“We’ve turned this business around not only for our shareholders, but for the 5,000 employees in Australia and, not least of all, for our customers.”
Roger Corcoran
Managing Director
TNT Express Australia
Roger Corcoran delivered a turnaround of TNT business in Australia.
Sydney, Australia In his 26 years with the company, Roger Corcoran has helped establish TNT’s business in new markets, including several countries in Asia. But his most recent challenge was not establishing a new business, but turning around the business in what was TNT’s original home market – Australia.
A variety of factors, including poor integration among several business units and problems in administration activities such as invoicing and collections, the business in Australia was experiencing significant losses when Corcoran was tapped to step in. When he arrived in September 2001,Corcoran and a team of new senior managers immediately put in place measures to rectify situation.
“The first thing we did was to strangle costs,” he said. Then they embarked on a revenue quality generation programme that included streamlining decision-making and reviewing all contracts and eliminating unprofitable agreements. At the same time, Corcoran and his team launched the division’s seven key processes across the business and began re-building strong alliances among our depot managers. Those activities allowed employees to improve the levels of performance and service offered to customers. “We set very clear, but aggressive targets, which allowed us to improve our service drastically and that ultimately allowed us to improve our revenue stream by increasing prices.”
The programme worked. In just over two years, the team has increased revenue quality by some 50%.
“Our target was to break even by the end of 2003, which we achieved,” said Corcoran. “Then we had to start making money, and 2004 was the year of making real money. We’ve turned this business around not only for our shareholders, but for the 5,000 employees in Australia as well.”
The improved financial results are not the only proof that the turnaround worked. “I recently got an e-mail from the largest car manufacturer in Australia, congratulating us on the outstanding logistics service we provide them. It was a powerful statement.”