The Buzz is Supply Chain Now’s regular Monday livestream, held at 12 noon ET each week. This show focuses on some of the leading stories from global supply chain and global business, always with special guests – the most important of which is the live audience!

In this week’s episode of The Buzz, host Scott Luton and co-host Billy Taylor welcome special guest, CEO & President of World Emblem, Randy Carr, to the show. Together they discuss:

• An update on the status of manufacturing growth in the US
• How the Biden administration is embracing onshoring
• Carr’s own experience with nearshoring with his company, World Emblem
• And so much more!

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 opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from Those Making Global Business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:32):

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Luton and Billy Ray Taylor here with you on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Billy, how you doing

Billy Ray Taylor (00:41):

Today? I’m doing great, Scott, how about yourself?

Scott Luton (00:44):

I’m doing wonderful. You look like a million bucks over there. Maybe a billion because inflation and that stuff. But you look great. Great to have you back.

Billy Ray Taylor (00:51):

Well, thank you for having me. I’m excited for today’s show and I appreciate you having me back to Co-host with you.

Scott Luton (00:57):

You bet. All right. So folks, as you know, it’s the buzz today, a live show that comes at you every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time. As always, we’re going to be discussing a variety of news and developments across global business. And Billy, we’ve got a big guest here today joining us about 12:25 PM Eastern Time, where we’re going to be joined by Randy Carr, president and CEO of World emblem, the largest emblem and patch producer in the world. Billy, this company has become the Go-to source for emblems and patches for headwear, footwear, garments, and a whole lot more. And we’re going to be talking with Randy on a couple different topics to include Nearshoring. We’re going to be hearing about some of the big moves that World Emblem has made in recent years. Billy Manufacturing is one of our favorite topics to talk about, right?

Billy Ray Taylor (01:40):

Absolutely. One, it’s in my leadership, DNA, right? It’s where I cut my teeth, right? And so I’m excited about that, but more excited to hear Randy Carr’s story. I mean, I really dove into that. He has an exciting story to tell, not only about leadership, strategic thinking, how to move an organization. So this is going to be a great one when you connect there with manufacturing. Outstanding.

Scott Luton (02:04):

I’m with you and well said. I completely agree. Speaking of great stories, folks, hey, I’m a big fan of the winning link authored by the one only Billy Ray Taylor. You can get it wherever you get your favorite books from. Lots of wonderful stories, practical, been there, done that, leadership advice and all kinds of good stuff. So Billy, I bet you’re getting feedback from across the globe on the winning link, huh?

Billy Ray Taylor (02:28):

Absolutely. Now they’re requesting it in different languages. So I just got a recent request from Germany, so it’s going well. It’s going very well, it’s going very well.

Scott Luton (02:37):

Well looking forward to getting together in person in Atlanta as you continue to roll out new versions, new languages of the win link. But speaking of resources, so that’s the first resource we want to share with all of our friends around the globe here today. Got a couple of things that we want to share, and let me pull up my visual here right on time. If you want a better understanding of what’s going on, especially with the US domestic freight market. To check out the recently released US Bank Freight Payment Index for fourth quarter 2023, you can check out, the link will be dropping in the comments and you can sign up for this free and informative resource that’s published each quarter where they focuses on the shipment volumes. Spend volumes in five different regions across the country, which are one of my favorite parts of this. And again, you can check it out for free freight.us bank.com or use the link we have got in the chat, Billy Track and Freight as a current manufacturing leader, but someone has been there and done that freight. You got to keep your finger on the pulse of, huh?

Billy Ray Taylor (03:34):

Absolutely, because there’s hidden costs, it can’t sit still, it has to continue to move or it’s going to cost you money. That

Scott Luton (03:40):

Is right,

Billy Ray Taylor (03:41):

Right? That is a great thing to focus on when you’re driving bottom line results. And it’s got to get there too. Cost effectively.

Scott Luton (03:49):

That’s kind of important, isn’t it? Getting our stuff where it needs to be. It’s kind of important. Good stuff there. And again, we dropped that link right there in the chat. You want to click away. We try to make it easy for y’all here. Also, with that said, we published a fun one over the weekend. Look at this cheesy guy in a blue jacket there speaking to US Bank. That’s Dan Indy from the US Bank team. I was up in Minneapolis last week able to break bread with him at a place called Hell’s Kitchen, which Billy Ray is a restaurant, as we should expect, below street level in downtown Minneapolis. Wow.

(04:21):

But check out the newsletter. We shared several new stories you may have missed, including how TJX is benefiting from Macy’s downsizing. We offered up some of our live events come up next few weeks, and Billy, and I’m guilty as charge back in my earlier parts of my career. I never practiced my interviewing. I never practiced the questions I should ask, or on the hiring manager side, asking questions is so important. Well, we included a couple of great lists of interview questions, both for jobs seekers and hiring managers. Billy, you can’t over prepare hardly for an interview these days, huh?

Billy Ray Taylor (04:53):

No, you cannot. And I think the new trend, I just had a daughter that just recently had a career change, and as she was asking me questions, I asked her, don’t just go in with your resume, take your brand book in with you like it, and on top of the questions, prove what you can do. Prove your value proposition.

Scott Luton (05:11):

Love it. And folks, we all have a brand. We all have a brand story. So embrace that, lean into it. What a great piece of advice already, Billy, I appreciate that. We need to be interviewing your daughter of her experience and professional journey. Wouldn’t that be cool?

Billy Ray Taylor (05:26):

Oh, it’d be great. She just started with the Houston Texans, so that’s even more exciting, man, having her dad, a Dallas Cowboy fan wear a Houston Texan jersey,

Scott Luton (05:36):

But

Billy Ray Taylor (05:36):

She would be great.

