There is increase in dependency on collaboration and trust to gauge success of a logistics company. Trust is an essential part of a dynamic, well knitted business and the teams that drive them. Trust is also central across all areas of the supply chain with suppliers, customers, partners, leaders and teams at every level of operations.
There is a boom in eCommerce as blockchain continues to press as a significant supply chain and logistics enabler. The term – Blockchain is a term commonly used to represent an entire new entourage of technologies.
Though the blockchain technology is being advertised heavily, there lies an underlying mistrust around it as it is yet to be understood fully by many across the supply chain landscape.
Fraudulent practices are on a rise and trust is crucial for eCommerce as customers are becoming more aware. There needs to be transparency in all processes including customer interfaces and websites.
Trust and its importance in supply chains?
It is crucial to understand nature of trust. The problem is that we all believe we understand the word and it is in a way taken for granted. It is critical to ensure all parties involved in any given supply chain activity or process, are well aligned.
In trust there is honesty, loyalty, fairness, openness and competence. One of the top priorities for many logistics companies is building trust with clients, suppliers and internal team individuals. It is a multifaceted complex phenomenon, which involves psychological processes and group dynamics.
Though supply chain industry is 10 years behind other sectors (e.g. banking / finance / insurance / media) in adoption of leadership development and executive coaching as a business tool but the value proposition of this investment is increasingly being understood and leveraged.
If there is dearth of trust, supply chains would stop functioning. It represents the unwritten view of a shared reality which enables organisations and the people running them, gain confidence to collaborate and transact.
Commonly we see specifically in 3PL / CL and Freight Forwarding organisations trust issues due to conflicting agendas of internal management teams and between suppliers and customers. Often talent is sourced based on short term commercial gains only and usually people skills and emotional intelligence (EQ) is disregarded and trust gets compromised.
Competition within organization’s departments and units, for eg. old sales v’s operations mentality. Finance v’s IT etc. leads into loosing focus. With negative focus and internal competition the atmosphere gets tensed with BUs / divisions not helping each other to achieve the organization’s strategic and tactical objectives.
Ultimate goal of most organisations is to grow and thrive, however this needs high level of internal and external trust in each other.
More supply chain organisations are focusing on team building initiatives, to ensure their organisation possesses a desire to improve team engagement and trust.
It would be ideal if you had a trusting relationship with every organization in your supply chain, without stress about the work being done. Building trust takes time.
