销商的人，您正在收听《汽车经销商之声》播客，这是我为您提供对汽车市场最公正和透明的见解所做出的努力。但在我们开始节目之前，本期节目由威霸万里提供赞助。你可能知道威霸万里是最早的机油品牌，毕竟他们自1866年以来一直如此。对于他们的经销商客户来说，威霸万里不仅提供传奇般的威霸万里产品，还提供他们的客户业务解决方案、市场资源、消费者促销活动和其他超越传统供应商伙伴关系的计划。威霸万里可以通过简化运营、增加营收的方式帮助您推动服务部门，提供技术人员和销售顾问的实践培训、先进的服务车道技术和强大的预防性维护化学产品计划。他们甚至还有一些计划帮助您销售更多汽车和增加二手车交易。还有哪个固定运营供应商能够像他们一样？那么这对您意味着什么？更少的供应商，更多的价值，以及您的客户熟知和信任的品牌。威霸万里正在重新定义供应商与经销商的合作关系。有关威霸万里如何成为您最佳的固定运营伙伴的更多信息，请访问partner.valvoline.com或点击下面节目说明中的链接。

Before we get into the show, I'd like to thank CDK Global for coming on as a guest and also sponsor in this episode. I grew up in East Coast Canada in small town. I always loved cars and there wasn't much to do in our town so when we were young we would literally sit around and try to guess you know what car was coming up the street and then we'd argue whether it was a 72 or 73 and so I just always you know like cars. I wouldn't say I'm a car collector or anything but I just kind of like cars and then when I graduated college I got my first job at the General Motors in Canada and that's kind of how I came into the car business.

在我们开始节目之前，我想要感谢CDK Global作为本集节目的嘉宾和赞助商。我在加拿大东海岸的一个小镇长大。我一直热爱汽车，而在我们镇上没有太多事可做，所以我们年轻时就会坐着聚在一起猜猜街上开来的是什么车，然后争论是72年的还是73年的。所以我一直都喜欢汽车。我不会说自己是一个收集汽车的人，但我只是喜欢汽车而已。后来我从大学毕业后在加拿大的通用汽车公司找到了第一份工作，从那时起我就进入了汽车行业。

What led you from there? I mean Sanoko, Herc Rentals, CDK, right? It's I think very admirable career and very impressive companies. What led you to that next step in Sanoko and then from there on? Yeah, I really well I really spent the first 13 years of my career at GM and I moved around the world with GM, five countries, one of them twice and then I went to Dell here in Austin and that's how I kind of got into the technology. You know I ended up going to Sanoko as the CFO because that was just a logical career step for me and then I became CEO so and then I ultimately from there came to you know went to Herc's went to CDK so I like to say that I've done autos and technology or make the juice that runs the car so that's kind of how I describe my time at the Sanoko. I wasn't in the car business but I was making the juice for the cars.

是什么引领您走到这一步呢？我指的是Sanoko、Herc Rentals、CDK，对吗？我认为这是一个非常令人钦佩的职业，并且这些公司也非常令人印象深刻。那么，是什么推动您在Sanoko迈出了下一个步骤，并且从那之后又是如何发展的呢？是的，我在通用汽车公司的前13年职业生涯中度过了很多时光，我在通用汽车公司周游世界，到过五个国家，其中一个国家我去过两次，然后我来到了戴尔公司，就是在奥斯汀。这就是我进入技术领域的方式。我成为Sanoko的首席财务官，因为那是对我的职业发展来说很自然的一步，然后我成为了CEO，然后最终我来到了Herc's公司，然后又去了CDK。所以我可以说我既做过汽车业务，也做过技术业务，或者说我制造的是汽车所需的能源，这就是我在Sanoko的时间的描述方式。我并不是从事汽车业务，而是为汽车制造了所需的能源。

So you've had this is your your second go around at CDK. Tell me about the first go around. Why did you make it to CDK to begin with? Why did you decide to you know jump on this opportunity? What was going through your head at that time? Yeah I think what what was really interesting about CDK for me when I came to CDK the first time was you know it was a spin-off of ADP and I had been involved in some other corporate spin-offs so for those of you who don't know what a spin-off is you you have a big company and then you take part of that company and then you totally separate it into its own company. So CDK was a spin-off of ADP which was a much larger company. I really like spin-offs because you get to take what you like from the big company but you get to leave behind what you don't like and so you can create a new culture around around what you like from the old company but what you want to do new and so I was really attracted to CDK because it was it was a spin-off number one and it was really a you know it was technology which I like and it was automotive which I like so it was kind of like marrying the two industries that I like the most.

所以这是你第二次加入CDK了。告诉我一下你第一次加入CDK的经历。为什么你首次决定加入CDK？你为什么决定抓住这个机会？当时你脑子里在想什么？对于我来说，当我第一次来到CDK时，我发现CDK非常有趣。它是ADP的一个子公司，而我之前参与过其他公司的分拆过程。对于那些不了解什么是分拆的人来说，就是把一个大公司的一部分独立出来，成为一个新的公司。CDK就是ADP的一个分拆公司，而ADP是一个更大的公司。我非常喜欢分拆，因为你可以保留你喜欢的大公司的优点，同时回避你不喜欢的部分，从而创造出新的文化。所以我对CDK很感兴趣，首先它是一个分拆公司，其次它是科技行业，我也喜欢汽车行业，所以它融合了我最喜欢的两个行业。

I'd have to imagine you know you come from rental company prior to that Sonoko suddenly being at the helm of technology what was that transition like for you? It doesn't seem to be like the traditional transition that I'd expect and so I'd love to understand like what just what goes through your head when you take over a technology company at this point in your career.

在开始担任科技公司领导之前，我得想象你知道自己来自租赁公司。对于你来说，这个过渡是怎样的呢？它似乎不像我所期望的传统过渡，所以我很想了解，当你在职业生涯的这个阶段接管一个科技公司时，你的头脑中会浮现什么样的想法。

Yeah I generally had a non-traditional career in terms of you know changing industries moving through multiple industries which is you know not really normative for a CEO or even most seat suite level people and so what I learned along the way and I think just part of who I am I'm just naturally curious ask a lot of questions listen a lot you know visit customers listen from them and then you know figure out the right places to go into the detail to understand like the you know the detail you can't go into all the detail but trying to figure out the right places and so really just a lot of listening and learning and you know look if you're if you're the CEO you're running the company I'm not writing code right I'm not I'm not writing code you know I'm helping the direct the strategy the company the operations of the company listening to the customers helping our people getting the right people in the right jobs you know if you're if you're a good listener and you get good people around you and you can make decisions you have to make decisions then you know you can you can move the ball down the field.

是的，就我来说，我的职业生涯通常是非传统的，因为我不断转行于多个行业之间，这对于一位CEO甚至大多数高层人员来说，并不是常规做法。在这一路上，我学到了很多东西，而且我觉得这也与我的个性有关。我天生好奇，会问很多问题，倾听很多意见，拜访客户，从他们那里听取经验，并决定去哪些地方深入了解。我不可能深入了解所有细节，但我会找到合适的地方去理解诸如与之相关的细节。所以，真的就是需要很多的倾听和学习。嗯，看，如果你是CEO，你是在经营公司，我并不是在写代码。我帮助指导公司的战略与运营，倾听顾客的意见，帮助我们的员工，把合适的人放在合适的位置上。如果你是一个善于倾听的人，并且能够围绕你找到优秀的人，并做出必要的决策，那么你就能够把工作一步步做好。

So before we talk about what you're working on today I want to understand you're now at CDK it's 2016 2017 what are the biggest challenges that you're grappling with right and and specifically what solutions are you working for at the time for the car business obviously you know we've gone through a lot of technological change here in the last four or five years especially after the consumer behavior changes and just everything that happened with through 2020 2021 but at that time what was the what was top of mind for you?

