Creating Impact Through Coaching
Group Leader Mohan Naraine is leveraging his extensive industry knowledge to mentor business leaders in the Volaris automotive portfolio
If you’re a seasoned business executive who has achieved more of your career aspirations than you could have ever imagined, you might ask yourself: “What’s my next move?”
For Mohan Naraine, the answer was to transition to a rewarding new role at Volaris—one where he could apply his vast array of experiences to mentoring, inspiring, and shaping a new generation of business leaders.
Over a three-decade career, Naraine has worked for leading companies in the global automotive technology space, including ADP, CDK Global, Reynolds and Reynolds, and Cox Automotive. During that time, he has done everything from establishing and expanding a business, to participating in the M&A process, to leading businesses as a Managing Director and CEO.
When he decided to join Volaris as a Group Leader, he found it appealing that he could share his knowledge in a collaborative environment where it would create meaningful benefits for other business leaders. He was further attracted to the learning environment nurtured by the Volaris ecosystem, which brings together like-minded software business leaders to openly share lessons and challenges.
Mohan Naraine brings three decades of industry experience to his work as a Group Leader.
At Volaris, Group Leaders oversee a group of companies, and they tend to have years of operational experience behind them, making them ideally suited to guide leaders of the businesses they oversee.
“The way I put it is that I am a management consultant to CEOs,” says Naraine, who oversees four businesses as of September 2024. “The CEOs report to me, and I support them in managing their businesses.”
He sat down with Acquired Knowledge magazine to talk about the importance of developing trust in a coaching relationship, his work as a mentor to business leaders, and trends he is watching in the automotive industry.
As a Group Leader at Volaris, you consider yourself a consultant and coach to CEOs. What kind of issues do software CEOs look to you for help with?
Software CEOs tend to be entrepreneurs by nature. They are inventors who have built a business from a wonderful idea, and they tend to spend most of their time driving those ideas to fruition by building, selling, and delivering products to their customers. We want to work with people who can cultivate those kinds of ideas and drive an intrapreneurial spirit within Volaris.
But often, those types of leaders can be so focused on the technology that they don’t prioritize the people aspect of the business. In my role, I help them strategize how to grow and develop their staff, as well as how they look after their customers.
I always say, 'If you have a great product, but you have nobody to work on it, and you have no customers to buy it, you don’t have a business.'
What background and industry experience do you bring to your work as a “CEO coach”?
I have 30 years of experience in the automotive software industry. I started as a software developer, then eventually moved into a product management role at Reynolds and Reynolds, a company that develops and supports software for automotive retailers. My work brought me really close to customers, because I built products that met their requirements and delivered value for them.
My first experience with M&A came at that company when I was fortunate to join a team that acquired a business in Europe. As part of the technical team, I participated in the due diligence process. That experience allowed me an opportunity to move to Switzerland, where I drove product development and a partner channel, then ran the business there for several years.
Following that, I had another international opportunity in the Middle East, working for CDK Global (which was then known as ADP Dealer Services). I was part of a team that bought a partner that was operating in Kuwait, established a business and hired several people in Dubai – and we were very successful over a six-year period in Dubai. Following that, I moved back to Canada, where I got involved in other vertical segments at CDK Global, including the truck segment.
After spending several years at CDK Global, I was again recruited, this time by Cox Automotive, to move to Malaysia for three years and helped to develop their market in the Asia-Pacific region.
Before coming to Volaris, I also ran a Hungarian software business that built and delivered an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for heavy equipment dealers globally. I was very fortunate to have an opportunity to spend time with large customers in Europe, Australia, Africa and North America. These customers represented several brands like Caterpillar, John Deere, Volvo and others. During that time, I relocated back to North America and established relationships with large dealers and Microsoft and partners.
What was attractive to you about working at Volaris?
I was recruited to Volaris specifically to be part of the expanding automotive portfolio. I had worked with the senior team in the past, so I trusted them and was very familiar with how the Volaris automotive portfolio runs businesses.
My industry experience offers a strategic benefit for the team. Since I have been a business operator with global experience, that background helps me guide and align the businesses to the principles of Volaris. I was also interested in working for Volaris because as a large organization, it has great leadership, values, systems and governance. I’m happy to be part of a growing portfolio within a large, public company.
In a coaching relationship, building trust is very important because you are giving guidance and advice. How do you ensure a strong relationship?
When we initially purchase a business and need to establish trust, it’s important for me to understand the executive leadership team. I also like to meet all the leaders one and two levels down from the executive team and spend time with them as well.
I pride myself in being a very culturally adaptable person, having lived and worked in many, countries, and having visited close to fifty of them. For me, building trust means it’s important to be flexible with my style, the way I think, and the way that I interact with people.
