AMN Drivetime

In this latest episode of AMN Drivetime, Babcox CEO Bill Babcox sits down Dr. Thomas Litzinger, who was named executive director of the University of the Aftermarket at Northwood University in October of 2022.

An accomplished aftermarket executive with more than 30 years of experience, Dr. Litzinger also is a proud Northwood grad. He earned his bachelor of science degree in business administration there, and his master of science degree in organizational leadership from the DeVos Graduate School of Management. He also participated in Leadership 2.0, an executive training program through the University of Aftermarket.

Prior to this appointment, Litzinger served as a fleet relationship manager for Belle Tire Distributors Inc., as well as an automotive and heavy-duty aftermarket adjunct professor for the Adult Degree Program at Northwood University. Previously, he served as senior director of business development for MAS Industries; senior vice president of sales and operations at Advanced Innovative Technologies/Trakmotive; and executive director of Motown Automotive Distributing Inc. After he received his master’s degree, he went on to earn his doctorate in education from Liberty University.

Needless to say, Dr. Litzinger is the on the right seat on the bus, so to speak. Both his educational background and professional experience make this new role a great fit, one that he’s excited about, he says.

“I spent the majority of my career on the distribution side. I was fortunate to spend a few years on the manufacturing side, and then the last five with a tire distribution company. So I've been very fortunate to have a very broad based experience in the aftermarket, which I think contributes to my ability to lead the University of the Aftermarket and to interact with our students. Nothing provides better experience than life. …I'm teaching based on personal experience, and this is real life aftermarket.”

During the podcast, Thomas and Bill also talk about:
04:38 – Growing up in Michigan and his very first job
06:00 – Why Litzinger calls himself a “lifetime learner”
08:42 – His hopes and goals for UofA
11:17 – What makes UofA a unique value proposition for Northwood students?
16:27 – Lastly, the ever-popular Lightning Round!

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

In this latest episode of AMN Drivetime, Babcox CEO Bill Babcox sits down Rick Maxwell, president and owner of Cleveland-based United Motor Products.

Rick Maxwell is what some in this industry call a “lifer.” He’s been involved in the industry since he was about eight years old, working along his father, who began as an aftermarket salesman in 1965 for the originator of B’laster.

“He worked for a couple other companies in sales, and that's how I got into it,” Maxwell said. “I was on the road with him staying in hotels, doing changeovers. … It was fun. … after that he decided, ‘Hey, since I'm a sales guy, I want to own a parts store.’ So that's what he did. He opened a couple parts stores, so I got into working in a parts store.”

Maxwell described his dad as a “serial entrepreneur” who was always thinking about the next thing, which is how they went from sales to parts store owners to making spark plugs. “I was making spark plug wires by hand, you know, with a vise and putting the terminals on. And we would take the orders in the morning from the customers, I'd build the sets, we'd deliver 'em next day out of our car. So, it was fun. It was working at home and again, hanging out with the family. It was good,” Maxwell said.

After about two years they moved into a small facility and developed a consolidated spark plug wire line, and according to Rick, this is when things took off. “We've kind of just kept moving and morphing into the next thing. So we did that for a while, and then we moved into a little bigger facility, about 10,000 square feet, and we were there for about 10 years and grew the business, and then we moved into where we're at today.”

Today the company has a roughly 20,000-square-foot facility in Cleveland, Ohio, and another 10,000-square-foot facility in Bradenton, Florida, offering an extensive range of engine-centric products.

During the podcast, Rick and Bill also talk about:
0:53 Growing up in the family business
03:26 The origins of United Motor Products
04:41 What running a family business means to Rick
06:11 A look at UMP’s full product offering
07:11 The scoop on Rick’s other roles as partner in Engine Technologies and United Manufacturing Services
07:33 How these three businesses work together
09:14 Changes in the marketplace today
11:43 The importance of staying nimble and agile
13:32 Rick’s take on the EV market
16:03 What’s next for UMP?
18:54 The ever-popular Lightning Round!

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

Dave Caracci is a guy who can wield a wrench as deftly as he can a sales pitch.

In this latest episode of AMN Drivetime, Babcox CEO Bill Babcox sits down with Dave Caracci, longtime aftermarket veteran who currently serves as executive director of the Automotive Sales Council. While he racked up a stellar career as an aftermarket sales professional, Caracci has many skills he has cultivated over his long and successful career. Dave is a guy that can wield a wrench as deftly as he can a sales call.

