B.E. 100s Prowling Into the New Millennium - Stephens Automotive Group, African American-owned automobile dealership

Black Enterprise, June, 2001 by Lloyd Gite

Stephens and his top managers develop an annual business and operating plan. He then gives his managers the autonomy to run their own departments based on those projections. They have a set of objectives to meet, and if they don't meet them, Stephens says he will make them accountable. He describes himself as a firm boss, but he also has an open-door policy for both his customers and his employees.

Stephens, who prides himself on knowing all of his 44 employees by name, is also proud of the fact that his people have one of the best 401(k) and profit sharing plans in the auto industry.

"Mr. Stephens is very demanding and expects us to perform at a very high level," explains David Muir, the general manager at Millennium. "He doesn't want us to be average at anything. He wants and expects us to be way above average," explains Muir, who has been with Stephens since Millennium opened its doors.

COASTING OVER THE SPEED BUMPS

The economy has wreaked havoc on many auto dealers and despite selling luxury cars, Stephens' Jaguar dealership has been affected. He says that because of the problems in the economy, his sales for the fourth quarter were down 25% compared to the previous year. "We had to tighten our belts to weather the storm. We laid off a handful of people and reduced our inventory costs. We also modified our advertising budget."

But he's expecting big things for this year. Stephens just returned from London, where the new X-type Jaguar was introduced. It will go on sale this summer and has a price tag of only $30,000. "We expect our sales to increase 35% to 40% when the new Jag comes out," Stephen says.