A deal was taking shape on Friday. Then, in the 11th hour, medium and heavy-duty trucks came out of the agreement and the whole thing fell apart. In this conversation, former auto supply chain executive Jan Griffiths goes beyond the headlines and into the room: how high-stakes negotiations are really won, and why the current approach scares her.
What we get into:
→ The 11th-hour collapse: what was on the table between the U.S. and Canada, and what derailed it
→ Tariffs are a tax. The importer pays it, and there's only so much a business can absorb before it lands on you
→ Why tit-for-tat is an entry-level approach, and what long-term negotiations with a country demand instead
→ It's not what the tool is, it's how you use it: a tariff as a tool vs. a tariff as a battering ram
→ The negotiation masterclass: know the culture, know the person, bring the experts, game out the what-ifs
→ The move that freaks people out: why you sit on the SAME side of the table
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The Automotive Leaders Podcast is hosted by Jan Griffiths, the champion for culture change in the automotive industry. From a farm in Wales to the C-suite of a $3 billion Tier-1 supplier, Jan built her career inside this industry. Now she's out to transform it.
Her argument is blunt. The pressure on this industry isn't letting up. The survivors will be the ones who reinvent how they work. Speed wins. Everyone else gets left behind.
Every episode, Jan sits down with the leaders driving that change. Real conversations about tariffs, supply chain shocks, EV uncertainty, AI, and the shift from command-and-control to authentic, human-centered leadership.
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