From a young age, Caracci had his eyes on the end goal. He said he decided in the seventh grade that he was going to become a sports car racer. And so he did. Caracci began is journey in the industry studying to be a diesel mechanic at a trade school. From there, he began building race engines and became fully immersed in the racing world. Eventually, his career in racing led to a job in sales and the rest is a very colorful and exciting history that you don’t want to miss.

During the podcast, Bill and Dave talk about:
02:49 The transition from racing to sales
05:42 Getting a “Business Degree” at the School of Life
13:48: The secret sauce to success in the aftermarket
22:31 Why Dave says this is the money business, NOT the auto parts business
24:30 Dave’s devotion to volunteering in the aftermarket
28:48 Tales from the road – both racing and business
40:44 Dave’s other passion – sailing
43:45 The ever-popular Lightning Round

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

In mid-November, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA) made a major announcement about a new business structure to better position the organization and the vehicle supplier community for the future. The 118-year-old organization will now operate under one umbrella — MEMA — and will represent automotive and commercial vehicle suppliers with two groups: MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers Group and MEMA Original Equipment Suppliers Group. The association will formally kick off the new brand and organizational structure in January 2023, however in the meantime, Bill Long, president & CEO, Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association; Paul McCarthy, president MEMA Aftermarket Suppliers; Marc Blackman, president & CEO, Gold Eagle and Chairman, MEMA Board of Directors; sat down with Bill Babcox to share a few updates on the reorganization.

In this AMN Drivetime podcast, Babcox, Long, McCarthy and Blackman discuss the following: 0:55 Updates on the initial announcement and the significant benefits this realignment will offer MEMA members
02:52 - Who makes up membership in the two new divisions
05:15 – Primary areas of industry disruption the new MEMA will focus on
13:11 – Marc Blackman’s perspective as the leader of a supplier business
15:42 – How issues like Reshoring and Labor Reform impact the vehicle supplier industry
18:25 – How the aftermarket specifically will be strengthened by this realignment and how it offers a stronger voice on Right to Repair
23:43 – Keeping members informed and educated on the latest emerging technologies
26:13 – Expectations for supply chain challenges this coming year
33:01 – What are the MEMA Centers of Excellence

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

John Gamauf, president, Consumer Replacement Tires – Retired, Bridgestone-Firestone North America, is a 50-year veteran of the tire industry. Starting out with Firestone as a tire buster in the late 60s, he rose through the company’s ranks working in different sales positions for Bridgestone brands until he became president of consumer replacement tires for Bridgestone/Firestone North America consumer tire company in 2003. During his tenure with Bridgestone-Firestone, he was responsible for creating Bridgestone’s Affiliated Dealer Program and helped navigate the company through one of the largest tire recalls in history. Tire dealers know him as “Johnny g” and he is one of the most dynamic, influential and respected individuals in the tire industry.

In this latest episode of AMN Drivetime, Babcox CEO Bill Babcox sits down with Johnny g for a wide-ranging conversation that covers everything from navigating turbulent career moments to the one piece of advice he would give his younger self. For Gamauf, the greatest lesson he’s learned during his long and varied career is a personal one, he says.

“It’s my gut feeling that goes back to everything that’s all about business and it’s relationships. You know, it doesn’t matter about whether you’re having relationships at home with your wife and your marriage, with your kids, your family, or with your business associates. The core foundation of doing business is relationships,” he shared.

During the podcast, Bill and Johnny g also talk about:

01:44 Career highlights from his 50-year career with Bridgestone-Firestone

05:21 What tire shops were like in the 60s.

06:58 Some of the most fascinating “industry firsts” he witnessed during his career

10:13 The inside scoop on the Johnny g & Friends podcast

12:15 The people you meet in a 5-decade career in the tire business (ever heard of Mario Andretti?)

18:11 How Johnny played a role in the Super Bowl halftime show

25:55 The ever-popular Lightning Round!

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

At 17, Matt Buchholz got his first job turning wrenches and along the way discovered what he describes as “a passion for high levels of customer service.” In this drive to meet the needs of customers while building his career and developing his leadership skills, Buchholz shares that he sought out a lot of feedback. Through this feedback what Buchholz learned and cultivated has become the backbone of his leadership style.

“I think the opposite of humility is pride, and I think pride is really unproductive,” Buccholz said. “I learned that years ago. I’ve always had a passion for customers, but maybe my leadership methods needed improvement. And, I had the blessing of feedback. I always say feedback is a gift. Somebody gives you feedback, it might be difficult to hear … but there are a couple of points in my career where I was seeking feedback and receive feedback and the feedback was, ‘you know, that Matt, there’s room for improvement in your leadership. You’re highly competent in all these things, but there’s a little bit of room for improvement.’ So, I started down this journey of trying to become a leader that people wanted to work with.

