Every department, company and democracy has a leader for a good reason. The one thing most of us would agree on is that with any given issue there are as many opinions as there are stars in the sky… and someone needs to make the final call. I like the sayings “a camel was a horse designed by committee” and “too many cooks spoil the broth”, and of course to counter that “two heads are better than one”.

So how do you decide how much buy-in to get from the troops? When to listen and who to listen too? Who knows best? When and where does “the buck stop here”? Let’s sidetrack for a minute to the fundamental principals of executive decision making at the highest level… business innovation. In simple terms, at the front end of the process every idea is a good idea. After every goofy and insightful suggestion is exhausted, the process of elimination occurs to get the best idea in place that can solve the problem or create the new product.

I believe most leaders (be it of a department, a company, or a country) are both effective problem solvers and delegators. The best ones know when to call in specialists to assist and trust them to do the job at hand. The worst ones revert to “If I want your opinion I’ll give it to you”. Like most things it’s a matter of balance and from my viewpoint it’s a hard balance to achieve.

As an observer of leaders within the transportation sector for the last twenty years, I’ve seen all kinds. Some who are close minded to any new thinking, some that can’t decide, some that decide to quick, some that flip flop, some that run decisions by everybody (including close relatives), others that don’t let anyone in on what they’re thinking, a few that are extremely decisive, some surprisingly approachable, and those that are for the most part unapproachable by design. The commonality is they all run successful companies, have team members that complement their strengths and weaknesses and somehow find a way to keep all the balls bouncing in more or less the right direction.

In an ideal world I believe a good leader gets buy-in at the senior management level and that their senior managers are in touch with the needs and thinking of the troops. Decisions are not a democracy or a dictatorship. And a good leader knows when and how to bring the troops together, is decisive, cares about the people that make up their team and doesn’t keep that fact a secret.

I continue to learn about the decision making process and the responsibility of being a leader:

·         You can’t touch everything and if you are attempting to, you are not building an effective team around you or giving your people the opportunities they deserve

·         You have to let people fail to learn and grow, and many people have more capabilities then you or they are aware of. It is our job as leaders to understand their strengths and steer them to the right seat on the bus within or outside our organizations

·         When your level of confidence is based on what you know and not a tactic to cover up what you don’t know, it is a powerful tool in business and in life

Lee’s Quote for the day J

“Forget process, bonuses and perks of all kind. Honest and frequent communication is the most powerful tool we have to build the teams, the relationships and the success we deserve… we have the skills, we just need to remind ourselves to use them on a regular basis!”

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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There are notable advantages and disadvantages related directly to the size of your organization.  As a small company, it would be helpful at times to think like a bigger firm and have more processes and procedures in place. The opposite is always true; with larger companies favouring process over the kind of entrepreneurial decision making that made their companies a success in the first place.

It’s basically a spin on the economic theory of marginal utility. What are you willing to give up of “A” to get more of “B”? There is always a trade off. I think it would be an interesting exercise for employees, managers and owners alike to put on a different thinking hat the next time a decision has to be made.

I had occasion to do this in a small way a couple of weeks ago. We had to decide whether to replace or replenish an $8,000 colour laser printer. The consumables on the 4 year old printer were getting expensive and there were 3 costly imaging units to replace. We also had a number of supplies for the existing printer we couldn’t return. The decision, see if we could sell the existing printer and supplies first on eBay. The result, there wasn’t much demand or value for either. The end game, we discovered there were plenty of supplies for our existing printer on eBay, at a fraction of what we had been paying…making our existing printer viable to operate again.

I had put on the hat I wore when I started the company. A time when every dollar counted. I believe it was the right decision and sends a message within our company that if we can save money (with the very important condition of not compromising quality or wasting valuable time)… it’s the right way to go.

My job has allowed me to chat extensively with transport carriers of all descriptions and sizes. I’ve heard lots of stories like this (on a much bigger scale) where hundreds of thousands of dollars have been saved by putting on a thinking hat that was more common “back in the day”.  The recession has forced the survivors to get our “mojo workin”… and it’s good for business big and small.