在我们讨论你现在的工作之前，我想了解一下你目前在CDK的情况。那时是2016年还是2017年，你现在面临的最大挑战是什么？具体来说，你当时为汽车业务工作的解决方案是什么？显然，在过去的四五年里，我们经历了很多技术变革，尤其是在消费者行为改变以及2020年至2021年期间发生的所有事情中。但那个时候，你最关注的是什么呢？

Yeah I mean at that time the company was a public company publicly traded with a number of activist investors you know who are who are pushing an agenda on the company sounds and there was a yeah it was a lot of fun and and so you know there was there was a lot of external pressure on the company around you know profitability and so there's there was a lot of work happening inside the company to change things inside the company and then from the business side it was really trying to the company historically had been pretty siloed so it's really I was very focused on how do we get the pieces of the company working better together I called it one CDK I used to say at that time that you know we needed to stop being C and D and K and we need to be one CDK and so it was really trying to get the company to work together try to get the products to work together better try to get our teams to work together better.

是的，我是说当时这家公司是一家上市公司，有一些激进投资者在推动公司的议程，听说他们对公司的声音很大。当时真的很有趣，因此公司面临了很多外部压力，包括盈利能力等方面，所以公司内部进行了很多工作来改变。从业务角度来看，公司过去很分散，我非常专注于怎样让公司各部分更好地协同工作。我把它称为“一个CDK”，当时我常说我们需要停止C和D和K的分离，我们需要成为一个CDK，所以我真的在努力让公司协同工作，让产品更好地协同工作，让我们的团队更好地协同工作。

Fast forward from there right why did you leave at the time and then what brought you back to CDK yeah so you know it's pretty widely reported that CDK tried to go private in 2018 I tried to take the company private in 2018 there were lots of leaks and the stock price ran up and the deal couldn't happen and so you know so after that it was hard to to reconnect with the with the board of directors and we decided to you know part ways.

然后快进到那个时候，你为什么当时离开了，又是什么让你回到CDK的呢？是的，你知道，在2018年的时候，CDK试图变为非公开公司。我们试图在2018年将公司私有化，但发生了很多泄露，股价飙升，交易无法达成。所以你知道，之后很难重新与董事会建立联系，我们决定分道扬镳。

Now let's fast forward to 2022 right so you come back to CDK what's on your mind like I want to know the nitty gritty like what is the first thing that you're thinking of you know that's I want to say keeping you up at night they're like this is the challenge I'm here to solve what is it what is that?

现在让我们快进到2022年，假设你再次回到CDK，你会有什么想法呢？我想知道具体细节，比如你最先考虑到的事情是什么，你知道那种让你夜不能寐的挑战，就像这是我在这里要解决的难题，是什么呢？

Well I mean the first you know CDK stock did not trade very well you know from from 2018 to 2021 22 most software stocks at the time went kind of like that and CDK stock you know went like that so so so so CDK was not well understood in the public markets at the time for lots of reasons but but you know I worked with Brookfield you know Brookfield being the owner right Brookfield is the owner large asset manager Canadian firm private equity and you know we we concluded that you know this company has a great product sticky great customer base that dealerships are not going away that EVs are coming but probably are going to come at a slower rate than people were thinking in 21 22 so that was turned out to be pretty prescient that EVs are not going to destroy the profitability of dealerships that dealer consolidation was going to continue to happen which is good for CDK because we service you know the larger enterprise class customers and fundamentally we thought that there was a you know good product good business and so you know we got the investors to stand behind us or eight point five billion dollars and we bought the company.

嗯，我的意思是，你知道的，在2018年到2021年22年期间，CDK股票的交易情况不太好。当时大部分软件股票的情况都是这样，而CDK股票的走势也是如此。所以，当时公开市场对CDK并不理解，原因有很多。但是，我和Brookfield合作过，Brookfield是CDK的所有者，是一家大型资产管理公司，加拿大的私募股权公司。我们得出结论，这家公司有出色的产品，具有稳固的客户基础，汽车经销商不会消失，电动汽车的出现可能比人们在21年和22年期间预期的要慢。这种判断事实证明是相当准确的，即电动汽车不会摧毁经销商的盈利能力，经销商整合将继续发生，这对于CDK来说是好事，因为我们为较大的企业级客户提供服务。从根本上讲，我们认为这是一个好产品、好生意。所以，我们让投资者支持我们，筹集了85亿美元，买下了这家公司。

You just said a couple of really important things here you mentioned that you know you believe that dealerships aren't going away that you know EVs maybe came on too strong. and a couple other things how did you come at these conclusions because it's clear that you know there's some really large sophisticated players in this industry OEMs or other vendors that you know are acting in ways that sort of go against what you just said and it's pretty mind boggling right given you know the data is pretty out there and it's clear but I want to understand from you like how did you arrive at those conclusions that you know you almost make it seem so obvious yet it seems like others are not seeing that what's the story behind us

你刚刚提到了几个非常重要的观点，你认为经销商不会消失，你认为电动汽车可能推广得过快，还有其他一些观点。你是如何得出这些结论的呢？因为显然这个行业有一些非常大型、复杂的参与者，如原始设备制造商或其他供应商，他们的行动似乎与你刚刚说的相悖。这非常令人费解，因为数据已经很明显了，但是我想了解你是如何得出这些结论的，你几乎让它看起来是如此明显，然而似乎其他人并没有看到这一点，背后是怎样的故事？

well I read a lot um you know I was in the energy industry so I read a lot about commodities I read a lot about the you know metal supply supply chain issues for the metals for EVs I mean I just I just read a lot of stuff I read people that have contrarian views and and you know it's I guess it's my gray hair you know I've been you know in and around this industry for a long time you know I just felt like you know EVs would come obviously but that you know you would you get the early adopters first like any new product like any anything any industry with a new product and that you know the cost cost was going to be high for EVs people were going to have range anxiety you know charging charging infrastructure is just not there and um and so I you know I just felt no look we did lots of research and you know we hired consultants and we looked at data and all those types of things but you know I'm a bit of a math guy when you start going through the math you know then it's like like this is going to be a really hard transition and when you look at you know when you look at any major energy transitions you know they that have happened you know when we went from coal to oil when we went from wood to coal you know those transitions take a long long time and and I just think that you know a lot of people got ginned up on you know EV transact EV transitioning happening like that you know and I think now we're seeing an EV transition that you know looking more like that

