Celebrating Silver, Gearing for Gold

Celebrating Silver, Gearing for GoldEven as logistics giant Allcargo celebrates 25 years of excellence, the global company sets its sights on a golden future that will be built on the tenets of sustainability for future generations.

On 18th August 1993, a bold young man stepped forward with three things as his capital — a vision to fulfil, a determination to provide clients with reliable logistics services, and a commitment to being the best. Today, 25 years later, facing business challenges in a new millennium, Allcargo Logistics, founded by Mr Shashi Kiran Shetty, has redefined the benchmarks of the logistics industry. The company is now a global logistics conglomerate that consistently demonstrates ingenuity in motion.

All this did not happen overnight. If today, Allcargo is a Rs 6,000+ crore company, seen by the industry as one of its leading lights, it is because Mr Shetty had a clear vision of what he desired the company to be. From being a port-based service provider to being a global consolidator of LCL cargo — the company is now one of the finest logistics companies with a consolidated revenue of close to USD 1 billion. Mr Shetty’s skilled leadership and his timely acquisitions have paved the way for Allcargo Logistics to emerge as a global player in the logistics space.

The company’s emphasis has always been on three important facets of the business: customer centricity, shareholder returns and employee growth. Systems processes, checks and balances, and a leadership-based high-performance culture has ensured a culture of quality that understands stakeholder requirements and exceeds their expectations. “Being responsive to customer needs means responding quickly and positively to their questions and feedback. This is ingrained in the company’s DNA: a happy customer is a repeat customer,” says Adarsh Hegde (Joint MD), outlining the company’s customer-first philosophy that has helped Allcargo make its mark across continents.

The focus is also on happy, fulfilled employees who can be trusted to deliver customer satisfaction. Allcargo has always been resolute in employing the right people for the job — and the employee base is a blend of varied ages, backgrounds and experience. The company believes in empowering employees and supporting their entrepreneurial instincts. They are allowed to fail; Mr Shetty believes that failure is an integral part of learning how to be successful. “This flexibility has allowed employees to take on new challenges and produced excellent results for the company,” says Mr Hegde.

Allcargo also keeps itself abreast of technological advances. The only way to remain relevant feels Mr Shetty, is to reinvent and innovate, time and again. The company has been working to bring in operational excellence, change management and process excellence, as well as emphasising tech-based solutions for logistics problems. Technological knowledge is a differentiator in the business, feels Mr Shetty, whose aim is to make Allcargo a technology-company-that-also-does-logistics, to sustain and drive growth in the future.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Allcargo’s Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable initiatives have been a part of company DNA long before CSR and environmental causes became trends.

The Avvashya Foundation was born out of Mr Shetty’s personal philanthropy — his belief that corporate initiatives needed to be amplified to a larger scale. The foundation works to empower communities in areas such as education, health, environment, women empowerment and sports.

His nuanced understanding of the need to preserve the environment sowed the seed for Allcargo Greens, a dedicated initiative for sustainability with definitive goals. Functioning under the CSR objectives of the foundation, Allcargo Greens is set to extend its wingspan into a robust initiative across group businesses and beyond. Simple but effective measures include:

• Plastic-free office premises
• Reduce paper consumption
• Switch to solar energy
• Turning off the power in unoccupied spaces
• Tree plantation drives

As part of giving back to society, 250 members of the Allcargo team recently spent a day cleaning up the well-known Juhu Beach in Mumbai of plastic and waste. The drive was personally led by Mr Shetty. He says ‘There are several ways we all can make a difference to the environment. We have set an example under our initiative Allcargo Greens to care for and preserve the resources provided by Mother Nature.’

Giving back to the community has helped shape the company’s future vision — to expand their business while creating a sustainable environment in which future generations can flourish. The immediate goal is to reduce the company’s carbon footprint. The way ahead includes a three-pronged approach: administrative operations, business operations and communications.

Allcargo is celebrating its 25 years, but it is certainly not resting on its laurels. There are new worlds to conquer, new paths to discover and Allcargo is all set to be a stronger, more vibrant company that will hold true to its founder’s vision.