Merger & Acquisition Insights

3 Opportunities to Improve Your Bottom Line Right Now – Guest Columnist Ryan Schreiber, CarrierDirect

Posted on March 19, 2020 by Spencer Tenney

This week’s featured guest columnist is Ryan Schreiber. Ryan has lived his career at the intersection of transportation and technology. As CarrierDirect’s Director of Engagement, Ryan works with clients on challenging the status quo while respecting the challenges both businesses and individuals face through change. Before joining CarrierDirect, Ryan has started multiple businesses in the industry and brings that experience to bear in attacking the problems transportation providers face navigating the barriers faced in building the future of their businesses

As the broader business landscape has become more bear-ish, I have some great news. I can promise there is waste that you can root out and operate more efficiently – and I don’t mean “using too many paper-towels.”  I say that confidently without even seeing your organization.

There’s a popular Chinese proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

Alas, 20 years ago is not an option. As a technology delivery and management consulting firm focusing exclusively on freight, we see a lot of the market. Here are three low effort/high impact things we see which you can focus on right now:

Overlap in Job Profiles

This is one place where companies try to build flexibility into the operating model that actually hurts productivity. We often see two problems.  The first is where organizations generalize job profiles. So, since Employee A may be asked to do tasks 1-10, and Employee B 3-12 one profile is written to cover both given the substantial overlap. The rationale is it reduces complexity. The second is an attempt to “make sure the work gets done by assigning multiple roles overlapping responsibility. These have  the effect of making it difficult to hold individuals accountable, and requires more active management to get results. Narrowly tailoring profiles and responsibilities leads to a more well oiled machine, and reduces waste.

Lack of Training and Lack of Coaching

Effective training increases productivity and buy-in. Employers that invest more in training, both new hire and ongoing, see faster employee ramp to full productivity – and hiring fewer people overall. While training is a big initiative, today you can address coaching. Employees generally know goals, they struggle with how to accomplish the desired result. Effective coaching must include “knowledge share” – not a step-by-step “how to”, but a few tips with which the manager has seen success. Too often we see managers and leaders stop at communicating the output, or misunderstand what employees need from the “how to”. Then – and the most important part of coaching – REVIEW – “how did that work? What worked and what didn’t? Let’s refine”. Make the investment in both, it pays off.

Reviewing Software Use

Before thinking about how you are implementing software, you need to select the right tools. Start today by looking into why employees are not using the tools you have as expected. While Leadership “knows the business”, the seat level employees feel the pain. We uncover challenges of which Leadership was not aware in every engagement. Review what employees are using, what they are not, and drill in on questions around why some tools do not solve the problems you expected. Use that to develop a framework going forward for selecting software. Then, go through the process of “reselecting” the tools you have in your business today. Would you have have this software if you had this framework before? Once you make that decision – train – not just once, but continually.

To learn more about CarrierDirect and how they may be able to assist your company, visit www.carrierdirect.com.

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