Lee’s quote for the day

“A recession is a great teacher if you choose to listen closely and take your seat at the front of the class.” J

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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Although there are not too many Donald Trump’s or Tiger Woods amongst us, we’ve all set out to accomplish certain things and have achieved them. Whether it’s good health, financial security, a better education or a nicer home for our family, we know the importance of having dreams and making progress towards them.

What a recession teaches us is that it’s one trick to get there and a whole other trick to hang on. A lot of people had to give up on the dreams they had built over these last 2 years. You can put it down to bad luck or bad timing but in many cases it was forgetting to work as hard to hang on to what we’ve achieved as we had to work to achieve them in the first place. The hard work doesn’t stop. For those who waited too long to react it was bad news in a big way.

For those of us still fighting our way back to better times, we have lots of company. At the recent annual dinner put on by The Toronto Transportation Club the spirits of the 600 attendees were notably more positive than the year previous. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but we’re all packing some extra batteries in case it takes longer to see an illuminated economy than anticipated. We won’t take the success we’ve realized over the past 6 months for granted… it was too hard to come by.

Lee’s quote for the day

“One of my father’s favourite sayings was ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ What he failed to share with me was how often and how long the going would be.”

Lee Palmer is the President and Creative Director at Palmer Marketing, a company that specializes in creative marketing and advertising solutions for the transportation industry.

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Teamsters and Freight Carriers Truck Museum in Port Coquitlam has fallen on tough times, but it may flourish again in Merritt, BC. I was in Vancouver last week and dropped in to see curator and director Norm Lynch as he was manning the phones in the front office of the museum's industrial unit in Port Coquitlam.

The collection has moved a couple of times since I first saw it eight years ago. In its present location, the magnificent trucks are more in storage than on display, but the spirit of volunteerism lives on. About half a dozen old timers are milling about the garage in coveralls involved in various tasks. A couple of guys are starting up a BC Telephone 1951 pick up that was recently donated. “Give it lots of gas and full choke,” Lynch hollers. Others are fabricating parts for the latest projects: a 1924 Federal and a 1929 International sitting in pieces on a drop deck.

Lynch tells me he's known the end was coming for about a year now. “The Teamsters aren't that interested in trucks these days. The guys are getting younger. Local 31 is even representing the Chilliwack school district now. Times have changed.”

Lynch who is 70 now, has shepherded the truck collection and archives since 1996, when then-president Garnet Zimmerman asked him to find a truck from 1936 to parade in the Local's 60th anniversary celebrations. The following year the museum was granted its charter and the Aubrey King collection of trucks was added to its roster. Ironically, King was a shipping magnate who had a dispute with the Teamsters and locked up his trucks rather than bargain with the IBT. The Chevrolet Maple Leafs, all made in Oshawa, were retrieved years later from a padlocked warehouse and added to the Teamster Museum in mint condition.

According to Lynch, there has been a lot of interest in acquiring the collection since it became known the Teamsters were going to divest themselves of it. He speaks highly of a proposal from the city of Merritt to house and showcase the exhibits. It's not a done deal yet, but talks are underway to move the trucks there.

It's a wonderful collection from the oldest truck, a 1914 FWD, to Andy Craig's restored 1936 Indiana, the first vehicle driven on the Coquihalla Highway by the trucking legend himself the day the highway first opened. I also love the 1935 Dodge Airflow that could stand up to any modern aero-truck in a wind tunnel test.

Norm Lynch and his group of steadfast volunteers are getting older and he's looking forward to passing the torch. Lynch himself was a heavy haul float driver for Arrow before retiring. “There's two other guys who volunteer here who were originally Teamsters and they're 80 now.”

The visit left me thinking about the significance of the past and the need for keeping a historical record. I do hope Merritt, at the base of the Coquihalla, and a transportation centre in its own right, inherits this collection and does it up right.

Why is it important? Because it represents who we are and how we got here. Trucking is a culture that is rarely considered as such, but so important to the development of the country and our everyday lives. The Teamster and Freight Carriers Museum has to change and be reformatted to stay relevant. As do we all.

And speaking of organizations trying to stay relevant. I landed back in Toronto this week and went directly to the MVSA banquet in Mississauga. MVSA stands for Motor Vehicle Safety Association and has been around since 1947, but don't bother to look it up on Google. It's not there.

