NCDU Q&A WITH INCOMING PRESIDENT J. BLAKE MURDOCK Did you always aspire to be in the car business? How did you become a dealer? My father and grandfather were both auto dealers, but I didn’t aspire to that. I always wanted to be a coach. I was almost 25 when I got home from my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Glasgow, Scotland. Soon after, I got married and needed what I thought would be a summer job, so I went to work at the family auto dealership. Working at the dealership was enjoyable right from the start. I enjoyed working with the public, the people I worked with and especially with my family. Automotive became my occupation for life. What did you learn from your father and grandfather? They were big on always giving the customers the benefit of the doubt. My dad, who was the dealer, wanted us to handle problems before they got to him. If a problem did get to him, he would give the customer whatever they desired. Everybody wants to feel good about purchasing their vehicle and how they are treated after the sale. Whenever there was a dispute with service or other problems, our dad always taught us that the customer was always right, even if they were wrong. Would you please tell us about your education? I graduated from Clearfield High School and went to BYU on a football scholarship. I studied pre-med/physical therapy because I liked how doctors handled sports injuries. Coach Lavell Edwards was the coach when I began my university experience. He recommended that I play for four years before my mission, and then he would give me a free year or a “redshirt” year. I took his advice, but Coach Edwards asked me to coach with him when I came back. During that time, he paid for school and all my school-related expenses. Did you have mentors? My father was my mentor in the car business, and then I had two coaches who were helpful to me, too. The first was Carl Clayton, a junior high coach. The second was Kyle Whittingham’s father, Fred Whittingham, who was the linebacker coach at BYU when I was there as a linebacker. What three pieces of advice would you give someone you were mentoring? 1. Go to work to work. You should always have a purpose or a goal. 2. Have high regard for integrity and trust. You instill loyalty if people trust you. 3. Always treat people like you like to be treated. How will COVID-19 affect the car industry in the future? From a business perspective, the pandemic has been positive. Due to it, we’ve made changes in our business model. We have reduced our overhead, flooring expense is down, and our service business is up. The retail market has been surprisingly strong, especially with the shortage of new cars to sell. However, with the reduction of new cars, the used car market is extremely strong and has helped us find ways to procure more used cars at higher profit margins. Because of the pandemic, the manufacturers want the dealers to live on a less-day supply of new cars. Doing that will help the cost of flooring both for the manufacturer and the dealer. It is hard to predict the future and when the supply chain will be restored to full production. 6
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