Distribution

Global thinker

By Erik Cassano

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The Bento file

Joe Bento’s chief information officer had all the goods: talent, intelligence, experience and leadership — just what the global freight division of CEVA Logistics needed in an executive as Bento, the division’s new president, looked to expand his division’s global footprint.

But something was missing, and it didn’t become evident to Bento until he saw his CIO on the job.

“We have our chief information officer of global freight management, and when I first took the role on, one of the issues I had with him was that we had spent all this money hiring a really smart guy to run our systems and help us evolve so we could be a very effective logistics and transportation company, and he wasn’t accountable,” Bento says.

“We had this great person, and everybody in the business was on board except for him. So it became evident that the person responsible for the systems needed to develop a plan to get everyone in the group to understand, and that’s essentially what I did by position.”

It was a revelation for Bento. You can’t motivate and involve employees without a culture that values teamwork, and you can’t build a teamwork-oriented culture without good communication from the top.

Bento says it’s not a light switch, however. You can’t automatically turn your employees on to teamwork and give them a feeling that their work affects the greater good of the company.

“They have to know and feel that,” Bento says.

It’s something that requires constant maintenance from the top of the organization.

Bento says that as the leader of your organization, it’s your responsibility to make sure everyone is on the same page and his or her roles are well defined. That’s where good teamwork starts, and that’s exactly what Bento has set out to accomplish at CEVA.

Here’s how Bento uses his perch to ensure that CEVA’s $3.82 billion global freight business remains a well-oiled machine operated by motivated employees.