Essa Al-Saleh joined Volta Trucks as the Chairman of the Board in October 2020. Volta Trucks is an electric vehicle manufacturer. Volta has set out to create an all-electric truck specifically to be used in and around cities and urban areas.
In addition to Volta Trucks, Essa is the CEO of Agitero AG, an advisory and investment business based in Switzerland. Prior to this, Essa was the President and CEO of Agility’s Global Integrated Logistics (GIL), based in Baar, Switzerland. He had been with Agility since 1998 and assumed the CEO of Agility Global Integrated Logistics in 2007. During his time at Agility, Essa led the transformation of Agility GIL from a 300 person operation in one country into one of the top ten global logistics businesses, with over $4 billion in revenues operating in over 100 countries with more than 18,000 people.
Listen to the full discussion here:
Connect with the Guest:
Essa Al-Saleh: LinkedIn
Some of the highlights from the podcast:
- From being an engineer to a CEO
- Growing Agility from 400 people to a global company and 18000 staff
- Learning from mistakes and being curious
- Books that influenced Essa’s career
- Finding the balance between strategy and execution
- Trends in automation and upskilling people
Show notes:
- [01:18] Tell us a little bit about having an engineering background to being an entrepreneurial business, CEO because they are different. So maybe walk us through a little bit.
- [05:17] What are some sharings or lessons you can share with our audience in terms of how do you step from one framework to the other that might be useful to them?
- [06:00] Over the past 22 years, I made a ton of mistakes, but I think I’ve been blessed with the right team that I put in place together and the willingness to be curious and accept what I know and what I don’t know.
- [07:05] As you grow to become a CEO, you have to learn to influence and trust and put some parameters around and be clear in your communication and expectations as opposed to managing day-to-day the requirements of the work.
- [07:52] Can you name some of the books that influenced your career today?
- [09:59] What are some of the principles that you followed or grains of wisdom that you found most useful for you as a leader?
- [10:40] Taking action without context could be dangerous. So you have to be able to understand the context and understand the actions that you need to take and articulate that well to the group.
- [12:06] I’ve learned that you will find people who are strong on strategy, but not necessarily strong in execution or vice versa. And you have to recognize how to internalize that and assess that and give feedback to people around those frameworks to help them grow and learn.
- [13:13] How are you currently in your private equity VC work that you’re doing and the startups that you mentoring and advising and being on the boards using those experiences today?
- [13:39] The easiest to buy is the skill, kind of the technical side of things and the physical side. The hardest thing you need to look at is the culture.
- [15:16] How do you make sure that you have a correct assessment of what’s going on the inside, because that can be quite tricky to do, right? So maybe you can share some dos and don’ts.
- [16:05] Culture is an outcome rather than an action. There’s a set of values that you bring to the table, the behaviors and decisions you take in the company on top of the values, and what you actually do versus what you say ultimately leads to what you define as a culture of a company.
- [19:47] Are there certain things that will come into play in the next one to three years or shorter term, which you think would make the most impact?
- [20:53] One thing to remember is there’s no silver bullet- kind of the one thing that will solve everything, but there are different technologies enabling different parts of the value chain that are doing some really interesting things.
- [21:56] Companies like Agility, as a result of the pandemic, figured out a way to operate under a very difficult environment and align the 18,000 plus people while they’re working from home.
- [23:15] What new type of knowledge needs to be coming in? And how do we as logistics executives or supply chain executives and professionals upscale ourselves?
- [24:03] The trend in automation is going to change everything. It’s going to create new opportunities and markets and therefore what we have to do as individuals are to learn about those trends and see how we invest in or build the skills.
- [26:00] Have you seen some new approaches or some new ways from your experience and where do you see also the future of how do we educate, upskill, and foster in a faster way the people?
- [28:51] Looking back in your career, what would be one or two pieces of advice that you found most useful that helped you the most?
- [29:47] If you want to conquer the world, take the first step, start small, take small steps, and those small steps over time, as you build confidence and you see what’s succeeding and what’s not succeeding, those steps will become bigger and bigger over time.
Quotes from the Episode:
About the Host:
The host, Radu Palamariu is the co-author of “From Source to Sold – Stories of Leadership in Supply Chain”. He has been named one of the top 3 Global Supply Chain Influencers on LinkedIn and was featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, WEF, Bangkok Post, and MIT Supply Chain Talent magazine. Radu invites executives to share stories and perspectives around technology, logistics, e-commerce, supply chain, and manufacturing, and their views on how the future will look.
Alcott Global connects and upgrades the supply chain ecosystem by finding the right talent through executive search, developing talent through learning solutions, and meeting supply chain technology needs through a comprehensive crunch base marketplace.
The supply chain executive search has been our focus since the very beginning, offering recruitment services for top-tier supply chain roles at every level of the end-to-end supply chain: plan, source / procure, make, and deliver. Our consultants have years of experience in placing top talent, in North America, LATAM, Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and APAC, and besides speed, one of our biggest strengths is our network within the supply chain industry, and we capitalize on it to find the best solutions.
Through the years, we have grown as an organization and our offerings with it. One of our initiatives, the learning solutions- training and supply chain academy, is focused on transforming leadership- self-leadership, executive presence, influence capital, and business acumen. Through Supplify, we aim to match corporations with the top technology companies to solve their supply chain and logistics challenges with a focus on innovation and digital transformation.
We are in constant touch with the leaders in supply chain, inviting them to inspire the supply chain professionals in thought-provoking podcast episodes and events, and showcasing what is possible at the yearly Leaders in Supply Chain Awards.
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