I was taken aback as I realized the realization that people had had over the last couple of years and the breadth of impact of supply chain on diplomacy, on economic policies, social policies, [and] military action and policies.
-Greg White
Episode Summary
Greg’s back from the Global Upstate Conference on International Business and Foreign Affairs, where the supply chain featured prominently in nearly every conversation. Now, he’s bringing all the insights straight to Scott in this episode so you don’t have to miss out on any key takeaways. Tune in to hear about everything from the impact of international affairs on business to the possibility of a global minimum tax, what’s really happening with regards to trade with Russia and more.
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (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 entities Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.
Scott Luton (00:31):
Hey, good morning, everybody. Scott Luton here with you on supply chain. Now, welcome to today’s show on today’s episode, I’m debriefing a dear friend co-host and industry the leader as he returned from a big international event. That’s right. The global upstate conference on international business and foreign affairs was held this week and it was presented by the world affairs council, upstate and hosted by our friends at Furman university home Paladins, right. And the university of South Carolina upstate, which I’m gonna have to look up their, their nickname, but we’re gonna dive right in. Wanna walk him in of course our featured guest, you know him well by now, Mr. Greg White, my co-host of supply chain now where he serves as chief industry and is constantly challenging. The status quo, Gregory, how we doing?
Greg White (01:19):
I’m doing well. Thank you. It’s funny. You mentioned that somebody walked up to me and said, uh, you know, at the conference and said, Hey, I’d love for you to speak to my group. You’re a disruptor. And I went, whoa, is it that obvious?
Scott Luton (01:32):
I love that. They, they know you well.
Greg White (01:36):
Yeah. As soon as I open my mouth, I guess.
Scott Luton (01:40):
So I am, I am looking up the USC upstate mascot. Yeah. And that is going to be, I don’t see a mascot.
Greg White (01:52):
Well, they, you know, they’re a branch campus, so they may not have
Scott Luton (01:56):
Spartans.
Greg White (01:57):
Oh, they are
Scott Luton (01:58):
Spart t-shirts USC, upstate Spartans, Greg.
Greg White (02:01):
So basically the Spartanburgs Spartans cuz that’s where USC upstate is located.
Scott Luton (02:07):
That is right man. It’s trivia, uh, trivia. So folks, uh, you’re gonna be asked at some point in some really cool holding wall bar as you’re playing trivia one day, Hey, who knows for a hundred dollars. Who knows the mascot, the USC upstate, uh, uh, university Spartans. Here’s your answer? So Hey big,
Greg White (02:28):
Always bringing value.
Scott Luton (02:29):
That’s right. So before we get into the key takeaways, we’ve heard a lot of, of feedback already. Uh, I couldn’t make the conference, but you, and of course your partner in crime, at least for this past week, Kevin L. Jackson, which OS are digital transformer series here at supply chain now who Greg is helping to power more transformational tomorrows, you and Kevin were a hit Greg,
Greg White (02:52):
I guess so. I mean, I, I think, you know, Kevin’s, uh, for all of everyone who knows us, they must know Kevin’s bio by now it, but when you hear it pronounced in the physical presence of Kevin and it, it is so very impressive. The Naval academy, three degrees, you know, worked with, uh, military foreign governments, our government, right? Just in, in he’s an adjunct professor, all, all sorts of things that are just so impressive. And his points of view are really, really powerful. So I got to experience that firsthand on a couple of different panels where we were both on
Scott Luton (03:32):
Now, Kevin has sent me a wire. He says that I cannot ask you anything about your time together. There was evidently is some top secret activities. So, uh, we’ll circle back on a, a future, uh, buzz edition. But I do Greg, before we get into key takeaways. Yeah. Uh, I’m not sure how much time you spent there in the upstate of South Carolina, which listeners, if you think of, uh, Clemson and Greenville and Spartanburg, kind of that north Eastern portion of, uh, south, South Carolina is generally spoke, uh, uh, referred to as the upstate. So Greg, any observations, the food, the people, the, the landscape,
Greg White (04:09):
Uh, all of it. Uh, first of all, it, it’s 12 counties in kind of the Northern section of, of South Carolina that they consider the upstate. Uh, I did notice and that everyone was like, what do they call the rest of it? I know I said, I know what they call. I know they call some of it the low country. Right. But I’m not sure there’s actually a formal term for downstate or other parts.
