Scott Luton (00:02):

Welcome to Supply Chain Now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights, and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be. Scott Lewton and the one and only Kim Royer with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today’s livestream. Kim, how you doing today?

Kim Reuter (00:25):

I’m doing okay. We’ve got a storm of all storms going through here today, so hopefully we don’t have any issues with our reporting, so bear with me.

Scott Luton (00:33):

Well, hopefully we were talking about the weather earlier and we both have been experiencing a bit of a drought. We’ve got a little bit of rain here lately. I hope you get the nice big safe rain. How about that, Kim?

Kim Reuter (00:44):

Yes, we need it desperately.

Scott Luton (00:45):

Okay. Well, we’ll see what materializes. But folks, today it is the buzz where every Monday at 12 in the Eastern Time we discuss a variety of news developments across global supply chain and business news that matters is what we like to call it. And folks, the buzz is brought to you empowered by our friends at Zebra Technologies all month long in July. Zebra is the world’s foundation for intelligent operations with hardware, software, automation solutions and services that empower your frontline. To learn more, visit zebra.com. Okay, so Kim, today… Well, actually one more note folks, one more note. You know we like to keep it real. So to that end, the buzz today is indeed pre-recorded because I hope, Kim, at this very moment on July 6th, I hope I’m on the beach enjoying some time with my family. I hope

Kim Reuter (01:36):

You are too. Is that fair,

Scott Luton (01:36):

Kim?

Kim Reuter (01:37):

It does. It does. So I won’t pretend to talk about all the hot dogs I ate or any of all the hamburgers. So it’s pre-recorded. We haven’t done that yet.

Scott Luton (01:45):

Right. But we will be back live with you next week, so look forward to that. All right, so lots of stuff to talk about here today. We’re going to be talking about the July 4th supply chain facts and figures. We’re going to be getting a supply chain leadership pulse check first time in a while. We’re going to check in on the GLP-1 boom and the impact it’s having on healthcare logistics. Plus we’re going to see if Kim’s crystal ball is working as we get a prediction for the second half of the year. It’s hard to believe we are already in the second half of the year. And in about 15 minutes or so, we’re bringing back a special guest, Todd Hamas with Amazon Business Worldwide is back with us. You’re going to enjoy his perspective on a variety of topics. So Kim, big show here today.

(02:30):

Are you ready to go?

Kim Reuter (02:31):

I am. Let’s do it. All

Scott Luton (02:33):

Right. So folks, buckle up for a big edition of The Buzz powered by our friends at Zebra Technologies. So we’re going to tackle, I think, three things before we welcome in a terrific guest. And I want to start with, hey, here on July 6th, we’ve just celebrated, Kim, I’m going fast-forward. We just celebrated the United States of America’s 250th birthday over the weekend. Now that might be young and it is young in some circles of the world, but Kim, it feels like 1500 years, right? So I want to take a look at some of the supply chain numbers behind the things that fueled cookouts everywhere. Kim, will that work for you?

Kim Reuter (03:16):

Let’s do it because you know I’m all about fireworks and I hope we’re going to talk about those.

Scott Luton (03:19):

Well, Kim, that’s where we’re going to lead off with, right? We’re going to lead off with fireworks because probably every kid out there, a lot of them had the sparkler experience. I certainly had bottle rocket wars, the family pack of fireworks you stick in your backyard growing up as a kid. Now of course we got drone displays and presentations, which is amazing, but let’s stick with the traditional. Fireworks are said to have originated in China way back in 200 BC. And still today, over 90% of all fireworks in the US originate in China. But we’ve got some bad news there because according to the AP, sadly, there was a deadly fireworks factory explosion in China’s QAnon province that killed 37 people just last month. Prayers to all the families involved, investigation into that tragedy continues here today. But on a much, much lighter note, Kim, the fireworks industry in the US, get this, it expects to hit $3 billion in sales this year, in part buoyed by an increase in prices as Yahoo News reports here from our friends in Missouri.