I know nothing about this body, except that my old friend David Logan, a legend himself, was a lifetime member, and I was invited to the function by Ken Hellawell, the fellow that taught me to double clutch so long ago, and a former columnist in Truck News. He's also been forever involved and instrumental in running the Ontario Truck Rodeo Championships.

From what I gather, the organization is mostly volunteer, but it probably gets some money from Infrastructure Health and Safety Ontario to operate. They certainly were nice people, mostly representatives of some trucking-related goods and services, from insurance, to parts and accessories, to consultants, safety people, as well as folks from the truck and bus community.

Highlight of the night was the 2011 Safety Motor Transport Award given to Shawn Jameson Safety/Recruiting Manager for SGT of Brampton, Ont. Jameson made some heartfelt comments about the meaning of public safety and society-at-large. He was accompanied by his family and also received a diamond ring and $500.

But just like volunteer staff at the Teamsters Museum, and commercial drivers in general, I noticed this group is also getting long in the tooth. The MVSA has a good crop of retirees, and I'm not suggesting they turn anyone out to pasture, but they could really use a few faces under 50. Ken tells me the organization has been somewhat dormant and is looking to revitalize. In which case here are a few ideas.

Get a website presence. It's absolutely crucial if you want people to know who you are and what you do. Otherwise MVSA is just another acronym like McMaster Vietnamese Student Association, which has a website. It's unthinkable not to be online, especially if you're looking to be relevant and appeal to a new generation.

Go looking for some good people to bolster your ranks (and inject some new ideas). I'll bet dollars to donuts most people in the transportation community have never heard of MVSA, but might be interested if you were to reach out.

Mostly males, and no ethnics, makes an organization dull and less diverse than it could potentially be. I'm not quibbling that Caucasian males aren't great safety people, but no women have won the fleet safety award since it began in 1947? Lots of great women in the industry now. As for ethnic diversity in this group—I didn't see any. Not that I care much. I go to lots of all-white functions, but this group is not really representative of the transportation community as it exists today, ethnically at least.

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I recently interviewed several transportation and logistics service providers whose companies have routinely been named to the prestigious list of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies. They shared many insights about how to remain profitable during times of intense fiscal difficult and how to approach the new growth period. I will be sharing their insights with you over the next few columns. We start with MSM Transportation's Bob Murray.

Q: For the past two years both shippers and carriers have placed an emphasis on cost reduction, perhaps more so than at any time during recent memory. With the economy starting to rebound, do you see the emphasis changing?
Murray: Yes and the reason is that the smarter companies out there have a huge investment in their future footprint in the marketplace and they are looking more to secure capacity today with a focus on value for their dollars spent. The shift is actually from cost reduction to cost control and value. That’s what we have been experiencing with our client base.

Q: How is MSM responding to the new reality?
Murray: We have been working with our customers on identifying and controlling cost drivers. There is a tremendous amount that customers can do to control their own costs. A lot of the costs that are associated with transportation are driven by the dynamics of their own systems, suppliers or their own customers. Many shippers may not realize they do have control over those cost drivers, so we have been working with our customers to help them identify those cost drivers and control them.

Q: How do you address situations where the shipper may not have adequate data to identify practices that are adding to costs?
Murray: Sometimes, even when they have data, it’s hard to get to the cost drivers. You really have to get to the field level and operations to understand what is driving costs. It could involve talking to the people handing freight on the dock and our own operational people who are moving the product. When you pull them all together, you may find there is a tremendous amount that can be done to control costs.

Q: One of the most striking developments during the recession was the placing of increased amounts of freight on the spot market. Industry indexes show that is continuing today. Is this shipper focus on the spot market a trend that is here to stay?
Murray: Certainly technology has brought the ability to attain those spot quotes quickly and that has boosted the use of the spot market. Many companies view the shipping rate as an area to save money but in reality this practice is going to cost shippers significantly over time. Spot quotes are reactionary. When you are requested to place a spot quote you generally don’t have a great deal of information – you don’t know anything about the cost drivers and there is usually very little engagement prior to the spot quote. When a shipper is proactive and works closely with a transportation solutions provider there is a tremendous amount that can be done, as I’ve already mentioned, to identify and deal with the cost drivers. This way cost reductions become sustainable over the long term. The spot market will probably continue to be strong as we work our way through imbalances but it is not sustainable over the long term. In fact, in some cases, it may not even be repeatable.

