Trending Now

GT Podcast – Episode 129 – The Port Authority of NY…

New Articles

Product Branding: Small Tips that Bring Huge Success

product branding
Archives, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

Product Branding: Small Tips that Bring Huge Success

Leave a comment

What makes a good product? Quality, design, usefulness, and the proper market are all contributing factors. But there’s one more thing that relates to products of any size and scale – product branding. It’s the best strategy to attract the right people and encourage them to come back.

But do it wrong, and you’ll confuse even the people who came specifically for your products. 

Let us help you do it right with this brief yet very informative guide.

What Is Product Branding and How Is It Different from Corporate Branding?

Product branding is a combination of actions that brand a specific product. Basically, you analyze the item, look for unique specifications, and market them, creating a separate identity for the product. 

The combination can be very extensive, with months of research and tons of effort invested. Or it can be a lucky combination of package color, catchy name, and motto.

Don’t confuse it with corporate branding, though. Branding products or services means separating them from the whole picture, and evolving and adjusting them to the market.

For example, when you want to brand logistics and/or your supply chain, you’ll be emphasizing the promises made and kept, and encouraging customer and partner loyalty. This means delivering quickly and always on time, fast responses, etc.

Remember how quickly Nike’s shoes get to the shelves of most stores? That’s because of the company’s supply chain that delivers a great customer experience and supports the corporate brand associated with the speed, strength, and ease of the ‘Just Do It’ motto.

To achieve such results, your supply chain and marketing teams have to stay in touch and create a message that will sell a particular aspect of the business. A change in logistics branding can also garner more loyalty even from current unsatisfied customers.

Intel’s ‘Just Say Yes’ campaign has helped it pacify frustrated clients dissatisfied with the quality and speed of the company’s services. The campaign introduced a new standard of customer care and the company improved the speed of request processing.

A supply chain is crucial in product branding because it establishes trust and customer loyalty. And this doesn’t just mean giving people what they need quickly. It means doing so in a way that will make them want to come back and trust you.

Why Is Branding a Product Worth the Effort and Investment?

Especially if you include supply chain and logistics into the product branding strategy, it’s definitely worth the investment of finances and effort.

We have 4 reasons why:

Your product becomes recognizable.

By hearing a phrase, seeing brand colors, or through another association, people will immediately think about your product. Remember the Nike product branding examples. When we hear ‘Just Do It’, we think of Nike and its straightforward strategies like delivering at light speed.

You distinguish the product from competitors.

Once your product becomes recognizable it will stand out, like the brand H&M, which is marketed as a representative of affordable fashion but without the burden of cheap, exploitative labor. Their supply chain transparency definitely stands out.

You establish an emotional connection with customers.

Promoting the speedy and ethical qualities of your supply chain will cause emotional responses from potential and current customers.

It separates the parent company from product failures.

Having a certain product branded farther from the company’s design allows for experiments. Ideally, even a failed one won’t really taint your reputation because the association won’t be too strong.

Now, to the top recommendations on branding a product!

Tips to Focus on While Developing Product Branding 

So, we’ve established the importance of product branding. We’ve found out that a ‘product’ isn’t just an item but can also be a service, such as logistics or supply chain. Finally, we know that not every branding is successful.

But how to make it work well for your company?

We have compiled some of the most effective recommendations for your product and service branding:

Deep research of the audience.

One of the most important things is finding out who your target is, what they want, how they will use the product, and what their values are. By knowing key characteristics of the target audience and their needs, you can start building a strategy to meet their needs and brand your products accordingly.

Why is this important? 89% of shoppers tend to trust brands that share their values.

If we’re talking about branding services like supply chain and logistics, you’ll also need to learn about the location and demographics of the audience. User behavior will let you know where and how they look for the services you provide.

Identifying competitors.

There are multiple ways you can identify and analyze competitors. First of all, remember that every business that wants to stay afloat nowadays works on its online presence. If your competitors are online, you can track them by simply searching for products and services similar to yours.

To find your competitors online, you can search for targeted keywords and see who is on top of Google. Alternatively, you can use an SEO platform like SE Ranking for a competitor search. There, you can enter your website to see who your main organic and paid competitors are and how well they perform. This will help you see what approaches they use and, possibly, what they are missing in their strategies.

Also, pay attention to the advertising aspect. How are their press reports built? What do customers say about their companies and products? Also, don’t pass over business directories, informational websites, questionnaires, etc.

The key to this step is further analysis using the data you get about your competitors. Find out what kinds of products your competitors release, who they target and what marketing channels they use, what their brand values are, how they distribute, etc.
To summarize the data, you can use the SWOT strategy. It’s easy and to the point.

Include product personality and its brand identity.

You have to know exactly where you and the product or service in question stand. What’s your goal? What gaps do you want to fill with the product? What do you have for customers that others don’t?

First of all, people see the picture, and 5-7 impressions can make people remember and even build trust in your product and brand. So be prepared with a great, stylish logo, high quality packaging, taglines, and the name of the product. If we’re talking about supply chain and logistics, it’s the clothes your drivers wear and the condition of their vehicles.

As you finish preparing the picture, it’s time to get deeper. Tell the history of your product or service, dive into its values, the glorious mission, uniqueness, etc. By going gradually, you’ll create a funnel that people will exit already wanting that product or service.

Embrace consistency.

Even if you do all of the above, if you’re not consistent, people won’t trust the brand. One mistake is fine, you can do damage control, but you’re going to waste a lot of money and effort if you don’t have the same message spread across platforms. The design of images and the quality of products and services also need to be uniform.

We’ve already answered the question of whether the investment is justified. But let’s add that sticking to your product brand consistently has a huge impact on its success.

That’s why creating a system and following it is so important.

Don’t forget about your staff.

Your staff has a large influence on how your company and products are perceived. We already talked about driver clothing and vehicles, but what about their tone and values?

