I had just transitioned from a functional role to business role. As a profit center head, I was responsible for region’s logistics business growth, operations and profits.

It was a bold move! Now I was the service provider who would prospect supply chain heads in different organization and propose supply chain solutions. In addition to business responsibility, I would also have the opportunity to understand supply chain of different industries (FMCG, Retail, Electronics, Telecom…). This role was really exciting me..

As a region head I would report to the CEO. In this role, I need to grow contract logistics business, improve collection, develop partnerships, and improve customer service.

On my joining day, the CEO flew to the region and introduced me to the team. We visited few customers together. Later that evening, he flew back and left me with one key advice that I must get some quick wins as it will help establish me as a leader quickly. This was a sound advice from the top man.

It was a difficult role as the region had been without a region head since over few months. Customers were unhappy, team morale was low, and logistics heads were spending more than revenue.

Everything was wrong, chaos prevailed but it was a huge opportunity.

During next four weeks, we prepared the strategy with detailed actions.

A quick decision was to free the office space which was being used as storage area for surplus assets. We issued the termination notice and now we had 90 days to shift the surplus assets. This move will reduce our opex spend immediately.We roped in HQ Infra Head and sought his active support for movement of surplus stock other regions.

During the first month, we visited all customer locations and met clients’ business head. These visits assured clients as well as our teams who were leading the logistics operations for clients. We took time to understand the pain points so that necessary actions could be initiated within agreed timeline. During these visits we also identified extra efforts, resources beyond contract which were not getting billed. We agreed with clients a timeline to reach a final settlement within 3-4 weeks else resources were to be withdrawn. Location in-charge were made responsible for invoicing, collections in addition to operations.

Within 6 months, we had stabilized the business. Now clients were not complaining and expressed delight due to faster issue resolution and quick support.

Now each account was contributing and not over spending. Opex reduction was flowing in due to space surrender and other initiatives.

New business proposals, which were in pipeline started showing results. We procured a new telecom business as well as FMCG transportation from a big client. Now it was time to implement the new business and grow our revenues.

As a profit centre head, I got the opportunity to turn around the region as well as learn the best practices of different sectors (Telecom, FMCG, Electronics, and automotive – Spares, Raw Material…).

This role helped me see problems as opportunities and gain experience in handling turnaround strategy!