Why does traditional consulting fail in automotive retail?

Traditional consulting was designed for large corporations with dedicated transformation teams and the internal bandwidth to absorb and execute externally produced recommendations. Most dealer groups, even large ones, have none of these things. When a consulting firm completes an engagement, it produces a deliverable and departs. The strategy is handed to an operational leadership team already running at capacity, managing manufacturer relationships, staff turnover, inventory pressures and margin compression simultaneously. The strategy sits, is partially implemented, and is shelved when the next crisis arrives. This is a failure of the model, not the dealer group.

How is HCP Group's advisory model different from McKinsey, BCG, or Bain?

McKinsey, BCG, and Bain are generalist strategy firms staffed primarily by analysts and consultants who have studied businesses but rarely run them. HCP Group principals have held P&L responsibility for multi-billion pound dealer groups. Every engagement is led by a principal who has operated at the level of the challenge being addressed. We do not produce strategies we are not prepared to stand behind through implementation, and we are present throughout execution, not just at the point of delivery.

Advisory

Why the Consulting Model Fails Automotive Businesses

Q: What is implementation-led advisory and how is it different from traditional consulting?

Implementation-led advisory does not end at the strategy document. It continues through execution, sitting alongside leadership, attending the difficult conversations, adjusting the plan when reality demands it, and holding the organisation accountable to the commitments it has made. This requires advisors who have actually run automotive businesses, not analysts who have studied them. An operator knows which recommendations will survive contact with a franchise agreement, a manufacturer's area manager, or a workforce that has seen five restructurings in ten years.

Q: What should I ask an automotive advisory firm before engaging them?

Ask one question: will you still be here when this is being implemented? If the answer is qualified, "we can provide implementation support at additional cost", you have your answer about where their accountability ends. The firms that produce the best outcomes in automotive advisory are those that cannot afford to produce bad recommendations, because they are present when those recommendations are tested.

Raj Kohli

Founder & CEO, HCP Group

April 2026●5 min read

Strategy diagram showing Growth, Innovation and Leadership drawn on glass — why consulting fails in automotive

The structural limitations of traditional consulting in the automotive sector - and why implementation-led advisory produces fundamentally different outcomes. When a firm delivers a strategy and departs, accountability departs with it.

The Structural Problem

The traditional consulting model was not designed for the automotive retail sector. It was designed for large corporations with dedicated transformation teams, change management functions and the internal bandwidth to absorb and execute externally produced recommendations. Most dealer groups - even large ones - have none of these things.

When a consulting firm completes an engagement, it produces a deliverable. That deliverable is handed to an operational leadership team that is already running at capacity, managing manufacturer relationships, staff turnover, inventory pressures and margin compression simultaneously. The strategy sits. It is reviewed. It is partially implemented. Then the next crisis arrives and it is shelved.

This is not a failure of the dealer group. It is a failure of the model.

Accountability Without Presence

The consulting model separates the production of strategy from its execution. The firm that designs the plan is not present when the plan meets reality. It does not sit in the Monday morning management meeting when the used car manager pushes back. It does not navigate the manufacturer's response when a proposed restructuring affects franchise terms. It is not there.

This separation is not incidental - it is structural. Consulting firms bill for time and deliverables, not outcomes. Their incentive is to produce work that appears comprehensive and credible, not work that is actually implemented. These are different things.

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A strategy document is not a result. Implementation is the work. Everything before it is preparation.

What Implementation-Led Advisory Looks Like

The alternative is advisory that does not end at the strategy document. It continues through execution - sitting alongside leadership, attending the difficult conversations, adjusting the plan when reality demands it and holding the organisation accountable to the commitments it has made.

This requires advisors who have actually run automotive businesses. Not analysts who have studied them. The difference is significant. An operator knows which recommendations will survive contact with a franchise agreement, a manufacturer's area manager or a workforce that has seen five restructurings in ten years. An analyst does not.

At HCP Group, every engagement is led by principals who have held P&L responsibility for multi-billion pound dealer groups. We do not produce strategies we are not prepared to stand behind through implementation. That is not a positioning statement. It is a structural commitment.

The Question to Ask Any Advisor

Before engaging any advisory firm, ask one question: will you still be here when this is being implemented? If the answer is qualified - "we can provide implementation support at additional cost" - you have your answer about where their accountability ends.

The firms that produce the best outcomes in automotive advisory are the ones that cannot afford to produce bad recommendations, because they are present when those recommendations are tested. That is the model that works.

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