LAS VEGAS -

Mark O’Neil, the newly minted chief operating officer of Cox Automotive, is staying put in Virginia, he tells Auto Remarketing during an on-site interview at the NADA Convention & Expo this past weekend.

He has no plans to move to Atlanta, where Cox Automotive and its parent (Cox Enterprises) are headquartered.

That’s no slight on the city; by all accounts, the company certainly plays an active role in the city’s economy and community.

It’s just a new way of thinking at a company, and within an automotive industry, that’s increasingly global. 

While much of Cox Automotive’s leadership certainly still resides in Georgia’s capital, many of its top-line executives are situated throughout the country.

If you think about O’Neil’s direct reports, some are located in Atlanta, yes. But many others are based in places like Carmel, Ind.; Austin, Texas; and Burlington, Vt.

And just as those cities represent various corners and alcoves on the U.S. map, much of Cox Automotive’s business model resembles a cross-section of the retail and wholesale auto industry at large.

Auctions, classifieds listings, vehicle research/pricing guide, inventory management, websites, software, transportation, and so on.

These services, along with senior leadership located throughout the country, reflect Cox Automotive's rapid acquisition expansion in recent years that culminated in perhaps the crown jewel of all the purchases: Dealertrack Technologies, where O’Neil had been chief executive officer.

But it also reflects a changing mindset towards senior leadership and Atlanta: they're “connected, not relocated,” as O’Neil put it.

“I’ve had long discussions with the senior leadership of Cox Enterprises about the importance of building a global company; that if we are going to be a global company, we cannot be Atlanta-centric. Because the world does not revolve around Atlanta,” he said.

Cox Automotive is introducing a new approach, one that will be a “multi-year effort,” where the line of thinking is, “it’s important to be connected to Atlanta; it’s not necessarily important to live in Atlanta,” O’Neil said.

“It’s not necessarily important to think about your job being there, whether it’s my job or (chief product officer Rick Gibbs’) new job,” he said.

“You can be almost anywhere in today’s environment. But wherever you are, you must be connected to all of those who you work with,” O’Neil said. “And that can be a virtual connection; it doesn’t have to be physical.

“And the ideal is probably a hybrid, right? We’re going to do so many meetings a year in person; we’re going to do so many events in person; and we’re going to do so many virtually,” he said.

“And, oh by the way, in between, we’re all going to be at clients and be distributed around doing other things, where we’ll also connect,” O’Neil said. “So, connected, not relocated. It’s also much more efficient for the company.”

Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of stories about Cox Automotive's leadership stemming from Auto Remarketing's interviews with O'Neil and Cox Automotive president Sandy Schwartz at the NADA Convention.