Stuart Darby is a purpose-led Managing Director shaped by a career of diverse leadership influences. Belief in people, culture and empathy forms the foundation of Darby’s approach. Committed to setting clear expectations, embracing company values and fostering trust, Darby drives positive impact and sustainable business growth through aligned, empowered teams.
Sustainability in Logistics: Core to Daily Operations
In an ever-moving environment, we must remain agile and innovative. Logistics businesses are now more than ever relied upon to drive efficiency through automation and digital solutions. All this will also have sustainability wrapped around it.
Gebruder Weiss does this very well, with great tools allowing us to operate in a much automated fashion. By automating our processes, we speed up the supply chain and greatly improve accuracy. This not only motivates our teams but has a direct impact on the customer experience. Our state-of-the-art tools allows our customers to track any shipments, access documentation related to the shipments and make sure there is always full visibility.
Sustainability is no longer a buzz word or something discussed at the end of a meeting. It’s a key driver for partnership selection for us and our customers. Aside from the obvious ethical expectations, Gebruder Weiss and many of our customers and suppliers have strict measure and goals on sustainability, so whether we are measuring our various initiatives on carbon accounting across scopes one, two or three. Or involved in one of our many projects that support eco-friendly practices, sustainability has now become a core part of our day-to-day functions. Our next project later this year is sponsoring for the second time the “World Solar Challenge” A partnership with aCentauri Solar Racing Team at ETH Zurich University in their plight to travel 3000 kilometers through Australian outback in their self-built solar car. This event goes a long way to promoting renewable energy and advancing technology in sustainable transportation. Important to note, our Gebruder Weiss mission statement also includes minimal environmental impact.
Supply Chain Disruption: Adapting Fast to Global Shocks
We have several challenges in industry today. Some of the key challenges are Supply Chain Disruption, Technology and Rising cost. If we consider supply chain disruption, some of the more recent examples would be the Covid pandemic and the more current challenges with Geopolitics. Covid especially was one of the most difficult times our industry faced. Initially all modes of transport came to a standstill whilst the world made sense of how we move forward. This shrunk capacity overnight. Finding solutions was incredibly difficult for Freight Forwarders. And of course, any solution carried an absolute premium which in some cases was 10x the normal cost expected. With some of the geopolitical events, we also experience services stopped or re-routed, all of which disrupt supply chain lead time and cost. Certain challenges initially forced us to a Work from Home environment, we adapted fast and today have a clear WFH policy that is enjoyed by our team and in many ways expected by them and potential new talent wishing to join our company.
Australia and New Zealand Logistics Operations: Efficiency is everything
I think any operation needs to drive efficiency, we know the more efficient you are the better you can manage cost. The labor cost in Australia & New Zealand is amongst the highest in the world, hence running efficiently and at an optimal level is critical. For Gebruder Weiss, we operate on a global platform. This platform allows us to benefit greatly from efficiency gains with no doubling up of data entry. Automation is also a key contributor to our efficiency. Connecting to partners and suppliers so that data can be electronically transferred without human intervention, speed and accuracy improve and productivity lifts at scale.
Leadership in Global Logistics: Hire Attitude, Drive Improvement
Leading an organization always comes back to people. Hiring people with the right attitude has always been one of my biggest focus points. The next critical drivers are culture, planning and a continuous improvement mindset. We operate in a world where set and forget is no longer our norm. Continuous improvement and start up mentality have always been something I believe drives success. Of course, it’s never easy to have all things working perfectly at once. However, perfect isn’t the goal, we need to appreciate that there will always be challenges. The key, is recognizing the challenges, creating a safe space to openly discuss and learn from any mistakes, being sure to fail fast. Someone once said to me, “we don’t make mistakes, we make improvement opportunities”. I say, I got to my position today by making many “improvement Opportunities.”