Scott Luton (04:31):
The Midlands state, the Midlands, the, the
Greg White (04:34):
Midland Midlands. Oh, that’s right. You’re a South Carolina natives. So you know, these things from
Scott Luton (04:38):
Aiken, one of the 46 counties that make South Carolina, but you know what, Greg, I messed up. I said, Northeast, it is a Northwest corner. Yeah. Of, of South Carolina. So not, well,
Greg White (04:48):
It’s strange because of south Carolina’s shape, it’s almost all corners. Right. It’s effectively a triangle with a right. But yeah. It’s and, and it was, it was beautiful. And, and actually I have been to firm in universe before actually I’ve been to Greenville and Spartanburg before, you know, I’m a big BMW fan. Right. And they have the driving experience up there, but I’m also, I’m also a Wichita state fan. And, and the last time Wichita state was in the NCAA tournament, we played university of Clemson. Sorry. We whooped him at Furman. So
Scott Luton (05:23):
It was, so
Greg White (05:24):
I have been to that campus before, too, almost the very spot where they held the conference.
Scott Luton (05:30):
So yes. Uh, which I remember that game. I remember you giving me a hard time, but it was well deserved. Cause Wichita Dale was a great team that year Clemson university. So see you Clemson university, uh, is what, uh, from basketball, we’re used to a series of WOS here lately. I got a couple bright spots, couple bright
Greg White (05:47):
Spots. That was a very good team that year. Yes. Clemson team was a very good team afraid to play ’em frankly, it just kind of went our way. So
Scott Luton (05:55):
Well, so let, so did you any, you know, we gotta talk about food just for a second. Yeah, sure. Do you eat any local cuisine that, uh, comes to mind?
Greg White (06:06):
I can’t, I cannot verify that this was local, but there’s a famous steak restaurant in Charleston’s called Charleston called halls. Yeah. And there is also one in, uh, downtown Greenville. Okay. And so that’s, that’s probably as much as I can tell you since Kevin sent you a note, but, uh, we did partake in a, a steak, which I’d like to thank you for Scott. Cause that was part of our expenses and it was delicious. And the downtown area of Greenville has been apparently fairly recently revitalized, which by the way, used to be the home of Furman university and the original tower from the original campus still stands down there on the Rey river. And, um, and it was beautiful down there. We did not get to stay much our, you know, we had a early call every morning. Um, and of course, you know, Kevin is a, he’s a military guy, so, you know, early to bed and early to rise all of that, so
Scott Luton (07:06):
Well,
Greg White (07:07):
But yeah, it, it was beautiful. And I gotta tell you, I was, this, this was striking to me. I heard some statistics from a group called one Spartanburg. Okay. Uh, in with is the confluence of their chamber of commerce, their tourism organization. And one more, uh, uh, economic development organization instead of having three they’ve combined them all in one, which gives them three different perspectives, a genius move. In my part, I mean for, I mean, not on my part, a genius from my point of view, uh, because it does create efficiency and, and it also gives them a multitude of viewpoints when courting new companies to come to the upstate of which there are dozens and dozens BMW being the most famous. Right. But Bosch, Michelin, Bridgestone, other, and, and I believe around 65, I have other companies that are located in the upstate from 35 different countries.
Greg White (08:06):
Fascinating. So that was fascinating. Yeah. You know, I had to say, I mean, I literally had to say to somebody, I turned to Ben cubit from trans place and said, that’s, that’s not the Greenville that I used to. Right. So it’s really, really interesting Greenville and Spartanburg, you know, and, and now Greer is, which is a little town town, just east of Spartanburg. Yep. Uh, which has grown by 300% in the last 10 years from 10,000 to 40,000 residents. But, you know, as the head Allen Smith, right, as Allen Smith of one Spartanburg was talking about all of the numbers, they were just amazing. And, and, you know, really interesting to think of the Greenville, Spartanburg metroplex as an area that is growing in such incredible influence. But at the same time, when you, uh, think about the people from upstate international, Rob Rowan, uh, Alex ACUI and Brianna whose last name I’m afraid, escape me from AFL.
