Page 20 - Inbound Logistics | April 2017 | Digital Issue

LEADERSHIP

Conversations With
The Captains of Industry

By Merrill Douglas
Jeff Silver
CEO, Coyote Logistics

Photo courtesy of Dominick Reuter
No Shortcuts to Success

O HEAR JEFF SILVER TELL IT, THE year, which I thought was great. I figured I’d stay there for
secret to his success as a logistics one year and then go back to Europe or go to law school. But
T leader sounds simple: He was I never left.
the right person in the right place at the IL: How did you get from there to founding Coyote
right time. Logistics in 2006?
We sold ABH to C.H. Robinson at the end of 1999. I
“I came into the industry just after it had been deregulated, worked for them for 18 months, and then left. While I sat out
with a bit of IT knowledge and capability,” says Silver, CEO my five-year non-compete agreement, I earned an MBA at
of Coyote Logistics, a third-party logistics (3PL) provider that Michigan and a Masters in engineering from MIT. I hadn’t
UPS acquired in 2015. “I could look at things with a clean planned to go back into the industry, but as my non-compete
slate and from a systems perspective at a time when nobody ran out, I realized two things: I couldn’t find another industry
was doing that.” with as much potential as ours, and not much had changed
Of course, success stories are never simple. Silver recently during my time away.
gave Inbound Logistics a closer look at how he leads and I started Coyote because I wanted to do things completely
where Coyote is headed. differently. I wanted to commit to moving every load we took,
rather than hitting the 80 percent or worse average service
IL: As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, level that pervaded the industry at the time. The only real way
you majored in economics. What brought you into the to do that was to start my own company.
logistics sector?
It was pure luck. The summer before my senior year, I IL: How do you motivate people, promote your
did an internship in Paris, programming in Pascal, and then objectives, and cultivate talent at your company?
I spent the first semester of senior year at the University of Hire the best, smartest people you can, and lead them by
Copenhagen in Denmark. I came back to the United States example. To hire the best of the generation that has entered
with no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Fortunately, a the workforce in the past decade, it’s imperative to provide the
friend was working with Paul Loeb, who had started American right work atmosphere, to listen to employees, and especially
Backhaulers (ABH). Loeb offered me a job at $16,000 per to provide a scenario where they can believe in what they’re

18 Inbound Logistics • April 2017