In this episode, Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton run a ‘split segment’ discussion with two guests. Jim Liegghio is the Program Manager for Supply Chain Products & Services at the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG). Elba Pareja-Gallagher is the Director of Finance (Controller), U.S. Product Performance, for UPS and also the CEO and Founder of ‘ShowMe50,’ a 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to provide a platform to engage individuals in actions that level the playing field for women.

“When you have a virtual event, the sky’s the limit.”

Jim Liegghio, Program Manager for Supply Chain Products & Services, AIAG

Jim gets the conversation started by sharing his perspective on AIAG’s successful shift to virtual events, and then provides some insight into the specific challenges facing automotive OEM’s today. Topping that list are switching production lines to manufacture PPE and trying to improve their visibility with tier 2 and 3 suppliers (and beyond) to mitigate future supply chain uncertainty and disruption.

“I think one of the best things we can do to create more inclusive workplaces and make everybody really work hard is to get to know our people.”

Elba Pareja-Gallagher Director of Finance (Controller), U.S. Product Performance, UPS and CEO and Founder of ShowMe50

In this second half of this episode, Elba – who will be one of the featured speakers on the October 28th Supply Chain Now “Stand Up and Sound Off” webinar, talks about the benefits of workplace diversity and how to make it a reality in business today. One of the new challenges to workplace diversity is the targeted impact COVID-19 is having on female professionals.

Intro/Outro (00:00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world, supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things, supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:00:29):

All right, take. Good. Good more afternoon, everybody. Scott lewd and Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now, Greg. Good afternoon. How are you doing? I am doing quite well. Yes. I bet people think I’m taking two weeks of vacation out of three here, but actually been a pretty, pretty heavy work week. If you want to call it that I can only imagine, uh, your inbox as you came back from selling the seven seas. Yeah. It took me all of last week to catch up. Right. So yeah, it’s been, it’s been crazy. There’s a lot going on of course. And that’s always a good thing that is right. Well, you know, today’s show, we’ve got an outstanding show teed up a, we have a couple of friends, big friends of the show, joining us to talk about the automotive industry and to talk about Hispanic heritage month and a few events that in, in both of those areas.

Scott Luton (00:01:22):

Yeah. So, uh, Greg, we’re going to be welcoming in Jim LIGO with the automotive industry action group here in a few minutes and Elba prey, hog Gallagher with show me 50 you excited. I am excited for both of those occurrences. First of all, you know, we hold AIG in huge esteem in our experience. And I think probably everyone’s the first company to pivot from a physical to a virtual event. And man, did they do it well back when you could stay, say pivot without everyone rolling their eyes, even you are right. Well, a that not only did they do it well, but they made it extremely inexpensive or folks that pick up best practices and network and reconnect with the industry. And that’s what we, you know, beyond all the content great thought leadership they have, those gestures are. So, uh, welcome in this, in this challenging year, that 20 20th.

Scott Luton (00:02:20):

So we’re, we’re big fans look and look forward to having Jim on, Hey, let’s say hello to a few folks before we offer a few programming notes, uh, Michael, uh, uh, Avra says, Hey, are we ready for the fish fry today, Michael? You know, I am ready for this fish fry. We’ve got our, all the bobble head dolls. We got our shirt on, you know, we had to make sure we’re doing all the right things to maximize our luck, Greg. Uh, so Mike Michael of course, is referring to the Braves and the Marlins, which are, uh, squaring off in game three of the NFL D at 2:00 PM. So Michael, you, Hey, is back here with us from Pakistan side. Hope this finds you well, John [inaudible] who saved a great job Monday. Uh, he had some fast fingers, found the link as we were featuring. Laura says Siri, which is run stuff.

Scott Luton (00:03:12):

And John saved a cigarette to have you in the op test the team in the house, Sylvia, Judy from Charleston is with this, uh, Greg, what do you think Sylvia’s up to this morning? I imagine that she’s making jam now. I don’t know. She’s probably making jam and changing the supply chain world at the same time. That’s my guess. And it’s funny because we were just talking with Jim about the last time we were in Charleston. That’s right, right. So, um, Oh my gosh, we gotta get back there. Get some jam soon, very soon. So that’d be great to have you here with us. Uh, Edward Murphy is with us. Keith Duckworth is here from the state that is home to the mighty Mac. He says the Mackinac bridge in Michigan, right? Uh, Larry Klein is here with us from Albany, Georgia. I think I said that, right.

Scott Luton (00:04:03):

Larry always, always trips me up. It depends on if you’re from there or from around there. Cause it’s all Benny for some people. Yes, that’s right. But Albany as well. Yeah. AIG, petique Todd. Uh, welcome to anybody. I do want to give folks, Tom Rafferty is here with us. He is a, I’m a great fellow podcaster, but more than that, and he’s a thought leader, especially in sustainability and we’re looking forward to having him join us for a future lobstering, to talk more about that and offer some of his insights and thoughts. So great to have you here with us today, Tom. Right. Can I give a quick shout out to Todd rains who is in mourning along with me because of the passing of Eddie van Halen? I think, um, so Todd and I were college roommates and he is a supply chain pro to purely by chance.

Scott Luton (00:04:55):

Really? Yeah. He is big in pricing optimization. So, um, anyway, it’s been a rough couple of days, not no comparison to all the big issues in the world, but when you think about it, um, you know, people from your age starting to get to that age where they start to pass and especially somebody as impactful as Eddie van Halen, Todd’s a guitar player. Um, so anyway, yeah, I’m repping repping van Halen today. Well, uh, kidding aside, 2020 has been a rough year on so many fronts. Amen. Gosh, we have lost some incredible artists in that regard. So, um, alright, so let’s, let’s talk, let’s get Jim in here in a second, two quick programming notes. First off today, if you liked today’s live stream, be sure to check out the podcast wherever you get your podcasts from today, we published the replay of Monday’s buzz, which featured Lara Seseri incredible stuff, Greg. So check that out and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. And secondly, uh, Mark

Scott Luton (00:05:58):

Your calendar. You know, we get a lot of feedback. Sometimes folks are getting notifications when we go live. Sometimes they’re not, we go live twice a week right now, soon to be three times Mondays and Thursdays at 12 noon Eastern time. And we want y’all to Mark your calendars because the best thing about these live streams is not us or our guests or what we talk about.

Jim Liegghio (00:06:19):

It’s what you all bring to the table. So yeah,

Scott Luton (00:06:22):

A market calendar we’d love to have you join us as often as you can. Okay. So Greg, with no further ado, we’ve got a rock and roll show here today. Let’s bring in Jim LIGO program manager for supply chain products and services with the automotive industry.

Jim Liegghio (00:06:38):

Yes, sir.

Scott Luton (00:06:41):

Good morning or good afternoon, Jim, how are you doing

Jim Liegghio (00:06:44):

Good afternoon fellows. How are you will connect with you feel over? I feel a little bit overdressed. I will admit, but I was happy to put gel in my hair for about the second time since March. So that’s that styling today? I love it.

Scott Luton (00:07:04):

You know, we were talking about w and when we first collaborated 13, some 13 months ago in Charleston with you and AIG and the great organization, and we want to really have our audience get a chance to, to connect, to learn more about you and the organization, right?

