Column: What worries Würmser
The best comes at the end
You are currently reading my latest column in materialfluss and LT-manager, the intralogistics and logistics trade journal. At the start in 2010, I already had a bit of a problem with the name "Was Würmser wurmt"...
... because I'm actually much more pleased than annoyed. Logistics, and all those who feel part of it, have set new standards year after year in terms of innovation, sustainability, technology or research that could have been written about.
Just a few weeks ago, I was at the opening of a logistics center in Ulm with the stunning address "Himmelreich 1", which is once again setting a new standard that other industries could more than take a leaf out of their book when it comes to innovation, mindset and working environments. And when the going got tough, it was always the logistics sector that ensured efficiency and safety, despite all the adversity.
But who likes to read good news? So back to the beginning: ... but "Was Würmser wurmt" rhymes so well, said the editor-in-chief. All right, I said, and wrote my first column in October 2010 about the 25-metre truck - or 60-tonner, monster truck or gigaliner. It's one of my best-ofs because it gave me an extremely inspiring email friendship with a logistics entrepreneur.
Whether crumbling infrastructure, the perennial issue of Deutsche Bahn, excessive bureaucracy or the ongoing drama on the ramp, about tolls or in politics - there has never been a lack of material. The best examples of the "well-intentioned but really badly done" category, those where you don't know whether to laugh or cry just writing them, were provided by GDPR, compliance and discrimination or the bullshit bingo of (digital) B2B posers.
Logistics is now a revenue enabler, I recently learned again. And not to forget: Gendering. Whether the "inside" comes with a gender asterisk or an inline I, it's hard to imagine what would have happened if Donald Trump had come up with the idea of adding the feminine form to the masculine root of the word.
For the nostalgic among you: You can find the best of 12 years of "Was Würmser wurmt" at www.materialfluss.de/thema/wuermser.htm.
I'm drawing to a close today, I apologize to anyone who has slipped under my pen, and I look forward to seeing you again at linkedin.com/in/anita-würmser-35b82215b.
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