What’s happening to us! We are all moving in a downward spiral of complication, procrastination, separation, legislation, political correctness, and increasing process.This is in a world where technological advancements are supposed to be making life simpler, better, and in short more fun!
In the uber-fast extreme world of ever changing, ever improving, and ever developing technology, giving us all greater opportunities, making all aspects of life ever faster, and ever more efficient, in business, and in life, we are all becoming ever more separate and distant from each other, ever more transient, and ever more impersonal.
Instead of more time, we seem to have less time, less time to fully understand each other, and what makes us all tick. We are all becoming more isolated. Social Media, Text, and Email, is taking over from quality relationship building time, face to face contact, and the telephone.
Decision makers are not interacting personally anywhere near as much as they used to, as a result relationships are weaker, and loyalty and connection is diluted. The strength and lifespan of business bonds is becoming shorter and shorter as career hoppers leap from opportunity to opportunity.
Experience, pedigree, and track record is becoming less and less valued in the face of increasingly convoluted qualifications and the fast track career paths of spotty young graduates with all the IT skills, and the unearned confidence of experts thirty years their senior, who can’t write or spell or connect with business contacts as real people.
It’s a challenging trend that is now ingrained within the transport and logistics sector.
Whereas once upon a time, long term and highly tuned business relationships were struck up energetically and enthusiastically between like-minded entrepreneurs, and consolidated on a meal and a handshake, “Sophisticated Supply Chain” is now the order of the day.
The handshake, personal agreement, and performance commitment, is being replaced by KPIs, performance analysis metrics, and impersonal logistics policing. “Sophisticated Supply Chain” implemented through a small army of impersonal personnel – technical experts, buyers, logisticians, lawyers, and consultants.
The tendering process is becoming increasingly protracted and cumbersome with more and more decisions being taken on statistics and financials rather than relationships, connection, and rapport.
There is a place for “Supply Chain Sophistication” but not at the expense of “The Handshake”.
When and where will it all end?