Jim Liegghio (00:07:21):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let’s, let’s tell them a little bit about you. I know a little bit about your recent events, but tell them a little bit about, you know, kind of how you came up and how you’d landed at AIG. Yeah, no, thanks guys. Thanks again for having me and us on today. We’re excited to do this myself. I have about 20 years of, um, supply chain experience actually, how hard to believe it’s it’s gone so fast time flies when you’re having fun. So I’ve been lucky enough to have a variety of roles in supply chain over the past 20 years, both on the plant, uh, shop floor in transportation management and purchasing, um, trade compliance and a few other things, even delving a bit into commercial compliance. So that kind of meandering path led me to AIG about three and a half years ago, uh, where I work as a program manager in supply chain.

Jim Liegghio (00:08:09):

So, um, kind of Jack of all trades master of some is how I described my role at AIG. Um, I dabbled in a lot of the inbound materials and parts of materials programs that we manage. Uh, but I also deal in export compliance, uh, our U S MCA working group events and training. So I kind of have a hand in a lot of different things internal to the company. So, um, three and a half years at AIG, which is a not-for-profit automotive association, we’re at about 3,100 members right now. We hover between 31 and 3,200 lately. Uh, we started in the early eighties, really kind of a culmination of the Detroit big three coming together, GM Ford. And what was then Chrysler now known as FCA to try to solve common, common industry problems that are plaguing the industry, where it took a little bit more leverage than just one company.

Jim Liegghio (00:08:57):

So think about things like EDI, um, standardized labeling for transport units or for packaging. Um, those types of things were kind of the impetus for what, what brought AIAG to, to be so gone from three members originally to, like I said, 31 3,200 today, which includes most of the OEMs, most of the global OEMs, most all of the large tier one suppliers, and then down into the sub tiers service providers, compliance firms, et cetera. So, um, AIG is model still exists today and that’s kind of why we do what we do. We try to solve common industry issues. Um, but of course now on a grander more modern scale. Mm

Scott Luton (00:09:34):

Hmm. So, uh, real quick you have Jim, you’ve got someone that maybe you rubbed elbows with previously, Lisa who Kanu, Bishop says it’s a blast from the past for her Daimler Chrysler.

Jim Liegghio (00:09:47):

Yes, I, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s a small world in supply chain. I run into hi Lisa. Thanks. First of all, for the shout out, um, it’s, it’s a small world. We run into so many people we used to work with. Um, obviously I started off at, at FC. Well, now it’s FCA back then it was Daimler Chrysler. So my, I started my automotive career 20 years ago at NFCA. So, um, it’s, it’s fun. I do interact with a lot of the people I used to work with because we are one thing I failed to mention. We are volunteer driven. So we have about 700, uh, industry volunteers that work on the projects and work on our work groups. Um, there was only 47 or 48 employees at AIG. So if you think about the volume of work, we put out the events we put on in the training, um, 47 employees, including administrative week, we can’t do all that. So it’s actually, it’s an industry collaborative group. It’s it’s for the industry by the industry. So it is fun to run into former colleagues like, like Lisa and some other folks.

Scott Luton (00:10:41):

Love it, love it. At least a welcome to the programming on that note, Greg, before we drive a little bit further with Jim, no pun intended, uh, Tom says, got, Tom’s got a bone to pick with you.

Jim Liegghio (00:10:51):

Yeah, I saw that.

Scott Luton (00:10:53):

Sure. So we’ll save that. We’ll save that for our episode. We’ll reconnect with Tom for sure. Um, also, yeah,

Jim Liegghio (00:11:01):

I can’t claim to be an expert on all things, British politics. I do acknowledge that it can be a little rough in Ireland.

Scott Luton (00:11:14):

There you go. Larry says you’re right, Greg, which I’ve heard. I hear that about every day. Greg’s always, usually for me though. Yeah, that’s right. Um, and let’s see Ehrenfried and uh, let’s see, who was the other individual? Thomas dent? They’re talking Tesla in the comments. So Thomas and Erin, we’re going to, we’ll try to get to there. Once we get through our interview here with Jim. Cause we’ve got some exciting resources we want to share with everybody here. So let’s do just that. Let’s keep driving here.

Jim Liegghio (00:11:45):

Yeah. Yeah. So look, you’ve shared a little bit about some of your events

Scott Luton (00:11:50):

And even this, uh, summit coming up, but we took part

Scott Luton (00:11:54):

In the first one where you, you went, I’m not going to say that word again, where you went from a physical event to a virtual event. And I think a lot of people have used your model. You’ve probably actually heard from some folks who’ve asked for guidance since you were basically the first to go, but how have you applied that to this most recent summit? And what are you hoping that that delivers to the industry and to supply chain generally? Yeah. Yeah. So the biggest benefit,

Jim Liegghio (00:12:21):

Of course, the reach, right? When you have a virtual event, the sky’s the limit. I think our on our April corporate responsibility summit, we had 20 some countries online. Uh, we had 31 States within the U S online. So normally one of the inhibitors of our live events is people’s travel budgets. Right? So whether we’re doing them in Metro Detroit or we’re down in Charleston, like where I met you fellows a year ago with the South Carolina automotive council it’s so travel’s a cost and a concern with the virtual platform. Of course we have the reach. Um, somehow our leadership had the foresight to really dive into this actually almost before COVID was declared a pandemic. We were kind of looking at this. So, um, we were, it was great in that we got a contract locked in early. The, um, supply chain summit will be our eighth live virtual event this year when it happens on November 5th, actually it’s the last one of the year I mentioned to you guys off camera.

Jim Liegghio (00:13:13):

Uh, we have three other live virtual events between then and now our, um, IMDs, uh, corporate responsibility event is next week, the two day quality summit, which is a huge event for us normally locally. It’s, that’s one of our biggest of the year. That is the following week. And then we have the customs town hall November 4th, which is kind of a staple supply chain event we do here locally and then November 5th. So we’ve, we’ve learned a lot. Um, there’s still a bit of a learning curve with putting on the virtual events and making sure the timing of things is, is, um, is worked out and making sure that the features like the podcast. So we’re recording with you, that you guys are, are set up correctly. So there’s, there’s some technical, um, learning curve to it, but we’re, we’re seeing a good return on investment in terms of engagement.

Jim Liegghio (00:13:55):

Um, you know, our numbers, our registration numbers are, are good. Um, you know, we made the, the corporate responsibility event was free in April. So we had a huge wave of registrations for that. Um, these, these latest events are very, very low cost. I think it’s $29 for an AAG member, uh, to attend either the customs town hall or the supply chain summit. And it’s only $49 if you’re a nonmember to attend. The other thing we learned is that a condensed schedule seems to work better for the events we do about a three quarter day event running from about 8:00 AM until two 15, two 30. And then we leave the event open for virtual networking afterward. And if you missed part of the day or you have to jump in and out, for whatever reason, the events actually open for 60 days, you can come back in the platform, the environment re-engage watch the presentations for 60 days after the event. So, you know, we’re all pretty much working from home these days, other obligations come up, uh, or, you know, if you have to choose between two different breakouts, let’s say you can go back, actually catch up on what you missed, which is a huge, a huge benefit.

Scott Luton (00:14:55):

Keynotes can be rest assured this is a fly free event, right?