“There’s lots of surveys out there, and I think typically the surveys say that approximately 70% of employees don’t like who they’re working for. I’d say that’s a crisis, right? It’s a leadership crisis. So, it’s a drive for customer service because I’m very focused on the customer, but in order to have great customer service externally, you have to treat your employees well internally. And it starts with – I think – humility, because when you have pride, you have bureaucracy, politics, mistrust. And so, the opposite of that is when you have high trust, it’s a very efficient business model, and people can transact and work much better to the end result, which is high levels of customer service. So, I think it starts internally and it starts with self.”

In this latest AMN Drivetime podcast, Bill and Matt dive into a number of other interesting topics, including:

2:41 Matt’s career path from changing oil at 17 to ASE certified technician to CEO of MotoRad

4:22 His passion for Servant Leadership

9:29 How MotoRad approaches the EV market

13:19 How MotoRad maintains and measures its company culture

15:58 Why Matt completed an Ironman during the pandemic

24:32 The keys to balancing a busy professional and family life

27:10 The ever-popular Lightning Round!

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

When asked if he was currently in his “Dream Job,” as VP and Chief R&D officer for Valvoline, Roger England’s response says it all about his infectious enthusiasm for all he does.

“Heck yeah. I have a great time. I enjoy going to work,” England shares with Bill Babcox in the most recent AMN Drivetime podcast. “I hired into Cummings Technical Center after high school as a janitor. No one in my family really went to college. My high school advisors told me that I wasn’t smart enough to go to college, that I needed to get my butt to trade school. And at the time, that was a union position to be a janitor there and paid pretty good money. My dad ran a garage, so I’d kind of grown up working in the garage and there were a lot of guys who were engineers at Cummins that would work second shift at the garage for my dad. They were really smart guys and I thought, ‘You know, hanging out at someplace like that with a lot of smart people is not a bad idea.’”

Turns out it was not a very bad idea at all. As England shares, he walked into Cummins with a high school diploma and walked out with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. “When I left, I was leading intellectual property, advanced manufacturing and materials engineering for the corporation. I spent a lot time working – most of my time – working at the R&D Technical Center in Columbus, Indiana.”

In this latest AMN Drivetime podcast, Bill and Roger dive into a number of other interesting topics, including:

01:37 How Roger landed his dream job at Valvoline

02:36 Fun experiences pursuing his other passion – racing

04:49 Scoop on Valvoline’s sale of its Global Products Business to Aramco

08:15 Valvoline’s approach to the EV market and Roger’s take on the market as an “Internal Combustion” guy

11:56 Valvoline’s growth strategy including expanding into the Heavy-Duty segment

15:03 What it’s like to hold 13 patents

16:49 The best career advice Roger ever received from his Grandfather

18:31 The always popular Lightning Round!

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

An Admitted “car hoarder,” Tom Taylor, VP of Marketing and Co-Owner of Rock Auto, says he and his family really lucked out when they founded the online auto parts retailer in the midst of the “Dot Com” bubble. According to their website, Rock Auto’s goal is to “liberate information hidden behind the auto parts store counter,” and make auto parts affordable. After more than 20 years in business, with Rock Auto now a household name amongst car lovers, it is fair to say that mission has been successful.

“It was really lot of dot com companies in the beginning, like toys.com. They had all this money and felt they had to create everything from scratch. So they would say, ‘let’s build a warehouse and let’s buy all this inventory.’ For auto parts, you didn’t really have to do that. It was the, the perfect timing because the big chain stores had put a lot of the smaller auto parts retailers out of business. So, you had all these warehouse distributors and a lot of name brand manufacturers were looking for ways to sell their product be because the big chain stores had their private label brands. So it was really good timing for us that you had all these experts in warehousing, they had the inventory, and they were looking for new ways to sell their inventory. Some of them were trying to sell direct to consumers and shops and struggling with that. So, we gave them a new way to sell and quickly became their biggest customer for all of them or most of them.

In this latest AMN Drivetime podcast, Bill Babcox and Tom Taylor dive into a number of other topics, including:
1:59 How Rock Auto was formed
5:00 Surviving the Dot Com Bubble and how Rock Auto outlasted many competitors
6:13 Who are Rock Auto’s biggest customers?
7:06 How did the pandemic e-commerce boom impact Rock Auto?
8:03 Just how many cars does Taylor own?
10:19 What does the typical Rock Auto customer “look” like?
13:00 The process for picking the right parts suppliers
15:12 How Rock Auto helps professional techs and DIYers pick the right parts and chemicals
17:24 Pricing and serving the professional tech
21:30 The ever-popular Lightning Round!