Greg White (09:09):
I do know that when you think about the work that those people non-government organizations, as well as the governments have put in it is to be expected, I suppose, because they have such a great group of quality international people who are working on improving what is now all of their homes, some of ’em from other states, some of, many of them from other countries. Yeah. And some of them from right there at home, in fact, the mayor of Spartanburg, Jerome rice, my newest favorite mayor wore a blazer and a polo shirt and was from, uh, you know, the Northern end of, of town. Yeah. Um, a lifer and had come from being a neighborhood kid to, to being a city council person to, to, uh, facilitating the building that we actually did this in. They call it the George, which is the George Dean business and economics college. Wow.
Scott Luton (10:06):
Okay.
Greg White (10:06):
Um, but first of all, the George, I mean, what a cool name go to the George and make a left. Right. I just thought that was great. But anyway, uh, mayor rice was a great facilitator and a couple of, of other, uh, local political leaders were great hosts for us there as well.
Scott Luton (10:22):
All right. So man, you were taking copious notes a lot. I feel like I was there now.
Greg White (10:28):
Not, not a one, you know, I never take notes, but that’s how impactful it was clearly. I mean, it was really that impactful, I think maybe because, you know, in my ignorance, so unexpected for, you know, I mean really if our fans around the world who thinks of the upstate, who even knows what the upstate is of South Carolina, I was truly impressed and surprised. And at the same time in hearing from the quality persons that we all I heard from thinking, why am I surprised? And why haven’t I, uh, thought about this before? So,
Scott Luton (11:04):
Well, you know, uh, as you probably know, better than I maybe, uh, cuz since you are a BM w enthusiast, when the late great governor Carol Campbell, one of his, um, biggest legacies was recruiting that B w uh, plant to South Carolina, I wanna say it was the late eighties could have been the early nineties, but regardless that was a big, that was kinda like George, uh, Georgia got me thinking that Georgia now that was kinda like Georgia getting landing in Kia, you know, Kia changed, not just the region. It really changed the state. Well, very similar predated by a few years was the BMW investment in the CS, South Carolina. So who knows, we’ll have to get the full story in the later episode. One last question, before we get some yes, sir. To some of your, um, your big panel discussions and sidebar conversations and key takeaways. I thought, you know, if you’re a house of cards fan, and I don’t know if you’re, I don’t know if we were talking about this. Yeah. We, we watched it all that final season was kind of, yeah,
Greg White (12:01):
But I never got there after Kevin Spacey was off. I never went back, but I’ve always felt like I should. So no spoilers,
Scott Luton (12:09):
No spoilers, no spoilers, but season, uh, I’m sorry. Chapter three of house of cards they featured the POID. They didn’t call it that on the show, but it’s in Gaffney. It’s like a peach,
Greg White (12:21):
The big peach.
Scott Luton (12:22):
Yeah. The big water tower. Yeah. That’s, that’s what I thought. I just pulled up on Wiki on Wikipedia and they call it the POID or the peach or Mr. Peach or the moon AFF all interesting bunch of interest names. Did you pass by that?
Greg White (12:38):
No, that is, uh, north of where, where I was, as I recall, and between, uh, between, uh, Greenville and Spartanburg, I took side roads, uh, dark and in the rain, nothing like driving on windy, dark road, unle roads in the rain, um, to, to get you to, to drive the appropriate speed. And, and I did
Scott Luton (13:03):
Well. That
Greg White (13:03):
Is good. I know how that must sound crazy, but I actually did
Scott Luton (13:07):
Well a little trivia again, uh, Frank Underwood, who is Kevin’s space’s character in-house of cards. It all started, he was from Gaffney, South Carolina and, you know, fictionally in the series. So, and that’s where the peach or the big peach, whatever your favorite nickname is, uh, is, is appears in an episode or in that series. So, uh, all of that beat that as it may beat that as it may, Greg let’s get to the heart of the matter. Uh, yeah, that was three heavy, heavy duty today say you and I have had a chance to debrief a little bit, um, before your appearance here, what, what a co what are a couple things that are really sticking with you after three days of, uh, international discussions?
