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Scaling Operations Without Adding Headcount with Adrian Betts · Business Roundtable

• 0:31
  Speaker 1: All right, everybody, welcome back to the Business Roundtable podcast.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I'm your host David Gart here with Adrian Betts, a
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: new guest of the podcast who I'm excited to have
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: on here because you guys know, I love people, but
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I also love to pair up with somebody that's really
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: good with systems, processes, an organizational strength, and that's where
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Adrian comes in with Expanded We're gonna get into it
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: today and for those of you are watching the podcast,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you can see his warehouse background. He's got a great
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: experience working on a large warehouses. I'm gonna let him
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: share a his background here. But you know, here at
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the Business Table podcast, what I do is bring people
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: together every week that we can share and help educate
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: you as a business owner or a leader wherever you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: might be in the business. And Adrian is one that
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: has started this company a while back, and we're gonna
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: have him share his journey before we get into it.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: But welcome.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: First, I just want to welcome you Adrian for being
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: on the podcast here today.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Hey, thanks for having me, David. I'm excited to be
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: here as always.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Awesome awesome. So you and I were connected to another
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: mutual friend Chris Felton, who was on a podcast recently,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: another amazing business owner. But I would love to have you, Adrian,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: share with our listeners your journey as a business owner
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and why did you get into creating Expander and talk
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: us a little bit about who are the folks that
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: you're serving today? Who are the folks that you're really
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: helping in their business.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So the company is called expand her because we
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: expand to operational capabilities. So primarily grew up in distribution centers,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: f fillment centers, and last mile delivery stations. I've been
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: with some of the fortune five hundred, fortune one hundreds
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: in the W two world.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, I'm playing pretty good in the upper mid market.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: So the least couple of projects have been three hundred
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: million in annual sales six hundred thousand square feet to
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: a million square feet. And I really just enjoy coming
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: in and hearing all the things that are broken, and
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: it sounds horrible to everybody, and it's.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Music to my ears, right yep, yep, And I say, hey.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: If we just tweak this a little bit, turn this
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: up a little bit, and dial this a little bit
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  Speaker 4: to the right, we can actually start to get you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: anywhere from fifteen to sometimes sixty percent more out of
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: the same operation using.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Your existing resources.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: That's impressive, Adrian.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: And that's why I love having folks like you're on
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the podcast, so that we can have folks listen in,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: lean in and say like, how could I improve my
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: operations in such a capacity with with that? You know,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: just it's making these pivots and adjustments. And I think
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: that's why you and I find the same synergy because
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I do the same thing with on the people side
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of things, I'm like, how do we leverage your team
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: and expand and and and actually scale?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: So you know, you and I are passionate about.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Building resilient businesses and making sure that they can you know,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: all be in alignment and uh address So tell me.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Where from you know, where do you like, where do
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: you start? What do you see?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Like you're listening to these problems, So tell me a
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: little bit about some of the common problems with challenges
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: that you're hearing Adrian right now in this space.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Uh.
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  Speaker 4: The there's three big problems, right, and I primarily tech
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: this three buckets.
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  Speaker 3: The number one is the people piece.
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  Speaker 4: Right, It's very easy to it's easy to think that
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: moving a box is easy. Just move a box, But
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: it is very complicated, right, There's a lot of steps,
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: and we take for granted that a warehouse management system,
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: you basically have to if I had to tell you,
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: David W.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Carr, how to get up out.
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  Speaker 4: The bed, step by step, go to the kitchen, make
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: a bowl of cereal, eat it, get dressed, then drive,
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: just get in the car.
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  Speaker 3: There's a lot of steps to that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so documenting those steps, training the people, finding
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  Speaker 4: the right people, making sure they.
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  Speaker 3: Understand, and then cross training. That's one. The second largest
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  Speaker 3: thing I see is just the silos. No single.
