From LT-manager 2/2020
What worries Würmser: When, if not now
The world will be a different place after corona. It's a phrase that makes your head spin and is also unspecific enough to avoid looking like a complete idiot in a year or two when everything returns to the way it used to be. But then the logistics sector would also have missed its opportunity of the century.
First to the world. The state does what it does best: Administer. The bureaucratization of the pandemic has begun. Rules, regulations and laws will be with us for a long time because, firstly, states find it difficult to abolish things. Secondly, what helps against Covid-19 - please don't freak out right now - can't be wrong for the next flu epidemic. So we will continue to take the precaution of throwing ourselves into the abyss because we could die. Nevertheless, the bureaucracy has one good thing, because it will research the collateral damage just as thoroughly as the pandemic itself. Secondly, maybe it won't be as bad as we fear today.
Logistics will also be different after corona. What PR campaigns have failed to do, the virus has achieved. Logistics, well, let's say transportation, is suddenly vital and everyone is looking closely at how the heroes of the corona crisis are doing their job. In general, everyone is surfing the hero wave at the moment, which seems a bit of an effort at times. I recently read that it would be nice if the nation also thanked the heroes of logistics. Gratitude is fleeting and doesn't change anything. Appreciation, on the other hand, remains and changes everything. That is what logistics needs. Secondly, it must be worth it, and secondly, it must have values.
It depends on what lessons we learn from coronavirus. It would not only be appropriate to deal with Covid-19 calmly, but also to discuss the values of how logistics relevant to our system should be designed. Do we always have to squeeze out every last ounce of efficiency? What a fair competition, tax and social policy should look like? What working conditions logistics considers humane? What heroes are worth to us when the clapping has died down? There are many unresolved issues.
One thing is very simple and costs almost nothing: respectful communication, saying please-thank-you, normal volume, a decent working environment. CEOs, what's so difficult about a clear statement: "Anyone who shows a lack of respect towards drivers, warehouse workers and everyone else must expect to be dismissed without notice."
Anita Würmser is a business and logistics journalist, initiator of the Logistics Hall of Fame and the IFOY Awards. In LT-manager, the industry expert hasn't minced her words exclusively since issue one.
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