我读了很多书，嗯，你知道，我在能源行业工作，所以我读了很多关于商品的书，我也读了很多关于供应链问题的书，特别是电动车所需的金属。我读了很多与众不同观点的人的观点，可能是因为我白发苍苍吧，我在这个行业里已经很久了，我只是觉得电动车显然会出现，但你知道，像任何新产品、任何新兴行业一样，最开始只有一些早期采用者，而且电动车的成本很高，人们会担心续航里程，充电基础设施也不完善。所以我觉得，嘿，我们做了很多研究，雇了顾问，看了数据等等，但是我是一个比较注重数学的人，当你开始仔细思考，就会发现这个转变真的很难。当你看看以往的能源转型，比如从煤炭到石油，从木材到煤炭，这些转型都需要很长时间。我只是觉得很多人都对电动车的转型过于乐观，而现在我们看到的电动车转型似乎更符合这个情况。

why do you think dealerships aren't going away well first you know in North America we have pretty strong franchise loss that's number one a second of all you know having having worked at an OEM you know OEMs are not very good at running dealerships and you know occasionally an OEM will take over dealership a troubled dealership and I often joke that if if an OEM takes over a troubled dealership losing five million dollars you know it's it's not no one should be surprised a year later when that dealership's losing ten million dollars I mean OEMs are great at what they do but they're typically not very good at running dealerships so that's number one number two if you if you just look at the value of dealerships and again I did math around this to help my my my friends at Brookfield understand us if you said hey let's say the average dealership value is 20 20 20 say 20 million dollars 25 million dollars just pick a number and then if if if if a if an OEM wants to buy out 500 dealers like that's a lot of money right and then think about the inventory on the lot and you know the the amount of capital that would have to be deployed against the dealership so you know two main reasons I don't see OEMs I don't see dealers going away is one dealers are good at what they do the great entrepreneurs they figure out how to make money in changing times and conditions you know two OEMs are not very good as a general rule running dealerships and three the amount of capital that they would have to deploy to try to run their own dealerships is too large especially at a time when they have to make these you know mammoth investments in in new technologies for for EVs and hybrids

你为什么认为车行业不会消失呢？首先，你要知道在北美，我们有相当强大的经销商特许权制度，这是第一点。第二点是，我在一家原始设备制造商（OEM）工作过，了解到OEM并不擅长经营经销商。有时，OEM会接管一个陷入困境的经销商，而我经常开玩笑说，如果一个OEM接管了一个亏损500万美元的经销商，一年后这个经销商亏损1000万美元，没有人应该感到惊讶。我的意思是，OEM在自己擅长的领域非常出色，但通常在经营经销商方面并不擅长，这是第一点。第二点，如果你只看看经销商的价值，而且我也为此进行了一些计算，以帮助我在布鲁克菲尔德的朋友们理解，假设平均经销商的价值是2000万或2500万美元，你可以随便选个数字，然后如果OEM想要买下500家这样的经销商，那就是一笔巨款。再考虑到经销商大量的库存以及需要向经销商投入的巨额资金，那么我认为OEM能否运营自己的经销商的问题就小了。这是第二个原因。尤其是在他们不得不对新技术（例如电动汽车和混合动力汽车）进行巨额投资的同时，他们需要投入这么大的资金来经营自己的经销商，实在是太多了。

you know what I love asking you this question or what I love about asking you specifically this question is that and I ask this question a lot you know to other guests but everyone brings a different perspective based on their skill set and experiences and I feel like you sort of have this like first principles very practical financial perspective it's almost like not emotional it's like hey xyc this is the reality of the automotive industry in the US and I think it will it clearly makes sense given given what you do today which is actually the next question I wanted to ask you clearly your belief is that the dealership model is here to stay given that can you tell us so for anyone that's not too familiar with your brand and really what you're working on it can you just explain to us you know what services and technology you're offering dealerships today

你知道吗，我喜欢问你这个问题的原因，或者说我喜欢问你这个特定问题的原因是，我确实经常问其他嘉宾这个问题，但每个人都会基于他们的技能和经验提出不同的观点。而我觉得你在金融方面有一种基本原则，非常实用的视角，几乎没有情绪，就像是在告诉我：“嘿，XYZ，这是美国汽车行业的现实情况。”而且我认为，考虑到你目前的工作，显然你相信经销商模式会长久存在。鉴于此，你能告诉我们一下，对于那些不太熟悉你品牌的人以及你正在进行的工作的人，你今天向经销商提供什么样的服务和技术吗？

Yes, so our company, the way to think about our company in the simplest terms is we provide the mission critical software to run a car dealership.

是的，我们公司的最简单的形式是为汽车经销商提供关键任务软件来运营。

So, when you buy a car, you know we're the brains in the spine of the dealership.

所以，当你买车时，你知道我们是汽车经销商的智慧和支持。

If you think about our company, you know you have OEMs, you have dealers, and then you have retail customers and CDK is right in the middle of that. We're connecting all three of those parties.

如果你考虑一下我们公司，你会知道我们有原始设备制造商（OEMs），我们有经销商，然后还有零售客户。而CDK就位于这三者之间，连接这三方的关系。

And so when you go into buy a car, you know we are the system of record for roughly 55 percent of the cars sold in North America. So if you bought, you know, you can do the math if you bought three cars or four cars there's roughly an 80 or 90 percent chance that the car that you bought you went through the process using the CDK system.

所以当您购买一辆汽车时，您应该知道我们是北美约55%汽车销售的记录系统。所以如果您购买了三辆或四辆汽车，通过CDK系统进行交易的可能性大约为80%到90%。

The salesperson took you through.

销售人员引导您通过。

You know, we're the system of record for 53 percent of the repair orders in North America. So if you've taken your car to a dealership for repair, most likely the software that was used for the repair order, the parts, the bill, etc., the accounting of that happened on CDK systems.

你知道的，我们是北美地区53%修理订单记录系统。因此，如果你将你的车送到经销商进行维修，很可能维修单、零部件、账单等与之相关的软件都是在CDK系统上完成的记录。

That kind of blew me away.

那真的把我吓了一跳。

That's I never knew that.

这我从来不知道。

That's the type of marketer you have. I mean we're, I'll give you another car dealership guy a fun fact.

你们有这样一位营销人员，就是这种类型的。我是说，我们是类似的，我再给你们一个汽车经销商的趣闻。

You know, it's where our company CDK is a company that most people never even heard of, right? Unless you work in the dealership business. I mean, a lot of people at OEMs don't even know us, right?

你知道的，我们的公司CDK是一个大多数人甚至从未听说过的公司，对吧？除非你从事经销商业务。我的意思是，很多原始设备制造商的人甚至都不认识我们，对吧？

But we process through our systems 500 billion dollars of automotive commerce.

但我们通过我们的系统处理了价值5000亿美元的汽车商业交易。

500 billion dollars.

五千亿美元。 5000亿美元（500,000,000,000美元）是一个巨大的数量，它代表了非常庞大的财富。这个数字可以用来描述国家的经济规模、大公司的市值，也可以标志着一个巨额的财政支出。无论在哪个领域，这个数额都意味着巨大的金钱流动和潜在的经济影响力。想象一下，这些钱可以用于投资教育、医疗、基础设施建设，或者支持创新科技等等。总之，5000亿美元是一个庞大的数字，代表着巨大的财富和发展机会。

That's like two and a half percent of the gross domestic product of the United States.

这相当于美国国内生产总值的百分之二点五。

What, what is that all time, time? What, what time period is that?

这是什么时候，时候？那是什么时期呢？

That's in a year.

那是在一年之后。

Oh, that's in one, in one year?

哦，那是指一年内完成吗？

Oh, sorry. So you're saying each year you have added the gross merchandise value of all your dealerships combined. It's 500 billion dollars.

哦，抱歉。所以你的意思是每年你们将所有经销商的总销售额相加。总额为5000亿美元。

Yes, sir. And that's roughly two and a half percent of the GDP of the country.

是的，先生。那大致相当于该国国内生产总值的百分之二点五左右。

And so I always tell our employees, like, you know, we all know the auto industry matters, right? We know that's an industry that matters.

所以我总是告诉我们的员工，就像你们知道的那样，我们都知道汽车行业很重要，对吧？我们知道那是个重要的行业。

Well, our company matters to that industry.

嗯，我们公司对那个行业很重要。

And you pick any brand, any OEM, any brand, we are the number one market share in that, that brand's dealerships for software.

无论您选择哪个品牌、哪个原始设备制造商，无论您选择任何品牌，我们在该品牌经销商软件市场中的市场份额排名第一。

I mean, I guess we could say you have a little responsibility, not too much.

