In his roles as president of CH Powell Co. and president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, Geoffrey C. “Geoff” Powell carries on a family tradition built on collaboration and respect. Since starting in the firm’s Boston office more than 40 years ago as a shorts-wearing, briefcase-toting 12-year-old, Powell has been dedicated to excellence in the freight forwarding and customs brokerage industry. In an exclusive interview with the American Journal of Transportation, Powell, who now lives and works in the Baltimore area, shares his thoughts on the family business, NCBFAA priorities and the importance of cooperation, communication and the personal touch.
Working in a family business with more than a dozen kin, Geoffrey C. Powell, president of CH Powell Co., is seldom left out in the cold. He’s also warmed by his role as president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.
Working in a family business with more than a dozen kin, Geoffrey C. Powell, president of CH Powell Co., is seldom left out in the cold. He’s also warmed by his role as president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.
What’s it like carrying on a family business tradition that began way back in 1919 with the company’s founding by your grandfather, C.H. Powell, and working with not only your dad, Peter H. Powell Sr., but also several other Powells? Not only my grandfather, but grandmother as well. She was one of the first women to receive her customs broker’s license in Boston. She worked into her 80s with her four sons. In short, enormous pride and respect. At a young age, along with brothers, sister and many cousins and uncles, we were taught to respect the business. We started in summers and vacations delivering documents to customs and the steamship lines, which allowed each of us to learn the business from the ground up. At the current time, we have 14 family members working full time in the business. Dad still comes into work, and he turns 80 in April, and his older brother, my uncle Paul, still comes to work every day, and he’s 82. But my grandmother, their mother, worked until she was 83, so they’ve still got a little bit of time to go. The second generation can work as long as they want. Third generation, we said, “Look, once you’re 70, you’ve gotta go.” We are a very close-knit family, with mutual respect for each other. We work hard together and play hard together and have since our childhoods. In a family business, especially one where there are so many family members involved, it is very important that non-family members must also be provided an opportunity for advancement within the organization. We have many key managers and senior leadership in the company that are not family members, and have family members working for them. I think this is a good example where we are showing the respect for the company. It is our belief that the company’s interests must take precedence over those of the individuals. How has CH Powell expanded, including through Tandem Global Logistics, to keep pace with industry demands? Not just industry demands, but familial needs. As more family members joined the company, we knew that we had an opportunity to place individuals in growing markets and expand in the U.S. As the third generation came into the business, we expanded from a predominantly Northeast-concentrated company to now being present in all the major gateways in the U.S. When the fourth generation started joining, at the same time we looked to become more global and have the ability for more control over supply chains for many of our customers. I do not believe that we expanded solely due to industry demands, but more to meet the needs of our customers and expand our services. That is what is great about this industry. There are many small brokers and forwarders that are very relevant and have a very strong niche market and I believe will continue to flourish. As you’re now completing your first year as president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America – of which your father was president from 1998 to 2002 – could you please fill us in on what you see as current priorities for U.S. brokers and forwarders and what the association is doing in this regard? It is a great honor to follow in my father’s footsteps and become the president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America. I think this is a very important association as our role is not just to advocate for our members and the industry, but also to assist our members to make their businesses successful. I see three major priorities that our industry will be addressing in the short term: • The Automated Commercial Environment, or ACE; • The International Trade Data System, or ITDS; and • Process improvement for exports. On November 1st, ACE will become fully functional in that all brokers will need to be filing all entries through ACE, and no longer through the Automated Commercial System, known as ACS. What this means is that, if a broker does not have the ability to file entries through ACE, they will have to submit paper. In this automated world, I am very concerned that those who are not on ACE may not be able to survive that long. Granted, ACE has been in development for over 10 years, many thought it would never be completed, but that day is here. NCBFAA senior leadership met with [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] Commissioner [Gus] Kerlikowske and Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith a few weeks ago, and I was very concerned about the statistics they provided. Only 46.9 percent of entries that could have been filed in ACE were in fact filed in ACE. Of the 2,400 filers, only 955 companies have actually sent entries through ACE. That leaves over 60 percent of the filers to get on ACE by Nov. 1. The NCBFAA has been providing weekly ACE tips, provided webinars and seminars for our members to prepare them for ACE implementation, and has worked with our affiliated associations throughout the country to see if we can assist then in getting out the word. I recently sent out a personalized letter to each one of our members to encourage them to migrate to ACE right away and provided a series of questions that they should be asking of their software providers. We have encouraged our members to ask our ACE experts any questions they may have to assist them in this regard. At our annual conference in April [to be held April 19-23 in Orlando, Fla.], we again will be assisting our members to meet the Nov. 1 date. Regarding ITDS, in February 2014, President Obama signed Executive Order 13659, which required any government agency involved in international trade to be on the International Trade Data System by