Jim Liegghio (00:15:00):

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Everybody’s guaranteed to show up on camera if they’re a no fly, no flies. All right. Well, you know, Jim, we hold you in high esteem and AIG, and we really enjoyed meeting you in Charleston and then participating in the corporate responsibility summit. I have to say as much as, as we have for your organization, I’m stunned that you all turned out to be the leader that, uh, sort of trailblazer in virtual events and that you have, I know you don’t feel like you have, but you, those learnings that you have presented, there are more than I’ve heard enunciated by multibillion dollar technology companies and, and your execution has been stellar compared to some of the other events that we’ve participated in. So look congrats on that. I think that by nailing the event, it’s a lot easier to put the focus on the content.

Jim Liegghio (00:15:59):

People aren’t worried about how they’re getting it or whether they’re getting it right. Um, so I think that that execution that you all have done really is a model that people should follow. I hope you don’t mind if that’s actually refreshing and reassuring to hear, we actually really appreciate the feedback we have. We have received very positive attendee feedback and sponsor exhibitor feedback thus far, actually the exhibitors. They enjoy more traffic in the virtual platform than they would in the live event. Um, so we do encourage people during the show, you know, there’s clickable messaging across the screen to go visit our exhibitors and sponsors, visit the podcast booth and check out those resources. I do want to give a shout out to our credit, to our team, our administrative team that puts on these events, because like you said, Greg, you know, as a program manager, I refer to myself as the supply chain geek.

Jim Liegghio (00:16:49):

I can focus on the content and the speakers. I’m not so much worried about the mechanics or, um, you know, the platform itself, that’s being handled by program managers that handle that and they do it quite well. So I focus on the content and the value that we bring to our industry and to our membership and our attendees that are not members. So I’m just leading back to the agenda discussion. I do want to reiterate that we put a lot of heart and soul and, and brains into these agendas. Um, example being supply chain summit was supposed to be a June in person event. Uh, we pretty much had the agenda button up by February, March as COVID came on, but we were able to kind of twist and pivot, sorry, Greg, I’m gonna throw the pivotal word out there. It’s okay, man. It’s hard not to.

Jim Liegghio (00:17:30):

We were able to adapt the agenda and make it more, of course, relevant to what’s going on in supply chain, as far as agility and pandemic response. My opening session actually has three OEMs talking about converting lines over to PPE. I’m streamlining their import and export procedures and operations in response to the pandemic kind of back in the early days of it. So, um, it, it allowed us to really adapt the messaging and the value to the industry and what was really going on today. Something that we pride ourselves in year over year, since I’ve been on board with AIG, really the relevancy of our event agendas and the quality of our speakers. We really, if I have to say one thing directly to the audience, it’s that we put, we do put a lot of effort into those agendas. So,

Scott Luton (00:18:11):

And you know, we try to make it easy, right? We’re all all about the one click here. And we’ve got the direct link to the supply chain summit in November in the show notes, y’all check that out. There’s a ton of content for a very small price, which we really admire and love what the AIG team is doing there. So, uh, Jim, I think you’ve got one other event. I think you’ve got four events I believe in the next month and a half or so. Tell us about this customer event and by the way, Sylvia, Judy, I know that, uh, customs is one of your expertise, uh, pay close attention to what Jim’s got coming up. So, Jim,

Jim Liegghio (00:18:46):

Yeah. So as far as the customs town hall, actually, before I worked at AIG, I was a volunteer that sat on a committee dealing with export compliance, one of the topics, which is on a customs town hall, um, other topics such as USM CA uh, we have top level government speakers that come in there’s panels that include OEMs service providers and tier one manufacturers talking about USM CA I’ve overseen a U S MCA working group for about two years now. Um, that’s finally put out a training product based on the new regulation. So trade and customs is one of the areas that we really pride ourselves on. We specialize in and I often think of it as kind of not overlooked, but maybe underrated area of what we do, because it’s so important in this global supply chain and making sure you’re doing things right and following the right procedures, because believe me, you know, your life can become very difficult if you’re not having had worked in trade compliance for awhile.

Jim Liegghio (00:19:36):

Um, so the customs town hall is actually a staple event for us year over year in November, four years ago, flashback to that. It was actually just after the election of Donald Trump. So we actually shifted our agenda to reflect some of the changes there. And, um, we’ll see what happens this year. It’s actually the day after the election this year. So big week for AAG election day, customs town hall, and then supply chain summit. Um, the is online for that event. It’s, it’s, it’s a very good event. I was talking to, uh, one of my co-chairs who works for Lear corporation yesterday. He’s a vice president at Lear and we were trying to look at ways to kind of enhance some of the discussions around U S MCA based on the working group and what they’ve learned over the last year and a half, two years.

Jim Liegghio (00:20:16):

Um, very interactive. We have a lot of good Q and a that comes out of these sessions. Like I said, top-notch speakers. And I consider it one of our most underrated events. Um, I had worked on that event as a volunteer. So I think for at least the last four or five years now, um, the feedback from attendees has been just fantastic. So that’s one of our favorite events here locally as well, because everybody in that community kind of knows each other. That’s a very close knit circle of international trade here in Metro Detroit. So it’ll be interesting to see how the virtual environment plays into that. And if we can kind of extend that gospel into a audience, love it. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:20:48):

You know, we’ve had a Greg, as we both know, an audience knows we’ve had a Mexican diplomats and Canadian diplomats joining us to talk about USC MCA. It was also the subject before it even got passed by one of our speakers at that event in South Carolina, a gym that we were at and her prediction was right. It was just a matter of time, it was getting passed. Um, but it really, you know, we need to, we need to have a whole show dedicated to us MCA because of, of just how much it’s updated,

Jim Liegghio (00:21:18):

Uh, this, this,

Scott Luton (00:21:19):

The trade between this special part of the world, right? These three countries that have a wonderful, um, um, relationship and so much more opportunity. So look forward to sounds like a great customs town hall, and we’ve already dropped the link into the comments to make it really easy

Jim Liegghio (00:21:35):

For folks to sign up. Right.

Scott Luton (00:21:37):

So Greg, um, as we start to wind down this segment, we need about three hours of gym,

Jim Liegghio (00:21:43):

By the way, doing it. I mean, it, especially in this environment, but I mean, if do we have the time, cause if we do, I’d love to just get some let’s yeah. Let’s

Scott Luton (00:21:53):

And to go for about another five.

Jim Liegghio (00:21:56):

Yeah. That’d be great. Sure. Jim, you’ve got very limited time to answer this question. So obviously the other five letter thing, not USM COVID has been really disruptive to the automotive industry. I think it would be really valuable if you could share some kind of insights around automotive, you talked about the pivots PPE and some of the other dynamics that they’re seeing. What are you seeing now, or what do you expect to see in the near future? Okay. So two things, that’s a great question, Greg, and I’ll, I’ll do my best. Um, there’s two sessions on that at the supply chain summit. The first one is kind of like I mentioned, talking about the conversion of, of production lines to PPE and streamlining operations around that. The second piece of it talks more about the restart, um, understanding preparedness contingency planning, which we’ve we’ve long had assets and resources for that type of thing, kind of a pandemic response type program, which we did start to showcase in may and make free actually to members and nonmembers in a lot of cases.

