The Unobvious Ones is a month-to-month take a look at movers and shakers who fly under the radar within the Canadian auto business.

REBECCA WU

HELPING TOYOTA DEALERS NAVIGATE PANDEMIC-RELATED VEHICLE SUPPLY ISSUES

Getting automobiles to clients includes understanding gross sales targets, supplier volumes, opponents and what merchandise can be found. Because the nationwide supervisor for gross sales and stock planning at Toyota Canada in Toronto, Rebecca Wu places all these variables collectively.

“There isn’t a typical day in my job, particularly as we’re coping with shortages in manufacturing,” Wu stated.

As with different automakers, Toyota’s automobile output has been hit by the worldwide microchip scarcity and industrywide supply-chain points, which affect supplier stock. In Canada, Toyota builds the RAV4 and the Lexus NX and RX crossovers.

“I’ve a staff of 30 folks, however we’re nonetheless all working from residence, so it’s back-to-back [online] conferences about gross sales, stock and what subsequent 12 months will seem like.

“We work with our sellers and assist them plan in these instances as effectively, with the automobiles we’ll launch and the stock we’ll get. It’s a whole lot of planning effort.”

Wu, who speaks English, French and Cantonese, studied translation methods at York College in Toronto. She was employed by Toyota in 1999 to translate paperwork comparable to manuals, coaching applications and technical bulletins.

“Two years in, I went into public relations. Toyota has a rotation tradition as a result of we wish folks to know the enterprise and check out various things and see what works for them. In [the public relations] function, you need to perceive the company along with the automobiles.”

Six years later she moved into advertising, working her means as much as nationwide supervisor for Toyota. She took on her present function in August.

STANLEY ING

THE CALL OF DUTY: WORKING WITH WHAT IS LIKELY CANADA’S TOUGHEST CLIENT

Mercedes-Benz Canada has a novel fleet buyer: the Canadian Armed Forces. And because the automaker’s supervisor for Defence Program, Stanley Ing, sells and oversees conversion of the G-Class utility automobile for army obligation.

“With one other colleague, I assist their technical modifications and restore and overhaul. I’m additionally concerned in future gross sales, and we’ve two gross sales tasks developing with the Canadian Armed Forces.”

The contracts embody a cargo automobile and automobiles for the army police, and command and reconnaissance. The army variations are much like the patron G-Class, however they’re stripped down on the within, fitted with communications methods and could be modified with weapons stations and armour.

Ing coordinates their manufacturing, which incorporates suppliers in Germany and Canada.

“My days embody convention calls with German colleagues, conferences with Mercedes-Benz for components, taking part in progress-review conferences with the Division of Nationwide Defence (DND), and as wanted, calls with the DND Technical Authority.”

Ing, 68, earned a grasp’s diploma in worldwide relations from the College of Toronto and was employed as a analysis affiliate on strategic research at York College. In 1985, he was requested to hitch a Nationwide Defence think-tank as a coverage analyst after which turned a senior adviser on aerospace industries for the Ontario authorities. He labored for Airbus for eight years till MercedesBenz, which at the moment partly owned Airbus, requested him to assist with the G-Class program. When a Canadian Armed Forces contract for 1,159 G-Wagons was signed in 2004, Ing joined MercedesBenz’s fleet program.

“Defence is harder than industrial fleet as a result of there are extra insurance policies and layers of administration. All of the components must be catalogued by the military to allow them to organize them. It takes extra time, and also you simply must be affected person.”

JUD BUCHANAN

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETER ‘LOVES’ THE ADVENTURE

Earlier than a brand new automobile goes on sale, there must be hands-on expertise for dealership personnel, media, automaker staff and even some clients. Organising such an occasion is a big quantity of labor that’s now second nature to Jud Buchanan, president of Car Dynamics Group (VDG) in Campbellville, 65 kilometres southwest of Toronto.

“We had been an experiential advertising firm earlier than most individuals even knew what that was,” he stated. “We will do all the pieces from a easy drive program to utterly turnkey with journey, lodging, meals and leisure.”

Buchanan, 68, at all times liked automobiles. He raced autocross as a interest, beginning in 1976, and received the Canadian Auto Slalom Championship in 1983 and the Ontario title a 12 months later.

In 1985, he joined Yokohama Tire as nationwide advertising communications supervisor, in command of public relations, motorsport and promoting. However he longed to be his personal boss and based VDG in 2000.

“Each program is constructed in regards to the automobile, so I first get educated on it, so we will put it in an surroundings that represents what a broad swath of customers would possibly count on from it. We now have digitized topographical maps of North America and we construct the route on our proprietary GPS, work out the timing and the place we have to put our personnel.”

Buchanan has eight staff, plus 10 contract employees who ship the automobiles, clear them and guarantee all contributors are accounted for alongside the driving routes.

“I’m passionate in regards to the journey, the problem of organizing issues, and all the pieces in regards to the automobiles.”