December 2016 in order to streamline the import/export process. In less than two years, 47 government agencies will be required to receive all relevant data through the single window. The NCBFAA has been very active as we have NCBFAA members who are working on CBP’s Trade Support Network, or TSN; ITDS board of directors; and the Advisory Committee for Commercial Operations of CBP, known as COAC. The NCBFAA senior leadership and our representatives have had conference calls every two weeks to update, coordinate and strategize our efforts to meet this December 2016 deadline. The NCBFAA has had a few meetings with the leadership of the Border Interagency Executive Council, or BIEC, which is responsible for the interagency coordination. A number of the agencies understand the critical role the customs broker and freight forwarder will play in this due to not only our understanding of the process but all the data our industry provides. A number of our members have been actively engaged in work groups and pilots, and we see this continuing until all agencies are part of the single window. The NCBFAA will continue its outreach to our members, providing updates and preparing them for the completion of the single window. On the subject of process improvement for exports, over five years ago, President Obama began the National Export Initiative with the goal to double exports from the U.S. Although we have not reached that goal, exports have increased dramatically over the last five years. The federal government has initiated a number of programs to allay the fears of potential exporters and better educate them on the export process. Recently, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls began the Export Control Reform Initiative, to allow some goods that once required State Department licenses to be exported to now ship under either a BIS export license or a license exception. This would allow a number of products to export from the U.S. with greater clarity on license requirements and therefore move quickly to market. There are also some federal advisory committees, specifically COAC and the President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration, that are reviewing the detailed export process that COAC mapped out, to identify areas of opportunities that might minimize delays in export shipments, but also provide a clear understanding to potential exporters on the process, thus allaying fears. The advisory committees are making recommendations to the respective government agencies in the hope to facilitate trade and optimize communication between and amongst government agencies, thus decreasing delays in the export process, yet maintaining control and compliance. Do you believe that cooperation and collaboration have become increasingly important to efficient supply chains and, if so, how? I think it has become critical, not just important. Since 9/11, I believe that our industry approach to the supply chain has changed dramatically. The discussions about the supply chain moved from efficiencies gained to the critical requirement that they remain safe, yet still yield the efficiencies. This does not come without cooperation and collaboration. I believe the NCBFAA is a great example of cooperation and collaboration, as our members have taken this to heart. Although we are competitors, we understand how important the impact that a disruption to major supply chains would have on our business and therefore need to learn from each other, making recommendations based on best practices, but yet still keep that competitive spirit. Certainly, technology is playing an ever-growing role in logistics services, but, in your opinion, are personal relationships and communication still critical? In my opinion, personal relationships, communication and customer service will always be critical, no matter how automated we become. I believe, in our industry, there will always be the need for the personal touch. I believe that what makes our industry so exciting is all the different variables that can impact an airfreight shipment, an ocean freight, truck or rail shipment, a customs entry, classifications, valuations, warehouse storage and distribution, export licensing and so on. We all invest in our IT [information technology] platforms to assist in our work, but it all comes down to who is doing the job, and having the relationship with one’s customer, vendor, partner and knowing you can pick up the phone to address the variable that no one programmed or planned for and get it taken care of. We are constantly trading data between ourselves, our customers, carriers, truckers and so forth, but I believe we can only be as good as our relationship is with that party. We all have those that we know we can go to in a pinch and feel almost certain that something is going to be taken care of, and I believe it is most of our ambitions to be that person or company that can be called upon and get it accomplished. What motivates you in your work and personal life, and how do you most enjoy spending time when you manage to get away from the job? I started with the company, as did a number of my family members, when I was 12 in the Boston office. In the office, my grandmother wasn’t Nana or Mother; she was Mrs. Powell, she was the boss. And you were darn lucky to have a job at 12 years old in the middle of summertime – myself and all my cousins. I think that’s why we all get along so well, because we have this respect for the business, to the point we were delivering bills of lading to steamship lines or delivering entries to the customs house and going to the customs house and getting the names of the vessels that were coming in the next day so we could make entries. So we were runners. We knew our competitors up there – the Fitzpatricks and the Goodhues and the Procters and Pistorinos – and they all had children. So, even when you went into your competitor, you’d go into the boss, and they’d say, “Now who are you? Whose son are you?” I guess you would get a couple of stares as a 12-year-old walking down the street in shorts with a briefcase with a bunch of documents, but, y’know, we didn’t think anything of it. I do take great pride in the company and enjoy seeing where it has grown and made changes in the industry. We hope that we’re a leader, and we hope that we provide our customer with a good service. At the same time, we hope we’re making some money so we stay in business next year. I have varied interests, including golf, hunting and some traveling. I enjoy spending time with my family, not just my immediate family, but all the family that I work with as well, whether we’re camping, golfing, skiing or just getting together for barbeque and beers.