Informational Interview

Basher El-fiky

8527 Leesburg Pike, Vienna, VA, 22182 • basher.el-fiky@infinitioftysonscorner.com • 703-663-7021

Director of Financial Services at Infiniti of Tysons Corner

I chose to interview Mr. Basher El-fiky at Infiniti of Tysons Corner. We met at his showroom office on Saturday the 26^th of February, a day on which 11 cars had already been sold. While this number may seem high, it is typical of a small, luxury store at month-end. Also, the pressure to meet quotas is high and aggressive pricing ensues.

I asked Mr. El-fiky about his thoughts about different auto companies which have the potential growth. Although he works at Infiniti, he has a high level of experience in the auto market. He answered my question by saying that Hyundai Company is growing too fast for three reasons.

• First, Hyundai has a great strategy for advertising their products whether on TV or in the internet. They also successfully target the middle class.
• Second, Hyundai is competing with everyone; they have SUVs, economic cars, small vehicles, and luxury ones.
• Third, the price point strategy is interesting. Hyundai provides affordable cars and allows customers to negotiate their prices.

During our conversation, I asked Mr. El-fiky about his job and his responsibilities. He has to complete and organize the bank and DMV paperwork as well as financing for customers, so he said he does a lot of paperwork.

He mentioned that Infiniti provides training programs for new employees. I asked him about the types of training programs Infiniti assigns specifically and how long they take. He replied that Infiniti trains new sales people on greeting customers, negotiating with them, paperwork completion and learning more about Infiniti’s products. He added that two perfect weeks without interruptions would be enough time for initial training. Furthermore, Mr. El-fiky said that the most important skill sets that he would like to find in new candidates are that they are well spoken and outgoing.

I also asked him about Infiniti’s future hiring plans and potential employees. He said that IT people are the market now, and they are important. These jobs are most likely back office jobs. The reason is that customers do not have enough time to visit four or five showrooms to compare different cars; they search online. Therefore, the creation of a virtual store on the website is extremely beneficial because it shows each feature in the car and it makes comparisons with different cars. He said that all of this can be done at home. We also talked about the jobs that his Infiniti office offers, and he said they may be seeking sales people.

Finally, we talked about how auto companies differentiate themselves. Mr. El-fiky said there is no specific way; however, price, inventory and incentives can differentiate companies. An example of incentives would be long maintenance programs or sometimes electronic devices like an iPod. At the end he said, “Customers’ satisfaction is the most important thing for us.”