Solicit ideas
If you want to create a new plan every year, you have to start with getting plenty of new ideas. At AutoTrader.com, the ideas from Perry’s 2,000 employees don’t go into a suggestion box and die. They’re parked in what Perry calls the “innovation garage” as they wait to be reviewed.
Encouraging employees to submit ideas is one way that he gathers possibilities for his strategic plan.
“One of the hallmarks of successful companies is being open-minded and receptive to ideas for improvement from the employees, who are closer to the work than the executives are,” Perry says. “It’s kind of built into your DNA. Either you are or you aren’t receptive. You have to be curious and receptive and then be willing to work with it. Then you need to set up a pattern and a tempo of consistency on this topic. If you do it once, and it goes away — a flash in the pan idea — it becomes not effective. If you do it every year, you’ve been doing it for 10 years, people come to expect it, and it becomes part of the culture.”
The main way he does this is through a comprehensive annual survey of the employees. The survey addresses culture-related questions about their jobs and how they feel about the company, but they also have an opportunity to provide input.
“If you were the CEO of AutoTrader.com, what would you do to make the company stronger?” Perry says. “We ask that question every year.”
He typically gets about two 3-inch binders full of ideas — single-spaced and using both sides of the paper. But when those ideas come in, he also communicates back to them a clear message.
“We also provide employees with a response,” he says. “This is what you told us, this is what we heard, and this is what we’re going to do with your input. Every year, we tell them, ‘This is what you told us last year and this is what we’ve done about it.’ Then we ask on the survey, ‘Do you think we did a good job of acting on the things that you told us last year or not?’ People can become very cynical about surveys if you don’t take them seriously.”
In addition to listening to employees, Perry also goes to clients and consumers for input. Three to four times a year, he has dealer advisory meetings where he takes dealers off-site and shares with them where AutoTrader.com is at and what plans the company has for improving services. He asks what they think and listens to their feedback.
He does the same thing with consumers. They come into a lab they have in the building and use both AutoTrader.com and competing sites and they ask consumers what they like about each and what they don’t like about each. They also ask what unmet needs they have in the car-buying process.
