Intro/Outro (00:00:03):
Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the voice of global supply chain. Supply Chain Now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on Supply Chain Now.
Scott Luton (00:00:32):
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s live stream. Gregory, how we doing today?
Greg White (00:00:44):
Very well.
Scott Luton (00:00:45):
Yes?
Greg White (00:00:45):
Really, very well. Yes, and I am — I’m pretty excited to have our guest back. Can I say his name? Come on, let me say his name.
Scott Luton (00:00:52):
Please.
Greg White (00:00:52):
Come on.
Scott Luton (00:00:53):
Please.
Greg White
Padhu, I’m glad to have him back. And what did we determine? It’s been three years?
Scott Luton (00:00:59):
About three years, that’s right.
Greg White (00:01:01):
Three years.
Scott Luton (00:01:02):
And he has not aged a day. We need to get his — get some of his DNA, Greg.
Greg White (00:01:06):
It’s all that running.
Scott Luton (00:01:07):
Oh, yes, which we’ll talk about in just a second. But Greg is kind of letting the cat out of the bag because we do have a friend of the show, repeat guests here, a big show here today. Supply chain leaders, Greg, really everywhere, are trying to make things easier for their teams, their suppliers, and especially for the customer. So, today we’re going to be discussing four ways to reduce complexity in your supply chain. And just saying that, Greg, brings serenity to my mind.
Greg White (00:01:35):
I can feel my blood pressure being lowered, yes.
Scott Luton (00:01:39):
That’s right. All right. It’s a great show. And as Greg mentioned, our dear old friend Padhu Raman with Osa Commerce. He’s going to be joining us momentarily. Doing big, big things out in the industry —
Greg White (00:01:48):
Not just with, co-founder.
Scott Luton (00:01:49):
Right. That’s right. That’s right.
Greg White (00:01:51):
So, I know you want to announce his title. I’m sorry, I’m just on — I’m just on — in spoiler mode today. Spoiler mode.
Scott Luton (00:01:57):
We need that from time to time.
Greg White (00:01:58):
I think so. Yes.
Scott Luton (00:01:59):
But folks, get ready because not only do we get to hear from Padhu and Greg, of course, but we get to hear from all of you all. And we’d love for you to chime in on what we’re going to be talking about here today. Really important, important topic. To that end before we bring on our guest, I’m just going to shoot through a couple of folks. Great to have you here. So, John Peterson is back from Marietta. Great to see you, John. Josh Goody, good morning from once again rainy Seattle.
Greg White (00:02:24):
Ah, OK. The world is back on its axis.
Scott Luton (00:02:27):
That’s right.
Greg White (00:02:27):
It’s raining again in Seattle.
Scott Luton (00:02:29):
All is right again, Josh says. Great to have you back, Josh. Always enjoy your contributions. Jose, via LinkedIn is back with us. Great to see you. Helene, wonderful to see you back. I believe from France, if I’ve got that right, via LinkedIn. Abdullah via LinkedIn, welcome, welcome. Jesus, also via LinkedIn, great to see you.
Scott Luton (00:02:49):
All right. Folks, well, as I mentioned, you’re in for a wonderful show here today. So, with that said, Greg, let’s move right in to introducing our guest here today. Padhu Raman, co-founder and chief product officer at Osa Commerce.
Scott Luton (00:03:07):
Hey, hey. Padhu, how you doing?
Padhu Raman (00:03:09):
I’m doing great, Scott. Very nice to be here again.
Scott Luton (00:03:12):
We are —
Greg White (00:03:12):
I guess we don’t have to ask you what you’ve been up to for the last three years.
Scott Luton (00:03:16):
Really. I mean, you look like it — it hasn’t — you haven’t aged a day. And being in the startup space, we know how tough that can be.
Greg White (00:03:26):
Right.
Scott Luton (00:03:26):
So, kudos to all of your good, healthy habits. I want to ask you, Greg and I, inquiring minds want to know. So, the Peachtree Road Race, Padhu, you’re a fellow at — live in the Atlanta area as well. The Peachtree Road Race held on July 4th each year in Atlanta for over 50 years now. Man, over 50 years. It is the world’s largest 10K road race. which we had no idea. I didn’t, at least. So, with that as a backdrop, because the last one just was a few weeks ago, you were registered to run the Peachtree Road Race in 2024, as well as a couple other marathons. So, tell us why do you run or jog, and why do you do the marathon circuit, Padhu?
Padhu Raman (00:04:09):
It’s like — it’s a good one. I mean, so finally I started three years or four years. I go more from keeping the health, right? Health as a priority and focusing on that. And as part of that, I also started while walking and slowly started running as well, that engaged. It focused on two primary factors, right? One is the physical ability. It automatically helps to improve that. And thanks to shows like Supply Chain Now, which is very educative, very (INAUDIBLE) excitement and engaging. So, I also developed my intellectual ability as well.
Padhu Raman (00:04:43):
So, now I make it two things at the same time. OK. Not only run, also learn about supply chain from the best people you bring guests here, and then create like a more passion about it, right? And that’s the aspect of it. And you won’t believe, as I was doing a lot of things, I just — somebody introduced me to the Strava app. I started implement — using that.
Padhu Raman (00:05:04):
And it resonated similar to Supply Chain where it enabled to collaborate with other runners in that area. They were able to guide me, provide good communication in terms of encouraging motivation. And as part of that, they encouraged me, why don’t you go and run these races? I’ve never — I always used to run for my own as a physical and intellectual ability.
Scott Luton (00:05:25):
Right.
Padhu Raman (00:05:26):
And then it just motivated me to start looking at these competitive races as well. So, I registered one for a 10 miler in October.
Scott Luton (00:05:36):
Right.
Padhu Raman (00:05:36):
And that’s a half a marathon in November of — by — the investing firm QQQ, you know, in Wisco. And there’s a Publix Marathon in 2024 in February. So, just to build up to that. And with that collaborative aspect, I was able to get guidance from people who have run close to 50 marathons and novice like me just starting the first marathon. So, it’s interesting.
Scott Luton (00:06:01):
Well, you — man, you took like a fish to water. So, Greg, you got to be careful. When Padhu runs, he’s getting stronger and smarter. So, watch out competition. Is that right, Greg?
Greg White (00:06:13):
Yes, especially the smarter part. I mean, not that he wasn’t already smarter than I am, but now he’s really literally outrunning me.
Scott Luton (00:06:22):
Oh, man. Well, I can’t wait to get into it. Padhu, as passionate as clearly you are about running and marathons and stuff, you bring the same level of passion that can do passion and innovation to the world of supply chain. We’re going to get into that in just a minute.
Scott Luton (00:06:39):
And by the way, from Crawford Ratnesh [phonetic], Jay. Welcome in, Jay. Hello from Boston, she says. First time attending. Welcome everybody. And we look forward to you all being part of the conversation. Greg, you were going to add something before I segued?
