26 DC VELOCITY OCTOBER 2017 www.dcvelocity.com
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migrated into servicing new customers within new verticals. We began by investing time and effort devising a
strategy to begin calling on potential customers in adjacent markets (print, corrugate, cases, etc.).
At the end of the day, a widget is a widget, and a truck
is a truck. It’s ultimately about having the economies of
scale, experience, technology, and
customer mindset to perform well
while serving up competitive rates.
QHow do you see your 3PL busi- ness evolving as your core field
becomes less reliant on “hard” commodities that must be distributed
and shipped, and more on streaming and satellite, which have a totally different model?
AThe demand for packaged media is still stable and not diminishing as rapidly as many
predicted 10 years ago. There’s definitely been a downturn in demand, but Technicolor Home Entertainment
is still producing over a billion optical discs a year. We
continue to perform due diligence month after month
to make sure we understand the key trends, so we are
prepared for any cliff that we may come upon.
QCan other shippers and distributors pull this off? What needs to happen, culturally, strategically,
and operationally, for other companies to do what
Technicolor has done?
AThere are some universal success factors. The long- term customer/supplier contractual environment is
about seamless relationships that
are highlighted with candor, smart
ideas, and, above all, mutual commitment.
We must be totally focused on
the customer’s need to make sure
that the logistics solution is completely in tune with the receiving end, whether it’s Wal-Mart,
Target, Costco, Best Buy, or the
local variety store.
The situation is a bit different
in shorter-term wins that come about on the open
market. First impressions are lasting and will build into
long-term relationships when we are fully transparent
about obstacles, solutions, and failures, and when we
enact practices to mute negative events. We see these
as opportunities to build long-term relationships with
these customers.
