The right candidate for a logistics vacancy has to do more than just tick the boxes: (s)he has to have a positive, “can-do” attitude to the job, too. After decades of working in the industry through years of major structural change, recruiter Larry Woelk, International & Business Development Director at BiS-Henderson Logistics and Supply Chain Recruitment, has some very clear views on the subject.
“One of the challenges of the industry is not to have people ‘fall’ into logistics, but to choose it as a profession,” he wrote in International Freighting Weekly’s 40th anniversary edition . “Given that logistics is the glue that holds the global economy together it offers challenges and opportunities in equal measure” Woelk argues.
This is what makes it “…an exciting and dynamic…” sector to work in, he explains. And while Woelk and his recruitment team at BiS-Henderson never compromise on professional standards, Larry compares the variety and interest in the work to a lifelong gap year.
For one thing, travel is routine at many levels of the industry, where people are in constant contact around the world, at all levels. Communications were once restricted to Telex and post, but the speed and volume of data transfer has risen exponentially with the development of the internet.
Larry Woelk started in an industry which was compartmentalised, both by national boundaries and by occupation: over the intervening years logistics operators have been welded into ever larger and cross-border operations. It required IT to move away from proprietary brands into open standards, allowing the Telex to retire gracefully, but it also needed handling technology to develop.
“Without containerisation, globalisation wouldn’t have happened,” Larry points out. It made shipping goods faster, cheaper and streamlined operations with more efficient working practices.
At the same time, Woelk has seen a sea change in the way purchasing is managed. Where transport managers once decided where to place business, this role has now moved out of the warehouse to the purchasing manager. The result is that logistics groups have been able to get the full benefit of their purchasing power as they have grown in an increasingly demanding international economy.
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