Greg White (00:06:51):
Yes. Well, two things. One, Crawford, let us know if you won trivia last night. He was doing really good when we left. And the other is we need one of those little sounds effects that says, Hi, Padhu. You know, where — like, in every show —
Scott Luton (00:07:08):
Right.
Greg White (00:07:09):
— he’s running. And then everyone could tell us what — you know, that runs or does their exercises during the show. And then we could just have, oh, man, that would be really disruptive though, wasn’t it? A.I.n’t it?
Scott Luton (00:07:20):
Yes. Hey, I have a hard enough time protecting my attention span.
Greg White (00:07:25):
Scott Luton (00:07:25):
So, we’ll look at that. We’ll get Scott works team on that.
Greg White (00:07:27):
Well, since he’s the first, we could really just make it a high to everyone, right?
Scott Luton (00:07:31):
That’s right. Hey — but Padhu, one quick aside. So, Greg mentioned Crawford — this is Crawford Stop Rockets McCarty, and Crawford earned that nickname a tough way a couple years ago. So, Crawford, hope this finds you well, and let us know who won that trivia contest.
Scott Luton (00:07:48):
OK. So, Padhu, we got a lot to get into. And, you know, we want — I want to start with some really good news beyond the running and marathoning, and staying strong and smart, and getting stronger and smarter. You recently attended the Lead Innovation Summit where Osa Commerce, get this, was named one of the leading 100 innovators of 2023. Now, Greg and I warned you all, Padhu isn’t messing around when it comes to driving good change in the industry.
Scott Luton (00:08:16):
So, Padhu, tell us about some of — as you were there networking with, you know, global business leaders, what were some of your key takeaways from this year’s event?
Padhu Raman (00:08:24):
Yes, there are — there were multiple shows I attended, conferences that I attended this year. Starting from Manifest, then ProMat, and Ryder [phonetic] Supply Chain, and now to the Lead. Everything as a team, Manifest was more focused on transportation, the ProMat automation and robotics as a key. The Ryder’s [phonetic] was more planning. And then Lead was more focused on the retail, downstream.
Padhu Raman (00:08:50):
I think the broader focus has been as, one, retail commerce continues to hold very big significance, right? So, the retail is not going away. There are a lot of innovations in that area. The second aspect I really thought was that DTC brands are reaching an inflection point. Even that is a case when even Amazon aggregators as well, that is some things that needs to be focused on.
Padhu Raman (00:09:14):
And a lot of actually, we saw value driven and marketing, which is more in terms of engagement, right? The social commerce is really, really picking up the lot of topics and discussions about it. And also, the not — the Leads are many things but these are the four takeaways that I could take from there. Is the democratization of the luxury brands, right? How that luxury brand is being adopted by the more from a brand — broader, teeny [phonetic], perspective audiences as well. And how is that actually coming into the market as e-commerce as well? What it was not seen before, right? And that is changing.
Padhu Raman (00:09:49):
So, even if you think from a retail perspective, you had the past three decades focused on experience, then it — at Amazon, it became convenience as a factor. Now, engagement social commerce is big, and then future with all the sustainability with e-commerce coming in picture, that is coming into a big highlight.
Scott Luton (00:10:07):
All right. So, you — Padhu, you jumped right out of the gate. That’s a truckload of things to work our way through. Greg, out of all of that, those key takeaways that Padhu shared, what’s one thing that you’d like to pick out and make sure folks are keeping it front and center?
Greg White (00:10:21):
Yes. Well, I think, we have to acknowledge that traditional bricks and mortar is what we used to call it, pre-Covid retail has come crashing back through the door, and people are actually going into stores now. And I think one of the realizations that was — that has occurred with a lot of companies is that the, sort of, false wall that they put up between e-commerce and traditional e-commerce, for lack of a better term for it, is a very big hindrance for them. It creates a lack of visibility. They lose a lot of economies of scale, and it creates, in some cases, an entirely separate organization for what effectively is just another channel of retail.
Greg White (00:11:06):
And I think, you know, what Padhu is trying to do here, you know, with Osa Commerce, I believe, is help to bring those aspects of the business back together, not just within your four walls, but outside your four walls. And more companies need to really be focusing on how to remove unnecessary hindrances, borders, whatever you want to call them from, you know, from their business.
Scott Luton (00:11:33):
Well said Greg. And we’re going to dive into a lot more of that with Padhu. And folks in the cheap seats, in the sky boxes as it were. Hey, let us know. What are your thoughts on the everchanging landscape when it comes to the retail experience as a consumer, which we all are, or how supply chains, what they got to do to keep up with those ever-evolving expectations.
Scott Luton (00:11:54):
OK. So, moving right along Padhu, as we have learned, in some cases the hard way, visibility is absolutely critical. And I would say it’s fast becoming table stakes in global supply chain. But tell us about collaborative visibility, what that means and how it’s relevant to supply chains, retailers, 3PLs, alike.
Padhu Raman (00:12:14):
So, if in fact I’ll quote Greg’s, you know, comments in the past.
Scott Luton (00:12:20):
Oh, he’s going to love that, Padhu.
Padhu Raman (00:12:22):
You know, Greg always says visibility is not just one alone will take you anywhere in the future, right?
Scott Luton (00:12:30):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:12:30):
It has to be followed by a very strong insights based on the data, right? And actions around it, right? So, it has to be a collaboration of not only providing the data in the way we can be consumed, but correspondingly analyzing the data, centralizing the data in a more actionable way, right? It’s — that’s the key aspect. That’s where the collaborative visibility comes into picture.
Padhu Raman (00:12:53):
Now, the — that extended to a certain extent where you’re not only enabled to connecting all the ecosystems together. Today, the world has changed our supply chain not within an enterprise, but across an enterprise, right? So, when you have an across enterprise, you have to have visibility in every aspect for the enterprise to perform well, analyzing the data, breaking the data silos, and then driving actions in a more centralized view and a decentralized execution. And that is the key for future.
Scott Luton (00:13:25):
Padhu, that is a beautiful thing. And man, you just lit up my Greg White bingo card with a lot of what you shared there. Because, Padhu, I’m going to double down. When Greg mentioned this — I think he called it visibility and answers, or visibility and solutions, I think was the actual quote a month or so ago. I loved it. It made so much sense to me. And we touted it out there in the marketplace. And Greg, we got some blowback from some, what I’ll call traditionalists out in the industry that kind of want to keep celebrating, you know, the gains we’ve made. But that’s not good enough. That’s not good enough.
Scott Luton (00:13:59):
That’s — and thankfully, Padhu and other real disruptors are continuing to push new heights that we can take the industry and new ways we can serve consumers. But that’s enough for me. Greg, weigh in on what we just heard there from Padhu.
Greg White (00:14:14):
Yes. Well — I mean, I — you know, the — I think the specific quote was, we’ve been whining about visibility for the last 30 year —
Scott Luton (00:14:21):
Long time.