Jim Liegghio (00:22:58):

Um, so the second session was actually a kind of a culmination of a survey that we worked on with Wayne state university. They’re a top 25 gardener ranked program, local university. I’m an alum from there. Um, back when it was logistics management, not supply chain, but, um, but the second session talks a lot about that survey project and what some of the outcomes were, which included over 700 respondents in the industry, um, interviews with C level executives talking about best practices and that sort of thing. One thing that I’ve heard her recently in terms of preparing for our sessions at the summit is that the OEM has to have a really good handle on their tier ones, right? There’s a good level of control. There there’s a good level of transparency and understanding they are releasing requirements versus what’s available versus inventories. As you get down into sub tiers, the tier two and tier three, it gets a little bit murkier, right?

Jim Liegghio (00:23:49):

You have a little bit, a lot less control than you do over your tier one direct suppliers, unless it’s like a directed sub to your sourcing a situation, but it gets a little bit more convoluted and difficult to understand. Um, and of course, maybe at the tier one level, there’s some, um, mediation of some of that noise, right? In terms of not wanting to upset the customer. So there’s a bit of, um, a lot of work going into it and a bit of maybe even frustration and trying to understand kind of what’s beneath the surface. So that’s one thing that’s really kind of emerged from all of this. Um, but we’re hoping that our OEMs do a great job, kind of showcasing their agility through all of this and showcasing some of their lessons learned, you know, disruption is, is no stranger to automotive, you know, production lines start and stop every day for a myriad of reasons as you guys have probably seen and heard from many guests, um, you know, something unforeseen relatively minor occurrence can shut down a production assembly line.

Jim Liegghio (00:24:43):

Um, but when you have something like this, it’s on, it’s on a global scale, it’s unpredictable. How do you react to that? How do you gain transparency? And a lot of that goes into the front end of risk management, contingency planning, understanding your network, where your suppliers are. We’ve had a global supplier heat map, which we call it, um, kind of understanding your network of suppliers, whether they’re an AIG member or not based on about 75,000 manufacturing sites globally. So that, that heat maps been around as a member benefit for quite a while. Um, maybe not foreseeing a situation such as this, but maybe foreseeing like an earthquake or a tsunami type of event where you can go in and you can plug in a zip code or a city name, and you can see what, what suppliers and manufacturing sites were impacted. And a lot of that comes from the IATF database, which registers manufacturing sites globally. So we pull from a couple of different systems for that, but we love crazy world

Scott Luton (00:25:39):

Here. Uh, Todd, we’re not gonna have time to get to your, your point, but it is a great one. I want to go ahead and share it and maybe we’ll have to have Jim back, but he was talking about how, uh, production has transitioned in some cases from Mexico to central America and, uh, how that’s impacted the industry. So Todd great, great suggestion. We’ll try to, I’m sure that will be some of the discussion that the upcoming supply chain summit. And we want to make sure that folks know how to connect Jim with you and AIG that we might have some interest in membership or involvement in future events. So how can, what’s the easiest way to get in, get in touch with you?

Jim Liegghio (00:26:12):

Yeah, so by LinkedIn is, is James leggy. I think you guys have a link to it already set up there. Um, aiag.org is our very, very user friendly website where we were very transparent with our member benefits, our, our divisions of quality supply chain, corporate responsibility. Um, there’s a training section for our training catalog and our products, which are publications. Um, and then there’s a whole section on events, uh, supply chain home. And one of the newest things we put out there was a U S MCA, what we call a landing page. So if you navigate through the supply chain menus can find the U S MCA

Scott Luton (00:26:44):

Landing page, or it will provide you with links to resources, a link to our training class, uh, some of the OEM endorsements of our work group, that type of thing. So our website, aig.org is very, very easy to navigate. User-friendly. I mentioned the free tools for the pandemic response and some of that, there’s a blue banner, right on the homepage that if you click on that, it will take you to another landing page where you’ll be able to find a lot of that, uh, those resources, which we have made available for free, um, to the, to the public, through the end of 2020. I love that, man. I love that. Give forward mentality this part of the culture at AIG. Um, let’s, let’s share a couple of quick comments. We want to, uh, welcome Kevin Bell, who I missed earlier. Kevin, Greg, you know, Kevin is one of our experts in global supply chain.

Scott Luton (00:27:30):

Great to have you here. Host’s way is here Ho’s way is in the trucking industry, he was on the live stream a few, few weeks back, great to have your hose away. And Steve shares that a tier two support is booming for automotive right now. And distribution channels are providing more flexibility and support to OEMs during these uncertain times than most ever expected. That is great to know. Um, and then Larry, Larry May be in, uh, auto automotive. He says, COVID slowed us down, but we were able to leverage some items out of our automation toolbox the keep moving during the coroner’s team. All right. So, um, Jim love what you do. Big fans of our partnership continued partnership with AIAG we’ve had, as we’ve started to, uh, interview some of the participants. We have some great conversations. We’re looking forward to sharing that with our audience, including one, uh, one of the leaders with DLT labs, which is doing some really meaningful bottom line impactful work with blockchain in retail and other industries. I had a great interview with their chief strategy officer. So look for that as part of the event and as part of the, some of our post event programming, but Jim, all the best to you and the AIG team, we look forward to reconnecting just a few weeks away and again, to our audience, y’all connect with Jim. He’d be a great addition to your network and be sure to kick the tires on not only AIG, but the 2020 supply chain summit. See what he did there.

Scott Luton (00:29:03):

Hey, you guys have been as, as per usual, you guys are amazing to deal with. I am a huge fan of your programming of AIG as a huge fan of your partnership. And again, we encourage those looking for additional information to check us out. Thank you guys very much for having me today. It’s always a pleasure. Look forward to talking with you soon. One of our favorites, Jim, with AIG, Jim, all the best to you. Cheers. Thanks guys. All right, Greg. Uh, Jim is certainly one of our favorites, but for good reason. Yeah. You know, it’s great to see all the thought leadership out there, but the actions they’re taking

Scott Luton (00:29:42):

To connect, uh, individuals, professionals, practitioners, companies, suppliers, with folks that, you know, we all need access to those, that type of community. So, uh, love the good work AIG is doing right. Well, I mean, look, we’ve said it a lot action is in there in their name and that, you know, that’s, I think what we’ve always really appreciated about this organization is they are an action group. We’ve seen it firsthand from the, um, corporate responsibility summit and, and from Charleston when we were working with them. So yeah, I mean, they, they get stuff done and automotive is a great model for supply chain effectiveness and efficiency. So many companies have those multiple tiers, uh, and automotive has done done a great job of managing to that. We have read in these times sustainability and fair trade in, in the forefront of our minds. So we don’t lose sight of that even during a crisis. Yep. We’ll put, uh, and you know, you and I both know you better get it done in the automotive industry. You’re going to find out really quick. And Greg, I appreciate you calling attention to my kick, the tires comment. I think that might have been lost on some, Hey, well look that alright. So we’re going to move from one of our favorite people in gym LIGO to wherever, right? Our top of the list with Elba pre hoc Gallagher CEO and founder was showing me 50.

