Quick’s Senior Vice President of Marketing sat down with host, Chris Riback, to talk about the launch of the QuickConversations podcast. Marie shares how the Quick team of logistics leaders came together to share their stories, solutions and secrets behind making the impossible happen every day – where shipments are always urgent and time-critical. Whether it’s a life-saving drug, to an organ for transplant, to delivering the airplane part needed to get your grounded flight back in the air – these are shipments where expert execution is all part of a day’s work and not negotiable.
Each program will focus on the many variables that go into keeping a global supply chain running smoothly – and more specifically, what goes into managing logistics for industries including healthcare, life science, aviation and technology companies around the world.
Transcript
Introduction:
I'm Chris Riback. And welcome to QuickConversations. I’m excited to serve as the host of this podcast that will explore the extraordinary world of global supply chain logistics: How it keeps business — and life — moving.
In the QuickConversations podcast, we’ll hear from global logistics leaders who reveal the stories, solutions and secrets behind making the impossible happen every day – where shipments are always urgent and time-critical… from a life -saving drug to an organ for transplant to delivering the airplane part needed to get your grounded flight back in the air… and where expert execution is all part of a day’s work and not negotiable.
The folks I interview will explain what it takes to keep a global supply chain running smoothly – and more specifically, what goes into managing logistics for industries including healthcare, life science, aviation and technology companies around the world.
Helping me with the introduction to QuickConversations: Marie Vigliarolo, Sr Vice President of marketing at Quick International Courier.
Chris Riback: Marie, thanks for joining. I appreciate your time.
Marie Vigliarolo: Thank you.
Chris Riback: Why are we doing this podcast series?
Marie Vigliarolo: We're doing it because we want to share our experience and our knowledge of global logistics. We've been doing this for 40 years.
Marie Vigliarolo: We want to help people streamline their supply chain: How they can strengthen it, how they can do things and deliver items and products and life-saving products around the world and do things that they didn't think was possible. And we can make some of those things possible.
Chris Riback: What's behind the name, QuickConversations?
Marie Vigliarolo: Our business is really communicating with customers and letting them know what's going on every step of the way so they can rest a little easier and feel assured that things are being handled. So we're constantly communicating, and we thought “Conversations” was a good name to really talk about who we are.
Chris Riback: Why is sharing stories and anecdotes important? How do these stories bring Quick's mission to life?
Marie Vigliarolo: There are so many different situations with different industries, whether it's a life-saving situation delivering an organ or blood or bone marrow. They're humanistic; they're interesting; and we can help companies in different industries do a better job – and maybe make their jobs easier by knowing some of the things that we can tell them to help them. Whether it's delivering something in a faster manner or making sure the integrity of blood or an organ or even an aircraft part is intact, there are many different things and facts that we can share and information such as special packaging or how to monitor a shipment using GPS tracking devices, there's a lot of technology. By letting these different industries and the companies in the industries know what we know and bringing about our 40 years of experience, we feel we can help many more companies.
Chris Riback: What does it mean to make the impossible happen?
Marie Vigliarolo: It means many different things to many different industries, and certainly the biggest factor is usually time. Companies often question, "How can I get that done and how can I get something delivered in the middle of the night when there is no commercial aircraft flying?"
Chris Riback: It sounds impossible.
Marie Vigliarolo: Most people would think it's impossible, but there are solutions. There are many different modes of transportation and we have a network of over 4,000 service partners so we can deliver to the most remote locations in the middle of the night. We can do things that are pretty incredible in terms of moving a data room for a financial institution. They need to move their data room today and have it open for business the next day. So we have a business, a specialty logistics, where we can actually come in, truck everything, have everything secured, chain of custody processes throughout and actually rebuild that data center and have it ready for business the next day. Not everything is about life saving situations, although that's one of the very strong aspects of the company, but it's about keeping business and life moving.
Chris Riback: Tell me about the folks who will be joining this podcast, the knowledge and expertise that this team represents.
Marie Vigliarolo: I'm very proud to be working with a lot of these colleagues that are so dedicated and intelligent and creative. One is our chief information technology officer that will talk about what it means to conduct business 24/7 and be the life-saving source to many organizations, and all the data and all the intricacies of making that happen.
Marie Vigliarolo: We have another gentleman, Claus Engelbrechtsen, who is the head of our global aviation logistics business unit and he's got some really interesting stories about how we save the day for airlines or maintenance organizations and getting planes back in the air when they're grounded and there's many people not happy sitting on the ground.
Marie Vigliarolo: We'll have another gentleman, Dave Murphy, who will talk about our life science division, it's called Quick Healthcare. He has really spearheaded the cell and gene therapy protocols and personalized medicine, the logistics of making that happen, of delivering life-saving drugs to patients and their new protocols, so it's an absolutely fascinating area. He will also talk about delivering blood, tissue, and organs. We supply the major hospitals in the United States with their blood supply. We deliver bone marrow to patients in very grave situations so people depend on us. And he will share some stories and insights on how to properly send those very rare and precious commodities, how to keep them intact, how to keep them safe, how to keep them at a certain temperature so that they are safe for the patients.
Chris Riback: As we hear from these logistics experts, in this world of time-critical transportation, what defines excellence? What should we be listening for?
Marie Vigliarolo: It's making sure that the companies that depend on us and the industries that depend on us get what they need and are able to service their clients or their patients and not have to worry about it not getting there on time. We go through great lengths to make sure that we have contingency plans in case of all of the things that are happening in the world today, whether it's hurricanes or strikes or airline strikes or political coups, whatever is going on in the world, we have to come up with those plans. Excellence is really making sure we deliver what we promise we're going to deliver and what companies and patients and businesses depend on.
Chris Riback: And making the impossible happen. Marie, I'm excited for this. I'm excited to hear more about keeping business and life moving and if you give the okay, what do you say we launch QuickConversations?
Marie Vigliarolo: I think it's a great idea. Thank you so much, Chris.
in healthcare, life science, aviation and technology logistics.





MORE EPISODES
In this special episode of QuickConversations we’re joined by a guest speaker from our parent company, Kuehne+Nagel: Robert Coyle, Senior Vice President of Pharma & Healthcare Strategy. He joins QuickSTAT’s Scott Ohanesian, Senior Vice President Commercial Operations, Clinical Trial Logistics, for a conversation about the pharma/healthcare global supply chain—which has become even more urgent and complex in our global pandemic world. Robert and Scott explore the strategic steps needed to go from clinical trials to the final delivery of drugs into the marketplace. From critical logistics planning to planning for the unexpected, it’s a fascinating conversation about this life-changing and life-saving global supply chain.