Today we went to our last site visit of the trip. We were originally supposed to visit Wargaming but they had an issue come up so thankfully GAP was able to host us. When we first walked into the building we saw an extremely open layout which we later learned is how they design all of their floors in order to promote communication. After sitting down in a conference room we met Petros Vassilopoulos and his nephew who presented on their business and how it connects to supply chain management. Dr Vassilopoulos went into great detail on the different types of services that their company offers. These include shipping, insurance, transport and logistics, airlines, hospitality, airport management, financial services, merchandising, business solutions technology, and port management. This extensive list of services may seem unrelated, but after further explanation we learned that they are all interconnected which allows for a seamless shipping process. In an example Dr Vassilopoulos gave us, GAP would ship the item, insure the item that is being shipped, help it arrive at the port, clear it by customs, deliver or store the goods, and pay with their dermal. All of these services are integrated which means that each customer recognizes all of these as one company. They mentioned that the company treats each service as a “mini company” that is connected with the other mini companies. This is a prime example of vertical integration which was very interesting to learn about first hand from one of the board members.
Not only is Dr Vassilopoulos a member of the board, but he is also a professor in supply chain management. His experience in this field allowed him to give us an in depth explanation of many SCM concepts, but the one that stuck out to me the most was the balance between efficiency and being agile. Efficiency refers to producing in columns of scale (aka bulk) and producing at a much higher quantity for a cheaper cost. Agile on the other hand means to be flexible and able to adjust to change. Dr Vassilopoulos said it well when he said, “The only thing that is constant is change”. This mindset led the company to take more of an agile approach despite the fact that there was a trend in the shipping industry when the lean strategy was very popular. He said that when companies are too caused on efficiency they do not do well because when something needs to change (such as when Covid hit) they are unable to successfully adjust and their business suffers. The most important thing to do when evaluation efficient and agile strategies is to take into account the needs of the customer. Customers want two things: the lowest price and highest quality possible. When a company is agile yet efficient they are able to meet their clients’ demands which is a sign of a good business, such as GAP – Vassilopoulos. Although our site visits in Cyprus are over, I am certain that as a business major I will attend countless more. I will use my experience asking questions and active listening that I learned here and take them with me for my future professional site visit experiences.