Greg White (13:47):
Well, so this was international affairs and international business. The two things that really stood out to me were this, the juxtaposition or confluence or whatever you wanna call it of international affairs and international business, if they aren’t obvious to everyone, or weren’t obvious to everyone before they should be obvious now. Um, and I expected that, you know, you and I talked a little bit about that. And when we were talking about the conference on some of the shows leading up to it, we talked about how exciting we thought that was, would be, but it was much more impactful than I ever could have known it. You know, uh, I sat down with, uh, a leader, uh, Kevin casidy from the international labor organization, which is a, an organization obviously that talk that represents labor around the world and his discussion and the international perspective that he had was truly impressive and really made me think about supply chain’s impact on that. And, and another one of our fellow panelists was, um, bill Gifford, who is the head chair, president CEO, whatever it is of the world affairs councils of America, the parent organization to Rob Owen and his organization, the world affair council of the upstate or upstate world affairs council, I believe so had just got back from Doha, a, an international forum on business and world affairs with some world leaders there and certainly, um, you know, powerful influencers and business persons from all over the world.
Scott Luton (15:29):
So really quick great was based on what you’re sharing here and based on our previous couple of conversations and, and Kevin’s feedback, the mix of the quality of the attendees and the panelists, and just the, uh, the perspective that was represented by that was a big part of the value of the conversations. Would you say
Greg White (15:50):
Huge? Uh, I mean, bill himself is, is an incredible influencer lives in DC, works with the government David Cassidy as well. We had ambassadors and former ambassadors and consoles general from many countries around the world. We had a three star air force general from Denmark who is in charge of sent coms central task force, which is 45 countries who are jointly combating terrorism around the world. Who’ve joined the United States since nine 11 to battle terrorism around the world. So we talked about not just, not just foreign affairs as diplomacy, we talked about foreign affairs as things like migration, labor, actual, uh, the possibility of conflict, you know, where are we with Afghanistan now? What, what are the military? What is the potential military impact in the south China sea of what, what China and the us are doing constantly sort of rubbing elbow, right? Agitating one another there, right?
Greg White (16:55):
The recent, uh, the recent play for attention from rocket man from, uh, Kim Jong UN who launched yet another missile into the, into the, uh, straights of something near Japan. So he’s not forgotten while Russia, China and Ukraine take take center stage. Um, we talked a lot about, um, things like that, the tactical and strategic aspects of military operations and, and the tactics that some of these countries are undertaking as well as the social impact and the diplomatic impact and the economic impact. And that’s just the first point is the confluence of all these things, Scott. So the second thing that I really observed was supply chain in every single discussion, every single discussion that we had, people who knew nothing about supply chain, people who had never even heard of supply chain two years ago, people who admitted when I asked, uh, the audience, their eyes glazed over whenever the topic of supply chain was brought up prior to 2020. Um, now it’s in the forefront of everyone’s mind. And even I, you know, having been in supply chain and, and you and I have, and others have advocated for supply chain to have this seat at the table. Even I was, uh, taken aback as I realized the realization that people had had over the last couple of years and the breadth of impact of supply to chain on diplomacy, on economic policies, social policies, um, military action and policies. Right, right.
Scott Luton (18:38):
So really quick speaking of that, you know, we talked months ago and I have to go back and find the show, but you and I were talking about, uh, I think it was a predictions show or something maybe at the end of 2021. And we’re talking about 20, 22 and you and I both were talking about folks. This is, uh, largely, I mean, there’s, there’s lots of, there’s still regional conflicts and, and that kind of stuff, but largely, you know, there’s no large, uh, massive scale invasion or war or conflict. And so all these challenges and supply chain, you know, didn’t have to worry about that. Well, welcome 2022. And, and we’re starting to see, you know, and, and we’re trying, and hopefully no number one, hopefully not only is the blatant Russian, uh, and atrocious Russian aggression in Ukraine, hopefully it comes to a stop, but also we hope, hope it, it, it, it, uh, cooler heads prevail and we’re able to contain it, but, but just think all those places you just mentioned, of course, the south China sea, which is not just China, to your point, you’ve got North Korea rattling, some sabers called lack of attention, but just
Greg White (19:48):
Taiwan has, which I found out at conference Taiwan has greatly increased their defense budget because of this, because they see, they see that China is using Russia as somewhat of a crash test, dummy to figure out how the world will respond to this kind of aggression and probably determining their actions in Taiwan based on how world responds and the impact that it has on Russia.
