David Milne, Managing Director, KC Group Shipping
September 2021
“I completed the buyout of Raymond’s stake in KC in 2016. Looking back, that moment changed the future of the business. And it shaped me as a leader. But at the time, I sat in my office and looked out at the team working away, and thought ‘what do I do now?’”.
The story of David Milne is an incredible underdog story. As someone who wasn’t academic, David was told at school that he’d amount to nothing and got into more than a few scrapes. But a work experience placement at KC Group Shipping (KC for short) at the age of 15 changed his life.
Raymond Clarkson, the MD and owner of KC at the time, saw the drive, determination and passion in David and took him under his wing. A six-week summer job followed the work placement, and by the end of the summer, Raymond asked David to join the company. He moulded the hard-working youngster into someone who became a director in 2010. And he eventually sold his company to David in 2016, before sadly passing away suddenly in 2017. David’s is an incredible tale of the underdog winning the day.
An important lesson for us leaders is that Raymond looked past the patchy academic record and hired David based on his values, drive and work ethic (the latter David inherited from his father, who always worked two jobs). David describes what happened next.
“I was raw, to say the least. Raymond kept me in line, but he also trusted me from a young age. He was hands-on in my development and he moulded me from early on to be his successor. He let me make mistakes and learn from them, and he was there to help me pick up the pieces.”
More than 20 years on, and David has developed his own leadership style. The world is different from back then and David is a different personality from Raymond.
So how did David answer the question “what the hell do I do now”? He had already made an impact as sales director by diversifying the business’s reliance away from oil and gas (a timely move just before a big crash in oil prices). This foresight had built up some credibility among the team.
But David saw there was a lot more to do. There was no management structure at all, so David built a senior team around him, and now has five senior leaders. He has been careful to hire people based on their values and not just their experience or academics – an approach that has served him well. As he so eloquently puts it: I’m determined not to put a bum on a seat, but rather pull a star from the sky”.
But the biggest change David made was in the shift in the culture he has led from 2016 onwards.
“When I took over in 2016, the culture was old fashioned, even toxic and chauvinistic in some areas. I knew I had to modernise how we interacted, both with customers and colleagues. Now, everyone knows what’s expected of them and what they can expect from the company. And everyone has the ability to direct the future of the business. We frequently hear comments like ‘I’ll never work anywhere else’ and ‘this is the best place I’ve ever worked’.”
And this culture shift is rubbing off on the customer service.
The 2020-2021 period was intense for KC, which helps companies transport their goods around the world. The pandemic closed ports and disrupted supply chains for all of KC’s customers. Then there was the grounding of a large container ship in the Suez Canal. Meanwhile, Brexit took effect and customs processes and documentation between the EU and the UK changed overnight. So how did KC cope with this chaos?
“We have a strong management team and our culture enabled people to genuinely support one another. Covid caused significant challenges for us but we pulled together and managed every obstacle placed in our path. I was very proud to watch them take ownership. And I thought: we’re going somewhere here. With the right people, the right experience, skills and determination, we came through it stronger.”
Meanwhile, Brexit has created a huge influx of new business, as the process for transporting goods throughout Europe has required new customs declarations – and customers needed support. KC coped with this by focusing first on understanding what was needed and looking after their existing customers. So, David took the brave step of closing to new clients for the months of March and April 2021 which afforded KC the opportunity to prioritise existing clients’ supply chains. They used that time to review processes, bring in new people and put training in place for them.
David says the team communicated well and picked up the phone to talk to customers, remaining transparent and proactive throughout. As a result, they’ve maintained customer service in the toughest environment for supply chains in living memory.
Not only that, but the work that David and his team have done in recent years has led to incredible sales growth, from group turnover of £7m five years ago to £20m this year. KC has also enjoyed double-digit growth in profits, and an increase in staffing levels from 12 in 2021 to 34 in 2021.
Despite that growth, David has a very clear vision for KC. He wants KC to be remembered as the company that took shipping customer service to a new level. David doesn’t want to compete with Fedex, UPS and DHL, the incredibly successful giants in this sector. But he believes that KC’s hybrid model of digital and personal service makes them a ‘unique boutique’.
Having benefited from a patient mentor in Raymond, David has an ambition to enable kids just like he was – the next ‘underdog’ – to achieve his or her potential. So what advice would David give to a young aspiring leader with a similar background to his?
“Hard work comes before success. it’s not as it seems on Instagram stories. Hard work is the reality, irrespective of academic success. I still remember what Raymond said to me very early on in my career:
‘Money is irrelevant at your age (David was 22 at the time). When money starts to matter later in life, you’ll reap the benefits of your hard work.’
“In other words, Raymond said: be patient and trust me. And although patience is not one of my greatest virtues, he was right.”
The underdog became the hero.
If you’d like to know more about David’s story, you can find him here on the KC Group Shipping website. And if you know of a young underdog who has the potential to become the next big thing in shipping, I’m sure David would be happy to hear from you.
theleadstory.co 