Posted On January 30, 2020

The legend of Jeff Bezos did not begin in a garage in Seattle.

It began much earlier, in the dusty corrals of a little town called Cotulla.

With a population of roughly 4,000 and no reputation — then or now — as an up-and-coming tech hub, Cotulla, Texas, was where Bezos spent his summers, from ages 4 to 16, working on his grandfather’s ranch.

In a Summit L.A. panel with his brother, Mark Bezos, in 2017, the billionaire described his grandfather, whom he and his siblings called “Pop,” as incredibly self-reliant and resourceful — two qualities that Bezos says vastly contributed to Amazon’s success.

″My grandfather was incredibly self-reliant,” says Bezos. “If you’re in the middle of nowhere in a rural area, you don’t pick up the phone and call somebody when something breaks. You fix it yourself.”

On the ranch, Bezos — founder of the world’s most successful supply chain — would help Pop mend fences, fix windmills, and build an entire house from scratch. Pop even made his own needles by hand to suture the cattle.

You probably don’t have to mend fences or suture cattle.

(Though some days, an afternoon on a quiet Texas ranch might be exactly what you need.)

However, you do have to take your shipping department and transportation management system into your own hands and build the end-to-end, unified supply chain that will be the strategic strength your company needs.

Your company cannot control market demand — it can only influence it.

Your company cannot control external factors, like changes to trade agreements.

What can your company control?

Your supply chain.

If your supply chain is currently broken, you can fix it — just like Jeff Bezos’s grandfather had to do when his trucks and farm equipment broke down. You can create the supply chain your company needs to thrive in an era where shipping expectations are defined in large part by Bezos, the man who took the lessons he learned in self-reliance and applied them to a company that has had a dramatic impact on manufacturers and shipping departments across the world.

How can your company build that type of supply chain?

To begin with, your senior leadership needs to make transportation and logistics management a strategic priority.

Your shipping division needs to be just as important as marketing, finance, technology, or any other department.

And you need to partner with a third-party logistics provider built on a foundation of excellence.

Flat World Global Solutions is that partner.

Our team of transportation and logistics leaders and experts — along with our industry-leading transportation management system (TMS) — bring the supply chain, freight forwarding, custom crating, project management, warehousing, and shipping solutions your company needs to thrive in the coming decade.

Self-reliance and success go hand-in-hand.

Jeff Bezos’ grandfather knew that — and it’s a lesson he clearly passed on to his grandson.

You know that.

Your shipping department knows that.

Begin this year by taking control of one of your company’s greatest potential strategic strengths: your supply chain.

Together, your logistics leaders and Flat World Global Solutions can craft the transportation and logistics solutions your company needs.

Now let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.