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A little more than a year ago, local boy Mark Saad launched Kinder Soles, a socially conscious footwear company specializing in flip-flops made of recycled materials. Now he’s teamed with Chris Bingham of Riley Life Logistics, a Durham shipping company, to create the SoleMates Foundation. The nonprofit helps provide shoes for needy people who otherwise could not afford to buy footwear.
Reposted from the blog of company President & Chief Passion Officer – Chris Bingham
Have you ever thought about the value of a minute of your time? Think about how productive you could be if you aimed to do something of value with each minute of your time. As I work to try to get more value out of my day, I started thinking about how I not only spend the hours of my time but the minutes of my time as well.
Just to set up my punchline to this post, I explored pay by the minute of some high value individuals. Someone that makes $100,000 per year for a salary actually costs a company about $1 per minute of their time. Brian Gallagher, President of United Way Worldwide made $982,768 in 2008. That is almost $10 per minute for his time.
Lebron James averaged just under 39 minutes per game in the 79 games that he played last season for the Miami Heat. He was paid $14.5 million. Thus, the Miami Heat paid him about $4700 per minute of game action for his time. Obviously, they are paying this because of the value he brings to the organization rather than paying him by the minute, but it is interesting to note how irrational it actually sounds to pay someone almost $5000 to spend a minute of their time doing what they love.
I am working on ways to be most productive, but at the same time, I don’t want to devalue the opportunity to share time with others – whether friends, family, coworkers, prospects, or network connections. I also want to learn and stay up-to-date with my time. Is it worth reading a certain blog regularly that might take 2 minutes of your time? What about watching a funny youtube clip that lasts 3 minutes? How about reading that book that “could change your life” that might take 500 minutes to read? Or should you go see an interesting speaker that is in town to talk for 45 minutes?
As a business owner, I often think of situations and dispute resolutions in terms of the greatest value of people’s time. For example, if I have my whole team meet for 15 minutes, it could cost me well over $100. Is the meeting worth it? Does so-and-so need to be there?
As an interesting thought, if you got up one minute earlier for your entire life, you would gain roughly 3 months on your working career. Not a bad start, but where do you draw the line? Should you never sleep? Of course you should…sleep allows you to get the most out of your minutes.
So often you hear people say that they are “busy” or “don’t have enough hours in the day.” There are 10,080 minutes in a week. You can accomplish quite a lot in that amount of time. You have to start by prioritizing.
In fact, my biggest downfall is that I don’t say “no” often enough. Ultimately, I end up not meeting others expectations because I’m overbooked and distracted by where I’m supposed to be next. Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett are both famous for saying that each of their successes are the product of knowing when and how to say “no.” Ultimately freeing up more minutes to give to projects and people that matter most in achieving their goals. I’m working on downsizing my life (“rightsizing” for those of you in the corporate world) to pursue my passions more completely. Over the past year, I’ve become more aware of the minutes I waste in pursuit of things that I’m not truly passionate about.
“Do you have a minute?” “This will only take a minute.” Saying yes to these statements is so easy. Say “no” if you need to. Trying to do more is not how you get more done; you can not create more minutes in your day. Doing less is how you get more done.
What would it mean to give someone else a minute of your time? I say this because if you are willing to give them your time, then you should be fully present for that minute. If they aren’t worth the minute, then be honest and tell them “no” ahead of time.
With that, thank you for taking a minute of your time to read my thoughts. One request – Go spend a minute figuring out what you are passionate about and one more deciding what one thing you can do in the next week – that takes 30 minutes or less – in absolute pursuit of that passion. Let me know how I can help – that is a passion of mine – helping others pursue things they are passionate about. I plan to keep writing about other things I’m passionate about in upcoming blogs.
Steve Jobs: When asked what is the thing he is most proud of what he and Apple has created, this was his answer: “I’m as proud of what we DON’T do as I am of what we do.”
