A pioneer in the logistics industry, the Founder and CEO of MGN Logistics, Inc., Matthew Telesca, recalls how he built his business from an innovative idea and transformed it into a successful reality. At a young age, while still attending college, Telesca took a job at a local warehouse, loading and unloading trucks. Little did he know at the time, this would change his career direction dramatically. Company management was so impressed by his work ethic and strong sense of responsibility, they quickly decided to train him for a greater role. Telesca was enrolled in the company’s management program and started learning about inventory control, supply chain management and logistics.
To improve his knowledge, Telesca switched majors and started taking supply chain and logistics related classes at night, while working in the warehouse during the day. Telesca noticed that most of the transportation carriers were operating offline. The year was 1999, in the middle of the dot.com era and he immediately realized a unique business opportunity. Telesca created MGN Logistics, Inc., and ten months later, two-hundred fifty thousand lines of code, and countless sleepless nights, Telesca, with the help of a programming friend launched logisticsquote.com. It was one of the first fully automated online transportation websites, where customers could set up accounts, rate shipments across multiple carriers, create shipping documents, and track their freight online. After tremendous growth, the site was sold to a private equity group in 2004.
Telesca’s Journey with MGN Logistics
After the successful sale of his website, Telesca acquired D & S Transportation, a Boston -based freight management company and launched a new radically adaptive Transportation Management System (TMS) online. With a focus on cutting-edge technology, the company continued to develop creative transportation modules, which included predictive pricing, extensive KPI charting, and intelligent transportation routing, which outpaced all other major players in the industry.
By 2009, MGN had opened an office in Orlando and again in 2013, an office in the Dominican Republic to handle the growing international needs of the business. In 2014, Telesca continued the company’s expansion and acquired Laser Transportation, a truckload brokerage in New Jersey. The following year, the company made an additional acquisition of Partage, a tech-heavy Midwest-based online brokerage with a unique proprietary truckload pricing app. Later in the year, another acquisition of Discount Diesel, an online transportation tech reseller was finalized. Then again in September of 2018, MGN acquired RAF Logistics, a parcel auditing company with proprietary re-rating software. Today, MGN Logistics has 6 offices spanning Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Michigan, and the Dominican Republic. MGN Logistics has been recognized in Inc.’s “Fastest-Growing Private Companies” magazine five years in a row, with 2019 revenues projected over $30 million.
MGN’s Suite of TMS Services
Since its creation, MGN Logistics has been at the forefront of immersive freight data visualization. It has always believed that data collection and more importantly, accurate data analysis is a crucial part of true business intelligence and therefore, supply chain management. While MGN offers services as a traditional freight brokerage, its specialization is as a full-service freight management partner. The proprietary TMS by MGN is cloud-based and powerful enough for large corporations while remaining user friendly for small businesses, as well. The company’s suite of offerings includes price and service optimization, carrier routing, e-dispatching along with fully automated documentation creation, pre and post-audit, freight payment, and an extensive suite of interactive business intelligence KPIs. Each customer is assigned a dedicated group of experienced logistics managers to assist in coordinating, executing, and tracking all shipments. The tracking process is further enhanced with eGPS monitoring of full truckload shipments using MGN’s integrated solution. MGN’s proprietary TMS can function as a standalone or fully integrated solution to either replace or support a businesses’ existing logistics department.
Upgrading MGN with Emerging Technologies and Strategies
Upgrading MGN with Emerging Technologies and StrategiesToday, one of the biggest challenges in the transportation industry is the necessity of trust in supply chain transactions. From brokers, carriers to shippers, everyone needs to trust each other to benefit from the business. Another challenge is the use of new emerging technologies like Blockchain and Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence (AI) to empower those solutions.
Telesca shares his belief that in the logistics space, Blockchain and AI could prove to be transformational. And considering the aforementioned challenges in the industry, Telesca continuously enhances MGN’s software with new technologies and strategies. MGN has always been on the cutting-edge of these types of transformational changes, including their early development on the internet, proprietary real-time truckload pricing app, used by some of the largest brokerages in the country, and their latest design and development of the industry’s first blockchain enhanced TMS. As the CEO and visionary of the company, Telesca is excited to see these changes in the transportation space and even more excited to be an integral part of their implementation.
Telesca’s Thoughts about Being the CEO
Telesca’s Thoughts about Being the CEO Telesca believes that a CEO must be able to convey and inspire others in the company to see and follow the company’s vision. To motivate team members, a CEO must be an effective communicator. Telesca also acknowledges that the best innovations don’t only come from the top, but often, come from a diverse set of ideas by the collaboration of the executive team and employees. At MGN, Telesca has created a corporate environment where the employees are empowered to think about innovation and make suggestions. The managing team not only encourages them to participate, but incentivizes them to engage in creativity and innovative thinking. Telesca has crafted a specific strategy to look ahead and be innovative. And this strategy helps the team at MGN to align the direction of their ideas and execute the implementation.
