Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX to focus on "deep analytics" and sales to drive growth

CSX has reorganized its marketing and sales function to separate the marketing and sales, both of which continue to report to Mark Wallace.

Marketing & Strategy will engage in deep analytics and high imperatives.  This is a popular trend among some companies, where a special unit focuses on opportunities five, ten, twenty years out. Looks at major trends, and the company's positioning, etc.

Sales will focus on sales, and will have a new unit for selling to small and medium sized companies.  It's not clear whether this is the single boxcar, short line relationships, or something different.

Seeking Alpha link

Will RR's ever learn?  They screw the customer (per Hunter Harrison), lose carload business, then go back later on and try to get them back.

Over and over and over again.....no wonder some customers just slam the door.

This is interesting; thanks for sharing.  My impression has been that Mr. Adams is "going places" and this change could be a positive one.  There is some logic in separating the strategic from the transactional, and establishing separate goals and objectives for each team.

JUTower Wrote:
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> This is interesting; thanks for sharing.  My
> impression has been that Mr. Adams is "going
> places" and this change could be a positive one. 
> There is some logic in separating the strategic
> from the transactional, and establishing separate
> goals and objectives for each team.

I agree, and to ‘coach’, there is no value in lamenting over what used to be or might have been.  If this is an effort to gain back, or generate new, business then I’m all for it.

Gordon

Is there any railroad union employee on here who did not laugh (or cry) when they read:
"deep analytics and high imperatives"?

The BS is knee deep.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/19 08:58 by Englewood.

Well ya, but at least this is some kind of admission that there just might be a lack of business from trying to dictate terms to the shippers.

NYC6001 Wrote:
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> Well ya, but at least this is some kind of
> admission that there just might be a lack of
> business from trying to dictate terms to the
> shippers.

Yes.

I'm extremely interested to see what (if anything) this will mean to the ten loads a month shipper. There's a whole lot of highly profitable stuff like plastic pellets of ethane derivatives, gas pipe, waste hauling, etc that could be very useful to CSX's profit line.
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Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is there any railroad union employee on here who
> did not laugh (or cry) when they read:
> "deep analytics and high imperatives"?
>
> The BS is knee deep.

"Deep analytics" usually means looking for things which can destroy your business model (like the change from coal to natural gas), or give it a big lift (like the growth of polyethylene pellet shipments).  Being able to work with counties and states to land those future big shippers can pay dividends for years.

People often don't look out very far, and assume most stuff will be the same in five or ten years. That can be a big mistake, and railroads make that mistake a lot.

You may hit a few crappers, but the home runs pay for a lot of mistakes.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:

> "Deep analytics" usually means looking for things
> which can destroy your business model

Like being taken over by some pump and dump stockholders who bring in a half-dead CEO
to kite the stock price and run off business?

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is there any railroad union employee on here who did not laugh (or cry) when they read:
> "deep analytics and high imperatives"?
>
> The BS is knee deep.

'Deep analytics and high imperatives'...the latest fad in corporate speak...aka, the lastest version of the magic 'silver bullet'. (my personal most hated phrase was 'going forward...blah blah...)

I wish I still had the copy of a pre-email-days xerox passaround...the gist was the developer stated 'this product is crap' to his boss.  The boss then presented it as 'fertilizer' to his boss, who presented it as 'good for company growth' to the marketing department, which then advertised it as the 'silver bullet' to fix all problems, etc...  There were more 'descriptive' steps along the way, but I'm sure you get the gist of it.  Keep watching the Dilbert cartoon strip in your paper or online.  The author must have spent many years at big corporations as his insights are 100% accurate!

Englewood Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
>
> > "Deep analytics" usually means looking for
> things
> > which can destroy your business model
>
> Like being taken over by some pump and dump
> stockholders who bring in a half-dead CEO
> to kite the stock price and run off business?

Perfect example.

If you know that your major share holders don't under stand the plan, or don't have confidence in you, you are in trouble.

(This one is for you, CEO Mike Ward. Not having a deep and competent management bench is a big FAIL.

Mantle Ridge owned less than 2% of CSX, but still stampeded share owners to rake over.

Posted from Android

        Most have no 'vested interest' in making any of this work. It is all very short term goals for the executives to simply jump up to the next level at any company, not just where they are. Easy to do since the others are snakes too, no one talks about that worthless crap going on that never benefits the company. They each feed of each other at the water fountain as to what is 'working for them' . You have to know all the current buzz words and use them properly. When the business is separated as mentioned in the post, neither side will take responsibility for any failures. Just write the properly worded BS reports.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Marketing & Strategy will engage in deep analytics
> and high imperatives.  This is a popular trend
> among some companies, where a special unit focuses
> on opportunities five, ten, twenty years out.
> Looks at major trends, and the company's
> positioning, etc.

This is a good idea provided you get the right sort of people in it who have a vision for all the different things a railroad can do and then examine whether CSX will participate in this given larger secular trends or potential counter-trends. The lack of this thinking is how the railroads got caught by surprise with the crude oil opportunity, which was always staring them in the face.

Hopefully they start asking the right sort of questions about participation in the actual freight market which is short-to-medium haul and involves final delivery instead of continuing to isolate themselves in the 10% tail of the market that is long distance movement.

