Keith Davies - Ready Fire Aim: The Mainfreight Story

CHAPTER 1
The moment of truth

CHAPTER 2
Go anywhere as long as its forward

CHAPTER 3
Feel the fear but do it anyway

CHAPTER 4
If opportunity doesnt knock, build a door

CHAPTER 5
Creative thinking is inspired by limited funds

CHAPTER 6
The only thing worse than losing is giving up

CHAPTER 7
The way to learn is to begin

CHAPTER 8
Success is a journey not a destination

CHAPTER 9
A home without books is like a house without windows

CHAPTER 10
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail

CHAPTER 11
If you live in a question mark you dont go forward

CHAPTER 12
Learning the hard way in Oz

CHAPTER 13
Always keep your word

CHAPTER 14
The man on top of the mountain didnt fall there

CHAPTER 15
Kindly leave your ego at the door

CHAPTER 16
Owens the hostile takeover

CHAPTER 17
Big problems signal big opportunities

CHAPTER 18
Selling the silver

CHAPTER 19
Reach for the high apples first

CHAPTER 20
Most people are stopped by themselves

CHAPTER 21
Bosman completes the jigsaw

CHAPTER 22
Where next?

THIS IS THE story of a company built on the belief that with passion anything is possible, that you should go anywhere as long as its forward. In the process, it revolutionised transport in New Zealand then took its message to the world.

It is the story of Mainfreight, founded by the visionary Bruce Plested, who set out to make the company a family, a team, in which everyone would have a share in the riches. A team in which everyone has the authority to make decisions and mistakes. The instruction manual is painfully short: Feel the fear but do it anyway.

Its a world based on the philosophy Ready, Fire, Aim and thats no mere slogan, its a way of life. A world so transparent that the weekly profit and loss figures of each branch, its innermost secrets, right down to how much it banks each day, are posted on the lunchroom walls. And they are profits in which every team member gets an equal share. Its a world where branch managers sit in the lunchroom with drivers and loaders and receptionists, and with managing directors and board members.

Its a world where budgets are deemed bullshit. Why spend time preparing figures that are invariably out of date before the ink is dry? What are we trying to do? Make more than last year. There is just one question to ask about anything we might do: Will it make the company money? If not, why are we doing it?

Bruce Plesteds philosophy is simple enough. He wants everyone to think like a capitalist. I have never seen capitalism as greedy. The more wealthy you can help make all the people in your establishment, the more money everyone will make with more satisfaction.

Perhaps the single most empowering moment in the companys history to date was when they asked: Why not think of ourselves as a 100-year company? Once they did that anything was possible they could plan for the long term without having to worry about the impact on the immediate future.

Mainfreights simple objective is to attract only those customers who appreciate added value and are prepared to pay accordingly. They try to employ only well-educated, energetic young people with the right attitude, and always to promote from within. The instruction to managers is to hire someone smarter than you are.

This is a world where the chief executive answers his own phone. And his PAs phone if shes away from her desk. He knows if shes not there, because they operate from an open-plan office, as do all Mainfreight people.

MAINFREIGHTS SUCCESS IS based on two unshakeable beliefs: the only way to keep ahead of their competitors is by the superior performance of their people, and the only measure of that superior performance is how the customers perceive it. Its a way of doing business that is encapsulated in the sayings displayed on their trucks, the source of this books title and many of its chapter headings.

When it came time to expand they could not afford to buy flourishing, profitable businesses. So, rather than start from scratch, they bought businesses in need of radical surgery. And did it all go smoothly? You had better believe it did not. Initially there were disappointing ventures in Australia and the US, and finally a jaw-dropping moment in Europe when they made their biggest purchase ever only to see much of the profit and turnover walk out the door.

The following chapters will take you on a warts and all exploration of Mainfreights journey from a small transport company at the very bottom of the world to a highly successful global logistics supply company.

This is the story of how the men and women of Mainfreight did it.

Keith Davies
Auckland
July 2013