Marco Civardi is a seasoned logistics professional with over 21 years of experience working in general management covering sales, trade lane development, and key account management. Marco is currently Area Managing Director for Damco Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Marco is a hands-on leader and has built strong and stable businesses in VCML which are key markets for the Damco global business. Marco’s previous role as Regional Head of the Fashion Vertical for the Asia Pacific based in Tokyo for Panalpina. In this role, Marco led a virtual team of fashion's sales experts across many countries, including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Australia.
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Marco Civardi is a seasoned logistics professional with over 21 years of experience working in general management covering sales, trade lane development, and key account management. Marco is currently Area Managing Director for Damco Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Marco is a hands-on leader and has built strong and stable businesses in VCML which are key markets for the Damco global business. Marco’s previous role as Regional Head of the Fashion Vertical for the Asia Pacific based in Tokyo for Panalpina. In this role, Marco led a virtual team of fashion's sales experts across many countries, including Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Australia.
Discover more details here.
Some of the highlights of the episode:
Follow us on:
Instagram: http://bit.ly/2Wba8v7
Twitter: http://bit.ly/2WeulzX
Linkedin: http://bit.ly/2w9YSQX
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2HtryLd
Hello and welcome to be leaders in supply chain and logistics podcast. I am your host to radical Mario and global logistics and supply chain practice head for Morgan Phillips Executive says specializing in board level and executive recruitment across the region. My job is also to connect you with global experts, thought leaders and executives in all things supply chain. This is episode 16 and I'm happy to have with us today. Mark Ritchie hard there. Marco is currently area managing director for Danco, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos is a hands on leader and has been strong and stable businesses in a, in the cluster, uh, basically in Vietnam, in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, all of which are key markets for the damn called global business. Just to give our listeners a little bit of a reference point, Danco is one of the world's leading third party logistics providers specializing in delivering customized, free forwarding and supply chain solutions with more than 300 offices in 100 countries and employing 11,000 people. Um, as well as the net turnover of 3.2 billion US dollars. DANCO is, you may also know is part of the bigger umbrella company, Mars, which is the largest shipping line in the world. Um, mark was previous role, was also a regional head of the fashion where to go for Asia Pacific, best based in Tokyo for on and in this role he led a virtual team of fashion sales experts across many countries including Korea and Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, India in Australia. Prior to that he was the head of marketing and sales for puppy, now Japan and in addition to Japan and lived and worked in Italy, Hong Kong and Australia. Margot is the talent, speaks several languages including Japanese. And he received an Mba from the Macquire graduate school of Management in Sydney. Additionally, he received a certificate in supply chain management from the Cranfield school of management in UK. Margo, it's a pleasure to have you with us today. Um, so let's, let's deep dive a little bit in terms of the, in terms of the cluster, in terms of the countries that you are managing for Dunkel. So maybe tell us a little bit about each market specifically. And then some elements of doing business in each country. Sure.
Speaker 2:I think we get stuff from here down. I think it'd be a done. Uh, we are very much seeing strong growth that over the past with the past years growth or even mainly by export of course also foreign direct investment. And the interesting part is that we see also the fact that the country used to be very much oriented to garment and textile footwear and now also with a lot of emphasis on technology. A lot of company like Samsung and investing and also many Japanese company and invest into like Panasonic answer of what which is, which is great because it was a currently social diversifying the export base so to speak. Um, in Cambodia we see also a strong growth there but less dinner meals in comparison to Vietnam in terms of free trade agreements that Vietnam has been quite active recently. Cambodia is later and less and is very much depending on garments to export that as a source of growth. One, we looking into a, Cambodia is a very strong wage growth over the last few years. So we have some time wondering when is the tipping point and how the country can further diversify its economic growth going forward. Myanmar, very interesting part of the class. Then also, you can name it, this class is a close dialogue or if you will. Um, I also on a different stage of economic development just recently opened up, but they're interesting prospect. For example, we know that the number of affluent consumers in Myanmar plan to double by 2020 to around the 10 million people out of a population of 50 million and more interesting. Also in Vietnam. Uh, the so called affluent consumer plan to become around 33 million by 2020, which is around the third or the population of 90 million. So I think very bright, very bright future. I had probably the right point in time to be discussing. Yes,
Speaker 1:yes, absolutely. I'm an impressive, impressive growth potential. Um, and what would you say a typical question, and I think it's a kind of class to the, to the core of the, of the situation. What would you say some of the challenges and the opportunities in the markets that you lead? And maybe if you can, if you can share with us some stories of some unexpected or pleasant or unpleasant surprises you had you had while doing this morning.