Scott Luton (05:39):

Well, I can’t wait to meet her and we’re going to have that football discussion too. Alright, so we offered up with that said, y’all can check that out. We’re dropping a link there in the chat. And then finally, here’s some great news National Supply Chain Day folks. It’s back fearlessly led by Mary Kate, love member of our team here at Supply Chain now who founded the day, I think about eight years ago, if I’m not mistaken, April 29th. It’s right around the corner. Join our efforts to celebrate this entire global industry, especially Billy, the people. The people that make up this industry that enable it to make things happen. One of my favorite aspects of really celebrating global supply chain your thoughts. I

Billy Ray Taylor (06:16):

Agree with you a hundred percent. When you look at supply chain, it’s the heartbeat. If it doesn’t move, like the heart moves blood through the body, it moves the products through the appropriate channels.

Scott Luton (06:26):

That’s right. That is right. And even in this technology driven era we’re in, it’s still about the people. It’s still about the people, right? They’re the ones that use the technology platforms and we want to celebrate them for sure. April 29th. Folks, if you want to get involved in our efforts to celebrate the industry all around the world, shoot Mary Kay a note to NCD acronym for National Supply chainDay@supplychainnow.com. Okay, Billy, that’s just the tip of iceberg. We got a couple stories we want to get to some business stories and I want to lead off with this one. You ready to go, Billy?

Billy Ray Taylor (06:58):

Absolutely. I’m ready.

Scott Luton (06:59):

Alright. This gentleman may look familiar to you. I love this picture. I want to start with your visit over to RA Energy at company meetings, I think in the last week or so, which included Billy Town Hall led by the company CEO, Jim Burke. And I love this mantra here. We do business the right way because there ain’t no time to do business the wrong way in today’s era. But Billy, tell us from your visit, I bet you spoke there, I’m sure you rubbed elbows and met a lot of the people that make the business happen there. What were some of your favorite key takeaways, especially from a leadership perspective?

Billy Ray Taylor (07:33):

It wasn’t just about the results. It was about how they got the results. The town halls focused on how we went. He aligned them on a common strategy, a common purpose. They were locked in. I mean, for me it was just totally engaging just to watch and be fascinated with this charismatic CEO that basically he lived it. He lived what he was teaching, he lived what he was explaining. And so my key takeaway was extreme ownership at every level. People own the results and he was the enabler. If I look at it and put it into one of the Billy quotes, he wasn’t so concerned with being the pitcher as he was with being the picture frame.

Scott Luton (08:13):

Okay, I like that. That’s a new one.

Billy Ray Taylor (08:15):

Yes. And he came in to meet with the whole operations team, which I was speaking to, very personable. I mean, if you didn’t know who he was, you wouldn’t know who he was when you walked in the room.

Scott Luton (08:29):

Okay, I’m going to take that Billy quote and I’m adding it to my list of some of my favorite Billy Ray Taylor quotes around here if I have it right. Mr. Jim Burke, you’re talking about wasn’t as focused on being the picture as the picture frame. I love that

Billy Ray Taylor (08:45):

Billy. And that was my key takeaway.

Scott Luton (08:47):

The other thing I’m hearing, as you kind of unpack that experience a little bit, I know there’s a lot more we’ll have to have you back and take a deep dive, but also heard there that he doesn’t just talk the talk, but he walks the walk and I think our people across the organization, they’re watching to make sure that you do as you say, that you’re going to do right, and that you’re modeling the behaviors, the values, you name it, right, to make up the organization.

Billy Ray Taylor (09:12):

Yes, yes. And he’s a family person. And even his intimate moments, he talked about his family, he talked about the importance of basically leveraging and holding true to your true values to your family, bring your family to work. It was almost essentially saying, we not only hired you, we hired your family.

Scott Luton (09:30):

Oh, I love that. Alright, so that’s just the first of three stories we want to tackle before our big guest joins us here. In about 12 minutes or so, I want to get into talking more about one of our favorite sectors of global business. That’s the manufacturing industry. And I want to share this one measure, one measure, which we put the finger on a pulse of the global manufacturing sector. Let’s dive into the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Index, which was just released for February, 2024. It was just released and reported on by our friends at MarketWatch and Billy, I got to be honest, we keep it real around here. The news ain’t that great. We’re still optimistic. Big things are coming, but the primary index dropped to 47.8% down from 49.1% in January. Now, the Wall Street Journal polled a variety of analysts and their expectations were that the February numbers were going to come in at a reading of 49.5%.

(10:26):

So three things, but let’s get to the first two. First. Number one, the activity dropped, right? The overall index dropped from January to February, and number two, we expected it to go up in February to getting really close to that critical 50% number. And so to remind our breed audience out there, generally speaking, anything below 50 from this ISM manufacturing index shows manufacturing contraction and anything above 50 shows, manufacturing, industry growth and expansion. Now remember, it’s just one of the hundreds if not thousands of data points and economic perspectives out there. The ISM index has now showed manufacturing contraction for 16 months in a row, which according to the data, it’s the worst stretch since the Great Recession back in 2007, 2008, 2009. Remember those days? I do. And some of those painful experiences back in the day, production, new orders and even employment, all show decreases according to the ISMS data in February. But as we’ve promised, there is good news some executives from the survey and from the anecdotal information that’s part of the process each month, some executives seem to indicate there’s big growth and investment right around the corner as we move further into 2024. So Billy, as someone that has led plants, has served on big time manufacturing leadership teams, you’re still involved and you got your deep roots in the industry. Your thoughts on kind of what we’re seeing in the manufacturing industry right now? Well, this

Billy Ray Taylor (11:51):

Is interesting. The economy’s resilience amid these higher interest rate really signifies underlying strengths, suggesting I believe that manufacturing could rebound. Moreover, the prospect of the Federal Reserve, reducing borrowing costs later in the year actually, that provides a fresh hope for a recovery in the manufacturing sector. And so when you connect those things around the economy’s resilience and or federal reserve reducing borrowing costs, that gives you hope because those potential reduction in borrowing costs could stimulate investment boost consumer spending because you can get those rates allure and ultimately spur demand for manufacturing goods. So you look at all those things together, I believe there is reason to believe there’s reason to believe what these economists are saying.

