J.B. Hunt Topic Of New Book By Waller, Thompson

(TB&P) — Matt Waller, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, and Shelley Simpson, executive vice president, chief commercial officer and president of Highway Services for Lowell-based carrier J.B. Hunt Transport Services, recently spoke about managing change, inefficiencies in the supply chain and a book about how the carrier set itself apart from the transportation industry.

Waller and J.B. Hunt chairman Kirk Thompson recently wrote “Purple on the Inside” that goes to press June 1. The book is about strategy and change management, and it uses J.B. Hunt as an example, Waller said.

When freight demand evaporated in July 2006, Thompson looked to shift freight to the rails, disrupting the carrier’s legacy truckload segment, said Simpson, noting the carrier went through intermodal and brokerage changes concurrently. She also discussed the importance of consistency for the carrier and that the scoreboard didn’t always reflect the work the employees did.

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