Speaker 2:Well, I think everyday a emerge America give you pleasant and unpleasant. There's a very dynamic part of the world. So, uh, in general of course many, many more opportunities than challenges I would say. Uh, what are the biggest opportunities to really act and be as the enabler of our customer? A business strategy. So there's a lot of clients we serve that expect a very ambitious mid term growth plan. So we need to plan capacity ahead. We need to of course a streamline our processes ahead and be there for the long haul, be really the right hand of our clients in their, in their growth path over the next few years. And that's really, really interesting. A mission to allocate resources and make sure that their success of course is our success. And we a drone, uh, we did, we, we joined to the together. Um, I would also add on, uh, one of the biggest opportunity as wellyes the opportunity to upscale the local workforce. We are spending a lot in training. We're investing quite a lot on personalized training and also via very rigorous talent management process. But they get the ability to impact on the level of expertise on the local workforce is, is correct and we are investing quite heavily on this and we are seeing the results on a number of problems we are doing. I'm feeling internal position also later on sending talents a overseas. Um, I would also add the diversity. I think it's a very diverse, a cluster from a culture and business point of view. Also each counter but different economic stage of development. So we can have a, of course cross cultural learning opportunities for our talent in different country because even though two counter that close together, the mentality and the business I think is quite different. And so leveraging of these diversity of business culture can be for us a very good, um, source of motivation and engagement in the class. Um, challenges. I think obviously the is food being an emerging market and we say the classic of course is infrastructure in general. You see that the infrastructure, ports, roads, airports and so forth. It's not yet picking up to maintain the pace of the pieces, clubs. So you see that, for example, the[inaudible] which is operating but operating at above the capacity level. So an urgent investment is needed to catch up with the level of, of business growth. So I think that always really obviously remains there as a, as a challenge. And we believe that a step by step, there's a lot of project that make us be confident for the medium term and the infrastructure issue. It will be much less of an issue and more as a, as a, as a success story. Yes. Um, I would also add that effect, uh, on, on talent. The fact that it's not easy to find qualified tenants. Uh, in general in emerging markets, we have company with the growing hiring needs and not always the right expertise is available locally. Uh, so again, there's a lot of focus on how to overcome this challenge and everybody's a different, a different approach. I would also add on a relatively low labor mobility, uh, sometime we have a talent locally that could fit for certain jobs overseas, but strong family bonds that don't necessarily allow them to make a move overseas. So those are the couple of issues that we're looking into at as our key, our key challenges at the moment.
Speaker 1:And then I'm gonna just do it to the, to the point that I'm actually, it's interesting that you mentioned what you mean as a, as an example in intensive needing a little bit more, um, um, scaling for, for the airport because they would have, I would imagine that from the class of Vietnamese, probably the more advanced in infrastructure compared to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, uh, as a whole, let's say,
Speaker 2:and probably will say Vietnam is also one of the country, which of course, uh, belonged to the great American[inaudible] who is quite active on each single project that at the moment is ongoing to improve the connectivity within the class. So the number of example where if you look into, for example, the north, south, north, south call it or so the improvement that you can see from the south China, uh, area, uh, unlike a phone, a tribe of time has been ideals. And of course Vietnam is a key player in that particular project. Then you have another corridor you can name as the east west so you can connect the denial, get the center of your now via Laos and Thailand app to a Myanmar and also that he is the south quality. Dot. D what do you mean both pen expressway. So there's a whole initiative where there's a great focus to improve the connectivity and Vietnamese what was there. So I think it's very much active and also at the moment, yes you can say good cause I know that that was really well. So in terms of, um,
Speaker 1:and then the load is a load of token, it's messaged investment from China, the one belt, one road
Speaker 2:you should do. But I think
Speaker 1:in terms of the countries that they massively invest in, Laos is one of them, right? When they put in a lot of money in terms of building the highway and uh, maybe there's a corridor that you might need in deed
Speaker 2:one of the investor, the key, uh, for the, for the old class that is mainly of course a Korean, uh, from an effectual in Japanese, from the factory and also Japanese. They're helping the infrastructure, the veteran and also China. They play a big role also in Cambodia. So at the moment we still have the majority of Asian, uh, related, uh, investment. But then, you know, as time goes by, their economy will open up even further and maybe more investment from western Europe is coming in. You have a lot of companies sourcing already in this part of the, uh, of the world from the US and Europe. But in terms of infrastructure, of course the Asian investors are at the key so far. Yes.