Scott Luton (12:38):

Yes. And I should put out there a disclaimer, at least from my perspective, Billy, I’ll let you make your own, but I am no economist folks. That’s right. I have no economist. I don’t pretend to play one on tv, but I love data, especially perspective rooted in data. And Billy, you make a great point and you do offer that fresh hope that you mentioned. Everybody is waiting to see what the Fed does with these interest rates. Right Over the weekend, as I was diving into my weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal, saw some perspective they’ve been, a lot of folks think they’ve been pushed back based on a couple different factors, and a couple folks even opined over the weekend that they may be pushed all the way back into the first part of 2025. Now, I’m hoping that doesn’t happen, but we shall see, and I bet the rest of industry, as you were indicating there, Billy, maybe not on the edge of their chair, but close these interest rates can come down a little bit. Your final thought there, Billy, I

Billy Ray Taylor (13:28):

Think you summed it up beautifully. And again, allegedly, I’m not an economist like you, I’m just offering my opinion, but the actual I’m want to say trigger, so to speak to the turnaround is this reduction that’s right in the rate. So that’s the

Scott Luton (13:43):

Hope. Yes, the fresh hope. So we’ll see. We’re practitioners, not economists, stay tuned as we continue to offer up our perspective what’s going on out in industry. And as T Square it says, Billy supply chain management is no longer an optional appetizer. It’s a must have entree. I like that.

Billy Ray Taylor (14:01):

Love it. I love it.

Scott Luton (14:04):

All right, so moving right along. We got one more story that I want to tackle before we bring on our guests here today. And let’s talk about Onshoring, right from our friends at the manufacturing dive, which is a great publication, one of the dive publications you got supply chain, dive manufacturing, dive, CIO Dive, y’all check it out. The Biden administration is moving to on shore company that makes Port Cranes. Now get this, most folks are familiar with the massive cranes that our seaports rely on to keep things moving, right? It’s like here in Georgia, the ports of Savannah. Man, it is impressive. You ever tour down there. It’s impressive what they do in their overall operational efficiencies. Well, for about 30 years, China’s state owned ZPMC, well, they’ve dominated the crane market and the company is currently the world’s largest crane maker. It accounts for about 80% of all cranes used at US ports. Currently, the White House sees this as a national security threat. In fact, the Pentagon came out and said that the cranes were being used as spa devices last year. So the US government is looking to onshore port crane manufacturing by using some of the $20 billion B as in Bezos there, Billy Ray, using some of the $20 billion that it has earmarked for investment in US port infrastructure over the next five years. Billy, your thoughts

Billy Ray Taylor (15:20):

Looking at this here article, I think this an issue underscores the importance first of domestic production and safeguarding critical infrastructure in reducing reliance on potentially vulnerable supply chains. When you talk about that crane, when you’re looking at China was the main manufacturer by bringing manufacturing closer to home of these cranes right now, policymakers really can aim to enhance national security while promoting economic growth. And so you look at that, there should be a proactive approach to tackling cybersecurity threats and underscores the significance of collaboration when you’re talking about with manufacturers and government. It’s strengthening the resilience of our US infrastructure. And so there is an opportunity there to onshore the crane production as well as protect cybersecurity. So it’s a win-win in my opinion.

Scott Luton (16:08):

Great point. And in the larger sense, it’s overdue to have 20 billion invested into our infrastructure and certainly in this case, the port infrastructure there, right? We’ve got not taking anything away from the great people that make it happen, like I point out earlier today, but we’ve got some catching up to do in some degree, especially from a technology and data visibility standpoint. But to your point, cyber attacks, Billy folks, if y’all are tired of hearing the word cybersecurity, I got bad news for you. We’re going to hear a lot more about it, right? I know there’s a public version of what went down with cell phones a week or two ago. There’s also a private version. A lot of folks think that that was a certain bad actor out there reminding us all what they can do. Of course, currently the healthcare system here in the us you’ve got pharmacies from coast to coast doing workarounds because certain systems are, at least through the weekend tech system, Billy, were down seven days in a row due to cybersecurity issues and cyber attack by bad actors. So I applaud our government’s investigation of this critical infrastructure and bringing crane business back to the states because the US played a big role up until about the eighties in making a lot of cranes, not just for our country, but for other countries. So I think this is exciting to see where this goes. So if we can eliminate a possible alleged national security issue while giving rebirth and a fresh hope to a new industry, a new sector that makes up the economy, Billy, that’s a twofer in my book, huh? I agree.

Billy Ray Taylor (17:32):

Oh, win, win,

Scott Luton (17:36):

Win. All right folks, we have dropped the links to each of these storage we’ve talked about on the front end. So that move with the White House and the port crane industry, you can find that link there. We included a link to the ISM index earlier, and we also included a link to Billy’s LinkedIn post about his visits in the last week or two. So y’all check it out. Let us know what you think. Okay, so Billy, we’ve kind of set the table about halfway through today’s buzz and we’re bringing out, what’s that French term, the piece they resistance. I’m probably mispronouncing that, Billy, but we are excited to have a special guest here today, right?

