CEO's Column

Chip Emery

Chip Emery

CEO

Leading Supply Chain Services in the rapidly evolving Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) marketplace brings many new and interesting challenges. From time to time it is useful to reflect on how we are dealing with so many "opportunities" and to share those experiences.

Over my years in business I have learned two cardinal rules. Number one, put the customer first. Number two, invest unceasingly in your core competencies. Applying these rules at Supply Chain Services has contributed to our growth--in customer satisfaction, in employee engagement and opportunity, in partner relationships and, gratifyingly, the bottom line.

Read on to share the ride...

1st Quarter 2019

Thoughts on the Final Four

The NCAA Final Four was here in Minneapolis last week; three terrific games that were fought down to the last second and, in the case of the final, even more…
Read full column
4th Quarter 2018

A Great Finish is Tough to Follow

Supply Chain’s customers were good to us in the fourth quarter; many accelerating ship dates into 2018 along with others placing last minute orders that had to be shipped by…
Read full column
2nd Quarter 2018

Expanding Your Product Offering – Internal Hurdles are Higher Than You Think

One of the hallmarks of a successful Value Added Reseller (VAR) is the ability to take on new products. Doing so starts out being pretty straightforward: new product, new tech…
Read full column
1st Quarter 2018

Sharing Our Talents with the Community

It’s not just money that drives a village. It’s time and attention. In February a number of employees took time out of their work day to read with elementary students…
Read full column
4th Quarter 2017

Remember That Old Joke About the Dog Chasing a Bus?

That joke finishes with “…the worst thing that could happen is you catch it!” Well we pursued Visuascan in Montreal for nearly a year and finally closed the deal on…
Read full column
3rd Quarter 2017

Your culture is what you work at continuously, even when you don’t know you are.

It seems to me that we spend almost as much time and attention working on our culture as we do on satisfying customers, booking new business or delivering what we…
Read full column
2nd Quarter 2017

Even Management can be Flexible

At Supply Chain Services, one of the key attributes of our culture is collaboration. Collaboration across departments, seniors with juniors, admin with sales, sales with IT, IT with OEMs, admin…
Read full column
1st Quarter 2017

Well the Inevitable Bump in the Road Finally Happened

While we grew modestly last year, it was the first year since the recession that we were off our internal targets. So halfway through the year, after learning the barcode…
Read full column
4th Quarter 2016

Does Top Management Really Drive Culture?

The CEO of a multibillion dollar public company, from whom we buy technical equipment, recently visited Supply Chain Services. It was an informal visit and we quickly learned that he…
Read full column
3rd Quarter 2016

The Curse of Growth : It Doesn’t Go On Forever

A while back I wrote about how rapid growth brings the curse of facility expansion and employee turnover. When that growth slows down substantially, it brings another curse, keeping employee…
Read full column
2nd Quarter 2016

Learning from Onboarding New Employees

Four new employees joined us last month, the first in what we expect to be a continuing flow of new folks this year. Despite our history of regularly adding people…
Read full column
1st Quarter 2016

Culture – It’s All About the People

We’ve had a few employees leave recently. It’s always a sad time when folks move on, regardless of the circumstances; a bit like losing as sibling. A lesson I learned,…
Read full column
4th Quarter 2015

Opening Your House

We sell and support barcoding solutions, and we do it well. But that's not what makes it special to work here. Last week we held an open house party for…
Read full column
3rd Quarter 2015

Turning Yawners into Dragon Slayers

The company’s strategic planning team met last month for a mid-year progress review and to brainstorm initiatives for 2016-2017. While preparing for these sessions sucks up a lot of time,…
Read full column
1st Quarter 2015

Just Ask Why (or What, Where or When)

Here at Supply Chain Services we have a customer-centric culture based on our purpose: Helping Customers Operate Better. At the same time we are consultative sales folks and believe strongly…
Read full column
4th Quarter 2014

Balancing Growth versus Profitability

Supply Chain Services’ revenue has been on a five year, roughly 20% annualized growth rate. This has been fueled by a combination of factors; external market recovery, an expanded staff,…
Read full column
3rd Quarter 2014

The OEM Territory Rep: Your Best Friend

Being a solutions integration VAR means you live at the intersection of your customer, your distributor, the ISV and your OEM. Thus you frequently find yourself playing the role of…
Read full column
2nd Quarter 2014

Lessons Learned from GM's Ignition Switch Problems

General Motors has been in the news a lot lately for its product safety problems. While it’s easy to play critic from afar, it seems to me that GM has…
Read full column
1st Quarter 2014

Major Company Surgery Part 2 (New Enterprise Software)

In the last issue I wrote about hiring an experienced consultant to help us decide on a new enterprise software vendor. We did that as an insurance policy to ensure…
Read full column
3rd Quarter 2013

Growing Pains Revisited

A while back I wrote about the plusses and minuses of moving to a larger facility to accommodate growth. A year later it seems like we’ve always been here and…
Read full column