Speaker 1:Oh, there's this, this, this, this. Um, this kind of touches upon the question that I wanted to have symptoms of them, these mega projects that, uh, that are, are being built and developed to connect even further
Speaker 2:the countries and improve them. The connectivity, that duration, um, transportation, obviously it links. Um, I think it's important that, you know, when we talk about transportation leaks a is often become an economically because the greater that comes up. Region touch, bond, improving tourism, touch on improving the public health. And of course the key one is an improving transport connectivity. So you kind of think of of sort of hardware and software. So the hardware is that the quality and the safety of the roads and the software needs to be a, the time to go through border and the cops. So they both need to improve in parallel. And I think when you look into the of concept region, the number of projects that they have now, other item, which is like more than I'm going to anchor, uh, I think you can be quite confident that something will happen. The question of course is, is this happening at a pace where you want, but that's obviously a different story, but the dinner meals and the focus we think is that yes,
Speaker 1:yes. I mean it's a, I mean as I said, it's definitely happening. Probably it could always happen faster. But nevertheless, I mean it's, uh, the pace is incredible. Also, it brings a lot of opportunities in terms of project logistics. Doesn't it end in terms of the absurd, uh, yeah, capitalizing on all this kind of a construction, a building projects that the infrastructure projects, large change projects. Absolutely. It goes together. It goes together. Um, okay. Let's talk a little bit about, about, uh, technology. Uh, I mean, I know that you have, you have my uncle is the system that you use to keep track of orders from clients. Tell us a little bit about it. How does it improve your operations? How does it improve your clients? There've been,
Speaker 2:obviously my dad was crucial for us. It is a fundamental and integrated online application which include the shipper booking porter and a different functionality from a functionality, from reporting to documentation management as well as communication exception and attacking place functionalities. Uh, recently as been the ranked by a garden and there's one of the key, uh, application for reporting capabilities. Uh, and essentially what you want to achieve is that we want to basically allow our customers to spend less time in building reports and more time to analyze their business by accessing data from a single source of truth, so to speak, having more than an hour. That fields where do customize the report and obviously if I'm a customer facility are their internal alignment by having access to data from a single, a single source. So I think it was his key obviously to constantly think of simplify, simplify and simplify more and more the customer experience.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yes. Good. Um, how about, how about the continuous improvement, cause I know that it's an important concept called for Danco who your operations and also in terms of the, the word that you've been doing in the classroom. Maybe if you have some success case studies around it and specifically, yeah, legally
Speaker 2:for Indian, I think, uh, the so called the continuous improvement or CSI so far is absolutely crucial. Uh, I would say, um, it is part of our mindset is also part of the way we work and how we set up an ambition. So we tried to have a CIO on continuous improvement mentality. Uh, embedded really in the organization, are always dying to raise the about higher and obviously improve our own performance. So it has a bigger value than the and the functional scope per se. Um, we will look into CIO. Uh, I think mainly the mission is of course to simplify streamline processes at the same time guarantee a high quality service being cost effective. Uh, you can also simplify more by saying working smarter instead of harder. There's a number of examples that we have that our CIO teams in the global office or region or areas or countries are really adding a lot of value to us. Uh, for example, um, one of the project we have is to, uh, share resources during peak seasons. Uh, different our customer at a different seasonalities. So we want to make sure that we limit obviously the overtime and then we train our staff in different teams to help the other team when the big season occur in order to have the workload more evenly spread. So just one of the initiative and that our CIO team is constantly looking at a class, each different company. Um, one important aspect, for example, is relativity. We tried to look at productivity from a multidimensional approach, not only relativity improvement per se, but also what is the link to a, of course, the oldest time, what does it lead to attrition, because all the elements that that impact on our cost to serve. So we tried to really have a holistic view on how we can have a sustainable business and cit teams that are helping a lot, uh, into, into that. Um, and nothing can be done obviously without getting feedback. So for us, it's key to have constant feedback, uh, in terms of voice of staff. But I got the survey and also voice of customer. So those are embedded on an ongoing basis in the way, in the way we do things, so to speak. Uh, we also have other elements, uh, called Lma lean maturity assessment. So on a regular basis, we want to make sure that our staff is aware of the lean methodology. We have a soul to go away from firefighting and go morning into a root cause analysis when problem occurs. And this is also very important and he's done, uh, on, on, on a systematic basis throughout the year. Obviously the question is now, how do you know, uh, what would look like? And then one of the key aspect for us is to keep track of a net promoter score, which obviously is a combination of effort between sales and customer service and operation. The more the net promoter score is increasing, the more there is a correlation that we are making sure that the cit team is allowing that customer experience. Yes.