Greg White (00:14:21):
Was it 20 or 30 years? Something like that. And now it’s not enough because what we said was visibility is not enough. It takes actionable, right? It takes actionable recommendations. And that was an eye-opening experience for me because I was like, really, people have been whining about visibility for 30 years because in some form or fashion, not as robust as what Padhu you’re proposing, that visibility has been out there. The ability to do it has been out there and companies have just simply refused to capitalize on it. I think in some cases, because a lot of these old school practitioner, they want to hide what they’re doing and they want to create silos between them and their vendors.
Greg White (00:15:04):
They see this as an adversarial and, sort of, covert operation, right? Rather than an overt and open relationship with where everyone is interdependent on everyone else. And it is strongly to your benefit to share data. Retailers — as Padhu knows, retailers have known this for decades.
Scott Luton (00:15:27):
Yes.
Greg White (00:15:27):
Because they are on the front line with consumers, and consumers demand a lot. And because consumers demand a lot, and they’re literally, and until Covid, we’re physically right in front of these consumers, they hear it big time.
Scott Luton (00:15:41):
Yes.
Greg White (00:15:41):
Believe me, I’m a retailer. I know I’ve been read out by a consumer before. How could you not have a starter for a 72 Chevy? It’s the most popular engine on the planet. Excellent. Anyway, or it was something like that. But I think we have to recognize that that transparency is demanded not by your trading partners. It’s demanded by the consumer and therefore you all must comply.
Scott Luton (00:16:10):
Yes.
Greg White (00:16:10):
Because today the consumer is in control.
Padhu Raman (00:16:13):
I think that the social commerce plays a big aspect, right? If you want to engage with your consumer, you need to provide the right data, the right information. And in fact, hyper-personalization, right now people are actually looking at TikTok videos or — in fact, Google has actually shut down their marketplace and started focusing on your video. YouTube purchase — shopping purchase, right? There, you need to have the real-time integration and interaction so your manufacturer or brand is able to look at the information real-time and cater to that hyper-personalization needs of the end consumer. Right? And that’s where the visibility and connectivity and actions come into picture.
Scott Luton (00:16:51):
Yes, the rubber hits the road. All right. So, we — before we switch gears, and we’re about to get into the four ways to reduce complexity in your supply chain. All righty. Padhu and Greg, this is already one of my favorite recent conversations. I love what we’re talking about here. And, you know, retail is one of the most intriguing aspects of global business right now.
Scott Luton (00:17:11):
But hey, we have the smartest audience, global audience in the world. Let me — we asked and they deliver it. So, let me share a couple quick comments. Memory talks about how we get a lot more value by integrating our delivery channels. Well said. Jose says, visibility and collaboration are integral to the success of modern supply chains. Embracing technologies and practices that improve visibility and encourage collaboration among supply chain partners that across the ecosystem, empowers businesses to stay agile, responsive and customer centric. Always want to say agile in a really long southern way. Agile.
Greg White (00:17:47):
I like agile. And I also like integral, because that’s like the emphatic way of saying it.
Scott Luton (00:17:53):
OK.
Greg White (00:17:53):
That was a great, seriously, that was a great way of saying that.
Scott Luton (00:17:56):
Oh, it — Jonathan, collaboration is key. Data silos that potty reference between trading partners are causing friction, disputes, and lost income for retailers and distributors.
Greg White (00:18:06):
Yes.
Scott Luton (00:18:06):
And finally, Kaya talks about the malls that are dying in many cases and how some commerce, platforms are using them for warehouses. Great comments.
Padhu Raman (00:18:17):
I like — oh, I like all the comments because that’s the reality today, right?
Greg White (00:18:22):
Yes. Exactly.
Scott Luton (00:18:23):
It really is. And folks, I know we can’t get everyone’s comment here today. We’re going to make sure thought Padhu and his team sees them all. Who knows, it might be — lead to a post-livestream, cup of coffee and to share thoughts. But you better be jogging and running to catch up with Padhu.
Greg White (00:18:39):
Yes, I was going to say it might — yes. Get your wind about you because you may have to have this discussion while running.
Scott Luton (00:18:45):
That’s right. That is right. All right. But keep it — keep the comments coming.
Scott Luton (00:18:49):
All right. So, Padhu, I want to get into the central theme. I love checklists and I love reducing complexity, not just in global supply chain but in businesses everywhere. Our teams, we got a lot of pressure on them. And so, it’s incumbent upon us leaders to find ways in making things easier. So, when we talk about the four ways or four other ways to reduce complexity in supply chains, where are we starting, Padhu? What’s number one?
Padhu Raman (00:19:14):
The number one is basically establishing connection, right? The connection across the ecosystems. I’ll give an example, right? Today the market is so big. And I’ll take an example of one of our customers. They have lot of artisans as their customers, right? And majority of these artisans are coming from India, Asia, and they’re also extending to Africa as well. And these artisans, in traditional world, they used to actually sell this product to a consolidator or retailer at a low cost and everything. But now there are new avenues that is coming up where they want to connect directly to these specialized marketplaces, like demand channel. Somebody’s a demand channels like Etsy or Wayfair. There are many other marketplaces where they can actually sell their product.
Padhu Raman (00:19:58):
So, now there are new business model emerging where you have a consolidator who are connecting these artisans to the real network. Before challenge was there, how do you connect it? Today, if you go to India, in remote village, people are using smartphones. Their payment is done through smartphones. In fact, in couple of episodes we talked about Excel and Excel being still used and relevant.
Padhu Raman (00:20:19):
Now, you think about these artisans who may not be that educated and everybody, but they all have access to smartphones in their local language, right? Very simple. They’re able to take the picture of the product, enable the product to go through the streamline, connecting to the one of the marketplaces and selling it.
Padhu Raman (00:20:37):
Now, the challenge comes as, how do I fulfill logistically? How do I consolidate and from India, get the product delivered, come into a household in New York, and somebody’s ordering that specific artisan products from either from India or from Africa or any other place, right? So, connection is a key thing where you are connecting across ecosystems, and with the advancement of technology, that connectivity is becoming more simple, easier, and achievable across multilayers.
Scott Luton (00:21:05):
Love that, Padhu. Greg, your thoughts on the first one. First of four ways, connect — connecting folks, connecting nodes, I’d call it.
Greg White (00:21:14):
Yes. Well, I mean, you — you know, that’s, I mean, that’s the essence of visibility, isn’t it? I mean, you have to know what your supply chain looks like. Who your partners are? Who your customers are, right? All of that. So, it’s got to be the core of what you do. It’s also very, very difficult to do. I know lots of companies have been trying to do this. Some of the largest in the world —
Scott Luton (00:21:38):
Right.
