Don't Badmouth Dennis Or Else

It's time some people in Windsor strapped a W to their brain rather than to their chest.

So much for going after "outside experts" who tell the truth about Windsor and who are attacked for doing so. No wonder certain people are concerned about Windsor Bloggers as well. People might start believing us.

I wonder if Dennis DesRosiers will have this story from the Financial Post Business Magazine framed and hung on his office wall. It is that flattering a portrait of him.

Windsor will probably get more coverage because of this article than anything that the Mayor could accomplish with all of his branding initiatives and hiring of PR flacks. It certainly does not paint the Windsor Star in a very good light does it.

However the more important aspect of this article from Windsor's perspective is to get Dennis to help us, not hurt us. It is time that Eddie swallowed his pride and phoned up Dennis to see what he can do to help the Mayor gets us some auto industry business for the City. Obviously, with his experience in the industry, connections and reputation, Dennis can do more for this City than anyone else.

The tragedy for us is the grudge carrying because Dennis helped our former Mayor with his auto policy. No one gives him credit for it but isn't what the Engineering Complex is all about exactly what DesRosiers has been advocating for years now. In case you did not know it, he is on the Board of the University and helped it on its financial side.

One other thing that might be worthwhile for City Hall and its sycophants and cheerleaders to understand, especially those in the media, is that if there is a controversy between Dennis and the City, Dennis wins every time. There is no point trying to badmouth him because no one in the industry will believe his opponents when they try to smear him. His reputation is that good.

Attack him on ideas... he and I are on different sides on DRTP... but listen to what he has to say about an industry that he's been involved in for over 20 years.

• Know-it-all
  
  Analyst Dennis DesRosiers might be one of the most powerful people in the Canadian auto industry - he's surely the most quoted
  
  Matt Reeder, Financial Post Business, Published: Tuesday, January 08, 2008
  
  The problems were mounting at Ford Canada. It was early 1998, and under then-president Bobbie Gaunt, car sales were on the decilne, and the automaker was also losing ground in the truck sector. Feeling the heat from her Detroit bosses, Gaunt - an American with 25 years of corporate experience with Ford's U.S. operations - called on veteran Canadian auto analyst Dennis DesRosiers for help.
  
  That April, DesRosiers came to the boardroom of the company's headquarters in Oakville, Ont., and delivered a presentation to Gaunt's executive team. What he advised confirmed their fears: It was time to eliminate the company's underperforming chain of Lincoln-Mercury dealerships in Canada. The executives were upset, but DesRosiers' data and analysis showed that sales were so poor that it would be pointless to keep flogging the brand.
  
  That fall, Gaunt announced that all Canadian Lincoln-Mercury dealerships would be converted into Ford-brand outlets. The decision caused friction with many of the dealers, but ultimately steered the Canadian division back to profitability. "The restructuring plan was really big. No one else in the Ford world had done that," recalls Gaunt, who is now based in Saugatuck, Mich., where she's a partner in a company that owns Ford dealerships across the U.S. "We had to get more knowledge in order to meet our business goals. That's what Dennis helped us do."
  
  Calling on an outsider for advice on key internal decisions might seem unusual, yet Gaunt is just one of many executives at major auto manufacturers who have relied on DesRosiers' expertise over the years: Leaders of the Canadian divisions of GM and DaimlerChrysler have also counted on him to be a catalyst for major changes. Though he's virtually unknown to the general public, the 57-year-old Windsor-born analyst is the de facto guru of Canada's automotive scene and a mover at a corporate level. After spending 22 years consulting and providing market research, data and forecasting for manufacturers, dealers and aftermarket companies, the often-controversial analyst knows the auto industry like a seasoned mechanic knows the parts of a car. "Rather than having to deal with four or five experts, you have a generalist who has a ton of knowledge in his head," says Gaunt. "DesRosiers' insights are always supported by metrics, and he takes those and creates what he thinks the future might look like." By stimulating auto manufacturers to become more competitive, DesRosiers is helping push one of Canada's largest industries forward - the sector was valued at $88.5 billion in 2006 and currently employs nearly 500,000 people - at a time when it's facing a raft of serious problems and an uncertain future in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
  