Billy Ray Taylor (18:15):

Great guy. Had some discussions with him prior to the energy, the mindset, I mean. So they’re in for a great treat. Great

Scott Luton (18:24):

Treat. Agreed. I wish we had ’em for a couple hours based on some of the stories he was sharing. Y’all two were talking about in the green room. But hey, let’s introduce our guest. So Randy Carr is CEO and President of World Emblem, the largest emblem and patch producer in the world for 30 years. Now, Hollywood, Florida based world emblem has delighted customers such as the NFL, new Era, Cintas, Levi’s, Perry Ellis, and lots and lots of others get this. They’re turning out a hundred million products a year. Billy, how about that? Wow.

Billy Ray Taylor (18:56):

Amazing.

Scott Luton (18:57):

Now beyond his company role, which I’m sure keeps him busy, Randy has also been actively involved in the Young President’s organization, AKA, the YPO since 2008, including a stint on the YPO Executive Committee from 2019 to 2021. So let’s welcome in. Randy Carr from World Emblem. Hey Randy, how you doing?

Randy Carr (19:18):

I’m great. How you doing, Scott?

Scott Luton (19:19):

Wonderful, wonderful. Billy, I really enjoyed you and Randy’s little back and forth and the pre-show like you were talking about.

Billy Ray Taylor (19:25):

Absolutely. He’s got an exciting story that tells a little modest around it, but I tell you, it was exciting for me and great to talk to you, Randy, in the green room. So I’m excited to have you on the show.

Randy Carr (19:37):

Good to see you, Doug. Thank you.

Scott Luton (19:38):

Alright, so let’s do this before we get into more of the world emblem story, lots of stories there. We’ll start with a little fun and warmup questions. Let’s paint this picture, Billy and Randy and everyone out there. Hey, it’s spring training already. Major league baseball is back in Florida and Arizona playing warmup games. We’ve got March Madness right around the corner, one of the greatest sports spectacles in history, one favorite times of year, the masters of your golf fan coming up in April. Of course Spring is in full swing. We had gorgeous 65 degree days over the weekend. So I want to ask you this, Randy and Billy. Randy, what’s one of your favorite things about this time of year?

Randy Carr (20:11):

Yeah, I think my son’s coming back from college, so I’m looking forward to that.

Scott Luton (20:15):

Okay.

Randy Carr (20:16):

Couldn’t dump it at Alabama. Losing to Tennessee on Saturday night. So I think that was a little depressing going into March madness and maybe spring skiing if I could find the top.

Scott Luton (20:27):

Okay. Spring skiing. What’s one of your favorite slopes, Randy?

Randy Carr (20:30):

Well, we just got back from Park City, what, two weeks ago, so I think it’s probably my favorite. That area is my favorite job.

Scott Luton (20:37):

Okay, and that’s Utah, right? Yes, sir. Park City, Utah. Okay. Alright. So Billy, that’s going to be tough. The top man, a little family, a little Bama, basketball, football, you name it. And some beautiful skiing out in Utah. Billy, what’s one of your favorite things about this time of year?

Billy Ray Taylor (20:53):

This is concert season, so I get to go out with my family and hang out. We just went to a concert this weekend and that was fun with my daughter and my wife. My son couldn’t make it. So those type of activities and from a professional’s perspective, it’s where all the conferences are starting and now I get to go out and see industry leaders and rub elbows with those practitioners. So learn new things. So that’s where I’m at.

Scott Luton (21:14):

Love that. Alright, so about to get some of your dance moves later. Billy, can you tell us what concert, if you can tell us, did you go to

Billy Ray Taylor (21:22):

I went to see 50 cent at the Houston Rodeo, so I went to the rodeo with my family in the 50 cent concert.

Scott Luton (21:30):

Love it. Love it, man. I bet You’all had a great time.

Billy Ray Taylor (21:33):

Well, I tried to dance a little, but it was funny as a country and western event with rap. So my mom said, country and rap, all you get is crap. So take a step back. Oh

Scott Luton (21:48):

Man, I love it. It was great. I love it. Alright, so Randy and Billy, we got a lot to get into and by the way, I’ll just add in. I love as a big Atlanta Braves fan, right? And we had a premature exit from the playoffs last year, so I’m hoping to get back on with a couple of these acquisitions we’ve made. But I’ll tell you, the Major League baseball off season has got to be the shortest out of all the sports out there. It feels like we just finished the playoffs and now we’re back in spring training already. Everyone in spring training, everyone’s got a shot at making a World Series right’s. My favorite parts of that sports, we’ll see. Alright, so back to business here. So Randy, let’s start with this. We’re big believers as we get into Nearshore and some other things, we’re going to talk about that context about you and the team is really, really important. So can you briefly share a little information about what World Emblem does?

Randy Carr (22:34):

Yeah, sure. World level is the world’s largest emblem and badge label manufacturer. We started with three people, my dad, my brother and I in 1990. And we’ve since grown the business to close to 1200 people, a million square feet of manufacturing space. But what we do is quick turn, emblem badge and label manufacturing,

Scott Luton (22:53):

What a growth story and as we determine pre-show as well. Randy, big shout out to Jim Zel, who I’ve known for a long time. He’s part of your leadership team and he’s great people, isn’t he? Yeah,

Randy Carr (23:04):

He’s the best. He’s our COO. He’s my right-hand guy, and I don’t think we’d be anywhere close to where we are without him and frankly my entire leadership team. But he’s been instrumental in the success of the business over the last decade.

