Welcome to part two of our Interview with a Founder. In this installment, Heather talks about being a female CEO, the journey of starting her own business, and how exciting it's been to adapt, change and grow.
Marnie Hughes (MH): If I may move a little more on the personal side now, I'm wondering what it's like to be a female CEO in today's business marketplace.
Heather Cartwright (HC): Well, it's very exciting and it continues to be so. I've certainly had to develop my skills in a broad range of areas over the last 15 years in order to keep the company alive. Probably the most challenging aspect has been bringing on a new partner and our succession plan is for Scott to take over the CEO role in another three years and working with him to help him learn historical aspects of the business and developing that succession plan and the growth plan as well so that's probably been the most exciting part of my current role.
MH: If you were to give any pieces of advice to a young woman who is working towards becoming a CEO in her own firm is there anything that you would suggest or advise?
HC: I think certainly one of the underrated elements that I have learned over time is really try to hone my listening skills. I remember getting feedback when I was in management in the corporate world that I didn't listen well and I think that while that is probably a true statement I think that a piece of my brain works at a different pace than other people and I think it's going down and really carefully listening is really a critical success factor in any leadership role.
MH: Heather, I understand that Logixource opened its business in May of 2001 and I'm wondering what made you decide to start a new business.
HC: Yes, that's true; we started in May 2001 and the history of my desire to get into the Consulting profession goes back to when I worked with Frigidaire in Senior Management and was working with Sears Canada. Anderson Consulting did a considerable amount of consulting with Sears and Frigidaire at that time that resulted in millions of dollars of cost savings throughout the industry. I thought it would be a very exciting venture to get into Consulting at that time. When I left Frigidaire back in 1997 my desire was to get into Consulting.
I originally started a company called Pearl Management Services and quickly realized that I didn't know much about the Consulting industry and so obtained a job offer from CGI group specializing in supply chain Logistics. I was a subject matter expert in that field in the Management Consulting Group and worked with them for 3 years. I subsequently worked with Ernst & Young for a couple of years and that's when Logixsource became a reality. That occurred after the bubble burst back in 2001 and there was a lot of change in the Consulting industry.
MH: it sounds like there was a lot of evolution leading up to the starting of the business. Has the business direction changed much in the last fifteen years?
HC: Yes and no. Our original tagline was “Strategically Integrating Logistics Supply Chain and Technology” which is certainly a mouth full and we did that for a number of years. We still provide those services with clients but the latest evolution of our tagline has been “Connecting Strategy to Results”. We've learned so much about what clients need and how to provide new and improved service offerings that really we've climbed the more strategic ladder and we don't just use the back office side of things anymore. We work in alignment with business strategy in a number of the areas both on the revenue generation side and on the cost-reduction side.
MH: So you've been able to adapt and ensure that the service you were providing was meeting the needs of the client?
HC: Yes. We certainly been successful in that area.
MH: it sounds like there was a lot of evolution leading up to the starting of the business. Has the business direction changed much in the last fifteen years?
HC: Yes and no. Our original tagline was Strategically Integrating Logistics Supply Chain and Technology which is certainly a mouth full and we did that for a number of years. We still provide those services with clients but the latest evolution of our tagline has been Connecting Strategy to Results. We've learned so much about what clients need and how to provide new and improved service offerings that really we've climbed the more strategic ladder and we don't just use the back office side of things anymore. We work in alignment with business strategy in a number of the areas both on the revenue generation side and on the cost-reduction side.
MH: So you've been able to adapt and ensure that the service you were providing was meeting the needs of the client?
HC: Yes. We certainly been successful in that area.
MH: That actually leads me into the next question. You are in a very competitive space so I was just curious what your strategy is to capture market share and it sounds to me that part of it might be the agility and the adaptability that you're describing. Is there anything else that you would say about that?
HC: Absolutely. We're working on developing a more comprehensive marketing and social media platform as many organizations are at this time and trying to really understand more about how prospective clients connect with us and how we can quickly connect with the right people and provide more awareness of our services. I think that's probably key to our success going forward because certainly we get great feedback from our clients but trying to scale as a result of more clients and working with a broader range of clients has been challenging.
MH: How would you characterize the capacity and ability to manage change and I guess what I'm saying there is this sounds like a lot is going on. How do you manage that and keep it all organized?
HC: Well it's very challenging. Part of it is automating our business processes. Part of it is highly structured on the back end so that there is systematic procedures to run the back office on the business. On the front end of it we need to maintain creativity and be very opportunistic while focusing on key sectors we are interested in working with including clients where there is change in their business and where we believe there is a good value proposition for our services. So we need to be very focused and yet very agile.
MH: I just wanted to ask you one more question. What does the future look like for Logixsource Consulting?
HC: We are very excited about our latest service offerings and we are very excited for the opportunities for Logixsource going forward. We are working with a fairly new social media strategy and marketing strategy and automating our business processes with Salesforce and with QuickBooks Online and working with our team. It's a very exciting and well-developed infrastructure that will allow us to grow exponentially. There's also very good skills on the market and the hybrid skills that we have or let me say the different types of skills and knowledge that my partner Scott and I have developed and are looking to develop in our team will really give us the success we need to propel us forward and be successful.
MH: Sounds very exciting. I look forward to speaking to you again in another 15 years. Thank you very much for your time and congratulations on a successful 15 years.
HC: Thank you Marnie it's been very wonderful speaking with you today and I really appreciate the time that you've taken to speak with me about Logixsource.
If you missed part one, click here.
That’s all for the interview. We hope you enjoyed Heather’s perspective on what the last fifteen years with Logixsource has meant and how excited she and the team are to keep growing for another fifteen years.
Coming up in September: what it takes to keep a business running for over a decade.
Don’t hesitate to leave your question in the comments below, or contact us at admin@logixsource.com.