  Based out of the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, Ont., DesRosiers' 12-person firm, DesRosiers Automotive Consultants, stands apart from competing auto analysts such as J.D. Power and Associates, Maritz Automotive Research and those working for the major banks. This is largely due to DesRosiers' willingness to dole out criticism. He's not shy about voicing unpopular opinions in a very public way in his newsletter, through his e-mail list and in the media, despite the risk of alienating his clients. "He is unique in Canada because he's not afraid to speak his mind about issues that the manufacturers are grappling with, even though it may not reflect well on a certain manufacturer," says Chris Travell, of Maritz Automotive Research. It's an approach that's earned him nicknames in the press such as "Dennis the Menace" and "The Don Cherry of the auto world."
  
  DesRosiers isn't shy about smashing industry preconceptions. For example, last year, his data showed that American auto parts makers shouldn't pin their current problems on China: The country only accounts for about 3% of auto parts sold in North America and his research showed they wouldn't be a serious player for close to a decade. "One of the ways I've managed to get a fair amount of profile is that I've consistently come out and countered some popular thinking in the industry, grounded in fact," he says.
  
  The analyst fields approximately 5,000 media requests a year, and his words are splashed across the business pages of newspapers across the country almost on a daily basis. (In fact, while being interviewed for this story, DesRosiers simultaneously took a call from a reporter asking him to comment on cross-border auto shopping.) To the media, DesRosiers has become the go-to-guy because he can sum up complex issues in entertaining, bite-sized chunks. But most importantly, his close watch on the Canadian industry has helped reporters stay abreast of trends, pushing coverage of the auto sector forward. "DesRosiers knows about a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, and it supplies the background for his analysis," says Norman De Bono, who covers the auto beat for the London Free Press. Chris Vander Doelen, an auto reporter with the Windsor Star, says: "There's almost no question that you can come up with that will stump him." Though stakeholders in the industry might not always react favourably to DesRosiers' criticism of their strategies, they're sure to listen.
  
  DesRosiers' roots in the auto industry run deep. In addition to growing up in Windsor, Ont., Canada's quintessential blue-collar auto town, DesRosiers' father was an auto mechanic. "He wouldn't let me near a car," recalls DesRosiers. "He'd say 'You're smart enough, go to school.' So I did. I fooled him though, and became Canada's leading auto analyst." But DesRosiers didn't plan it that way. After earning a degree in economics in 1973, he moved to Toronto to be a junior economist in the Ontario government. That same year, the oil crisis hit, causing rapid changes to the auto sector. Knowing DesRosiers was from Windsor, his boss asked him to take over the auto portfolio.
  
  During that time, and his subsequent stint as director of research at the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, DesRosiers began forming a plan to start a consulting firm. "I had literally dozens of companies call me and ask 'Where can I find a consultant to do this? Where can I find data for that?'" he says. He'd identified more than a dozen successful automotive companies in the U.S., but there wasn't a single one in Canada, so DesRosiers launched his firm in November, 1985. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants now brings in $2 million in annual revenue.
  
  DesRosiers first made a splash in the industry when GM and Ford launched a complaint against Hyundai in 1988, claiming the Korean automaker was illegally dumping cars onto the market at low prices. Thanks in part to DesRosiers' research, the Canadian Import Tribunal ruled in favour of Hyundai.
  
  More recently, DesRosiers has taken an interest in helping attract investment in Ontario. Joe Cordiano, Ontario's former minister of economic development and trade, says DesRosiers' insights were important in helping launch the $369-million auto fund initiative in 2004, an incentives package that has helped lure $7 billion in new plants and brought thousands of jobs to the province. "He provided insight into the industry and what direction it was going," says Cordiano. DesRosiers' involvement in projects such as this show that the analyst contributes more to Canada's auto industry than just giving astute suggestions to individual clients - he's also helping the sector attract new investment.
  
