DORIAN SCOTT BOYLAND

I entered the showroom of Mercedes Benz of South Orlando, where Dorian Boyland had agreed to meet me for his interview.  It was not surprising that he was all tied up (so to speak) when we arrived, but that was okay.  The wait had its own payoff; we ran into Rev. Barnes, Macedonia Baptist Church, Eatonville and Jameer Nelson of the Orlando Magic, both who make good subjects for Onyx Magazine and obviously great clients for Mercedes Benz of South Orlando.

After a few minutes, Dorian Scott Boyland, the fit and trim 6’4” footer, walked toward our tiny entourage of three, and with a big winning smile, greeted us heartily and invited us into his spacious office where the four of us sat and engaged in light conversation before going into the interview.

Born in 1955 in the High Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, Dorian Boyland admits to growing up as a latchkey kid, although he didn’t know it at the time.  His family moved to the Jewish upper middle class neighborhood of South Shore in Chicago in 1962. South Shore boasts its small laid back beach, yacht clubs, terrific views of the skyline and excellent integrated schools. So why am I not surprised to learn that Dorian made good grades and that his best subject was mathematics.  He loved numbers and working with formulas. Not only was Dorian a good student, he was never a problem child.  With the help of his older sister, Brenda who is currently one of his managers, he always kept out of trouble.

Reflecting back on his first day in elementary school, says Dorian, “My mom said that day, ‘Dorian, this is the first day of your school. This is important.  You’re going to be going to school for at least 13 years and hopefully 18 or more years, start today understanding what this is about.’  I didn’t understand it then, but I do now.”  Dorian was an excellent student throughout elementary school and got As” in high school.  “School became quite easy to me.  It was second nature, this is what I needed to do,” he said.  In addition to that, says he, “I was blessed with being a good athlete.”  Ninety nine percent of the kids in his graduating class went to college and of course, he was one of them. 

Dorian is quite humble about all of his accomplishments, yet proud to have raised the bar for ensuing African American auto dealers.  He always wanted to do well by his mother who never went to college and tried to act as though she was standing over his shoulder every step of the way.  With pride, he boasts never in his life having been arrested, never smoked, never even had a beer, never experimented with any other form of drugs or alcohol and “tried not to curse”.  [AMAZING!]   He believes that to guarantee success, one must be a “good kid.”  As a child, he loved, feared and idolized his mother––not famous athletes as many kids do today.  Says he, “Back then, you had to clean the house and do your homework, or you didn’t get to go out and play.  When my report card came home, it was mandatory that I had earned a 3.0.

Dorian’s mother was an accountant for Montgomery Wards, and as a six or seven year old, his number one question to her was, “How do banks make money?”   It’s obvious that he figured that out quite some time ago.

Like most moms, Dorian’s mother made it clear that she believed that a good education and staying out of trouble were prerequisites to success––a concept that she insisted that her children grasped early in life.  She was only 5’ 6” and tough.  Dorian never could understand how she could do all that she did as a single parent. 

Along the way, Dorian brought balance into his life by getting involved in sports.  He played basketball and baseball, but his first love was basketball.  Being blessed with outstanding athletic ability coupled with his academic performance paid off in a basketball athletic scholarship to the University of Wisconsin.  While there, he played both baseball and basketball.  Four years later, literally two days after graduating with a business degree and a minor in computer science, he became the highest African American draft pick for the Pittsburg Pirates baseball team (the second pick of that year and highest Black pick ever for the state of Wisconsin). Playing first base following Willie Stargill, he stayed with the Pirates from 1978-1983 contributing to the Pirates’ victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the 1979 World Series.  Along with winning the World Series, one of his most memorable moments with the Pirates was his very first Major League game, which was played in Chicago.  His mother, sister and about 100 of his friends were there to see him get his first Major League hit.

Life after baseball found Dorian entering the corporate world, it seemed that everything he touched turned to gold.  “Some people are chosen,” said Dorian, “and whoever is, has to give back.”   He says that he has always understood the responsibility of success.  “I also know that if you’re not good early in the ball game, it will come back to haunt you for the rest of your life… All of my bully friends are either dead or in jail.”

Looking back over his period of preparation, Dorian fondly recalls some of his elementary and high school teachers: Mrs. Muse, English; Miss Map, math; Mr. Cat, gym; Mr. Winsky, French and Mr. Crow, chemistry.  He was captain of the patrol boys in elementary school and captain of all his sports teams.  In college, he was vice-president of his fraternity (Alpha Phi Alpha), president of the Black Student Union Association and captain of the baseball and basketball teams.  He is still in touch with over 25 of his teachers and college buddies who are guests in his home two to three times a year.

After playing ball and retiring at the end of eight seasons with the Pirates, and one with the Giants, he went to Portland, Oregon to take a job with Intel.  Ron Tonkin, who is one of the largest auto dealer group owners in the nation and part owner of the Portland Beavers baseball team, had a great influence in what was to become Dorian Boyland’s “success story”.   He asked Dorian to come to his office, because he wanted to talk to him about the car business––he thought Dorian would be good at it.

Ron Tonkin was not in his office at the time of Dorian’s appointment, but he had left word that he wanted him to work as a salesman at his dealership in Portland.  At that time, Dorian had no aspiration of ever owning a dealership.   He was low keyed, but competitive by nature and had no intentions of tackling anything that he felt he couldn’t handle successfully.  He originally thought he was going to be hired as a manager of the Portland operation, but instead, he was hired as a salesman, but he had 60 days to decide whether or not he wanted to continue in that line of business.  He was so good at it that he became Tonkin’s number one man in sales.  Not only was he a good salesman, he took advantage of this opportunity to learn the business thoroughly.

