A refrigerated truck was hauling an extremely deadly virus strain mutated from the Filoviridae family of viruses. It was on route to a lab in California with a full police ground and air escort. The driver was detoured to an auxiliary route due to a traffic jam and the serious time restraints on the shipment.
Unbeknownst to the tracking team, construction had recently been started on an overpass. The truck slammed into the top off the structure , the driver was rendered unconscious and the truck was firmly wedged in the entrance of the overpass.
The refrigerated unit was damaged and the time to get the virus delivered was critical, as the refrigeration was keeping the virus stable and heat would release a potential epidemic. The truck was firmly wedged, a replacement driver could not budge the truck forward or back and towing was not an option; helicopters could not land due to the terrain. The consultants on the job where scrambling for trained laboratory crews, to hand- carry the goods out of the truck but the traffic pileup and embankment made access very difficult. Work crews had been sent to remove the overpass structure but that would take days or weeks. The situation was on high red alert and the world heath association was suggesting initiating evacuation orders for the entire city of Los Angeles.
When all seemed lost, a Mover who was stuck in traffic just down the road sauntered up to the accident. He looked it over and excused himself to the chief engineer. What do you want the engineer snapped, can’t you see we have a crisis on our hands; I have no time to talk to a Mover.
The old Mover stood back and thought for a few seconds. Seems very complicated the Mover explained but I was just wondering if you have tried letting the air out of the tires? Crises avoided with a common sense solution.
I have been in the Moving business for over 30 years and have seen it morph into one of the most complicated services imaginable. I have sat through learning session given by major consulting firms on relocation. Twisting and turning through a maze of possible scenarios supported by a plethora of graphs and bar charts. All very slick but always very complicated.
Although everyone has the best of intentions, consultants are paid by the hour and a consultative sales process encourages complicated scenarios, in order to provide a more valuable solution. I have heard this process referred to as a “consulting orbit”. Circling the same situation introducing more and more possible complications, all fueled by either billable hours or a solution based sale. Some managers see it coming and steer clear of it and others get caught up in the gravitational pull. They are unable to stand back and take an objective or common sense look at the situation.
With more and more companies moving back to a simple Lump Sum relocation program, a retro service that was the norm 30 years ago, the common sense question to ask yourself is do you need a multinational relocation management team, with dozens of handoffs and added administration costs, to move a renter 200 miles?
Common sense tells me all you need is a basic moving policy, a good mover and a simple direct move management process. I may be missing something but moving, (something cavemen did by the way), has turned into rocket science and that rocket is spinning around a “consulting orbit”.
If you want uncomplicated solution for your Lump Sum moves, A “real” solution to the capacity issues in the moving industry, clear communication with decision makers, all capped with the best value for both the company and the transferee, common sense would suggest working directly with a Mover.
Stand back and think about it for a moment.