Your teams should share the values of the brand and highlight this the best way they can. The job of the company is to remind the staff of the mission, the usefulness of the product, and the goal of the company. It’s essential to keep everyone motivated to not only do their job well but take those values and communicate with them.

The best-case scenario is having a team that shares your corporate philosophy and supports the importance of the product you’re trying to brand.

An excellent example is how your people deliver the product, what they say, what tone they have, and how it correlates with the image of your company.

Summary

Product branding is a powerful tool that can bring your business to a new level. It allows you to experiment without risking the company’s reputation. It provides an opportunity to give personality to each of your products and gain a target audience for them that is separate from that of your business.

It helps enhance what you create and give it life. But you have to do it right. Include every element of design and history into one system, be consistent with your message, and, of course, create high-quality products and services so that people who are drawn to the brand actually have something to love.

vendors
Air Cargo, Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Trucking

In this Fraught Time for Supply Chain and Freight, not all Vendors are Partners

Leave a comment

Throughout the pandemic, Zoom became a lubricant for organizations to keep moving and stay connected. Sales calls, internal team meetings, external events like webinars and conferences — many of us turned to this tool for necessary face-to-face communication, and it’s been vital.

But as critical as Zoom has been, they’re still just a vendor for all of us. They offer a service, and we pay them for that service. It’s transactional, plain and simple.

That’s a parallel we can all draw to other vendors too. Though it’s become a common turn of phrase to refer to vendors as partners (and especially for your vendors to refer to themselves as your partner), you shouldn’t confuse the two terms. They’re not synonymous.

Vendors are bought. Partnerships are earned.

Elevating every vendor to partner status cheapens the word and dilutes what an actual partner contributes to your company and your goals. It can also cause you to misallocate resources and energy to the wrong relationships and potentially cause you to steer your organization in the wrong direction.

Over the last few years, we’ve all faced our own trials and difficult times. It’s been easy to see the value of partnerships and relationships. But it’s when things are calm that these bonds are really forged. If you don’t build the right partnerships when times are good — with your carriers, with your freight forwarders, with the right vendors — you’re not going to be their priority when times turn tougher.

What’s the difference between a partner and a vendor?

To me, a vendor simply wants to sell you more of their service, even if it’s not the right move for your business.

A partner, on the other hand, is a listener.  A sounding board. A confidant. A partner lives in the trenches with you, understands your business, and understands how you go to market in business. A partner brings expertise and suggestions that empower decision-making. A partner doesn’t always make a sale just because they can; a partner understands when their current technology doesn’t fully solve the problem. A solution that complements and enables the business process may or may not include my technology as part of that solution stack. As a partner rather than just a vendor, I owe it to you to tell you that. A partner prioritizes the long-term relationship and the health of your business over their own short-term profits.

Partners may sometimes say no, and they know when to say no. They have a responsibility not to go down a bad path or let you go down a bad path, even if it would mean a bigger check for them.

That’s when the partner becomes a trusted advisor and a member of the business team. After all, business partnerships have to start with the same foundation as personal relationships — trust, openness, honesty, empathy, and communication.

I have a relevant story to share. When I came to Chain.io two years ago, a part of my final interview process for a sales position with the executive team was to provide at least two references. Easy, right?  Of course. However, there was a catch: those references have to be customers that I had done business with. The Chain.io executives interviewing me wanted to make sure my customers would vouch that I had been a partner and not just a vendor. I clearly had the goods because I got the job, but I loved that they asked for customer references and saw my relationships with customers as a prerequisite for the job.

Key Takeaway

Vendors are a key part of any business. We all rely on them, and we all need them. That network looks different at every company. Perhaps if you’re lean, you can get by with only a few dozen vendors. If you’re a larger company, you may have hundreds of different vendors.

Your circle of partners will be much smaller than that, but much deeper. They’ll be the ones you can turn to in times like we’ve found ourselves over the past 18 months — the ones who will prioritize your business, your goals, and your long-term success, even if it means they’re not closing a sale.

Plus, there’s usually another great bonus when working with the right partners: They’re much more willing to buy the nice dinner and the craft IPA.

Cheers!

____________________________________________________________

As head of Shipper Sales for Chain.io, Dan focuses on helping anyone shipping goods around the world get more connected to supply chain vendors, customers, software platforms, and more. Dan is passionate about using technology to provide visibility, clarity, and ease to complex supply chain challenges that require integrating multiple generations of technologies.

Past roles include VP of eCommerce for conDati, VP of Digital Performance Management at Blue Triangle, VP of Digital Strategy at SOASTA. He’s also worked with IBM Rational, Lockheed Martin, and Mercury/HP Software.

He lives in Saint Augustine, Florida.

Dan has presented his work at many conferences including the South Florida Agile/DevOps days, StarEAST, MobileWeek, Big Data TechCon Boston, Jenkins User Conference (East), several Meetups, and at itSMF events around North America, as well as the itSMF National Conference, multiple Gartner Conferences, and many local and regional events on a variety of topics in performance engineering and the SDLC.

You can find DAn at @DanBoutinUST or at a conference or meet-up near you.

truckload truck
Archives, Departments, Dispatches, Trucking

A HOT 2021 FOR TRUCKING BRINGS A BLAZING 2022 FOR TRUCKING ALLIANCES AND ACQUISITIONS

Leave a comment

Record earnings and cash flow in 2021 allowed carriers to add drivers, new and improved trucks and other equipment to keep up with an ever-demanding supply chain. But many trucking industry players did not stop there, forming alliances and purchasing competitors to position themselves for even greater rewards in 2022 and beyond.

On Jan. 5 of this year, GEODIS, a global transport and logistics giant, and Nashville, Tennessee-based CoreTrust, a leading commercial group purchasing organization and division of HealthTrust, announced a strategic alliance that will expand CoreTrust Logistics’ truckload freight offering to include a comprehensive full truckload (FTL) managed transportation solution. By tapping into the GEODIS network of more than 1,000 asset-based carriers, as well as its world-class managed transportation capabilities, CoreTrust members can enjoy better rates and end-to-end FTL shipment management, the companies contend.

