A few months ago, I had a very strange interaction on LinkedIn. Essentially the sentiment was, “Oh, you work for that side of the industry… good luck.”

And it got me thinking, why do we always seem to want to create sides?

Having worked 10 years in the traditional freight forwarding industry at companies like Kuehne + Nagel, Agility, and Uniserve, I’ve spent a lot of time inside the engine rooms of freight forwarders. After another three years at Beacon, a digital freight forwarder, I feel that I’ve gained enough experience in the two “sides” of the industry to have a pretty fair perspective on both.

There seems a real palpable desire to see tech and digital startups fail in the supply chain space, and I think that’s a real shame. Innovation in any industry should be encouraged. Whilst not all these tech disruptors are perfect or have all the answers, their very presence is helping to push things forward one way or another.

It shouldn’t be tech vs. customer service, digital vs. traditional, data vs. experience. Really, we should all be striving to give our respective customers the very best service.

There is so much we can all gain from being a little more open to working together, rather than against each other. All in all, my question is a simple one: Can’t we all just be friends?