John Hughes shows no signs of slowing down after more than 50 years in the automotive business.
John Hughes shows no signs of slowing down after more than 50 years in the automotive business.
AUTOMOTIVE industry veteran John Hughes told an audience of more than 400 at a WA Business News Success & Leadership event this week that passion, discipline and customer service were the driving forces behind his thriving car dealership group.
Based in Victoria Park, the John Hughes Group employs more than 550 staff and sells 1,700 new and used vehicles each month, turning over around $500 million annually.
The group has also become the largest single location motor vehicle retailing company in Australia and has been the world’s largest-selling Hyundai dealer for the past seven years.
However, the road to success was one of hard work for Fremantle-born Mr Hughes, who started his career in the automotive industry at the age of 18 as a clerk for Attwood Motors.
He said cars had fascinated him from a young age.
“I loved used cars, I don’t know what it was about them, maybe it’s because my father was a mechanic,” Mr Hughes said.
“But funnily enough I know nothing about cars. I’ve never changed a wheel in my life, I’m the world’s best at selling them, but I know nothing about how they work.”
At 24, he became the general manager of Attwoods Motorama, which became the largest used car organisation in Western Australia.
More than a decade later in 1969, a [then] 32-year-old Mr Hughes branched off and started his own business, Paramotors.
However, he admitted making the mistake of growing his business too quickly.
“I made the biggest mistake of my life, I expanded too quickly, too loosely and I delegated badly, I took my eye off the ball,” Mr Hughes told the audience.
“I lost it all, but like a boxer who gets knocked down, you count to seven or eight, put your gloves back on and keep punching … you learn from your mistakes.”
A decade later, Mr Hughes bought the inner-city Mitsubishi franchise from the Skipper Bailey Motor Company in Victoria Park, trading as Skipper Mitsubishi until 2005 when he changed the name to ‘John Hughes’.
He also founded Bond Motor Sales, the original importer of Hyundai motor vehicles in Australia, and was responsible for the set-up of importing infrastructure and the appointment of dealers in the early stages of the development of the Hyundai Motor Corporation in Australia.
Mr Hughes said it was his passion for the business that had allowed him to maintain his enthusiasm for the past 40 years.
“You must be passionate about what you do … you’ve got to eat, sleep and breathe your business,” he said.
“If I went broke tomorrow and had to go out and sweep the streets why wouldn’t you want to be the best street sweeper there is?”
With more than 550 staff in the John Hughes Group, Mr Hughes said it was important to lead by example and invest in a good management team.
“You don’t manage people, you lead people. Never ask anyone who works with you to do what you haven’t done or what you’re not prepared to do,” he said.
“You set the blueprint and the leadership but you can’t be everywhere at once; you need to give people the responsibility to make decisions, but the difficult part is getting them to accept that responsibility.”
Along with maintaining a sense of leadership, Mr Hughes said achieving a balance between discipline and encouragement was essential.
“Your staff respect discipline as long as it’s fairly, firmly and evenly applied; if you discipline somebody you are showing them you care,” he said.
“You also have to reward them well and be very quick to pat them on the back.
“But it’s not all about money, you have to make them feel proud to be involved with the organisation.”
While Mr Hughes is well known for his radio and television advertisements, he said any advertising campaign was pointless if the company didn’t have a good reputation to fall back on.
Last year he invested more than $8.6 million in advertising, which was responsible for bringing in 46 per cent of the group’s vehicle sales.
“What people want when they come to do business with me is no different to when they come to do business with you, they want courtesy, sincerity, professionalism and efficiency,” Mr Hughes said.
“Too many people say ‘I’d tried advertising and it didn’t work’, but you have to get your premises right, get your product and price right and have people who are well selected, well trained and well motivated – then you advertise.”
Aged 75 and with no plans to retire, Mr Hughes said he was looking into
buying another automotive franchise in Victoria Park.
“I don’t intend to retire, that word is not in my vocabulary,” he said.
“I enjoy what I’m doing and I’ll keep doing it for as long as I possibly can.
“I think going through life is a bit like going through gears in a manual car; we start off in first, most get into second, some get into third and fourth, but too few get into fifth.
“When I look back on my life, all the time I’ve been changing up and up and up.”