Well known supply chain challenges—like finding a place to store goods, let alone drive them—have inflated prices for shippers, something that will be eased by the alliance, swears CoreTrust Assistant VP David Pollard. “Truckload rates have increased 25 to 30 percent, yet our members are confirming cost avoidance and significant savings with this comprehensive solution,” he said. “Even in this inflationary market, this alliance is driving achievable and quantifiable value across full truckload transportation for CoreTrust members.”        

Which explains why other concerns are hooking up with one another. Phoenix, Arizona-based Knight-Swift Transportation, which is one of North America’s largest and most diversified freight movers, made big moves in the less-than-truckload (LTL) space by buying AAA Transportation for a reported $1.35 billion in July and RAC MME Holdings for another $150 million in December. 

Knight-Swift’s goal of establishing a nationwide LTL network is helped greatly by acquiring AAA Transportation, whose roots date back to 1951 when an Alabama log hauler purchased a struggling truck line. AAA went on to blanket the Southeast, Southwest and Midwest, while Chicago-based RAC MME—the parent company of Midwest Motor Express and Midnite Express—has the upper Midwest and Northwest covered.  

RAC stands for Red Arts Capital, which partnered with Prudential Capital Partners, Brightwood Capital Advisors and several family offices in 2019 to acquire MME from the Roswick and Greenstein families, who founded the company in North Dakota in 1918. “With MME, we found the ideal opportunity to invest in an excellent business with an extensive network, including most metropolitan areas across its network geographic footprint,” explained Nicholas Antoine, co-founder and a managing partner at Red Arts Capital. “We are proud of our contributions to the company’s over 100 years of growth and service to the region, and believe that Knight-Swift provides MME the ideal home for its next phase of growth.”

In September, ArcBest acquired Chicago-based truckload broker MoLo Solutions for $235 million plus the potential for future earnout payments. Getting four-year-old MoLo, which expected 2021 revenue of around $600 million, propelled Fort Smith, Arkansas-based ArcBest to a Top 15 U.S. truckload broker with access to more than 70,000 carriers.

“ArcBest’s timely investment further accelerates growth by increasing the scale of our asset-light business, and MoLo’s proven ability to cultivate significant shipment growth with large shippers will be highly complementary and synergistic,” said Judy R. McReynolds, ArcBest chairman, president and CEO. “This acquisition capitalizes on our terrific business momentum and positions us to enhance value for all of our stakeholders, including our customers, employees, communities and ArcBest shareholders.” 

MoLo CEO Andrew Silver, who landed at ArcBest as part of the deal, said the partnership also “further advances the opportunity we have to achieve our vision. MoLo has been able to reach $600 million in annual revenues with only 500 shippers; in doing this deal, we can now tap into ArcBest’s 30,000 existing shippers and offer them the same level of service we’ve been providing our existing customers. In addition to that, we can now offer our customers a breadth of services we couldn’t before, including owned assets, increased drop trailer capabilities, LTL, expedited, outsourced transportation management, and more.”

Summertime deals were in the offing for 65-year-old Werner Enterprises, which acquired an 80% stake in Pennsylvania-based TL carrier ECM Transport Group for $142 million and final-mile carrier Nehds Logistics of Monroe, Connecticut, for $64 million.

“The addition of ECM’s skilled drivers, nondriver associates and terminal network strengthens our portfolio by adding short-haul expertise in a segment in which consumer demand and supply chain needs are growing,” said Derek Leathers, Omaha, Nebraska-based Werner’s chairman, president and CEO. He was similar in his praise of Nehds: “The addition of the Nehds operations, management team, talented staff and strong customer relationships to the Werner family represents a significant step forward in our Final Mile delivery program.” 

RLS Logistics is a leading cold chain 3PL, but it also offers managed transportation services and an LTL brokerage unit. With locations in Utah, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and its home state New Jersey, RLS spent 2021 adding partners in California, Massachusetts, Texas and another in the Keystone State.

However, you had to hop the northern border for the biggest deal of the year by LTL network size: Canadian trucking and logistics provider TFI International acquiring UPS Freight for $800 million in January 2021. Heading to the negotiating table with 38 terminals, the Montreal-based company walked away with 197 more facilities across North America—as well as about $3 billion in revenue.

Once the deal officially closed, TFI CEO Alain Bédard told analysts that 75% of his operations would be in the U.S., plans were afoot to aggressively bring down costs—and that the acquisition was unlikely to be the only collaboration with Atlanta-based UPS. More to come in 2022?

business
Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

How to Start 2022 with the Right Mindset to Grow Your Business

Leave a comment

The historical surge in new U.S. businesses in 2021 could well be surpassed in 2022, with one report predicting a third consecutive record year for entrepreneurship – all during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a new year begins, many business owners are focusing on sales objectives and finding the right talent. But with many new entrepreneurs entering the arena, there’s more for them to consider than numbers and resumes. It’s also important for them to grasp what the “entrepreneurial mindset” is all about,” says Mari Tautimes, a prosperous business owner and author of #KeepGoing: From 15-Year-Old Mom To Successful CEO And Entrepreneur.

“The pandemic has brought a unique set of challenges on top of what new entrepreneurs already will go through,” Tautimes says. “The entrepreneurial mindset involves specific ways of thinking and how to approach challenges and mistakes. It’s about having to improve your skill set and reaching higher levels of resiliency.

“Starting and running a business is an all-encompassing daily grind and it can take many years to achieve the success you hoped for. Those who make a consistent effort to embody the special mindset required will equip themselves to endure, meet everyday challenges and grow.”

