Megan Smith is CEO of Symbia Logistics, a family-owned e-commerce fulfillment and distribution company. “Symbia’s mission is to deliver exceptional service and experience, to … our clients and hard-working teams,” the company said. “Our goal is to create a ‘supply change’ movement by implementing new (third-party logistics) solutions that are practical and efficient for our team members to be successful.”
Smith has built her career as a trailblazer in her industry, making room for women in the warehousing space since 2009. She was named a titan in 2021. Since then, she said, her greatest accomplishment was the creation and launch of the newest symbia.com website. The site has increased the company’s sales pipeline 25% since it launched.
“Everything from the original digital artwork we commissioned, to the content within, the backlinks and resources throughout are my personal work,” Smith said. “The Symbia Logistics brand has been my brainchild and creation, from day one. But the newest version of Symbia is the best representation of WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO and WHERE WE ARE GOING! This new image and fresh feel have created a cultural movement, including the creation and adoption of MANY new internal initiatives.”
Smith leads the company’s Culture Committee, which oversees all content creation and on-site culture activities within the company’s warehouses, including luncheons and newsletters. After two tumultuous years dealing with the pandemic, in 2022 Smith shifted focus to her team. She implemented welcome gift boxes for all new hires, rewrote job descriptions and job titles across the board and increased wages 5% for everyone on her team.
Symbia believes in sustainability, so it secured an Organic Warehousing certification in Kansas City, leased 150,000 square feet of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified warehouse space in Chicago, and planted 3,000 trees (20 for each of Symbia’s 150 clients) in the Canadian Rockies.
For the second year in a row, the company has been recognized on Inbound Logistics’ Green 75 list, an editors’ choice list of 75 companies that go above and beyond to ensure their global supply chains are sustainable and their operations are socially and environmentally friendly.
“Sustainability is critical to human existence, now and in the future,” Smith said. “The supply chain is notorious for its contributions to global waste and contamination, as one of the largest polluters across all industries. It’s our job to take responsibility for this impact, as a company.”