我是说，我想我们可以说你有一点点责任心，但也不算太多。

We have a huge, that's exactly it. We have a huge responsibility.

我们有一个巨大的责任，这正是它。

We have an obligation to the industry, right? Because we provide mission critical software for the business.

我们对这个行业有责任，对吧？因为我们为企业提供了至关重要的软件。

I think over the last decade in general, we've had a lot of attempts at, you know, disruption.

我认为在过去的十年里，总体而言，我们有很多尝试，你知道的，打破现有格局的努力。

Again, I like to think that technology has the, or the pace of adoption of technology for dealerships and really the demand by consumers for a better experience has risen in the last decade, no doubt about it.

再次，我喜欢认为在过去的十年中，科技对于汽车经销商的采用速度以及消费者对更好体验的需求都有了显著增长，这一点毫无疑问。

You know, people, everyone has a phone and all that stuff.

你知道，大家都有手机之类的东西。

How are you given your position? How are you staying on top of all the tech needs and what, you know, the dealerships? really need to continue improving that experience so that customers don't go, you know, a potential different source to acquire their car that maybe have a better customer experience? How are you doing that?

考虑到你的职位，你现在过得如何？对于所有技术需求，以及你知道经销商们真正需要的东西，你是如何保持领先的呢？确保顾客不会转而选择其他可能提供更好顾客体验的途径来购买汽车，你是如何做到的呢？

Yeah, so, so our company, we just, we just rolled out a, a new software, a new class classification software called the dealership experience platform. And so this is a software platform that will allow dealership to run its core business. And so one of the challenges that many dealerships have is they have, you know, 14, 15 different vendors with different softwares they're using. And so people are logging into one system, doing something, re-keep punching data somewhere else, you know, jumping to another screen. And what we're trying to do is help dealers simplify their environment so their employees and their customers can have a more seamless experience.

嗯，所以，我们公司刚刚推出了一款新软件，一款叫做"经销商体验平台"的新分类软件。这是一个软件平台，可以让经销商运行其核心业务。很多经销商面临的一个挑战是，他们使用了14、15个不同的供应商的不同软件。人们要登录一个系统，做一些事情，再在其他地方输入数据，然后跳到另一个屏幕。我们试图做的是帮助经销商简化他们的环境，使他们的员工和客户能够享受更流畅的体验。

And so we, we're super excited about, you know, our dealership express platform, experience platform, which we rolled out a few months ago. So we. you know that's how we are you know we're here to help dealers sell and service cars at the end of the day that's our mission how do we help dealers sell and service more cars and so we stay on top we visit dealers all the time we have groups of dealers for focus groups and we really try to try to stay connected with our customers what are the biggest challenges for dealers or where's your you know kind of a one day of your focus when it comes to solving dealers problems

所以我们非常激动地推出了我们的经销商快速体验平台，这是我们几个月前推出的。所以，你知道的，我们就是这样，我们在这里就是为了帮助经销商销售和维修汽车，这就是我们的使命，我们如何帮助经销商销售和维修更多的汽车，所以我们时刻保持领先地位，我们经常拜访经销商，我们也有经销商小组进行焦点群体讨论，我们真正努力保持与我们的客户联系，在解决经销商问题时，他们面临的最大挑战是什么，你们关注的是什么问题的解决。

Yes so it's you know we obviously went through a period of great profitability and now we're you know we're coming out of that right we're kind of coming back to normal or we're you know probably reasonably at normal today in terms of inventory levels incentives are backed up all all other things so so now dealers have to get you know what I call back to the basics employee efficiency customer experience you know you have to learn to sell cars again because in 2021 and 22 you just kind of were there right and the customers had to come in here's the car you like it you don't like it you don't like the price too bad now it's like hey well we actually have to we have to sell cars and so you know there's some some of the same old problems are there employee turnover always an issue you know getting the right employees so you can have the you can have the right experience for your guests driving efficiency and giving your giving your retail consumers a good experience.

是的，你知道的，我们显然经历了一个极度盈利的时期，现在我们正在走出来，回到正常状态，库存水平和激励措施都重新开始，现在销售商必须回归到基本的员工效率和客户体验，你知道的，你必须重新学会销售汽车，因为在2021年和2022年，你只是在那里，客户不得不进来看车，你喜欢就买，不喜欢就算了，现在是时候要卖车了，所以一些老问题还在，员工流失一直是一个问题，要招聘合适的员工才能给客人提供良好的体验，提高效率，给零售消费者一个好的体验。

So it's we're kind of back to the you know what I would call the traditional set of experiences and issues and then you also have this you know movement to as you said customers want a differentiated experience they want to you know do more online they don't necessarily want to do everything online but they want to do more online you know so how do how do dealerships bridge that right and I always I always like to say you know to people like if you think about our customers and their customers you know if you're selling a Mitsubishi in Alabama it's a little bit different you know process then selling a Mercedes in Manhattan right the products different the customers are different and and so you can't you can't just have the same cookie cutter experience right because it's very different culturally products different customers different so how do you bolt to that how do you bolt to that so you know we have we have our our software generally will have a consistent process but then we have we allow configuration right so how do you how do you do how do you let the dealers have some control over the configuration of how they want to do certain things differently based upon the market they're in the brand they're in or their philosophy and one of the things that makes dealers very successful is you know they have their own business philosophy in their local community and they you know may do things a little bit different then the dealer you know 10 miles down the road with the same brand and so you've got a you've got to work with them to have that as some of that flexibility

所以，我们有点回到了传统的经验和问题，然后您还有这个知道的动态，就像您所说的，客户希望有一个不同的体验，他们希望能够更多地在线上进行，但并不一定是全部在线上，您知道的。那么经销商如何解决这个问题呢？我总是喜欢告诉人们，如果您考虑我们的客户及其客户，对于在阿拉巴马州销售三菱的人来说，这个过程可能与在曼哈顿销售梅赛德斯有些不同，产品不同，客户不同，所以您不能只提供同样的套路体验，因为在不同的文化和产品及客户差异下，情况会非常不同，那么如何解决这个问题呢？我们的软件通常会有一致的流程，但我们也允许配置，那么如何让经销商对他们想要以不同方式进行某些事情的配置拥有一定的控制权，这取决于他们所在的市场、品牌或者他们的理念。而经销商之所以非常成功的其中一个原因是，他们在本地社区拥有自己的经营理念，可能会与10英里外销售同一品牌的经销商有所不同，因此您必须与他们合作，以获得一定的灵活性。

I want to be devil's advocate for one second the way I view like you know just selling a car to the ocean it's hard enough to do one thing well or you know work with one competent system let alone with you know five six different competent systems so I guess my question is why do you think you can integrate all these products or you know sort of offer one integrated platform to dealerships and do you know three four five things well when it's hard enough to do one thing well what's your what's your thought on that yeah

我想像恶魔的代言人一样，只有一秒钟的时间，用我看待的方式来解释，就像你知道的把车卖给大海，要做好一件事已经很难了，或者说要与一个合理的系统合作已经够艰难了，更不用说有五六个不同的合理系统了。所以我想问一下，你为什么认为你可以将所有这些产品整合起来，或者说向经销商提供一个综合平台，并且在做好一件事已经很难的情况下，你能在三四五个方面做得好吗？请你谈一下你的想法。

so the way the way we think about our products and our our dealer needs is we look at we look at what dealer needs and then we think about should we buy it should we build it or should we partner okay so sometimes we we say we don't we we just want to be a partner with somebody and we'll either resell it or integrate it other times we'll build it ourselves and then sometimes we'll buy the capability so for example cdk bot roadster um as as a way to accelerate digital retailing you know the company could have built it but we bought roadster and then we've integrated that and then on the crm side um when I was at the company in 2018 we bought elie which was the leading crm and now we've we've done a great job you know integrating that into the platform so it's really about it's really about figuring out buy build a partner and then once you have it you've integrated