Warren Buffet: When asked for the No. 1 key to his success, this is his consistent answer, “For every 100 great opportunities that are brought to me, I say ‘NO’ 99 times.”
Mark Saad, the co-founder and Chief Kinder Sole of Kinder Soles, a socially responsible flip flop company offering footwear made from recycled materials, and Chris Bingham, President and Chief Passion Officer of Riley Life Logistics, a certified B Corporation, today announce the launch of a new non-profit organization, the SoleMates Foundation. Aimed to increase awareness and raise funds to help the ‘footwear shortage movement’ in the United States, the SoleMates Foundation will distribute shoes to individuals lacking access to proper footwear.
A vision of founder Mark Saad’s since he witnessed the tragic living conditions around the world first-hand many years ago, the SoleMates Foundation is part of a commitment to provide proper footwear to those in need. While Mark has been working to make a difference since the launch of Kinder Soles in 2010, the development of SoleMates is the next step. Teaming up with his fellow “40 Under 40” award recipient, Chris Bingham and his company Riley Life Logistics helped fill in the missing pieces and make the foundation a reality.
“When we first started out, Kinder Soles partnered with outside organizations to make our flip flops useful in the fight against the footwear shortage; but we felt there was more we could be doing to help those in our own country,” said Mark Saad, co-founder and Chief Kinder Sole of Kinder Soles. “SoleMates is the realization of my dream to improve the quality of life of people all over the United States. By launching our own foundation, we can more directly impact those closest to us, involve the communities further and ultimately help more people – one pair of shoes at a time.”
Now more than ever, the United States has an increasing number of people who are in need and going without proper footwear. Only halfway into the 2011 calendar year, the United States has seen an extremely high rate of natural disasters. With damages totaling close to $32 billion, the nation has experienced the highest damage cost to-date since 1980, according to the National Climate Data Center. Millions of people have been affected across the country by tornadoes, floods, blizzards, and wildfires, many losing everything that they had. SoleMates was born out of the desire to help those affected in these local communities.
By choosing to focus solely on those in need in the United States, SoleMates stands out from many other organizations by staying green, getting shoes on more feet of those in need, and keeping their carbon footprint low.
The foundation will gather new and gently worn shoes and provide them to those who are in need all across the United States. SoleMates will work closely with church groups and local organizations all across the country to identify regions that are in need. When shoes are donated they are assessed, sorted and then shipped out to the regions according to functionality needs, such as boots and sneakers to locations in the north and flip flops and sandals to locations in the south.
“We are thrilled to partner with Mark to be a part of the SoleMates Foundation. We pride ourselves in supporting worthy causes and helping those in need in our community,” said Chris Bingham, president and chief passion officer of Riley Life Logistics. “An idea that seems so simple, like owning a pair of shoes, can make all the difference in the world. It is a great thing to be able to do what we do best to help those in need.”
Kinder Soles and Riley Life Logistics will both support SoleMates by drawing on each company’s business functions. Each purchase of a pair of Kinder Soles eco-friendly flip flops will provide the funding to send shoes to up to five people. Riley Life will handle the logistics for SoleMates by storing, organizing, prepping, and shipping out all of the donated shoes to those in need.
Consumers who wish to support the SoleMates Foundation can do so via local area shoe drive events and by donating funds to help cover shipping and handling charges incurred to deliver shoes around the country.
More information on the SoleMates Foundation can be found at http://solematesfoundation.org/.
About Kinder Soles
Kinder Soles, co-founded by Mark Saad and Chris Smith, is a socially responsible designer of healthy and eco-friendly flip flops. The company promotes social responsibility through a donation business model that provides the funds to send five pairs of shoes to those in need. Kinder Soles are made from recycled and repurposed materials and have foot beds ergonomically designed to give better support. Find Kinder Soles on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/Kindersoles or online at www.KinderSoles.com.