I have a personal coach. Mohan is my boss, but it feels like it's not that way. He told me, 'When you have a problem, we are coaching you, we are standing on your side.'
-Sven Kalus, ASC Automotive Solution
In addition to the coaching you provide, what are some other examples of talent development resources made available by Volaris to the businesses that report to you?
We frequently look at our existing people and focus on how we can promote new leaders within the business. It has been great to be able to access employee development plans.
For example, I worked jointly with HR and the CEO of a business on her development plan. The work involved answering questions such as: What does her career roadmap look like over the next six months? How does she step into the role of a CEO? How can we help with training to help her start her journey toward becoming a great company leader?
Our leadership training starts with 360° feedback of each leader. All the leaders are smart and creative people to begin with, and over time, we develop and cultivate each leader to be better than they are than when they start.
All of these parts of the talent development plan were templated from Volaris.
Smaller companies don’t easily have access to information and information that we get from the larger organization that is Volaris. Volaris does an amazing job of putting people programs in place. In fact, of all the companies I’ve worked for, this is probably the company where I’ve seen the most focus on talent development and succession planning.
What is the biggest disruptive trend you are currently watching unfold in the area of automotive software?
Car manufacturers don’t want to rely on the traditional dealership model to sell cars. Consumers want to be able to buy cars at any time that is convenient to them, and that can mean buying and configuring a car from their home. They don’t want to go into a brick-and-mortar dealership building, walk into a showroom, and be confronted by salespeople because that represents an experience that they find challenging.
As a result, we’re seeing more manufacturers switching to an agency model – a trend being driven by consumers and manufacturers. We’re seeing this trend in China, and it’s starting to happen in Europe. For example, an agent can sell cars in a shopping mall or a pop-up showroom with three cars inside a condominium complex. People can walk in to configure their cars on their phone, order it, and get it delivered to their house. As a result, the traditional dealers will be under pressure to change their way of doing business and in turn challenge us and the tools we provide as dealer system providers.
What all of this means for software providers is that we must change some of the tools and offerings we have for those dealers as well.
Are there any other interesting trends you are observing?
Interest in mobility services is on the rise. For example, we see younger generations who don’t want to own a car. Instead, they want to order an Uber, ride their bicycles, or perhaps be able to use a car for three weeks, and return it after that period. Or perhaps they only want to use a car on the weekend, or to drive a completely different car than the one they are currently using two months from now.
This growing trend challenges the traditional dealership retail model as well. I imagine we’re going to see more of the dealers starting to offer mobility services which can allow more flexibility than owning a vehicle.
We are also seeing a rapid expansion of New Energy Vehicle (NEV) dealers across the globe that are selling and servicing electric vehicles. This trend is now significantly impacting the sale of traditional gas-powered vehicles across the globe. For example, over 40% of the more than 30 million vehicles sold in China are electric vehicles. Many of the major NEV brands have made their way to North America and Europe, and this will also challenge the traditional dealer model in particular the service and parts business which is the lifeblood of most dealers. The vehicles have fewer moving parts and an engine that needs repair for example. As dealer system providers we will need to get ahead of the curve and start to focus on new innovative solutions and services that dealers and manufactures will need in the future.
Are these trends helping accelerate consolidation in the area of automotive dealerships?
We are seeing consolidation as the agency model is also gaining traction, and with that we are seeing the number of dealerships decrease. The number of dealerships in the U.S. has seen a two-thirds reduction since 1950, with a steady decline since then, according to data from the National Automobile Dealers Association. Consolidation is creating larger, more powerful groups that are buying smaller dealers, and they are becoming more global in nature.
Some of those large dealership groups include:
● Group 1 Automotive, which owns dealers in the U.S. and U.K.
● Penske, which owns business in the U.K. and globally
● Inchcape, a British multinational group that owns businesses around the world
● Emil Frey, Europe’s largest group that is expanding rapidly
If you are part of a small, local software company that isn’t part of one of these large groups, you should be aware the world is changing rapidly. It is much more challenging to be a small player in a small market in the current environment.
How does the ecosystem created in the Volaris automotive portfolio help businesses keep up with the changing industry?
The advantage we have at Volaris is that we own businesses that operate in different parts of the world, and we have exposure to the technology and changes happening with bigger global groups. We can bring back some of those thoughts and ideas happening at the dealer and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) levels.
Grouping all our automotive software providers together in one ecosystem helps them to drive their ideas and synergies. The trust, integrity, and direct communication are all there, and we operate in an agile way. We’re always connected, no matter where we live in the world, and we are close colleagues who also have fun together.