Tautimes offers these tips for new business owners to develop the entrepreneurial mindset and move their business forward in 2022:

Move from conscious incompetence to unconscious competence. The kind of growth most entrepreneurs seek requires getting out of their comfort zone and acquiring a new skill or skills, Tautimes says. She defines “conscious incompetence” as being aware of the skill but not being proficient at it, and says “unconscious competence” means when performing the skill becomes automatic. “You have to accept there is much that you don’t know, and have the patience and perseverance to spend time on professional growth and learning those things you don’t know,” she says. ”While learning new things and realizing how much we don’t know is extremely uncomfortable, what is even more uncomfortable is the thought that I might face my deathbed someday never knowing what I could have actually done.”

Revisit your vision daily. Tautimes says maintaining a strong and consistent entrepreneurial mindset involves a commitment to a vision, which allows the business owner to follow through on the necessary steps to complete the vision. “One problem entrepreneurs frequently face is that the demands of the day get in the way,” she says. “Frustration and doubt can creep in, and problems can clutter up the day and take you off course, so it’s important to set aside time every day to focus on your vision and goals in order to stay on track.”

Take responsibility and uphold integrity. “A responsible person is someone who does not make excuses, does not blame others or circumstances, and who pushes through feelings to take deliberate action,” Tautimes says. “The feelings part of the equation is really important. Responsible people who proactively make their lives happen do not make decisions throughout their day based on their feelings. They base their decisions on what they said they were going to do, whether they like it or not. In other words, they uphold a consistent level of integrity with and for themselves as well as with those they serve.”

Approach problems from all sides. There is much trial and error involved in the entrepreneurial life, which means entrepreneurs have to approach problems from different angles in order to move forward. “Oftentimes the first solution is not the best one,” Tautimes says. “You have to think differently than most people and open your mind to all the possibilities. Remember that mistakes are a great opportunity for growth, including product or service improvements or new products and services altogether.”

Delegate and elevate. A common mistake entrepreneurs make early on is wearing too many hats. “I always felt like I was lacking because I couldn’t figure out how to do it all,” Tautimes says. “I never realized that the real question wasn’t ever whether I could do it all to begin with; it was whether I should. With everything that we do, there is an opportunity cost. For example, if I spend a ton of time building the marketing campaign, then I’m not developing the next business relationship. What you need to realize is the more you choose to do things that help you increase your value, the better your life and business will become. Stop doing things you can delegate so you can focus on things that help your company get farther faster.”

“There will be setbacks and bumps in the road,” Tautimes says, “but that’s part of the entrepreneur’s journey and growth. The right mindset builds you and your business for the long haul, and the rewards eventually come to those who continue to grow.”

____________________________________________________________________

Mari Tautimes (www.maritautimes.com) is the author of #KeepGoing: From 15-Year-Old Mom To Successful CEO And Entrepreneur. She rose from administrative assistant to CEO of her family’s businesses and sold them for $16 million. An entrepreneur for over 20 years, Tautimes is a speaker, trainer, EOS Implementer® and mentor, sharing her story of perseverance and success to help others create fulfilling lives.

products
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Software

To Develop Innovative Products, Update Your Situational Awareness. Here’s How.

Leave a comment

Product and organizational leaders can always rely on a dynamic business, tech, and regulatory market to challenge product innovation. So prepare to engage early with a process that provides unique insight into your business environment. How do you keep up on market timing and relevance? How do you spot a market shift with your customers? And how do you better align your organization and products with your market?

Developing B2B technology products fit-for-market and which customers will see as valuable is a process. And one ideally driven by applying a strategic approach to acquiring an essential situational awareness. On a battlefield, situation awareness, or situational awareness, is commonly referenced for knowing the environment in which you operate. In a business setting, I apply it to mean knowing your market, customer, and organizational environment.

While the term has also been used to explore other areas, like operations and crisis management, it is an approach I find potentially helpful to companies developing B2B technology products and services, as well as to organizations implementing such solutions to better serve their customers.

The following perspective is based on years of hard-won experience and observations from various roles in the business and technology arena having led development in Internet service infrastructure, supported sales, and presented business proposals to senior management; as well as having been a startup founder, professor of business and IT, radio frequency (RF) content developer and trainer; and presently in management consulting focused on product strategy and transformation in the data-connected cargo space.

I’ve learned that since individual business functions tend to be interconnected, where a fluctuation in one area can affect activity in another, engaging with a strategic process early to raise your situational awareness can be invaluable to innovation-minded product and organizational leaders. While the following illustrate some thoughts for consideration, they are not however meant as a directive. I strongly prefer trying to help others by presenting analysis and context that help them chart their own direction.

Tune Into Your Market. A major part of having an innovation-focused mindset is that not only do you remain closely in sync with your market, but also that you revisit ideas and projects for timing and relevance. Likewise, organizational flexibility, as a market response strategy, can also be helpful particularly when operating in a dynamic business, technology, and regulatory environment.

For example, an area widely covered over the past several years is a market challenge IoT manufacturers have faced on whether to develop pure-play (hardware) products, where they risk becoming a commodity or build products focused on delivering specific services tailored to a specific market. This area has also been a hallmark of the related hardware-as-a-service (HaaS) conversation. Pairing current market knowledge with what you can accept on flexibility can be influential on both an organizational and product level.

Be Curious. Practice tinkering on both a business and technical level as a routine. Gather ideas, challenge their assumptions, and look for key trends. Likewise, practice testing technical processes and functions for useful application. While “value” may not readily surface under this exercise, the point of having worked through some process on this level can serve you well when its opportunity arrives.

Perform a Product Stress Test. Conduct an internal assessment on your existing products relative to their technical capabilities and market applications. Doing so can shed potentially valuable insight on areas requiring attention as product design scalability, operational efficiency, and application limitations given your view of current market direction.

Develop in-house talent. Create an appropriate training strategy for management and technical teams to develop and maintain onboard expertise. At varying times, management needs to communicate with customers and vendors on product performance issues. And technical teams need the required skillsets to develop products and keep up in their field. As well, both should be able to comfortably convey ideas and feedback to one another and to key stakeholders.