About Riley Life Logistics
Riley Life Logistics, a Certified B Corporation, is an award-winning provider of global solutions in the areas of international and domestic product fulfillment, kitting, warehousing, and reverse logistics. The “Life of Riley” is a saying meaning “to live a life of luxury that is deserved.” Riley Life aims to provide this life to all stakeholders – owners, employees, customers, and beyond. Riley Life Logistics was recognized as the 2009 Durham Sustainable Business of the Year and 2010 Green Plus North American Small Business Enterprise of the Year, among other awards. Find Riley Life Logistics on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rllogistics or online at http://www.RileyLife.com.
I will admit that my ideas for solutions here are very forward thinking and optimistic for a “company” that is ultimately a monopoly and obviously funded by outside sources that do not seem to give any regard to the success of this company. However, as a tax payer and logistics professional touched daily by the services of the United States Postal Service (USPS), I stand in the place of someone interested in helping offer solutions to the current problem that the USPS is facing.
Let me start by framing the problem. Everyone should by now be aware of the continual losses posted by the USPS and the ongoing discussion as to whether this business should be privatized. Well, just in case you haven’t heard, the USPS has lost just over $23 Billion since the start of 2007. Yeah – $23 Billion. That is more than the entire GDP for all but 90 countries in the world. That’s a sizable hole in the US Government’s wallet.
Here is a graph showing earnings (in $ Billions) for the USPS since 2002. Data for 2011 includes first half of the year results:
Sure there are multiple excuses including congressional mandate toward pre-funding its Postal Service Retiree Health Benefit Fund, the USPS can’t raise prices of postage outside of a certain margin of the national inflation rate, and of course, the decline in use of postage due to increased use of email and cell phones.
Regardless, all excuses aside and all conventional wisdom already stated (fewer delivery days, reduced staff, privatization, etc.) – I have 3 suggestions for the USPS:
1. Snail Mail Spam folder – For a Fee: This might get a little tricky and touchy, but I think there might be something to this. I can usually tell very quickly what mail is junk. I realize that the sender of Junk Mail is a large spender in the eyes of the USPS. However, the data on who was using the Spam folder on the recipient end can remain a mystery. It is likely that the same individuals that actually accept the offers presented to them in the junk mail are likely the same customers that would NOT elect to purchase the Spam folder option.
There are 142 million delivery points in the US. If 50% of those paid $1 per month for this service that would be almost $1 billion in revenue. I’m not sure what the costs associated would actually be but I would imagine that we could find at least 50% margins here.
2. Vehicle ads – The USPS has the largest civilian fleet of vehicles in the world – 218,684 total vehicles. Why nothe put ads on these trucks? They could put their own ads which would mean they probably wouldn’t have to spend so much money on TV ads with those “Flat Rate Postage Guy” Commercials. Or they could put ads for other companies. There are about 500,000 billboards in the US. If the USPS added its vehicles to the mix, that number would almost increase 50%.
Have you driven past the semi trucks that carry mail between distribution centers on our interstates (exactly the same interstates that have billboards littered throughout)? They are completely blank – white canvases, roughly the size of a full size billboard. Even the local delivery trucks travel the roads of every street in America – everyday.
3. Joint retail operations – similar to UPS Store or Fedex Office – The USPS operate 36,400 retail post offices. By comparison, Wal-Mart has 8500 stores in 15 countries. Also, there are about 32,000 McDonald’s worldwide. Fedex Office operates roughly 1800 centers on 3 continents, while there are about 4300 UPS Stores worldwide. Just by looking at the numbers of retail outlets, it is impossible not to see the opportunity that the USPS has with its brick and mortar footprint.
Making its retail post offices a source of further profit will start with cleaning up its customer service. Everyone has had a bad customer service experience at the Post Office. Ironically, the USPS employee that is most often the greatest steward of customer service is the guy who delivers the mail – while riding around in a truck or walking past barking dogs by him or herself all day. Maybe the post office should make the grumpy retail office workers deliver mail while the letter carriers work in the retail branches.
