Today times are different and women play a large role in this sector, holding high-level positions, managing complex networks, and overseeing large workforces. We’re proud to have spotlighted many women during the past four decades who are making history by driving supply chain excellence for their companies and customers. Here’s a glimpse at a few of them:

“I wouldn’t call myself a feminist by any means, but we do have to work harder,” says Jessica Yurgaitis of Industrial Supply Company. “There has been a lot of progress for women in the work world, but not enough.”

When starting out in procurement, Yurgaitis learned how supply and procurement excellence ensures the best customer relationship possible. She’s CEO now and a supply chain career path took her there.

Anne Meyrose lives by this credo: “Ensuring the company’s logistics network moves the right product, to the right place, at the right time, bringing each brand’s vision to life.” Anne is now vice president of logistics and control tower with The Gap, but her career path reads like that of three people: she’s had roles ranging from senior director, transportation to transportation service operations manager to analyst, methods and programs to transport specialist, outbound transport, and store services. Her well-rounded experience clearly makes her a valuable asset for The Gap.

Sherry Liu worked her way up from inventory planner to vice president international supply chain with CarParts.com. “After college my goal had been to become a diplomat and learn more languages—I speak Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English—and then explore the world.” She leveraged those talents and worked with new management to transform CarParts.com.

“As a female executive, balancing work and home can be challenging,” Liu says. “I don’t have a great strategy, but once I’m home, I try to put my phone down and focus. Then once my kids are in bed, my third shift starts, when I call overseas vendors.”

“I was probably one of the first women in trucking 26 years ago,” says Amy Davis. She worked her way up the chain and is now president of Cummins New Power. “Cummins took a chance on me years ago,” she says. “I don’t have a science or supply chain background.”

These are just a few of the women making history this month—and every month—in supply chain.

Start a warehouse-to-driver transition program. Because federal regulations prevent people younger than 21 from obtaining a commercial driver’s license (CDL) that would allow them to drive trucks across state lines, many high school graduates who may have considered a trucking career pursue jobs in other fields.

Companies can break down this barrier and establish a hiring pipeline by creating transition programs that give young people the opportunity to work in a warehouse before attending truck driving school and eventually becoming a professional driver.

Implement a thorough onboarding process. Truck driving schools teach the skills and knowledge needed to pass the CDL exam. They do not provide all the tools drivers need to succeed at the companies that hire them.

Ensure employees have consistent and meaningful contact with managers and supervisors. Consider assigning new drivers to an experienced mentor or having them spend time with a partner who can show them the ropes.

Offer CDL tuition reimbursement. Financial limitations can be an obstacle when beginning a career. Paying all or part of the cost to attend CDL school is another way to entice younger drivers to join your company. Many organizations that provide tuition reimbursement pay drivers in increments over time, which can also boost retention.

Begin an employee referral program. According to a recent American Transportation Research Institute study, 73% of surveyed drivers between the ages of 18 and 25 were introduced to trucking by an adult relative. Giving referral bonuses to current employees can inspire them to not only advocate for trucking as a career choice, but also promote your company’s open jobs to the younger drivers they know. Often seen as a perk, these bonuses can help you retain drivers after you hire them, too.

Provide recognition and incentives. Younger employees want more frequent recognition compared to older generations. Acknowledge your drivers’ outstanding work with Driver of the Month and Driver of the Year awards, tout their accomplishments in company newsletters and social media pages, and host appreciation activities like cookouts and outings. And incentives for safe driving and additional training show your drivers that hard work pays off.

Create clear paths for advancement. Many drivers in the early stages of their careers are motivated by the prospect of earning better opportunities down the road. While it is important to offer higher pay or more flexible schedules, companies must also establish a viable path from the truck to the office.

Give drivers the chance to become trainers, team leads, dispatchers or members of operations and management teams. The best fleet leaders are often former drivers due to their firsthand experience behind the wheel.

Support work-life balance. When it comes to factors influencing job satisfaction, drivers of all ages consider home time to be the most important. When possible, companies should create more regional and local jobs that allow drivers to be home every night.

Also accommodate for those who desire part-time or flexible work. This can help combat the industry’s reputation for long hours that has kept younger generations away.

Companies that can connect with young drivers—a largely untapped source of talent—will be well-positioned for success in the face of the ongoing driver shortage.

Top Skills to Develop

AJ Wilhoit, Chief Product Officer, project44

Obsess over the customer. People who approach every problem with “what will make our customers’ lives better?” will always win in the long term. When you obsess over the customer, you are driven to deliver big, meaningful results for your customers and business.

Act like an owner. Your job is to define, advocate, and launch the right experience for your customers—which, in turn, will drive the right results for your company. Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, find a way to make your voice heard so that you effectively guide your team to the right outcome.

Be a force multiplier. You can only get so far as a team of one. Be someone who motivates the people around you to bring their best work, grow, and have some fun doing it.

Dennis White, Vice President, Brokerage, Crowley

Adaptability, problem solving, and change management. All three center around the ever-changing nature of the supply chain industry. To thrive in such a dynamic environment, one must have a base level of adaptability. The inevitable challenges that arise in these fluid conditions require strong problem-solving skills, and the ability to lead a team through change management can be a true differentiator.

Heather Hoover-Salomon, CEO, uShip

Gain proficiency in data analytics. As data fuels the next wave of supply chain management, gaining an aptitude for how an organization creates more value from its data will be essential.

Be an ecosystem thinker. Take a collaborative approach with other partners in the industry to elevate the customer experience for all customers.

Maintain a human touch. B2B communications can often feel stilted, disengaged, and void of heart. Remember your buyers are humans, just like you. They love relatable stories and humanizing communications around how you can benefit their business.

Tony Harris, SVP & Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer, SAP Business Network

The most important skill for supply chain management is creative problem-solving. Constantly fluctuating geopolitical and market conditions, like the current crisis in the Red Sea, can create lags in delivery time, forcing companies to implement original solutions to transport products to customers.

These situations require imagination to source accurate responses, as unprecedented challenges require unprecedented resolutions.

Jeff Mahler, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Ambi Robotics

Emphasize empathy. Behind every data point, every shipment, and every transaction, there are people—customers, suppliers, partners, and employees—whose experiences need to be understood.

Empathy guides us to anticipate concerns, address challenges, and exceed expectations. It fosters resilience and collaboration in navigating disruptions and uncertainties. While technology optimizes operations, empathy drives success and fosters meaningful relationships in the dynamic supply chain.

Build a foundation in analytical and critical thinking. The future of the supply chain is data—the ability to get it, analyze it, and use it faster than anyone for competitive advantage. To do this takes good analytical skills and the ability to critically think through problems. This skill set will be important as you need to be able to break down problems and understand what the source of an issue is.

Many times supply chain issues wear a disguise, hiding the true problem and appearing as a completely different problem.

–Stephen Dombroski
Director, Consumer Products and Food and Beverage Vertical Markets
QAD Inc.

Three important skills to develop are 1) the ability to empower teams, 2) maintain a long-term focus, and 3) achieve work/life balance.

Efficient supply chain management requires seamless coordination across all links in the chain. A manager needs to provide their teams with the knowledge and skills they need to do their jobs well, but they also need to trust their teams and allow them some room to make their own mistakes.

