On a Personal Note: Remembering Bill Greenwood

This month, I’m stepping away from my usual supply chain matters to provide a testimonial on a remarkable human being and my friend, William E. (Bill) Greenwood, former COO at Burlington Northern (BN). Bill passed away at age 85 on September 22.

I first met Bill around 1980 when he became the head of a new business unit at BN called “intermodal.” I had gotten in the business several years earlier, when it was still called “piggyback.” By 1980, I began characterizing intermodal as “piggyback with a MBA degree” because it was finally moving out of the backwater as the orphan child of most railroads and into an increasingly more prominent position with the advent of deregulation. Bill and his team at BN began setting the pace for the emergence of intermodal into the prime spot it occupies today.

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) has a number of committees that govern many aspects of the business, from operating protocols to mechanical and interchange rules. During the late 1970s, I was a member of a number of these committees, representing my employer, Boston & Maine Railroad.

As a member of the Interchange Rules Committee, I vividly recall a meeting in Alexandria, Va., where two of the BN representatives—both from their mechanical department, in somewhat hushed tones and with a bit of trepidation—saying that they were getting a new leader named Greenwood and, horror of horrors, he was from the operating department.

This organizational change began a wholesale transformation at BN. Bill took the reins and completely revamped the operating model for intermodal. He consolidated all the functions related to intermodal (operations, sales, marketing, pricing and equipment) into a single, strategic entity and then led a steady stream of innovation in all these areas.

Many of you will recall the “Expediter” service, which was BN’s network of short, fast intermodal trains with reduced crews. The service linked a revitalized network that did away with a large number of small, inefficient “circus” ramps and replaced them with a robust hub-and-spoke network, staffed by a cadre of seasoned trucking operators in order to better compete for highway business.

Bill was also at the forefront of thinking when it came to domestic containerization. I joined his team in 1987 to start a new double-stack business we called BN America. Its name and red, white and blue image was designed for a service extending beyond the borders of the railroad as a nationwide network, providing a door-to-door, truck-like service using stack train economics. Domestic containerization is commonplace today—but novel back in the last century.

He was a pioneer in the adoption of participative management and team-building in the historically command-and-control-oriented railroad industry. He championed exploiting innovation in a newly deregulated industry, dramatically improving customer service, employee safety and financial performance. He’s considered a “founding father” of the railroad industry’s intermodal business.

There were a number of other transformational innovations, recounted and documented in Mark Cane’s seminal three-volume work titled “The History of Burlington Northern Railroad’s Innovative Intermodal Business,” published earlier this year.

Bill had an insatiable curiosity and was always trying to learn more about the railroad and its customers, as well as the environment in which it operated. This made him unique in that era, with his deep knowledge of the many industries and territories served by the business.

He never had a closed mind on any subject and was always willing to engage anyone with a novel ideal. He always wanted to know as much as he could about other people more than talking about himself, which made him a great leader and friend. He was very well-respected, both inside and outside the company.

There’s a picture hanging in his house of him with George W. Bush, the then-Governor of Texas. Bill had been the campaign manager for Vicki Truitt, a candidate for a seat in the Texas legislature. When she beat the Bush-endorsed candidate, “W” reached out and said he wanted to meet the guy who engineered the victory. That story is typical of the mentoring and support Bill gave to the people around him.

After I left BN, I stayed in touch with Bill and we were close friends. Whenever we got together we’d stay up late, talking shop, laughing, and pondering the future, all while respecting the past. I truly valued those sessions, and I will miss him dearly.