Summary: [START]<br> Narrator: Under Josh Enger’s leadership, CLA’s trucking and transportation practice has grown from under $500,000 to more than 10 million in a decade. Clients in this sector take services for granted. It’s genuine industry knowhow that they crave. In this episode of “Industry Forward,” Josh tells John how he went from T&T newbie to guru and how living the CLA promise made all the difference.<br> [00:00:36]<br> John: The essence of the CLA promise is simple: we promise to know you and to help you. So does it really work? Does industry specialization fulfill the CLA promise, create growth, and build careers? Here today with me is Josh Enger, the leader of trucking and transportation group.<br> It’s a group that experienced some rather remarkable growth. If we go back a little more than ten years, it was perhaps $500,000 in volume. By 2014, it was $4 million in volume, and this year, it likely will top $10 million. Frankly, that’s remarkable. Compounded, that’s got to be approaching 15 or 20% growth over the past decade. A remarkable success story.<br> So Josh, tell us a little bit about the trucking and transportation group–the industry, the players, the offices. Where are we today?<br> [00:01:32]<br> Josh: Well, John, the trucking and transportation group really did start in the Minnesota offices, and as you mentioned, we’re a $10 million group now. We’ve got over 50 people that have some level of contribution or engagement with the industry team, so it’s been a pretty exciting journey, and it really has snowballed for us the last handful of years, and what we found is that the more we understand the industry, the more we’ve been able to grow, help our clients, and really be that industry professional.<br> Also, it has provided career opportunities for our people all across the country, and where we’re at right now is we are focused pretty heavily in the Midwest, but we have other pockets across the country where were seeing some immense amounts of activity, engagement, people are starting to see the value in getting involved with the local industry associations, and that’s been monumental in terms of some of this growth activity that we’re seeing.<br> [00:02:37]<br> John: So what sets us apart? What makes CLA different from other enterprises?<br> Josh: It’s been very apparent that this industry specialization concept is something that most firms might think they do, but they don’t do it the way CLA does. What we’ve heard from our clients is that we truly are entrenched in industry.<br> Our clients look at us as the person to go to, as that first call on whether or not they should be buying new equipment or not and what to expect with freight volumes over the next six months, things of that nature, or what’s the transaction deal flow look like right now for trucking companies, and our engagement with the industry allows us to really give value through those questions, so that’s the differentiator to me, is living and breathing industry every day.<br> [00:03:30]<br> John: And it’s interesting you didn’t talk about tax or audit or any of the other capabilities.<br> Josh: No, no, our clients expect that we’re good at audit and tax and accounting, but the first question they ask when we show up in an event or something like that is, “Well, do you understand trucking? Do you understand aviation?” That’s what they’re looking for. They assume we know the other stuff.<br> John: But it wasn’t always like this. Let’s go back a bit, back to the St. Cloud office, maybe at the beginning of your career. When did you start pursuing trucking and transportation?<br> Josh: It started early for me, and I think it’s different for all the professionals at CLA, but for me, it was right away, and, you know,
