When John F. Kennedy became the President of the USA in January 1961, Americans had the perception that the United States was losing the Space Race with the Soviet Union, which had successfully launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, almost four years earlier. The perception deepened when in April 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
Convinced of the political need to make an achievement that would decisively demonstrate America’s space superiority, Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
A Man on the Moon
As Heath brothers put it in their book “Made to Stick”: ‘Had John F. Kennedy been a CEO, he would have said, “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives”.
Large organizations are by nature complex, but over the years they added layer upon layer of complexity to how businesses are structured and managed. In many, more energy is devoted to navigating the labyrinth than achieving results.
Accountability is unclear, decision rights are vague, and frequently there is no clear idea of how to use large amounts of generated data. What seems like a simple question to a CEO can turn into a major exercise for hundreds of other people down the organization chart.
Longing for Simplicity
In recent years, corporations have put their business processes through rigorous scrutiny, with Six Sigma, Lean model, 5 Why’s, etc. While some processes are relatively well structured and controlled, many others haven’t benefited from improvement techniques.
Consider freight rate management in shipping – pricing and quoting of freight rates haven’t evolved since last century. Many global corporations are still utilizing MS Excel as the main tool to execute commercial activities. That results in too much variability and makes the job extremely inefficient.
Can Technology help?
Many companies have found that trying to simplify processes through large-scale enterprise systems, often leads to diminished rather than enhanced productivity. Why is that? Simply, a large enterprise system is a complexity in itself.
It takes several months (or rather years) to analyze, blueprint, adapt, implement, re-write business processes and then re-write again, facing the reality and actual user feedback. It usually costs a lot of money, making it difficult for top management to admit that something went wrong and expected efficiency has not been achieved, thus creating anxiety and disappointment at the bottom of the organization chart.
The Solution is Simplicity. Keep it simple, even when it actually is about rocket science!
“Before this decade is out, landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth”.
At Quotiss, we tackle the main problem of the industry from a different angle: instead of digitizing the enormous complexity of freight rates, we dramatically simplify the freight rate management process, reducing the number of variables in the equation.
Freight rate complexity can be reduced by 99%, following the data patterns discovered by Pareto 100 years ago.
Quotiss sales automation software generates 100% accurate quotes in seconds. The software is user-friendly and tailored to the freight forwarding business. It brings order and structure.
Would You Like a Quick Start with Quotiss?
Click here to register your company. We’ll activate your company’s profile and help with the initial settings and user onboarding. You can start uploading your freight ratesheets and quoting freight from Quotiss on the same day we sign the deal.
