“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”— Peter Drucker
When Peter Drucker famously proclaimed, “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” the business management icon refocused executives obsessed with operational efficiency and management by objective on the relevance of the human factor in achieving organizational goals and objectives.
According to Drucker, the crucial component of any organization is the people that perform the functions that make up a business strategy. If people are unable, incapable, or inhibited or obstructed in executing the strategy, your projects are in danger of failing. That’s why it is important you understand the culture of the firms that provide mission critical services for your organization.
Just bear in mind organizational culture isn’t about ping pong tables, video games, bean bag chairs, and an unending stream of socially themed events. Culture embodies mission, purpose, and shared values and how those beliefs are expressed in the performance of routine job functions as well as unforeseen, pressure-packed situations that arise. It also incorporates methodologies — or how things are done.
MMS Courier was founded on one single-minded principle — a love of driving. As founder Michael Eshelby was examining his life goals and career path, he concluded two things: he owned a car and he loved to drive. Hence Michael’s Messenger Service, recently shortened to MMS Courier, was born. And remarkably, it is a love of driving that attracts the independent contract drivers that have seen MMS Courier mature into a leading provider of messenger and courier services in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Couple that love of driving with a passion for serving others reflected in the MMS team of dispatchers, technologists, and operations experts that keep your deliveries safe, secure, and on time.
As you put pencil to paper (or in modern parlance exhaustively work your scenario planning spreadsheets and pivot tables) keep in mind three key factors influencing the success of your on-demand and scheduled delivery program: What, How, and Why.
What — What services do you need and what services do potential partners provide? Are those two factors aligned? People, Process, and Technology (PPT) are the essential elements that ensure peak performance. Which is why MMS invests significant time and resources optimizing organizational efficiency and bringing these three integral components into balance.
The MMS Courier methodology begins with Process and defining mission-critical metrics, KPIs, data collection and sharing, and potential system constraints. We then identify the People and Technology required to drive the desired actions and outcomes.
Because of this approach MMS helps you elevate and continuously improve on performance while maintaining an ideal operating balance; be it Scheduled Routes / Sweeps, On-Demand Courier, or Intra-Organization deliveries.
How — How does your messenger service provider deliver those services? Does your third-party courier service care as much about your products, services, and those you serve as you do? MMS Courier employees a seven-point process for managing each and every delivery.
Purpose-built, web-based technology from e-courier ensures complete visibility from start to finish of the delivery process. The system is accessible from your desktop, laptop, mobile phone, notebook, or any other Internet-enabled device. This allows you to manage your account within the courier application, ensuring invoices match quotes and delivery times and requirements are met without fail.
Although our customizable seven-step process is Internet-based, there are still opportunities for human intervention. This ensures your delivery route or on-demand shipment request is handled in the most efficient, time-sensitive fashion possible.
Why — Why does the company exist? What is its reason for being? Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter writes that “operational effectiveness is not strategy. The root of the problem is failure to distinguish between operational effectiveness and strategy. A company can outperform rivals only if it can establish a difference that it can preserve.”
What is the difference that makes your third-party courier partner stand out? Price? Availability? Existing relationship? MMS Courier is built on the three shared values of Agility, Accuracy, and Accessibility. These three values undergird everything the organization does.
Agile because your business requires it. Everything is fluid these days. You must be ready, willing and able shift when customer, client, patient, or those you serve demand it. For this reason MMS Courier provides you with over 200 highly-skilled, independent professional drivers. Our business model allows for fast and efficient scale-up or scale-down based on your delivery needs and volume.
Our independent contract operators primarily drive rigorously inspected, well-maintained, fuel-efficient sedans for better maneuverability in traffic and great flexibility in accessing pick-up and delivery locations. They are also trained and compliant with OSHA, IATA, TSA, and HIPAA regulations and knowledgeable in the correct handling and transport of ambient, refrigerated, and frozen specimens.
Accurate because people depend on you to get things right. The MMS customized e-courier application provides you with complete visibility and control over all transactions and account activity. As a result, you always know the cost, expected pick–up and delivery times, and whereabouts of your precious cargo. Plus, you have a digitized record of all shipments over time — an invaluable asset when reporting, forecasting, and budgeting for annual business plans.
Accessible because 99% of success is showing up. MMS equips you with leading-edge technology for order entry, tracking, and account management. Yet you will also appreciate our fully-staffed, professional customer service team at times when immediate human contact or intervention is necessary.
In addition, your account management team offers valuable expertise and insights that ensure your messenger program achieves the best possible business outcomes, whether regularly scheduled routes / sweeps, on-demand, or intra-organization messenger services are required or appropriate.
Conclusion: once you establish the What, How, and Why of your courier program the critical decision-making process is focused, less complicated and you gain greater confidence in your plan. Make sure you entrust your letters, documents, packages, parcels, and small load cargo with someone that cares as much as you do about its safe, secure, and on-time transport by adequately answering those three crucial questions.