Message from the Publisher

By Tony Sciarrotta, Reverse Logistics Association

Since 2016 when I took over the Reverse Logistics Association, the RLA has managed to become the global voice of our industry, thanks in large part to the members who are thought leaders finding ways to make a difference. As the global pandemic changed the world, suddenly reverse logistics, returns management, and the Circular Economy became relevant and there is a significant focus on our industry. There is a need for more people to be trained in these important areas to help reduce returns, improve processing, and increase asset recovery. That has been the mission of the RLA after I restarted the organization to be member focused and promote best practices and solutions.

To those of us who have been in the industry for many years, this is a challenge we have worked on and most of us found ways to make a difference at our companies. The basic recipe for success in the RL industry is below –

If you are a retailer or manufacturer, put someone at a senior level in charge of returns.

1. The Director needs to read everything possible about returns from RL Magazine, RL Newsletters, RL Industry Research, and many other articles with information to become a subject matter expert.
2. The Director needs to have a finance person engaged to help measure and understand the end-to-end numbers of costs and volumes.
3. The Director must have great influencing skills.
4. The Director needs a budget to get out and attend events to learn more and meet the thought leaders who will share ideas.
5. The Director will cross over many departments in any company to make the differences needed.
6. The Director will need to go out and see what the best operations look like and put out RFIs to know what it costs to make the improvements needed.
7. The Director can build customer loyalty by pushing ways to exceed the customer expectations.

The best Directors will save a company millions in costs associated with returns. I did that at Philips and have watched many others do the same. Most of them will be at the largest and best ever RLA Conference.