Supply Chain Now

“I think the tools we are going to use this year and beyond have just gotten sharper and stronger. We’re more enthusiastic and more engaged and more empowered to move forward.” – Meta Robinson, Business Partner, Sweet Unity Farms Coffee   On January 31, 1919, Jackie Robinson was born. Just over 100 years later, his son and granddaughter are carrying on his legacy of performance and social advocacy with Sweet Unity Farms Coffee, a retail coffee brand founded to have a positive impact on the poverty and underdevelopment faced by rural farmers. David and Meta Robinson are both part of the leadership team at Sweet Unity Farms Coffee and David is the founder of Up-Country International Products Inc., the sole distributor and marketer of Sweet Unity Farms Coffee. They’ve had as difficult a year as anyone, especially with most of their sales taking place in airports. They have now made the pivot to eCommerce and are leveraging Meta’s digital marketing experience to survive in the new normal. In this conversation, David and Meta tell Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton: · How they have each been inspired by the courage and achievements of Jackie and Rachel Robinson…

“If you’re going to be putting so much effort into building something from scratch, that you want to be having fun while you do it.” – Dale Wilkinson, Founder of goodgigs   Large organizations are taking notice of the fact that consumers want them to create more than just shareholder value – they want societal value as well. It can lead to greater consumer loyalty. That trend has expanded into the hiring space, with socially-oriented companies and candidates trying to find each other. goodgigs, which was founded by Dale Wilkinson in 2018, was initially started to help creative freelancers find companies that share their values and causes. In 2021, they plan to expand into a full jobs board, but they will be screening all participants in order to ensure that their platform remains focused on their core mission: combining profit with purpose. In this conversation, Dale tells Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton: · When he had his own epiphany that he wanted to do a job that he loved but do good for society at the same time · What trends he is seeing among mission-driven companies as the workforce prepares to remain virtual for the…

“If you can actually get intentional with people and let them know who you who you really are, they’re going to be able to challenge and push you to do things that you probably couldn’t have done on your own.” – Zach Ramirez, Director of Sales and Marketing for Ally Logistics   It may seem like a customer service mindset would come naturally to someone in sales and marketing, but everyone has to learn from somewhere. According to Zach Ramirez, Director of Sales and Marketing for Ally Logistics, the best way to learn to build a customer service-oriented corporate culture is from the top down. While he wasn’t always a fan of marketing skills versus the ‘boots on the ground’ approach espoused by most salespeople, over the years he has learned how to combine the two into a powerful methodology that combines the strengths of each discipline. In this conversation, Zach tells Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton: · Why relationships suffer when a sales team doesn’t have enough marketing skills at their disposal · The best practices to keep sales and marketing working together to attract and win new customers just as well as they retain…

“Everyone is building a blockchain today, so, if I’m a business and I want to leverage the power of blockchain, do I have to lock into someone’s specific blockchain and I can’t connect to any others?” – Sandro Natale, Director of Product Wi-Fi, Digital Signage & Ads for Access at AT&T   Blockchain offers dramatic improvement in terms of efficiency and economics: logistics monitoring, enhanced licensing of services, products and software, the digitization of physical assets, and more secure transaction records. – Thomas Carter, Founder and Chairman of Dealbox and CEO of Total Network Services Corp.   With everyone suddenly working and living from home, digital advertising and engagement have not only expanded, they have become far more critical to corporate top lines across industries. And the data networks that support this new approach to connecting with customers not only have to be complex and sophisticated, they also have to respect and protect consumer data privacy. Sandro Natale is the Director of Product Wi-Fi, Digital Signage & Ads for Access at AT&T and Thomas Carter is the founder and chairman of Dealbox as well as the founder and CEO of Total Network Services Corp, two organizations that are focused on…

“The psychological aspect of negotiations isn’t nearly as important as it was before. What counts now are the facts.” – Rod Sherkin, President of ProPurchaser   2020 has been destabilizing in a number of ways, one of which is in terms of professional disruption. Many qualified professionals now find themselves looking for new jobs in a tight market and without the opportunity of face time to distinguish themselves as candidates. Rod Sherkin, President of ProPurchaser, has seen a number of ups and downs in his career, and he has come up with ways to handle many of them. He also knows better than most the free resources that are available to procurement and supply chain professionals who want to stay connected to industry developments and material trends so that they are ready when an opportunity arises. In this conversation, Rod shares his supply chain career advice with Supply Chain Now Host Scott Luton: · His ‘trick’ for getting a hiring manager’s attention by demonstrating how well you already understand his business · How to stand out from a crowd of applicants and how to know (for sure) what you want before you start looking for openings · Why tried-and-true procurement…

“Our brains are not as hardwired as we used to think. You can teach an old dog new tricks.” – Patrick Nelson, Founder of Loyalty Point Leadership   2020 has been full of challenges, but some people have managed to turn those challenges into opportunities. Patrick Nelson is a perfect example. In February of 2020, he lost his job and within an hour he had decided to found Loyalty Point Leadership, Leadership training and development consulting firm. His leadership philosophy is based on his military service and academic career, and it emphasizes self-control for the sake of improved responses. In this conversation, Patrick tells Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Enrique Alvarez and Scott Luton: · How failing fast can lead to quick growth as long as you can maintain a growth mindset · Why leadership is more about people than data processes, equipment, or inventory scheduling · That the best learning often takes place when they are pushed out of their comfort zone

“Humans and supply chains have shown themselves this year to be far more resilient than any of us ever expected we could be.” – Polly Mitchell-Guthrie, VP of Industry Outreach and Thought Leadership at Kinaxis   Although the whole world has gotten far more familiar with supply chains this year than they have ever been in the past, people still largely believe that all supply chains are the same. Not so, points out Polly Mitchell-Guthrie is the VP of Industry Outreach and Thought Leadership at Kinaxis. There are pharmaceutical supply chains, and automotive supply chains, and semiconductor supply chains, and more, and each one has different needs and challenges. What Polly and her Kinaxis colleague Patrick Van Hull have seen this year, is that while all supply chains are a little different, they are all more connected than anyone would have realized. As a result, supply chains often became the connecting point between otherwise disconnected businesses and industries, allowing the dynamics in one to affect operations in another. In this conversation, Patrick and Polly discuss the following with Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton: · What true supply chain resilience looks like, and which pre-pandemic investments paid…

In this episode of the Supply Chain Buzz on Supply Chain Now, Scott & Greg discuss the top news in supply chain, and welcome special guest David Shillingford with Resilience360 to the podcast.

“Finding a way to get information to the people who need it at the time that they need it is the goal, giving them the flexibility to act on that information.” – Steffanie Ness, VP of Global Sales at UCBOS Inc   An enterprise technology stack is like a puzzle, and everyone’s puzzle is missing a few pieces. The team at UCBOS Inc aims to use technologies like AI and machine learning to fill in the holes seamlessly, and without disrupting the business and without their customers having to write any code. Shan Muthuvelu is the CEO and President of UCBOS Inc and Steffanie Ness is his VP of Global Sales. Their company is based on the need that complex enterprises have to connect multiple layers of systems and data in order to quickly support business decisions. In this conversation, Shan and Steffanie discuss the following with Supply Chain Now Host Scott Luton: · The importance of metadata to companies, their systems, and the completeness of their data resources · The challenge associated with solving real-world needs such as components that have associated field services and integrated cloud solutions that are constantly updating but need to remain connected · What…