Entrepreneur at heart
While Jackson’s changes at AutoNation were necessary to grow the business, as a former car dealer, he understood the power of the entrepreneurial spirit.
“Having grown up in retail, but also having worked in a large corporate environment where you get a broader view, you understand how big corporations work,” he says. “You understand the power of process, the power of strategy. Without that background, I think it would have been very difficult.”
That background has made it easier for Jackson to oversee AutoNation’s operations, which are spread across 18 states. The company’s largest presences are in California, Texas and Florida, and Jackson says there are no immediate plans to enter the remaining 32 states with physical locations. AutoNation does, however, do business in all 50 states through its Web initiative, a strategy Jackson has supported since the beginning.
“We always believed the Internet was going to change the balance of power between the consumer and business,” he says. “You were going to have an educated, informed and empowered consumer, compared to what was possible in the marketplace five, 10 or even 15 years ago. We saw this as an opportunity.”
Jackson says that’s because informed consumers make it easier for AutoNation to facilitate a quicker, more convenient transaction time. And, with that in mind, Jackson tasked his team with finding ways to embrace the Net.
“We have been able to dramatically reduce our transaction times over the last five years through the arrival of e-commerce,” Jackson says. “By having embraced it and not resisting it, by designing all our processes to take into consideration that you have an e-empowered consumer, that has been a big advantage for our customers.”
Jackson cites studies that show 80 percent of his company’s customers spend time researching cars, prices and loans before they ever contact an AutoNation salesperson or begin an online transaction. The company’s processes are designed to be customer-friendly, he says, in an effort to meet or exceed customer expectations.
“It’s been a big win for us,” he says.
AutoNation’s Web component may have exploded over the past few years, but Jackson says growth through acquisition is expected to continue at a much slower and consistent pace.
“The segment has only consolidated 6 percent by publicly traded groups, meaning it’s still 94 percent independently entrepreneurial,” he says. “It will be a very gradual consolidation. If, in the next five years, that begins to knock on 10 percent, that’s about as fast as I can see it grow.”