Scott Luton (00:31:15):

Hey Elba, good afternoon. How are you guys doing? Hey, we’re doing great. Fantastic, fantastic. And we got a little surprise for you, and then we have limited time with you, but we cooked up a little bit of a surprise. As you know, you are the world world record holder. So to our audience and make all this connect, uh, elbow is on our first show. She’s been a part of, a lot of our programming. We’re big fans of her thought leadership and her per POV and what all that she brings to the table. And she is certifiably the number one record holder for appearances. And we’ve always talked about giving her a championship belt as part of that. So this is,

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:31:59):

I don’t know,

Scott Luton (00:32:00):

I tried data. Alright, so elbow

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:32:08):

Social media, you can put badges next to your profiles, right? You need to send me that image. I want to be, I want the bads man.

Scott Luton (00:32:17):

I feel like that could be a career changer for you. So, um, so much to talk about. So little time Elba, I think the couple of main things we’ll talk about here today, first off this Hispanic heritage month, which is, uh, we’ll be wrapping up over the next week or so we’d love to, uh, you know, start there. We’ve got some events

Greg White (00:32:40):

We’re going to pick your brain about a little bit, but let’s start there. What, what does that mean to you and give us some recent observations?

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:32:47):

Wonderful. You know, the first thing I want to say is that, thank you for asking. I think one of the best things we can do to create more inclusive workplaces and make everybody really work hard for you is to get to know our people, right? Uh, no matter what, from what football team they follow to, you know, what they do for fun and where you come from as part of who you are. So I’m just asking the question, Hey, if you have somebody that kind of looks like they might be Hispanic or Latino, and I’m going to tell you the difference and say, Hey, are you tell me a little bit about it? Let me tell you what I know. Right. I may have it all messed up. But, um, so yes, so real quick. Um, I think one of the things I always like to talk about is to help clarify confusion on the terminology. There are three main things we hear a lot about, right? Hispanic, Latino, and Latin next. Have you guys heard what next term lately? Yeah.

Greg White (00:33:42):

Yeah. That’s, that’s relatively new though. Right?

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:33:46):

It’s relatively new. So it’s kind of all confusing. So let’s just kind of go through that real quick. And then if nothing else, you’re going to know the three terms, right. And I’ll show you a, I’ll tell you a trick that I, cause even I used to get confused. I had to go read about it. Um, and I am Latino so Hispanic. If you think of how you spell it and you can see the word Hispanic, you can see the word Spanish in it. And so Hispanic means you speak Spanish right now. There are different people all around the world that speak Spanish, not just in Latin America, right? Because if you go to what country in Europe speak Spanish, when you think of the word Spanish,

Greg White (00:34:25):

Spain, and by the way, indiscernible for those of us in the Western hemisphere, that’s right out of the way Elba, Tom says hello from Sylvia, Spain Cola.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:34:37):

You know, I haven’t been to Spain yet. I still want to go there. But my father who’s from Columbia has a big dispute with the Spaniards because he, he just feels like they stole all the gold. So he never going to Spain. So there’s a little tidbit for you. So anyway, Hispanic speaks Spanish, right? Um, Latino. Right? You can kind of see the word Latin America in there. And so the person who is from Latin America is Latino. And then you add the gender to it because the Spanish language words are, um, gendered meaning. Um, if it’s a male or a female term, a male ends in a no Latino and a female ends Latinas. So I am a Latina. Um, so that kind of gives you a sense of Hispanic and Latino. So let’s do a quick quiz, Scott, not to put you on the spot. So what Tino, what does that tell Latino

Greg White (00:35:38):

Would be a male or man. Right.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:35:42):

And what about kinda like, um, geographic or language Latino come from where

Greg White (00:35:50):

I would, if I had to just a guess here, you know, central South America, perhaps.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:35:55):

Yes. Latin America. All right, Greg, what about Hispanic speaking Spanish? Just out of curiosity, we have, we have Latin countries in North America, central and South America. So does Mexico count as Latin America? So technically, um, central America is in South America, Latin America. So it gets a little dicey. Right. So what I always say is, um, ask the person, Hey, do you consider yourself Latino? Right. Cause it’s all about how do people identify? Which brings me to the next term Latin next. Right. So since I said, um, the Spanish language is gendered, um, you know, these days people may not want to go say there one way or another. Right. Right. And so if someone, um, identifies differently, well then what do they call themselves? They’re not Latino or Latina. So that’s where the word Latin X derived. So it’s Latin with an X meaning, Hey, you know, non-binary right. It’s meant to include all people that want to identify as Latino or Latina.

Greg White (00:37:12):

That’s good. That’s so that’s a, as a very powerful learning for me. I hadn’t heard that term yet. And I appreciate you bringing that to the table and informing us or things we need to know. We need to, and also like about, um, kind of what you’re sharing there on the front end of your prefacing, your comments, you know, engage in learning what this means to different individuals, right. There’s not a, as we all know, there’s not one definition, partly anything these days. And it’s all about how, what their point of view is. And that’s, um, that’s a certain degree of empathy that we can all embrace probably in, in bigger amounts and here in 2020. Right.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:37:48):

That’s right. Exactly. All right. So, um, let’s see. I was going to see if I can tell you anything else. Oh, one last, um, tip that I would tell you is, um, you know, there’s a couple there’s it’s October 15th is the last day. So in terms of, you know, what could you do to further embrace your knowledge and expand your, um, your group is go out and look for a recipe and cook something that comes from a country that’s, you know, Spain or Latin America. Right. And you could do something fun with your families and you could talk about, Hey, it’s Hispanic heritage month. Let’s go, you know, whatever. So that’s my tip, love it, who doesn’t like cooking

Greg White (00:38:30):

Bulbs, good food and wine, perhaps if you’re in our household and exploring new parts of the pallet. So love that Elba. Um, let’s talk about, unless anything else you want to share.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:38:42):

Thanks. I’m good. Thanks for us then. Um, spread the information

Greg White (00:38:46):

And that’s what we’re all about here. And Greg, we’ve got a really, you know, as you know, Greg, uh, we’ve been, um, building out our programming related to stand up and sound off. And that comes from a place where we’re tackling some, uh, some of these of subject matter that isn’t as consumable. I’ll say, you know, a lot of folks don’t want to lean into some of these conversations and Hey, different strokes, different folks. We view it as part of our mission to help facilitate some of these discussions. Uh, and Greg, our goal is to give voice to those who need voice, right? And things like things like equality and, and culture and gender and whatever, all of those things need voice. And look, the truth is we solve these issues. We neutralize these words. We, um, elevate these discussions when we have them. It’s as simple as that, right. That’s what we want to do.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:39:42):

And the supply chain is full of people who are different in all parts of the supply chain, right. If we can inspire and motivate and get them to work really hard for us, the supply chain will be a well oiled machine. Right.

Greg White (00:39:57):

I love that. I love that sentiment. Hold that thought for one second. Cause Jenny, Jenny says she prefers eating over cooking. Jenny. There’s lots of kindred spirits here, especially eating good food. Uh, so, uh, Jenny, by the way is with st. Pics. Uh, she’s part of their leadership team doing some special things in supply chain in, uh, Africa. So great to have you here as always Jenny. Okay. So Elba, uh, I love your comment there. You talked about how, you know, supply chain much like, you know, the automotive industry is a great example because it’s going to cut through different, it’s all about getting the job done while of course, respecting cultures and geographies and different customs and, and, you know, and that’s, uh, that’s one of the beautiful elements about being in global supply chain, right?

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:40:41):

Yes. Yep.

