Remembering Jim O’Connor With Chris Saraceno and David Kain

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Welcome to Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.
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On September 25th, uh Jim O'Connor, the executive of Ford, that so many people knew and loved, uh, he was an icon in our industry for sure.
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Um, I'm bringing on now Chris Saracena, who's a partner of Kelly Automotive Group, uh, also a best-selling author, I might add, and David Kane, uh host of Kane and Friends Podcast and president of Kane Advisory, uh, to talk about this incredible man and uh and this incredible loss and what what it really means to them.
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Uh, they both are good friends of Jim O'Connor, or were good friends of Jim O'Connor and his family, and they worked side by side with them.
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Uh so, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me on this special edition of Inside Automotive right here at CBT News.
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So, let me start with you, Chris, if I can.
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I know that he was actually a partner of yours.
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So talk to us about Jim O'Connor and uh the impact that he had in retail automotive.
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Well, he well, Wani had a tremendous uh impact on the Kelly Automotive Group, but I will tell you the first time I met him was in 1998 at an NEDA convention.
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And I've never seen this before or since.
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When he walked on stage with several hundred people, a hundred dealers there, everybody stood up and gave him a standing ovation when he walked on stage.
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Wow.
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And then when he walked off stage, everybody wouldn't stop standing and clapping, and he had to come back out and talk again.
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I've never in all my years, 42 years, yeah, have seen a standing ovation when somebody walked on stage, walked off stage, and they couldn't wait, and they wanted him to come back and talk more.
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So it just shows you how the dealers loved him.
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And what I was very proud of is that the Kellys have told me for years that uh he was there uh in the 70s.
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He was their young Ford Lincoln Mercury rep, and he left Ford for a little bit, and he was a general manager at Kelly at uh at Kelly, Lincoln Mercury, uh, and Ford in G in uh Atlanta for years and then left and went back to Ford.
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I believe that's why he was such a dealer advocate and why dealers loved him, is because he used to tell me, hey, the one thing I've learned when I did that for three years as a general manager, I learned how tough this is.
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That's right.
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And what you have to do every day.
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And sometimes when you're in their shoes and you see what happens, you realize you know how hard these dealers work to take care of people.
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Yeah, he was he was one of those few uh OEM executives that, to your point, really knew the retail side of the business.
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Because so many of them, and you know, this is not against any particular one, but so many of them out there, you know, will make uh different policies and different plans and what have you, but maybe have never really spent any time on the retail side.
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So sometimes there's a disconnect, they don't get it.
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This was not the case with Jim O'Connor, for sure.
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No, not at all.
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And then when he retired, he was on the board of directors for the Kelly Automotor Group, and then he bought in in 2010, he bought into Kelly Ford.
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Yeah, wow, that's great.
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So he was a full, full partner of yours, and uh, I know that the loss is going to be great.
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So David, let me uh David Cain, let me uh talk to you about this because I know that you also had uh a uh personal friendship with him, and I know that you looked at him as a full mentor, so I'll let you kind of take it from there.
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Yeah, so uh Jim, first and foremost, and Chris knows this all too well, was all about his family.
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And uh, you know, you see the pictures that his daughter posted on Facebook and him uh in his role as a grandfather, and you have to appreciate how much that was.
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But but to Chris's point, uh everybody in the Ford family, including all of us dealers, felt like we were part of Jim's family.
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And uh that's why he received that kind of reception when he came to events.
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Uh the more the merrier, every time you would see him uh in the aisle of an NADA or a Ford event, uh there were people gathered around taking pictures and uh wanting to be be part of his inner circle, if you will.
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Um and Dad uh had always shared with me, he had uh known Jim for quite a few years, and he goes, When you're uh in a meeting with a Ford representative, remember your allocation is always at risk if you say something out loud that uh criticizes them.
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So uh, you know, be kind in public and criticize in private.
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But uh Chris was referring to the NADA where he's at the dealer make meeting.
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Yeah.
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And then I guess this would have been 1999, uh, Chris, the year after you met him.
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And uh he had inherited uh the the breakdown of the Ford Auto Collection program where Ford was creating a retail network and he was having to try to appease dealers at that point.
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And that's where I was really coming up through the ranks at our family Ford dealership, and I couldn't resist it.
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He kept talking on stage about the Ford Retail Network and the Ford Retail Network, and we're doing this and we're doing that.
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I raised my hand and he recognized me and he and he says, You know, tell me what you want to talk about.
