BIFAlink
BIFA Awards
www.bifa.org
Laura accepted her BIFA Award from Matt Dawson MBE
An appetite for new adventures
Laura took part in the BIFA Young Forwarder Network Transaid charity run
together and share information. Recently, she took part in a charity run with fellow committee members for Transaid. Laura believes the most important thing for a company’s success is to keep staff motivated. For example: “Rather than just quoting all day, I tried to make the inside sales executive role here more fulfilling. It now incorporates a natural career path towards business development manager or supervisor. Our inside sales executives get additional responsibilities, such as building relationships with their own customers.” Impact Laura’s main impact at FS Mackenzie so far is her redesign of the internal rate sheets, covering everything from spot quoting to a smart freight calculator. “I made new rate sheets from scratch using Excel; they include everything needed to generate an instant price. This saves time for our customers and reduces internal communications about billing,” she said. The new sheets are now used throughout the company. Also, during the last year or so, FS Mackenzie has been implementing a CRM system (under Laura’s guidance) for all quotes and other data that will provide valuable insights into the business. “I think these two changes will stay with the
Laura Hobby, winner of the 2021 BIFA Young Freight Forwarder of the Year Award, thrives on change and challenges – making her ideally suited to a career in the logistics industry
YOUNG FREIGHT FORWARDER OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSOR
Everyone has always advised me to volunteer for things and to say ‘yes’ to any opportunity, and I have learnt a lot by doing that.” Laura takes inspiration from her lifelong hero, entrepreneur Peter Jones, who once said: “For many young people, on-the-job training and hands-on experience is the real route to employability, not a university education” – though of course, she has done both. Not only does Laura love to learn, she also loves to teach and is currently enjoying passing on her knowledge to individuals within her own and other teams, as well as young individuals within the local community at careers events. In addition to this, Laura is also the chairperson of the BIFA Virtual Young Forwarder Network, which promotes and encourages young people in the industry to network, learn Virgin Atlantic Cargo is proud to sponsor BIFA’s ‘Young Freight Forwarder Award’ to recognise and encourage the next generation of industry leaders. As well as rewarding the progress of the best young people, this award helps to highlight the vital role freight forwarders play in the growth and development of our industry.
As this issue of BIFAlink went to press, Laura Hobby was settling into a new role at FS Mackenzie. She is now a project manager, working alongside the company’s IT manager and an external expert to improve utilisation of FS Mackenzie’s software system. This will reduce manual errors and ultimately result in better customer service. Laura had previously set herself the ambition of progressing from inside sales supervisor to inside sales manager to senior management. “I am very excited about this new adventure,” she said. “It is a good fit for me because I am very technical and good with numbers – plus, my degree in business and management included project management.” Challenge and change She is also looking forward to travelling to other FS Mackenzie offices as part of her new role. “I do like a challenge and a change,” she said, observing that she has often been asked to help with tasks that were outside her remit. “That has benefited me in my career because I have picked up a lot of knowledge for my age.
company for a long time,” Laura said. Clearly, organisation is one of Laura’s
strengths; another is time management. “The last few years have not been what I had expected,” she said. “I was doing my degree, changed my job (joining FS Mackenzie in 2019), then COVID- 19 hit, then I got the supervisor role... but having a confident mentality that I would get everything done seems to have worked. “I was considering doing a Masters next – but for now, I am all studied out. I think I need a holiday.”
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March 2022
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