I don’t have the best product and service mix figured out for the USPS, but I do know that they should be getting a lot more value out of their retail footprint. Selling stamps, a few branded packaging supplies, and PO Box access is not going to cut it in a world that demands ever changing and ever improving look and function.
Reprinted from the personal blog of CEO – Chris Bingham.
Talk to anyone in the Raleigh area and you’ll hear that the place to work is SAS. Well, word got out a few years back and in 2010 & 2011 SAS was named FORTUNE Magazine’s Best Place to Work – in the entire United States.
SAS is a privately held software company headquartered in Cary, NC with $2.3 billion in revenue and about 12,000 employees. Two of North Carolina’s 5 billionaires are the 2 primary founders of SAS – Jim Goodnight and John Sall.
My vision for Riley Life is to become “The SAS of Logistics” as the place to work. It has long been my belief that if you make employees your focus, you will succeed. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of customers in ways that you can’t imagine. This philosophy is obviously not new – SAS has perfected it.
I’m setting the vision for Riley Life high – I want to be the best possible place and company to work for.
You can talk to people or read articles on the innovative things SAS is doing to take care of their employees. However, in order to better understand what living into this vision truly means, Riley Life’s key personnel visited SAS today for a “behind the scenes Culture Tour.”
Wow – we were really treated like royalty. An enormous thank you goes to Jacquelyn Warner for arranging our day and experience at SAS. Lisa Buckner, Director of HR Programs, gave us a company culture overview at the new Executive Briefing Center. She touched on why she joined SAS and why she’s stayed there 25 years. For the friend that courted her to SAS, it was being made to “feel important” and that managers “ask her opinion and actually listen.” Today, SAS is built on Trust, Flexibility and Values. Those values are: Approachable, Customer Driven, Swift & Agile, Innovative, and Trustworthy. The management philosophy is guided by: Mutual Respect, Empowerment, Results Driven and Valuing Life Outside of SAS.
After the fantastic overview, we took a campus tour. Highlights included the solar farm, onsite fitness center, and back to the Executive Briefing Center for lunch. During lunch, we were joined by Stacy Hobson, Director of Customer Loyalty and Retention. While dining on sushi, we discussed SAS’s approach to customer value creation, improving the customer experience, ultimately how they are working to more closely align themselves with their customers. Amazingly and quite self-aware, SAS has admittedly not been good about staying in better touch with their customers. Stacy’s group is new and working on new ways to better analyze, engage, and empower customers of SAS products.
We left inspired and overwhelmed by our vision. We have clarity, focus, knowledge and have seen what our vision actually looks like. SAS just turned 35 years old. Riley Life is 3.5 years old. Let me know if you are interested in being a part of our success.
I will share further details for our vision and our emphasis on implementation of the vision in future updates.
Reposted from Chris’ personal blog at www.chrisbingham.org
Some of my friends have started tech companies. I will admit, those guys have started far more sexy businesses than mine. My feeling is that success is sexy. Most of you who know me, know that I don’t define success as making money but rather as making impact.
So, I get the question a lot – “Why did you start a logistics company?” My immediate response is usually, something along the lines of – “Some guys were given the ability to dunk a basketball and others with the ability to pack boxes. I obviously drew the short straw…”
There is a real three part answer, though:
1. It was time for me to seize the power that I have to create the improvements in our society that I want to make. I was tired of complaining about the things that I can’t change rather than pursuing the power that I do have. I believe that business is the major driver behind most major change in our society. The business opportunity that was at my fingertips at the time that I was ready to move out on my own was logistics – in particular, order fulfillment and kitting work.
2. Logistics is an industry ripe for innovation and a better way of doing things. It’s an old school industry with a lot of room for improvement. Additionally, with the United States becoming less industrialized and the world becoming more “flat,” the necessity for movement of goods around the world is becoming even more important. When products are made in China, they come back to the US for distribution. Many products may not be made in the US anymore, but they are touched by numerous Americans’ hands before they arrive at your home or office. The average US citizen knows very little about how all of this happens, especially when it involves international shipping. Ultimately, you don’t care how the product gets on Target’s shelves, you just want it to be there and look pretty when you arrive at the store. If a company no longer makes their own products, why should they have an enormous building just to warehouse products made in China? It makes a lot more sense for them to outsource the warehousing and logistics portion of their business too. After all, their core competency was probably on either the manufacturing or marketing side of the business anyway – one of which probably happens in another country at this point.