Speaker 1:And this is, this is a question we, I mean you kind of prompted in my mind right now because also I know, I know that you're highly successful. I think in the cluster is one of the most successful in Dunkel worldwide as well as, uh, you know, you've obviously managed to, um, fight very successfully with all the big boys and when in the, in the specific last in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. So I'm just curious if you were to share with us a couple of the, what made it so successful? You know, what, what's, what's some of the, let's see, secrets of success in that trust?
Speaker 2:Well, I think, uh, we had a lot of support from our customers. Uh, Imsa damn calls a has a very strong, uh, maturity we're saying this class to, and our customer support that as very much a, throughout the year, they're really put us at the center of the growth strategy. And this obviously helped a lot. And this is apple because of the work the team have done over the past number of years in order to earn their, to earn a support that we start to work together for one particular product or project. And then later on together again we expand, refer to throw off, uh, at the same time we say the economy picked up quite a well over the past few years. So I would say there's a combination of a strong class from existing customer, a good economic momentum. And I will say also the, um, that award from the effort on people engage in, in talent management that I think we intensify more in the last, the last few weeks just so I wouldn't even answer straight up give you a combination of external information or not the economy which benefits everybody. I obviously uh, about uh, customer to ask them and the work they've done internally to build the teams and, and, and make, make good decision on talent management. Yes. Good.
Speaker 1:Talking about talent, talking both about people because in defining terms in emerging markets, it's a very different thing to find new talents in mature markets like Singapore, Europe or US. You've touched a little bit about pony, but what's some of the challenges and opportunities you found around this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Key question for us. I would say, before looking and defining talent, equally important is to retain talent because it's a very hot job market. People, sometimes they decide to go overseas to study or they decide to work in a family business. So just as a normal evolution of the economy. So to speak and obviously we cannot stop them. So retention is as important as attraction, I would say. For us, let's say we like to see ourselves as a talent factory using this acronym in the sense of trying to feel, at least 80% of the position internally, with a rigorous training programs and also with tailor-made training programs that are basically for all our key staff across the cluster. So one answer to finding talent in emerging market is that we want to create time from within and that's something absolutely key that we focus on. And I think 80% of a position feel internally is a good ambition level because you need to have some space for some fresh blood from outside because we need all the element of diversification in your team as well in terms of our perspective. But that's what we're working on. And I think the progress has been quite positive over the last few weeks. So we take out the talent commission by trying to create from within. So now, I never said that create from within is not only for the benefit of the cluster, but what we have seen recently is that we have been able to send some of our talents overseas and that actually allow us to win on two fronts. On the one hand we create basically a medium term succession plan. When this strong talent will come back eventually to our cluster after some important experience in the Europe or in the US and the Middle East. In the short term that we create that necessarily genuine engagement so that our people knows that once you have integrity, once you display our values in the military. But once we have an impeccable track record of result, the opportunity maker, and we tried to leave this by example of people who are actually making it, coming from Cambodia or from Vietnam. We hope soon also from Myanmar.
Speaker 1:Okay. Super. And then just to dig a little bit deeper, do you typically, when you take these people, and I assume it's a combination of methods. Would you, would you take them more or high percentage is straight from university or would you take them with some background and experience is a little bit of both.
