The American trucking industry of today was built by veteran leaders such as Phil Byrd, president of Bulldog Hiway Express, Mark Randolph, president of J. Grady Randolph, and Chris Cooper, president of The Boyd Companies. All have been very active in national and state trucking associations — Phil as past chairman of American Trucking Associations, Mark with the South Carolina Trucking Association (he received the Trucking Leadership Award from SCTA earlier this year) and Chris as a current member the ATA Executive Board.
The trucking industry of tomorrow will be built by people like John Michell, Daseke’s Vice President of Finance.
To get John and other prospects for the next generation of leadership ready for the task ahead, ATA offers a one-year course introducing them to the industry’s heritage, history, issues and challenges.
Just as important, says John, LEAD ATA introduces members of that next generation to one another, building connections and sharing differing perspectives that will prove valuable to themselves, their companies and the industry in the years ahead.
Don Daseke and John Michell
John was one of 15 trucking-industry executives in the fourth graduating class of LEAD ATA, in which participants gather half a dozen times a year to learn about the industry’s past, present and future. One component of the program is a trip to Washington, D.C., during which class members meet with senators and representatives to discuss trucking-industry issues.
“I came away with renewed energy and excitement about the major impact trucking and the people in it have on our nation’s economy,” says John, 32, who has been with Daseke for more than four years. “It’s a lot about gaining new knowledge but it’s also about relationships and meeting fascinating people who are in the same industry but doing very different things from what you’re doing.”
John says the organizers of the program did a good job of mixing up not just the regional locations of participants but job titles and descriptions and sizes and types of companies. “It was a good cross-section of the industry,” he says. The value of that diversity was illustrated by the variety of views offered on subjects like road tolls (for some, a fact of life to be passed on to customers, for others something to be avoided because customers won’t pay for them).
He also came away with a better understanding of trucking’s development to its current structure, setting the stage for a company like Daseke to be a consolidator in the flatbed and specialized logistics market.
“Understanding where we’ve been is crucial to knowing where we’re going,” says company founder Don Daseke. “If we want to continue being a leader in this industry then we’ve got to develop the people who will be that next generation of leadership. I’m proud of John for committing the time and effort to further developing his leadership skills, and I look forward to seeing how he puts that knowledge to work in making us a better company.”
John credits Don and another member of the Daseke team for his participation in LEAD ATA, Phil Byrd. The two encouraged John to enroll in LEAD ATA. “I’m glad I made the commitment,” he says.
LEAD ATA, Phil says, “provides a conduit through which young talent can grow and collaborate and understand how this industry functions, and it exposes them to the best talent in the industry in a very organized setting. It benefits the participants and it benefits the industry.” John Michell, he adds, “was not just a participant, he was an outstanding participant. He was a major contributing factor in the success of the program.”
John, who came to trucking from the banking industry, says he picked up some useful tools for doing his job by going through the program, “Better questions yield better answers,” he says, a handy skill when navigating the daily challenges of working in a high growth company.
He graduated from the leadership program with the knowledge that he’s on the right road with Daseke, wherever that leadership journey takes him.
“It’s not what you do, it’s who you do it with,” he says. “I’ve been, lucky enough to work for Don and Scott (Wheeler, executive vice president and chief financial officer), to be a part of the conversation, to wear different hats. I’m continuing to have fun, to learn and to enjoy what I’m doing.”
