What is the human side of mergers and acquisitions ? As companies merge or acquire others , how does that impact the pool of talent in the last mile ? And where will all this turmoil lead for those who manage and staff last-mile companies ?
CLDA Magazine put these questions to Melissa Hadhazy , senior client partner at Korn Ferry . This global organizational consulting firm defines itself as helping clients “… synchronize strategy and talent to drive superior performance .” Her practice concentrates on staffing companies throughout the supply chain .
CLDA Mag : You have been working on a wide breadth of distribution , operations , and strategy projects worldwide for companies involved with the supply chain . From where you sit , where do you see things going regarding consolidation in our sector ?
Hadhazy : The amount of consolidation throughout the supply chain has been remarkable . Although it ’ s been the Wild West for the past few years , for the last 12 months , things seem to be slowing down . But my gut tells me that ’ s a blip . I believe it ’ s going to pick up again .
Even though the pace of new deals has slowed down , there ’ s still a lot going on regarding staffing . That ’ s because there still hasn ’ t been the integration needed for investors to see the ROIs they expected .
At Korn Ferry , we ’ re seeing a lot of movement in staffing at the senior leadership level . It ’ s still highly competitive . Consolidation is happening throughout the industry and supply chain , so leaders who can build relationships and networks are the most sought after . If someone is a senior leader who has end-to-end supply chain knowledge , they are of interest to employers . If they also have planning mixed in and can think strategically , they are marketable . And those who can understand all the multiple players involved in a consolidation are in high demand .
At the next kind of level , we ’ re seeing a lot of movement among warehouse leaders , logistics site managers , and plant site managers who were part of smaller companies . They thrived when they were there . They were super-productive and hit all their KPIs . But those companies were bought up or had private equity investing in them . At that point , these people often feel like they can ’ t do it anymore . A lot of it has to do with technology . When they ’ re being integrated into these bigger companies , they are being forced into using their technology and systems . It ’ s a different way of working , and the change management component is often nonexistent . They must change the way they do their work to meet new KPIs . They feel like the new company wants them to do more with less . They are saying , “ No , thank you . I ’ m out of here . I don ’ t have to go through this . I might as well go down the street and work for a different company .” And they can do that because it ’ s still such a competitive market for these folks , especially those on mid to low-senior levels .
CLDA Mag : In which job titles or positions do you see the most movement ?
Hadhazy : We see many people at the top moving — positions like Chief Supply Chain Officers at shippers and Chief Operations Officers at logistics companies . We ’ ve placed some of these individuals three times in the last few years . Many boards and investors are reflecting on the first two years of COVID and saying , “ Okay , here ’ s who did it really well . That ’ s who we want .” They are coming to us with short lists of names of those who could get through that crisis on the logistics side and fared really well . These are the people shippers are interested in bringing in .
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