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: Player on the team wins or loses. Either the team
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: lens or the team loses. And if you like vehicles
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: and you see a V eight V twelve whatever, you
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: know that as one piston goes down, the other piston
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: goes up. And so not a single piston on a
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: V twelve can move without the other eleven being impacted.
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  Speaker 4: And we have to understand that. Now, the third thing
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: that I see the most of is people have no
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: understanding of their space. I'll just go ahead and put
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: it out there. It's been a while since I've been
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  Speaker 4: eighteen years old. Now, when I was eighteen years old,
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  Speaker 4: I was not trying to fit in the same clothes
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: I had when I was five. So many operations try
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: to when they grow, they still try and they try
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: to fit, you know, a mature sales volume, yep, into
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: the size of their warehouse when they just started, and
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: then they wonder why it's an uncomfortable fit. Those are
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: the top three things that I have seen consistently across
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: the many organizations I've worked with over there.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So no, you bring up some great points, and I
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: love the analogy of like documenting all the steps, what
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: are your standard operating person? What I found and I'd
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: love to hear your thoughts on the stage is sometimes,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: like you said, it goes to your salary too. Is
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: like you have one person, perhaps maybe more, but usually
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I found one person that's like the keeper of all
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the information. They kind of hold that like almost like
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  Speaker 1: in an unhealthy way, Like I want to hold all
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: this information so I can kind of leverage something the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: business owner, you're kind of held hostage, like that person
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: knows everything about your system. But what happens if that
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: person goes away? Now, what do you do? What happens
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: with the whole operation. Talk a little bit about that.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So.
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  Speaker 4: In two thousand, two thousand and fifteen ish we would
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: say if this person, what would we do if this
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: person got hit by a bus?
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: And the reason?
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  Speaker 4: And so now we for the last ten years we've
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: been saying, like, what happens if they win the lottery?
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: Because fundamentally we have this stigma that we only take off,
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: we only miss work because something bad happened and I
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: have vacation and you knew it was coming, right, So
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: how do we how do we replicate this person right
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: so that when this person is gone, the customer is unable.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: To tell right.
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  Speaker 4: And the way I get people to understand this is
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I asked them, you know, when you drove to work today,
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: who was in the car with you? They said, it
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: was just me. And then I asked them how many
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: tires does your car have?
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  Speaker 3: And they say four? I said, well, why does your
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: car have four tires if it's only you? Well, if
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: you want the car to move in any kind of
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: manner it was designed to move, you need all four
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: of those tires operating at the same level of performance
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: to get you from point A to point B. So
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: here's exactly. That's more than just an analogy.
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  Speaker 4: You need to have four people who are competent at
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: any one of those critical functions. Because the first person
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: can be on vacation, which you knew about. The second person,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: life is going to happen to them, The third person
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: is going to be on jury duty. Now, fourth person,
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: they may only operate an eighty percent of efficiency. However,
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: eighty percent is eighty percent more than.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Zero zero, right, So important, Adrian, I mean, and I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the reason I bring this up is because I see
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: this like, so I want business owners to hear this.
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  Speaker 1: Adrian is looking and opening up your business and saying
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: where are you having these gaps?
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  Speaker 2: And so that you don't have that drop in productivity?
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  Speaker 1: Right, You're like, oh, man, we have to won't be
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: able to meet our client's delivery date or because we
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: don't have nobody's being around. And if that happens on
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: our consistent even sometimes one time, it could be a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: one time depending on the client. How critical this is, right,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: how critical this delivery or whatever? They got to get like, sorry,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to do it. Well, I
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: might got to go to somebody else that can do it, right,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: And like, so you know, there's a lot. I mean,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: so it's loss of It could be more than just
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: that one. You know, that repeating client, right, they may
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: go somewhere else. So how do we keep the clients
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: engage and feeling likely? You said it seamless and they
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: might not notice, Like I said, even eighty percent. I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: feel like people are pretty forgiven if they're knowing like, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this person's not what I've got somebody to take care
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  Speaker 1: of you, instead of those like well, we'll just have
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to wait, you know, and then eventually somebody will come
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: back like where where am I in your list of priorities?