It was around that time, the 59th day that Dorian’s grandmother died in Seattle so he went to be with his father and was gone for three days.  When he returned home, the phone was ringing off the hook.  It was Ron Tonkin.  Under the impression that Dorian was quitting, he offered him the job of assistant manager.  Nine months later, Tonkin bought another store, moved some of his people to the new store and two months later, Dorian became manager of the Portland location.  He did that for a year and a half.  This is when he decided that he wanted to be more than just a manager, because he was depressed and very much dissatisfied with the treatment that the managers imposed on their customers and their employees.  Says he, “Managers would lie, hold people’s money, throw keys on the roof, hide cars, curse…the car business back then is totally different from what it is today.  There was no mandate by the manufacturers or customer satisfactory ratings…at that time when I became a manager in 1984, I said, ‘I am going to change this.’”  So he did what he could by changing the way customers and employees were treated, one at a time where ever he was operating.  So it was difficult to go against the grain in treating customers nice at a dealership that wasn’t known for that.

In 1985, Tonkin once again requested to see Dorian, this time in his office.  When Dorian arrived, Tonkin’s conversation was all about competition and numbers.  “That was right down my alley,” Dorian said.  He didn’t suspect that Tonkin was asking him to become his partner. During that time, a lot of pressure was being placed on the industry for minorities to run or be partners in automobile dealerships.

Martin Luther King Jr, Jessie Jackson, Malcom X had fought hard for that, declaring, “we’ve had enough.”   It was time for the representation in the automobile industry to be like the representation in the United States.  Said Dorian, “Now I knew that I had some leverage, more importantly, I got responsibility, because if I fail as one of the first minority dealers in the country, those behind me won’t have a chance.  That was the burden I was stuck with…I knew if the program was going to continue and the program was going to be good, I had to set an example that we…as Black folks can operate a dealership and do it the right way, not ask for a hand out, and then pave the way so that when anybody else comes through and wants to do this, it will be easier for them.”  Dorian was one of the few that did not have to go through the minority training program, because of his experience in the business.

In 1987, Boyland opened a Dodge dealership in Portland, Oregon, a town, which only had four or five percent Blacks.  He operated as Tonkin’s partner, owning 30% of the store, which soon became the number one store in the city. 

A year and a half later, Miles Bryant, zone manager for Chrysler and one of the oldest automobile dealers in the Midwest, offered him his own store.  At this point, Dorian sold his stock back to Ron Tonkin, tripling his initial investment.

For three months Dorian wasn’t making any money at his new dealership, but he was determined to fix that.  He wasn’t worried about that which he couldn’t control, but that which he could control.  So for three days, he stayed at home dissecting the business and putting together a plan that would guarantee three percent net profit.  When he came back into the office, he met with all of his managers.  With a take no prisoners attitude, all of those who were not in favor of his plan were excused from his organization. 

Dorian believes in taking care of his employees, manufacturers and customers.  Moreover, he has a blessed knack for motivating people.  He believes that, “If we are wrong, we make restitution and move on.  If you are right, we’re right, but” says he, “100 people at this store do not determine my fate…the passion for this business is profit.”

A few years ago––2002, Mercedes-Benz was looking to interest an African American in a dealership.  There had been only three Black family owned dealerships during the past 20 years.  A representative from Mercedes-Benz (his fraternity brother) was sent to him to see if he were interested in applying for a dealership somewhere in the country.  Dorian was aware that CSI scores (customer satisfaction) are very important factor in dealership ratings.  Such relates to service representative, service costs and timing, service quality, service initiation, and service accessibility.  He also knew that this was important to Mercedes-Benz, they were usually among the top in CSI rating.  [In 2004, five dealers exceed the industry average. Mercedes-Benz ranked highest for the second consecutive year, with an overall CSI score of 112.] All of this meant that to own a Mercedes dealership, his organization would have to be on top of their game.

Dorian was invited to meet a committee of 11-12 people, he presented his case and then at 12 noon, someone said, “Your time is up,” and they all, including Dorian, went to lunch together.  The other person who was waiting to see the committee at 1:00 p.m. never got in.  Meanwhile, Dorian was told that he needed to fly to New Jersey to meet Paul Halata, president and CEO, Mercedes-Benz USA.  To Dorian’s surprise, the conversation was centered around golf until Halata finally asked him, “Why should we accept you?” Dorian answered, “I understand the business from A to Z.” That was the right answer.

Dorian’s application was accepted.  He had to decide whether the store would be in Atlanta, Georgia or Orlando, Florida.  He chose the Mall at Millenia.  The land has 30-40% more market value, it is near the freeway and close to Windermere, an affluent area only a few miles from the Mall At Millenia and of further importance, there was only one other Mercedes dealership in the Orlando Metropolitan area of 1,984,855 plus.  So he opened in Orlando with 60 employees.  The first year, he sold more than 600 new cars between April and December.  He services approximately 1500 cars each month.  The saying is, “Once you own a Mercedes dealership, you have arrived.”  Dorian now has 12-dealership empire with over 700 employees.  Black Enterprise Magazine recently cited Dorian Boyland Auto Group as the fourth largest African American dealership in the country with over $391 million in gross sales.  Among his holdings are Dodge, Honda, Ford, Nissan, Hyundai, Acura, Infinity and Mercedes-Benz located in five states: Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. 

Says the shrewd, yet quiet and respected businessman, “I’m passionate about success…if something happens, I want it to happen because it’s supposed to.  I live a quiet life.  I get up early, read the newspaper, watch the headline news two or three times, work out, get dressed and come in to the office at 1:00 p.m. I’m the last one to leave at night.  This is my home, now.  When I come to work tomorrow and the store hasn’t burned down, my employees are still here and I’m still making three percent, I am ready to go wherever the ride takes me.”