In the corporate world, effective teamwork drives a business. No single individual can do it all alone. That particular individual needs to be surrounded by like-minded individuals with diverse skill sets to turn something into success. Being ‘effective’, teamwork brings a feeling of unity, collaboration, and motivation needed to produce amazing outcomes.
And any leader involved within such a team bears a responsibility; to continuously empower these team members and listen to their feedback and strategize at every pivot point. That leader cannot lead a company without the insights from the smart investment — people.
Holly Qualman, as a leading empowering leader, too understands this equation and navigates the strides of the business oceans by relying on her team. As someone who has worked her way up, learning every aspect of business, Holly relies on her team members to venture into the unknown to create something beautiful.
Being open to meaningful dialogues around the current events and topics that matter, Holly brings empowering leadership into the team. And by tapping into the collective talent across the organization, partners, and clients, Holy dives into a rich, diverse, and empowering approach to thought leadership.
The Helping Hand
Holly has always been determined to achieve her goals. She describes her growing-up years as scrappy and tenacious, carrying the will to help others solve their challenges. She found purpose in helping her friends, classmates, and family members find new approaches. That’s how she ended up in the magical world of Marketing.
As per Holly, nothing could be more satisfying other than supporting business decision-makers in finding better solutions, understanding the clients, their challenges, and providing the answers. As such Holly marched into the world of Marketing to seek out answers for the people alongside growing and finding a smarter path forward.
However, early in her career, when she was in the fashion marketing industry, Holly too had her plans scrapped by the economic changes. That’s where she learned more about the logistics and supply industry which is now home to her 13 years of a corporate career.
Logistics and supply chain was also the industry where Holly’s manager at her first freight forwarder gave the wisdom that transformed her entrepreneurial life. She still remembers him saying, “If you aren’t uncomfortable, you aren’t growing.”
Holly tributes his manager for pushing and encouraging her to push beyond her boundaries and self-imposed limitations. Such an outstanding leadership example challenged Holly and empowered her to reach further.
Leading Archer Corporate Services
Being the COO of the company, Holly works alongside its President Dennis Archer Jr. and CEO Micheal Carr to bring the vision of Archer Corporate Services (ACS) to reality. She is helping the company empower business leaders to streamline their supply chains with B2B fulfillment, B2C fulfillment, specialty packaging, print management, call center capabilities, and branded merchandise.
ACS acts as one point of contact for everything from eCommerce site management to customer support; to national warehousing and distribution. Holly’s distinct style of leadership i.e. empowering the team members is easily viewable in the company and it is also the biggest advantage it has — the passion and breadth of industry experience.
As far as her working day goes, Holly finds herself working differently every day. Her work ranges from high-level initiatives such as collaborating with the team members to reevaluate smarter approaches to business processes to more on-the-ground initiatives, talking with the customers about their needs and goals. In the voice of Holly, “We’re a lean and agile team and hyper-focused on knowing every aspect of our client’s businesses. That makes every day different.”
This is the same reason why so many major brands partner with ACS as they get a genuine and unique experience that’s different from other consulting agencies. Clients of ACS get to work alongside the team that is an extension of the ACS family. Proactively zeroing in on the areas, the team gets to know every inch of the client’s business to save time and help them expand or witness exponential growth while addressing the latest market disruption.
Moreover, Holly makes sure that her team stays in full alignment with the clients and in sync with their goals and obstacles. Consequently, the number one priority for the team has come up to make each business relationship a priority. Team ACS also works proactively to promote a collaborative workplace that empowers innovative results for the clients.
Another valuable thing that Holly brings to the table is the recognition of marketing in logistics and supply chain. Until recently, marketing was not a key priority for brands in the industry. Understanding the importance of marketing and branding, Holly opens up a whole new world of opportunities for clients, solves their problems, and guides business leaders to walk on a better path.
Keeping Up with the Industry
Holly is of the opinion that breaking into leadership is not all about hustling hard and fast or having the right tech stack. Over the last few years, Holly has kept her mind focused on current events and client-centric news alongside practicing a brand journalism approach to stay ahead of the game.
“It’s easy to forget the role that thought leadership plays and prioritize paid media opportunities, but by taking a PR-first approach, I’ve been keeping my employers in lockstep with the active industry dialogue,” asserts Holly.
Holly further emphasizes the need for a human element in business. In her perspective, for a leader, having candor, a sense of reality, and humility is the key to being a leader people can get behind.
Guiding the Upcomers
There were two factors that contributed to Holly’s life success i.e. market intelligence and the aforementioned human element to a business. In her experience, this human element is a piece that a lot of up-and-comers are still learning. She says, “No matter who you are and what your goals are you can’t afford to ever stop learning. Be a sponge, look to learn more about every aspect of your business and industry.”
As such, Holly’s advice for the young aspirants, who are just starting out in marketing, is to leverage marketing intelligence and market research as critical components of the overall marketing strategy. And to give them a head start, Holly recommends relying on some AI applications to help them stay on top of the news that impacts their business, your customers, and their bottom line.
Streamlining eCommerce Market
Holly’s entrepreneurial journey has been an endless loop of opportunities to learn more about what makes businesses work and unleashing new approaches to their challenges. Till now, for her, every roadblock has been a challenge to grow and find a smarter path forward.
And for the future, Holly is all set to take ACS to new heights of success. Perceiving the industry, she says that more organizations are looking to streamline their supply chains and cut back on the level of ownership in the eCommerce market. In addition, the fluctuating consumer demands and a volatile marketplace will open up new doors of exciting times for ACS.
Guided with her tremendous leadership, Archer Corporate Services is positioned for rapid growth over the next five years. All in all, Holly sees herself growing with the organization and the clients for years to come.