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: How important am I to you?
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  Speaker 4: Now? For that? You know, I've seen companies with two hundred,
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: five hundred and one thousand people, companies that have half
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  Speaker 4: a billion, a billion or more in revenue still have
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  Speaker 4: that same issue. Your average tenure is five years. Your
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: average tenure is five years, and one person out of
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  Speaker 4: two hundred goes on vacation and your operation suffers until
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: they get back. If you have people that are fearful
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: of taking vacation if you have, and more so because
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: they know they're going to have a week's worth of
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: stuff when they come back, plus the week of work
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: that they have to do. There are ways to get
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: around that that don't cost you any more money and
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: they really allow you and your.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Team to have a peace of mind at any time
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: of the year.
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  Speaker 2: Mm hmmmm, so so important.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: It's like what you're saying right here, you're saying is
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: if you're doing these proactive things rather than being reactive,
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  Speaker 1: and you're you're what I like say is you're looking
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: underneath the system and you're like saying, hey, you're doing this,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: but this isn't as effective. How can we adjust that?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: And that's what I love having you on, Adrian is
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: like you no getting at that. So tell us a
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: little bit about you know, talked up some of these
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: challenges that the business owners are facing. Can you walk
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: me through because I know we talked before we were
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: one of this podcast, but you have a great framework
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: of that you look through and how you address issues.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: You walk us through a bit of that about what
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: kind of what you do at a commander.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: So if we were to look holistically at the company,
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: and you know, my sweet spot is from today to
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: the next twelve months, twelve months and one day after
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: I could care less about but Once you know how
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: to operate a year, then it just becomes year over
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: year times the growth percentage.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Right, So we.
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: Would start with the CEO. You know the fish stink
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: from the head. It also smells good from the head.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: I don't care how you say it, but what specifically
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: do you want us to accomplish over the next twelve months?
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  Speaker 3: And specific is the keyword.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: You write it out, you say it down, write it down,
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: you say it out loud, then you send it to
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: the heads of all the departments. At the next meeting,
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: you say it out loud again, and then you have
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: them repeat it back.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: To you, all of them.
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: Now everybody's heard it from the CEO's mouth, your mouth,
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: and everybody's heard it out of their own mouth, so
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: there's no realignment throughout the year. Now that we've said
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: what everybody is expected to do, we ask each department,
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: what are the top three things you need to support
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: this goal. Everybody's going to say, I have one hundred things,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: don't care.
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  Speaker 2: Top three. What's the most important? It's hard, right, you
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: got a priority.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: We'll start with the top three, the biggest three, and
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: if it's only one, it's one.
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  Speaker 3: We do this for all the departments.
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  Speaker 4: This becomes our meeting agenda so that when we every
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: time we meet, we know we're only talking about what's
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: most important for every single department, supporting the overall goal.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Now, things are going to go wrong. Nothing I can
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: do to stop that entirely.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: But because it's the most critical thing, we are very
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: quick at identifying what went wrong, who needs help, who
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: can help, how long that help is.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Needed, and when we anticipate a full recovery.
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: And we have this meeting up to four times a day,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: five days a week, four weeks out the month. And
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: you know some of your team or even you may say, well,
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: eighty times a month is excessive to meet about the
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: same thing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: Well, let me ask you this.
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: If you lost a million dollars or more last month
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: and didn't ask these questions any what's what's successive, right
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: the amount you lost or the amount of times we
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: asked about it. I'm not going to look up and
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: be surprised that I lost a million dollars.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I'm going to ask along the way.
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: Now, here's what your team will naturally get better at.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: It's almost impossible to not get better at this. In
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: four weeks, people will start to identify what they do
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: well or we do well when the situation is like this,
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: and where they can do better.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: Hey, when these conditions are here, we kind of struggle.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: Now you look forward four weeks to say.
