Rock Stars of the Supply Chain: Tai Software’s Walter Mitchell Named Overall Leader in Excellence

Food Logistics talked exclusively with Mitchell about the importance of leading with a vision centered on innovation and operational excellence.

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Walter Mitchell, CEO of Tai Software, was named an overall winner of the Leaders in Excellence category for this year’s Rock Stars of the Supply Chain award, presented by Food Logistics.

As the CEO of Tai Software, Mitchell leads with a vision centered on innovation and operational excellence. He started his career as a software developer for Hypertree, before becoming president and CEO of another TMS provider. Seven years later, he took the helm at Trinnos Technology before becoming a chief technology officer at Efreightsolutions, and then eventually Tai Software, where he was promoted to CEO in September 2020. Mitchell's day-to-day responsibilities include steering the company’s strategic direction, fostering a culture of innovation, and overseeing the development and enhancement of the company's transportation management system (TMS). Over the past 12 months, Mitchell has driven transformative growth and innovation at Tai Software. Under his leadership, Tai Software achieved more than 30% company growth. 

He also integrated advanced   artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into Tai’s TMS to revolutionize how brokers manage freight. This involved implementing workflow automation tools, email processing features, and automated audit systems. Together, these tools improve operational efficiency, reduce manual workloads, and provide actionable insights, resulting in a 20% reduction in broker operating costs and elevating customer satisfaction scores by 28%.

At the heart of Mitchell's leadership is a dedication to building transparency and trust within Tai Software and the wider logistics industry. He has developed a culture where proactive communication is essential, equipping brokers with the confidence to navigate disruptions and build enduring client relationships. Every initiative, from adopting cutting-edge AI and machine learning tools to driving operational efficiencies, is centered on helping brokers improve margins, scale effectively, and thrive in an evolving market.

We talked exclusively with Mitchell about the importance of leading with a vision centered on innovation and operational excellence.

 

Food Logistics: Let’s first talk about you. Tell me a little bit about yourself and your journey to get to this current stage in your career?

Walter Mitchell: I stumbled into the freight broker space back in ‘98. At that time, I was a software developer with ambition and a desire to build cool things. Little did I know that the project I took on would lead to a career and passion. As I learned about supply chain and freight brokerage it became a part of my professional identity. Since then, I have continued to be a technology provider for freight brokers. My career has taken a few turns over the years but through those years I have learned so much from the great people around me.

 

Food Logistics: One of the things outlined in your submission is how you lead with a vision centered on innovation and operational excellence. What does this mean? What does it look like?

Mitchell: Leading with a vision centered on innovation and operational excellence means that I use those as our guiding light. When considering actions, I always think about how we can help our customers achieve their objectives. Helping our customers be excellent at what they do provides more value to their business and helps them in an area where they don’t usually have the resources to spend effort. We use our technical expertise to create innovative solutions that can be used to improve operational efficiency and make the lives of our users a little better. Our goal is to help the people who use our product have a better experience with their day. We want them to see our product as a tool that helps them improve their day and get their work done more efficiently. When deciding on our priorities as a software business we look to those ideals and decide if we will be making an impact. That focus helps us continually improve our product and our relationship with our customers.


Food Logistics: Over the past year, you’ve driven transformative growth and innovation. What does this entail?

Mitchell: With our focus on operational excellence and innovation we create an alignment with the needs of our customers as well as new technologies. AI is probably the most prolific example of this in the last few years. AI has progressed and evolved very quickly. There are so many potential use cases and so much opportunity. The concern is how to take advantage of this technology while still running a business. That is where we come in. We are not trying to implement AI for the sake of AI. We are finding ways to leverage the technology to improve the operational efforts of our customers. When we think of it this way, we can improve existing tools using AI without the focus being on the new technology. Rather, the focus is on the ROI of the technology tools.

 

Food Logistics: You also consistently push boundaries to redefine the freight brokerage space. Why? How does knowledge in both technology and freight shipping aid in accomplishing this?

Mitchell: As a contributor to the freight broker industry, and the human experience, I think it is important to add value and help make improvements where possible. This applies to my team; we are always pushing the boundaries to get better and do more. This applies to the industry as well; Tai brings modern technical expertise to the industry. We want to leverage our strengths and help improve the industry in any way that we can. We find that we can make that contribution by showing the freight broker space ways to implement new technologies in ways that will help improve their businesses.

 

Food Logistics: If you could have a conversation with your younger self, what would you tell him?

Mitchell: Stay focused, be tenacious, enjoy the journey. Life can be hard, and life can be rewarding. The ups and downs can sometimes be unpredictable. That is ok, these things help us develop as stronger better people. With all that, the journey is the most important part. The friends and relationships that we make along the way are the things that stay with us longer than the completion of goals. Completing the goals and objectives is the purpose but no matter how difficult the situation is in the moment when we look back, we have the choice to reflect on it as a good time.


Food Logistics: The Leaders in Excellence category honors company leaders who’ve made outstanding contributions to the supply chain space. What advice do you have for other leaders in the industry as well as young professionals entering the supply chain space?

Mitchell: The same as above. Figure out where you are strong and lean in on those strengths. Find a way to turn that into something that you can contribute and start doing it. Take action. It is ok to fail or struggle. Keep going anyway.

 

Food Logistics: What are some things not addressed above that would be pertinent to include in the article detailing Walter’s strengths, achievements, overall goals, etc.?

Mitchell: I talked about the importance of providing value and contributing to the industry in areas where we have expertise. For Tai that is with technology solutions that provide operational excellence. There is more to that. In that process, when thinking about the solutions that we provide we are always focused on the customer experience. We are always thinking about how the people that use our product will be impacted. When your actions and product show that you care about the work people are doing and the way they use our tools it builds a relationship with them that has a strong foundation. There is relationship that can thrive and be relied upon as a valuable contributor to their day and their business. This relationship is a key reason that we do what we do. Building strong relationships through our actions and product is what motivates me and Tai to keep moving forward toward our objectives.

 

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