Brad Hansell and Gavin Farrell

When Brad Hansell and Gavin Farrell met in 2000 while working for a leading Australian freight-forwarding company, the duo quickly recognised that there was something lacking in the world of logistics.

That was that things would work much better if a more personalised and unique approach were taken with customers.

So the pair set about turning their ideal approach into a reality, and in 2004 from their base in Sydney they launched their new-age business model and called it Cyclone Global Logistics. Fast forward to 2016 and the company has grown exponentially, expanding across Australia and into many overseas markets.

The CEO Magazine spoke to the pair of entrepreneurs—who share the company’s CEO position—about their journey to success.

The CEO Magazine: What was your initial vision for the business in the early days, and does this still ring true today?

Brad: I think we were pretty conscious of providing a better service than our competitors. Obviously, it is a service industry that we’re operating in, but initially we just went into it and tried to offer something that was a bit more boutiquelike. A lot of our business that we were handling at that stage was rag trade and TCF—textile, clothing, footwear—so our first customers came from those sorts of industries. It was firstly about providing a high-level, more boutique service for those companies, but I think as we have grown we have diversified significantly through many different industries.