Poll Your Customers. Use the relationship that you’ve built to call up customers and ask “how are things”? Ask about how your current product is working for them. Is the price right? Is the service right? Listen for any new features requests, ask how they will be applied, and in what markets will they need to operate? Evaluate requests for reasonableness in technical and cost expectations. Importantly, knowing the market ahead of the call can help you better filter the feedback, including whether any feature or product request is a one-off or, more broadly, signal a greater market shift.

Embrace A Sense of Purpose. Connecting more closely with the end application of your customers can help inspire a positive do-good company culture, and better align product strategy with the customer environment. In some cases, doing so may also lead to uncovering potential new market opportunities. Take, for instance, the food cold chain infrastructure challenges in emerging markets. Research analysis I’ve conducted on this conversation shows that over 40% food loss that occurs in the post-harvest and processing segments, forward-looking companies (in IoT and logistics arenas) interested in creating innovative partnerships in these markets can potentially expand market presence while also serving to reduce the food loss.

Time spent on updating your situational awareness can play an important role towards developing innovative products fit-for-market. The key is to start somewhere: get up to speed on current market trends, and connect with your sales teams on their overall customer interaction experience. They’re on the front lines of communicating with your customers. Assistance on these and other processes should be readily available in-house; if not, retain a professional.

__________________________________________________________________

Sal Yazbeck is a technology strategist advising companies on product innovation and transformation in the data-connected cargo space. He also works individually with business leaders who prefer to receive personalized trusted remote advisory access on days and at times of their choosing. He has worked across several industries, and has taught at both university schools of business and technology. Connect with him on LinkedIn.

employees
Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily, Special Reports

Sidestep The Great Resignation: Keep Workers By Helping Their Communities

Leave a comment

From a business perspective, the turbulent year of 2021 will be remembered for “The Great Resignation,” when record numbers of employees left their jobs.

But when it comes to the worldwide problem of talent shortages across many industries, perhaps employers haven’t seen anything yet. New Year’s resolutions of retaining top employees or finding the right talents when recruiting may be even more difficult to achieve, if you believe surveys such as one conducted in the fall of ‘21 by LumApps in collaboration with CMSWire. Seventy-one percent of U.S. participants in the poll say the pandemic made them rethink what they want out of their career, and 63% have considered a new career in the past year.

All that data fuels concerns among many employers that the talent shortage will continue to be a major problem in 2022. Everest Group’s 2022 Key Issues Study shows companies’ No. 1 constraint now is “finding enough talent to run the business.”

This talent crunch, along with the trend for many companies to move from 100% remote work to a hybrid model or back to a fully in-person model, is causing business leaders to reconsider what keeps their teams happy and productive. Many are asking: How can we keep employees invested in and passionate about our brand in this new hybrid environment?

One key to keeping the best employees on board may lie in how well companies give them the opportunity to put their own skills and interests into action in making a difference in the world. In the LumApps/CMS poll regarding “The Great Reflection” among workers, among the reasons cited are heightened demands for flexibility and inclusivity in the workplace, more career growth and companies that walk the talk about corporate social responsibility. Indeed, employees’ special gifts and passions for social issue involvement contribute towards helping their company’s overall impact efforts and also to employees’ fulfillment: 76% in the LumApps/CMS poll are looking for corporate social responsibility and 73% want to choose employers with a reputation for supporting diversity, equity and inclusion.

Just as businesses have unique abilities and resources to solve problems for their communities, their employees have their own set of talents that can add a rich dimension to the company’s social-impact profile. Unleashing those talents can be as simple and informal as assigning appropriate roles to your employees for a volunteer project. If there’s a photographer on the team, for example, have them take photos at the event. Have a group that loves to haul things in their pickup trucks? Put them in charge of collecting the cans from your office locations for your food drive.

Over time, of course, you can become more intentional and strategic about how you use your employees’ skills. We do an employee survey or focus group with our client teams to identify employee interests such as public speaking, strategic planning, committee leadership, budget planning, and more. Effectively leveraging these skills and interests helps extend our client’s impact footprint in the community, even with limited formal staff resources.

Employees, especially the younger workforce, are looking for a deeper meaning in their work and to feel as though they are contributing to something impactful. Millennials are especially vigilant about researching and weighing the values and cultures of companies they want to work for. Gen Z is following suit, looking for authentic commitments from their employer to take action to solve the world’s problems.

This is worth the effort: recent statistics on corporate social responsibility show that 95% of employees believe businesses should benefit all stakeholders, including the communities in which they operate, and 70% say they wouldn’t work for a company without a strong purpose.

Employers are understanding that social impact is a critical component to an effective business strategy. In today’s connected and interdependent world, employees increasingly demand that businesses and their suppliers take part in creating solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. It’s time to fire up those special talents and passions to build engagement and loyalty.

_______________________________________________________________________

Maggie Z. Miller and Hannah Nokes are ForbesBooks co-authors of Magnify Your Impact: Powering Profit with Purpose (www.magnify-impact.com). They also are co-founders of Magnify Impact, a company that helps business leaders create effective social impact strategies. Miller has developed social impact solutions with hundreds of company leaders globally. Previously, she founded an international nonprofit organization to provide microcredit loans for thousands of women in Peru. Nokes has led corporate social responsibility for global corporations and founded an impact collaborative of companies in Austin, Texas.

ach
Archives, Banking, Global Trade Daily

Here are the Top Tips for Preventing ACH Credit Fraud

Leave a comment

Forced to work from home during COVID-19, accounts payable departments have accelerated plans to move away from paper checks and pay more of their suppliers by ACH. That, in turn, accelerated another trend: fraud. Through social engineering, fraud attacks on ACH credits are most commonly known as Business Email Compromises or BECs.

According to the 2020 AFP Payments and Fraud Control Survey Report, for the first time, in 2019, BEC schemes were the most common type of fraud attack experienced, with 75 percent of organizations experiencing an attack and 54 percent of those reporting financial losses. ACH credits—outgoing payments from buyer to supplier—were targeted in 37 percent of BEC schemes.

