The Logistics of Logistics REPOST: 5 Trends Shaping Logistics with Ben Gordon
Ben Gordon and Joe Lynch discuss 5 trends shaping logistics and supply chain. In the interview, Ben reviews and discussed trends and interesting companies in ecommerce, final mile, cold chain, reverse logistics, and fulfillment.
About Ben GordonBenjamin Gordon is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cambridge Capital. He draws on a career building, advising, and investing in supply chain companies. Benjamin has led investments in outstanding firms including XPO, Grand Junction, Bringg, Liftit, and others. As CEO of BGSA Holdings, Benjamin has spent his career investing in and helping to build supply chain and technology companies. Benjamin led the firm's efforts, advising on over $1 billion worth of supply chain transactions. Benjamin has worked with firms such as UPS, DHL, Kuehne & Nagel, Agility Logistics, NFI Logistics, GENCO, Nations Express, Raytrans, Echo Global, Dixie, Wilpak, and others. Prior to BGSA Holdings, Ben founded 3PLex, the Internet solution enabling third-party logistics companies to automate their business. Benjamin raised $28 million from blue-chip investors including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BancBoston Ventures, CNF, and Ionian. 3PLex was then purchased by Maersk. Prior to 3PLex, Benjamin advised transportation and logistics clients at Mercer Management Consulting. Prior to Mercer, Benjamin worked in his family's transportation business, AMI, where he helped the company expand its logistics operations. Benjamin received a Master's in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College.
About Cambridge CapitalCambridge Capital is a private equity firm investing in the applied supply chain. The firm provides private equity to finance the expansion, recapitalization or acquisition of growth companies in our sectors. Our philosophy is to invest in companies where our operating expertise and in-depth supply chain knowledge can help our portfolio companies achieve outstanding value. Cambridge Capital was founded in 2009 as the investment affiliate of BG Strategic Advisors (www.bgsa.com), the advisor of choice for a large, growing number of supply chain CEOs. Cambridge Capital leverages BGSA's unique approach to strategy-led investment banking for the supply chain. BGSA is known for its work helping companies achieve outsized returns via targeted acquisitions and premium sales processes, and has worked with category leaders such as UPS, DHL, Agility Logistics, New Breed, NFI, Genco, Nations Express, Raytrans, and others. Our relationship with BGSA gives us deep market expertise, access to outstanding deal flow and people flow, transactional capabilities, additional resources, and a powerful core competency in the supply chain sector. The Partners and Advisory Board members of Cambridge Capital have diverse backgrounds with complementary technical, operating and financial expertise. The Cambridge Capital team has spent their careers building, growing, and advising outstanding companies in the supply chain sector. They include former leaders of UPS Logistics, Ryder Logistics, ATC Logistics, APL Logistics, Kuehne + Nagel, and other globally recognized firms. Cambridge Capital's professionals know what it takes to build great companies.
Key Takeaways: 5 Trends Shaping Logistics with Ben GordonIn the podcast, Ben reviewed the following 5 trends shaping logistics:
- Ecommerce
- Ecommerce has not only reshaped logistics, but it is also has reshaped the entire economy.
- According to McKinsey, 10 years of e-commerce adoption was compressed into three months.
- Because of explosive growth of ecommerce, small parcel companies, UPS, FedEx and DHL experienced exceptional growth.
- The U.S. Postal Service and Amazon have also seen huge growth in shipments due to the growth of ecommerce.
- Returns and reverse logistics
- Traditional retailers experience 6-8% of sales to be returned. Ecommerce sellers have returns of approximately 30%.
- Returned items are a major pain point for both sellers and logistics providers because they are unplanned, very expensive, and difficult to manage.
- To address the returns and reverse logistics challenge, companies like ReverseLogix have created reverse logistics technology that reduces costs and enhances the customer's experience, while increasing inventory recovery and visibility into the reverse logistics life-cycle.
- Last mile
- Last mile or final mile is perhaps the most important and difficult part of direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping.
- Last mile accounts for 41% of the cost of business-to-consumer shipping.
- Amazon has raised customer expectations with a superior DTC experience that many companies will fail to replicate.
- In response, firms like Bringg are helping their clients deliver a last-mile experience that is comparable to the Amazon experience.
- Delivery software and service companies like Delivery Circle are helping companies leverage technology to make local delivery service more efficient and profitable.
- Ecommerce fulfillment
- Ecommerce fulfillment is the backbone of the direct-to-consumer supply chain and to successful, fulfillment companies must excel at both technology and warehousing & logistics.
- Many companies entering the fulfillment space from a technology background struggle with warehousing, logistics, and operations, while traditional warehousing & logistics companies may initially lack the technical expertise.
- Medical logistics and cold chain
- During COVID, the importance of the medical logistics and supply chain was highlighted especially in the areas of the cold chain.
- The lack of adequate cold chain infrastructure is proving to be a problem in the developing world.
- Cold chain monitoring and compliance is an area primed for growth.
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