Greg White (00:21:38):
— have been trying to do this. And it’s utterly impossible because I think what a lot of — certainly a lot of consumers don’t think about. Obviously, politicians and administrators don’t think about because of the onerous burden they’ve put on companies now with the scope three emission standards and things like that. Is that there are upwards of five, seven or nine tiers of suppliers. Companies that, for instance, a Walmart may be doing business with that they don’t even know exists because they’re a vendor of a vendor of a vendor of a vendor of a vendor of a vendor, right, to Walmart.
Greg White (00:22:15):
So, they don’t know exist. And that is — that’s part of the trouble for these companies, is they don’t know who’s in their network. So, that connection is absolutely mission critical.
Scott Luton (00:22:28):
Well said. Well said. All right. So, that’s the first of four. We got three more truckloads of actual insights that come from Padhu. So, Padhu, what is number two on our list?
Padhu Raman (00:22:40):
Communication, right? Once you’re established, as Greg said, when you’re communicating across and then looping them, because ultimately today with advancement, you are connecting the end demand to the supply, and the supply could be ordered be — in a bulk or going through multi-levels of consolidation. But how do you communicate, right?
Padhu Raman (00:23:00):
The communication has to be very clearly established. Now, I can see the demand and supply, and you can plan well now, find the best logistic way of delivering it. I’ll give you another use case using brand aggregators as an example. You saw a big growth of brand aggregators in the past three years, right? And actually. now they’re tapering down, and again, consolidating and happening in that area as well. But brand aggregators by nature, you — they’re consolidating lot of brands, either selling in Amazon, Walmart, or Target, or any of the marketplaces. The reason they’re consolidating is basically to optimize on the inventory or efficiency of delivery and everything.
Padhu Raman (00:23:38):
Now, by nature, they have multiple demand channels, multiple brand selling, multiple fulfillment sources they may have inherited then want to operate it in the same model till they’re able to consolidate and reach an efficiency. So, communication, whether across the fulfillment players, the transportation providers, or the suppliers, or the manufacturers, all this complex communication can happen as they are scaling the business. Right?
Scott Luton (00:24:03):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:24:03):
So, you connect and you establish communication.
Scott Luton (00:24:05):
Yes. And, Greg, I’m get your thought here, but one of the things that comes to my mind as Padhu was kind of sharing that example was all the different ways, as we grow, we’re adding tons more complexity to our businesses, our supply chains, you name it. And so, naturally we got to find ways as we go. It’s like the rollercoaster of change, right? Adding more complexity, and then we got to strip it out so we can grow more and add a little more complexity again. Greg, your thoughts with the — on this second one of communicate?
Greg White (00:24:32):
Yes. Well, particularly in manufacturing or brand management acquisition has become the primary means of growth. And, you know, when that occurs, you have two teams of — two complete teams. You have two sets of technology. You have two sets of production and transportation. Just imagine, everything that goes into a business has now been duplicated
Scott Luton (00:25:00):
Right.
Greg White (00:25:01):
Right? So, there’s a ton of opportunity, right, by, you know, by connecting, of course, but because of this, the communication is very difficult. And you have to figure out where you’re going to apply those economies of scale which takes communication, hopefully, upfront as you plan for these acquisitions, and then to the acquired companies, and then among the acquired companies to create a singular whole at some point, right?
Greg White (00:25:34):
So, it becomes a very critical operation and it’s harder than it looks. I mean, I think that’s — the difficulty is, these words are important but they are so complex, which is why there are problems for Padhu to solve, right?
Scott Luton (00:25:49):
Yes.
Greg White (00:25:50):
This means of growth acquisition creates incredible inefficiencies with — at least temporary inefficiencies within a company on the path to getting to incredible efficiencies.
Padhu Raman (00:26:03):
And just adding to Greg’s one part of thought is also this — the complexity in the communication, not only for the mechanism, but also the timing, right? Everybody wants it to be real time so they can make proactive decisions rather than reactive decisions, right?
Scott Luton (00:26:16):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:26:16):
As Greg said before, all these retails, processes, establishment has been for 30 plus years and everything have been innovating continuously. Amazon did a lot of things as well. And many people are trying it. But still the problem exists in terms of having real-time access to information, breaking the data silos, communicating effectively, whether still e-mail is the best communication tool everybody’s using, but that’s OK. But how do you absorb that and then still make that communication easier and productive?
Scott Luton (00:26:46):
Well said, Padhu. OK. Let me — before we move on to number three. I want to add just a couple quick comments here. We got a bunch of them. And Padhu, you and your team will enjoy going back and looking at these. Memory says, developing those relationships to harness other people’s power, power sources and resources to advance supply chain overall performance for the whole ecosystem. Well said, Memory. Crawford is enjoying what you’re sharing, Padhu. He says, everyone struggles with connecting data. Doing it poorly can result in your data lake becoming a data swamp.
Greg White (00:27:17):
Yes.
Scott Luton (00:27:17):
Love the insights, Padhu. And —
Greg White (00:27:19):
Which is great for gator fishing, but not for data retrieval.
Scott Luton (00:27:22):
That is right. And one more point. We got so many, but one more point here I want to add a little news item. Padhu represents to me lots of constructive dissatisfaction, and that is a brand mantra of UPS, of course. And John Peterson reports, speaking of communicating, tentative deals struck between UPS and Teamsters. So, we’ll dive into that really, really soon. But I appreciate —
Greg White (00:27:46):
You know, what’s the most important thing about that announcement? Thank you, John for that. The most important thing about that announcement, Scott, is we were right.
Scott Luton (00:27:53):
That’s right. That’s right. Oh, man.
Greg White (00:27:56):
Yesterday on a show, we predicted that the Teamsters would back down and, yay.
Scott Luton (00:28:04):
That’s right. I can’t wait to learn [phonetic] more.
Greg White (00:28:05):
I mean — I’m sorry, Scott. The most important thing is that it’s saved commerce and jobs. Not that we were right.
Scott Luton (00:28:11):
That’s right.
Greg White (00:28:12):
That’s second — it’s second, we were right.
Scott Luton (00:28:15):
OK. All right. So, Padhu — and thanks. You all keep the good stuff coming. All right. So, we’ve — we’re halfway through our list of four ways to reduce complexity in your supply chain. Lots have been there, done that, expertise from Padhu. So, we’ve talked about — number one was connect. Number two was communicate. What is the third, Padhu?
Padhu Raman (00:28:33):
The topic we’ve been talking, collaborate, right? Continuously collaborate across the ecosystem. We have multi-tiers, right? As Greg said, there’s a vendor, and vendor, and vendor and vendor. Now, the — with the establishment of technology, we are able to connect your end customer to your end supplier, right? The end level of — loop level of connectivity. Everybody looking at the same data.
Padhu Raman (00:28:58):
Because what happens in collaboration is able to — in three things, right? One, it increases the operational efficiency, right? Ultimately, you want to continuously improvise. Supply chain over a period of time is continuously working on improving that, right? Next, you want to look at productivity. How do I increase my productivity? There’s a challenge in the labor, right? Just a quote from whether what happens with the UPS and Teamsters plan challenge there, right?
