Ingram's Magazine July 2022

Thought Leader Insights: Managing Rapid Growth

Q&A ... W ith J eff A uslander

St i l l charging hard at tr iple-digi t growth, the chief execut i ve of Dynamic Logist ix discusses the challenges of riding that whirlwind, f inding talent , accessing capital and more.

Q: Things have cooled a bit for you all in percentage terms since your No. 1 finish in the Corporate Report 100 in 2019, but “cooled” is a relative term, considering that you were up nearly 180 percent from 2018-2021. Is managing that level of growth a different task than dealing with four-digit growth from a smaller base? A: It’s completely different. I talk about it all the time, act on it all the time. When you’re a little $5 million or $15 million company, you’re doing everything. In my position, that was also COO, CEO, chief sales officer, CFO, and you’re scrapping for every single dollar; you’re the underdog with no credibility. Then you go from that, to $50 million or $60 million, you don’t lose that mentality of scrapping for everything, but you’ve got to figure out a way to let go of some things and get really good people, promote good people up and take on more responsibilities and watch them mature. You have to some degree desensitize your self. It’s a question near to my heart because I’d never been CEO before. Q: And you had a lot riding on the outcome at the start. A: Absolutely. For me, it was, people tell you Jeff has definitely calmed down, but the fighting spirit is still there. Six or seven years ago, I was betting the future of my whole family on this place. I left a great job making great money for this. Q: You had just jumped to light speed with growth before the pandemic arrived in 2020; how did that compli cate the task of keeping things under control? A: After working through those first months of it, we had a meeting in September 2020, basically had a town hall where we said we want to respect

Q: That leadership moment during the early pandemic phase has been a defining growth point for a lot of com panies—those who refused to pull back, and saw it as an opportunity. A: Yeah, it was about attitude, like “no one’s probably ever going to deal with something like this again, there’s not been a pandemic like this since 1920.” So let’s get through this, and while other compa nies are going to shelter at home, we’re going to get our noses dirty and get after it, and now our culture is even better than it was in 2018. We’re a tough-minded company. Everyone knows where we stand on a daily basis. I run reports, create the inertia of competitive people who want to work here and be competitive. If you’re not competitive, you probably can’t work here. It’s too intense for you. A: In my case, I kind of just took a leap of faith. I was fortunate enough to know I had a handful of men and women who were really talented. I just had to bet on that talent, and on the drive those people had. And their know-how and command— I always use this word—their command of their roles and their departments. Of course, my wife had something to do with it; she’d tell me “You’ve got to let go.” When your folks respond that well, it’s easy to let go. Q: What about process. What changes have helped keep a lid on things? A: We started doing something in the fall of 2020 like EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System, but we call it DOS, for Dynamic, but it’s a process where 16 leaders meet every other Tuesday, go through all the good news, all the challenges per depart ment, what’s happened, and everyone Q: Can you address the challenges of letting go?

this virus, but there’s no way we’re going to let this change our culture. We’re going to be the same company we were from 2016 through this past March, come hell or high water. We’re not losing that. So we put our heads down, got to work, made some changes, really big changes, hired some people, and moved some up. We went from $82 million to $150 million and we’re trending $230 million this year. All that transpired in a matter of 17 months. Q: At the chief executive level, what else did you need to do beyond driving the message from that town hall? A: I got more focused on the growth side of the business, but also promoted up a few captains to become command ers of their departments. They all wanted that opportunity, and they helped us get to that point where we doubled in size as far as revenues after that first six months of COVID, and we’re now well over 100 employees. A: Comparing the two mindsets, from when you’re fighting for every dollar, now, it’s more a case of instead of working in the business, you’re working on the busi ness to consistently have a better product, better HR, more people trying to call us to get into this building where they can make more money. The struggle for me was to go from that mindset of scrapping to being very strategic. So I did. It wasn’t easy. Investors and partners may tell you I’m rambunctious as heck because I care so much, but I don’t have to push so much any more; I have 15-16 key people who help me run this company, they are extremely happy and motivated and they’d run through a wall for this place. That has really changed my personal experience. Q: Was it a tough transition from a management point of view?

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July 2022