  If you're involved with the Canadian auto industry, you'd better make sure you don't get on DesRosiers' bad side. Last year, he put an auto reporter at the Windsor Star - and the entire CanWest newspaper chain, including the National Post - into his "penalty box," the term he uses when he refuses to deal with someone who has made him angry.
  
  It all started last Jan. 9, when DesRosiers began receiving calls and e-mails from colleagues and relatives in Windsor asking if he'd seen journalist Gord Henderson's column in the Windsor Star. The column included a rather unflattering characterization of DesRosiers that referred to reader sentiments saying he would be happy about the auto job losses being suffered by Windsor residents. Though DesRosiers admits to having "stirred the pot" in Windsor in recent years by criticizing mayor Eddie Francis for his handling of the city's economic troubles, he said there were no factual grounds for Henderson's claim, especially considering that he had assisted many local companies and brought investment to his hometown. In response, DesRosiers refused to supply quotes or research to the Windsor Star and the entire CanWest chain until the reporter wrote a full apology in the paper. The following week, Henderson gave in, and the paper printed an apology.
  
  DesRosiers continues to irritate Windsor politicians and auto workers by declaring there is no future in propping up the ailing auto manufacturing sector. Instead, DesRosiers believes Windsor can regenerate its muddled economy - its unemployment rate is one of the highest in a Canadian urban area, currently around 9% - by replacing lost auto jobs with higher-paying research and development positions. It's a point of view, he says, that local politicians and Canadian Auto Workers leaders need to start accepting.
  
  DesRosiers' overall relationship with the CAW has become chilly in recent years. "Until, say, five years ago, we could sit down and have a fair discussion," says the union's chief economist, Jim Stanford. "But DesRosiers has become virulently anti-union and it infects the way he analyzes the auto industry. He sees a plant shut down and somehow blames the union." However, according to the Windsor Star's Vander Doelen, labour leaders are wrong to criticize DesRosiers. "His critics are the ones being laid-off, and they're mad when he points out why it's happening. It's like blaming the doctor who tells you you have cancer." DesRosiers agrees. "[My critics] can't handle the truth," he says. "It's denial."
  
  DesRosiers insists there are serious obstacles all stakeholders need to overcome to ensure the future success of the Canadian auto sector. "Our governments are bound, bent and determined to regulate this industry, and they could cross the line and destroy much of what this industry has built," he says. "Canada needs to be extremely cautious with its social policy initiatives such as climate change and fuel efficiency." He also believes that the industry should put more resources into research, design, and testing, and that the government needs to attract new investment by creating a competitive environment, not just by offering subsidies.
  
  This may seem like a tall order, but DesRosiers says tackling these challenges hinges on a simple point: a new outlook. "Too many people in the auto sector think that the perfect storm is the forces of globalization. In reality, it's peoples' reaction to the storm that's the problem," he says. "In a global auto sector, if you're insular you get killed. You've got to be global and outward looking."
  
  How Canada's automakers will react to DesRosiers' advice remains to be seen, but you can bet that whatever happens in the industry - if the country's automakers thrive or collapse - DesRosiers will be there to explain what happened, and to give insight into what will happen next.
  
  Analyst Ink: A sampling of DesRosiers' recent comments on key industry issues
  
  The 2007 United Auto Workers-GM contract: DesRosiers told the Windsor Star the lower costs GM gained threaten the entire Canadian industry. "The Auto Pact is gone and our health-care advantage is gone. Throw in a par dollar, and all of Canada's competitive advantages are now toast."
  
  Feebates: In a Canadian Press story, DesRosiers criticized Ottawa's so-called feebate program, which rewards consumers for buying fuel-efficient cars, saying it costs taxpayers too much. "[The government] are cowards and they're not willing to tell people what it's really going to cost them."
  
  The Big Three: DesRosiers has no problem with American automakers' loss of market share. In a Windsor Star story, he said: "I'm in favour of consumers buying Hondas, Toyotas and Suzukis built in such communities as Ingersoll, Woodstock and Alliston. Let's face it, 100% of the vehicles sold in Canada are manufactured by foreign-owned companies."