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I said, Well, Mr.
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O'Connor, I thought we were the Ford Retail Network.
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And, you know, to much applause, all the dealers were like, Yeah, you know, very shortly thereafter, they dismantled that program.
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But I got on dealer council in 2000 and he pulled me to the side.
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He goes, I remember you.
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You're the troublemaker.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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Dad was right.
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That's right.
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David, what do you think it was about him that what was the what was the special ingredient there that you think you know he had that connected so well with with others in the industry, specifically on the retail side?
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Yeah, I think I think Chris nailed it.
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I mean, his orientation to what it took uh to run an operation, he never failed to try to pay real close attention to it.
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One of the things that he shared with me, and I know this will uh resonate with Chris all too well, is he he used to tell us if it if it moves, track it.
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If you track it, measure it, and if you measure it, reward it.
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And and he would give lessons like that, and I don't know whether he learned that from Mr.
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Kelly all those years ago, but but those are the kind of things that that really uh worked for a young uh dealer person like me because I I recognize oh my god, you know, this guy's just not trying to sell me uh focuses and and fiestas.
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He's he's trying to help me run a better operation.
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Yeah, yeah, for sure.
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Chris, I see you nodding.
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Do you want to back up?
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He has some great one-liners.
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He would always remind us, hey, listen, there's no way to do the there's no way to do uh the right thing the wrong way.
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Yeah.
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Uh and then he would always talk about whales and minnows.
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He would say, as leaders, you know, stop focusing on minnows.
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That's a minnow.
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Yeah.
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As leaders, you focus on the whales.
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The what's going to have the most impact on your business and the customers and your team.
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Those are what you want to focus on.
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He goes, There's too many dealers out there that you get so myopic and focus on the minnows.
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He goes, Yeah, you you got to look at the big picture all the time.
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So I think that sort of was summarizes the essence of who he was.
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And I will tell you the guy, the people here at Kelly Ford, I mean, they are heartbroken.
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Uh I just found out the other day.
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I when I came into the airport, I had one of our team members pick me up and he said, you know, I don't know if you knew this.
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Every time Jim would show up for our monthly meetings, we called it par meetings, performance asset review meetings.
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He goes, he would give us$100 to go get um lottery cards.
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Really?
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And he'd always say, get he goes, You four, you guys split it, and and this is the one I want you to play, and you guys deserve it.
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He goes, he did that for 10 years.
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Wow.
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He would give us and he'd say, Go play, and tell them what to do.
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He goes, and and it gets shared between your families then.
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Uh so it's all the little things he would do when he would show up, he'd show up early to the meetings, he'd walk the whole complex, he'd say hello to people.
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So here's a guy that was so well known that when he would show up for his monthly meetings here, he just would want to walk around and talk to people and make sure that people were happy and asked questions and you know, just a wonderful person.
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That's right, that's right.
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You know, we've seen other executives in the industry that are so well liked.
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Uh but I think uh Jim O'Connor is is right up there with the top of the top, right in our industry.
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And I think it it is a major loss, right?
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Oh, absolutely.
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I I I think I told you earlier beforehand, you know, the last meeting we had was on the 8th of September.
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We did our part, and and when he was leaving, uh he did what I call a Columbo.
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He was he took two steps out the door, he stopped, it was myself and the CFO, and he turned around and he you know, sort of even did the Columbo and said, You know, I just want to let you know.
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And he just really looked at us and said, Yeah, I love Ford and I love Kelly Ford.
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And he turned around and walked away.
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And you know, the CFO Adam Smith and I were talking the other day, said, Isn't that the funny thing?
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His last words to us was he stopped and just wanted to let us know how much he l loved Ford Motor Company and how much he loved Kelly Ford.
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Yeah.
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And he never did that before.
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And and I I think I shared with you he was gonna leave the next day or the day after that for Italy, and he had scheduled that he was gonna meet the Pope.
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Wow.
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Uh at that time, because yeah, that just shows you how well known that he he had something coordinated to meet with the Pope, and he was very excited.
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I think the Pope graduated from the same university that he did.
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No kidding.
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Oh, wow.
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Like it's the first American Pope.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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Yeah, so I think he graduated from the same university.
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Wow.
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And maybe the Pope was just as excited about seeing him as he was.
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You know what?
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You maybe you're maybe correct.
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It could be.
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I mean, he was larger than life individuals, so it could be that the Pope was very excited about that.