Scott Luton (23:16):

Love that. And Jim, we got to catch up. It’s been too long. And Billy man, I bet Randy’s going to be writing one of these soon with that kind of growth. Did you hear that?

Billy Ray Taylor (23:24):

Absolutely.

Randy Carr (23:25):

I’m waiting for it. I’m waiting. Waiting.

Scott Luton (23:29):

Randy, you’ve

Billy Ray Taylor (23:30):

Got a great story from 2014, right when you were facing critical issues that could have really closed the doors and you were resilient, you changed the landscape. I mean, you’ve got a great story. That would be great, a book.

Randy Carr (23:46):

Thank you very much. I’m happy to have one written about us if you’re offering.

Scott Luton (23:52):

Well, we’re going to see, I bet one’s coming because I agree. What a great story of success and growth and innovation and thinking differently and working with the team to make it happen. So I want to do this before we get more into nearshoring, Randy, a lot of folks may think they know the emblem and patch industry, but what’s one thing that might surprise some of our audience members out there?

Randy Carr (24:13):

I think just the size, the sheer size of it. I mean, everybody knows somebody that has an embroidery company or something like that. And what I tell people, what do you do for a living? I’m like textiles, this type of stuff. They’re like, oh, I know a guy that does that. But what we really do, I mean probably 3% of our business is embroidery garments. The majority of what we do, which is like the 95% is badges, patches, labels, emblems tags, and everywhere you look, our sort of BA is Jim Collins, BA is seer brands everywhere. And so we walk around and I’m in airports, I’m taking pictures of people hats. I’m in Disney World, I’m looking at our products. So it’s just the sheer size and complexity of it. I mean, again, you have the military to work wear to deep oil drillers to above and below the wing on airplanes, to gas stations to sports fashion. I mean you just see our products to the range of our products everywhere you look,

Scott Luton (25:11):

Man, and a hundred million products that you’re churning out a year. And Billy, did you hear him? He worked in one of our regular Jim Collins mentions there, the BHAG. So for folks out there that may not know, there’s a couple versions of this acronym, but big hairy, audacious goal is one of them. What’d you hear there, Billy?

Billy Ray Taylor (25:30):

Focus, right? He stretched the team, but not only did you stretch the team, you’re deliberately clear on how to get to that stretch. And so that’s what I took away from watching just you as a leader and as a company, that deliberate clarity on how to get there.

Scott Luton (25:44):

Yes, that’s a great call out. Clarity is such a, I’ll call it, you can’t overestimate the power of clarity to some ears. It may sound real cliche, but man, when you’re clear-minded and a team is clear-minded about what we’re trying to do, man, you can move zero to a million miles an hour, right? And move mountains. Billy, you’re shaking your head like you’re agreeing or I

Billy Ray Taylor (26:05):

Agree with you a hundred percent. One of my favorite quotes, leadership quotes was you can’t manage a secret. And so if you’re not deliberately clear, you’re not going to move the mountain.

Randy Carr (26:14):

We’re always talking about over communication. You just can’t over communicate.

Billy Ray Taylor (26:17):

That’s exactly right Randy. And that’s what you do. Well, I mean of all my study around you, you are very deliberate on not only what it is you want to achieve but how you’re going to achieve it. And so I want to hear a little from you about that because that’s important.

Scott Luton (26:30):

That’s right.

Randy Carr (26:31):

The only thing I would say to that, I don’t think it’s by accident and I don’t think it’s not perfectly clear at any point in time before we go into what we call ocean, which is our annual planning. It’s completely sort of papers all over the desk and it’s kind of messy and it only gets clarified with the power of our team locking ourselves in a room and deciding what we need to accomplish over the next five years and then three years and then one year and then breaking it down by quarters and weeks. So we’re never clear until we’re clear and once we’re clear then we’re very focused in moving in the right direction.

Scott Luton (27:03):

Love that. And by the way, think that’s Billy quote number four so far you can’t manage a secret and I’m glad that you and Randy are seeing from the same page, same hymnal with that leadership lesson. Alright, so let’s talk about Nearshoring. Get this Billy and Randy, this is probably intuitive for many of the folks that are watching listening to the show. We got the smartest audience in all of global supply chain, I can promise you. So according to an annual survey of supply chain leaders by McKinsey, the number of companies that nearshore parts of their operations tripled in 2023 when compared to 2022. So Randy, give us some background in terms of when and why you chose to go the nearshoring route.

Randy Carr (27:44):

I wish I could be as smart and say it was as relevant to what’s taken place over the last decade or the last five years. It really was less than that and more just a byproduct of us starting the business and not having any way to get envelopes manufactured. We have very few amount of machines, a very small factory, and we would get people from Taiwan sending us in the mail. It was kind of the very beginning of email, the internet. So we would get stuff in the mail. Package of envelopes

(28:12):

We’re like, we could make these envelopes in Taiwan. So we would send orders to Taiwan and it would take two weeks to get a sample back and then another four weeks to get the order. And that just wasn’t competitive. So we onshore, we didn’t even nearshore, we started onshore and that was probably in the late nineties, early two thousands. And then NAFTA was passed and when NAFTA was passed, we made the immediate push as the business began to grow, my father passed away in 2000. NAFTA was passed I think in, maybe it was during Clinton, so maybe oh three or oh four or something like that. And then 2005 I was fortunate enough to have a bad thing go good. And we started growing out of our facility in Miami, Florida, and I met a gentleman in Mexico City and hired him doing my managing director.

