Logistics
Most of my Logistics experience also fits perfectly under the heading: Skills – Out-of-the-Box-Thinking. I often was a first mover: in Mauritania (1980), excluding the Chinese who lived in their own guarded camp in the desert, I was one of maybe 20 expatriates and the only one involved in construction, while in China (1984) I had to explain the whole concept of catering to people who had never even seen a real industrial kitchen. But even years later (2006) I developed, with input from my Logistics Manager, a cost calculation program, allowing our sales staff to immediately identify the logistics costs of delivering any quantity of product to pretty much anywhere in Europe, obviously always making use of the lowest-cost option. A program that I updated yearly and which included, after a number of years, also major destinations in the US and Canada.
Throughout the years I have also been ultimately responsible for the Logistics function in the companies I have worked for:
- I was responsible for the construction of one of the first very-narrow-aisle warehouses in Malaysia
- I’ve shipped Giftwrap (2001-2004) all over the world (Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Brazil, etc.)
Some of my Cases
Mauritania – Circumventing Restrictive Practices
China – The Logistics of Fresh Fruit & Vegetables
See also: