Road Trip to The Big Apple!

Let me start by painting a picture of where this blog is being written from...

I’m sat on a rooftop terrace in Brooklyn, looking across the water at the skyline of New York City. The One World Trade Centre dominates the view, surrounded by a sea of equally impressive buildings; all almost unimaginably tall and dominating. The sun is bouncing off the buildings, giving almost a halo effect surrounding them. It’s beyond beautiful.

The purpose of this trip to New York isn’t a holiday though; it’s strictly business (with a little bit of leisure thrown in for good measure!)

Akeno have been invited by the Global Jaguar Land Rover team, to visit their North America Head Quarters as part of an ongoing project on Aftersales optimisation. As part of the project, we have been invited to visit Retailers in both the US and the UK in order to identify best practices. The US leg of the journey takes us to New York.

We have visited the North America Head Quarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, before moving onto a JLR dual site in White Plains, then to a Land Rover site in Glen Cove, Long Island.

It’s been fascinating to work with our American cousins and to understand the differences between the US and the UK markets. We have seen fantastic examples of best practice, which we have photographed and noted down to feed into the next phase.

Everyone has been friendly and welcoming, with a big focus on feeding us! We’ve had the biggest sandwiches, the biggest slices of pizza, and the biggest (and most delicious!) ice cream cake! Who knew that ice cream cake was even a thing; and I’m not talking Arctic Roll! American ice cream cake is a huge slab of ice cream, with a layer of crushed Oreo-style chocolate sprinkles in the middle….amazing!

It’s been a brilliant trip; productive and enjoyable in equal measure. Next stop is back to the UK to present the findings, before we shape the next phase of transformation and innovation. However, I think I have already found the secret to a happy and productive work place….ice cream cake….!