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: Ooh, here's all the days where the good situation is
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: going to happen, and here's the days when the bad
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: situation is going to happen.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: How do we all plan for it so where we
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: get the most out of our good days and we
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: also minimize the negative impact when situations are different than
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: we would like them to be. That is how you.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: Get that cross functional alignment, that feedback loop to actually
• 14:12
  Speaker 4: get more out of every single department. And we still
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: haven't added a single person, a single piece of equipment,
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: or a single piece of technology.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: I want to I want to just tie in that, Adrian.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I think it's so valuable what you said was, you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: you came up with the plan with the you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the business owner and saying okay, here it is, and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: we got buy in. At least you've got everybody to
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: acknowledging that that this is important, this is want.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: To make this happen.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: And I think sometimes just just like you said, just
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: having coming in and doing that is a game changer
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: because people just kind of diverse. They all have their
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: own kind of agendas and what they think is important,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: not unified, like you said. And so you're saying, hey,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: let's keep the main thing, the main thing. Let's focused
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: on this. And what I also heard you say and
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: in this, in this regular meetings and checking in with
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: each other, is that you're keeping in alignment and you're
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: not drifting.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: You're like, hey, look, we've got to get it.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: And we're looking at what I heard also, Adrian, we're
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: looking after each other like, hey, no, we're going to
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: have this.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: How do we they can.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Help us in in in the in the office or
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: in distribution or whatever whatever part where you are in
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: this in this process right because you've documented the process,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: you're saying, oh, they could help us here. We're weaker
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: here and we need so. But if you if you're siloed,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: if you're not paying attention to that, you don't know.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: Should I call them or.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Who should I lean onto? Or no, I guess I'll
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: just have to figure out on my own.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Right right now, this is what we're doing.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: And I tell people I primarily work more with actual
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: intelligence as opposed to artificial intelligence. So artificial intelligence takes
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: what your normal thought process is and it just starts
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: doing it over and over on its own. Now, this
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: is a this is a you know, advocatest way, pen
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: and paper long division.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: Way of doing it.
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: But you know, even if the power goes out tomorrow,
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: this frameworks toll, it works, never goes.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Out of style.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, So I mean it's so powerful your way You're
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you're talking about you know, guiding folks in this and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: really you know, developing this s op and you know,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: making sure that you have the right people in the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: right places. Again, you're not added, like you said, you're
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: not any equipment, Newton people. It's just getting that you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: set up and everybody's working aver together. And I like
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: that you said, you know, you're looking at a year,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: so you're you know, I know there's seasonalities to any business, right,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: and so you're looking at that whole year of like
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: what does that look like?
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: Because then you said you're.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: Then you're you know, should have a pretty good sense
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: of what does that seasonality look like and how to
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: plan and prepare accordingly, right yep.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: So yeah, And the reason is like, so I can
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: give you a strategy that's going to speak to what
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: to do for twelve months, but it's it's best to
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: actually go through all four seasons. And here's why, right,
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: because we have to get there's a couple of things
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: we have to get to before we get to the seasonality.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: First, we have to understand what we're shipping. That's our
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: product mix, right, And then we have to understand our space.
