Editor's Viewpoint
Leadership in Logistics
Quick fixes can often keep a company alive. Such stopgap fixes can end the bleeding for a short time. But when the hurdles to mitigate are too high, new business ideas, often unsettling or controversial, are required to put the company back on track. Today, insightful ideas and leadership are more critical than ever before. Certainly a rising number of companies are learning that leadership in the field of logistics can distinguish and transform an organization not only at the top, but profoundly at a grassroots level.
David Poirier, Executive Vice President and CIO, Hudson’s Bay Company, spoke recently at a Council of Logistics Management, Toronto Roundtable, symposium and clearly articulated a charismatic vision of leadership that largely pertained to HBC’s leaders and people who take charge and responsibility for their work within as well as outside the limelight.
HBC, which had a reactive and misaligned HR policy a few years ago, has formed alliances with companies that compete, such as Oracle, Microsoft and IBM, to create a showcase of excellence in terms of business practices. This technology is helping create a 360-degree view of customers, products and operations. It is also creating greater client retention rates and contributing to streamlined procurement processes.
But technology wasn’t the most important part of this HBC transformation. The vision to transform HBC called for a realignment of values throughout the organization. Product, technology and even location were not considered “sustainable advantages” to HBC. But people, the company’s greatest asset, were singled out as the means to create “full potential performance” through a comprehensive approach that put a premium on values such as learning, sharing, listening. Mr. Poirier admitted to CLM delegates that “it might sound strange for a CIO to discuss this soft stuff,” but the metrics to bolster corporate performance have proven to be amazing.
Mr. Poirier noted that within three years we’ll see new ways of doing business at HBC created by people working within an organization that is “value-based.”
As you read this issue of LQ, you’ll find it’s written by leaders in this exciting field, who have stimulating and insightful ideas to share with our time-crunched readership. I believe we have a rich menu of editorial to choose from and we don’t expect you to read everything. Perhaps only those things that are germane to your work today. Nevertheless, as evidenced by Mr. Poirier’s presentation, articles about leadership for today’s logistics professional are certainly rising in value on today’s business agenda, and we’re looking forward to providing more coverage about this interesting subject.