Second, a long-term focus is critical. I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, you need to keep your foot on the gas and keep building for the future. And last, no manager is useful to their company, customers, or teams if they are burnt out. By protecting some time for family and other personal priorities, a supply chain manager will be a more effective, productive, and balanced leader.

–Mark McCullough
CEO
Gebrüder Weiss North America

AI in Supply Chain Management:
Make it work for you

David Fisher, Executive Director, Transportation & Supply Chain Institute. University College, University of Denver

Remember AI is a tool and a methodology. Those who utilize it correctly will benefit from enhanced decision making and speed. The risk is not understanding how to use the tool correctly or worse, entrusting this technology to produce solutions that are not verified adequately. Like any new tool, AI will be most effectively utilized by those who get training.

If you plan to be a programmer or heavy contributor to the development and utilization of AI in the workplace then we would recommend that you get professional training to do so. If on the other hand, your intent is to be a user of AI-enhanced processes, you must think of AI as a new tool just as the calculator and the computer were once integrated in society in previous generations.

Lesley Veldstra Killingsworth​​​​, NMFTA Chairperson, Vice President of Pricing and Market Strategy, Polaris Transportation Group

First, get familiar with AI basics, machine learning, and data analytics. Embrace the data deluge and think strategically, not just tactically. Lastly, network, network, network. It’s important to talk with and learn from tech-savvy folks in the industry such as AI developers, data scientists, and other forward-thinking carriers. Stay ahead of the curve as AI is constantly evolving.

Dan Singer, Vice President, Dedicated Operations, Averitt

Be open-minded. We are in the early stages of determining all the applications of AI in supply chain management. Recognize that it can have a role in virtually any problem that must be solved repeatedly. It’s also important to stay abreast of each new application.

Christine Barnhart, Chief Marketing and Industry Officer, Nulogy

Foster a collaborative approach to AI implementation and involve cross-functional teams and stakeholders. This can facilitate seamless integration and maximize the benefits of AI across the supply chain. By embracing AI with a combination of technical expertise, adaptability, and collaborative spirit, supply chain professionals can then position themselves for success.

Sumit Vakil, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Resilinc

Focus on rethinking processes to leverage AI’s potential to reduce manual work and enhance productivity. This means critically analyzing existing workflows to identify areas where AI can automate routine tasks, streamline operations, and optimize decision-making.

For example, look at how AI tools can be applied to forecast demand, manage inventory levels more efficiently, or improve logistics operations. Practitioners should start with small AI projects to gain practical experience and learn from both successes and failures, then slowly expand projects with the intent of developing people and processes. Embrace AI not only for its technological capabilities but also for its ability to transform business processes.

Identify and understand gaps AI can’t fill. This means that while AI is invaluable when it comes to getting a tailored approach to data (among many other benefits), supply chain managers should be the strategic, big-picture, and nuanced thinking that AI may not yet recognize in the process.

–Heather Hoover-Salomon
CEO, uShip

AI should be a tool for decision-makers and not the decision-maker itself. AI systems need a lot of data. To generate the data, a lot of processes must be digitized. It is supply chain professionals who will decide how this will be done.

The good news for humans is that their interactions have many nuances; and there are idiomatic differences across regions and countries. Can such variations be reflected in digital contracts and transportation bills of lading?

Will an AI system be able to “negotiate” contracts for two parties better than the parties themselves? If there were a legal dispute, would an AI system be able to replace judges and juries?

What is not surrendered to AI must be presided over by human decision-makers. Transportation, the most outsourced logistical activity, should be the best test-case for the promise of AI. Automating the process of transport, port entry/exit, and compliance should generate enough AI “hallucinations” to keep supply chain professionals gainfully employed for years to come.

–Dr. Darren Prokop
Professor Emeritus of Logistics, College of Business & Public Policy
University of Alaska Anchorage

Consider how AI can best advance your organizational goals. While AI is sexy, it is a tool. Take it as seriously as you do WMS, VMI, ERP, CRM. Don’t let it create blinders that prevent you from seeing other solutions.

Getting up to speed on blockchain and IoT for delivering greater transparency, traceability, optimization, and trust in the chain will put rocket boosters on your career trajectory.

–Lee Allison, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Engineering Technology & Industrial Distribution
Industrial Distribution Program, College of Engineering
Texas A&M University

Be an advocate for innovation. Those who remain fearful of AI run the risk of falling behind. By championing new ideas and demonstrating a commitment to staying at the forefront of industry trends, employees can secure their current roles and emerge as indispensable leaders shaping the future of supply chain management.

The rise of AI and automation, such as ChatGPT, offers supply chain professionals a prime opportunity to maximize the associated benefits and advance their careers. They should actively seek out training and learning opportunities to integrate these emerging technologies into their daily operations and, by doing so, they can significantly enhance their performance and productivity while positioning themselves as a strategic leader within their organization.

Continuous upskilling, adapting to evolving trends, and fostering a culture of agility are crucial components to long-term success in supply chain.

–Joe Galvin
Chief Research Officer
Vistage

Leverage both narrow and generative AI to propel supply chain planning from a supportive role to a strategic function. Supply chain professionals are drowning in data, and precious hours are wasted in data collation and searching for answers from dashboards and reports that are quickly outdated.

With the assistance of generative AI, actionable insights will revolutionize how knowledge workers approach decision-making in the supply chain. Managing a supply chain involves a continuous chain of decisions and generative AI will significantly streamline the preparation for meetings by providing support with data that is considerably less effort-intensive, with reduced latency and heightened accuracy.

We’re entering a new era in supply chain management, where speed and precision are not just desired, they’re required. Organizations that embrace these novel concepts will gain a substantial competitive advantage.

Those at the forefront of integrating AI into their supply chain operations will not only navigate the complexities of supply chain management with confidence and strategic agility but will also position themselves as leaders in harnessing the transformative power of artificial intelligence.

–Piet Buyck
SVP Industry Principal
Logility

High-Impact Career Moves

Joe Adamski, Senior Director, ProcureAbility

Learn the broader aspects of a supply chain, and how it fits within the overall corporate strategic framework. Don’t just focus on a single area; someone with deep logistics, procurement, or warehouse expertise is important, but won’t progress as quickly as someone who understands the full spectrum of Plan – Source – Make – Deliver.

Identifying opportunities to get involved in the ideation phase of new projects to drive better decisions on designing for value can be essential in building the right network. Enable your success by learning the broader business skills that will set you above the pack.

Be curious about new innovations; you might be surprised by the opportunities this curiosity offers. Instead of feeling threatened by automation and AI, learn how these technologies work and how they can complement your skillset.

For example, individuals who can troubleshoot and repair automated equipment and operate AI analysis tools are in high demand. Networking with industry peers and colleagues is one of many ways to keep abreast of these new cutting-edge advancements.

–Yanitza Vega-Hughes, PMSM
Director of Human Resources
iGPS Logistics

Show you are a utility player. Not just sticking to what you are good at, but developing new skills will generate growth and advancement. Not being afraid to say “yes” when a new opportunity is offered.

Whether those skills are a stepping stone up or a lateral move, having a full scope of the supply chain and how it operates is an impactful way to advance your career. Through learning new or different skills, you can gain an understanding of the drivers, the customer/supplier, the employees, and the company, thus developing mastery of how the supply chain works as a whole.

