2021 Year in Review with Peter Rentschler

What's new with P-Mutt and Bain? Baby Jack was exposed to Covid! But don’t worry, he's been tested since and he’s negative. Phew! Bain totaled 2155, the largest drug tested total in the world in 2021! Hence why he is known as the strongest man in logistics! And in this episode, our hosts chat with a very special guest CarrierDirect CEO Peter Rentschler. Together they reflect on learnings from 2021 and what we’re excited about for 2022.

It's the last episode of 2021, and we're excited to jump back in next year.

Show Notes

How did Peter get involved with CarrierDirect?

Peter is from Detroit and he graduated from Indiana State where he studied computer science. He started his consulting career at Accenture, then he came to CarrierDirect in 2015 with the KJ McMasters who now runs Talent Solvers. It wasn’t long after Peter started here that Jett essentially threw him the keys and said “Turn off the lights when you leave.”

What does he make it a point to do every single day?

Peter makes a point to stretch every day! He’s a big believer in the mind-body connection and he appreciates starting his day with the meditative quality of stretching.

What are the big takeaways from 2021 and what things do you feel will continue into 2022 and beyond?

• Anything can happen. Businesses that will in the future are ones that are flexible and dynamic.
  Expect the unexpected. How have you architectured your business and your systems to be dynamic and able to adapt to market conditions? This will be important as we move into 2022.
• How you treat people matters. The pandemic has created employee mobility. If you run a logistics business in Chicago, you're not just competing against other logistics businesses in Chicago. Your talent is getting recruited by companies all over the country and potentially even the world.
• The spotlight on supply chain and logistics has been valuable for us, and this spotlight will continue into the new year.
• Importance and value of investment in technology and continuous improvement.
• Flexibility and being dynamic: These are ongoing themes from 2021 and will last into 2022.

There has been a ton of activity in terms of M&A over the past year, what transactions do you feel are most impactful to the industry as a whole?

• TI acquiring SwanLeap
• ArcBest acquiring MoLo
• Uber Freight acquiring Transplace

Additional Highlights

• CarrierDirect has been and will continue to be intentional about:
• What are our customers talking about
• What do we see as the trends in the space
• How can we position ourselves to serve those
• For example: With M&A being so important, we've increased our M&A work.
• Also, we heard so many companies expressing that integrations were a big pain point for them. This led to our development of Socket.
• Last but not least, Peter ends with a motivational note about happiness. He is a big believer in the idea that it takes energy to be happy. Devote time to your hobbies and take the time to take an inventory of the things that you are thankful for.

Happy New Year everyone! See you in 2022!