CBIA BizCast: Improving Operational Excellence

For many warehouse companies and distribution centers, dealing with logistics, and facilities, and workforce development can be a challenge.

That’s where The TAC Group comes in.

“We’re a supply chain operations consulting firm,” Grace Napolitano, the company’s principal and business development executive, told the CBIA BizCast.

“We are focused on operational excellence within distribution and fulfillment centers.”

Passion Project

Napolitano and her husband Zack started the company in 2023 after he spent his career working with FedEx and other distribution companies.

That experience included working with companies to implement new management systems.

“He really kind of fell in love with that area and working with different companies to help with their operational excellence,” Napolitano said.

“He had so much care for the people that worked for him.”

The TAC Group’s Grace Napolitano

“He had so much care for the people that worked for him. He really cared about what their life story was, not just how they could perform for him and for the operation.”

Napolitano had a background in business operations, sales and marketing.

She previously worked in the media industry including as publisher and lead national ad director for the Chicago Sun Times.

“So, I said, ‘If you trust what I can do, I trust what you can do,’ and The TAC Group was born,” she said.

Labor Optimization

Napolitano said the company focuses on helping businesses with third-party logistics, facility layout and design, leadership development.

But she said they are most proud of their labor optimization programs.

“We’re very passionate about making sure people enjoy coming to work and not just being kind of like a racehorse being whipped go faster, go faster,” she said.

“It’s really our focus to connect with the frontline workers on a personal level.”

Napolitano

She added their goal is to give them “the why behind what we’re doing.”

She highlighted the high-paced environment of working in a distribution center.

“Distribution is a grind,” she said. “It’s 24/7—it’s multiple shifts. There are reports coming in at 3 am, there are holidays being missed, there’s birthdays being missed. 

“With The TAC group, it’s really our focus to connect with the frontline workers on a personal level.”

Workforce Retention

Napolitano said that workforce retention is a significant challenge for distribution centers.

She said when workers leave for a different company, it costs an average of $8,000 to replace and train them.

“If we could just put that investment into coaching and training the managers to work with their frontline workers, to make them feel like they’re part of the organization, that they’re valued and that they matter—that really will help the businesses keep jobs here in Connecticut,” Napolitano said.

“We’re giving them that skill set to be great leaders and great managers.”

Napolitano

Napolitano said a big part of their work is to train managers to work with and support their employees.

She added many of those managers were previously frontline workers themselves, and don’t necessarily know how to coach and guide other workers.

“We’re giving them that skill set to be great leaders and great managers of the next generation of managers and executives,” she said.

Empowering Women

Napolitano said that one her passions is helping support and empower other women business leaders.

When she worked in the media industry, she said she was the first woman in her organization to have a child and go on leave.

She said she hopes to help women raising children or women at the top of their industries speak up for what they need.

“It’s so important for me to speak up for the women who come behind me,”

Napolitano

“I’ve always thought that it’s so important for me to speak up for the women who come behind me,” she said.

Napolitano said while they both started their careers in other parts of the country, they’ve fallen in love with Connecticut.

She said the support they’ve received from their local community in West Hartford has helped their business succeed.

They’re hoping to build on the roots they’ve planted.

“It’s just more of what we’re doing—being passionate about helping employees love what they’re doing and show up and feel like they’re making a change in their company,” she said.

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