–Taylor Rinehart
HR Specialist
Tri-National, Inc.

Develop leadership skills such as effective communication, strategic thinking, and adept problem-solving to inspire teams, navigate challenges, and drive organizational success.

Devote time to understanding best practices for supply chain risk management. Develop a nuanced understanding of the disruptive forces facing global supply chains, the role risk visibility plays in enabling proactive responses, and deep knowledge of risk mitigation strategies that build resilience into the end-to-end supply chain.

–John Donigian
Senior Director, Supply Chain Strategy
Moody’s Analytics

Continuously invest in one’s skills and knowledge. Ongoing education, certifications, and simply staying up to date on industry trends and best practices is a part of this. Furthermore, networking and building relationships in the industry is crucial as well, as it broadens the horizon and opens up new opportunities.

–Gabriele Langenmayr
Head of Human Resources Americas
DACHSER USA Air & Sea Logistics Inc.

Embrace a mindset of continuous learning, curiosity, and fearlessness. Successful practitioners in the field understand the importance of staying curious and being lifelong learners, constantly seeking new knowledge and insights to improve their practices.

Practitioners also need to try and look beyond their own industry, drawing inspiration from diverse sources and applying innovative solutions to their own environments. Those who make the most progress are fearless in their pursuit of improvement, learning from failures and using setbacks as opportunities for growth. Ultimately, supply chain professionals should not hesitate to ask questions, seek help, and collaborate with others to address challenges and drive positive change in the industry.

–Christine Barnhart
Chief Marketing and Industry Officer
Nulogy

Prioritize substance over flash as you work to understand and embrace new technology. Don’t be distracted by the new technologies of the moment. Instead, pay close attention to the problems they’re supposed to solve and consider their practical, sometimes-imperfect, applications in the real world.

We’ll take the rise of digital twins, for example. In reality, very few organizations will require hyper realistic digital models of warehouse floors or assembly lines. That said, the idea of digital twins might prompt a lagging organization to standardize its data, evaluate existing workflows, or consider changes to its procurement process.

Sometimes, abstractions are sufficient in generating quick insight and faster improvements to supply chain and manufacturing processes.

–Jason Hehman
Vertical Lead for Industry 4.0
TXI

Focus on innovation, collaboration/teamwork, sustainability, and social responsibility. Strategic partnerships—extending from suppliers to customers—and cooperation ignite creativity, enhance problem-solving, and ensure collective achievement in a tightly connected global market. Moreover, dedication to sustainable and ethical operations is vital.

Embracing eco-friendly logistics, ethical sourcing, and fair labor practices demonstrates a profound grasp of the industry’s broader implications. Aligning with the growing demands for corporate responsibility elevates a brand’s reputation and ensures its long-term sustainability.

–Ariella Azogui
Co-Founder
DutchX

Emphasize optimization. I rely on one principle that has guided my career: The only constant is change. A recent report from Amazon Business found that global procurement and supply chain organizations believe the same, as 95% of leaders said they will work to optimize their procurement and supply chain practices in 2024.

The dynamic nature of markets, supplier-principal relationships, and other macro trends will drive the need for supply chain leaders to optimize and adapt faster than ever. The unpredictable influence of technology changes, transformation (which I like to think of as evolution), geopolitical forces, governance, and compliance factors will require leaders to have agility built into their companies’ defined strategies.

Many questions surface as supply chain leaders contemplate future strategies. Are their organization’s current foundations strong and flexible enough to support future change and optimization? Does the optimization require a bit of a teardown and rebuild? How seamlessly can optimization be performed to reach both short-term and long-term goals? Did the organization set the best goals to guide these evolutionary changes?

Leaders who are diligent about building resilience in their supply chain with trusted partners will develop strategies that can carry them through any market fluctuation.

–Jeff Austin
Vice President of Supply Chain Services
Jabil

Second, skill requirements continuously evolve due to technology and automation advancements. This dynamic landscape requires workers who quickly adapt to new tools and processes.

The diverse roles within logistics demand specific skill sets that are only sometimes transferable from other industries. For example, supply chain analysts must possess strong analytical abilities and a deep understanding of data-driven decision-making. Warehouse managers must excel in organizational skills, team leadership, and operational efficiency, while freight coordinators require excellent communication and coordination capabilities to manage transportation complexities.

Recognizing and addressing these unique skill requirements is crucial in attracting and retaining the right talent.

Generational shifts also play a role in the talent shortage. As baby boomers retire, the industry needs more experienced workers. Meanwhile, younger generations entering the workforce may not consider logistics an attractive career option due to misconceptions or lack of awareness about the opportunities it offers.

The pandemic exacerbated the problem by disrupting global supply chains, creating additional workforce challenges.

These combined obstacles call for innovative solutions to attract and retain the right talent. Here are some tips for finding skilled workers.

1. Leverage data and technology for efficient recruitment. Embrace data-driven platforms to identify and target potential candidates efficiently. Utilizing analytics and AI can help streamline recruitment by matching job requirements with relevant skill sets.

2. Build strong employer branding to attract talent. Showcase your company’s positive culture, growth opportunities, and attractive benefits to appeal to skilled workers. A strong employer brand can significantly impact your company’s perception as a desirable workplace.

3. Collaborate with education and training institutions. Partner with educational institutions and invest in training programs focused on bridging the logistics skills gap. Proactively supporting and engaging with these institutions can shape the future talent pool according to your industry’s needs.

Here are some tips for retaining skilled workers.

1. Create an inclusive workplace culture. Foster diversity and inclusion initiatives to establish a positive work environment. Working in an inclusive culture contributes to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates.

2. Offer competitive compensation and benefits. Market-aligned pay and attractive benefits are crucial to incentivizing talent retention. Competitive compensation ensures employees feel valued and acknowledged for their hard work.

3. Emphasize career development and growth opportunities. Design clear career paths and invest in ongoing training and upskilling programs to support professional growth. Employees who see a future with your company are more likely to stay committed and dedicated to their roles.

As logistics continues to evolve, it is vital to adapt recruitment and retention strategies to ensure a thriving and competent workforce for the future.

“We look for employees who embody our six core values—creativity, integrity, collaboration, growth, excellence, and wellness—and many military veterans check all of those boxes,” says Jason Turner, vice president, talent and growth initiatives for ArcBest, a supply chain logistics firm based in Fort Smith, Arkansas, that has garnered a “4-Star Employer” designation from VETS Indexes and currently employs about 1,300 veterans.

“Veterans have been tested, many of them to ultimate extremes, so they possess great grit and ability to withstand challenging situations,” he says. “They’ve also learned through their training how to work with a team. And, veterans are a natural pool of diverse talent because they come from so many different walks of life.”

“Military veterans add major value to the workplace,” adds Tony Graham, a National Guard and U.S. Army veteran who serves as president of West Division at XPO, an LTL freight transportation provider that was also recently named a VETS Indexes 4-Star Employer with roughly 8% of its workforce self-identifying as veterans.

The company’s veteran employees range from truck drivers and dockworkers to HR professionals and account executives, all the way up to leadership positions in the C-suite.

“Veterans have powerful skillsets and qualities that translate well to any industry, but especially to logistics and freight transportation,” Graham says. “They understand the importance of following procedures, adhering to schedules, and performing tasks to the best of their ability.”