Scott Luton (20:14):
Well, with all of that, and I don’t say this lightly, but gosh, if we thought, I mean, given all the potentials, if we thought it was challenging, you know, let’s kind of hold our breath a bit over the next few months, uh, or, or maybe, I mean, longer than that clearly, but, um, you know, cause it could be, it could go from the what’s that from the, from the skillet to the fire, is that the phrase
Greg White (20:38):
From frying pan into the fire? Yeah.
Scott Luton (20:39):
Thank you very much.
Greg White (20:40):
That’s an old, uh, schoolhouse rock thing. Is it out of the frying pan and into the fire?
Scott Luton (20:45):
Well, the weight of the conversations, Greg, I mean, you’re always a, a deep thinker anyway, but man, the, the weight and the gravity and the, um, truly the global nature and, and, and purview and positioning of, of these discussions, man, it feels palpable based on kind of what you’re bringing to the audience here. What else, what else still sticks with you?
Greg White (21:08):
Well, you know, you mentioned hope and you know, all of that around what’s going on in, in Russia and Ukraine, let me assure you, none of these people, none of the diplomats or military leaders, they weren’t hoping at all. They were planning, they were creating, uh, provisional schemes. They were, uh, predicting, they were some bill Gifford for one was vocally and loudly, uh, protesting. And, uh, and I mean, this is a man with a significant voice, by the way, loudly protesting and, and decrying what, what Putin is doing in, in Ukraine. But the interesting thing is that while we foreign affairs, amateurs and observers, while we sit and hope and think, and, and, and worry, many of the people that were at this conference are taking some sort of action, either diplomatic or diplomatic, preparing for military or military consulting with diplomatic or overt or covert action in regard to this.
Greg White (22:15):
So there is so much going on behind the scenes of diplomacy and they are deeply, deeply intellectual people. Um, I mean, uh, if I have rarely felt out classed that I’m a genius, but I have rarely felt out classed mostly because I stay in my lane, but I was a bit outta my lane. I must confess at, at, you know, as regards foreign affairs, but I felt completely out classed by the likes of bill Gifford and Kevin casidy and others there. Uh, as we talked about it, uh, general Hendrick Larson, uh, from Denmark and CENTCOM. So
Scott Luton (22:52):
We’re transparent bunch foreign affairs. It’s not my bag. I you’re saying it’s not your bag either. Yeah. And we’re, it’s good to know that these pros that know how to navigate through these times and hopefully help cooler heads prevail are at work. I’ll tell you Greg, a few weeks ago, not take us off the subject, but a movie you gotta see if you haven’t already, uh, on Netflix, there’s this movie called Munich Munich, the edge of war. And it’s based on true story. Have you seen, have you seen this?
Greg White (23:21):
I haven’t, but I, I bet I know what it’s about.
Scott Luton (23:24):
Yeah. It’s in the days just prior to it’s when Neville Chamberlain visits and the, you know, the big agreement with, with Hitler and it shows all these diplomatic behind the scenes and man, according to the movie war was just, you know, it was so close to being averted and so close to a certain party within Germany, kind of taking power back away from Hitler. But, uh, I’m not a historic, I’m not a, uh, that’s, that’s a lot of deep history there, but check it out, Munich, the edge of war. Yeah. I’ll do that, man. And I watched that and there are so many parallels to some of what we’re seeing now as the non non global diploma is the expert that, uh, that I am
Greg White (24:07):
Well, I have to tell you, I mean, you know, I studied political science and particularly Soviet politics when I was in college. And I have to tell you, I, I do see a lot of parallels. The, the, the tactic that the English and, and Europeans took largely in world war II was appeasement. Let’s give him something and hope he doesn’t go any further. And I see E some significant parallels in how we’re approaching, what Putin is doing. And appeasement did not work. In fact, the policy was called appeasement prior to world war II. That’s right. And I see some significant alignment with the appeasement of world war II and hoping that cooler heads prevail, which they nev they are not go going to. I mean, there, there will unquestionably be some sort of counter aggression to, to end or put a fine point on the end of, or the boundaries of what Putin is doing today. Um, it may not be battle, but it will certainly be a position of military might that says, this is your new, even if Ukraine becomes part of the, of Russia or becomes a puppet state like Belarus, there will be a, a significant measure of military strength shown to assure him that that is the edge of his domain. Mm.
