It’s great to see when a company drives forward in the face of the economic downturn. In fact, it is even better to see a company realize an increase in revenue while others are enduring decreases. In this case it is an automotive company that is “damning the torpedoes” and moving ahead. If not full speed, then they certainly are moving forward.
BMW’s Mini, or Mini USA, was one of two companies to increase its car sales over the past year. According to an article in Advertising Age, Mini USA enjoyed a 28% sales gain. The other gainer was Subaru. True, there have been some speed bumps in the first quarter of this year, but Mini is going forward with its new models, just the same. Mini will be launching, among others, a second generation convertible and the Mini 1, it’s smallest car. To date this model has been available only in Europe.
Considering that something like five advertising agencies all chipped in for the advertising and promotion, this is one time collaborative thinking from somewhat disparate sources seems to be proving quite effective. One has to respect the employees who were in touch enough with the marketplace to at first ramp up sales and to realize, that despite the economic slump, it’s a good time to bring on the new models.
This was can see is a mix of timing and talent. For timing you need a mix of luck and skill. For talent, you need the right people, those who can read the market and assist your company in evolving, even in a rocky economy. So whomever has been doing the hiring and putting the team together deserves to be credited as well. In this case, given the times, the human resources personnel for all the companies involved are conducting more than you basic background checks. I would think they are conduct professional reference checks, education verification, and possibly talent assessment and aptitude tests as well.
It does pay to check them out before you hire.