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

Robert Roos, president of the Pronto Automotive Distribution Network, is proof positive that recruitment and retention works in the aftermarket. As he shared in this AMN Drivetime podcast episode with Bill Babcox, he was recruited right out of high school.
“That is 100% the truth,” Roos said. “I got into this industry almost completely by accident. A buddy of mine right after we had graduated high school, the summer after we graduated, he earned his Eagle scout badge and back in those days in the mid 1980s, social media didn't exist. You know the way to get the word out and to congratulate somebody was to put their picture in the paper and an entrepreneurial HR director at a local parts warehouse saw his picture called him and asked him if he would like to have a job working in their warehouse. He took it and evidently made a pretty good impression on him after a couple weeks. They're like, ‘Hey, do you have any friends that might be interested in a job?’ He threw out my name, I got the job and literally have been in this industry ever since.”

Next year will mark Roos’ 40th year in the industry, he said. To evolve and grow from stocking shelves at a parts store out of high school to now leading a national program group, Roos said he’s proud of the journey. “It is very surreal,” he said. “I'm very, very proud of it. I've been very lucky in my career in that I have had a wide variety of opportunities within this industry. I've been on the WD side, working with independent distributors. I've worked with a major chain, a retail chain back in the days, Big A Auto Parts – APS back in those days – and the experiences that I had all along the way. Even eight, nine years ago now coming into program distribution, I've just been able to experience so much and be a part of so much of what this great industry has to offer. When you stop and think about it, it's a pretty incredible journey.”


In this episode of AMN Drivetime, Bill and Robert also dive into the following topics:
0:50 – How Robert was recruited to the aftermarket right out of high school
3:06 – How it feels to go from stocking parts shelves to leading a national program group
5:24 – What Pronto Network members are most focused on today
8:57 – What Roos believes it takes to stay cutting edge and nimble today
12:41 – An update on Supply Chain issues from the distribution perspective
15:24 – Funny memories from the road
18:42 – People who have made a difference in his career
25:34 – The value of daily routines
27:12 – Roos’ responses to the ever-popular Lightning Round!
AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.

In this latest episode of AMN Drivetime, Babcox Media CEO Bill Babcox sits down with John Lussier, president of Tendeco Sales Inc., under which the Litens brand resides. In the interview, the two executives talk about a variety of important industry issues – from supply chain challenges to sourcing, R&D, OE heritage, international business and more.

Having been born in Argentina and educated in Venezuela, Lussier says that experience has certainly helped him lead an international business however, he points out that the continued value proposition of the “Made in the U.S.A.” still holds weight around the globe.

“For me personally, in my automotive career, it's helped me a lot into understanding other cultures and how that might benefit and learn to work together. Obviously, it's a very important thing,” Lussier said. Yet he also shared, “… having grown up in South America and then subsequently moved to the United States, I learned early on what it meant to be ‘made in the United States,’ because that translates into quality around the world.”

In this episode of AMN Drivetime, Bill and John also dive into the following topics:
00: 56 Litens history and its involvement in the invention of the tensioner
04:25 The vehicle technologies Lussier is keeping a close eye on today
6:36 How growing up in Latin America informs Lussier’s his role as an international business leader today
8:08 Just how many languages does Lussier speak?
8:10 What “made in the U.S.A.” really means to Lussier
9:23 How Litens manages today’s continuing supply chain challenges
10:55 The importance of R&D and how Litens differentiates itself in the market
13:09 Diving into the details of having “OE heritage”
14:40 Funny stories from the road
16:35 The popular and insightful Lightning Round

The AMN Drivetime podcast entertains and educates listeners, conversing with today’s top aftermarket drivers and industry leaders who are having an impact on the automotive aftermarket industry. This bi-monthly podcast offers candid, one-on-one conversations between Babcox Media CEO Bill Babcox and notable figures in the automotive aftermarket, sharing their experiences and life lessons as they have traveled the aftermarket.

Bill Babcox is the third generation to run the Akron, Ohio-based media business and not only has a number of great stories and insights to share, but also has had the good fortune to get to know a number of fascinating people in the automotive aftermarket today. Tune in to these captivating conversations covering topics ranging from key industry issues to the deep personal insights developed over years of experience in this dynamic industry.

AMN Drivetime is sponsored by Litens.