因此，我们对产品和经销商需求的思考方式是先考虑经销商的需求，然后再决定是购买、自主开发还是与合作伙伴合作。有时候，我们只是想与某人合作，并将产品再销售或集成到我们的产品中；有时候我们会自己开发产品；还有时候我们会购买某种能力。例如，CDK Bot Roadster作为加速数字零售的方法，公司本来可以自己开发，但我们选择了购买Roadster，并将其集成到了我们的产品中。在客户关系管理方面，2018年我在公司时，我们购买了领先的CRM公司Elie，现在我们已经成功将其整合到了平台中。所以，真正关键的是要确定是购买、自主开发还是与合作伙伴合作，一旦确定了，就要进行整合。

we've got lots of smart people um you know we spend about 150 million dollars a year on research and development which I always like to tell people that's more than the revenue of most of our competitors um and so you know we have we have the money and we have the talent to integrate these things and create a better experience for our dealers

我们有很多聪明的人，你们知道，我们每年在研发上花费大约1.5亿美元，我总是喜欢告诉人们这比我们大多数竞争对手的收入还要多。所以你知道，我们有资金和人才来整合这些东西，为我们的经销商创造更好的体验。

that's really refreshing I think here's my thought right like these are i've used roadster elie it's like for years and elie's especially I had you know way before digital retail was a thing so I think it's smart you're taking like I said if the very first principles approach to it hey what is the experience we want to offer and how can we get to that end state as best as possible whether we buy it or build it it's not initially where my head went but I think it's a very good strategy

我认为这真的很令人耳目一新，我想这是我的想法对吧，就像我用的是Roadster Elie很多年，尤其是在数字零售出现之前，所以我认为你们很聪明，采取了我所说的从最基本的原则出发，而非首先考虑我们是买还是建，我们要提供什么样的体验，以及如何尽可能地实现这个终极目标，这一开始并不是我的想法，但我认为这是一个非常好的策略。

so I guess building on top of that what do you typically look for an acquisition but just give us like general principles that are important to you yeah I mean first look we're a technology company so what's the time I might have I might have something to sell you after this one so I'm trying to get some things you know first the first does it fit our strategy second you know tech stack is really important to us is it is it has a modern tech stack what do we have to do to if it does if it's not that modern what we would have to do to do it um the talent you know what what talent is there how would they fit into our company the culture would they be a good cultural fit I mean if you if you look through the annals of time 80 percent of acquisitions do not achieve their desired results okay and why is that not because they got the wrong strategy it's because the cultures don't fit right it's the it's the people that when you put them together they don't work and so so you know we spend a lot of time thinking about the culture who are the key people how would they fit in our company you know where would where were they report to how does it fit in our org structure so those are those are really you know a lot of the soft side things that I think about having having been around a lot of acquisitions some that worked really really well and some that were you know complete bust and and so that you know that you can never underestimate the soft side obviously on the hard side you're looking at the market the market share the customers you know how do we have CDK customers that would be a natural place for them to buy that if we owned it like all of those what I call the hard technical things you know and there's a lots of great playbooks for that

所以我猜，基于这一点，你通常会寻找收购的内容，但只是给我们一些重要的一般原则即可。是的，我是说首先，我们是一家科技公司，所以也许我在这之后会有一些东西要卖给你们。首先，它是否符合我们的战略，第二，技术栈对我们来说非常重要，它是否具备现代技术栈，如果不是最新的，我们需要做些什么来更新它。人才方面，我们会考虑那里有什么样的人才，他们如何适应我们公司的文化，他们是否能很好地融入我们的企业文化。如果你审视历史，你会发现百分之八十的收购并未达到预期的结果，为什么呢？不是因为战略错误，而是因为文化不合适，人员的结合不协调。因此，我们花了很多时间思考文化问题，关注关键人员，他们如何适应我们的公司，他们会向谁汇报，这样收购如何融入我们的组织结构，这些都是我考虑的一些软性问题，因为我曾经参与过很多收购，有些非常成功，有些则是彻底失败了。显然不能低估软性因素的影响。此外，在硬性方面，你还需要考虑市场、市场份额、客户等，我们是否有CDK的客户，他们是否愿意从我们这里购买收购的产品，这些都是我所说的硬技术方面的考虑，而且有很多很好的指南供你参考。

But then what I do is also you know really think about the soft side of things because if you if you really need the people then they got to fit in your organization in your culture if you just want the tech and the people aren't that important then then maybe that's okay if they don't fit is there so are you looking for anything now is there any acquisitions on the radar that you can share with us or not specific companies but any trends that you're focused on yeah so you know we're always looking we're always you know talking to people again in the same buy build a partner model you know it's interesting that you know the the market peaked in 21 obviously and valuation's got really high I think there's still an adjustment happening in the market where sellers are still you know have the 21 2021 valuations in their head so their their expectations around value are still a little high and so and so they're you know they're not quite coming to market yet so so we're always we're always in the mix we're always in the mix talking to people and you know obviously I can't tell you any companies but we're always in the mix looking at things and talking to people and typically what we do is you know we we see a part of the business where you know we we think we'd like to buy and then we go talk to companies in that space and maybe we find a way to partner with them first see if it's a good fit learn more about the product then maybe we buy them later or you know we just decide the partner so we're always you know we're always in the mix talking to people and and thinking about you know what we might buy

但我也会考虑事物的软性因素，因为如果你真的需要这些人，他们必须适应你的组织和文化。如果你只需要技术，人并不重要，那也许没有关系。如果他们不适合的话，你现在在寻找什么呢？你有没有任何可以分享的并购计划，或者是任何你关注的趋势呢？嗯，我们一直在寻找，一直在与人们交流，使用同样的购买、建立和合作模式。有趣的是，市场在2021年达到了顶峰，估值一直很高。我认为市场仍在发生调整，卖家们仍然持有2021年的估值预期，所以他们对价值的期望仍然有点高。所以他们还没有完全进入市场。我们一直在处于联系的过程中，一直在与人们交流。显然我不能告诉你任何公司的名字，但我们一直在研究事物并与人们交流。通常我们会看到一个业务的一部分，我们会认为我们想要购买，然后我们去与该领域的公司交谈，也许我们会找到与他们合作的方式，首先看看是否合适，了解更多关于产品的信息，然后也许以后我们会收购他们，或者我们决定建立合作关系。所以我们一直在与人们交流，并思考我们可能会购买什么的问题。

When it comes to AI, are you implementing any of that into your software right now? Or I have this conversation a lot with many different types of guests and you know, everyone's sort of different perspective again based on their experiences. But I'm curious to know if you think that there's real potential here to change what it's like to buy or sell a car, or maybe it's a little bit overhyped. Like, where are you in that pendulum, you know? AI is like super hype right now, but look, it's a new technology and it's, you know, it is going to change things like all new technology, it will take time. But, you know, we've had some AI in our products for, you know, a number of years. Actually, it's been around, you know, AI's been around for a few years and we'll have more announcements as we put more AI into a number of our products.

