Alan Thompson: Director Of Operations Of Texaco Canada

Alan Thompson proclaims himself as a sheep herder of sorts. Through our interview with the man himself, our group has found an individual that embodies the leadership qualities that this course has taught us. Alan’s time as Director of Operations of Texaco Canada, a major lubricants manufacturer that services both the Heavy Equipment and Truck and Coach industry, as well as the Automotive industry as whole, enabled him to put the qualities we feel represent a strong leader, to work as he restructured the company and increased their profitability by a measurable margin. Alan’s vision of the right product for the right customer was exemplified in their ‘reset’ strategy. In other words, by focusing on the right customers, and deleting redundant

Alan needed to figure out how to increase profitability, the goal he was hired to achieve, by restructuring and educating his employees in any way he saw fit. To exemplify the grandeur of his position, Alan Thompson reported regularly to the President of Texaco Canada. Having a background with Redpath Sugar, a major sugar manufacturer, Alan’s vision became clear soon after starting at Texaco Canada: Deliver the right product, for the right price, all the while understanding exactly what it was the customer desired out of their business transaction. Alan’s examination of the business concluded that Texaco had multiple product lines, some redundant, and the missing link was that customer’s needs were not being matched to the right product in Texaco’s line up. He exclaimed in our interview that in his industry, the 80/20 rule was prevalent. In other words, Alan found 80% of customers concerns when dealing with Texaco were driven by price of product, while only 20% of customers concerns were driven by purchasing the right product that would allow a lower compound cost when down time and cost of service were included. Alan’s strategy had to be, from an operational standpoint, to figure out ways to convince the 80% of customers that they needed to transfer their vision of cost to a more long term model. That is, in order to lower costs over the long term of operating a business, that a higher quality product being used in their vehicles, over time, would increase productivity of their vehicles, decrease the downtime associated with servicing vehicles, and increase profitiablity. By taking this customer first approach, Alan found that Texaco Canada could increase its’ sales of a broader scope of available products, and not just increase sales of their cheapest, lowest quality oils and