Transportation Insight Founder and Chairman Named Cultural Leader of the Year

HICKORY, N.C., Oct. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Transportation Insight Founder and Chairman Paul Thompson is Business North Carolina's "Cultural Leader of the Year." He earns the publication's inaugural individual recognition as the global lead third-party logistics provider he founded entrenches its position as a company focused on improvement both internally and within the communities it calls home.

"I am humbled and honored to receive this recognition for our efforts to create within our company a culture of sustainability – just as we do for our customers," Thompson says. "Our business is built on a generational plan for success, not just focused on what we are doing this year, but how we create something that, 15 years from now, is going to be really great. We apply that same long-range commitment to excellence to the road map we craft for customers as we work alongside them to improve their business year after year."

Transportation Insight's founder and chairman received the recognition in the October edition of Business North Carolina which includes The Grant Thornton North Carolina 100, a ranking of the state's top privately held businesses. Transportation Insight's No. 4 position puts the company in the list's top revenue tier.

The Cultural Leader of the Year award "recognizes individuals who have intentionally cultivated and developed a collaborative, cultural change in the workplace that has inspired employees and enhanced the company's performance," according to Grant Thornton, LLP, which has compiled the North Carolina 100 since 1984.

Transportation Insight applies its service-minded culture to interactions with client partners as part of a co-managed approach in which the 3PL works alongside manufacturers, distributors and retailers to optimize their transportation strategies, drive waste out of their supply chains and implement business practices that positively affect their bottom line. These endeavors are fueled by Transportation Insight's overriding continuous improvement mindset focused on helping companies serve end customers both today and for the long term.

"Our goal is to create North America's largest and most reputable provider of value-based logistics services by Jan. 1, 2020. In an intensely competitive marketplace, achieving that goal relies on our ability to create a corporate culture that allows us to attract and retain the next generation of innovators and visionaries, thinkers and doers," Thompson says. "For our company to be successful for the long term, that means we need to attract not just millennials, but members of a changing society that want to live daily in a vibrant community where they have things to do every day."

Transportation Insight completed rehabilitation of the 1930s- era Lyerly Full Fashioned Mill to create a corporate campus situated in the center of downtown Hickory. The 11-acre site is home to the company's headquarters and its newly rebranded transactional freight division, BirdDog Logistics. The campus also includes an athletic field available for community use, and work is underway to create a gymnasium containing a full-size basketball court and fitness facilities for employees.

A strong proponent of exercise and a nationally recognized supporter of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Thompson understands the importance of maintaining a healthy well-being. Future plans for the company's campus help facilitate healthy lifestyle practices for Transportation Insight associates.

"We wanted to create something really cool here in Hickory and become the preferred place to work," Thompson says. "At the same time, Transportation Insight has a commitment to the city of Hickory to help in its revitalization and re-invention as we continue collaborating to support the development of greenspaces, sidewalks and other amenities critical to this becoming an eclectic, livable community."

Transportation Insight's culture mirrors Thompson's drive to create significance and a legacy of accomplishment outside the business' walls. He serves on the boards of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce and Wine to Water, which uses the proceeds of wine sales to provide clean drinking water for people around the world. He was instrumental in the formation of Appalachian State University's Transportation Insight Center for Entrepreneurship, and both he and the company's associates are strong supporters of Samaritan's Feet. Thompson has personally sponsored more than a million pairs of shoes distributed worldwide. The company devotes financial and personal resources to Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Ten Thousand Homes.

Following the lead of Transportation Insight's founder and chairman, company employees initiated and operate a service organization, Service in Action (SIA), which aims to serve the critical, humanitarian and diverse needs of local and global communities. SIA's efforts focus on raising funds for annual Samaritan's Feet back-to-school shoe drives that serve more than 1,200 impoverished children with a new pair of shoes and a message of hope. SIA also supports other community organizations, such as Safe Harbor Rescue Mission, American Cancer Society's Relay for Life, the Salvation Army, various humane societies, food banks and school supply drives, and it is instrumental in meeting needs of Transportation Insight associates during times of crisis.

"The biggest challenge in any business is to assemble a team of like-minded people with the same value system and cultural DNA and to scale that over time as the company grows," Thompson says. "Our client retention rate, year over year, is near 100 percent. That's not about me – that's about our people rallying around a common cause of service, and that's one thing that I believe distinguishes Transportation Insight."

About Transportation Insight, LLC
Transportation Insight is a multi-modal, global lead logistics provider with more than $4.6 billion in supply chain spend under management. For more than 15 years, the 3PL has partnered with hundreds of manufacturers, distributors and retailers to achieve significant cost savings, reduce cycle times and improve customer satisfaction rates by providing customized supply chain solutions. Transportation Insight offers a Co-managed Logistics® form of 3PL, carrier sourcing, freight bill audit and payment services, state-of-the-art transportation management system (TMS) applications and business intelligence. Its logistics services include domestic transportation, parcel shipping solutions, supply chain analytics, international transportation, warehouse sourcing, LEAN consulting and supply chain sourcing of indirect materials. Headquartered in Hickory, NC, Transportation Insight has secondary operating centers in Atlanta, GA, Bentonville, AR, Boston, MA, Charlotte, NC, Omaha, NE and Salt Lake City, UT, as well as more than 50 client support offices across North America. For more about Transportation Insight, visit www.transportationinsight.com, email [email protected] or call 877-226-9950.

About the Grant Thornton North Carolina 100®
Since 1984, the Grant Thornton North Carolina 100® has ranked the state's largest private companies by revenue in the most recent fiscal year, based on data provided by the participants. The NC100 is a voluntary list restricted to companies based in North Carolina that do not have publicly traded stock. Companies owned by private equity are permitted. Nonprofits, financial-services companies, health care providers such as hospitals and subsidiaries of corporations are excluded. For more details, visit GrantThornton.com/NC100.

About Grant Thornton LLP
Founded in Chicago in 1924, Grant Thornton LLP (Grant Thornton) is the U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd, one of the world's leading organizations of independent audit, tax and advisory firms. In the United States, Grant Thornton has revenues of $1.65 billion and operates 60 offices with 575 partners and more than 8,000 employees. Grant Thornton works with a broad range of dynamic publicly and privately held companies, government agencies, financial institutions, and civic and religious organizations.

About Business North Carolina
Business North Carolina magazine is a statewide, monthly publication based in Charlotte that provides news and commentary regarding North Carolina businesses and industries. The magazine was established in 1981 and has won more than 95 national awards.

Contact: Lisa Santos Farley Email: [email protected] Phone: 828-485-5000

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111012/MM85123LOGO

SOURCE Transportation Insight, LLC

Related Links

http://www.transportationinsight.com