Steve Jordan reports on the panel discussion at FIDI and offers his opinion of the ongoing issue.
Jesse van Sas chaired a panel discussion at the FIDI conference in Cannes to explore the relationship between movers and RMCs. It’s an important discussion but, on reflection, I wonder whether most of the audience was much wiser at the end than they were at the beginning? Certainly I felt that way.
That’s not a reflection on Jesse as the moderator. As always he did an excellent job, and also managed to push the FIDI/FAIM agenda as often and as hard as possible. No, it was just that I felt the panellists, while appearing to try to answer the questions, sometimes did a very good job of not doing so. At least not in a way that gave me much clarity.
The panel consisted of Ben Ivory from Graebel, who had also been on the Diversity panel the day before. FIDI was working Ben hard. Jim Edwards from Altair. Drew Coolidge from SIRVA, and Eric Tate from Aires.
Jesse’s first question was intended to get an old chestnut out of the way to make some space for broader discussions. Were RMCs still considered to be the enemy? Ben said that RMCs had come into being because there was a need from clients and they still had a role today. Jim rightly pointed out that RMCs can’t move people, so the relationship with movers was increasingly being seen as a partnership.
FAIM 2022 requirements
What do customers think of the new FAIM 2022 standards? Eric said that having sustainability and compliance standards were ‘table stakes’ at this point. “It’s 100% prerequisite. It’s how you differentiate yourself in these areas that’s important.”
Jim said that standards must cascade down through the supply chain ...
Photo: The panel discussion.