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Well, as I as I told you, the bigger the audience, the more he came alive.
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Like he could just shine in a big in a big audience.
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Yes, no question.
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I've saw I saw him speak a few times, and it was just he just owned the room to your point, you know, with the standing ovations coming in and coming out.
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I wasn't in that particular, you know, uh uh conference, but uh but I've seen him speak before and he was just amazing.
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He really had the the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.
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It was just just something, really, really.
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So just go ahead, Dick.
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One one thing that and and Chris, you may be uh too young to remember this, but he never wasted time saying those uh quick one-liners.
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But he used to describe life as youth, middle age, and grand marquee.
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Yes.
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And that's one of my love.
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We missed the grand marquee, don't we?
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Well, and I'm definitely old enough to do that.
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We're probably closer to age.
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That's something.
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And of course, you know, he he was um uh a good Catholic.
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I mean, he believed, you know, in in in he was very uh in his faith, very big, and and uh that meant a lot to him.
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And uh and obviously he had a meeting, if you had a meeting with the Pope, that's pretty impressive, you know.
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And very involved in charities, which he didn't want to talk about much, but he was very charitable.
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Yes, no, no, no question about it.
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He loved his Villanova Wildcats, and uh, you know, what what joy they must have given him with back-to-back championships, and uh, you know, that that was one of the rare things is he literally uh invited everybody into what he loved.
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Uh I remember on the 2004 dealer council, he actually had us over to his home, and uh and we got to hang out just you know with his family and it was really great.
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And I I would be remiss to to not mention uh Jerry Reynolds, who ran our 2000, 2001 four dealer council.
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He and Jim were so tight, and uh Jim effectually uh nicknamed him because he was a Texas dealer, uh Big Buckle.
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And uh and when Jerry uh left his second year, Jim gave him a nice big buckle uh to to reward him for the time that he dedicated to that.
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And when we were on Dealer Council, if it weren't you know, he wasn't real digitally focused, and Chris would know this from his work.
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Uh but he without him, Ford Direct and Ford's digital program never would have gotten off the ground.
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And uh he literally pushed it through, and uh they used to print out his emails for him, and he would write notes and say say this back and so on and so forth.
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But uh he loved being on the leading edge, regardless of whether he personally uh was doing it himself.
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Yeah, and I know I know he was active in other companies where he was investors since he retired where he was involved.
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So he he he liked work and liked liked to see people grow and companies do well.
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Yeah, got the most out of his 83 years, right?
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I mean that's that's even though he retired early, he he kept going and uh wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't give up and go to it's not like he went and played golf every day.
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No, maybe he did play golf every day, but he was also very, very active in business.
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And uh I I said to a friend the other day, we were talking about him, I said, listen, I I would summarize it as a life well lived.
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Yeah.
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Uh yeah, that he that he got the most out of life.
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He he had joy, he worked hard, he made people feel good, he had a tremendous impact, and and fortunately it it wasn't a it was a short, you know, you you don't want to, you know, 83 years old and you don't want to you don't want to suffer.
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So I said, I know Jim.
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Jim would say I had a life well lived.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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No question about it.
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Well, I'm gonna leave it right there, and I agree with you.
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It was a life well lived, and uh so we'll all remember.
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Go ahead.
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Did you want to say something?
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Yeah, I would like to uh just uh say this, and I think this would tickle him to death.
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Uh when we were trying to get Ford Direct up and going, we'd have meetings and then we'd walk the hallways during cocktail hour.
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He'd pull me aside, he goes, uh Kane, what's the murmur research tell you?
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And I was like, What the heck are you talking about?
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He goes, What are they murmuring about?
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And he would be so happy to hear that Chris and Jim and I are murmuring about him.
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That's right.
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And I think that murmuring is going to go on for a long time among all of his friends and and uh, of course, his family members, and it's a great loss for the auto industry uh as a whole, and uh there's so many people that looked up to him.
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So I appreciate all the time that you guys have given me here on the show on this special edition to honor him and uh love to, you know, uh make sure that this gets out to everybody because I I think he he's it like you said, it was a life well lived, and there's a lot of people that thank him for his advice and his guide and his guidance over the years.
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So thank you so much, Chris Terracino and David Kane.
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Thanks so much for joining me to talk about this.
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Our pleasure.
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Yep.
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Thank you, Jim.
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Thanks for watching Inside Automotive with Jim Fitzpatrick.