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November 16, 2023–As the former Executive Vice President of Supply Chain for Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, Chris Sultemeier knows what he’s talking about when it comes to freight movement. 

In a recent “People on the Move” interview Chris talked about the current market and provided his perspective on the key qualities that enable some companies to thrive even in a challenging economic environment.

For Chris, ‘service’ is one of the most important words in the supply chain business, a point he underlines with reference to Prologis, the San Francisco-based real-estate company that maintains the largest collection of high-quality logistics properties in the world. 

“Prologis connected with their customer,” Chris says. “They were there listening firsthand, understanding what the customer was seeing, what the customer was feeling and tried to meet the customer where the customer was.”   

By contrast, he says, “Too many companies forget to spend time with their customers and to understand the pain points that they have in their supply chains and how they can tailor solutions to help them.” 

He sums up by noting that “there’s so much more business to be had with your existing customers if you truly understand what their pain points are.”

Chris thinks Cargomatic has that sort of customer-focused approach to business, saying the company “is approaching a long-term relationship solutions-set” with customers, versus a firm that’s primarily playing with the spot market. 

“That’s just a transactional situation versus what Cargomatic is doing,” he says.

‘Experience’ also is a key word for Chris when it comes to success in the freight movement industry, noting that Cargomatic has executive leadership with noted industry expertise, calling it “a big deal.” 

Referring to Cargomatic CEO Rich Gerstein, Chris said “Cargomatic is led by someone who understands the freight industry,” contrasting the firm with “too many of these technology logistics companies that are really just technologists running the companies that don’t have a basic background in the freight-movement logistics business.” 

“That is just a significant difference in terms of your opportunity to be successful in this space,” he asserted. 

Looking ahead, Chris remains bullish on the supply chain industry, saying that it “defines the U.S. economy” and “is a great business to be in.”

“It is a business that needs innovation. And it’s exciting to see companies like your company, Cargomatic, and others that are bringing innovation to the space, because I think there’s huge opportunity. So I’m bullish on the opportunity and excited with what the future looks like.”  

See the entire podcast here.