> Sales will focus on sales, and will have a new
> unit for selling to small and medium sized
> companies.  It's not clear whether this is the
> single boxcar, short line relationships, or
> something different.

Will the new small/medium unit go an knock on doors?  They could literally increase their carload business by an order of magnitude by just knocking on doors and talking to customers.  Every shortline that has ever existed has clearly demonstrated this.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Englewood Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> >
> > > "Deep analytics" usually means looking for
> > things
> > > which can destroy your business model
> >
> > Like being taken over by some pump and dump
> > stockholders who bring in a half-dead CEO
> > to kite the stock price and run off business?
>
> Perfect example.
>
> If you know that your major share holders don't
> under stand the plan, or don't have confidence in
> you, you are in trouble.
>
> (This one is for you, CEO Mike Ward. Not having a
> deep and competent management bench is a big
> FAIL.
>
> Mantle Ridge owned less than 2% of CSX, but still
> stampeded share owners to rake over.

The fact that NS felt obliged to send high level managers to work for CSX under Mike Ward just to keep the place from being completely screwed up says a lot.

I had a recent exercise in helping a shortline try to market a transload opportunity in the east.  They are CSX served.

Locally, the line is considered a member of the community and has good relationships.   But when the question came up of the connections and service off the shortline, and when it was CSX, the universal reaction was 'we're not interested then'.  That's what they are dealing with.    And the paint isn't even dry on them closing many, many domestic intermodal terminals, basically telling customers to go elsewhere.   And the pressure from CSX on shortlines to be a switching carrier instead of interline settlement - essentially remarketing CSX with an add-on cost - doesn't help a bit.

I think everybody that ever talked to CSX got that 'big marketing change' email, but it was completely bereft of substance.    Everybody is looking for something, anything, to indicate policy and change and when it comes right down to it, you can't find people, current information, or much of anything since the EEH shakeup.  

The only paradigm shift that's out there that can help the rail market share issue is the growing shortage of truck drivers and the impact on trucking rates.  And in the face of that, cutting domestic intermodal service seems rather insane.

BRAtkinson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Englewood Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is there any railroad union employee on here who
> did not laugh (or cry) when they read:
> > "deep analytics and high imperatives"?
> >
> > The BS is knee deep.
>
> 'Deep analytics and high imperatives'...the latest
> fad in corporate speak...aka, the lastest version
> of the magic 'silver bullet'. (my personal most
> hated phrase was 'going forward...blah blah...)
>
> I wish I still had the copy of a pre-email-days
> xerox passaround...the gist was the developer
> stated 'this product is crap' to his boss.  The
> boss then presented it as 'fertilizer' to his
> boss, who presented it as 'good for company
> growth' to the marketing department, which then
> advertised it as the 'silver bullet' to fix all
> problems, etc...  There were more 'descriptive'
> steps along the way, but I'm sure you get the gist
> of it.  Keep watching the Dilbert cartoon strip
> in your paper or online.  The author must have
> spent many years at big corporations as his
> insights are 100% accurate!

Englewood, I think the BS is MUCH higher than knee deep these days. And as BRAtkinson observes, chasing after and parroting the latest fad is a modern corporate thing; i.e., it's not just a railroad thing, much less limited to CSX. The world of Dilbert is indeed reality.

I used to think "analysis" was a pretty useful word. Heck, I've even engaged in it. But in our modern world of parrot-speak and a new suit of the emporer's new clothes every 6 months, people have to coin new terms that don't mean anything to supplant those which have been around for eons. I've searched on the I-net and have yet to find a coherent definition of "analytics" and how it differs fundamentally from analysis. It does sound pretty cool and impressive though, doesn't it? Add an adjective and you have "deep analytics" and "deep data." Words that end in "-ity" sound catchy and are therefore very popular. "Visibility" is probably the most abused. "Agility" is another, and there's a whole religion or cult (much like Six Sigma) that has become the industry of "Agile." What used to be called forecasting is now predictive analytics. Instead of providing an ETA (or in the case of marine operations, and Estimated time of discharge or availability), companies now tout their "predictive visibility tool" using artificial intelligence.

And the people in charge of all of this at CSX are a joke. Let's just look at Wallace's background, as one example:

From the CSX website:JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – July 9, 2018 – CSX Corporation (NASDAQ: CSX) today announced that Mark Wallace has been appointed executive vice-president sales and marketing and Diana Sorfleet has been appointed executive vice-president and chief administrative officer.Wallace joined CSX in March 2017 as executive vice-president corporate affairs and chief of staff and was named executive vice-president and chief administrative officer in January 2018.About Wallace:Wallace began his railroad career at CN in January 1995 as an analyst in the Taxation and Treasury function to assist on CN’s very successful initial public offering.  He then worked in Investor Relations for five years before becoming chief of staff to president and chief executive officer Hunter Harrison and then held other senior management roles until leaving the company in March 2010.  Wallace joined Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) in July 2012 as vice-president corporate affairs and chief of staff to help transform CP from an industry laggard to an industry leader.  Wallace left CP in January 2017 to join CSX in March 2017.

Boone is a real winner as well, basically being a Wall Street analyst. And then there's Maryclare Kenney.