(28:54):

And I’m just so fortunate that he’s still with us today and 800 people later and 500,000 square feet. We have 4,200 embroidery heads and incredible facility at all. Los this Mexico. I just got back two days ago. People are the factory’s incredible. Again, I’m just fortunate that our situation worked out that way. It wasn’t that we were manufacturing in China and we brought it over to states. Ours was more just a byproduct over time. And just one more comment I would make about that is when I had our facility in Miami, we had probably 200 people at the time and everybody in Miami is like, oh my god, we’re closing. They’re going to move everything to Mexico. What ended up happening, it was Mexico grew and states grew together because we used a combination of onshoring and nearshoring to compliment each other. So it was never just the strategy shut down everything in the states and move it to Mexico or shut down to Mexico, move it. We just really didn’t do that. It was more about what do our clients need and how can we compliment it in the most cost effective way possible.

Scott Luton (29:49):

I love that a lot to unpack there. A couple of quick things though. You mentioned NAFTA and of course that was I think past the nineties as part of the Clinton administration. And then of course the US MCA, which kind of updated the unique trade relationship between Canada and the US and Mexico. That clearly is having a big impact, gives businesses lots of incentive. And also like Randy, you got onshoring. And again for a handful of folks out there that may not know the differences between these terms onshore and you bring the whole operation back to the home country nearshore, and you might bring it into a close country like in Mexico, there’s a lot of nearshore going on in central and South America right now, which is really cool to see. And then Billy and Randy, you got this notion of free shoring, which is more about moving your operations to friendly governments and other parts of the world. So you might have less regulatory issues amongst other things. And Randy as him and the team is pulling levers on all those things to accommodate the growth and success they’ve been finding. Billy, when you heard about the time ring and Randy’s wise and the impacts, what stood out to you, Billy?

Billy Ray Taylor (30:50):

Looking at your company as a whole, you really focused on fulfillment services as part of your overall strength. And it wasn’t just one thing, it was quick manufacturing and fast turnarounds. And so you build strategies around that exclusively and that became your strength.

Randy Carr (31:09):

It actually was a result of doing it. It wasn’t even part of the strategy,

(31:14):

It became the strategy after all of it was done. So it was more like, we got to make our own stuff, let’s do it in Mexico. And it was like we were so immature in our strategic thinking and how we were doing things. We were jumping to the next thing we needed to deal with. And then it really did harden the strategy of the business because we understood that we could manufacture stuff way faster, like light years faster than even the people domestically can do it. But certainly we went from competing on price to competing on speed. And that was the biggest aha moment for us probably, I don’t know, maybe seven or eight years ago where it was like somebody’s okay waiting a month to get their goods from China or whatever and we’ll do it in two days. That has huge inventory impacts for people that bring clothes over from, I mean if you’re importing hundreds of thousands of decorated garments from China and all of a sudden those garments themselves become outdated, you have to throw ’em all out,

Scott Luton (32:10):

Big risk.

Randy Carr (32:11):

And in our case, all you have do is replace an emblem from us in two days. So the financial impact that goes along with that was huge. And once we identified that, it changed our entire positioning of the whole business.

Scott Luton (32:22):

Love that, Billy, your response.

Billy Ray Taylor (32:24):

And I agree with you. I like the fact how you said that landed. It’s like the Reese’s Cup, right? It folded over. Now we’ve got this great product or great process and that’s when I look at it, I’m like, it’s your strength now though. It’s how you can produce those millions and millions of product. So you’ve mastered it and now it’s your competitive advantage.

Scott Luton (32:46):

Yes.

Randy Carr (32:47):

Always going to say we lean into it more and more is all. I was going to say,

Scott Luton (32:51):

Two quick observations. First off, thank you Billy for bringing Reese’s peanut butter cups into this equation and making me starving now. And then the second thing, it’s interesting Randy and Billy, but Randy, as you share your team’s thinking and history and story, how we can create superpowers, right? By really challenging how we have always done things or challenging how we’ve always thought about things or looked at the business, how we can create superpowers that then, to your point, Randy, become part of that new hardened strategy that then we can really commit to and no telling the places we can go. And that’s some of what I’m hearing from the world emblem story here today. Alright, Randy and Billy, Randy, you’ve already kind of shared some of this next question I’m going to ask you, but I bet there’s something that you haven’t shared. So when you think of numbers or outcomes or for folks out there that might be saying, well, so what, right? And there’s always a so what person in any room and it’s good, it’s good to have. So what people, right? It keeps us from making the wrong assumptions. So what’s been, if you look at in survey your story, especially as it relates to shifting your operations, especially as it relates to the nearshoring aspect of your story, what’s been the biggest impact or outcome for the world emblem team? Randy? Our

Randy Carr (34:04):

Competitive strategy, which is speed, straight up speed rather than the price

Scott Luton (34:08):

Competitive advantage,

Randy Carr (34:09):

It’s really allowed us to scale the business to the size we’ve never even dreamed. We have amazing, amazing people in every one of our facilities. And now also is incredible to me. Again, I said it earlier, but my brother, my dad and myself started the business in 1990 and I’ve come across thousands of people in my career now and just the staff that I’m blessed with in Mexico, in the states, in Europe and Canada, there’s the staff that I’m blessed with. I think the one thing again was clarifying the fact that we can be the fastest in the world at what we do. I mean we actually turn 50% of our products same to next day turned with everything’s custom. We have no inventory with one piece of minimums. So to be able to do that, it’s got to be a combination of amazing people and amazing processes coupled with amazing technology.