Employees with these skills are sought after by companies like XPO because they “demonstrate a level of resiliency and adaptability that enables us to adjust to unpredictable situations so we can stay agile and responsive to our customers’ rapidly changing needs,” Graham says.

Trucking, in particular, holds a strong lure for veterans. At least one in 10 truckers are veterans, double the rate of workers in general, according to 2019 Census data.

Drivers who are military vets also display superior safety records behind the wheel and show impressive company loyalty: veteran drivers had 42% fewer accidents, drove 98% more miles, and had 68% fewer involuntary terminations than non-veterans, notes a 2016 study.

Getting more military veterans into truck-driving jobs is a priority for many companies given the strong workforce demands for transportation positions.

The American Trucking Associations estimates the trucking industry is currently facing a shortage of more than 78,000 truck drivers coupled with a need to hire 1.2 million new drivers over the next decade to meet increasing freight demands.

Recruiting and Retaining Vets

Many transportation companies are focused on recruiting and retaining military veterans as a key part of their labor strategy.

Ryan Robida, military and veteran recruiting manager, TMC

Ryan Robida, military and veteran recruiting manager for TMC, logs nearly as many miles as the company’s drivers when he attends job fairs at military installations across the country in search of veteran employee candidates. A 20-year military veteran who retired in 2017 as a master sergeant and worked as a recruiter within the Army, Robida notes that TMC, an employee-owned flatbed carrier in Iowa, counts nearly 40% of its drivers as veterans.

“Military veterans have integrity like no one else,” Robida says. “You are trained in the military to do the right thing, even when no one is looking—and truck drivers need those same qualities.

“In transportation, it’s just you, your truck, and the open road,” he adds. “There’s nobody sitting next to you monitoring your performance.”

Veterans also tend to stick around, even when times are tough as they are used to honoring their commitments as part of their military service.

In return, TMC shows strong support for its military veteran employees. The company is proud to have a VA-approved apprenticeship program that allows veterans to train for their driver certification and receive compensation from both TMC and through the U.S. military’s GI bill while they complete their training.

The company also maintains flexible schedules for veteran employees who are part of the Army Reserves and need time off for missions or other commitments.

TMC’s focus on hiring military veterans—as well as its performance- and percentage-based pay structure and generous benefits—plays a huge role in the company’s stellar retention rates. “The national turnover average for truck drivers has historically been as high as 91%,” Robida notes. “In 2022, TMC’s turnover rate was half the national average.”

Successful Transitions

Training programs developed via partnerships between industry, military, government, and union organizations that help veterans upskill or reskill for jobs in transportation are particularly effective.

Through the Teamsters Military Assistance Program, ArcBest’s ABF Freight carrier works with the military to run driver training schools for veterans nearing the end of their service at Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Carson, Colorado. The six-week courses prepare transitioning service members to earn their CDL so they can transition directly into trucking jobs. To date, the company has more than 800 graduates of the program.

ArcBest also participates in the Department of Defense’s Skill Bridge program, which helps service members gain civilian work experience through specific industry training, apprenticeships, or internships during the last 180 days of service.
Beyond driving jobs, the company is also focused on growing other pathways for transitioning service members.

“We just had our first Marine go through the Skill Bridge program, and he ended up in our internal audit department,” notes Turner. The company has also instituted a referral program, where veterans who refer other veterans to the company for training and employment receive financial incentives.

Strong Partnerships

XPO’s talent acquisition team works closely with the Department of Labor and Veteran Commission and Military transition offices to create pathways for veterans and military spouses to be referred for roles at XPO.

“We also have strong partnerships with organizations like Military.com and Private Public Partnership, a U.S. Army reserve program, to help attract military talent,” explains Graham.

The company also offers a dedicated recruitment site for veterans with a tool that matches military experience to employment opportunities within XPO to help support their transition.

As a result, veterans at XPO work across a diverse range of careers within sales, service, commercial driving, operations, technology, and human resources.

XPO also offers its own Field Management Training (FMT) program, which provides comprehensive career development for entry-level professionals in freight transportation.

While not specifically designated for veterans, the 14-week program has proven to be a valuable transitional program for service members, and that more than 26% of the 2022 graduating class are former military personnel.

For veterans facing what can be a challenging transition into the civilian workforce, knowing they bring skills that are highly valued by the transportation and logistics fields is a big plus. After making sacrificing to serve their country, being welcomed into a military-friendly workplace goes a long way.

At XPO, that means things like a veteran steering committee that maintains partnerships with military organizations and guides the company’s engagement with its military and veteran employee population. The group also fosters camaraderie among military-connected employees by participating in local community events like the Pat Tillman Run in Arizona.

XPO also shows appreciation for military vets’ service and sacrifice by honoring veteran drivers who achieve safety milestones with a custom military-wrapped truck.

Melissa La brings the discipline, teamwork, and promptness she learned during her four years in the Army to her role as a dockworker for XPO’s Lake Forest, California, terminal.

A military-friendly workplace is part of what drew Melissa La to her role as a dockworker at XPO’s terminal in Lake Forest, California. La served for four years in the Army, including one year spent in South Korea, where she drove a truck for long-distance, top-clearance cargo missions. When she entered civilian life and began working for XPO, the familiarity of a transportation company helped her feel at ease.

In addition, she says, “my supervisors have been great in supporting me and making sure that my goals are met.”

She draws on the discipline, teamwork—and promptness—she learned while serving to bring her A-game to work each day at XPO. In the Army, La adds, everyone gets a “battle buddy” and she carries that through to her work on the docks.

“I see my co-workers as my battle buddies,” she says. “We work as a team, and we stick together, no matter what.”

After 26 years in the Navy, Travis Wagner transitioned to logistics. In addition to his role as senior manager, customer operations, for ArcBest, he serves as president of the company’s veteran employee resource group.

A Sense of Brotherhood

That sense of camaraderie is something Travis Wagner, senior manager, customer operations, for ArcBest, also found crucial in his transition to logistics after 26 years in the Navy.

A former Submarine Force officer who also worked in the Pentagon and at the Office of Naval Intelligence, Wagner was hoping to mimic the sense of brotherhood he felt in the Navy when joining ArcBest.

Though logistics was an entirely new field to him, he was drawn to the company’s culture. “It aligned closely with the Navy’s values of honor, courage, and commitment. Seeing that they valued some of those same things—like integrity and wellness—made me think I could find a home here.”

Wagner also serves as president of the company’s veteran employee resource group (VERG), which aims to support veteran employees’ mental, social, physical, and financial wellness and help with transition to civilian work through career support and mentorship. Started earlier in 2023, the group is up to about 60 members who communicate regularly and meet for social events.

“The military is close knit, so we wanted to create that sense of connection for our veterans across the company,” Wagner says.

What Works

ArcBest also pays close attention to challenges military veterans face when adjusting to life in civilian jobs. Even seemingly mundane things like getting used to 9-5 schedules and figuring out financial obligations can be stressful for former service members.

Not surprisingly, job retention is tough among new veterans, which is why companies like ArcBest have tailored programs and initiatives aimed at keeping veterans in the workforce.

“First-year turnover of transitioning service members is a real concern and so we train them on resilience and keeping up with social and mental health,” explains Turner. “We also focus on financial wellness, getting them used to their new financial responsibilities.”

