Ingram's Magazine July 2022

where the pain points are. Our target is middle-market shippers—$50 million to $2 billion in revenue, and a lot of them in food and beverage, construction, telecom and general manufacturing. They ship $2 million to $50 million in goods a year, and a lot of them are Fortune 5001-35,000 companies. They don’t have a 15-person department running transportation, they have one or two guys, no automation, and their reporting is all email and Excel. We knew we could provide them with a product with a hub, web-based, where they could run all their freight through it and get beautiful reporting live with the previous day’s shipping. But we had to get the product right. Q: And internally—what were some of the foundational elements that set the direction? A: No. 2, and maybe it’s tied for first, you’ve got to get your compensation plans right. In 2015, I’m in my basement, like a mad scientist, but made the decision we were going to offer upside to the opera tions people. In most organizations, people that make commissions or bonuses are the sales guys. Here, everybody has some sort of variable. If you get the compensation right for the majority, the culture will natu rally just happen. Sometimes that means a third check each month with some extra cheddar. It keeps people happy. And it can’t be subjec tive: It’s tied back to metrics, so everyone knows what it is. That led to more people working hard to sell, but more importantly, being really ready to work their tails off to keep customers and the employee happy too. A: Personally, that I would have been more toned down early on. When you’re fighting for life, it’s not that you’re a jerk, but you can get intense too often. My employees don’t care; they think it’s funny. And now I’m a much cooler head. I’ve had employees tell me this place needed that, to be amped up and passionate. But always, treat people with respect, never yell. Everyone here has to walk past my office to get to the bathroom Q: The flip side: Anything you’d have done differently?

or kitchen, and I want them to see me, I want them to know they can come and talk to me any time, I love that part. Q: How has success repositioned the company to secure additional capital as you continue to grow—the different avenues that are open to you today that weren’t nearly a decade ago? A: It’s made things immensely easier. Early on, banks wouldn’t want to bet on us; now, the phone won’t stop ringing. I had to go from being proactive to reactive. People see a successful company, they want to figure out how to get a piece of it. But we also have a private equity partner who has us in a really good spot. We’re cash rich, if anything, and can use our own now to finance growth. But a creative private equity firm like we have makes it easier. There are conversations I couldn’t have had four or five years ago, and now, over a cup of coffee with a 5-min conversation, whatever we need, we get. Q: On talent. With the explosion of logistics-related companies in this region over the past 10 years, have you seen a corresponding increase in the numbers (and quality) of candidates needed to succeed in your niche? A: We have a different approach here. We don’t always look for a logistics back ground. One of my favorite examples is the intern who becomes a full-time employee without a transportation degree. That goes back to working on, not in, the business. We now have a 2,000 square foot training facil ity in our new building. But to find people, look: People tend to hang out with people like themselves. We have one sister and two of her brothers working for us, and we might get a third brother. All had the same parents, were taught about work ethic, things like that. Another great example is someone who had worked at a Sprint store, was a telecom sales guy, but you teach them the ropes, and now he’s one of our top performers. The third avenue is, our reputation is at the point where people in the industry at bigger shops are starting to call us. We have a key vice president from another firm who was tired of being tied down and wanted a place to run free. We need that, and we’ll take it.

“You don’t lose that mentality of scrapping

started swimming in the same direction. That allowed me to see howmuch command each one had in their departments. I knew from that, that they understood every problem and what they had to do to fix it. I’m only interested in hearing about a problem once—the next conversation has to be about solutions. If you have that kind of meeting and follow that book on how to run things, that’s how you mature from a one-man band to now everyone is doing their own thing, but aligned: They are running departments, they know their goals, their success points, what the challenges are, and they are talking with all the other departments. Q: Walk us back a bit a few years earlier, before the concept had been proven: What steps, in retrospect, did you take in your leadership role that helped pave the runway for this growth streak? A: No. 1, you had to have a good product. Building a good product that’s disruptive in answering so many questions in a market that can’t find answers for for everything, but you’ve got to figure out a way to let go of some things.” — Jeff Auslander, President/CEO, Dynamic Logistix

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I n g r a m ’ s

Kansas City’s Business Media

July 2022