Scott Luton (00:29:23):
Right.
Greg White (00:29:23):
Right.
Padhu Raman (00:29:23):
If you don’t have it, how do you get labor? And labor has been a big problem. And before Covid and post Covid as well.
Greg White (00:29:29):
Right.
Padhu Raman (00:29:29):
We have not reached that normalcy state, right?
Scott Luton (00:29:32):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:29:32):
Having run a fulfillment center, I can tell you the challenges that you face with labor and everything, right? So, you have to have — continuously looking at productivity improvements and also efficiency, right? Efficiency becomes — and not only within an enterprise but across an enterprise, right? Because that is the key. Even the best of the companies that optimized over a couple of decades within an enterprise. But across the enterprise, upstream, downstream, connectivity, establishing collaboration. So, you have established a connection, established a communication, and then continuously collaborate for better efficiency.
Scott Luton (00:30:06):
All right. Padhu, I love that. This is a great list so far. Greg, weigh in on what you heard there with the third one on the list of collaborate.
Greg White (00:30:14):
So, this has been a long-time initiative for retail. In fact, I come from the days, a decade or so ago, where this whole notion of CPFR, collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment, was one means of collaboration between companies where each would share their capacities along with their partner’s demand and kind of create this almost purchase orderless flow of goods because of that. But you have to share a lot of data.
Greg White (00:30:49):
So, I want to be clear that these are not new problems.
Scott Luton (00:30:55):
Yes.
Greg White (00:30:56):
What Padhu is introducing is a new perspective on these problems. And we now have so much more robust data and so much more capable technology, right? And technology that can learn in the same way that humans do, except at hyper-speed and also never forgets, so that’s A.I., in case anybody’s wondering, we had to say it because we’re on a supply chain show.
Greg White (00:31:23):
And it’s not ChatGPT, right? It’s more than a party trick. This is real, real learning technology that can infer and learn new things, not just regurgitate other things. So, I think that’s — that capability is what makes this problem newly solvable and more effectively solvable because so — there have been so many fits and starts in supply chain, as we all know, as practitioners in attacking these problems.
Greg White (00:31:54):
And so, that’s what — I wanted to make sure we get that out there. That the availability of robust data and the availability of highly capable technology and adaptable technology, agile technology, Scott, let’s call it that, agile technology now gives us a new means and a new capability to solve these problems.
Scott Luton (00:32:15):
Well said. Love the context. Very important. And as we’re saying, agile in a distinctly southern way. Genuine is another word, if you say it that way. It sounds like you’re where I’m from.
Greg White (00:32:26):
I love living in the south, man. I love — you guys have your own language down here.
Scott Luton (00:32:30):
We do. We do.
Scott Luton (00:32:31):
All right. So, Padhu, you’re walking us through, as Greg mentioned, a very important point, not old problems, but new and exciting ways of addressing old problems and some of the newer ones. So, we’ve talked about connect, communicate, and collaborate. Who would’ve thought that Vanilla Ice back in the early ’90s was just trying to find new ways of removing complexity from supply chains. OK. So, Padhu what is number four on our list?
Padhu Raman (00:32:54):
Number four is actually a little different, right? That all the three that has been traditionally been there and we are trying to using technology to solve in a much better way. It’s the technology, also as Greg mentioned, is A.I. factor coming in. It’s a coexistence. The coexistence with multiple different systems, right?
Padhu Raman (00:33:13):
We are — because what traditionally we had, we had automation and where human was driving it, we had a — some level of automation mission — man mission. With A.I., that has actually exponentially grown in a different level of man mission integration, right? So, you are now may have a system and human actually operating a system, talking to other side and A.I. — an actual intelligence talking to an artificial intelligence system, right? How do those actually coexist and talk and make effective decisions? And that is actually becoming more complex because one, most of the players are in a different level of technology maturity.
Padhu Raman (00:33:51):
Some are civil operating Excel. Some are using the advanced phone, smartphones, which can read a — scan a product automatically. It can derive the product descriptions and connect to the channels and enable to sell. And some are, you know, in between, right? We are ERP systems. We are WMS in different level of maturity. And all of this is connecting to the automation and robotics as well, right?
Padhu Raman (00:34:15):
And how we coexist with four key factors under that, right? One is in fact, Professor Yossi Sheffi actually talks about in his book, the recent book, and I think he also — on this show as well.
Scott Luton (00:34:24):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:34:25):
Where he talks about four key things which is important from a coexisting standpoint. One is interoperability. Interoperability across all systems, not only the traditional systems, but also A.I. and the other systems as well, right?
Scott Luton (00:34:39):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:34:39):
Now, authority of balance. Who actually will own the authority and make the decision? Is it A.I. overriding humans or humans overriding A.I.? Which one takes the precedence, right? Transparency is always there because once you connect, communicate, and collaborate, you have the transparency of data. In just matter of what is accuracy of data to make those decisions and establishing a mutual learning, right?
Padhu Raman (00:35:01):
So, that coexistence is very important. I’ll give you one simple use case, which I have seen in practically as well. So, we have multiple marketplaces. The brands want to be in every marketplace. The customers are shopping. So, you have an order in Walmart, I order in Amazon, but most of the time brands are actually outsourcing to one single fulfillment center, either their own fulfillment center or through a 3PL. Say the 3PL is implementing automation system or robotic system. It could be a — there’s a concept called goods to person, which basically the goods comes to the person, the person picks it, right? If that — if the integration of understanding that the customer has placed the order from two different marketplaces, it’s efficient to store the product in one robotic system and it brings in, and picking that, that level of complex exchange of information has to be streamlined, right? And that is where the man mission complexity comes into picture. How multiple system coexist and how we can derive efficiency out of it.
Scott Luton (00:36:01):
OK. All right. So, Greg weigh in. You know, Padhu shared a lot on the delivery and the truckload delivery of the fourth one here of coexist. But pick something there that folks got to keep front and center.
Greg White (00:36:15):
Well, it’s the interoperability. I mean it — you know, you’re leading to that point with every one of the pre — prior steps, right? But the ability to share that data and action it is critical, and oh, so difficult because the 3PL uses a different — may use a different ERP or operational or WMS or other systems than the retailer does, or then the manufacturer does.
Greg White (00:36:47):
And so, creating that connection, right, interoperability between these companies is greater than just connecting them. It’s reconciling those differences and turning them into something greater than just data sharing into an action that can be derived from reconciling those technology differences, and data differences, and probably business process differences into something that benefits both parties, right, by streamlining that process. So, you know, that to me, that —
Padhu Raman (00:37:26):
Interoperability.
Greg White (00:37:27):
Interoperability. I didn’t say it right then either, but I said it faster so it sounded better. Anyway, you know, that interoperability — that’s the last time I’m trying it. OK?
Scott Luton (00:37:39):
OK. All right.
