chairman of the board of directors during 2005 and 2006.
Richards met recently with DC VELOCITY Group Editorial
Director Mitch Mac Donald to talk about how he fell into
the profession and the six keys to win-win shipper/third-
party relationships.
QWhat led you to seek a career in logistics and supply chain management?
A It was a situation where the pro- fession found me. My father was
at Nabisco when I was in graduate
A More and more organizations are recognizing the critical role that logistics plays. One manifestation of
that is Tom Friedman’s assertion in one of his books that
those companies that have the most effective and efficient
supply chains are the ones that will “win.” So here you have
a general publication that is recognizing the importance of
supply chain. Another popular expression of it is the advertisements that we see on TV now.
Thirty years ago, you wouldn’t have
seen “I love logistics” and UPS and others promoting logistics.
school at Miami (University)
in Ohio. I was going to spend
a couple of days with my dad
at the Warehousing
Education and Research
Council conference at
Ohio State, just hanging out. I walked in
and asked the first person I saw if they knew Rich Richards,
and that happened to be Ken Ackerman. Ken put me together with my father and then later on at the conference, asked
me what I was doing and offered to help me find a job. I said,
“Thank you very much, but I don’t want to do this.” He was
persistent and asked me to send a résumé, which I did.
A few weeks later, his company contacted me and asked if
I would be interested in interviewing. Again, I said, “Thank
you, but no thank you.” They said, “Well, how about if you
consider it a practice interview?” The next thing I knew I was
working for Distribution Centers Inc. and Ken Ackerman.
QDo you think the failure to stay on top of emerging technologies
could put a company at a competitive
disadvantage?
A Definitely. There are so many things that will revolutionize
what we do and how we do it. Take
robotics, for instance—the idea of a
$20,000 investment in a robot that
could handle picking and packing in a
distribution center. I can also see a day
where you have a third-party distribution center become a farm of sorts that
would contain many, many 3D printers
and all the ingredients that go into that
printer. Someone places an order and that third party prints
it, packs it, and ships it.
QWhat’s the value of being active in industry associa- tions like WERC, CSCMP, and IWLA?
A You have to not only take from the profession but also give back to that profession and be willing to
invest yourself in hopefully making the profession better
than when you entered it. My father and mother raised me
with the whole idea of giving back. Even beyond that, I
just believe that none of us has all the answers. I have been
involved because I knew that it would expose me to different perspectives, different thinking, and different experiences and that could only be good for my personal
development.
QWhat changes have you seen over the past 30 years in the way businesses approach logistics and supply
chain management?
QYou have come up with a six-step process for select- ing a third-party provider that allows everybody to
win. Could you summarize those six steps for us?
A One of the first steps is to understand yourself. Someone will contact us saying they need help looking for a third party and what’s the price. I’ll say, “Well, we
can get to that, but can you tell me what you are trying to