The problem has only gotten worse in 2020. In the September edition of their Fraud in the Wake of COVID-19 Benchmarking Report, the ACFE reports that 90 percent of respondents have seen an increase in cyber fraud frequency from July through August. This included BECs.

Three-quarters of respondents said that preventing and detecting fraud has become more difficult in the current environment, and more than 90 percent expect attacks to increase. Organizations are under siege, and nearly one-third have received no guidance from banking partners about mitigating ACH credit risks.

What can organizations do?

Defeating BECs requires a multi-pronged approach. Ongoing anti-fraud training is important because these emails are getting more convincing every day. Fraudsters have become experts in user data and A/B testing, which reduces elements that alert their victims of illegitimate changes to their accounts. Strong internal controls are also important and network security, which prevents parties from gaining access to internal systems.

Here are four ways to reduce your ACH credit fraud risk.

1. Handle with Care

Thwarting ACH credit fraud is all about handling supplier banking data securely, which accounts payable must have on hand to transmit their payment file to the bank. This data is often stored in the ERP system, or sometimes on an Excel spreadsheet, where AP staff has been recorded during supplier onboarding. Sometimes it’s stored when a supplier updates their information. Fraudulent change requests are one of the most frequent avenues of attack.

Let’s say you’ve got a new person in accounts payable who isn’t fully trained yet. This person gets an email from a supplier, asking to update their bank account information.

Your new hire, eager to please, fulfills the request, inputting a new routing number and bank account, unaware that a million-dollar payment to that supplier is going out the next day. Nobody realizes what’s happened until two weeks later when the real supplier calls, asking for payment.

By then, it’s too late to reel ACH payments back in. You can call the FBI and the bank. They may try to help you, but if the thieves are sophisticated enough, they’ve already moved the money to offshore accounts, and it’s completely gone.

2. Secure Information

You should never use an unsecured email for banking information updates, although a surprising number of companies still do. It’s too easy for a hacker to intercept one of those emails and use the information within it for their own means. If they get contact or bank account information, they can pose as legitimate suppliers and circumvent internal controls. Some businesses even keep information in spreadsheets or their ERPs, but systems like those aren’t designed to store data securely.

Some companies allow suppliers to update their own information in supplier portals. That might work, provided that companies manage secure portal access and verify all updates. However, if suppliers can log in and update information, it’s likely that hackers can access the same information with very little resistance.

The most sophisticated approach that I’ve seen so far includes a trained procurement team, who verifies and validates all changes that come through.

There are a couple of drawbacks to this approach. It’s a big IT investment with plenty of labor asks. Even then, it’s still prone to internal fraud. At the end of the day, even the best systems will still have their risks. The goal is to minimize them.

3. Look at Fees

Companies often try to shift the risk and time burden to others, with some success. For example, they may choose to pay their suppliers by card., which puts the risk on credit card networks. In cases of card fraud, it’s more likely that payments can be canceled or refunded.

Virtual cards offer even more security because they provide unique numbers, which can only be used by a specified supplier for a specified amount. The big drawback is that not all suppliers accept cards—there are fees to consider.

An organization I’m familiar with pays many of its suppliers with PayPal. Their supplier­­­­—most of them small businesses—are located around the world. AP doesn’t have the time or staff to verify payment information, validate bank accounts, and deal with ongoing updates. As the intermediary, PayPal handles all that and guarantees that the funds go to the right place. But, here again, suppliers pay a hefty fee—in the neighborhood of three percent.

4. Shift the Risk

There really is no perfect system in place, which is why we’re seeing ACH credit fraud rise in tandem with the rise in ACH payments. But there is a perfect way to shift the risk to companies that are built to withstand the verification and validation burdens. Today’s payment automation providers manage supplier information, so individual companies no longer have to spend valuable time on it. It’s similar to handing the reins to IT and procurement departments to lock down the database and institute controls. The difference is that working with a provider removes the time investment and liability.

Think of payment automation providers as a means to outsource risk. Their sole focus is to ensure secure, on-time payments to your suppliers without causing costly overhead. They have perfected the systems and processes for hundreds of thousands of AP departments across the United States, and in ways that businesses would be hard-pressed to replicate.

Businesses used to worry about check fraud above all else. While they still have to pay attention to that aspect, it’s become a low-tech form of fraud that’s easy to understand and plan for. As companies shift to electronic payment means, they’re increasingly experiencing sophisticated cyberattacks, which target much larger sums and are harder to defend against. With such attacks growing, businesses may find that outsourcing professionals is the best defense.

_________________________________________________________________________

Jeremiah Bennett is the Director of Information Security for Corpay, a FLEETCOR Company which helps companies of all sizes simplify how they pay suppliers, facilitate treasury payments, and reduce risk.

FTZs
3pls, Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

THIRD PARTY LOGISTICS FIRMS OFFER BENEFITS TO THOSE OPERATING IN FTZs

Leave a comment

Companies involved in the import of global products into the U.S. and considering the utilization of a foreign trade zone (FTZ) in their business may want to consult with a third-party logistics firm to get an in-depth look at what access to an FTZ may mean for them—and what a 3PL could offer in terms of benefits and efficiencies while operating within an FTZ.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), FTXs are secure areas under the agency’s supervision that are generally considered outside CBP territory upon activation. Located in or near CBP ports of entry, they are the U.S. version of what are known internationally as free-trade zones.

Imported products can be brought into the country through an FTZ and no duty is paid on these products until they are moved to their U.S. destination. Products can sit or be warehoused in FTZs for lengthy periods and if it is determined these products are no longer required, they can be returned without duties being paid.

“Most importantly, the FTZ program is a U.S. government program-driven around compliance and is unique in that it covers the full supply chain,” says Trudy Huguet, senior director of FTZ Product at GEODIS in Americas, in an interview.