Speaker 2:Well I think to work in that overseas is you have to have an experience in the company for sure. So we actually tend to send a successful people with a good track record internally that can already, how can I say, hit the ground running and add value to the organization that is making this particular investment on their building, on the external engagement, even in universities. This is something we are doing in the cluster. That is very important because on one hand we want to make sure that our logistic is an exciting industry and this message need to go through. Do a lot of candidates, universities across the cluster. Logistics feel does have a relatively good growth prospect in the cluster with all the business we are talking about. So it should be considered as one of the, one of the big awfully. And I think another role to do from a messaging standpoint is to make sure that we are a diversified group. That we can offer particular career opportunity that not every other player can offer with a different business unit, different scope in the supply chain. So hopefully we can be more and more, appealing to the, to the new batch of candidates can be on that.
Speaker 1:And for sure, I think as a brand and as a company and including close them go, it has a very strong reputation. And then over time. Yeah. You would build it up. How do you call that, employer brand to say that. Um, and how about, how about the technologies? We need to go with the kind of circle back into that, because this is changing all the industries and of course it's also changing. It just sticks this changing supply chains. MMM. And it's changing at a faster pace than ever before. So I guess the question is, and I, uh, we do repeat this question to all our guests. Uh, what are some of the skills that a, that you think logistics professionals need to have to stay relevant on the long term?
Speaker 2:Key question, the key question we are asking ourselves obviously already I think before we talk about the individuals that would like to spend a word on companies, uh, I think for the company point of view from the employer side, I think we really need to understand that we have to create a culture of a lifelong journey will be a continuous learning opportunity for the staff. And this is easier said than done. And we know this is not happening in every company. So that's absolutely key. And then we also believe that the lack of, or the potential lack of adequate training can be clearly a source of, at least for the millennials who value very matched, uh, being of course train and being professionally equipped for the future of champion. So I would like to also to put a little bit of constructive impression on a campus, how are we doing enough in terms of a lifelong journey, cultural that we need to be on, uh, for, for the future. There's obviously not going to steal back. Um, in terms of skills, I would say that, uh, to, to train of thoughts coming to mind. One is if you build on the, on the technology a way that we have now a clearly a role such as IT programming or data scientist, we'd be rolling in high demand as basically these position, uh, in bed. Did they get the ability to deal with complex information and to interpret data. So that's obviously one angle to skills development. For the other side. I would say that, uh, everything which is today not replaceable by a machine. So I would place a lot of focus on a so called cognitive skills, uh, critical thinking and also a mixture between, uh, I will say social and emotional skills such as communication, uh, ability to persuade and also ability to create empathy as well. So those are the elements that, uh, I would, uh, I would suggest to stay relevant. Uh, obviously we can also get good activity. And one of the ways they will, uh, muscular activity is in my opinion, to live abroad. So if you're having an experience overseas, that by itself should help you to be a different perspective, what you see on your, your own. Damn. Uh, but those are the thoughts that come to mind. What could be a lockdown?
Speaker 1:Hmm. Yeah. Um, but I mean in terms of, uh, obviously you're, you're in a leadership position, you manage large, large team,
Speaker 2:some of the leadership principles that you follow in your day to day work. There's a few, to be honest. The other I will start from, from the glue. Uh, I think I, I learned from mask a, the value of constant care, uh, which I think is a, is a great one. Uh, to me one of the battery light that fundamentally means a lady today taking care of today while preparing for tomorrow and fundamentally also underlying that. Uh, what do you achieve? Uh, I mean, how you achieve is as important as what you achieve. I think it's a, it's very, very crucial for us to always keep an eye on, on the video term. Always keep an eye on the future and asking ourselves if we are making the company stronger tomorrow as well as obviously trying to uh, older than either on the target that you have to do. So that's I think a very important one. Uh, you really, uh, pretty much we said three, um, in our class that we had a multiple to get maybe a little, it would be basically he wants to emphasize the word together. That means deep work. Uh, we want to make sure that the different teams know what's expected from each other. And then we give candidates feedback to each ad. Again, easier said than done, but we are in the process of getting much, much better. So I think teamwork and working cross functionally is absolutely key if you want to achieve a bigger or is salads,