Scott Luton (34:56):

Oh, I love it, Randy. Alright, so Billy, a couple things there. Core speed at competitive advantage, one of the biggest impacts and outcomes from their experience and making these tough business decisions and nearshoring and leaning into the people factor. I heard there with Randy, I love that and all of that. They’re celebrating Billy 35 years in business this year. What started as a small family business, 35 years to be a smashing overnight success. And we congratulate you, Randy, and all the wonderful people that you’re mentioning. Billy, before we leave this story, we’re going to get some advice from Randy here in a second. But before we do, I really want to celebrate what Randy and the team have been able to accomplish and his focus on the people and furthering that competitive advantage and really answering the call of our time, which is our speed to market. Every customer is looking for that speed. Your thoughts, Billy,

Billy Ray Taylor (35:45):

As I’m listening to him and I’m thinking about how he did it, the so what, what he emphasized importance of spending time right with his team to instill confidence in the strategy, in the clear path to success. But more importantly, I think this is a quote by you. You believe in the necessity of profitability for both employment and purpose within the team. And I heard that it’s one of the things that I talk about even in the book, you make people visible, they’ll make you valuable. And so as I look as you were doing change, you did it with the team, not to the team. See that’s what I see in the whole description of how you became successful. You did it change with the team, not to the team. You were ahead of the curve when the mask came out. We talked about that. It wasn’t a strategy. A team member walked in, you pitched the idea, great idea. You were ahead of the curve. It impacted your bottom line, right? So that’s what I see Scott when I’m listening to him talk. These are good leadership traits.

Scott Luton (36:51):

Yeah, agreed. Especially that quote, it’s one of my favorite quotes, Billy, and we say this a lot around here, and Randy, this may resonate with you. Change is going to happen, right? Change happens in business is constant, right? It seems like it’s coming a lot faster these days back to the speed thing. But you lean into change with the team, right? They’re a critical part. They’re in the trenches with you. And typically when you involve folks like that, you can digest and overcome change a lot more effectively. Your final thought there, Randy, before I get your piece of advice for other business leaders out there,

Randy Carr (37:22):

We make decisions as a team. I’ll lean into the team, I’ll group together with the team to work with them on a decision, but ultimately I’ll own that decision when it comes to my desk down. We don’t minimize the level of communication that’s required in order to make sure that piece of our strategy at the top line is successful. We’ll continually beat that same drum over and over again.

Scott Luton (37:42):

Well congratulations. 35 years of an evolving living and breathing, growing and thriving business. I love your emphasis on the people. I love your propensity to make big decisions and changing how business is done and seeing where it’s taken. Did I hear you right Randy? 1200 team members now?

Randy Carr (38:01):

Yes, Scott. Yes sir.

Scott Luton (38:04):

Awesome.

Randy Carr (38:05):

I was telling somebody Saturday, they were asking me how many employees. I was like 1200. I was like, oh my god, wow. I’m like, honestly, I don’t know if that’s good or it’s bad. It’s just kind of worked out that way. But it’s a lot of people. It’s a lot more than I thought we’d ever have working here, I’ll tell you that.

Scott Luton (38:22):

Well, I bet it’s 1200 folks that have had a new exciting future and great jobs.

Randy Carr (38:27):

I’d like to think so.

Scott Luton (38:28):

Yeah, no doubt. Okay, so one of my final questions, I got two more for you Randy, before we call it a day. And then I want to make sure folks know how to connect with Billy too. So out of all of your experience there 35 years now, building World emblem and some of the anecdotes you shared here and plenty others we can’t get to here today. For business leaders out there that are currently navigating their own nearshoring initiatives, whether they’re already in it or they’re thinking about it, they’re planning, they’re seeing where it may fit in they’re new strategy, what’s one piece of advice for those business leaders out there? Randy,

Randy Carr (38:57):

When I think about why ours has been successful, it’s dumb luck, but ours was getting the right partner. It comes down to people that we knew. The gentleman that I was again blessed enough to meet in 2005, he and I picked a city, I was county this Mexico, and his decision making was on the money and it’s now been 20 years or 19 years. I don’t think if I hadn’t met him and maybe I met somebody else, it might not have gone that way. So I think for me it was getting the right partner and making sure that I trusted him implicitly. So I was just lucky and our strategy framed around that factory. So it’s a lot of luck, but it came down to having the right partner.

Scott Luton (39:35):

Well Randy, I appreciate that. I’m not going to let you couch it as dumb luck. I don’t believe that for a second. I really don’t. Randy and I bet Billy, my hunch, if we sat down and had a couple more hours with Randy, I bet how he vetted those partners and how he felt out that partner to make sure that there was good fit ability. I bet he’s really underplaying that Billy your thoughts.

Billy Ray Taylor (39:53):

A hundred percent. That’s why you see this big smile on my face. Notice I started with him being modest. He was probably lucky to meet that gentleman, but that’s not the root of his success. What I see when I hear him talk is he’s got these great leadership and business processes that drives consistency every day. And you know what the best leaders we talked about, the best coaches, Nick Saban, bill Belichick, they’re hard on the process So they can lead easy on the people. So they hold ’em to the standard, those processes. That’s why you have 1500 people. That’s why you consistently exceed expectations because you’re a great leader and based on the stories you talked about, you’re hard on your processes.

