CXO INSIGHT

Tell us about the scope of your role at Hermes UK and how this has evolved during your time with the company

As CEO , I ’ m responsible for the total business here in the UK , as well as our parcels internationally , coming either inbound or outbound . When I started , I was the Operations and Customer Services Director , and then I became the COO , Managing Director and eventually the CEO . The business has had tremendous growth over that time – seven years of double-digit growth , for example .

My role has not only progressed from a title or responsibility point of view but also from the sheer size of the business itself and the products and markets that we ’ ve been launching .

How has the business grown since it started and how did you ensure growth ?

When I joined the business it was very much a standard economy courier delivery business , so it was very value for money . It was focused on economy parcels that would get delivered to homes in two to five days .

The first thing that we did was to make it more multi-channel , so we had a much stronger next day proposition which is where the market was going . We had a very late cut-off time so retailers could keep their shops open until late . We also opened our parcel ship offering . We went into different markets , like SME markets , opened our consumer websites and started working with marketplaces . We had many more product lines , so that was the first phase .

The second phase was around customer experience and tech . We started to invest in a tech hub , an innovation lab , and we launched ‘ Digital Futures ’, which offered lots of features and benefits to consumers . Lately we ’ ve been trying to expand from a home delivery business in the UK into a home and out-of-home delivery business , not just in the UK but also internationally .

What is your management philosophy and how do you embed this across the business ?

I like people that work with content , actions and being close to the customer , the operations and the business . By knowing your business you can start forming your strategy .

Martijn De Lange , CEO , Hermes UK

“ To get your voice heard , you will have to spend time understanding the business , understanding the people , understanding the data and understanding how to make things better .”

Hermes is the largest dedicated parcel carrier in the UK , delivering more than 650 million parcels on behalf of 80 % of the UK ’ s top retailers . Over the last five years , CEO Martijn De Lange , has overseen the company triple in size and become a £ 1.5bn revenue business . Moving away from the traditional logistics culture , he is guiding the business to put the customer experience at its heart , led by technology , with an ambitious ‘ Digital Futures ’ Programme . He tells Intelligent CXO more about his role , leadership style and forward strategy .

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