Speaker 1:I was just stopping for a moment on this one because I'm now obviously we've all been in Asia for a long time and just historically and also culturally, uh, sometimes it's tough for a certain, I mean this is the, the Asian country is more a little bit more concern, concern when it comes to give you feedback. Right. So you almost need to, to do a reshape of the organizational culture to encourage it to be more, yeah, maybe you would need to do the name in another places like Europe where it's a bit more embedded. So how maybe maybe if you can just dwell a little bit cause I assumed that you had to, I mean that reinforcement had to be done consciously. Right? Um, maybe tell us a little bit. Yeah, we do it, we do it
Speaker 2:on a regular basis. I think we basically allow teams to share feedback by, by HR and then the feedback comes in in an anonymous way. And then we process the feedback digitally. There we set a timeline. So for example, the feedback sheet that we have today will be replicated in four to five months from now. So that will keep us up at the Canada, so to speak, because issues and type of feedback change over time. And so we basically have HR as allies was guiding a leader in this particular task to ensure people can speak their mind and remain anonymous. But then we, uh, we'll say literally put the fish on the table between each other and they talk and we analyze the issue and we address, and this is also goes very much into my own feedback as well from my own manager. So fostering that culture of feedback, but a lot, and this of course cascading down through, uh, different, uh, different teams. I'm not sure if it's the best way to do it, but that's something which is working for us. It's, it's a, it's a trial and error, right? I mean you never really stop and you're going to read the first place because of the reasons you mentioned. And there a re some culture which they tend to be more open. S ome c ulture tend to be more reserved and a, y ou k now, i t's t he best a pp. We can find them, find o ur way through.
Speaker 1:Also just as we go along, you'll notice several or other things that go up. Right. It's the same. Yeah. And I imagined that even the cultures from, from Myanmar to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam would be different than, and even this would have some localized,
Speaker 2:uh, if again, if I elaborate to that also the principal, uh, beside effect that are going to see the leadership fundamentally as a service. And obviously we are here to try to serve at least one. I tell myself the broader community around me, such as, uh, giving it to our staff that necessarily care if the solution to our customers that are doing to the shareholders and ultimately the community become better. Thanks a lot. But sense that's one of the angle we're skipping to Amanda's so multi dimensional approach of what leadership is all about. It's about giving that service and they do make sure that the context around your benefit, at least they have a lot of something, uh, in, in the, in the, in the lineup for self renewal. So I try every year to zooming in now on a new, on a new skill and try to develop it quite quiet that I told you. So DC is that you had of coaching and I tried to learn, uh, obviously, uh, how to become a more effective and also how to I have sufficient airtime so to speak with what we identify as the critical, um, I would say six to 7% of the organization in the entire cluster and then allow me to have a granular knowledge of what's going on in the company at different level and allow them to have an unfilled the way a bag by one of my session device out. Uh, what can be better. Uh, what's, what's not clear, what do we include that we should do more? And um, so I tried devotee or to solve how, review this portfolio of leadership skill if you, if you will. Yes.
Speaker 1:I think that's also one of the key habits of student calling. If I'm not wrong, he wrote the seven habits of mind in front of people and I think they haven't. Okay. As part of the book. So absolutely. Um, in your career you've made some interesting switches, right? Because you were part of the sales and marketing highly focused on on bed and then you moved to this for the profit and loss, a role for, uh, for Danco in, in the cluster. Tell us a little bit, how did you manage to do that? Because a lot of people in the industry are trying now our, our, our dreaming or are hoping to do this one day and also what were some of your key lessons? He goes, I also imagined that shit, that shift, you had to pick up quite a few things.
