Oct
Logistics Is an Organizational Ecosystem
Every department within an organization has value and makes an impact on others. However, no other department makes a whole-organization impact like logistics does. This is because logistics is influenced by other departments and influences their ability to do what they do. And it’s because of this interconnectedness and immediate ability to impact the bottom line that CEOs care about logistics more than ever before.
After all, logistics is far more than the movement of products throughout an organizational footprint and its respective market. In fact, this is only one-fifth of what makes for a successful logistics program. Movement of information, cost, service and time, and integration are the other components of such a program. How other departments within an organization support these areas in their own way impacts the ability of logistics to uphold their end of the relationship, which in turn impacts other departments in countless financial, operational, and informational ways.
It’s no wonder then that so many CEOS care about logistics — it is truly the circulatory system of the entire organization. It moves products, resources, information, and capital, but it ultimately enables the company to make money, operate efficiently, and achieve corporate goals. It truly is the heart of the organization.
Related Reading: Six Logistics Questions for Senior Executives
As a trusted advisor to your clients, it’s critical that their CEOs and other executive leaders understand the impact that logistics makes on the performance of their organizations. Your clients may be focused on navigating other challenges and objectives, but it’s essential that logistics be among them. There are numerous untapped opportunities and trends that those leaders can and should leverage to impact the bottom line. Let’s explore some of these below and why CEOs are giving them increased attention.
Leveraging Untapped Opportunities
Perhaps more than any other function within an organization, there are a number of opportunities available for your clients’ leaders to take advantage of to drive improved performance and results. These vary widely from expanding software and online technology offerings due to greater investor and developer interest to predictive analytics for a greater understanding of customer habits and outcomes in e-commerce. Leaders that are taking advantage of these new opportunities are seeing the results they need.
Never before has logistics had these resources available, enabling your clients to dig into this function, understand the drivers that influence performance, and put data to work for short- and long-term results. Encourage your manufacturing and distribution clients to explore these solutions. While logistics is a piece of an overall supply chain, remember that logistics impacts the entire business — efforts made here will drive the positive change your clients are looking for to succeed in the months and years ahead.
Capitalizing on Emerging Trends
Transparency has been a significant topic in logistics for a number of years, but it’s even more critical today as your manufacturing and distribution clients seek to better understand their options for shipping partners and the marketplace overall. While new online marketplaces are available for your clients to find and obtain quotes from various shippers, what matters most now is alignment between these two parties to avoid shipping delays, costly misunderstandings, and administrative headaches involved with failures. Encourage your clients to spend more time understanding their shipping partners prior to engaging them — doing so may help to avoid significant time and resource losses later.
Additionally, logistics is seeing an increase in career opportunities. Just a few years ago, nearly $20 trillion in goods moved throughout the U.S. transportation network alone, and that figure is expected to nearly double by 2045. This level of growth means that companies will need to expand upon their internal logistics teams to ensure they’re able to keep up with the growth of the industry. Work closely with your clients to help them understand what is needed in their logistics function to ensure it has the talent needed to keep it running smoothly. Their talent also serves as a competitive advantage, so it’ll be critical that they have a) the right positions established and b) the right people to fill them.
Related Reading: Using Logistics as a Competitive Advantage
Adapting to Change
It’s no secret that the pandemic forced companies rapidly shift gears to maintain operations and protect what revenue they could despite shifts in demand. With consumers moving in mass to online ordering for their goods, even for goods that previously might not have been ordered online, companies rapidly made changes to meet demand wherever and however they could by investing in e-commerce, people, assets, and more. This includes finding suppliers that are closer to home, reducing the need for certain types of freight providers while increasing demand on others. As a result, companies should pay close attention to pricing from their carrier partners.
Closely related to this is ongoing optimization. This touches on virtually everything we’ve already discussed in this post, as nearly every aspect of supply chain operations has opportunities for optimization. As you help your clients’ CEOs care about logistics more and more, consider solutions for bringing ongoing optimization into the logistics program. From increasing the amount of data captured for greater transparency to leveraging technologies such as sensors, warehouse systems, fleet telematics, and more to greater end-to-end tracking and identification of cost-savings opportunities.
We’re Your Partner for Executive Buy-In and Guidance
As your logistics optimization resource, Brady Partners is uniquely positioned to not only help your client CEOs care about logistics but also to assist you in leveraging these emerging trends, new opportunities, and chances to address change in their organizations. We partner with trusted advisors to manufacturing and distribution companies to help them make their logistics function and their team a reliable driver of positive financial and operational results.
It all starts with a logistics health check — a complimentary analysis of your clients’ logistics to identify cost savings, efficiencies, and other improvements. Even if your clients already have a polished logistics function, our team can serve to justify and validate decisions made and programs implemented to advocate for additional resources or support.
Get in touch with us today to put this solution to work for your clients.