Greg White (00:37:40):
Is — it’s crucial. It’s just like the communication between human beings or enterprises. It’s the partnering aspect of that, of the enterprises, their technologies, their data, their operational organizations or business processes.
Scott Luton (00:37:57):
Yes. Not just coexisting, Padhu, I would suggest co-thriving.
Padhu Raman (00:38:03):
Co-thriving.
(CROSSTALK)
Padhu Raman (00:38:04):
I will steal this one. I will use it —
Scott Luton (00:38:06):
Please.
Padhu Raman (00:38:07):
— in my —
Scott Luton (00:38:07):
It’s yours.
Padhu Raman (00:38:08):
— future investor meetings, I’ll use that one.
Scott Luton (00:38:11):
All right. Good, good, good. Wait, we’ve got a ton. We still — we’re only halfway through the show. We got a ton of great comments here. I want to share a couple here. So, Gerardo, great to have you here with us today. Says, I was it a green — earlier point, Greg met –Greg made, he says, remember those days, centuries ago, when having access to Walmart retail link was a gold mine of data to run CPFR.
Greg White (00:38:31):
Right, right.
Scott Luton (00:38:32):
Reminiscing the good old days. Jose says, the benefits of combining visibility and collaboration are endless and set you one step ahead. Love that. It’s very poetic.
Greg White (00:38:40):
Oh, look at that, Jose, right into the marketing mantra.
Scott Luton (00:38:44):
Right? Bonita —
Padhu Raman (00:38:46):
Jose is our great partner.
Scott Luton (00:38:48):
Bonita says, collaborate and listen. Vanilla Ice reference cracks me up, Scott. Hey, we try. We try to keep everybody on their toes. OK. And I got to add this one. Ryan says, it is a tough word and he doesn’t envy us trying to have to say interoperability.
Greg White (00:39:00):
Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate the sport, man.
Scott Luton (00:39:02):
All right. And so, Padhu, you got some great questions there in the chat. We’ll let you and your team get back to all of our wonderful cheap seats, members on some of those questions. I want to — oh, one other mark — and to Amanda and Catherine, as always, thank you for driving production behind the scenes.
Scott Luton (00:39:19):
Padhu mentioned Dr. Yossi Sheffi, and we had a great conversation, Greg and I did, with Yossi. If you could drop that link to that chat we published probably a week or two ago, that would be wonderful. OK. So, Padhu, we’ve got our four things, connect, communicate, collaborate, coexisting, co-thriving, whatever you’d like to go with there. I love the context and the examples behind all those things. So, folks, let us know your favorite part of those. I want to move forward before we make sure folks know what Osa Commerce does and some other resources. Padhu, when it comes to investing in new technologies, right? We’ve been in that do loop for a long time. Give our audience a few tips as to how to make sure it saves the business money amongst other things.
Padhu Raman (00:40:06):
It’s a good question. So, the one primary aspect is with the current supply chain. You have to move to a technology which supports a more of an ecosystem model, right? Because ultimately one system cannot solve everything in the supply chain. It has to be, again, focusing on these para — four principles that is there. You are actually going into an ecosystem model, which enables you whether you want an inward visibility, whether you are trying to focus on a post-customer engagement.
Padhu Raman (00:40:35):
Because one other thing that you all remember, today’s world, when you’re going to different marketplaces, when the customer walks out from Amazon or Walmart or shops, you always say, I shop in Amazon or Walmart. The brand is actually losing that value, right? So, you need to have process where you are doing a post-order engagement. And then again, it comes to that ecosystem model where you are trying to engage with a customer.
Padhu Raman (00:40:55):
I’ll give you an example. We have a partnership with a company called, Undocked. And they actually put a barcode or references on the physical product. When the physical product reaches the customer, they can scan and then all the interaction can happen. Engagement can happen, right? So, one look at ecosystem model, which then can connect to all the different systems in a much better way. Focus on the data, the data accuracy, because other — the biggest problem in this ecosystem, I’ll call the AAA. You need to call the AAA for supply chain which is primarily accessibility to the data, availability of the data, and accuracy of the data, right?
Padhu Raman (00:41:34):
So, you need to focus on a system or a technology which solves these three problems effectively and connect accordingly. And technology’s there, right? Whether you have, you know, a PDF document, you can use an OCR to scan and consume the data. So, there are a lot of technology available. All we need to do is how to connect these things to make the end-to-end productivity much better. Phones are penetrating the market like anything. Your smartphone solves most of your problem. Focus on ecosystem model, focus on the data, break the data silos, and then connect through that aspect. And then focus on the people, right? Ultimately the people process platform, that is what is going to drive. And with more automation, more advancement, with more A.I. and all coming in, which is artificial intelligence, end of the day, actual intelligence will take over, and that is more important to the people, right? The people is where it’s contributing everything and establish good processes and the platform will support it.
Scott Luton (00:42:32):
Well said, Padhu. And I — a couple of things there. The AAA, as AAA customer, I love your notion there of, we need to have AAA you can call to help with global supply chain. Love that. Greg, as we — you know, you have, of course, as we’ve talked about time and time again, have implemented thousands of technologies and been through those processes. What was your take on what Padhu shared or how would maybe you advise folks to ensure that they — that they’re picking the right technology and one that adds to the business?
Greg White (00:43:07):
So, there’s a couple litmus tests that I’ve found. And one is particularly in supply chain is make sure that the leaders, founders, operators, implementers know supply chain. I mean, they’ll have to know it inside out. They have to know the core principles. There are so many, you know, we hear this all the time, and of course, I get pitched all the time for investments. So many people who come to supply chain as a disruptor, and they don’t know a thing about supply chain and they grossly oversimplify the complexity of the business problem that we’re solving, which is literally touching every single aspect of every single product. All the way from the consumer, back to the raw materials that produce it or vice versa, whichever direction your entity happens to go. And there is so much complexity in that. So, that knowledge of supply chain cannot be underestimated.
Greg White (00:44:00):
And secondly, and this is rare, and we talked about this earlier in the show, find someone who’s got that experience in supply chain, but recognizes that things need to change. Not somebody who says, hey, visibility is enough because we’ve been waiting 30 years for it, so it’s finally here, so that’s enough. Right? Somebody who recognizes that visibility is just a way point to the actions that are required to impact your business. And that, you know, the fact that we waited 30 years for it, if somebody foolishly did that, waited 30 years for some kind of visibility, doesn’t mean you should wait another 30 years until you action that, right? That —
Scott Luton (00:44:44):
Well said.
Greg White (00:44:44):
— as I said, those people — and I, you know, like Padhu who recognized that the inflection point that we’ve reached with technology and supply chain is not the disruption or even the awareness in supply chain. It is the confluence of more and more robust data, and more and more capable and agile technology that can capitalize on that data and provide humans and companies with greater and greater solutions than they ever could have conceived in the past, right?
