Episode #1391: China is becoming the global R&D hub for legacy automakers, Ken Garff shows how a 70-store dealer group is laying the data foundation for AI, and a new workforce report reveals why predictable schedules, strong culture, and generational differences matter more than ever for employee retention.

Show Notes with links:

For decades, Detroit exported engineering to China. Now the flow is reversing. GM, Volkswagen, and Renault are increasingly turning to Chinese R&D teams, not just to build cars, but to develop the technology that could power their next global vehicles.
- GM's China-only Buick Electra E7 topped 10,000 sales in its first month, and despite the American badge, it was designed entirely by GM's China engineering team with SAIC.
- GM is reportedly planning to use the China-developed Xiao Yao EV platform for a future Cadillac Optiq and may export the Electra E7 to South Korea.
- Automakers including Volkswagen, Renault, Hyundai, and Audi are giving Chinese engineering teams more autonomy.
- German automakers now conduct roughly one-third of their R&D in China, up from just 12% two years ago.
- "Legacy automakers are manufacturing companies trying to adapt to a world of tech. They went to the place—China—where they know they're going to find tech talent." — Pedro Pacheco, Gartner

Every year at ASOTU CON, we talk about building a data foundation for operations. Well, Ken Garff Automotive Group with 70-plus dealerships across nine states did just that, rebuilding its data infrastructure to connect billions of records, speed up decision-making, and prepare the business for the next wave of AI tools.
- The family-owned dealer group replaced a decades-old on-premise reporting system with a cloud-based data platform built on Snowflake for storage and Domo for analytics and dashboards.
- The new architecture brings together sales, service, finance, and third-party data, allowing the group to securely manage more than 4 billion records from across the business.
- One immediate win: the new system eliminated roughly 400 hours of employee wait time each month that had been tied to generating a single service department report.
- With the data foundation now in place, Ken Garff is exploring AI applications including service desk chatbots, data analysis tools, and stronger governance.
- "I think of us as a data company that sells cars." — Steve Peterson, Director of Data Engineering

Turns out happier employees aren't just about bigger paychecks. A new workforce study found retail employees rank among the happiest shift workers, with predictable schedules, supportive teams, and greater autonomy proving just as important as compensation.
- Retail workers reported 82.6% positive sentiment at the end of their shifts—second only to hospitality—and had the lowest rate of negative sentiment among the industries surveyed.
- The report credits improvements in shift consistency, wage transparency, and predictable scheduling for helping boost morale across retail.
- Researchers found the biggest drivers of happiness were autonomy, clear job expectations, supportive teammates, and meaningful customer interactions.
- On the flip side, chronic understaffing, physical exhaustion, low-control work environments, and high emotional demands were the strongest predictors of unhappy employees.
- Among today's core workforce, Gen Z stood out as both one of the happiest and the most stressed generations, while Millennials reported the lowest overall happiness.

0:00 Intro with Paul J Daly and Kyle Mountsier

2:37 Legacy OEMs Turn To China For R&D

5:47 Ken Garff Builds Data Foundation

9:30 Retail Employees Are Happiest Shift Workers