Scott Luton (25:28):
So I wanna, uh, I, I’m gonna take one more stat. I bet you’re still kind of processing a lot of what you heard, but also a lot of what you shared because you were there speaking on, uh, I believe supply chain panels. You may have been on some tech panels. I was still trying to navigate through all the, all, you know, three days worth of, uh, of sessions, but yeah, one, give us one more thing that really sticks out based on, on what you were being asked or the expertise you were sharing, or some of those conversations you were, you were part of kind of sidebar.
Greg White (25:58):
Yeah. I think the, one of the sidebar conversations, well, uh, a sidebar conversation that I had frequently was the freedom and openness of discussion that we had at this. There was nobody pulling any punches, if they felt strongly about, about Russia. They said, so if, if it a matter of fact, discussion around China or Russia or supply chain or world labor or whatever needed to be had, they said it and, and nobody apologized for it. And I think it was, it was good because I know I could tell we are not all, uh, aligned necessarily politically, but, but we were all free to speak our mind to say our peace and to, you know, and to know that while an intellectual, uh, argument might be made, no other argument would have, was made and nobody was shouted down and nobody was, you know, nobody was silenced or whatever you call that. Uh, the thing that everybody hates, uh,
Scott Luton (26:59):
Oh, not erased
Greg White (27:00):
Canceled. Yes. That’s it canceled. But the, I, I think that was really powerful. And then, you know, in addition to that, it was just the breadth of topics. We talked about global migration. We talked about the possibility of a world, minimum tax, global minimum tax, so that every country agrees to tax every business and individual to at least some minimum level, I presume. And again, like you said, I’m still processing this cuz that was way over my head, but to help alleviate some of the things that companies do to avoid taxes in high tax jurisdictions, like the United States and the UK and Australia and others.
Scott Luton (27:39):
So to kind of level up the global playing field, I guess, would be one of the motivations there
Greg White (27:44):
Mostly it’s a money grab by the big countries. Okay. But yes, you, you can call it whatever you want, cuz it, it does, by the way, this, this was the one takeaway I took from the two takeaways. I should say one, it does by virtue of this, uh, global minimum tax and at least what is proposed today, it does announce by the C’s that they own you, that they own their citizens. Not that their citizens are free. Wow. People, you know, we had a, I had a long discussion about that at our table and we all wound up agreeing. We didn’t start out agreeing, but we all wound up agreeing that that’s essentially what it said. And the other is it works to the disadvantage of some of the smaller countries that woo companies to locate there
Scott Luton (28:28):
Ireland
Greg White (28:28):
Because Ireland Cayman islands though, it’s hard to have any sympathy for the Cayman islands, but Mait other countries that have, have, uh, have beneficial tax structures that allow these companies to avoid legally avoid, uh, the tax structures of maybe their domicile nation or, or primary nation of operations. Um, but it does work to the significant disadvantage of hundreds of companies where it benefits dozens of countries.
Scott Luton (28:59):
Wow. Okay. So folks, if you’re tuned into the video version of this conversation, I apologize call as the pollen is getting to me. Yes. I’m coughing, I’m drinking. I’m trying to keep it everything out of the mic.
Greg White (29:11):
You’re making me thirsty
Scott Luton (29:12):
Actually. Yeah. I’ll tell you this pollen is record breaking here in Georgia this year. All right. So Greg, I know that we’re not, you know, we never planned on doing it justice in 30 minutes. I’m sure we’ll talk about more, uh, Eureka moments and takeaways in upcoming, uh, additions of the buzz. Uh, love those. So as we wrap here, I wanna make sure folks know how to connect with you and, and hang on, hang on, wait a second time out. Cause I wanna go back to something you published today and we’re gonna wrap on this. Uh, and then we’ll, then we’ll get folks to connect with you. Cause this was talk about not pulling punches and by the way, it is beautiful and a blessed thing to have a bunch of smart people in, in a venue like this. And there’d be plenty of disagreement that that’s the definition in many ways of freedom and they can all share and you can agree to disagree, even if it’s most passionate, you know, it’s really important.
