ES. Your love for this industry reflects from the fact that you have spent over three decades of your professional journey working in it. Can you please share with us some major milestones achieved over the years?
Daniel Mithran. There are 2 facets of the milestones achieved – One is my personal development and the other is the company’s achievement. My journey started 38 years ago when I was recruited by an Exhibition Logistics company as an executive to oversee their newly set up base in Malaysia. 6 years later I was headhunted by a large organization to spearhead their Far East operations that was commencing in the Exhibition logistics business. Within 5 years this Organization who employs 500,000 people around the world decided that the exhibition logistics business was too small to generate the turnover they are accustomed to with their other large business’s that included Hotels, Supermarket chains, Motor vehicle dealerships, Property development and Construction. This resulted in a Management buyout in 1996 that saw my partners and I take over the business and the rest as they say is history.
As for the Company – in the last 32 years, I would say our greatest milestone achievement is in retaining our personnel. All the senior personnel within JIM have been with the company anywhere from 15 to 32 years. It is this experience that has seen us successfully handle large defence and Aerospace exhibitions in Malaysia and Brunei, general exhibitions, Motorsports events, Stage shows, Concerts, Private events and demonstrations. The most honourable Accolade that JIM has ever received was being judged by our Worldwide peers in IELA as being the BEST DOMESTIC AGENT in 2017.
ES. How JIM’s services are exceptional from start to finish? How would you go the extra mile in keeping a customer satisfied?
Daniel Mithran. For starters all personnel in JIM are accessible round the clock. You will get an answer from us anywhere within 24 hours with exception to when we require to source information from third parties like shipping lines, airlines or overseas destination services. We also monitor every aspect of the movement and update our customers in stages. Our crew work round the clock and on weekends where need be to complete set-ups and tear downs. We have a separate team on standby to offer our customers additional services like sundry and hardware runs, assistance with model rectification, welding works, case repair or just a cup of coffee. We act as an extension of the customers own team to successfully complete the set-ups and tear downs.
ES. Could you share the story of how JIM has successfully handled exhibits/stand fittings and props for over 2000 organizations over the past decade? What were the challenges faced during the projects?
Daniel Mithran. Be it on an import or an export movement our dedicated crew take it upon themselves to ensure timely delivery and set up of the exhibition material. On import or domestic shows, besides the set-up, the crew challenges themselves on the return delivery of empties at the close of an exhibition. At the close of an exhibition all exhibitors want the empties returned as fast as possible to complete their repacking and leave the venue. On small shows this is easy but on large shows the customers needs are the same We overcame this challenge by developing a dolly system similar to a railroad coupling that interconnects and detaches the dollies with ease during the return of empty cases. Our current record is the delivery of 400 cubic metres of empty cases within 30 minutes of a show closing. On export exhibitions, our partnership with other IELA agents in the country of destination continues to provide us with the support services for the successful completion of our tasks.
ES. Have you encountered a crisis situation while transporting exhibition logistics recently? If so, could you share with us any interesting stories?
Daniel Mithran. Post pandemic, Shipping lines and Airlines have been notorious with bumping off freight with reasons being anything from trimming of loads, backlogs, overbookings etc. This was quite scarce in the past with Ship and Aircraft load planners being masters at their game. We recently had a shipment in transit in a third country where the mother ship was fully booked and couldn’t load our container. Even the next ship was fully booked and we were offered a vessel 3 weeks from the Original date and even that was with no guarantees. If we were informed of this situation before the loading, we would have cancelled the booking. Unfortunately we were left with a very bad situation that required a decision that was going to have a time and financial impact.
We offered the customer a solution of unloading the container and airfreighting the cargo the rest of the distance. Reluctantly he accepted the plan. We managed to get the freight to the show in time albeit with a substantial financial impact to us and the customer. Through no fault of ours,it did not leave us in a very endearing position with our customer. The recourse with the shipping line is an almost impossible and arduous process. My advise to others in this Industry is as follows: if you don’t find a direct vessel, be very careful to accept cargo only on a very early cut off date.(Meaning a vessel arriving at least a month before the show).That way you still have room to manoeuvre. If the customer can’t comply, turn down the shipment as you will certainly be taking a big gamble otherwise.
ES. What is your expectation from IELA Congress, MALTA? How can the IELA network support the transformation of the exhibition industry?
Daniel Mithran. The IELA Congress in Malta will be discussing the future of our Industry. IELA have always been the World Leaders in the Exhibition Logistics Industry with our network controlling 80 percent of the Exhibition Logistics movements worldwide. As the Exhibition Industry transforms inline with environmental sustainability, logistics contributes about 24 percent of the global CO2 emissions. IELA is already in the process of assisting it’s members towards a plan to transform their business’s towards a carbon neutral position that will eventually lead to a nett Carbon Zero.
ES. The next few years is also set to witness the rise of immersive technologies such as virtual reality, mixed reality and augmented reality. According to you, what would be the future trends that will influence the exhibition logistics industry?
Daniel Mithran. Exhibition Logistics will never again see the large volumes at shows that used to be between 10,000 and 15,000 cubic metres of cargo. Volumes have dropped drastically and continue to drop as customers now weigh in between actual movements and virtual reality. Human nature being what it is, we still like to look at and feel the real thing. Customers will still transport exhibits but this will be in smaller quantities. The customers would instead augment this with other forms of virtual reality,3D’s works etc. Organisers would continue to be able to sell large spaces but customers presentations would centre around this trend. Even stand fittings will be built for reuse. For the Exhibition Logistics forwarder, the reusable stands would open a new area of business.
ES. What’s your expansion plan?
Daniel Mithran. The pandemic that no one in the world has experienced before put a severe dent in the Exhibition Industry. It truly devastated us with a lot of organizations closing down as a result of this. For those of us that survived , it exposed the vulnerability of our Industry. The trend for the next couple of years will be in sustaining the business’s and building up larger reserves with low plans on expansion.
ES. According to you what are the top challenges faced by the logistics Industry today?
Daniel Mithran. The top challenges faced by the Exhibition Logistics Industry today is the bureaucratic red tape that continues to be created by all nations. Every country is trying to outdo each other with more conditions on import on export. As these happen, the Airlines and Shipping lines are latching on to this and imposing their own conditions as well. All of these create loads and loads of additional work for the Exhibition Forwarder just to move something from one Country to another.
ES. What is your leadership style?
Daniel Mithran. I would say that I have a coaching leadership style but I tend to be Authoritative at times. My success with retaining staff and building future leaders leaves my Company with a good source of succession planning.
ES. What is your message to the industry?
Daniel Mithran. I can only speak to the Exhibition forwarders – The Industry continues to evolve with the highest financial impact of transformation to Nett Carbon Zero affecting the forwarders who will need to upgrade transport and material handling equipment. Our business is shrinking, it cannot sustain more exhibition forwarders over time. The reasonable thing for us to do is to sit down and merge or consolidate our positions. I’m at the tail end of my Career as I hit 60 soon but with 38 years in the business I believe my read of the Industry has been accurate with the exception of the pandemic.
