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photo by steed media service
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Senior Manager, Office of Inclusion and Diversity, American Honda
As an indubitable automotive aficionado, Marc Burt audaciously
prognosticates that the auto industry will undergo such a metamorphosis
in the next few years that it may be scarcely recognizable to car
consumers and connoisseurs alike.
“The industry is
topsy-turvy. I would expect that the industry will be very different in
five years than it looks today,” says Burt, the senior manager for the
office of inclusion and diversity at American Honda. “I think the
landscape is changing on the dealer side, primarily because of the
shifts in market shares of the manufacturers.”
Correspondingly, minority contractors’ positioning among automakers can
be assessed as equally tenuous and precarious. Burt attended the recent
Detroit Automotive Symposium to alert African American vendors, who’ve
traditionally worked with domestic automakers, of the opportunities
with Honda. “The reason I come here is because I enjoy getting an
opportunity to find out what’s happening here in the way of minority
suppliers who wish to do business in our industry, and specifically
with our company,” he says of the Torrance, Calif.-based Honda. “Our
company has been a long-term supporter of Rainbow/PUSH, and it’s good
for us to have access and have dialogue with organizations that have
dialogue with minority dealers and suppliers.” For more information,
log onto www.honda.com. – terry shropshire
For more information, log onto www.honda.com.