The vigilance pays off for ArcBest. Once veterans make it through that crucial first year of employment, they generally stick around—often for good.

“One leading cause of turnover after that first year is retirement,” Turner says. “When they find their way, and we get them through that awkwardness of the first year, we have a neat story of retention.”

Turner credits the company’s culture and mission as the force of the staying power. “It’s so enjoyable to be able to celebrate so many veterans building their careers with us.”

Vets Combat Driver Shortages

High turnover rates coupled with ongoing driver shortages have been a persistent headache for the transportation industry. It’s easy to see why trucking companies are so eager to tap into a dependable workforce.

Making that military-to-transportation industry link more effective is the goal of a new public-private partnership known as Task Force Movement (TFM). Launched in 2022 in support of President Biden’s Trucking Action Plan, TFM has brought together transportation industry stakeholders to help enact strategies to broaden hiring efforts. These include transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses.

The group has also identified four key areas of improvement that can help to attract military service members into the trucking profession. “We are working to rebrand the industry and change the narrative around what it means to be a truck driver,” notes Elizabeth Murray-Belcaster, TFM’s senior advisor of communications and public relations. “There are a lot of misconceptions about the industry. Driving is actually a well-paying job that provides a sustainable living for families.”
TFM is also enacting programs to increase access to quality training and employment for veterans who wish to obtain their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), and improving the transferability of military skills. The goal is for veterans who served as truck drivers in the military to have their credentials translate for civilian trucking jobs.

In addition, to help with job retention once veterans are placed in driving positions, TFM is focusing on the link between “whole person care” and veteran workforce success.

“The healthcare portion of all of this has been overlooked,” says Elizabeth Murray-Belcaster, who explains that many veterans come back from service with issues like post-traumatic stress and other traumas. Added to that, the trucking industry has high rates of occupational hazards including obesity and diabetes—which can add up to an unhealthy combination.

“We realize that the retention piece for the industry is going to be hard to combat until we start correcting some of the lifecycle health and wellness pieces of the puzzle,” she explains.

“The war for supply chain talent is still very much alive,” says Brian Higgins, principal of the Advisory Services practice at KPMG, a professional services firm. “Broader supply chain stress has regained some stability, but the talent issue is still top of mind.”

Securing and keeping that talent has never been more important. Prioritizing recruiting and retaining workers is “absolutely essential” to success for companies in the supply chain field, says Mark McCullough, CEO of Gebrüder Weiss USA, a transport and logistics company.

“Staffing shortages and employee turnover are extremely disruptive for supply chain companies and attracting top talent should be an ‘always-on’ activity,” McCullough says.

For the Gebrüder Weiss team (l. to r.)—William Wang, CFO; Merlin Dow, director of sales; Mark McCullough, CEO; and Young Lee, national key account manager—attracting top talent is an “always on” activity.

Complicating matters, “the playbook for attracting and retaining workers continues to shift,” Higgins says. In addition, the supply chain has “a wide spectrum of roles and skills, and it has grown increasingly more complex.”

A Growing Field

Attracting and retaining a workforce is particularly critical in light of the growth that the supply chain field is seeing.

“The supply chain sector is quickly growing; in fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that supply chain jobs are on the rise at twice the rate of all other jobs in the United States,” says Taylor Jackson, director of logistics for SC Competes, a nonprofit focused on economic growth in South Carolina. “Without people working in supply chain, our whole economy falters and goods cannot get to consumers.”

As a result, “Employers must be laser-focused on attracting new talent and even more focused on retention in today’s job market,” notes Andrea Nicholson, senior campus recruiter for transportation and technology company Arrive Logistics.
Supply chain challenges during the pandemic helped spread the word about the field, but that new awareness brought limited benefits.

“The challenges we faced as a result of a pandemic garnered a lot of publicity, but it didn’t make freight forwarding or shipping any more glamorous,” McCullough says. “It helped raise people’s awareness and interest, but it’s not like we had applicants beating down our doors.”

Promoting the supply chain field and the myriad career possibilities it offers remains a priority for those who work in the industry—beyond just recruiting for their own positions. Often, companies working in the supply chain compete not just with their peers but with other industries as well for the best talent.

Still, the supply chain’s time in the spotlight in recent years has driven home its importance, and highlighting its crucial role in the world is valuable in attracting new workers.

“It’s also important to emphasize opportunities for growth, the dynamic and exciting global working environment, and the wide variety of career paths that people can pursue as part of the supply chain,” McCullough says.

In her role, Jackson says many of her efforts are focused around creating an awareness of supply chain and logistics.
“While COVID made more people aware of the supply chain, I can still walk into a room of educators or students, ask ‘who knows what logistics is?’ and get blank stares,” Jackson says. “I hope to change this.”

Connecting with high school students to educate them on the job opportunities around supply chain and logistics has proven to be a successful recruiting strategy for many companies.

Reaching Students

As one action, SC Logistics partners on programs with the Association of Supply Chain Management, including two outreach efforts for students—Lemonade Supply Chain (targeting 4th–5th grade) and Cell Phone Supply Chain Program (targeting 11th–12th grade).

“Connecting with elementary school and middle school children to show them the endless job opportunities around supply chain and logistics is so important,” Jackson says.

“It also is necessary to ‘teach the teacher’—we need to create an awareness around supply chain and show that this field is stable, in demand, and fun to work in,” she says.

“As we start to focus on additional job training—career technical education for example—we need to open up the pipeline for these jobs to be filled by students and the next generation,” Jackson adds.

The growing trend of higher education institutions featuring the supply chain more prominently in their curricula offers a clear benefit for the supply chain as a whole.

“The supply chain has long suffered from talent shortages for entry positions because you need a balance there,” Higgins says. “You need the analytics and technical skills, and you need some supply chain expertise. It’s not the easiest thing to recruit.

“The probability of having success with that talent base will increase if university systems and academia reinforces it,” he adds.

It is important to express to students and others considering supply chain jobs that it’s not easy work but that it’s exciting and dynamic.

“People want to see the world, they want to experience what it’s like out there, and they don’t want doldrum jobs where it’s a repeat day after day,” McCullough says. “That’s certainly not what you get in logistics.”

A Changed Landscape

As a sign of the steep competition for supply chain talent in the current climate, Nicholson notes that the class of 2023 applied to more jobs sooner than any other graduating class before them.

“This challenges employers to rethink their value propositions to continue to be an employer of choice, and reevaluate hiring timelines and keep-warm strategies, among other things,” she says.

In general, the recruiting landscape has evolved in recent years, particularly among graduating college students.

“Students apply to more jobs sooner, consistently ranking pay and compensation as their top consideration factor, and valuing work-life balance more than students who have graduated before them,” Nicholson says. “Students also value a culture where diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is woven into every aspect of the job and the work environment.

“Placing a greater emphasis on workers’ sense of inclusion is critical to not only attract new talent but also to retain that talent, even as early as the intern level,” she adds.

Withdrawals from job offers have increased immensely across all industries, creating new challenges.

“Fostering a sense of belonging and contribution, and ensuring new hires are exposed to the culture early in the recruitment process helps to deter such withdrawals,” Nicholson says.

The competitiveness of the labor market has prompted Arrive Logistics to strategically time its on-campus events.

