From library to logistics: Cathy Morrow Roberson shares career insights

Starting a business requires a willingness to take risks and an acceptance that it won’t all be smooth sailing, Cathy Morrow Roberson, managing director of Logistics Trends & Insights, told Supply Chain Dive. 

For women thinking about launching their own businesses, Roberson advises to just take the leap. 

“Do it and don't let anything hold you back,” Roberson said. “There are so many more opportunities today than there were when I started my business.”

Technology can make pursuing those opportunities even simpler. Roberson noted that one can set up an online business, and networking to build brand awareness and clientele can be done online as well as in person. 

And regardless of how you build your network, it’s critical to do so, as long-term industry relationships can help you and your business weather setbacks, such as losing a client or a research gig.

“I'll continue to have ups and downs, but you get through it,” Roberson said. “I mean, that's what businesses are — not everything is a field of roses.” 

Prior to establishing Logistics Trends & Insights — a market research firm that focuses on global supply chains and emerging logistics trends — in 2015, Roberson worked as a librarian and then for an Atlanta-based startup before her first job in the supply chain industry with UPS.

“A friend of mine was working there, and she said that they needed some research analysis help,” Roberson said. “So, I got the job and the rest was basically history.”

At UPS, Roberson worked as part of a larger group to provide research of “anything and everything not related to parcels,” including global freight movements. Those efforts helped lead to the creation of UPS Supply Chain Solutions, the company’s logistics and supply chain management division.

After 11 years at UPS and almost five more with a supply chain market research firm, Roberson decided to go into business for herself. 

“I was never one to take chances, and that was a huge leap for me, when I finally went ‘screw it, I'm doing it,’” she said. This required her to coach herself to destroy self-doubt, including breaking out of a mindset focused on all that could go wrong.

The gamble has certainly paid off. Besides running her own supply chain market research business, she has also served as a senior analyst at Transport Intelligence, a research manager for the Reverse Logistics Association and a research analyst for the Journal of Commerce, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has also contributed to industry publications such as Cargo Facts and been a frequent speaker at supply chain conferences and events.

Looking back, Roberson said she wishes she started her own business earlier, but when she was younger, she just couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do.

“There are a lot of people out there that want to climb that corporate ladder all the way to the top, or as close to the top as they can — I was never like that,” she said.