An international firm with a strong North American presence and operations, GEODIS is a logistics company that offers services in several lines of business: supply chain optimization, freight forwarding, contract logistics, distribution and express, and road transportation.

Huguet offered that the expertise of the 3PL that offers foreign trade services has many benefits but, most importantly, they usually can serve on compliance and efficiencies. For instance, she noted a 3PL may have better access “to operational systems and data flow that is needed for multiple systems to run an FTZ” or systems integrated with a foreign-trade zone system. She said a 3PL may also be able to serve certain shared costs with the availability of facilities such as warehousing, as an example.

“3PLs are driven by customers’ needs, like customization and square footage, along with services, staff and team members to run that FTZ for them,” she said.

Addressing a company’s needs is extremely important, in or prior to a peak holiday season, said Huguet.

She noted that many years ago companies used to administrate their own zones but that meant the expertise had to be in-house, necessitating the need to cross-train employees. However, by contracting with a 3PL, “those risks with these programs go away,” Huguet said.

GEODIS has molded programs to fit customers’ needs “so we will work with customers to determine how they can get the biggest bang for their buck,” and where they can find the greatest savings within the FTZ, she said.

Because the U.S.a U.S. FTZ is a sister program to the global free-trade zone, “We are unique in regulations and how we operate and very strong in compliance and most industries and manufacturers, producers and distributors,” Huguet said. “If they are importing into the U.S., they have the opportunity to benefit from this program.”

Getting involved in an FTZ is “kind of a three-stage process” that, Huguet says, involves consultation with the FTZ board where designation is obtained. Activation with local customs and security is followed by building the operational side of the FTZ to run parallel with in-house systems.

Paul Killea, senior vice president of Freight Services Compliance & Security in Americas for GEODIS, oversees import and export compliance for the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Colombia, in addition to running an FTZ product. He stressed that “compliance is very big part of the FTZ.”

“Compliance is the process of ensuring that all of our services and our customers’ services are performed in a compliant manner and adhere to all (government) regulations” in and out of the U.S., Killea says. “So, we are responsible to ensure that we have the right processes in place, the right tools for auditing and reporting and in doing so, create visibility to outside parties, specifically the government and our customers, to show them we are compliant.”

GEODIS provides an array of services such as air freight, ocean freight, warehousing and trucking, and the 3PL has a top goal to be compliant itself and to make sure its customers are, too. “First and foremost, GEODIS has to be compliant but obviously we need to make sure our customers are compliant as well. It is a global principle we hold in high regard at GEODIS,” he says.

Strong compliance would definitely be beneficial to a company looking at the benefits of a 3PL with access to FTZ, he noted.

On the security side, GEODIS has a team that manages various aspects of security. The company is a member of Independent Air Carriers and freight forwarder that adheres to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration regulations. The company not only transports air freight, “we are also a certified screening facility in six locations,” Killea notes. “So, my team manages all of that air freight security which is also beneficial to clients.”

Huguet points out that more companies are becoming interested in FTZs “so what we have seen are more companies trying to improve their supply chain dealing with all the various supply chain challenges and bottlenecking with merchandise. Everyone is looking for a better solution and FTZs will help with that.” 

In addition, they can assist with some of the governmental trade issues that have been put into place, such as dealing with China.

Challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and port congestion have created issues for companies that 3PLs with access to FTZs can assist with, such as creating additional warehousing within the FTZ to store products longer.

“Because of port congestion and because of COVID, merchandise is sometimes being delayed and not moving as quickly as it should,” Huguet concedes. “The FTZ program has certainly helped.”

arrive circle logistics tag documents food circle redwood
Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily, Trucking

Six Big Trends in Cross-Border Logistics for 2022

Leave a comment

As we look back on the year, the supply chain and logistics industry received more attention than ever before as it faced a myriad of challenges and circumstances. As we look towards 2022, here are some of the top trends and priorities to keep an eye on in the year ahead from Nuvocargo, the first digital freight forwarder and customs broker for US/Mexico trade.

Platformization and integration of data across the whole supply chain. The pandemic pushed the adoption of digital platforms lowering the friction to try new solutions that will drive migration from informal and manual communication platforms to specialized products that make their workdays more “automagical” by providing one source of truth and higher visibility. According to a report by Alloy Technologies Inc., 92 percent of executives agree supply chain visibility is important to success, only 27 percent have figured out a way to achieve it. This means, we may see a shift from discrete software to manage specific use cases (TMS and warehouse software) to platformization and integration of data across the whole supply chain, which will increasingly make operations smoother and companies more competitive. To achieve this, blockchain technology can be used to integrate all supply chain components in one platform and offer more transparency in the process.

Vetting suppliers and vendors based on resilience and adaptability.  With digitalization revolutionizing the logistics industry and bringing about more efficient processes, information exchange and visibility, we will see the industry shifting into a careful selection of partners based on their technological aptitude and insights. This will strongly be the case for Mexico since new tax regulations are forcing companies to adapt and optimize their processes in order to comply. Smaller carrier companies will struggle to comply with requirements when dealing directly with clients without the technical infrastructure of brokers. The accounting team of every logistics company will be put to the test and the ones that manage to leverage efficient and automated processes will avoid the crisis of on-time compliance for every shipment. From that angle, staying competitive will require a stricter filtering system of logistics partners and suppliers.

Regionalization of supply chain and nearshoring.  Organizations have been impacted by COVID-19 supply chain disruptions which have led companies to find suppliers closer to home to reduce costs and be less affected by more complex logistics or uncertainties. McKinsey’s report on the coronavirus effect on global economic sentiment says that uncertainty over COVID-19 is no longer executives’ foremost economic worry. Instead, they perceive the mounting fallout on the supply chain and inflation as the biggest threats to growth in their companies and economies.’ “Companies have learned the importance of being agile, adapting and solidifying to be able to thrive in volatile and unpredictable environments. That includes a restructure of the business core, technological implementation, regionalization, partners, etc.,” says Anaid Chacón, Head of Product of Nuvocargo. “Businesses have already started implementing new strategies over their supply chains and we can expect these shifts to continue in the coming years.”

