Meet Our Managing Executive: Byron Smith

1. What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Inquisitive, energetic, and passionate.

2. How would you describe your day job to a child?
I make sure that the shops have all your frozen pizzas available whenever you want to buy them.

3. What does a typical day look like for you?
Generally, I start my day by checking how well all our trucks despatched across the country, then a quick catch up with team before getting onto any project work or meetings. I engage quite a bit with customers to ensure that any challenges they are facing are dealt with effectively.

4. What makes you proud to be part of the Vector Logistics’ team?
I am proud of the exponential improvements we as an organisation have enabled over the last five to six years. I am proud of how we do so much to try and mitigate inflationary pressures on consumers, grow demand for customers and have a lot of fun at the same time.

5. How would you describe a high-performance organisation?
Constantly looking to improve whilst ensuring people are given the very best opportunities to grow their careers and their skill sets. A business that does not stand still, always looking for better ways of doing things and constantly challenging ourselves.

6. What does safety mean to you?
Safety is the cornerstone of everything we do, businesses that operate in highly organised, safe, and structured environments in most cases perform better than others. Our teams are our biggest asset, and a happy safe employee is always more productive and innovative.

7. How do you keep yourself/your team motivated?
I am by nature an incredibly positive person; I try not to see problems, but rather challenges that are solvable. I also love to see people do well and grow. I get motivated by positive change, by satisfied customers and by seeing teams excel. I also know that 90% of what we worry about never materialises, so focus on the things that matter and let go of the stuff that does not.

8. What do you like most about your job?
I love that I have been given the freedom to experiment and implement changes that make a real difference to our customers and our business. I also love that no day is ever the same.

9. Do you have a mentor/coach?
I do not have a formal mentor, but there are a number of people in our business who inspire me daily and I make the effort to learn as much as possible from them.

10. Given a chance, who would you like to be for a day?
Superman would be cool, would love to be able to fly.

11. If you were the CEO for a day, what would you change or introduce?
I think I would just focus on how we grow people, make sure everyone has the tools to do their job extremely well and everyone has a voice.

On a lighter note …

12. What is your most memorable facepalm (embarrassing) moment?
Probably when I went to present to a group of strangers at my previous company. I was 10 minutes into the presentation after all introductions when I realised, I was in the wrong room presenting to the totally wrong people, and they simply sat there and listened without saying a word.

13. When was the last time you laughed so hard?
Anytime I watch old Asterix and Obelix movies.

14. What is your guilty pleasure?
Has to be chocolate, lots of it from time to time.

15. What is one thing people do not know about you?
Most people do not know I am a highly active lifeguard and in my spare time I compete. I am also the head coach for the junior lifeguards at Umhlanga Rocks lifesaving club.

16. If you could invite one famous person (dead or alive) to dinner, who would it be and why?
Probably Steve Jobs. I am just fascinated by how he could see opportunities and ideas before anyone else even knew they were needs.