Alliance

Interview with Alliance Shippers Inc.’s Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Steven Golich

Q: Describe Alliance’s culture and how it contributes to your success.
“Our culture stems from the hands-on approach we teach and expect from all levels of management. We require close attention to detail from each and every one of our employees to see each task through to completion—and we define completion in terms of customer satisfaction. We understand that each of our customers are unique in some fashion and a cookie cutter operation will not satisfy individual needs. Understanding exactly what our customer and our customer’s customer needs is paramount to our success. When that level of understanding becomes culture, we are successful.”

Q: What do you see as your customers greatest opportunities in the near-term?
“Much of this is contingent on economic forces. Balance of trade, corporate taxes, inventory levels are just a couple of impediments to domestic manufacturing growth. If the promised tax reform, trade agreement reform and infrastructure spending comes to fruition, we expect to see an explosion in consumer purchasing which naturally leads to more robust shipping activity. Our customers will benefit from economies of scale once they return to operating at capacity.”

Q: What are the advantages of using a company the size of Alliance vs. one of the bigger players?
“Alliance is ‘big’ in it’s own right when compared to classic IMC’s. We are a top 5 spend with all the major Class 1 railroads. When compared to bi-modal competitors, our record of service does well to trump advantages of scale. Many shippers need and actually prefer boutique operations, which Alliance is nimble enough to provide. Alliance’s Perfect Shipment® program is the DNA of our company. We measure to our customer’s expectations not to predetermined and often inaccurate schedules.”

Q: To what do you attribute Alliance’s success?
“In a word: Management. World class management breeds attention to detail and commitment to understanding exactly what the customer wants AND executing it.”

Q: Your executive team (maybe whole staff) has been with you for a long time. To what do you attribute their loyalty?
“A challenging and dynamic work environment for one. Fast pace industries such as ours don’t provide much down time. What we do today can be vastly different from what we do tomorrow. Alliance’s customers dictate our duties—not the other way around like we see from larger competitors. Alliance’s senior staff starting with our President have an open door policy. Many phone calls and conversations occur nights, weekends—whenever an employee has a concern. Alliance is committed to making our people feel like family. There are many examples throughout our operating and sales offices of spouses, sons, daughters, etc., following our footsteps as Alliance employees. There are countless examples of generosity Alliance has extended to our ‘families’ needs in times of crisis, sorrow and opportunity.”

Q: Tell us about trends 40 years ago versus today’s trends and how innovation has always played a role in Alliance’s culture.
“It’s all about efficiency and technology. Everything in the world today is more efficient than it was 40 years ago. Businesses are smarter and have adopted smart business practices and operating plans to drive efficiency and profit. Speed in information, travel and just about every component of supply chain is far greater than it was in those days. We have all heard and used the term ‘bigger, faster, better’; planes, trains, trucks and ships are all bigger, faster, better. Computer technology is the biggest change and improvement in every industry in 40 years. Alliance has stayed on the cutting edge of technology as well as operating advances albeit while still devoting ourselves to being a people oriented company. People manage the technology that manages our business. Most employees of Alliance are employees for life, we have one of the lowest personnel turnover ratios in our industry compliments of a caring senior management staff.”

Q: How are you managing the complexity of today’s supply chain?
“Cautiously and optimistically. Business has never been more challenging especially since the ‘freight recession’ we’ve experienced these past 12 months. Business levels have never returned to the high water marks we enjoyed in 2007 and have dropped precipitously since a recovery in 2014. The optimism comes from economic expectations. Competition drives much of what we do and our reaction to marketplace conditions. Complexity eventually turns into routine but we stay focused on changes and customer expectations and have the resources to meet the demands necessary to remain competitive. Our focus on service will carry the day. It becomes difficult to remember that with constant bombardment of price, price, price. A high ranking railroad executive told me 2 years ago that the consolidations and business failures that this environment has forced will level off and when the dust finally settles Alliance will stand among only a few. He went on to credit Alliance’s management and stern focus on service.”

Q: What excites you about the industry’s future?
“One thing for sure is the march of young people to join our industry. 40 years ago logistics was not part of any academic institution’s curriculum. Today logistics degrees are wide spread and the field has become fashionable. Technology improvements have a lot to do with the attraction. Our children grow up today using technology in almost everything they do, when 40 years ago we were just being introduced to remote control television— and those remotes were attached by a cord! Today there is more computer power in cell phones than there was in government computers that managed our military forces. We’re also excited about unlimited boundaries that we continue to get closer to. A truly global playing field promises  all sorts of  new horizons. America is so far advanced than many other countries in the world today. Once the world catches up there will be an explosion of opportunity.”