“Students find us in the classroom earlier in the school year, meeting with student organizations and sharing unique event ideas, with our intention to meet them where they are,” Nicholson says. “This presence is in addition to our regular attendance at career fairs and other large-scale events later in the school year.”

David Woodworth, president of Terillium (far left) and members of his team attend a career fair. Terillium has been particularly active in recruitment at Miami University’s Center for Supply Chain Studies.

Hiring New Grads

Consulting firm Terillium formerly hired only experienced candidates. But 12 years ago, they shifted to hire new graduates that they could train, strengthening the company’s workforce in the process, according to David Woodworth, president of the company.

Woodworth graduated from Miami University, and he is highly involved in on-campus activities at his alma mater’s Center for Supply Chain Excellence. He speaks in classes, staffs the booth at career fairs, conducts on-campus interviews and hosts a case competition.

Terillium is a corporate partner of the center, and their access to students has paid off in the form of hires that have strengthened the company.

“We’ve hired about 90 students in the past 10 years, and probably 80% of them have seen me speak in class,” Woodworth says. “When we interview kids, they say they’ve never seen a president do the kinds of activity that I do and that it makes them feel like we care about them, which we do.”

Strong partnerships such as the one Terillium enjoys with Miami University work well for both sides.

“The university wants their students to get good, well-paying jobs out of college and we want good, strong students to make us better,” Woodworth says. “It makes sense that we work together.”

Return on Investment

Arrive Logistics is also a corporate partner with Miami’s Center for Supply Chain Excellence, and the relationship has given the company a “huge return on investment,” allowing it to connect with top supply chain talent, Nicholson says.

“The beauty of our corporate partnership is that a top logistics brokerage and an academic institution work together to help create value, influence curriculum, and arm students with the skills and experiences they need to succeed as contributing members of the supply chain workforce,” Nicholson says.

Gebrüder Weiss casts a wide net in recruitment and uses every tool at its disposal—from career fairs and job sites to being active on LinkedIn and serving as guest speakers and presenters at several university programs.

“Tactically, it’s helpful to use as many avenues as possible to attract new and experienced talent,” McCullough says. “Strategically, it’s impactful to market the company, the culture, and the lifestyle, not just the job tasks.”

Gebrüder Weiss’s “always on” approach to recruitment means, “We consider every touchpoint a recruiting touchpoint and every employee a recruiter, and this has been an effective strategy,” McCullough says.

Companies having the most success attracting and retaining workers are going beyond pay and benefits and focusing on a holistic worker experience. And companies that are proving to be sophisticated in adopting technology and embedding the supply chain as a true business partner are important in retention.

Rising labor costs and the increasing popularity of remote work—which is not possible for many supply chain jobs—intensifies the importance of focusing on corporate culture and being creative in what a company offers its workers to retain them.

Strategies such as effective onboarding, ongoing training, and career advancement opportunities are critical to retaining employees.

“In addition to good benefits and paid time off, flexibility, mentoring, internal communication, and a supportive culture are all important to retaining workers,” McCullough says. “Flexibility has become more important in recent years, and we have found creative ways to offer it while still keeping the work hours our customers need.

“For example, we make room for people to pursue outside passions and maintain work/life balance, and will adjust hours and responsibilities where we can to allow that flexibility,” she adds.

Gebrüder Weiss emphasizes mentorship as part of retention, turning to veteran employees to formally mentor team members. They also provide a structured education program to help workers gain career-building skills. High engagement and clear communication are critical, McCullough says.

“The biggest retainer in our experiences is giving employees a career path, and that’s more easily realized if they have good mentors,” he says.

Mobile Workforce

Gebrüder Weiss emphasizes mobility within the company and the international opportunities for workers who want to travel and take on new challenges. For instance, McCullough, an Ohio native, spent three years working in South Africa and found it to be “an experience of a lifetime that really catapulted my career,” he says.

Gebrüder Weiss strives to train workers “from A to Z in the business,” he says, rather than keeping them highly specialized to one component of it. McCullough believes employees appreciate the career advancement opportunities that come with that training.

Ten of the 12 branch managers at Gebrüder Weiss, and every member of the executive team, are internal promotions from within the company. McCullough attributes part of that stability and longevity to the company’s emphasis on mentorship and engaging with workers.

“If you can give people education, guidance, and a career path forward, then they’ll stay with you for a very long time,” McCullough says.

As Lynn Torrel, chief procurement and supply chain officer at Flex, explained about the company’s operations during the pandemic, “We’ve had a few escalation calls with suppliers, and there are critical needs. Often, it’s someone I’ve known for many years. We had a hard negotiation and then had dinner and spent time together, and we always see each other at different events. That personal side is important, especially the relationships and trust that build over time.”

Person-to-person communications help provide unstructured information about what is happening and what each side is considering doing. It helps in negotiating a solution and obtaining mutual commitments to action.

“You can be as technically savvy as you want,” Torrel said, “but at the end of the day, you’ve got to pick up the phone and see if you can get a solution.”

Complex Relationships

Customer-supplier relationships in supply chains can be quite complex. Large organizations can have a web of personal relationships at supplier and customer organizations that span many levels or functions in each other’s enterprises.

Operational and administrative personnel might interact frequently to solve problems with purchase orders, shipments, and payments. Engineers in both organizations interact when working on new products and implementation of new technologies. Managers and executives hold strategic discussions and negotiations.

Companies often maintain teams dedicated to specific high-profile customers, creating long-term, person-to-person relationships. Good person-to-person relationships create a social bond that modulates how companies treat each other.

A mutually beneficial channel partnership between consumer product goods manufacturer Procter and Gamble and retailer Walmart creates inventory efficiencies through better coordinated supply chain activities.

To this end, Procter & Gamble, for example, has an office in Bentonville, Arkansas, next to Walmart’s offices. It is staffed with several hundred people, all dedicated to the P&G/Walmart relationship. There are so many vendors with similar offices around Walmart that the area has been dubbed “Vendorville.”

In the case of strategic customers and suppliers, the relationships can extend to the executive suite. For example, in dealing with shortages of pigments, Ignacio Pala, global sourcing director for colors at AkzoNobel, noted how relationships helped to address the shortage of a certain component.

“We eventually got it with the help of a dynamic cross-functional team, not to mention the support of our CEO, who kept the pressure on our suppliers to come through for us,” Pala said.

Similarly, when GM faced chip shortages after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, CEO Dan Akerson used his position on the board of chipmaker Freescale to seek an alternative source of chips.

“I picked up the phone, I called the CEO of Freescale, and I said, ‘I know you make chips of this type.’ We came up with a solution,” Akerson said.

An Industry-Wide Response

The social networks implicit in supply chains can extend beyond direct supplier-customer connections, as the case of a disruption at Evonik Industries shows.

On March 31, 2012, a tank filled with highly flammable butadiene exploded in one of Evonik Industries’ chemical factories in Marl, Germany. Intense flames and thick, black smoke billowed from the cyclododecatriene (CDT) plant at the 7,000-worker chemical complex in the heavily industrialized Ruhr River valley.

Roughly 130 firefighters fought the blaze for 15 hours to prevent its spread to the rest of the facility and to ultimately extinguish it. The explosion and fire killed two workers and severely damaged the plant.

