Carter Myers Automotive has spent the last decade turning its employee ownership model into more than a perk by using it to connect with a new generation that values purpose as much as pay.
Let’s rewind: The Virginia-based group, led by President and CEO Liza Borches, has been employee-owned since 1979, but for a long time that structure looked like a traditional retirement plan.
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Associates earned shares through an ESOP, and most saw it as a long-term benefit rather than an active part of their work.
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However, that began to change around 2010, when Borches and her father started asking what the next chapter of the company should look like.
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If they wanted to grow beyond three stores, she believed every employee needed to think and act like an owner, not just collect the rewards of one.
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What they’re saying: “I had been back with the company about five years at that time,” Borches told Daily Dealer Live hosts Sam D’Arc and Uli de’ Martino. “And my dad and I were starting to talk about what the future looks like? Are we going to grow or are we just going to be a three-dealership group here in Virginia?”
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She added, “It really hit me one day, when I was talking to a potential dealer who was looking to maybe sell a store, about what it meant to have employee ownership.”
From that moment, ownership became part of the culture and something each employee thought about daily, not just at the end of their career.
What changed: New hires now learn from day one that being an owner means taking responsibility for how the business performs, not just for their own role.
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“We didn’t want it to just be a retirement plan,” Borches said. “It was about building a community of people where everybody is an owner, thinks like an owner, and treats every customer like an owner.”
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As she explained: Customers naturally want to talk to the owner because they trust that person can make decisions and take extra care. So her goal was to make sure every associate carried that same mindset.
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In practice, that means employees share both the benefits and the accountability that come with ownership.
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“We all have some of that responsibility on our shoulders every night,” she said. “We’re going to share in the responsibility. We’re going to share in the success. We’re going to share in the profits.”
The best part: She said that sense of shared responsibility, Borches said, has become a powerful draw for the next generation of automotive professionals.
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“In this next generation, they don’t want to just come somewhere and clock in and clock out. They do want to be inspired, and they want to feel like they have ownership. And so, one of the things that we talk about in our new-hire orientation is that they are getting the benefit of being an owner, but they’re sharing in that ownership. So they’re not the only one leaving at night, turning off that light, and going home with 100% of the responsibility on their shoulders.”
Bottom line: CMA’s model gives them that. Employees have a stake in the company’s success, but they also have support behind them. And with that, they get a real taste of what it means to make an impact, but without carrying the full weight of running a business alone.
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