Logistics Tool Kit
Specialized Transportation - A High Value Perspective
There are as many forms of transportation as there are goods and services in our economy to move. It would take the entire space the editor has generously allotted here to list most of them. Many transportation companies and logistics companies aspiring to be transportation companies attempt to be wide ranging experts. The buyer frequently hears “we can do that” to almost any service request on the table; the reality often lies in the rest of the story. “We only do well activities that are our core service offering.”
There are numerous and successful examples of transportation companies specializing in specific market sectors and they have generally been the more successful over the long term. The evolution of the Nadiscorp transportation business has followed a focused path. Acquire, and build organically, on a narrow front. That strategy continues to be more concentrated and that focusing activity remains a key element of today’s business.
Making a decision on your core market sectors is the easy part. Keeping your sales force and operating people executing against that decision is a daily grind.
If your decisions are driven by business sector, revenue, mix, mode or any other criteria, everyone in the organization needs to know it, own it, wear it and be reminded of it constantly. There is no other way.
If your decision is to be a specialized transportation company and not a general freight hauler, then anything you do outside those boundaries will risk profitability and tarnishing your reputation with service problems. It is easy to be optimistic about new revenue, particularly in a soft market; the reality is, if it’s not the right revenue you can do the organization harm.
At Nadiscorp, transportation to the manufacturers of high value products is a key market we service. We made this decision based on an understanding of our core competencies and a clear vision of where we could contribute and compete in the Canadian transportation industry.
This was based partially on the early genesis of the company but more fundamentally on our belief in our knowledge of what our clients and the market defined as success. When looking for acquisitions these were always the first criteria: Who were the clients, and in what sector was the target company operating?
Growing the business has followed the same track. Do not go beyond the boundaries of the sector; offer a superior product and be maniacal about customer service. While all business starts and ends with the client, there are important elements involved throughout – the people, processes and systems being the most important, after the client. We have paid significant attention to the details around these parts of our high value services business.
If you are responsible for handling an intricate piece of equipment, whatever size it may be, you have on your shoulders added responsibility. Mostly, you are not dropping that equipment on a pallet at some loading dock, but are going to the client’s customer and interacting with those people, as if you were the client.
Installation, training and some level of technical expertise are involved with the typical high value services transaction. Our people need to be knowledgeable on many levels within differing industry groups and be the presentable and articulate face that our client and our company needs on a daily basis. We work hard to ensure that the “ambassadorship” is always present.
We follow a generic form of process control that includes documented standard operating procedures (SOP’s), by client. All process flows are charted to facilitate training and understanding. Each one is specifically customized for the individual client, depending on the requirements that are developed at the start of the relationship. This is a dynamic process that continues to evolve along with our clients business and our ever-increasing value enhancements.
The business technology piece is always out there. It is important as a specialized transportation company that the hardware and software fit the model. The unique way that a high value client requires information, and the type of information needed, must dictate systems selection decisions. For example, real time notification of serial number-related activities is not a requirement in many transportation services relationships; in high value it certainly is.
Strategic outsourcing is the way of the future. Our clients and prospective clients need a focused solution from Nadiscorp that will drive out cost from their own operations. The design of a network as an end-to-end solution will enable us, as the outsourced network manager, to provide the efficiencies needed by the client. This will be accomplished through systems, partnerships and scalability.
The baseline in all business relationships is what continuing and sustaining value do you bring to your clients business? In our high value services business we have many long-term relationships that have advanced because of a flexible approach, based on the certainty of knowing the sector and using that knowledge to drive out cost at every opportunity.
The cost reduction component is always there and moves to the forefront as the business cycle moves through a period of slow growth. Having a network that is broad in the sector but narrowly focused on high value permits us to develop cost saving and value enhancing solutions while maintaining acceptable margins.
We are all on the threshold of new web-based tools that will change the way parts of our business operate and at Nadiscorp we are launching enhanced web visibility, developing the use of chat rooms for our clients and stakeholders and using web-based training for our employees and alliance partners. These are exciting and energizing activities and thinking about what is next is often more fun than today’s reality. Transaction by transaction, operational execution is how you retain your clients over the long term.
The business revolves around people. Having dedicated and loyal people and growing them to become better is what will ultimately make any of us successful. That task, and keeping everyone focused on sticking to the plan, is management’s every day job.