Q: During the recession, severe revenue drops forced many fleets to reduce spending in a variety of areas, and in many cases customer service suffered. MSM, however, continued to receive very high marks from shippers in our annual Shipper’s Choice award and catch the eye of the judges once again to be named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies. How do you manage to keep expenses in check without allowing customer service to suffer?
Murray: We also looked closely at our costs; it was the only way to survive. But good customer service to us is part of our culture and our systems. We registered our Quality Management System back in 1998 and adopted the ISO Quality system as a framework to document and drive continuous improvement. The focus of our quality system is customer satisfaction. Every system that we employ at MSM is documented, tested, retested and more importantly undergoes continuous improvement which is captured. Over the 13 years that we have been employing this quality system, MSM has been able to improve our best practices.

Q: What do you see as the main challenges ahead?
Murray: We are all trying to find what this “new” economy will be all about. We are all hoping for a full and strong US recovery because we should not kid ourselves, three quarters of Canada’s trade is with the US. By applying what we already know about customer service, we have been able to double our sales within both divisions and we feel very optimistic that this growth trend will continue.

Q: MSM both fine tuned and expanded its service offerings in recent years. How are those changes evolving?
Murray: We had tremendous success last year with two of the larger initiatives which we took on: MSM US Domestic, which operates out of California, and MSM Worldwide. We doubled our sales last year on both fronts and we are really starting to gain some traction on those new markets for us.

Q: MSM is heavily involved in transborder trade. What impact do you see CSA 2010 having on Canadian fleets such as yours operating stateside?
Murray: We operate in California, which is known as probably the toughest jurisdiction to operate in. We have always supported the CSA initiative and have always followed the rules so the impact to our operations is very minimal. We are hoping that the initiative will help remove the carriers who cut corners and refuse to play by the rules. As a shipper, you really have to watch who your transportation providers are because the US is taking the CSA initiative very seriously and have put resources towards enforcement. Shippers working with carriers who are not focused on safety may find they will need to look for new transportation providers.

Q: How much of an impact do you realistically believe a driver shortage will have on carrier growth plans going forward and what is MSM doing to ensure it attracts and retains its employees?
Murray: We have been talking for 20 years about the driver shortage, although most of that was initially in the US. We’ve been really successful with our drivers and owner/operators. Our turnover is almost nil and the only magic is that we simply treat them as one should treat people: with dignity and respect. We hold them in high esteem and we make sure they know that. A lot of our recruiting is done simply by people listening to what our drivers and owner/operators have to say about working at MSM.

I will be back with the insights of another executive in my next blog. In the meantime, if you have a real interest in how to grow your company in the new economy, be sure to attend our third annual Transportation Company Workshop, set for Wednesday, May 25th at the Capitol Centre Banquet Hall in Mississauga. (click here to register: http://www.trucknews.com/workshop/ )

Once again we have partnered with Dan Goodwill and Associates to put together a comprehensive agenda to help you revitalize your transportation business in this time of economic uncertainty and technological change.

We are going to take a deep dive into how to improve the profitability of your transportation business through better information management and by going into detail about how to best approach e-tenders and RFPs.

I will personally be hosting both a retailer and a manufacturer roundtable this time and you will hear first hand from some of the nation’s largest shippers about what they expect in 2011 , both in terms of shipment volumes and their expectations from carriers. I will also host a motor carrier roundtable to discuss successful business development strategies.

And, of course, we will start the morning with the latest economic overview from Scotia Bank’s senior economist, Carlos Gomes. Carlos didn’t flinch with his cautious but optimistic approach last year when others were predicting a double dip recession and he’s been proven right. This year we also have a great close with a session on Customs, with government officials from CBSA going over key changes to border legislation.

Business success in the future will require an integrated communications strategy and increasingly this means using social media. Our workshop includes a session on how to link your brand, web site and blog into a coherent and effective business plan.

And, finally, you won’t be going anywhere in 2011 and beyond without a sound HR plan. Our workshop includes two sessions on how to recruit and retain top talent.
Throw in a delicious lunch and some great networking opportunities and I believe this is an event you should not miss. I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

Continue reading "MSM’s Bob Murray on managing under the new normal" »

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