Scott Luton (30:09):
All, all those perspectives, uh, can assemble like that. So that’s a beautiful thing. But today, so every Monday, Wednesday and Friday on LinkedIn, if you connect with Greg white or follow Greg white, you’ll see his commentary, supply chain commentary, and folks, he lays it out there. He doesn’t pull any punches. He tells you what you need to know. He tells it to your Frank and direct and sometimes it’s a smack in the face, no pun. I’m not even gonna reference any, um, um, current events, but today Greg was all out how you were really, uh, separating maybe a popular fiction when it comes to sanctions against Russia to reality. Yeah. So really quick let’s, let’s let’s if you could UN unpack that in a nutshell. Cause I think folks need to really understand that.
Greg White (30:57):
Yeah. So one of the headlines recently has been, and, and thankfully this is a heard that the, the us is, has suspended trade relations with Russia. That’s not at all what has happened, but that, but in, and I’m sure that nobody meant to, uh, misinformed people. But what has actually happened is that we have removed the most favored nation status of Russia, which means they are so object to tariffs and restrictions that companies or that countries, which are not favored trading partners of the us Iran would be a, a good example of that and other, um, often bad actors, but sometimes just not, uh, diplomatically in favor companies or countries. I keep saying companies. So the perception that could have been made in some of the unspoken language in the, in the article, um, was that we had cut off trade with, with Russia, which, which we have not done at all, right.
Greg White (31:58):
What we have done is we have temporarily suspended this most favored nation status, not revoked it. And I know that a lot of thought went into whether we would suspend or revoke it because I believe that constitutionally, or at least legally, once we’ve revoked it, we cannot reinstate it. So that may be why they suspended it. But the important thing to understand from that is we’re what this pointed out to me is how we are playing chess. Our diplomats and leaders are playing chess here in the west are checkers. Sorry. And, and how Putin is playing chess because he’s going to recognize the temporary nature of this thing. And he’s gonna, he’s going to continue to test our will to suffer because essentially what uh, suspending trading will do is in a number of key factors, nickel, oil, wheat, other other products that we get on average around 10% of our imports from Russia, it will create a shortage of about 10% of our demand and which will of course raise prices in an already inflationary space.
Greg White (33:04):
So, you know, what, what this creates is some sacrifice on our parts. We’re gonna pay more, we’re gonna have less availability. It’s gonna hurt us as, as consumers and Putin has for a long time. And again, I said, I’ve studied the Soviet union. So I know John, I know Vladimir Putin and his, his, uh, strategies from yeah, from all the way back to the eighties. So he knows that our constituency, our citizens can put pressure on the government and cause them to break falter, lose favor for certain policies because it causes too much pain to the voter. And the voters are how they get elected in Russia. It’s not the same, even though there is an election, it’s a sham and he is effectively an autocrat and dictator and, and he doesn’t care what his, his constituents think or say protest do or, or how well they do in their livelihoods.
Greg White (34:05):
So it’s a different world for him and he’s testing our resolve with this. And I think the, the upshot of this Scott was really, and, and I’ve done a couple of posts like this, preparing myself probably, and, and others mental that we need to be prepared to sacrifice for what will, in retrospect, after we’re through all of this seem like a very, very short time, but it will be very painful. In the meantime, we need to, we need to prepare to sacrifice, even if it’s only just prices. I’m not even talking about putting on a uniform and going to Europe or in anything like that. I’m just saying endure inflation, endure shortages, you know, accept that certain things can’t, or won’t be able to happen because we are making a principled stand against the second, most dangerous world leader on the planet. And if we don’t do it against the second, most dangerous world leader on the planet, Vladimir Putin, we will embolden and enable the most dangerous leader on the face of the planet.
