Dec 20

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What is our why?

3 minute read

What is the key to keeping not only your employees, but your customers, feeling happy and supported? Brian Kempisty, Founder, and Dr. Dionne Kress, Chief Heart Officer, have the answers.

The Plan

The leadership team knew there was a better way.  When BK and the rest of the team started Port X Logistics, they took everything they disliked from past companies they worked for and decided we would be different.

“We wanted to create an aspirational brand within the transportation industry—something that hasn’t been done before. In doing so, we have changed the lives of our people and customers,” stated BK.

The leadership team wanted to create core values that would make the employee and customer experience at Port X Logistics one that they will never forget.

What our team did was simple: create the plan, follow the plan, and execute the plan.

“The business plan, success factors, and the Declaration of Independence were all made day one, so they are foundational items to the Port X Logistics team,” BK explained.

These guidelines are reviewed on a regular basis because they are our “why.” The success factors lead us to success and happiness.

Our team at Port X Logistics really emphasizes the importance of these values. By acting with complete confidence and conviction we can stay on our pathway to success and achieve our goals.

BK explains: “If we stay true to our ‘why,’ our revenue, our shipments, and our customers will continue to climb.”

Everyone at Port X Logistics has a “why not us” mentality and a set of core values to back it up.

Customer and employee feedback

What our company measures success by is the feedback we receive from our employees and our customers. When our employees get BINGOS, we know we’ve had success with a customer, and they will likely do business with us again.

Our customer and employee feedback has made us realize that our core values hold a lot of power. Dionne has biweekly meetings with our staff to ensure employee satisfaction and happiness while also reinforcing our core values.

The words empathy and compassion are often brought up in these meetings because they align so well with our values.

Dionne says she hears that Port X Logistics team members consider work a safe place and a distraction from problems they have outside of work during these meetings.

She continued by saying, “I have never received negative feedback about our culture and core values from a Port X Logistics employee.”

Our leadership team quickly learned how emphasizing proactive communication, treating people with respect, creating a fun atmosphere, and wowing the customers can lead to great success.

We’re not managers

Other companies are not like us. They manage and analyze by spread sheets. At Port X Logistics, we are NOT managers. We are authentic leaders.

BK and Dionne talk with the leadership team weekly on how to be authentic leaders and how to execute the plans made from the start.

“We want to help our employees develop into leaders themselves,” explained Dionne, “As I work with them, we try to find how they can become the best version of themselves and achieve the goals they want to reach.”

Our leadership team cares about individual team members over our bottom line. We all row the boat together.

Where other companies fail is managing by spreadsheets and bottom lines. We lead rather than micromanage. And our success over the last four years shows—this approach works.

Our bottom line

“I think you help us stay focused on the core values and the plan,” BK told Dionne.

If something doesn’t go along with our core values, we won’t do it.

Dionne is the foundation for the bottom line here, Port X Logistics style. She engages the team and holds everyone accountable. But she does it with a human approach.

The Port X Logistics core values are our bottom line. Not financials. Not siloed teams. Not spreadsheets.

Bonus Content

Want to learn more? Watch Brian Kempisty and Dr. Dionne Kress talk about this topic more in depth here: https://bit.ly/3s59v5C