Speaker 2:Indeed. Uh, what I would say, the key thoughts coming to mind is it's a combination or curiosity and determination came, you really need to have the right level of curiosity to go out of your comfort zone. And I basically, uh, SSF into new water and determination so that we didn't ask to, I think persevere because particularly the beginning is not, is not that easy. I would say for me in particular, I was in a new group, a new role, a new market at the same time. So probably a radio stack that we say we are an applied learning agility case. Uh, so sort of say so, uh, extremely enriching. Um, what I think in terms of learning what I can share is a few things. I mean, first of all, uh, I will suggest people to have a few mentors as very positive. There are people outside of sensation that you can bounce off some ideas, uh, when you are confronted to new issues that we have not dealt with before. Uh, and I find it extremely valuable not only for problem solving but also to shape your thinking in a different way, different perspective. Um, I think with mentors also outside, uh, I think, uh, our indices even even better. Um, what helped me in particular is that either in my mind a business plan before I started. So beside the other days at Dan, I had a little bit that medium term idea of, of where this glass I could go. Um, that helped a lot because even though you both do the initial, uh, allow me to say a cows disruption can come in, um, no matter what, I could go home at night and you're following your plan. But if you cannot do that this week, then you postpone next week. But the plan is consistent. That's for me has been a very, very good, uh, help. Um, I would say the key learnings of a time we obviously is the fact that once you, once you switched from a functional role to leadership, uh, p and Arrow, uh, the impact you have and that is out there as an individual contributor get less and less. So, uh, the learning really is tied to manage the context as well as you can and try to, uh, excel into delegate and empower as much as possible. So I really believe on the fact that you are at the reflected glory of your team. And this, this thinking doesn't come with an APP. Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's a type one error and you start to get involved in of the project and then step by step, start to delegate better. And then you start to make sure that the context is supporting everyone around you to perform at their best. So think it is one of the key learning that at through don't have a lot of trial and error the past or the past few years. Um,
Speaker 1:tight on time. Question. If she could give some advice to a 23 year old graduating university and wanting to achieve a grade two, we are in logistics,
Speaker 2:you know, becoming a cluster head one day. What would they be? Where a wish I would have saved some, some. Um, I think what comes to mind is, uh, that to pick a company, first of all that has, uh, a compelling purpose and value that you share. I think ultimately these two elements are what? Drive and motivation and engagement and loyalty over time. So for example, you're looking to, we look into the basketball. So when we come to work, why we are here, we want to facilitate global player. We want to connect and simplify our customer supply chain. To me this is an extremely compelling purpose. Uh, facilitating another thing, how anything, how but it off. She'll be at contributing to the best we can to the greater good, which we just think it's great when you look at, well then yes, we would have people at the center stage of everything we do. And, and I think it is very important because we are still obviously very much a people industry and people have been wanting to make it happen. Uh, so the first advice advisor would give to 20 years old. Again, he's probably to have a coffee with a mosque before moving to the next step. But I think it's important, the competitive purpose and value. Uh, as a matter of opinion, the key criteria to screen for which employer you, you really want to or to raise your hand. Um, at an individual level, uh, the thoughts can be demand is I think, uh, first of all on the versatility I think is very important to focus on tasks, learning different tasks, learning different experience. Dot. Look into the job title. Glad to air a portfolio of experiences as reach, as diverse as you can possibly have. Um, I would also say adaptability, uh, tried to work in different markets of course, if possible, try to work abroad, getting your perspective or does absolutely key. And I would also add, uh, communication, uh, learning different languages. So to me, if a 23 years old today has a versatility, adaptability of communication, uh, to get them to the right, uh, company, uh, I think the person who be on a very track.
Speaker 1:So Cornell, I'm very good, very good summary. Um, and then I hear that it's a, it's a reoccurring theme with you. And I also strongly believe in myself, the fact that, uh, you know, the more exposure you have to different, uh, different experiences, different countries, different languages, you know, the more it then of course, as you too, to be adaptable and to be flexibility.
Speaker 2:It's basically a handler, what you learn in the past and re learn completely from scratch and try to bring the good or the previous experience. I had to be obviously very humble in title at that yourself in your reality. So I was starting with Amanda this bath. Yeah,
Speaker 1:so what were the, Marco, thank you very much for joining us today and thank you for all of the chain.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I don't think if I ever make
Speaker 3:thank you for listening to a podcast. If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow us on[inaudible] dot com slash podcast for all the show notes, links and extra tips covered in the interview. Make sure also to subscribe to our emailing list to get the news in the nick of time. If you're listening through a streaming platform like iTunes or stitcher and you like what we do, please kindly review and give us five stars so we can keep the energy flowing yet get more people to find out about our podcast. I'm most active on Linkedin, so do feel free to follow me to stay tuned for our latest articles as well as future guests for the podcast and if you have any suggestions or any other ideas, please feel free to write to me. I respond to all and also please make sure not to miss our next episode where we are. We'll be having a few other c level and top leaders in supply chain joining us. Stay tuned.
Speaker 4:Okay.