Greg White (00:40:43):

So, uh, let’s talk about the event coming up October 28th, I believe. And I’ll, I’ll find a graphic here moment clearly. Yeah. Let’s talk about what folks are going to hear and why they should come out and join us for this special standup and sound off event.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:40:57):

Yep. Awesome. I’m super excited. I’m going to be sharing the virtual stage with my friend Anya Caruso, who works for plexus, which is a big brokerage she’s specifically VP in risk management. And she works with, you know, people across the supply chain trying to mitigate risks. So, um, the, the gentleman who was just on

Greg White (00:41:19):

Jimmy Lee go. Yep. Yeah. Did he say he’s AIG AIG insurance company and automotive associates.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:41:27):

Okay. Got it. Well, Anya is insurance. So I’m mitigating rent and the supply chain journey that right. We all do. And of course I work for ups. So my day job I’m on working on your 24, um, you know, know plenty about supply chain and the, the evolution of, of the supply chain across various industries, including automotive, healthcare, you name it, small businesses. Um, e-commerce uh, so what we’re going to be talking about is what are the success stories? What are the tactical things that are working inside corporate America to get to more equitable workplaces, right? Where everyone’s included where economic benefits are shared by all, we all have an equal chance, um, to grow upward, the economic mobility chain, et cetera. And so it’s going to be very practical cause I know Scott and Greg, you guys know I’m very action oriented, right? Um, ups, you know, we, we call ourselves problem solvers and that is just in my blood.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:42:28):

And so it’s not just about complaining, well, you know, why aren’t there more women in leadership? It’s like, okay, here’s the list of 23 things we can do to get more women in leadership, right. And make it a better playing field for all employees. But in this event, we are specifically going to be talking about, um, racial justice and equity and what we’re seeing in our companies and the companies we interact with that’s working. Um, and in fact, just today I was, um, looking at the vast list of things ups has done and it is absolutely impressive. And I made the comment that there is no doubt in my mind that we have got to be in the top 1% of what is being done and companies out there. And so I want to share some of the things that we’re doing. I want to share with Anya, some of the things that we’re seeing

Greg White (00:43:15):

And equally as important, we’re going to hear from the audience about some of their observations, some of their, whether it’s things that they’re seeing, that, that speaks to the actions that are being taken, the heavy lifting that we all know we must take to make, um, to provide justice to all and opportunities to all. Um, and or secondly, some of the, uh, some of parts of the problem that in, in their neck of the war world that they’re seeing. So really that’s what this whole series is built on. It’s very, you know, uh, it’s even, it’s even more interactive than our live streams because we really try to provide an equal opportunity for both the panelists and our, um, in our audience to weigh in. So Elba, if you recall last time. Well, actually the last panel we had, uh, was an early July. We had folks calling in and sharing some of their comments there and, you know, however, we can make it easy, Greg, to make that conversation happen.

Greg White (00:44:09):

That’s that’s our charge. Right? Well, I think if we have people in the audience who aren’t seeing what needs to be done, you’d be hard pressed to have a better panel than Elba and Anya too, to be able to say, if this is the difficulty you’re facing, this is a possible approach to overcome that right elbow. I’m going to share something with you that I bet you don’t know about Greg. He’s got roots and I’m not sure how many generations that go back, Greg, but he traced his roots to Argentina. Oh wow. And I think there’s a picture of a, um, Greg, I’ll take it away. That’s our Rancho in ton deal, Argentina and Southern winter side is province. So also this is just by coincidence. This is the piece of Ellis Island from my great grandfather, came to America from Argentina, October 13th, Elba, October 13th of 1914. He came to America.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:45:05):

Wow. That is cool. That’s neat that you have that flag back there too.

Greg White (00:45:11):

Agreed. Alright, so Elba let’s uh, again, we’re gonna make it really easy for folks. That’s, that’s what we like to do here. So stand up, sound off with Elba and Anya, October 28th, 12:00 PM. You didn’t need to register for this one. This will not be live stream. This is going to be using, uh, a webinar platform. So that really helps us incorporate your voice. The audience voice as is easy as possible. So register, we’ve got the link in the show notes. I think we’ve got the link to elbows, LinkedIn profile all in the show notes. So connect with her. I promise you, you won’t ever regret it. It’ll be a great, valuable addition to your network and Elba. Anything else as we wrap up here, show me 50 dot or give us a quick blurb on that and how folks can get plugged in. Yeah.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:45:55):

A couple of things, but one last thing, um, kind of in the style of the debate last night, I tried one more thing on that other point. So on the fly. Oh my God. No, I haven’t watched the news, so I didn’t see it, but I saw it live last night. I have to go to my TV. Right. And go, is that my TV? Is that his hair? Anyway, lots of Q and a on that stand up event, uh, because you know, Anya and I want to talk to people, not, it’s not going to be one way. We want to low, low present rep uh, initial remarks and lots of questions, lots of answers. That’s what we want. Okay. So last remaining few minutes, I do want to mention a couple of things. Um, we got a couple of things that show me 50. So if it’s not clear by the sign behind me closing the gap one corporation at a time, we certainly want to see 50% women in senior leadership positions and we’re taking actions and giving advice on how companies can improve their talent management practices to make it happen.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:46:55):

And again, be inclusive for all employees. When we have a transparent talent management system, everyone, including white men can compete on a level playing field, right. Cause there’s so much politics in corporate America. So we’ve got a couple of events coming up on, um, fed, uh, February, uh, October 27th, the day before your event. Um, it’s a 45 minute power lunch. And if you just go to show me fifty.org, it’s free and what we’re going to do in the 45 minutes is cover the lean in and McKinsey women in the workplace study. And so unfortunately what it’s telling us is that we are losing ground and at great risk because of COVID, um, to erase the gains that women have seen in the past five years. So, um, we got to step it up as companies to, to get ahead of that. So that’s the first event.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:47:49):

So the 27th go to the, um, show me fifty.org website. And I also want to mention that show me 50 is working with Coronet global cornet global is the professional association for the real estate corporate real estate industry. So these are companies who use their real estate for their own, you know, buildings, facilities, you know, running their operations and they have, um, uh, equity certificate. So you can get a diversity and equity certificate program. It’s like eight courses and you take them over your lunch hour, um, over the course of like eight weeks and you get a certificate. So, um, that information is out there as well,

Scott Luton (00:48:30):

Outstanding. And, and show me fifty.org. It’s just that easy to plug in these resources at Elba is, um, facilitating and leading and, and, and L but really appreciate, you know,

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:48:44):

By the way, five Oh one C3 give money, but guess what? It’s so easy because guess what’s coming up, you guys are in supply chain, e-commerce Amazon big prime event, right? So that’s right. Prime day is October 13th and 14th. So, um, again, if you go to the show me fifty.org donation page, you can click on a link and associate your smile, Amazon smile account with us, and we get a tiny little fraction and we sure would appreciate it.

Scott Luton (00:49:15):

Love it. Alright. Uh, it’s just that easy Elba, always a pleasure looking forward to a couple events you’ve already shared. Always appreciate your focus on action. This all about deeds, not words it’s built in our DNA here. We share that we’re kindred spirits and always a pleasure to reconnect with you looking forward to October 28th, though, in particular.

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:49:34):

That’s right. Okay. This was a great way to spend my lunch break. So thanks guys.

