3 questions to Annika Benz, Team Lead Partner Operations Management at Seven Senders

Meet Annika Benz, Team Lead Partner Operations Management at Seven Senders! In her role, ensures consumer satisfaction through effective last-mile delivery partnerships.

In this interview, Annika shares insights into her role as Team Lead of Partner Operations Management and discusses the challenges and strategies involved in both immediate issue resolution and long-term performance improvement. Annika also highlights a successful sustainability project she led, and outlines the key qualities essential for success in her dynamic field.

Please describe your job as Team Lead Partner Operations Management at Seven Senders!

My job as a Team Lead in Partner Operations Management is to ensure that end consumers are happy with their parcel delivery. Together with my team, we do this by developing and maintaining sustainable cooperations with our partners on the last mile.

In the short term, we do firefighting, meaning solving ad-hoc operational issues that occur once the parcel has reached the destination country.

In the long term, we aim for fire avoidance by evaluating and reviewing the overall delivery performance together with our partners.
As a Team Lead, I want to ensure that my team can do their job well. This includes ensuring stable processes and being aware of and providing support for solving critical topics.

Can you share an example of a successful project or improvement initiative you've led?

I was part of the project team that established the 7SGreen product. This 7SGreen initiative aims to provide sustainable and eco-friendly shipping options for e-commerce businesses, emphasizing the reduction of transport carbon emissions and environmental impact. My responsibility was establishing a process to calculate transport emissions, especially on the last mile. This included a close collaboration with different stakeholders in order to determine a calculation framework, gather input from our last-mile partners, and define the communication with our customers.

This process was certified by Dekra, and several customers now use the product. I enjoyed the project as it allowed me to think outside the box and strengthen my analytical skills, as well as create a complex process from scratch. On top of that, I am personally interested in this topic and have learned a lot about the sustainability of our last-mile partners.

"My responsibility in the 7SGreen project was to establish a process for calculating transport emissions on the last mile, involving close collaboration with stakeholders and partners."

What qualities do you think are essential for someone in your position?

As a Team Lead in Logistics Operations, the three most important qualities, in my opinion, are a hands-on mentality, fast but profound decision-making, and strong communication skills.

Logistics Operations is a very dynamic field. There are usually many issues on the table at once, and solutions must be found quickly. It is essential to prioritize and work in a structured way to keep the overview and decide how much time needs to be spent on which topic.

Furthermore, a big part of the job is internal and external communication, where analytical skills help to clearly communicate the issue, impact, and measures of a problem. Last but not least, to a certain extent, the job also requires creativity, e.g., finding alternative solutions to an existing problem.

Thank you for your time, Annika!

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