Creative and technological solutions to address driver shortage. Delayed delivery is the accumulation of many factors. According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), in order to keep up with the current economic demand, more than a million truck drivers will have to join the industry. In 2022, we will see how the industry fills this need by tapping into talent from other areas or demographics with previous low representation among drivers. A 2019 US Department of Transportation report states that 28 percent of the current heavy truck driving workforce will be 65+ years in the next decade. This means that the industry will have to promote and offer more benefits to younger people and women since the current average US truck driver is 48 years old. We may also see solutions based on process automation or self-service systems for customers to deal with these labor shortages. Autonomous trucks are also on the rise since large transport lines are starting to buy and test efficiency and costs.

Innovative financing solutions for the supply chain. Continuously offering partners alternatives that will help finance their operations and improve their cash flow will benefit all parties in terms of incrementing capacity and in keeping the supply chain moving. “Our data collection and experience has taught us the pain points of our partners who have high expenses, get paid 30 to 60 days after delivering shipments, and often need loans with high fees to continue operating,” says Chacón. “This is an industry-wide condition that requires attention if we wish to continue strengthening and growing the industry. Financing is one of the solutions to cash flow unpredictability that is required to respond to demand spikes.”

Greener supply chains.  Logistics and transportation companies are pushing environmental efforts to make their supply chain less invasive or harmful. This may include eco-friendly warehouses with advanced energy management systems, climate-smart supply chain planning, etc. We can expect these initiatives to continue rising and becoming more sophisticated over time.

business
Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

How to Reboot Your Business and Make Changes Work in the New Year.

Leave a comment

When business leaders set annual goals, reaching them requires a collective commitment by their team. But when significant changes are thrust into the equation as a necessary component for the business’ survival and growth, the challenge can be more difficult as some team members may resist or struggle with new processes, roles, or expectations.

Many change initiatives fail because of a lack of proper tools, techniques and a sound roadmap for forward progress, not simply because commitment is low, says Rick Simmons, who with his wife, Amy Simmons, is the ForbesBooks co-author of Unleashed: Harnessing the Power of Liminal Space.

“Leaders – especially now in a turbulent time, when change is basically mandatory – have a great opportunity to improve their business by creating roadmaps for success,” Rick Simmons says. “Those include necessary changes and shifts that are designed to benefit all involved. Real leaders offer rationale and compelling invitations to change. Others simply try to convince people to change.”

The Simmonses are co-founders of the telos institute (www.thetelosinstitute.com), which helps business leaders embrace change as a strategic advantage. The word liminal, part of the Simmonses’ book title, comes from the Latin word limen, or threshold. “It is a point of transition,” Rick Simmons says, “a space where what has happened in the past no longer applies and what will come hasn’t yet arrived. We define liminal space as a period of discontinuity that creates an openness to change.”

The COVID-19 era, Amy Simmons says, has epitomized the oft-used word “disruption” in the business world, and how leaders respond in spearheading change is critical.

“The key to reaching new heights is how we manage periods of disruption, and how leaders manage their people throughout that process,” she says. “Change is essential but never easy. Adopting a successful roadmap implies that one simply needs to see a plan and a rationale that illustrates why change is needed and what it’s in service of. This allows people to do the very things they would choose to do themselves given the proper information and context.”

Rick and Amy Simmons offer these tips for leaders to help their workforce navigate and embrace change in the new year:

Surround yourself with a strong leadership team. Steady leaders who are anchored in different parts of the organization can form a strong foundation for deciding on the correct changes, allowing necessary changes to be thoroughly discussed, studied, and coordinated. “Leaders who have been with the company a long time have perspective on where the company has been and how it can stay true to who it is,” Amy Simmons says. “At the same time, others who haven’t been with the company that long offer a fresh perspective. Thinking about change from different angles among the leaders is vital in sifting out the things that cause stagnation or backward movement and building consensus on changes that will create growth.”

Engage in consistent communication, encourage open dialogue. Rick Simmons says getting across to all the departments the importance and benefits of changes depends on clear communication that has a respectful and positive tone – and welcomes feedback. “A commitment to change as a company means maintaining a commitment to each other,” he says. “Leaders communicating in a purposeful but fair way will effectively cultivate an openness to change among workers during a transitional period – while also remaining open themselves to consider ideas brought by the workforce.”

Stay rooted: Encourage “letting go” without losing core values. Successful growth and expansion requires rootedness, Amy Simmons says. That means sticking to the company core values, to which the leadership and employees at all levels can continue to hold fast, even when it seems everything else is up in the air. “In order to go forward, you have to get people to let go of old, ineffective ways,” she says. “You have to be willing to change your entire business and strategy, but what should never change are your core values. It can be a struggle to help people parse out that it’s OK to change the way they think through and do things, but you can reassure them that making those adjustments doesn’t change who you are as a company. Sticking to your core values while connecting the changes to them creates a safe space as the transition takes place.”

“It’s never been more clear: No matter how good you were in recent years or even last year, you can’t rest on your laurels,” Rick Simmons says. “Change means opportunity, and the new year is a great chance for you as a leader, your business and the people that make it work, to be better than ever.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Rick Simmons and Amy Simmons, the ForbesBooks authors of Unleashed: Harnessing the Power of Liminal Space, are co-founders of the telos institute (www.thetelosinstitute.com), which helps leaders in business and industry hone their leadership skills, optimize their business strategy and embrace change as a strategic advantage. Rick Simmons is the chief executive officer at telos. Prior to founding telos, he spent 10 years in various senior strategy and sales leadership positions within the financial services industry. Amy Simmons is the chief experience officer at telos. Prior to the company’s founding, she spent 14 years in various coaching, training, career management, and recruiting roles.