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: So like behind me, this is three hundred and thirty
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: five thousand square.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Feet with fifty five thousand locations. Know your space right.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: Then the product so you know, back to school is
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: pens and paper. You know there's a palette of nope,
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: notebook paper. You sell one hundred thousand packs of that.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: You're talking about several palates. Back to college also happens
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: at the same time of the year, but it's microwaves,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: and many fridges sell one hundred thousand of those. We're
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: talking about several containers, so one hundred thousand doesn't always
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: take up the same space.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Depending on the product.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Mm hm.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: Now, once we take that basic formula, we say, okay,
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: what are we going to do for this quarter? The
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: busiest quarter general merchandise is typically quarter four Okay, if
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: we bought all of this based on the dimensions of everything,
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: and we know I have a million cubic feet.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: I said, well, it's going to be four million cubic feet.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: Okay, Well, let's break the purchase orders down into fifths
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: or smaller chunks. And the reason we do that, David,
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: is we want to make sure that while we're bringing
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: all this money in for quarter four, while you're bringing
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: it all in, that none of.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: It has to go back out to pay for storage
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: trailers or a.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: Second warehouse because you've filled up the one that you
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: had before it's time.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: M M.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: What you're gonna have to do.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: We're gonna have to go down to finance and ask
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: for money that's not in the budget. And I ain't
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: finna get cussed out by myself right now.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: It's June. I know this should be an.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: Every ring post, but most people, almost everybody talks about
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: Peaks plan a quarter four. But halfway through the year,
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: how much have you heard people talk about the planning
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: they did for quarter one or the planning they did
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: for quarter two?
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Very little.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: We keep that same intensity with you through each of
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: your four seasons. Yes, they may be less challenging, but
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: they each have their own unique profile.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, Yeah, And then you know.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: It doesn't go from winter to summer. There's a season
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: in between, so temperatures gradually rise, they gradually fall. There's
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: a transition between those seasons. And give you an example.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: The biggest transition is from quarter four to quarter one.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: Go from peak season to week season, and you go
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: from needing three hundred people to one hundred and twenty.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Right, So what we do is.
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: We know how to contract the warehouse footprint. So you
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: go from needing one hundred and ten percent of your
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: space you need one point one million square feet, you
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: only have a million.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: What do I do?
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: No? Then Black Friday, you only need six hundred thousand
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: square feet because it's back to toilet, paper, diapers, and water.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Mm hm.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: Now we know how.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: To keep that forty percent of the space together and empty,
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: and that sixty percent that you need in the tightest
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: sixty percent possible.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: What your competitors are.
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: Doing is they're traveling all one million square feet to
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: pick their work, while you're only traveling six hundred thousand
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: square feet.
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: So what does that.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: Mean in dollars for every one hundred people you have
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: on your floor. That's a one point five million dollars
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: spend in payroll over ninety days. And if we can
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: do forty percent less travel, we're talking about a potential
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: savings of six hundred thousand dollars. And that's in your
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: lightest qure. And we can squeeze that kind of blood
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: from a turn up in quarter one, we can do
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: it in two and three, so by the time you
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: get to quarter four, it's not so much pressure for
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: quarter four having to save your bottom line for the
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: fiscal year.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Well, what I hear a lot here is whether you're
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: in the warehouse or not. Are you doing forecasting? Are
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: you looking seasonality for these changes, because there's transit. Like
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you said, Adrian, there's transitions there. But I'm that's what
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: I'm here, and so let's not ignore the transition. Let's
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: be prepared for the transition. Let's be proactive and and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: you know, like you said, you know, and also look
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: at the new opportunities that might.
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Be out there.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: You know, I like the here analogy of the paper
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: versus the refrigerators or whatever. This is there something different
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that you're potentially bringing a service up. I'm in the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: professional services, a new product or something. What does that
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: look like in transitions so you're not totally thrown off kilter?
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: And do you have the ability to flax like you're
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: mentioning adrians so that it's it's more seamless versus just
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: like if we were just you know, if it's like
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: you said, I like alliot, where you kind of turn
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: up the dial or turn down the dial. That's easier
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: than like trying to flip a switch, like go from
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: your up and down and that that's very hard for everybody,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: right when you're trying to go from boom and the stop, go,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: you know, hit the brakes, hit the gas, Hit the brakes,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: hit the gas. That's really hard. Can we like lightly
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: touch the brakes? Can we give it a little bit
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: more gas? Like that's what I hear you saying, Like,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: how do we do that in a less jerky way?
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: Absolutely?
