Good afternoon All
So, in my last blog, I'd taken you up to the point where I had been made redundant from my General Manager, Trade Lane Management position at DHL Global Forwarding (UK) and I now had to seek out a new role to keep paying the bills, but equally, to carry on doing what I really enjoyed and using all the experience I'd amassed in my various operational, sales and management roles in freight forwarding / logistics since 1979.
I was notified of my redundancy in late April 2009, and it was a big shock after 13 years with the company, but I soon realised that this was the start of a process which would most likely end up in my leaving DHL, regardless of any appeal I might make.
I therefore needed to then start searching for a new role in the industry, so my first approach was to talk to an executive search agency, Antal which I'd found to be very professional during my time at DHL. As I'd employed several people over the years using agencies, I'd not always been that impressed with the quality of the candidates they'd provided - it just seemed to be that we'd be sent 4-5 basic CVs, few of which matched up to the skills and experience we were looking for - and for this they'd expect a success fee of 15-20% of year 1 salary.
Anyway, Antal reached out to their contacts in the forwarding/logistics sector however we were of course in a deepening recession and most forwarders weren't taking people on, they were actually letting them go, so clearly not a good time to find a similar role.
They did however secure me an interview at DSV Air & Sea with their sales director, and we had a good meeting at the Radisson Hotel at Manchester Airport. He was impressed with my experience and achievements but after discussing with his MD, he said that they saw me more in a regional or global sales or management role but they were also not taking anyone on at that time in these areas.
In the meantime, as opportunities had been so few and far between, I started to realise that securing not just the right role, but any role was going to be very tough. I could of course go back to the bottom of the ladder and start in regional sales where there were more roles but I really felt that this could be a big mistake, as I would lose the skills I'd been using to great effect at DHL and I might become trapped.
I therefore made a decision that although it would be harder, that I would seek out a role that would be a good match for my skills and experience.
By July, the redundancy appeal process with DHL had come to an end and my appeal had failed however I was really very fortunate in two ways.
One, I had access to an excellent employment lawyer via my home insurance (always tick the legal cover box when you renew your insurance, it might come in very handy one day!). This lawyer guided and supported me through the process and was able to communicate with DHL's HR department using their terminology.
And two, as part of the redundancy process, I was able to have a DHL colleague present in the meetings with HR to support me. This was our Manchester Airport Branch Manager, Simon Power whom I'd known for many years and I really appreciated his support during the process. Simon was well respected in DHL and although it was probably quite awkward politically for him to be my support person, he was a great help in tough times.
I had a 3 month notice period at DHL and so after the failure of my redundancy appeal, I was advised that my employment would terminate on October 9th, 2009 and I hadnt yet found a job.
This was when I started thinking about the amount of knowledge and expertise I had accrued over time, not just my sales, operational and management experience but my knowledge of the market and the competition. That knowledge clearly had some value but how could I find a way to use that to generate income?
One thing I had always been passionate about were the small-medium sized clients (clients with annual freight spends between say GBP 50K and GBP 500K) and that they often had a lower profile as customers. As a result they often got mediocre service - and to make things worse, often didnt enjoy competitive freight rates either.
I remember from my long career in sales that there were many occasions when I would have to get personally involved as account manager when one of my clients had a service issue or just didnt feel they were getting the attention and service they expected, so there was clearly an opportunity to improve things here.
This was the lightbulb moment and when I started to literally sketch out the value proposition for Straightforward Consultancy. More tomorrow..
http://www.straightforwardconsultancy.co.uk/
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