在谈到人工智能时，你们目前是否将其纳入你们的软件中了呢？或许我和很多不同类型的客户有过类似的对话，而大家又依据各自的经验拥有不同的观点。但我很好奇是否你认为这里真的存在改变购买或销售汽车的巨大潜力，或者这只是有些夸大其词。你怎么看？人工智能当前非常受炒作，但实际上它是一种新技术，并且像所有新技术一样，它需要时间才能产生变革。然而，我们的产品中已经有了一些人工智能，实际上，人工智能已经存在几年了，并且随着我们在许多产品中加入更多人工智能，我们会有更多的公告。

And so I do think it'll drive, you know, efficiency in the dealerships and the process. I mean, if you think about, go back to when search came right, think about, think about when google started and then it just became so easy just like to google everything, right?

所以我认为它将推动经销商和流程的效率提升。我的意思是，想想当搜索引擎出现的时候，想想谷歌刚开始的时候，然后就变得如此简单，你可以通过谷歌搜索任何东西，对吧？

And then google, you know, the more searches you did, the better google got, right? And they got more data. And I think that's the advantage CDK has for AI. I mean, AI is not so much about the technology, it's about the data because the more data you have, then the machine learning can drive better results with that.

然后谷歌，你知道的，搜索次数越多，谷歌变得越好，对吧？而且他们获得了更多的数据。我认为这就是CDK对人工智能的优势所在。我的意思是，人工智能并不是关于技术，而是关于数据，因为你拥有的数据越多，机器学习就可以产生更好的结果。

And given that, yeah, given that we're, you know, 53 percent of the repair orders written in North America, we've got the data. 55 percent of the car sold in North America, we've got the data. So I think over time, you know, our AI will be really, really good compared to somebody that's got, you know, 300 dealerships, and an AI tool on that. Well, they don't have, they don't have the data set.

鉴于我们在北美市场上占据了53%的维修订单和55%的汽车销量，我们拥有了大量数据。所以我认为，随着时间的推移，我们的人工智能相比那些只有300家经销商且没有数据集支持的人来说，将会非常出色。

So that's kind of the key thing about AI, is what data you have access to and, you know, what are you doing with that data? That's why you see this, you know, you see all the big companies of tech, right? There's this huge war, you know, with all the giants on trying to make their AI the most prominent, you know, toolset, right? Because if you know, if you go back to search, the same thing, I'll go back to Google search, right? Google won the search wars, right? They got the most data, and then whatever, they have 80 percent market of the search, right? They won that war.

这就是关于AI的关键点，即你可以访问到哪些数据以及你如何利用这些数据。所以你会看到，你知道的，所有的科技巨头都在争夺制造他们的AI最优秀的工具集的战争中。因为如果你回顾搜索的历史，同样的情况也发生在谷歌搜索上。谷歌赢得了搜索战争，他们获得了最多的数据，然后占据了搜索市场的80%的份额。他们赢得了那场战争。

And you know, oddly enough, you know, I know that one relatively because I was at Dell, and we did a deal with Google to make Google the standard search on all Dell PCs, oh yeah, we missed that. So that's an important part, and you know, this was at a point in time when Dell had 50 percent market share. So yeah, you know, when was this, when was this, what yours probably 2006 or seven? So I was running M&A and partnerships for Dell, that's when Google was really taking off, and that's exactly what's happening now with AI. You have all the big companies, and they're trying to win that data war. I call it. land grab like it's really a who who can get the land grab so that you have the you have the dominant you know AI tool and therefore you get the most data it's quite fascinating to watch.

奇怪的是，我知道这件事，因为我曾在戴尔工作，并与谷歌达成交易，将谷歌作为所有戴尔个人电脑的标准搜索引擎，哦对，我们错过了这个。所以这是很重要的一部分，你知道，在那个时候，戴尔占有50%的市场份额。是的，你知道，那是什么时候呢，大概是2006年或者2007年吧？那时候我负责戴尔的并购和合作伙伴关系，那时候谷歌真的开始崭露头角了，现在的人工智能正在发生同样的情况。所有大公司都在争夺数据战争。我称之为土地争夺战，就像是谁能夺得最多土地，从而拥有最强大的人工智能工具，因此获得最多的数据，观察这一切真的很有趣。

Well, you definitely have a lot of data so maybe we'll get a licensing deal with one of these generative AI companies. I was smiling when you were chatting because you were talking about the importance of data and the first thing that comes to my head is like data is the new oil. Then I remember that you were in the oil industry, so I'm like you're the living manifestation of that as a new oil. It's great, like you literally went from oil to data, so it's epic.

嗯，你肯定拥有大量的数据，也许我们可以与其中一家生成式人工智能公司达成授权协议。当你在聊天时，我一直在微笑，因为你谈到了数据的重要性，我脑海中首先想到的就是数据就像新的石油一样。然后我想起你曾在石油行业工作，所以你就像是新型石油的真实体现。这太棒了，你实际上是从石油转向了数据，这太壮丽了。

Here's a question for you more general. I think about myself when I was, you know, coming up in industry. I had no idea what CDK was, I mean I barely even knew what a DMS was, right? Let's go back in the day. As you grow and you know in the dealer industry, right, of the ranks, you're obviously well way more acquainted with all the different systems.

这里有一个更加一般的问题给你。我在行业中刚起步的时候，对于CDK我一无所知，甚至对DMS也几乎一无所知，明白吗？让我们回到过去。随着你在经销商行业中成长，你显然对所有不同的系统都更加熟悉。

My question to you is at what point does a dealership typically adopt your type of software, right? Because if what you're offering, all this product development, is this for, you know, only big groups, middle groups, and really the ultimate question I want to get to here is like are the smaller groups sort of is there a future for them in this industry? So, I don't sort of fully loaded question but what's your answer that's there's a lot in that question but let me take it into part.

我对你的问题是，一般来说，经销商在什么时候会开始采用你们的软件呢？因为如果你所提供的是针对大集团、中小集团的产品开发，那么我真正想问的问题是，对于那些较小的集团，在这个行业中是否有未来？所以，这个问题有点复杂，但请你先回答一下其中的一部分。

So look, our software, you know, services dealers large and small. Now, I mean, we're we have enterprise class software. So if you have a small dealership in Iowa that sells 10 cars a month, you probably don't need our software or you may not want to pay for our software, right? You may want to go to one of our competitors, like I call them cheap and cheerful that are, you know, smaller for smaller dealers.

所以看，我们的软件，你知道的，为大大小小的经销商提供服务。现在，我的意思是，我们拥有企业级的软件。所以，如果你在爱荷华州经营一家每月销售10辆汽车的小经销商，可能就不需要我们的软件，或者你可能不想为我们的软件付费，对吧？你可能会选择我们的竞争对手之一，就像我称之为廉价而愉快的软件，适用于小型经销商。

But, you know, we cover dealers from, you know, one store, you know, all the way up to lithium, right? And so, and and we, we kind of approach they're all they're all important right and so I mean you know we as you go up in size, you know there's there's less competitors because they don't have the capabilities for large groups, right? So we have the best enterprise class grade, we have the largest dealers, the public's, you know, the large consolidators and and and and our you know capabilities, you know really fit what they have whereas you know the majority of our competitors cannot service them and so your question around is there a future for for you know one to five dealership groups, I mean I'm from Canada, I've lived in the US a long time, I mean these are rural countries, right? And so there's lots of small towns and smaller dealerships and so I I do think that you know the smaller groups will be around for a long time, be more I think you know smaller towns and more rural areas.

