CII’s Backstage Cargo division received a great start to the year by being awarded the contract to handle Whitney Houston on her world tour which started this week in Seoul, Korea. Pete Lamy was contacted by Ozzie Osbourne’s management on Christmas Day; Kelly was stuck in New York without her passport and she was leaving the following morning for London. With the help of Greg Melissinos, our Eastern Region VP, Kelly was able to make her flight as scheduled. There is no question having Maggie Martinez heading operations in L.A. has led to our Backstage order book never looking so healthy.

Our N.Y. and Atlanta offices despite the impediment caused by the terrible mid-winter weather recorded a healthy start to the year with several large “back to back” shipments. N.Y. is doing so well Pete gave approval to add another senior person to bolster our operations there. Doreen Cuomo, a veteran of the JFK forwarding community, starts with us next week. We have plans in the first quarter to add another person in Atlanta also.

Pete and I feel our customer-base has never looked so strong and even though the average shipment size continues to decline, it is made up by us handling more shipments. Our goal in 2009 was to gain a bigger slice of the shrinking and smaller pie. This approach certainly paid dividends. I believe our greatest achievement in creating strong foundation for a successful 2010 has been becoming a participant in President Obama’s stimulus program. We now have nine new staff added to our operations and all are now in the middle of a comprehensive training program. Our company has the resources to enable us to grow our business. All nine new staff members are super smart but above all possess a great work ethic. We are building a team that is taking us to new heights of business activity when most in our industry are adjusting theirs in the opposite direction to match the “shrinking pie”!

It is sad we have an environment within American industry which almost matches that of Wall Street. Industrial leaders are all about the compensation package they receive and in order disguise that fact, it comes under the heading of stock holder value. Their remuneration is directly linked to the stock price and cutting costs. Not often, I look to my former homeland New Zealand as a beacon of commonsense and fair play, but I can recount a story of one of New Zealand’s most successful businessmen who also happens to be in the same industry as me.

Bruce Plested, founder of Mainfreight (now in the USA after taking over Target Logistics) one of Australasia’s largest transport companies began his career working for Brambles, a large Australian conglomerate. He rose to become Auckland branch manager of Brambles International. The forwarding industry in N.Z. in the seventies was continually being held to ransom by the labor unions. Bruce always settled the disputes ahead of his competition and when he was finally fired in 1978, it could be said his career in transportation should have been at an end. He had burned his bridges! Instead he partnered with former Bramble’s head storeman, Howard Smith and opened up on his own. Over the next twenty five years he swallowed up every one of his opposition to become one of the largest public companies in N.Z. Not only did he and Howard become multi-millionaires, but also many of his staff who came aboard during the eighties enjoyed huge financial reward when the company completed its IPO in 1996.

About four years ago in his annual report, as Chairman he restated his corporate objectives in order of priority; firstly staff would continue to benefit from the company ESOP, it would maintain the same levels of re-investment and above all Mainfreight would keep to its program of investing back into the local communities. His last consideration was to ensure after all this was accomplished, hopefully the company’s profits would continue to sustain a fair dividend yield for shareholders. The “Wall Street” of N.Z. and the media pilloried Bruce and told him these actions were destroying shareholder value and they would have no alternative but to place a sell recommendation on Mainfreight’s stock. Bruce’s response was the company’s prospectus upon going public in 1996 clearly stated these philosophies. Now the company’s revenue through exponential growth exceeded a $billion it was even more important not to lose those core ideals. He told those gathered at the AGM that if they did not agree, they were free to take the recommendation of their financial advisors and sell their stock.

My point in relating this story is Bruce Plested is a fearless leader. He proudly stands up for what he thinks is right. And he is right. Every major Australian or New Zealand competitor over the thirty years since he has built up his business has either folded or been swallowed up by Mainfreight. His belief in his people to always do the right thing for the company and for him to do the right thing by his people has created probably one of greatest success stories in N.Z. business. Funnily enough in spite of Bruce’s “unorthodox” attitude towards the financial world has worked to the benefit of all Mainfreight’s stockholders, as the company is still the darling of the N.Z. Stock Exchange.

America was once full of Bruce Plested’s, Lee Iococca being one of the better examples. Today, we need to see the return of leaders who will act in doing the right thing by America. It starts with bringing the plants back home and re-employing Americans. The Skilling’s, Embers, Kozlowskis, of this world who dominated the headlines because they were nothing but crooks are just the tip of the iceberg of the corporate world as I see it today. Most Fortune 500 CEO’s are self serving thieves who conduct business hiding behind a bunker. They cannot fail. If they get the boot, their golden parachute takes care of them for ten lifetimes; if they succeed, they earn more than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes. We need the return of true leaders to help rebuild industrial America. For starters maybe we should ask octogenarian Lee Iacocca to take over the reigns of General Motors! With former workmate Bob Lutz, (seventy seven and still Deputy Chairman of GM) the pair of them could restore Detroit back to being the industrial capital of the world!

Although an American citizen by choice, I am also very proud of my Kiwi roots. Today an international organization based in Europe published its yearly survey of the least to worst countries for corruption. Heading the list, as has been the case since the survey of 180 countries started sixteen years ago is New Zealand, followed by Denmark and Singapore. Australia comes in at eighth with Canada, the States and Great Britain included in the top twenty. At the bottom of the list are Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan! That is not very surprising.

In my forty year career in forwarding I have seen huge windows of opportunities open up and many fledgling forwarding companies seize upon those opportunities. When mainframe computer manufacturers led the high tech boom, I saw a tiny little company, Computer Transport, open up in Australia and New Zealand and out of nowhere Alrod establish itself in San Francisco dedicated to Silicone Valley. In the nineties the renamed Flyway in Australia was sold for a fortune to Fritz/UPS and Al Rodriguez, with junior partner Stephen Russell sold to Circle (now Ceva) to become multi-millionaires after less than twenty years of being in business. Expeditors is now our largest indigenous forwarder and owner Peter Rose built this wonderfully successful company up to where it is today in less than thirty years. In the meantime, I have moved countries twice and today still remain a small businessman.

Looking back, I have few regrets. Over the years I have never been able to become comfortable dealing with countries, where I have difficulty understanding the culture, language and the political system. Rather than take the risk I have kept to my belief, I only want to deal with countries that speak English, are democracies and enjoy a way of life similar to me. Now I have reached my twilight years in business, I think that is why I am so happy with my lot, small as it is, because my working life has been about dealing with people who call “a spade a shovel” where a handshake on a deal still counts for something and where customers become personal friends. When I include the other chunks of business that passes over our docks, 95% of our revenue is derived from dealing with countries listed in the top twenty of the least corrupt. For my part, it has been a blessing to know who I have been dealing with and with all those little bumps in the road I have hit over the years, I have never fallen off my bike!