EQ United announced the promotion of Kevin Beasley from division director to vice president of EQ Logistics, effective Sept. 1.
“This was well earned and much deserved,” said Jason Loose, chief operating officer of EQ United. “Kevin and I have worked side by side for a long time, and I could not be happier to see him step into this role. Look, titles come and go, but Kevin lives our values.”
Beasley said that he wanted to thank leadership and the company’s loyal customers for their trust and confidence. He explained how hard he has worked to maintain and grow the company’s reputation within the logistics industry, while building a healthy culture and workplace environment.
“It’s all about our values,” Beasley said. “We want to be good at what we do, and we want to treat people the same way we would treat our own family. People should be able to come to work and be treated with dignity and enjoy what they do. We are living our lives at work. If we do those things, that is what I will be proud of at the end of the day. That is how I see my role.”
Since Beasley joined in 2002, EQ Logistics has grown from a small operation into a regional brand with the service and support to match. Under his leadership, the division moved from informal, word-of-mouth training to documented processes and continuous improvement practices. Beasley explained that he hoped the move would de-silo organizational knowledge, so that it lives in the company’s systems rather than in one person’s head.
“We manage ourselves now based on continuous improvement and documenting our processes, instead of ‘go let him talk to so-and-so so he can get trained,’” Beasley said. “When something comes up, you have to ask, ‘What was the root cause? How do you fix it? How do we stop it from happening again?’ It’s an ongoing process, and it takes a while to build that mentality into the culture. It’s about retaining organizational knowledge and developing the organization, developing your systems, so it doesn’t revert back to one warehouse manager with all the organizational knowledge in his head.”
That mindset doesn’t stop at the warehouse door. The same discipline also governs how EQ Logistics treats the customers it already has, the company said, which Beasley considers the foundation of any growth the division earns.
“You know how difficult the sales and marketing effort can be to bring on new business,” Beasley explained. “If you don’t take care of the customers you have, you’re not going to grow in this type of business. Your reputation is important. You have to have good policies and make thoughtful decisions that demonstrate your ethics and professionalism and earn their trust and respect. I think we can be proud of how we treat our customers.”
Asked what he hopes EQ Logistics looks like in another 25 years, Beasley pointed past himself.
“The goal is an organization that survives without me and retains the same culture and values around quality, developing people and treating people with respect,” he said.