但是，你知道的，我们覆盖从一个商店到锂电的经销商，对吧？所以，我们处理他们的方式是一样重要的。随着规模的增长，竞争对手越来越少，因为他们没有处理大型团体的能力，对吧？所以我们拥有最好的企业级产品，我们有最大的经销商，公众知名度高，有大型整合商。而且我们的能力非常符合他们的需求，相比之下，我们的大多数竞争对手无法为他们提供服务。所以你关于未来是否有机会给一到五家经销商集团，我是从加拿大来的，我在美国已经住了很长时间，这些都是农村地区，对吧？所以有很多小镇和较小的经销商，我认为小型集团会存在很长时间，更多的是在较小的城镇和农村地区。

But you know if you have a family business and you have a couple dealerships and you're in you know rural Iowa, you're not that interesting to a consolidated right, uh, consolidators are looking to get the density, share people, you know, get some brand awareness in a market and so I do think that you know that these smaller dealer groups will be around for a long time. Now you know that those groups are shrinking, that you know the number of dealerships that are one to five rooftops, you know, that's shrinking because they're getting consolidated but I do think it's not going to zero for sure and I agree with you, I don't think it's going to zero either.

但你知道，如果你有一个家族企业，拥有几家经销商，并且位于爱荷华州的农村地区，你对整合公司来说并不那么有吸引力，整合公司正在寻求增加密度、吸引人们分享和提高市场品牌知名度。因此，我认为这些较小的经销商集团将会长期存在。现在这些集团正在缩小，一到五个代理店的数量也在减少，因为它们正在被整合，但我确信它不会降到零，我也同意你的观点，我认为它不会降到零。

I do think there's some embedded advantages for the bigger groups, just you know, operating leverage scale and and realistically I mean all the technology we have today, you know, having specialists manage that stuff, it costs money and just like when social media started and suddenly you needed someone to manage your social media, I just, you know, kind of came out of nowhere. So that's sort of been my take about on just industry in general when you think about but when you think about dealers big and small, are you seeing any like hesitancy on their buying power, like are you seeing I call it like the.

我确实认为对于大型集团来说有一些内嵌的优势，就像你知道的，操作杠杆规模和，现实而言，我指的是今天我们拥有的所有技术，你知道的，需要专家来管理这些东西，这需要花钱，就像当社交媒体开始出现时，突然之间你需要有人来管理你的社交媒体一样，我只是觉得，你知道的，有点突然。所以这就是我对整个行业的看法，但是当你考虑到大小不同的经销商时，你是否看到了他们购买能力方面的犹豫？我称之为...

SaaS fatigue? Is there anything with dealers that you're seeing that they're just like tapped out, like I don't, I can't use another tool whether actually I use it or even spend money on it, like I'm done, like I can't do this anymore, how what are you seeing on that side of the world? Yeah, no what I mean what I see and hear a lot is hey I've got you know 14 different software vendors, I'm not sure you know how I use them, do I need them, you know when I have a problem I don't know who to call and so I do see a trend of dealers wanting to simplify down their vendors some to one but you know maybe a few.

SaaS疲劳？你是否注意到，一些经销商感到厌倦，就像他们已经被榨取到极限了，他们无法再使用另一个工具，无论是实际使用还是花钱购买，就像我不行了，我再也不能这样做了，你在这方面看到了什么情况？是的，我看到和听到的情况是，嘿，我有14个不同的软件供应商，我不确定我该如何使用它们，我需要它们吗，当我遇到问题时，我不知道该打电话给谁，所以我确实看到经销商趋向于简化他们的供应商，减少到一个或几个。

And so there's always this balancing act right dealers, dealers like choice and dealers like to experiment right they're classic entrepreneurs so hey this new tool coming to the market well let me try it, let me try it see if it helps me alright and then oh maybe it doesn't help me I'll drop it.

所以，经销商们一直在寻找一个平衡，他们喜欢选择也喜欢尝试，因为他们是典型的企业家精神者，所以当新的工具出现在市场上时，让我试试看，试试看它是否对我有帮助，若是有帮助，那就好，但如果没有帮助，我会放弃它。

So but so there's always that pressure of like I want to have less vendors and less less complexity in my operations versus like hey there's a bright shiny object that maybe helps me sell more cars or get more gross or whatever and so I maybe I'll try that so I think that's always the balancing act but but that's why what when we brought the dealership experience platform to the market it's really meant to give a dealer you know a foundation of what you need to run your business with you know this base level of capabilities so you can you can you know knock out some other vendors knock out some some competitive products that you're playing that are duplicative to what you get in the in the CDK dealership experience platform and and what are you seeing like when dealers are using that is it like you know what's the core value ultimately that people are telling you like anecdotally or I mean clearly you have the data but is it ultimately that I don't have to switch from 50 different systems or like what is that you know that that main thing that you're seeing yeah it's it's you know some basics I don't your employees don't have to log into a couple different systems they don't have to re-keep punch data data consistency because that's the other thing when you start having data going from this system to that system then all of a sudden like oh the prices are different the taxes are different the fees are different whatever right and now you're like okay now somebody has to reconcile that or you get a visit you know from from the accounting office you know after month then about something that that doesn't reconcile right so I think it's how do you get that consistency and ease of use and consistency of the data flow so before we wrap up I want to ask you some speculative questions because I love speculating so this is always a fun part but you know again being in your position I had to imagine you have an interesting opinion on new OEMs or you know as we think about the next decade do you think that we're going to see some new potential players you know whether it be Chinese or you know Vietnamese or whoever but any major players you think are going to enter the US market like yeah I look I mean they're already here but the put the Chinese OEMs aside for a minute but they're you know the they're obviously you know Ben Fast is here Fisker's here you know I do think there's going to be a bit of a washout you know of some of the new entrants and you know it's just I was just having dinner with the dealer we were talking about some of the new entrants and like you know it's hard to know who's going to make it right who's gonna go back you know I again I try to look at things through the annals of time and so you know I think about in the 60s and 70s you know when the Japanese came and the Koreans came you know it was hard to figure out like like I'm old enough to remember when Hyundai came to Canada in the in the mid 80s and cars couldn't handle the cold right and they they came in the market they left they learned a lot and then they came back and obviously a roaring success so so it's hard to you know it's hard to know right who's going to who's going to really succeed and I but I do think we'll see a washout of a lot of the new entrants that we've seen you know in the SPAC bubble we saw a lot of we saw a lot of players you know and what I call the SPAC bubble you know get a lot of money and try to start up an EV company.

所以，但总是有那种压力，比如我想减少供应商和运营复杂度，而不是追求一个可能帮助我销售更多汽车或提高利润的闪亮新对象，所以我可能会尝试一下。我认为这总是一个平衡的行为，但这就是为什么当我们把经销商体验平台推向市场时，它真正旨在为经销商提供一个基础，以满足您运营业务所需的基本功能，这样您就可以淘汰一些供应商、并消除一些在CDK经销商体验平台中得到重复的竞争产品，关于使用它的经销商会看到什么，您看到的核心价值是什么，可能从您得到的数据来看，但主要是因为我不必切换50个不同的系统，或者有什么，您看到的是什么，这是您看到的主要事情，是吗？是的，基本上是这样的，您的员工不必登录几个不同的系统，也不必反复录入数据，因为当您开始从这个系统到那个系统传递数据时，一切都会变得混乱，价格不同，税费不同，费用不同，然后您就会感到不知所措，现在有人必须去调和，或者在一个月之后，您可能会接到会计办公室的来访，关于某些无法调和的事情，所以我认为关键是如何获得这种数据的一致性和易用性以及数据流的一致性。在我们结束之前，我想问你一些推测性的问题，因为我喜欢猜测，这部分总是很有趣，但你知道，作为你的职位上的人，我可以想象你对新的汽车制造商或者我们对未来十年的看法有趣。你认为我们会看到一些新的潜在玩家出现，无论是中国人还是越南人还是其他谁都可以，但你认为会有一些主要的玩家进入美国市场，是的，我是说，让我们先不谈中国的汽车制造商，他们已经在这里了，但目前也有一些，毕竟他们，这样，我认为会有一些新进入者经营状况不佳，就像我刚刚和一家经销商共进晚餐时讨论的一样，我们正在谈论一些新进入者，你知道很难说谁会成功，谁会失败，我再想一下在那个时代，60年代和70年代，日本人和韩国人蜂拥而至，很难想象，我够老了，还记得80年代中期，现代来到加拿大，车子不能抵御寒冷，他们进入市场，然后离开，吸取了很多经验，再回来就取得了巨大成功。因此很难说，谁会真正成功，但我确实认为我们将看到许多新进入者的淘汰，我们看到了很多在SPAC泡沫中，我们看到了许多人尝试筹集资金开办电动汽车公司。

Some of them are not going to make it, you know. Lordstown's gone bankrupt already, but other ones have deep pockets. You know, good backers. I think the Chinese will come eventually. I think when the Chinese come, they'll use the dealership model, they won't go direct.