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: And if we go back to the all the departments
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: and the V twelve, I'm actually in operations like the
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: fifth person to even.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: Know that the product, what the product is going to do.
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: Right the person with the furthest view out is marketing,
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: then sales, then procurement, then transportation.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: Then me and operations.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: Right, So if I want to know what that transition
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: looks like, all I have to do is go ask marketing, Hey,
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: what are you guys doing for a couple of seasons out? Oh? Man,
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: remember last Christmas and we did like ten million of sales.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: This year we're going to do fifteen.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: So now I know I need to plan for a
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: fifty percent increase in whatever we did last year.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I don't care how successful it was. I have to
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: do fifty percent more and plan for that.
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: If they tell me it's going to be soft, then
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: I say, okay, well, you know, I know I don't
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: need to go as hard on overtime for that same timeframe,
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: and now I can respect the financial budget. Right. So
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: it's again, if you listen to the complete sentence of
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: a business, you can understand exactly what you need to
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: do from now all the way as far out as
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: twelve months.
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: Anything beyond that is really starting to speculate.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: No, well, I think that's so important, Adrian. And I
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: feel like sometimes people like you mentioned earlier, get siloed
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and they're not asking those questions. I just this is
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: just where my end and I'm not being proactive like
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: you said, if if you kept marketing and salespeople are like, boom,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: we got some new products we're selling. We're selling, we're
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: selling it, and we're not communicating. And then now now
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the actual order is coming in or we're gonna sending
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: this're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: We didn't. I wasn't.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I wasn't clear on this. I didn't understand how this
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: is going to impact me. And so, like you said,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: it's like a cascading thing. And what I found was,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: I know I've been on the side of the sales
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and market They love to sell the obviously they're getting
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: from commission. They're not really considering the impacts to operations
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: per se. It's not But if they're like, hey, I
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: could I want to make sure the client fulfillment process
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: actually works through so they'll buy from me again, I
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: got to I should let these guys know, we should
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: be very thinking about this.
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's really just a hits up, man, because
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: it's and I want to be crystal clear when I
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: go back to the twelve departments and say, hey, guys,
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: one piston moves, the other living are responding in a
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: similar fashion, right, So you know, it's not just me saying,
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: oh man, those sales guys didn't.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: Tell me, well, I'm just moving the boxes.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: Right, if you sell forty percent more and you don't
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: share that information, now, HR is behind on hiring forty.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: Percent yep, right there too are.
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: Our employee experience is going to start to suck. Our
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: turnover is going to go up if we, aside from
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: the people, let's say.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: HR is able to keep up.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: What if we now we need forty percent more devices,
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: What if we need forty percent more wireless access points.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I've seen companies where.
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: The system actually starts to shut down because they had
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: a headcount plan of one hundred.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Now they're using one hundred.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: And fifty and it's too many users. They didn't buy
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: enough licenses, or it's too many users and they're overloading
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: the access points. So everybody's getting that little spiral of
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: death on their device and no orders are going right.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: So these are the things that why have you on
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the podcast, Adrian, because it's it's it's not that they
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: don't care. I think business owners are just getting busy
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and they get silent. They just get going and it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: like you're having somebody like you Adrian come in kind
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: of lift the hood up, like look at seeing what's
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: we're asking what's working and what's not working.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: And that's why, you know, it's so important to have an.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Outside perspective, and particularly Adrian, because you're working not just
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: with one company, you're working with many companies.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: You're seeing you know, these things, these.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Blind spots you will or like, hey, you guys, this
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: is this is like you just gave a great examples
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: of like, oh, I didn't I didn't even think about that.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: I wasn't. I was just you know, I was just
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: thinking that like you.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I like the analogy you said before, like I could
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: just fit into the clothes that I had before what
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I was doing. Well, no, not not if you're you know,
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: you're going to increase your revenue. And this is one
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: thing I've seen with business owners, Adrian. They get excited
