Ports of Indiana Case Study
Background
The Ports of Indiana (POI) maintains three ports in the Hoosier state. POI is responsible for management of the infrastructure for tenant clients who rely on them to keep their logistics and operations running smoothly on the Great Lakes, Ohio River, and Wabash River.
Looking to improve their operations and increase revenue against mounting competition, POI hired a new CEO to run the business.
Overview
Ports of Indiana newly appointed CEO reached out to SoCal Approach to better understand the attitudes both inside and outside their building. Having different teams across three different site locations, he wanted to more clearly understand the tenor in the building. In addition to that, he wanted to understand the satisfaction of their tenant clients at three port locations in the POI system. The engagement included a survey of employees to gauge understanding of the overall alignment of goals and objectives of POI management as well as their engagement with their colleagues. Second, we surveyed tenant clients to discover and understand how they felt about the services they were receiving from the port.
Problems Faced
Communication among and across the port locations
Lack of brand recognition and understanding among citizens and legislators as to the real value the port brings to the State of Indiana
The desire to be seen as “world-class” in the space, and to have employees and consumers in alignment.
SoCal completed research on both the internal employees and external tenants, but quickly realized there was a third audience we needed to communicate with: citizens and legislators, who didn’t fully understand the value proposition that POI brought to their communities. We developed communication strategies and systems they could put in place to communicate with all three audiences and to execute in-person training and team building to make progress towards a “world-class organization” rebrand and position the product as “The Ports of Indiana (POI).”
Solution
Our Effort Resulted In…
1
A full understanding the attitudes of employees and their level of understanding and commitment to the overall goals of the organization.
2
Internal alignment about what it looked like to be “world-class” so that the team could galvanize around this cause and goal.
3
Understanding the attitudes about POI among their clients and measuring their level of satisfaction and commitment as the provider of their logistic needs.
4
A realization of a much-needed line of communication, and a strategy to communicate to that audience.