Cyclododecatriene sounds like an obscure chemical, and the fact that it’s used to synthesize cyclododecane, dodecanoic acid, and laurolactam may mean nothing to most readers. But CDT is a key ingredient in making certain polyamides, which are high-strength plastics more commonly known as nylon.

In particular, CDT goes into a high-tech type of nylon—PA-12 or nylon-12—that is especially prized for its chemical resistance, abrasion resistance, and fatigue resistance. That makes PA-12 a favorite of the auto industry, which uses this tough plastic for fuel lines, brake lines, and plastic housings.

And if that wasn’t enough, using nylon and other plastic and polymer composites makes cars quieter and more fuel-efficient. The average light vehicle in 2021 included more than 400 pounds of these materials, up from just 20 pounds in 1960.

Nor were carmakers the only industry using these materials. PA-12 also goes into solar panels, athletic shoes, ski boots, optical fibers, cable conduits, and flame-retardant insulation for copper wire. CDT is a key precursor for making many other chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants, fragrances, hot-melt adhesives, and corrosion inhibitors.

The March 2012 explosion and fire in Germany destroyed almost half the world’s production capacity for CDT. Worse, at the time of the explosion, CDT supplies were already tight due to its use in the booming solar panel industry.

When a fire at Evonik Industries in 2012 destroyed capacity of a key chemical, automotive companies banded together as an industry to overcome the supply chain challenge.

Springing Into Action

For automotive companies, the potential impact of the Evonik fire was arguably similar to the potential impact of the 2011 Japanese earthquake. Every vehicle they made depended on PA-12 for a large number of parts, and the fire threatened a significant and prolonged disruption of car production.

When TI Automotive, a maker of fuel lines and brake lines, raised the alarm about the dire implications of the Evonik fire, the entire automotive industry sprang into action. The industry convened an emergency summit on April 17, 2012, in Troy, Michigan. The summit was moderated by a neutral third party, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). The AIAG is a volunteer-run, nonprofit organization that provides shared expertise, knowledge, and standards on quality, corporate responsibility, and supply chain management to about 4,000 member firms in the automotive industry.

Two hundred people attended the summit, representing eight automakers and 50 suppliers. Companies from all tiers of the affected sectors of the automotive supply chain came, including the big OEMs, their Tier 1 suppliers, component makers, polymer resin makers, and on down to chemical makers such as Evonik and BASF.

The participants had three objectives that required the collective expertise of the entire industry.

First, they wanted to understand and quantify the current state of global PA-12 inventories and production capacities throughout the automotive supply chain.

Second, they wanted to brainstorm options to strategically extend current PA-12 capacities and/or identify alternative materials or designs to offset projected capacity shortfalls.

Third, they wanted to identify and recruit the necessary industry resources required to technically vet, test, and approve the alternatives.

The group formed six committees to help quickly create action plans that would lessen any impact of shortages on component and vehicle production. Each committee tackled an assigned task, such as managing remaining inventories, boosting production at existing suppliers, identifying new firms to produce resins, and finding replacement materials.

The group hosted multiple technical follow-up meetings on this issue during the subsequent weeks.

This multifaceted collaboration was key to overcoming the supply challenge. Within one week of the meeting, the top OEMs had jointly drafted a plan to expedite their validation processes for alternative parts. Harmonized validation processes ensured that a supplier didn’t need to perform different validation processes for each customer OEM. Suppliers from other industries lent their capacity to automotive applications.

For example, Kansas-based Invista Inc., the maker of Stainmaster brand carpets, released its contractual claims on capacity for production of CDT so more could be allocated to the automotive industry. In the end, cars continued to roll off the line even though the Evonik factory was offline until December 2012.

Meet the Author

Dr. Yossi Sheffi is the Elisha Gray II professor of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he serves as Director of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL). He is an expert in systems optimization, risk and resilience, and supply chain management, topics he researches and teaches at MIT and other leading business and engineering schools.

Outside academia, Professor Sheffi has consulted with numerous government agencies as well as leading manufacturing, retail, and transportation enterprises all over the world. He is also an active entrepreneur, having founded five successful companies, all acquired by larger enterprises.

Adapted from The Magic Conveyor Belt by Dr. Yossi Sheffi.
Available on Amazon, Apple Books and Google Play.

Responsibilities: Merchandise planning and demand forecasting, supply and inventory planning, inbound logistics, warehousing and distribution, final-mile delivery, supply chain technology process and analytics, and quality assurance.

Experience: Senior vice president, global planning and logistics, and vice president, global planning, both with Hasbro; head of retail and CPG consulting, North America, Tata Consultancy Services; vice president, business development, KKM; vice president, inventory replenishment, CVS Pharmacy; managerial and executive positions with Retail Solutions, Inc.; American Greetings, Arthur Andersen, E&Y, and Ciba Corning Diagnostics.

Education: M.S., biomedical engineering, Boston University; B.S., biomedical and electrical engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

My role at Bob’s Discount Furniture is a new one. We brought all the supply chain areas across our organization into one place, and I’m responsible for moving goods from start to finish.

A first step was getting everyone to work together. I started with a weekly call with the leadership team. I love making sure everyone knows exactly what everyone else knows.

Making It Right

The lightning rod that brought together every function was asking: ‘How do we make it right for the customer every time?’ If we promise we’ll get a product to a customer in one week, then we have to deliver on that promise.

To get there, we are working hard to make sure our in-stock levels are where they need to be. We are nine months into this effort. Our goods come from abroad in many cases. During and coming out of the pandemic, the thinking was, ‘just get your hands on whatever goods you can get your hands on.’

At some point, though, we have to prioritize. We have several thousand stock-keeping units (SKUs) across 75 suppliers, and all have finite capacity.  We worked to help our suppliers prioritize our critical needs.

As a second step, we spent a lot of time this year building relationships with a large number of carriers to make sure that we have the capacity we need to move all our goods.

The third step was boosting visibility. That is a big challenge and a big opportunity for everybody in the supply chain.

In-Stock Levels

With these initiatives, we were able to drive our in-stock levels to where they needed to be. Today we’re about back to pre-pandemic levels. That has been exciting for us.

My career has been non-linear. I started as an academic scientist, and then moved to medical products, consulting, and consumer goods.

The academic world was great. I was studying movement and neuromuscular systems. It was really interesting and great scientific work, but it didn’t have that practical, pragmatic element to it.

In my first supply chain role, the challenge for me was pushing out of my comfort zone, trying new things, and figuring out how to get my arms around the system.

That’s where my engineering degree helps. Everything to me is a big, complex system, whether it’s running a supply chain or running a company.

What I love about supply chain is how it combines several cool things. It’s a large and complex system. It’s a big mathematical problem–‘I have to move these things from point A to point B and these are the variables I have to deal with’—so it has intellectual excitement to it. I also love that it’s practical.

And, finally, we serve customers. I love when someone receives our furniture and it feels good in their home.

Ramesh Murthy Answers the Big Questions

1. What activities help you in your role?

I am into music and enjoy figuring out how all the components and systems go together so I can get the outcome I want. If you mix and match different equipment, you get very different sounds. It’s Zen and also analytical.