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: about increased revenue like, oh man, we're gonna make more revenue,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, actually make less money,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: less profit because of what you're talking about. So it's like,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: what does it, what does it you to increase your revenue.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like an ego trip only to actually
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: in the end make less money than you did previously.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: Yep, it's called you know, we say this phrase outside
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: of business all the time, it is getting too big
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: for your bridges, right, So companies can and have absolutely
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: collapsed them in their own weight. And it would have
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: been as simple as just saying, hey, guys, you know
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: we're growing at this level. Okay, cool, we need to
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: hire at this level, We need to add access points
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: at this level, we need to acquire equipment at this level.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: We need to you know, acquire more freight lanes, trucks, brokers,
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: whatever it is, but we need to It's a it's
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: like a three legged race, but it's it's twelve departments.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: So it's it.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: Takes a lot of effort, but the more you do anything,
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: the better you get at it.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: Absolutely and having somebody come along like you Adrian, that
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: is looking at these things, asking the tough questions, helping
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: them and I think, you know, you've broken it down
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: really well to gain and know we're getting to at
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: the end of the podcast here, but I want the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: business owners to know, you know, Adrian and I are
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: you know, are collaborating together.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: You can reach out.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Adrian's connected with me on LinkedIn we'll make sure Adrian
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: expander and all the notes are put it in our
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: in our show notes here as to how to connect
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: with you. But I think you know, listen, if you're
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: a business owner and you're working in this space of
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: a good friend, that's whether you're you know, whatever that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: capacity might be from the from the warehouse, distribution and such.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: You know, Adrian is a man that can walk you
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: through and help strengthen you in your team. That like
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: breaking down the silos and really what I heard YouTube
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Adrian is like making every square foot count everyone, make
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: sure that it's it's who it's you know, working to
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: its best. And that's why I love to come in
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: with Adrian because this is a you know, breaking this
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: down and getting a plan and getting the system and
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: then of course you know I work with teams and
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: strengthening that development and the relations to your leadership. It's
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: all intentional, but it takes time, right and this is
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: like something that just happens overnight. You're with them with
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the you're with them in this process. You're walking them
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: through week after week, month after month. Get that get
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: that dialed in, really see the results.
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: Absolutely when I walk away, when I leave everything is
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: still going to operate as if I never left in
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: the first place.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: I love that you're you're leading, You're leaving with lasting
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: change and impact. So Aidan, as we're getting close to
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: mend here, you know, if if, what would you say
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: is kind of a you know, a key takeaway. I'm
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: a business I've got a lot of challenges. You listen
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of them. You know, what's the what's the what?
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: What can they do? What's the proactive thing that they
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: can do today? As we're listening to like make make
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the positive change be positive.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: Have a structured conversation.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Hey guys, we're gonna have to sit down and we're
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: gonna have it at this cadence.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: Here's the agenda. Know what you're gonna come there talk about.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: We can dump all the pieces on the table and
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: then we'll start to sport them out.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: And every time.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: We meet, we have to come with solutions because we
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: already know what the problems are.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: So I love that.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: So here's a Adrian thank you for being on the podcast.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Adrian's like he's gonna walk you through there. Break put
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: down all the puzzle pieces, lay down our arms, come
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: to the table.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Like and so that you.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: Can actually you know, scale without like I said, happened
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: to like you know, go crazy with the budget or
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: adding more people, like just literally looking at what you
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: have right now, the problems they have been breaking it
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: down and really getting through but with your current team
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and space today.
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: So I think encouraging people.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: If you're listening to this and this resident is connect
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: with Adrian, happy to do an introduction myself as well.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Leave comments as to what your taking always were, your
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: feedback thoughts. We always love that and we want to
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: hear from you and Adrian. I want to just say
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: thanks again for being on the Business round Table podcast.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: With you today.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me David.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks everybody for listening and of course we appreciate you
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: liking and subscribing being a part of the journey with us.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: And until next time, be well, take care everybody, Thanks
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: for listening in