Randy Carr (40:38):

I’m hard on my people too, don’t get me wrong, but just the ones that report directly to me, it’s not easy. I don’t want to say it’s not easy around here. I mean we do follow lead principles of the Toyota production system. We put the lead methodology in about three years ago on our journey and that is all about the standard and developing the standard and managing to the standard. So what you say is true, but yeah, there is some luck though. But I keep showing up every day. That’s

Scott Luton (41:05):

Right. Well and when we keep showing up every day, it helps us create our own love that fuels any success in any organization. Right? And the last thing folks may be after the last few years, they may get tired of hearing about relationships and how relationships matter and how the pandemic really proved that time and time again. We heard it here and you’re going to hear it until the ends of time. It’s about those relationships we put in this partnerships between the people, between organizations, between supplier, customer, you name it. The ecosystem that we built, right? And part of that standard, Billy, you and Randy are talking to is also the values that we expect and demand that make up that ecosystem. And that’s one of the ways big things happen. So Randy, I wish we had a couple more hours with you and Billy for that matter, but lemme do this Randy, I want to make sure folks know how to connect with you and the world emblem team that’s on the move. Whether they may be a potential customer supplier, maybe they’re interested in joining this organization on the move. How can folks connect with you? Randy?

Randy Carr (42:04):

I think Amanda has my LinkedIn. If she talk chat it be great. I actually don’t know. I don’t know my own LinkedIn handle. I think I can go get it if it’s called a handle. It’s called

Scott Luton (42:16):

We got We got you Randy. Thank you. So folks, you’re one click away right here from connecting with Randy and learning a lot more about his story and of course the world emblem story. But Randy, man, what a great, great interview here today. Really appreciate you taking time out of your busy Monday. I love it to share your perspective.

Randy Carr (42:37):

It couldn’t be more fun to be talking to you gentlemen, so thank you so much for having

Scott Luton (42:42):

You bet. One more thing before we let you go. Make sure folks you can learn more also@worldemblem.com. You can check out as Randy mentioned, some of the products, some other cool things they’ve got going on over there. So big thanks Randy. Once again. Randy Carr, president, CEO of world emblem. Thanks so much for joining us and congrats on 35 years.

Randy Carr (43:01):

Thank you.

Billy Ray Taylor (43:02):

You bet. Congratulations.

Randy Carr (43:03):

Thanks fellas.

Scott Luton (43:04):

Billy, you called it. He’s very humble, right? Yeah, we had a real frank, neat and short discussion and the stories they’ve got, he is going to have to write him a book just like you did.

Billy Ray Taylor (43:14):

Absolutely.

Scott Luton (43:15):

But speaking of folks benefiting, I want to make sure folks know how to connect with you. You’re on the road between keynotes and some of the consulting work you do. And Billy, you’re rolling out new technologies, man. Yes. Tell us a little bit about that and how can folks connect with you

Billy Ray Taylor (43:30):

So you can connect with me. First of all on LinkedIn, I enter all of my emails or messages. So that’s what I do at night. So if you reach out to me, please follow and let’s connect, let’s be friends. And I love interacting with people out in the industry. Definitely. And far as the company Linked xl, we are an operating system architect firm. So what we do is go out and work with companies on building operating systems to fit your culture. And it’s kind of like we stumbled into this software for connected business model. So people would develop strategy but they couldn’t deploy it. They struggled to deploying it and connected it. So we built a software called Connected Business Model. And we’ve seen industries right now, actually our two beta tests that we did, it went from negative 4% raw to a 14%. Really? Yes. So we’re in four companies now and it is simple. It’s like your GPS to why you’re not winning.

Scott Luton (44:29):

So

Billy Ray Taylor (44:29):

It’s called Connected Model. Go ahead and take a look. It’s game changing. Awesome. It’s next generational lean, that’s what we call it.

Scott Luton (44:38):

Oh, I love it. Next generation Lean. Love that. Alright, well I’m looking forward to getting my own demo soon. We’re going to be reconnecting later this week perhaps. Yes. And I can’t wait for the next edition. You’re going to challenge me to learn new languages, which I’m overdue anyway. I wish I stuck it out with my Spanish training back in the day. But Billy, always a pleasure, great to have you back, really enjoy your insights on leadership and organizational success. And of course your thoughts here as we featured Randy Carr and the world emblem story here today.

Billy Ray Taylor (45:12):

Great show, Scott, definitely credibility, integrity, you have a wonderful show. And first lemme start by endorsing the show. Oh man, it is just a great platform. I don’t do things just to do it. So when I pick up a form called from you, the host, this is a great show, a great platform, and you go out and find credible guests. And so like today, Randy’s story was amazing. I’d researched his whole story and I thought, wow, how did he find him? Or did he find Scott? Either are it’s still a great, great guest and for the audience you are outstanding the way you interact. So my closing statements again was, wow, I’m impressed by the product and the process for which you operate. And so thank you for having me.

Scott Luton (45:56):

You bet, Billy. Hey, best is standard, right? I think we were talking about that and Appreci show and what a great show here today. And I completely agree, especially on the audience side. We got the best audience in the business today, and what a great way to marry up the news and other resources with a practitioner and a leader that is on the move and is offering insights into actionable takeaways and how you can apply them in your own journey. I mean, that made my day here today so big. Thanks again to Billy Ray Taylor, look forward to reconnecting soon. We dropped your links there in the chat. Billy, thanks so much for being here.

Billy Ray Taylor (46:32):

Thank you for having me. Hey Randy, great having him. Great show.

Scott Luton (46:36):

Awesome. And folks, here’s where the rubber hits the road, right? We’re challenging you to take one thing that ly or Randy shared here today, but take one thing, put it into action. Deeds, not word. That’s what it’s all about. Your team will be grateful you did. And on that note, Scott Luton challenging you to do good, give forward and to be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see you next time. Right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (47:02):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain now, community. Check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain now, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain. Now.