Greg White (00:45:00):
So, someone who has their eyes out front, not begging for thanks for providing visibility. But saying, yes, OK, we provided visibility and here’s what we’re going to allow you to do with that. And we’re — and continuing to look forward, that’s the critical thing. You got to deliver today, of course, but you have to always be looking forward.
Scott Luton (00:45:41):
I’m with you.
Greg White (00:45:41):
That’s a fair combination of gifts as
Scott Luton (00:45:44):
As Bonita says, mic drop, Greg. Between you and Padhu — and I love your pilot analogy. And I’m going to paraphrase what you said there, make visibility be a waypoint, not a destination. That is supply chain gold. And then other thing, Padhu, that you spoke to as you were sharing, some of the AAAs and whatnot, adoption, right? So, even after you select the right technology and, you know, that aftercare to ensure that the users see the value and how it makes life easier and allows them to be successful, that’s going to help drive adoption. Without adoption, as Greg we’ve talked about, what do you have, right?
Scott Luton (00:46:24):
All right. So, Padhu — Greg, you — I thought you were about to answer that question.
Greg White (00:46:28):
I was thinking a really pretty screensaver is what you have. You’re — but you’re absolutely right. And — but you know, and it probably bears saying, and I’m glad you said it. And by the way, you said whatever it was I said much better than I did. So, thank you for that also.
Scott Luton (00:46:41):
Waypoint destination.
Greg White (00:46:42):
Yes. The — I consider great technology to include the ability to both engage and simplify the user’s role in conducting the process, right? It should — technology should never be a hurdle or a hindrance, right? It should, it should always be a helping hand to expedite the experience of the user and to expedite their job. Because in the end, I mean, I’ve learned this fortunately from — on the front foot the last time, but I’ve learned this the hard way in the past, and that is, you know, people — they don’t give a tinkers’ damn about technology. They just want to get their job done. And they just want to do it in the most effective, satisfying, and easy way possible. And there’s no shame in it being easy, because with technology it can be easy or much, much less complex in any case.
Padhu Raman (00:47:40):
If I can add to that.
Greg White (00:47:42):
Say that?
Padhu Raman (00:47:43):
If I can add to what Greg said.
Greg White (00:47:45):
Please.
Scott Luton (00:47:46):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:47:46):
Technology, it also has to be customer centric, right? End of the day, how you focus on the customer and how you solve a customer, simplifying for a customer and having all the complexity behind it, right, and then that is also the key aspect of what you’re looking from a technology adoption perspective. Providing the best experience and engagement of the customer.
Greg White (00:48:05):
And that’s a good point, Padhu. When we — I think we said this yesterday, or we’ve said it recently. Anyway, for technology to be simple and easy and give a good experience to be so easy, it takes a — operating a lot of complexity behind the scenes to produce a screen that where you can only make one decision or one button click or whatever to make the problem go away. That requires an incredible amount of complexity, but that’s what technology is for, isn’t it?
Scott Luton (00:48:39):
I’m with you. And I liked that rhetorical question that you finished with there, Greg.
Scott Luton (00:48:44):
All right. So, Padhu, great conversation. And by the way, thanks for all the comments here. Memory, appreciate it. Great to see you, by the way. One of our longtime faves. Great conversation. Practical conversations, which is my favorite. Enjoy this one. Hey, good night to you as well.
Greg White (00:48:57):
She can listen to the rest of it on her run in the morning.
Scott Luton (00:48:59):
That’s right.
Greg White (00:49:00):
Good night, Memory.
Scott Luton (00:49:02):
All right. So, Padhu, really, I’ve enjoyed your perspective and expertise here today. And congrats on the journey that Osa Commerce is on. But for perfect clarity for our global audience here, we love making sure they understand what our guests do in a nutshell. So, tell us, what does OSA commerce do directly in a nutshell?
Padhu Raman (00:49:23):
We are a technology provider, right? We provide a collaborative visibility platform which primarily enables to connect across the supply chain. Connecting all the dots, which is basically connect, communicate, collaborate, and co-thrive — I mean, to coexist (INAUDIBLE) systems. And —
Greg White (00:49:39):
Look at him. Look at him adapt his marketing.
Padhu Raman (00:49:41):
— and drive a better, smarter decisions as well, right? And we call the Osa mode, which is basically the platform that pays for itself, right? The broader aspect is, one, it removes the data silos, right? It connects to all the ecosystems removing the data silos. Provides an insight driven toward A.I., you know, engine, which is both artificial as well as actual because that’s where the human interaction also comes in.
Padhu Raman (00:50:08):
The entire platform is primarily based on a cybersecurity framework. Most of our developers comes from — and in fact, our CTO and everybody comes from the 8,200 unit of IDF, where the primary focus is cybersecurity and data privacy, which is very important in this supply chain, connected ecosystems, right? Focus on that. And the time to utility, and utility to scalability, and scalability to profitability in more in weeks and months compared to traditional months and years, and sometimes in decades, right?
Padhu Raman (00:50:42):
And that is where we will offer a complete technology solution, which enables us to connect across ecosystems, establish a good communication across the partners, enables collaboration and co-thrive and coexist in the future of supply chain, and platform built for the next decades to come.
Scott Luton (00:51:00):
I love that. And of course, in our pre-show discussions, going back for quite some time, Padhu, we saw you up in Chicago at a Reuters event, that was really cool. But some of those outcomes that, I understand, Osa Commerce are driving increasing revenue, reducing logistics costs, and increasing optimizing customer experience. So, you all check that out.
Scott Luton (00:51:22):
And in particular, we’ve got, a neat resource from Padhu and the Osa Commerce team. You know, they’re working extensively out in global supply chain. Check out this link and our team will drop it there in the chat where you can learn more about how they’re working, as they’re saying, Greg called this out earlier, to be one working with their customers so they can be one step ahead of their competition. Really important. So, you all check out that link and you’re one click away from doing that.
Scott Luton (00:51:49):
Greg, when it comes to this last couple of segments from Padhu and what he and the Osa Commerce team is doing, what’s one thing you think is one of the coolest aspects of that, I’ll call it?
Greg White (00:52:03):
Yes. Yes, I think the coolest aspect of it is he’s done it before, right? He has founded technology companies before. He’s worked in big technology companies before. He has the experience of what their capabilities and their inabilities were at the same time. And this experience, if not only having a lot of supply chain experience and knowledge, but also having started a technology company and run and built and sold and doing it again. You are so much better the second time than the first and the third, then the second and all of that.
Greg White (00:52:39):
So, the — you know, I’m really excited, one, Padhu, for you about that.
Padhu Raman (00:52:43):
Thank you.
Greg White (00:52:43):
And I’m excited for what could come from this because the insights that you gain, not only as a solution provider, but also as a business manager, make you executed a much, much higher level in your second or third, you know, company.
