Creative solutions, innovations: COO bares secrets to LBC’s success

MANILA, Philippines - "Competition is always good. I enjoy it actually," shares LBC Express Inc. president and chief operating officer Mike Camahort.

With decades of experience in the logistics industry, Camahort is used to finding creative solutions to overcome challenges, which of course, includes always being a step ahead of the competition.

The Philippines' logistics industry has been aggressively expanding through the years thanks to globalization and the rapid proliferation of e-commerce companies. The creation of the ASEAN Economic Community is also expected to help reshape the country’s logistics landscape.

For LBC, the rise of the internet economy has played a major role in the strong growth of its logistics business. "We are one of the major channels that e-commerce goes through to move their systems – both retail and corporate, that's been a great help to us," Camahort says.

Expertise and passion

Bringing his decades of experience in the logistics industry to LBC, Camahort has embraced the challenges presented to him from the very beginning.

After graduating from the College of Notre Dame in the US, the young Camahort quickly found himself in the logistics industry, getting hired as a salesman for one of the country's biggest shipping agencies at that time.

He then worked his way up from one position to another, eventually finding his way to LBC where he has been serving as president and chief operating officer for seven years now.

"With logistics, everyday there's a different problem, everyday there's a different challenge. It's very fluid. There's a lot of imagination and creativity needed to find the solutions required for the challenges that you encounter. It's very interesting which is why I enjoy it so much," says Camahort.

This same love for his job is something that he shares with the rest of the   executives and ordinary employees of the LBC group. 

"The (work) culture is great – from the shareholders down to the lowest level. It's a gung-ho culture. It's pretty much an open culture, when we get together at the end of the day, regardless of function, we're all just one big group. Majority of our employees, if not all, have a very big heart for LBC. Our tenure of stay here is long.  Their (employees) loyalty is with the company," Camahort says.

"Fantastic" times

As a result of the spirited work culture at LBC, the company enjoyed a "fantastic" first quarter performance. "We're above budgets even though it was tough for the first quarter, that's a good indication," Camahort says.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), LBC said its net income surged 109 percent to P217.40 million in the first quarter from P104.15 million in the same period last year.  Total revenues rose 12.3 percent to P2.016 billion from P1.84 billion a year ago. LBC said the growth was primarily derived from its logistics business, which posted a double-digit growth of 18.8 percent to P1.750 billion from P1.473 billion.

From aggressively investing in a number of new technologies to cope with the rapid rise in demand, Camahort and his team also developed the company's corporate solutions side, something that he considers as one of his achievements in the company.

"My first task in 2009 was to develop the corporate solutions side of the company, which is really my forte. I've always like the corporate side of things and good enough, the business has grown substantially. We started corporate solutions more than five years ago and it's been a leader for the company growth wise. It's been generating substantial revenues for the company," says Camahort.

Banking on LBC's strength as a brand –having the widest reach in the Philippines with over 1,300 retail branches and a growing presence abroad through its 70 branches and thousands more in their partner and agent network – Camahort is confident their venture into corporate solutions would go very far.

Looking ahead, Camahort says  they're already busy putting in place their plans for the next five years.

"We'll continue to expand our network, not just here but worldwide. We are trying to get closer to the communities outside of the cities. We'll also be rolling out more products that are very much related to the whole supply chain, warehousing, pick and pack etc. (All those are) in the works,” he explains.

For now, Camahort continues to enjoy the challenges brought about by competition, which he says keeps him and his team on their toes to always strive to be better. "We like to stay in number 1, so we continuously have to innovate."

Having been in the logistics business for more than 60 years, LBC has already established itself as a household name for courier services and other forwarding needs. Its reliability and competence has made it top of mind of Filipinos whether here or abroad, enabling it to continuously grow and expand its operations.

With so many plans lined up and Camahort’s tireless efforts to push the company forward, exciting times are definitely ahead for the country's market leader in logistics.