In business circles, you often hear the term “10 x growth.” Business coaches, sales gurus and motivational speakers often use this as a lure to make their methodologies, content, products and services more appealing to their target customers. Who wouldn’t want to grow their business by a factor of 10 times?
Having recently achieved this milestone, our team reflected on the reasons for this outcome, which fit into four main categories. They are people, creative problem solving, constantly investing in technology and infrastructure, and creating a culture that embodies authenticity. We believe that all companies, regardless of industry, can harness these strategies to achieve their business objectives.
1. Keep the right people close
For decades, countless leadership books proclaimed the customer should come first. Over the past decade or so, the narrative has shifted and numerous experts, including CEOs, say employees should come first because they service customers. Without their commitment, hard work, intelligence and loyalty, it’s near impossible to achieve sustained growth and customer loyalty in our industry, the packaging, distribution, and warehousing business. Competition is always fierce.
I made a commitment when I started this business – to keep it simple and always put people first. This has had a tremendous impact on work quality, smart new ideas being introduced by staff, and team member contributions that clearly demonstrate an “above and beyond” mindset – all resulting in customer and team member retention and organic growth driven mainly by word-of-mouth referrals.
2. Creativity means customer delight
Clients come to us with a variety of challenges. They need help with high-volume packaging, fast shipping across the U.S., product assembly, and more. We meet these challenges by teaching and fostering an “anything is possible” outlook, which begins with our people. Instead of approaching a supervisor with an issue, they appreciate the sense of urgency that comes with approaching the management team with fresh ideas to improve the business, customer outcomes, and the work environment. They’ve expressed time and again that they feel vested in our business.
We encourage employees to voice their ideas, listen for opportunities to step up, and begin developing solutions to our everyday challenges – things that can save our team members time and frustration.
It has resulted in adopting new technologies and expanding our warehouses and packaging/distribution services throughout New Jersey and into California and Texas. Our people know that when they come to us with ideas, we genuinely listen. This is essential if we are to truly embrace creative problem-solving and continuously grow the business.
3. Invest in tech and ops
We recognize that the technology we purchase today may be obsolete in three to five years or even sooner and we must constantly invest in it. Realizing that every business is different, at our company – which occupies nearly 1,000,000 square feet of assembly, packaging, and warehouse space – technology and infrastructure includes 3PL inventory hardware and software, assembly line and automation equipment, and other tools designed to help our 1,000 full- and part-time team members move and store product on miles of rows of shelving and racks.
For instance, due to the number of facilities we have, we are now able to control the temperature of our buildings from our smart phones, eliminating delays in maximizing employee comfort. While this may be common in office buildings or home offices, it is rare in warehousing environments. We’ve also enhanced our software capabilities to save time on inventory control and to meet deadlines on large volume packing and shipping jobs during the holidays. Technology saves time and enhances security for our customers. We’ve invested in putting RFID tags in products to prevent distributors from selling outside of their network. This is also rare in warehousing environments, but we chose to do it to give our customers added security.
We believe that the cost pays off and our employees regularly thank us for tools and tech that make their jobs and lives easier. It is also a strong customer relationship offering. Many of the technologies we adopt optimize clients’ business outcomes, so it’s a trickle-down effect, which our customers realize – and value.
4. Embrace a culture of authenticity
Embracing these four tenets can result in magnified growth, opportunities for employee advancement and retention, customer delight, and peace of mind – knowing that every day we do our best regardless of the setbacks we all encounter.
People aren’t given enough credit. They are smart and can spot insincerity and disingenuous motives from a mile away. Our team members, customers, vendors, and partners sense and know when they are being given a genuine response, one that’s grounded in concern and reality, or just lip service.
Sustained growth is never easy. I’ve learned, in part through the school of hard knocks, to lead with humility, transparency, and honesty. The people around me value these attributes as well. We hold each other accountable for “walking the walk.”
In time, the proof should be evident in your business’ growth and the impact and legacy you create.
Jack Sandbach is founder and CEO of Packaging Distribution Resources, which he founded in 2003. It is headquartered in Edison, with facilities in Dallas and Los Angeles.