Scott Luton (00:49:38):

Always spend your lunch with us. Thank you. Thanks

Elba Pareja-Gallagher (00:49:41):

Things, you know,

Scott Luton (00:49:43):

Thanks so much. Elba Gallagher, CEO and founder, and show me 50. Thanks, Elba. Thanks, Alba. All right. Always refreshing to reconnect with Elba. Uh, Al’s holding us back the energy man. Unbelievable. Right? Yes. And she was tackling some stuff we needed to hear. I didn’t want to inject too much humor, but Nicole says that laughing last night has his own Twitter handle by the way. So of course, no surprise in anything that happens in society today, there’s going to be 10 new Twitter profiles coined, right? Um, host way w ways in here. So this way it says, I personally think it should not be 50 50. There should be more women in leadership and men ought

Scott Luton (00:50:28):

To get to work more or physicality and intuition is more necessary in conjunction. That’s interesting commentary. I need to chew on that a little bit, but host’s way regardless. Thank you for sharing. The fact is it’s inevitable. It is inevitable. There already are. Gosh, I wish we could have asked her this. There already are at least as many women in the workplace and there will soon be more, um, the birth rates of males are, are going down. So, um, so there will be more, but it’s not proportionate to the population in the workforce today. And if we can get anywhere near that point, then, then birth rates will take over from that point. And right. Um, and the other element, Greg, especially his representation in the upper, in the highest echelon that’s right. I mean, that’s way, way disproportionate. And that’s the study that she was talking about as well, is that it started going in the right direction.

Scott Luton (00:51:31):

And I think in 2019, it kind of plateaued. And this year, of course, as people have not focused on that, it, it has backed up a little bit. It sounds like greed. Yeah. Got a lot more work to do. Okay. So we’re going to close on some upcoming announcements and resources. Thanks to everybody that has tuned in with us here today. Uh, I love wings and beer they’ve and, uh, uh, David’s talking about getting together breaking bread, wings and beer that is bringing a lot of people together for sure. Um, all right. So Greg, uh, let’s see, we talked about this last Monday Corinne and I did so we had Alexis Bateman reach out to us. She is part of the MIT sustainable supply chain team, doing good things there. Um, she’s leading a project called the state of S of supply chain sustainability. It’s a bunch of SS gosh, in my T center for transportation and logistics and CSC and P and that those are the main drivers behind this report.

Scott Luton (00:52:29):

Yep. And by the way, Alexis is gonna be joining us on the live stream to talk sustainability, probably with Tom rafter. We’re, we’re still working on that, but they’re gathering feedback from supply chain professionals everywhere. And that’s where I know we can count on our audience to click on that link and submit their, their, their insights when it comes to what they’re experiencing or some of their thoughts around one of the biggest topics of our time. And so check that out. A state of supply chain sustainability 2021, we’ve got the link in the show notes, and we’d love to get your input as part of that study, Greg. Yeah. So MIT is, and it hurts me to say it cause we’re in Atlanta where Georgia tech is, it is the premier supply chain, uh, educational institution on the planet. So if you want to hear about what, what the foundation is for sustainability, this is a great set of authorities here. So listen up,

Scott Luton (00:53:28):

Listen up, loved that we didn’t get

Scott Luton (00:53:31):

It’s made right with your phrasiology mantra. Probably just started a flood of comments by even mentioning supply chain. Now swag.

Scott Luton (00:53:40):

Now, Craig, it’s coming folks. It’s coming. All right. Uh, what’s also coming up

Scott Luton (00:53:44):

Because a lot more new programming, reflecting all a wide variety of content here at supply chain. Now, amongst that, Greg is

Scott Luton (00:53:52):

The new tech talk digital supply chain podcast with the one on one

Scott Luton (00:53:57):

Karin bursa. Yeah. And this is kind of a, if you’re a comic book fan or a superhero fan, we kind of use this, this, this origin story with this first episode kind of, you know, meet Kerryn, meet her background, meet her emo for, for even wanting to do this, this tech talk series. And I was part of it. I had a blast I’m partial, I’ve known Korean for a long time. It’s a pleasure to figure out the latest and greatest way to collaborate with her. But Greg, she’s got some serious jobs and experiences when it comes to all things digital, right? Yeah. Digital supply chain. I mean, look, Korean has been one of the premier supply chain professionals. She is, she is the, what is the title that they give the supply chain professional of the year for the year, right. Pros to know she is the pro to know for 2020. So many of us are pros to know, right. That’s a honor honor to be identified as that, but she is number one and for good reason. And you will find that out in this, in this episode. Yup. So tune in for that, the first episodes already been published, a podcast where we podcast from, I think winning the main channel for us as well. Uh, subscribe to that new series tech talk, I promise you,

Scott Luton (00:55:19):

You will not be let down, Hey, David, it says,

Scott Luton (00:55:22):

How do you not have a digital store, blockchain, not coffee mug. Cobbler’s children have no shoes. Right. But Greg, Hey, we’re going to take this

Scott Luton (00:55:31):

Challenge because you know what, in this day and age, right,

Scott Luton (00:55:34):

Why don’t we just have a third party fulfillment

Scott Luton (00:55:36):

Company? We pick a few things out that they can host and folks can get it on demand. So David sure. Uh, I’m going to take that as a challenge and we’re going to figure that out. So it’s,

Scott Luton (00:55:45):

But let’s, let’s do a survey. Should we open it on Shopify or Amazon? Let’s see what everybody thinks that is. Right.

Scott Luton (00:55:55):

Hey, um, speaking of new content,

Scott Luton (00:55:58):

We’re really excited where tequila sunrise has gone.

Scott Luton (00:56:01):

I think I’ve lost count because

Scott Luton (00:56:04):

All the great buzz around this series, uh, Greg, tell us about the latest tequila sunrise that’s episode 16 that you’re talking about right there. Well, as, as podcasters, you and I both know those episode numbers are near and dear to our heart for, for some reason. But tell us about our great friend, Sarah Barnes Humphrey. And we featured part two of your great interview with her drop today. Tell us about it. I think a lot of our community knows her from let’s talk supply chain, but she is one of the top women entrepreneurs in supply chain. She has her own tech tech company called ships. And we talk a lot about, it’s a two part episode, as you said, Scott. So we talk a lot about her upbringing and, um, her, um, Ascension to, to founder and CEO hood in, in tech. And it’s a great story and it’s not all smooth and a bed of roses.

Scott Luton (00:57:05):

I mean, she went through some tough times with a family business. I think if any of us have way, if any of us have experienced a family business, you know what that can be like. Um, she was, and this is quoting her out on her ass at one point and had to kind of pick herself up by our bootstraps and, and recognize this vision of this solution ships that she saw as a need in the marketplace from having done it, the value of her vision and her applying her experience. But also with this sense of, of naivete this, um, willingness to look at the market, a market she knew very well in a new way has really created a valuable solution and, uh, companies are flocking to it. So it’s not just the company, but also Sarah. And there’s a ton of takeaways, whether you are a founder or entrepreneur or investor, or just a professional, there’s a ton of, of takeaways from that discussion. Oh yeah. Thank you, David. And she’s also Canadian, so yes, please. So let me tell you, and she says Dave, and she says, Oh, just like you would be proud to hear her say,

Scott Luton (00:58:16):

Oh, this way wants a mug too. We’re working on it. My friend we’re working on it. And Jenny, uh, great thoughts from there as always

Scott Luton (00:58:24):

From you, we appreciate our collaboration and I got your email, by the way, we’re working on that November calendar. I’ll be back in touch real soon. Okay, great. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:58:31):

Episode, y’all check out tequila, sunrise. It definitely, you know, as we build out a variety of programming, we really, you know, we’re not, we may not have something for everybody, but we really want

Scott Luton (00:58:41):

For a wide variety of points of view. And that was the whole thing, man. Y’all know, y’all know, Greg, you’ve got an appreciation of his background to all these shows here. It is very, very unique and we don’t talk about it enough. And this series allows him to really showcase his expertise, right.