他们当中有些人是办不成的，你知道的。洛德斯镇已经破产了，但其他一些有钱的人还在。你知道，有好的支持者。我觉得中国人最终会来的。我觉得当中国人来的时候，他们会采用经销商模式，而不是直销。

I think it's really fascinating that, you know, Fisker's now, you know, said they're going to use a distribution model, and dealers have been fast. The same Toyota came, you know, Nissan came, that's in you know, when they came they used the dealership model, right? And they've been very successful over 30-40 years.

我觉得非常有趣的是，你知道，菲斯克如今说他们要采用分销模式，而经销商们反应迅速。同样的，丰田和日产也是这样，他们进来的时候也采用了经销商模式，对吧？而且他们在过去的30到40年里非常成功。

I think we'll see a move to the dealership model, and then I think, well, you know what I'm watching is I'm watching the Chinese players more in Europe. And we don't have a European business, but I'm sort of following because they're going into Europe first. And then I think they'll come to the US after that. But I think when they come to the US, they'll use the dealership model, which again is that this is the great thing about dealers and what, you know, we didn't really get there, but you know, this is why dealer consolidation makes sense.

我认为我们会看到汽车经销商模式的发展，然后我认为，你知道我在关注的是中国企业在欧洲的动向。虽然我们没有欧洲业务，但我还是在关注，因为他们首先进入欧洲市场。然后我认为他们会在那之后进入美国市场。但我认为当他们进入美国市场时，他们会采用经销商模式，这也是经销商的巨大优势，我们没有真正做到这一点，但你知道，这就是为什么经销商整合是有意义的原因。

Because if you have 12 brands and one brand is really underperforming or something, you know, happens with that brand, if you think about, you know, VW, what happened with VW a few years ago, right? If you're like a single point VW store, you know that's tough. It was tough, and VW, you know, stood behind and helped their dealers. But if you have a breadth of, you know, the first risk the first year, you're you you've got a, you know, a balanced portfolio and based upon what's happening in anyone brand. Well said.

因为如果你有12个品牌，其中一个品牌表现很差或出现了一些问题，你知道，就像几年前大众汽车发生的事情一样，对吧？如果你是一个大众汽车专卖店，你就知道那是很困难的。那确实很艰难，而且大众汽车支持并帮助他们的经销商。但是如果你拥有多个品牌，你就有了一个平衡的投资组合，并且能根据任何一个品牌的情况进行调整。说得很好。

I think the same thing could be said for EVs, and I know some dealers that, you know, and I like to split EVs when I, like, to, you know, say Tesla and everyone else, because I just think that it's a tale of two worlds there. I see it the same way. It's, I think Tesla has their model and their distribution model, you know, I always tell people Tesla has dealerships too, they're just called Tesla dealerships. And no, I see the world the same way. I think you have Tesla and kind of everyone else. Absolutely.

在我的看法中，电动汽车也可说同样的事情，我知道一些销售商，你懂的，我喜欢区分电动汽车，比如特斯拉和其他的，因为我认为这是两个不同的世界。我以同样的方式看待它。我认为特斯拉有他们的模式和分销模式，你知道的，我常告诉人们特斯拉也有经销商，只是被称之为特斯拉经销商。我认为世界上有特斯拉和其他所有的。绝对是这样。

I'm sure you have grand plans for an ADA conference in Las Vegas, and you know, just coming up now, can you walk us through a little bit of your plans? I mean, I'd love to meet up there, meet you as well. Yeah, no, it's a great time, you know. I really like we get to see a lot of customers, current customers, perspective customers, partners. It's, you know, there's a lot of, always a lot of energy. I tend to come in a couple days before the show and, and do some meetings with partners, spend a lot of time with our employees that are, you know, going to be at the booth, meeting with dealers. Our whole leadership team comes, and, you know, we just have back-to-back customer meetings and then dinners. And then we have a, we have a nice party that we invite our customers to, and, and so it's, it's a super busy time, super exciting, lots of energy. I think last year was great. I mean, last year sort of after COVID people were happy to be back and get things back to normal. And I think this show will be even better than last year. Vegas tends to draw a little more crowd. Last year with the nagas. I remember you will get more people to come there for sure. I know, I know, yeah. I'm, I remember, yeah, Dallas is definitely different.

我相信你对于在拉斯维加斯举办ADA会议一定有着宏伟的计划，现在你可以稍微为我们解释一下你的计划吗？我想和你在那里见面。是的，这是一个很棒的时机。我真的很喜欢能够见到很多客户，现有客户、潜在客户和合作伙伴。你知道的，总是充满着很多活力。我通常会在展会前几天过去，和合作伙伴进行一些会议，并与我们在展位的员工花很多时间，与经销商进行会谈。我们整个领导团队都会来，我们会安排一系列的顾客会议和晚宴。然后我们会举办一个很棒的派对邀请我们的顾客参加，所以这是一个非常忙碌、非常令人兴奋、充满了很多能量的时刻。我认为去年非常棒。毕竟，去年COVID疫情之后，人们都很高兴能够回归正常。我认为今年的展会会比去年更好。拉斯维加斯通常会吸引更多的人群。我记得你一定会吸引更多的人来参加。我知道，我知道，是的。我记得，达拉斯肯定是有所不同的。

Well, I'm looking forward to meeting Brian. This has been super fun. Thanks for coming on. If anyone wants to get in touch with you or wants to learn more about CDK Global and your dealership experience platform, where can they go? Uh, they go to CDK.com. The hell of a domain. Or they can send me an email at BPM at CDK.com. We'll make sure somebody reaches out to them or I'll reach out to them myself. Love it. And we'll, uh, we'll also put the link in the show notes below, so we'll get a link top. So Brian, thanks so much for coming on. This has been really fun. All right, thank you. All right, hope you enjoyed that episode. Please give the podcast a rating, consider subscribing to the show, and check the show notes for links to what we talked about. Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you guys next time.

好的，我很期待见到布赖恩。这真的太有趣了。谢谢你的参与。如果有人想与你取得联系或想了解更多关于CDK Global和你的经销商体验平台的信息，他们可以去哪里？嗯，他们可以去CDK.com。这是一个良好的域名。或者他们可以给我发邮件，邮箱是BPM at CDK.com。我们会确保有人联系他们，或者我会亲自联系他们。很棒。我们还会在下方的节目说明中放置链接，所以我们会提供一个链接。布赖恩，非常感谢你的参与，这真的很有趣。好的，谢谢。好的，希望你喜欢这一集。请给这个播客评分，考虑订阅节目，查看节目说明中我们讨论的链接。感谢你的收听，下次再见。