3. Lastly, and most important to me – a logistics business allows me to make impact. Most of the jobs available in logistics are relatively low skilled – similar to those of the manufacturing industry which America has lost so much of over the past 10-15 years. Providing jobs to the community is one of the most important and impacting opportunities for a small business, and the major reason why business is the foundation for an improved community.
According to a study by Armstrong and Associates, logistics saw 18.9% growth in 2010 and is expected to grow another 11% in 2011 (depicted below). A recent Fortune Magazine article discussed that one of the hottest areas of job growth over the next few years is in supply chain management. MIT recently released a whitepaper discussing the shortage of talent in supply chain management.
The Fortune article refers to the perception that the field is seen as “non-sexy.” I agree, but what I’m striving for with Riley Life Logistics is success through positive impact.
Figure 1. U.S. 3PL Market 1996-2011E (US$ Billions)
Courtesy of Armstrong & Associates
RALEIGH, NC – Riley Life Logistics is proud to announce that Chris Bingham, company President & Chief Passion Officer, has been selected as a 2011 winner of Triangle Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” awards. This prestigious award recognizes forty prominent business leaders under forty years old in the Triangle. He was honored at the eleventh annual “40 under 40 Leadership Awards” luncheon ceremony on Thursday, May 5, 2011 at North Ridge Country club.
This honor is awarded to individuals that have attained significant leadership roles in their organizations, achieved a significant career milestone in 2010, and who are substantially involved in community service.
“This year’s 40 Under 40 winners are the region’s up and coming thought leaders,” says Bryan Hamilton, publisher, Triangle Business Journal. “Fresh ideas, progressive initiatives and persistent hard work make up the creed of this group. Look for them to shape the Triangle’s vision of tomorrow. ”
Triangle Business Journal will publish an in-depth special section on the 40 Under 40 Leadership Awards in its May 20 edition that will feature Q&As with all 40 winners.
The 2011 40 Under 40 Leadership Awards program was a Triangle Business Journal event sponsored by Poole College of Management and Grinnell Leadership.
We could name countless ways in which people are working to “be green” – consuming fewer natural resources. Unfortunately, shipping and logistics is an industry that requires vast resource consumption with use of about 10% of overall fuel consumed in the US each year. Additionally, packaging materials are vast in their consumption, especially boxes. For every new box produced, at least one older box is thrown away. Seems silly, doesn’t it?
The good news is that cardboard can be recycled, and about 48% of the time they are. The bad news is that the process of recycling consumes energy. Is this a lose-lose situation? Not at all. Businesses and individuals can minimize the use of new resources by simply reusing boxes. Used boxes don’t always look as pretty, but they get the job done! Riley Life Logistics utilizes packaging materials that are in great condition to ship when it is appropriate. It’s not always beautiful on the first go round but is made to endure quite a bit before its disposal. When you receive a shipment from Riley Life, the box may not be perfectly glamorous, but we guarantee that the product inside will be intact and will be exactly what you ordered. Isn’t that all you really care about? We feel that it is a beautiful thing to limit our resource consumption in common sense situations.
Other businesses involved in the shipping industry also have many opportunities to be environmentally responsible. Logistics providers such as UPS use careful planning to minimize the amount of miles their drivers cover and, thus, the amount of fuel consumed. In fact, they have almost 100% eliminated left turns.
Overall, sustainability is about efficiency. Efficiency is about utilizing fewer resources to accomplish the same things. Utilization of fewer resources is improved business – environmentally and financially.
Article Sponsored by Riley Life Logistics – www.rileylife.com – Logistics Solutions Specialists