Scott Luton (00:58:59):

And others that are supply chain tech or founders

Scott Luton (00:59:03):

Entrepreneurial, or for folks on the move. And that certainly all that applies to Sarah and the ship’s team. So good stuff there. Alright. Big event. Um, you know, Greg, last Monday,

Scott Luton (00:59:17):

It’s very careful because we were featuring such a heavyweight champion

Scott Luton (00:59:22):

Of the supply chain world in LAR Seseri, but we talked about lean. There’s been a lot of debate around lean in throughout the pandemic, right. And, and mistakes made or gaps or whatever. And there’s lots of very well educated opinions on all sides of that debate. And it’s a debate we must have because it makes the industry better. Um, so, you know, if lean, if anything, about lean appeals to you and certainly anything about manufacturing, then you’re not going to want to miss the AME Toronto 2020 event. So Greg AME association for manufacturing excellence, uh, outstanding organizations have been around for quite some time. They went virtual here. They were supposed to be in Toronto and had to adjust as everyone else. And we’re going to be facilitating this panel. And I bet Greg, I bet my hunch, a crystal ball tells me we might be talking about lean a little bit.

Scott Luton (01:00:15):

Well, I can guarantee it sitting from this chair right here. Um, I think, look, it’s, it’s inevitable when you talk about it for that to come up. Um, also, you know, the same discussion we were having with Jim, what about sustainability? What about corporate responsibility? What about tier two and three suppliers and fair trade, right. And good, uh, good human capital practices and things like that. I reckon that a good number of those things will come up and we’ve got a great panel to discuss it. So I really appreciate the folks at IME inviting us to, to moderate that. Um, I really applaud every one of you professionals who wore a suit and tie or appropriate attire for the photographs here and seriously, whether you are a fan, uh, of, of lean or, or whether you feel like it failed us somehow, this will be a great discussion.

Scott Luton (01:01:17):

You’re going to get the real scoop here. You know, I wish I was better with PowerPoint and marking this up cause Greg, one of these things is not like the others, but Hey, that’s, that’s part of the beauty, going back to the, the greater one of the greater themes here throughout this show here today is it takes a village. It takes a village of very different voices and very different walks of life. And that is one of my favorite things about what we’re doing to be able to sit down with people that have had so different experiences and share them here. So love that and image worth a thousand words. Right. All right. So we’ve talked about, uh, we’ve talked about this stand up and sound off. Uh, y’all y’all check that out. It’s free to register. Please come. As you always do, ready to contribute and share and, and stand up and sound off. Or as Greg coined last week, what’d you say, uh, you don’t necessarily have to stand up right. Sitting down, but you better sound off. But you know,

Scott Luton (01:02:22):

When we, when we coined the name of that series that stand up was less about the physical act, but more about drawing a line in the sand and standing up for what what’s right. In many ways, I don’t want to be too dramatic, but that’s been a big part of those conversations. And, and, um, you know, it’s a big part of our mission here. So y’all check that out October 28th. I promise you you’ll leave that 90 minutes and you’ll be more informed. You’ll have some of this blonde spot that we all have, whether we like it or not. Some of that blind spot addressed and filled in through other people’s perspectives. So check that out. And I think we’ve got a w w one more, one more announcement here, Greg, as we’re going over for a few minutes here, supply chain now.com. Radio is dead, at least to us. Now we’re kidding. Of course, I love my sports talk radio and I’ll probably be listen to my Braves as we work this afternoon, starting about two, but check all things. Supply chain out@supplychainnow.com where it’s all about all about giving voice to practitioners and professionals and an industry globally. That’s, that’s our mission. And we love to have all the engagement like we’ve had this past hour, all the contributions that’s, that’s the best part about it. And then Greg,

Scott Luton (01:03:44):

It is. And some surprising, I mean, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but some surprising insights. So I, I knew Todd for instance, was it was a supply chain expert. I had no idea. He had so much knowledge about Tesla. I don’t know if you saw the conversation that he and some of the other people were having around Tesla, but, and, and it never ceases to amaze me the insight and the capabilities that, that our audience have our community. I prefer to call it a community. Right. Don’t you feel like you could live next door to these folks? I mean, you might, you might not even know it, but it does feel like it does feel like a community, like a neighborhood, like folks that you know, right. Yep.

Scott Luton (01:04:28):

So they, uh, David is on fire. He says, he says supply chain now. And we need to be big ones talking about

Scott Luton (01:04:35):

Coffee cups,

Scott Luton (01:04:37):

Respecting supply plastic, professional drinks from it.

Scott Luton (01:04:40):

So, you know, the ones I liked Scott, as long as we’re here, those Z beans, coffee cups that we got from them, that it looks like an old porcelain cup. And it’s massive love that thing.

Scott Luton (01:04:52):

I love it. Y’all check out Z beans doing some good things in the coffee industry. Okay. We’re going to wrap up here and folks, if you’re a baseball fan, y’all pull for the Braves. This is my chipper Jones bobble head.

Scott Luton (01:05:05):

I think I got it. Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:05:07):

I have an open end, as you can tell, but I believe I got that at his last game. W uh, the year before he retired.

Scott Luton (01:05:14):

So what year was that? Oh, gosh, Greg, Holy cow. I think chipper Jones retired. Yeah. Check that out. I’m not sure. It’s probably been about, he’s already in the hall of fame, right? So it’s it’s yeah. It’s probably 11 years ago. 2012. Okay. Eight years. Yeah. Um, alright, so I gotta share this. Some Larry, Larry says, this is such an amazing way for supply geeks to get together. Hey, Larry, we embraced our inner or maybe our outer supply chain. Geekdom here and appreciate you stopping by and sharing your comments here. So to everyone here a really quick recipe, that’s easy for anyone to make. Okay. Celebration of, of Hispanic heritage month steak. So steak is the traditional dish of Argentina. So all you have to do folks just hit the grill, cook a steak, make it really good meat and cook it. Well, I knew you have done your part.

Scott Luton (01:06:18):

I’m not kidding. You’ve done your part of it. Love it. Alright well to our audience, it sounds like a new, new podcast cooking with Greg, um, to our audience. Thanks so much really appreciate you, not just tuning in, but sharing and sharing your perspective. And what’s important to you and your, for that matter and your sense of humor. We all have to engage us. We all have to maintain a very healthy sense of humor based on what has transpired this year. Uh, and as always, Greg, uh, our challenge is, is the same challenge we’re going to pose to each of you do good, give forward and be the change that’s needed. Be like Elba for sure. And we’ll see you next time here on supply chain now.