2. What’s the best leadership or supply chain advice you received?

Early in my career I learned success is about having the best people you can get, as opposed to necessarily having the best plan or strategy. That was a big change for me. I had always felt you lay out the strategy and then hand it to people to go do it. It’s much better the other way around.

3. If you could time travel, what period would most interest you?

As an engineer and a bit of a nerd, I always wanted to be in the Renaissance period; to spend time with Da Vinci and watch how he invented. Today we’re in a period of technological creativity. It’s different from the pure physical creativity of that time.

“I decided to put in a little more money, take control of the company, and give everyone who invested a chance to be successful,” he says.

Marshall became CEO and, in 2022, changed the firm’s name to Upexi. In 2023, it’s poised to make a profit on $100 million in revenues. Marshall talked with us about his leadership trajectory and his rapidly growing enterprise.

IL: What opportunities made Upexi so interesting to you?

Amazon had created a launching pad for small brands. But if you start a brand today, you reach a point where you don’t know how to get bigger. You can’t afford a development team, an advertising team, and a marketing team. So you hire agencies, and they eat up all your cash.

We offer an alternative, acquiring ecommerce and Amazon brands and providing a plug-and-play model to make them profitable and more efficient.

IL: Tell us about an event from early in your career that helped to shape you as a leader.

Early on, I learned that you have to understand every aspect of your business. When I was in my 20s, my friends and I started a temporary agency for truck drivers. I learned the business by making deliveries.

Then I moved into sales, where my conversations with customers clued me in to new opportunities. They needed trucks as well as drivers. They needed linehaul services. Even at XPO, I used to drive the forklifts on some days, or unload.

At Upexi, I’ve worked on the floor; I’ve fixed our packaging machines. We have our own third-party logistics services and our own pick-and-pack. I walk through there regularly, asking about the problems and about what we could do better.

IL: Right now, what’s the most interesting challenge at Upexi?

Our biggest challenge is finding human capital that doesn’t want to specialize in just one thing. I look for people who want to be generalists and understand our whole business. You always have to plug in the specialists to help train others. But the generalists can also train the specialists.

IL: What do you most look forward to achieving at the company in the next 12 months?

I want to see our earlier stage brands grow up. We’ve created some economies of scale for them; now we’re working to drive them to the next level of product development. I want our three main brands—VitaMedica, Tytan Tiles, and Lucky Tail—to grow to the next level and become better known in their sectors.

IL: Which emerging technology will have the greatest impact on your business?

We’ve just launched an initiative to build our own artificial intelligence (AI) engine, which we’ll use to develop business intelligence to increase sales.

For example, when was a customer shopping? Was it raining? What was the temperature? What other products have they bought from us? And what offer did they act on? Was it two-for-one? Free shipping? We want the AI to analyze all that and give us the best opportunity to sell to that demographic.

The volume of data AI can sort through in one minute is more than we can sort through in one month. And it bases its decisions on data, not on a gut feeling. I’m excited to see how we can use this to spend our money in the best possible way while also creating the best possible experience.

We’re developing the AI engine in partnership with SME Solutions Group. I used ChatGPT to write the press release announcing the partnership. I had to edit the results. But I was amazed at what it produced in about eight seconds.

IL: What characteristics make you an effective leader?

I don’t treat anyone like I’m the CEO. I treat everyone like I’m their resource and they’re my resource. I want people to follow me because they know I’ll do the same job they do, and I’m there for all the projects and problems. In collaboration, we do a better job. It’s the same when I hire an executive. I don’t want them to tell people what to do, but to tell people they’re going to help them, whatever they need.

IL: If we followed you on a typical day, what would we see?

I wake up at about 5 a.m. and log into all our sales channels. I look at the return on equity on all our spend every morning. I look at our Monday.com board to see the projects everyone is working on, and I might send e-mails about some of them. Then I work out to get motivated for the second part of my day.

I have calls five or six days a week with each of our teams, and I catch up with our CFO during the day. After lunch, I check our sales numbers to see if we’re on trend. Later, I follow up on future projects. I respond to 100 to 300 Slack messages a day. And since we’re a public company, I spend about 15 hours a week on calls with investors and analysts.

IL: What business books would you recommend?

Two books that have influenced me are Good to Great by Jim Collins and The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger. And I’ve read books about some of the great investors, such as Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett.

IL: Outside of work, how do you like to spend your time?

I love to be outdoors, especially walking in the mountains with my dog and my wife. We spend time in Jackson, Wyoming in the summer and for part of the winter, when I go snowmobiling and snowshoeing. In Canada, where I was born, I have a cabin on a lake. It’s off the grid, with only solar power.

Learning by Doing

Some people learn leadership skills from role models and mentors who teach by example. Allan Marshall got his education by jumping in with both feet and getting his hands dirty.

“I’ve never worked for another person,” Marshall says. “I’ve only had my own businesses.”

Necessity and experience taught him to love hard work. “There was no task I wouldn’t do,” he says. “When we had our first office, I cleaned the bathrooms; I’d come in early and vacuum so the place would look good.”

Marshall has also learned a great deal from the teams that have defined the success of his companies. “It’s about having people who work hard because you work hard, because you care about them and they care about you.”

Technologies continue to evolve, but the concern of job replacement has not. I’ll never forget being onsite for a technology install and being escorted by security guards into the warehouses because workers were concerned about losing their jobs.

Enhancement, Not Replacement

Worker concerns are understandable. But it all boils down to the same issue: Technology shouldn’t be about replacement. It’s about enhancement.

Multimodal productivity is not only the future of the work landscape, but it’s already here. And smart businesses will get on board fast.

Multimodal productivity is not an either/or proposition. It’s a yes/and, designed to use the smartest resources—human or technology—for each stage of a workflow. The key is learning to work with technology, not put forth a futile effort to stave it off.

My company recently integrated autonomous mobile robots into our supply chain business unit. People were nervous. I get it. But I couldn’t be more excited to see the true impact.

With this advancement, warehouse workers are still responsible for ensuring the right items get to the right place at the right time. But now they get a robot helper to, literally, do the heavy lifting for them. Using voice direction, they can order around robots to handle repetitive and heavy-lifting tasks, reducing manual material handling by as much as 50%.

The ripple effect is significant: improved worker safety, fewer injuries, and increased productivity. And when your autonomous mobile robots are integrated seamlessly into your workflows, everything becomes streamlined.

This advancement also mitigates physical barriers that may have prevented people from taking a warehouse job in the past. With the tight supply chain labor market, the shift from constant physical demands to more strategic workflows opens the industry to a whole new talent pool.

It also gives existing warehouse workers a chance to hone technical skills for which they may otherwise not have had exposure.

Embracing Change

Change can be uncomfortable—especially when you’ve done something the same way for years or decades. I don’t expect that every person who is offered the chance to try these robots will be immediately thrilled. (But they might be when they see productivity increase, and their back hurts less at the end of the day.)

If they can learn to let technology get them partway to the end goal and use their talents to accelerate what technology can do, they’ll be light years ahead of the competition.

Multimodal productivity means looking at the entire workflow and leveraging technology where it makes sense. That will look different for every industry, and even every warehouse. The customization capabilities of current automation technologies make that easier than ever—and it will keep getting better.

The world would be in shambles without hardworking warehouse associates. The point of multimodal productivity is not for technology to do the job better than people; it’s for technology to help people do their jobs better than ever before.