One on One with Fortna's John A. White III

Fortna's business evolution is as unusual as the firm itself. Just after the end of WWII, Fortna opened for business selling hand trucks out of a small one-room office in Reading, Pa. In the 1950s, the business line was expanded to forklift trucks and conveyors. In the 1980s, the business refocused around conveying equipment and installation. But in the last decade, the firm has gone through another evolution: focusing now around supply chain consulting. The result has been a doubling in size over the last five years. To better understand the firm's recent success, Consulting One on One sat down with Fortna's President, John A. White III. Consulting: You're currently known as a comprehensive supply chain consulting firm, but that's not always been the case. How and why has the firm transformed itself?

White: Since our founding in the 1940s we've gone through numerous changes. We began as a material handling equipment provider and, over the next few decades, added the capabilities our clients wanted. Initially, that meant material handling integration work. And, over the last ten years, we've turned into supply chain consultants. But because of our own legacy experience, and the needs of our clients, we're not a typical supply chain consulting practice. We don't just suggest a new strategy or just work out deals with suppliers or just improve processes on the shop floor. We do it all—we start with a strategy and work it through the entire design and implementation process.

Consulting: Older, more established companies sometimes are reluctant to change for fear of losing long-term clients. What's been your firm's experience?