Greg White (35:11):
Xian ping of China, who is U who is using Russia. As I said earlier, as a crash test dummy to discover how much subjugation, how much aggression, how much repression the rest of the world will endure to avoid conflict or sacrifice in, in their personal lives. Hmm. And so that, that what I was really doing was calling on the citizenry to be prepared for and to accept that they will have to sacrifice to keep these two rogue illegitimate and dangerous leaders from attempting to overtake the world. That’s the unsaid part that news organizations are not saying when they’re talking about this could define the new world order, right? They are afraid to say it because they don’t wanna scare the citizenry and it’s appropriate because their government agencies and they reach everyone. But, um, I just wanna reach a handful of people who reach a handful of people who can dis discuss this and, and share it in context to say, you know, to, to do it without, without getting hysterical about it. Right. And that’s, that’s really the purpose. And essentially the, the body of what I shared in my commentary today.
Scott Luton (36:35):
Well, check it out. He tackles, uh, Greg tackles some of the most challenging topics and issues and cha and developments of our time, whether they’re a little more geopolitical like today, a lot of times it’s supply chain and, and a lot of times it’s, it is the real story in supply chain. In fact, we, we should point that title cause Greg, you do a lot of demystifying and I enjoy that in analysis. So check it out, make sure you can you, and, and then in link to this, uh, on this episode page, you’ll have be able to connect directly with Greg follow Greg on LinkedIn or other, other, uh, social channels and stay tuned. Cause Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you have, uh, Greg white standing and delivering with reliability and consistency and plenty, plenty of challenging the current status quo. Okay. So Greg, beyond that, beyond LinkedIn and Twitter, Gregory S. White at Gregory S. White, anything else you’d suggest for how to folks connect with you?
Greg White (37:35):
I, I think, uh, LinkedIn is probably the best way. I’ve gotten a little bit more diligent in trying to get to all the messages that I get each day and try to respond to them. Um, if you have a question or an idea or something like that, that you’d love to share, just put it in the messaging and, and, uh, you know, we can connect deeper on it.
Scott Luton (37:55):
Wonderful, wonderful. One of the best, uh, Greg white, thanks for spending time. Uh, this afternoon, right on the heels of your return from the upstate of South Carolina, where it’s happening, a lot of things are happening up there.
Greg White (38:07):
It’s amazing. It really is. And, and impressive. And, um, and thank you for, you know, letting me share this. It was an honor, frankly, to, to share time with these diplomats people, frankly way outta my league, but it does show you how supply chain has, has a seat at the table, a seat at the global table, not just the corporate table and how important and how recognized what we do and what we do means to the world, not just to the companies that we work for or
Scott Luton (38:38):
Serve. Hmm. Well said, I wanna, uh, I wanna wrap on one more thing and that is so our dear friend at, uh, enure Avarez and the vector global logistics team. Yeah. Uh, supply chain now, and vector have partnered up with plenty of other folks to really find an effective and practical way of leveraging the logistics and really the supply chain community to meet real vetted needs and targeted needs in Ukraine and Poland and elsewhere. Uh, so folks, you can learn more about that initiative. Probably the best place is just, uh, check a out vector gl.com. You’ll see the stand with Ukraine information and links a lot more information. They’re doing great work. Uh, and Greg it’s it’s, it is, uh, one of the best parts about this journey we’re on is to rub elbows and stand with folks like that, that are that epitomize deeds, not words, and are helping folks in need.
Scott Luton (39:34):
So you’ll check that out. You vector gl.com, Greg white. Thank you for your time here today. I look forward to the buzz coming up right around the corner. Folks, you can check that out, live and bring your voice every Monday, 12 noon Eastern time, uh, on supply chain. Now, wherever you connect with the supply chain out on social, uh, on behalf of our entire team here, this is Scott Lou and Greg white signing off for now, but Hey folks to the Russian people and the China people, Hey, continue to find your voice. You probably aren’t. Aren’t hearing us right now. Cause the governments don’t let don’t let right, uh, dissenting opinion in, but it’s not about the people it’s about these really bad actors as, as Greg was, was, uh, pointing out that are hurting hundred of people. Uh, but whatever you do, folks to our listeners around the world, we’re asking, imploring you to do good to give forward and to be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we see next time, right back here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (40:32):
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