Thank You, Logistics

We only notice logistics when something goes wrong. The rest of the time, it’s invisible.

It’s hard to stand out when you’re surrounded by fun work. AI tools, marketing, activations, expos, trainings, presentations, promotions… those and their sexy cousins are the ones who make it into the corporate photos and the social media posts.

And it’s normal. We mentally jump from the peak moment of closing a big deal to the exciting first day of the project.

Even in our personal lives we surf from buying the concert ticket straight to the rock star walking on stage. We order something on Amazon and forget about it until it shows up at the door.

But no matter how much our information and communication technology improves, until the day we invent tele-transportation, things have to be physically moved from A to B.

For that big project to start, products were transported from several regions of the planet. For an expo to work, every booth had to be hauled to the convention center, and a lot of people had to travel there.

Every item at Home Depot or Lowe’s was carried — physically carried — across miles and miles of ocean, air, and highway.

And that rock star who looks so comfortable on stage? He came in on a plane from somewhere else. He’s standing on a structure that came from afar, illuminated by lights that came from some other place, drinking water from a bottle someone physically carried to his concert.

So today I want to say thank you to the logistics professionals. From the corporate VPs designing the most efficient routes to the forklift operators and the Amazon delivery drivers. You make all of this possible, even though we only notice you when something breaks and take you for granted when it doesn’t.

Cheers to you.