Greg White (00:53:02):
And it’s — you know, it’s an exciting time and it is a necessary solution, right? Somebody asked an example of an actionable visibility or actionable insight from visibility, right? One is just knowing that your — let’s just say, I’ll just pick one. Vendor X doesn’t have the capability to fulfill your next order, which you’ve notified them about months and months in advance, well outside of the lead time.
Scott Luton (00:53:30):
Right.
Greg White (00:53:30):
So, you have time now to respond preemptively and move to another vendor or help them resolve their problem or whatever. But nonetheless, you can — you knowing that there’s going to be a problem down the road can resolve it now without disruption to your own chain.
Padhu Raman (00:53:47):
Exceptions manage the key to the — is very key apart from all the aspects. Another thing is there are a lot of optimizations done on the outbound side, but very little on the inbound, right?
Greg White (00:53:57):
Yes.
Scott Luton (00:53:57):
Yes.
Padhu Raman (00:53:57):
So, that is where connecting everything in the supply chain, upstream, downstream.
Greg White (00:54:01):
Yes.
Scott Luton (00:54:01):
Well said. And that was — Ratnesh, great to have you here with us today via LinkedIn. That was — who had asked that question. So, I appreciate that. Thanks for being here. And Greg, thanks for catching that eagle eye. Greg White, Padhu, Greg White does not miss anything as I’ve said time and time again.
Scott Luton (00:54:16):
Padhu, congrats. This is — and thanks, by the way, for all the folks weighing in. It was a great conversation. I agree. I’ll — it’s exciting and very practical and innovative with what Padhu and his team are doing. And Padhu, great — always great to reconnect with a dear old friend —
Padhu Raman (00:54:33):
Same here.
Scott Luton (00:54:34):
— that’s been with us for quite some time. So, Padhu, how can folks, let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you and your Osa Commerce team on the move. How can folks connect with you?
Padhu Raman (00:54:44):
They can connect me on their LinkedIn, Padhu Raman or e-mail me at padhu@osacommerce.com.
Scott Luton (00:54:49):
OK. Greg, you see that? He is not scurred to put his e-mail out there.
Greg White (00:54:55):
He knows it like that. This is how you reach me, right?
Scott Luton (00:54:58):
Well, we will have you back very soon. Really enjoy the conversation. Congrats again on the successes and the recognition and the difference you’re making for your customers out in the industry in a very, very complex time. So, Padhu Raman, co-founder and chief product officer at Osa Commerce. Thanks again.
Greg White (00:55:17):
Yes. Thanks, Padhu.
Padhu Raman (00:55:18):
Thank you. Thank you. Great conversation.
Scott Luton (00:55:22):
Hey, hey. The swoosh weights on nobody.
Greg White (00:55:25):
He had to run.
Scott Luton (00:55:26):
That’s right. Padhu, great to connect. I was going to ask him, Greg, to give us a bold prediction. So, he had mentioned a — and maybe he’ll put it in the chat. He’s got the — that Publix Marathon coming up, I think in February, he said. I’d love for him to project where he’s going to finish. What place number he’s going to finish.
Greg White (00:55:46):
Oh, wow. That’s — I mean, there will be thousands of people there. I’m sure. That’d be hard. I think, you know, when — it’s his first marathon, right? So, I think you have to kind of scale your goals.
Scott Luton (00:55:59):
Yes.
Greg White (00:55:59):
First finish. I’m not even sure — although, you know what, we might let you know because we will definitely ask him this off air in the green room. If he’s even got a time goal, right? I mean, when you’re running a distance that you’ve never competed at before, just finishing a 26.2 miles is —
Scott Luton (00:56:19):
Is a win.
Greg White (00:56:20):
— is a win, yes. But I wonder if he also — he seems like the kind of person, doesn’t he, Scott, who also has a time goal, don’t you think?
Scott Luton (00:56:28):
Undoubtedly. And that’s where — he’s the type of person, I think, he can give us a range of where he’s going to finish, is my thought. But we’ll see. Greg, I want to ask you a different question. And by the way, Benita says you dropped — you and Padhu, between you dropped the mic three times over the last hour. Man. But Greg, we knew Padhu was going to bring it here today.
Greg White (00:56:49):
Yes, of course.
Scott Luton (00:56:49):
You know, we — we’ve rubbed elbows and have featured him before. So, he delivered, as we knew. But what is — out of all that he shared, what’s one thing that is your favorite part that folks really got to write down and leave this conversation with?
Greg White (00:57:07):
Golly. I mean, aside from everything he shared, which I think we touched on very effectively.
Scott Luton (00:57:12):
Yes.
Greg White (00:57:13):
The power of a repeat entrepreneur cannot be denied. It absolutely cannot be denied. You’re — like I said earlier, you’re so much better your second time. I — so I invest in a fund that only invest in previous founders.
Scott Luton (00:57:29):
Really?
Greg White (00:57:29):
And those companies are so much more powerful than any of the other funds that I’m invested in. And it’s — you know, and it’s natural. I mean, I — I’ve experienced it. You’re experiencing it, right?
Scott Luton (00:57:44):
Oh, yes.
Greg White (00:57:45):
How much better you are when you do that. I’m — I don’t mean to, you know, just kind of beat that drum forever, but that’s what is exciting about this to me because he will come out with something special and he will do it. He and his team will do it better than they’ve ever done it before, and they did pretty good last time.
Greg White (00:58:04):
So — right? So, I think, there — you know, that is what’s really exciting. We need more repeat supply chain entrepreneurs —
Scott Luton (00:58:18):
Yes.
Greg White (00:58:18):
— here because that will accelerate the growth of technology, the growth of solutions. The pace at which we advance our practice is by having these repeat founders come into the industry. Even if they weren’t the supply chain founder before, even if they’re just better and now focusing on supply chain. I think that will accelerate the solution nearing that we get for a lot of the challenges we have in this practice.
Scott Luton (00:58:44):
I’m with you. So, folks, take that and the last hour. And if you’re not going to do business with Padhu, who’s always a great conversation regardless if you’re working with him or not, at least make sure Osa Commerce is on your radar because they are going to be moving, or you are —
Greg White (00:59:01):
Yes, seriously. At least watch them. It’s going to be fun to watch.
Scott Luton (00:59:03):
That’s right. All right. Folks, we covered a lot of ground here. Thanks for all the great feedback and comments and even some of the questions. We’ll try to drive some post-livestream conversations. But hey, the four ways, connect, communicate, collaborate, coexist, co-thrive, there you go, Padhu. And remember all the context that Padhu and Greg and many of you added to those four ways. Really important. We can’t get enough context in today’s world.
Scott Luton (00:59:28):
But the important thing to do, Greg, as we all know, is you got to take that, you got to take these actual insights over the last hour, put it in a headlock, deeds, not words. Make something happen. Take action, right? So, on that note, Greg, on behalf of you and the rest of our team, Scott Luton, challenging all of you out there to do good, to give forward, and to be the change. And with that said, we’ll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (00:59:57):
Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain Now community. Check out all of our programming at supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain Now anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.