(04:29):

I think that is a fireworks industry professional that’s been in the business for decades, Kim. He said it’s like the highest price increase he’s seen in forever. But two things before I get Kim’s take care, two things that you may not know about fireworks. Number one, they’re highly sensitive to their surrounding environment and most require temperature controlled storage. You got to keep your powder dry amongst other things. And two, I didn’t know this makes sense now. The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, AKA the ATF, it heavily regulates the industry. So folks, you better get those bottle rocket wars sanctioned and approved in advance. But Kim, fireworks, clearly you’re a big fireworks fan as well as I am. So they factor into your July 4th, my friend.

Kim Reuter (05:18):

Yes, they’ve already factored in before and after and present. Fireworks are a big part of my 4th of July, but it is estimated this year that we are going to import or have imported over 300 million pounds of fireworks for this 4th of July celebration. That is more than previous years because of course we have a very big celebration going on, but it is absolutely not the biggest year for fireworks. 2022 was the biggest year that we’ve imported at over 420 million pounds of fireworks. So a little bit lower, obviously due to cost. I think that’s driving down a lot of the imports. That’s what people are saying. And the other thing I want to point out, as you manage ATF, for all of those out there, you may not know this, but fireworks are actually a class one explosive. They are hazmat and they actually require very specific when you’re loading a container, to your point, Scott, for importance of the United States, because most of them are coming from China.

(06:14):

There are very specific guidelines for packing the container. There can be no sharp metals, contact with the side of the container, et cetera, et cetera. All to keep that completely stable as you move that 20-foot of class one explosives across the country.

Scott Luton (06:32):

Kim, exit points. I mean, it’s not dynamite, but folks – The

Kim Reuter (06:36):

Damn close.

Scott Luton (06:37):

That’s right. When you’ve got a bunch of class one explosives, to Kim’s point, all in a container or several containers, man, you want to take extra, extra care. So that’s just something I think, and I’ll point to myself, lost in. I never really stopped to think. Okay, this is all fun and games and tradition, all that stuff. But man, all the folks involved to get them safely out, I mean, it’s something else. All right, one last thing before we talk about watermelons here on the buzz. Folks, hopefully there’s no young folks tuned in because I’m telling you, I mentioned Bottle Rocket War several times. If you get a good PVC pipe kit and you get a good reliable lighter and a bunch of friends in a safe location and I wear, I could go on. It is so fun, Kim. Some of my favorite fireworks memories.

Kim Reuter (07:27):

We used to do it with coke bottles. So remember when the coke bottles used to be really thick?

Scott Luton (07:31):

Yes.

Kim Reuter (07:32):

We used to save the thick coke bottles. I don’t know where we got them from, but we had them. And that’s what we use as our launcher for the rocket for the fireworks. Yeah, that was great war. We loved it. There were some rules. Y couldn’t be too close to each other so you didn’t actually hurt each other and you couldn’t aim for the face. So other than that, it was game on.

Scott Luton (07:50):

Folks, young folks out there, young professionals, don’t take what we’re saying and take an action. Good memories, good memories. All right, so Kim, let’s talk about as we shift from fireworks, which is a mainstay, of course, of July 4th. And look, celebrations around the world. I can’t think of a happy July 4th without watermelon. So here in the US, get this, got a little visual here from our friends at USDA. The latest data I could find is 2024. So take that for what it’s worth. But according to that data from the USDA, Florida grows about 24% of all the watermelons grown here in the US, followed by Georgia at 18% and then California with 15%. I though Texas would be in the top three, but hey, from a supply chain management standpoint, watermelons can be quite a challenge. Number one, they’re incredibly sensitive to weather.

(08:47):

All crops are not, but watermelons are a warm weather, accelerates growth. Cold weather of course does the opposite. And with weather, you never know what you’re going to get. They’re highly perishable with an extremely short shelf life. Of course, they require cold chain. Margins are also tight. They’re bulky to store and to keep and all that and more. So folks, if you’re out there making money selling watermelons, good on you. Kim,

Kim Reuter (09:14):

Tell us

Scott Luton (09:14):

About your thoughts when it comes to watermelons.

Kim Reuter (09:17):

Very expensive to ship. And the other thing is they’re very fragile. You can’t drop them. So it’s a very difficult thing to ship. And anytime we’re dealing with agriculture, I live in an ag area now and you are weather dependent 100%. And that means when the crops are dry, they’re ready for picking, the weather is right. If that’s on Wednesday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Sunday afternoon, you got to be there. End of story.

Scott Luton (09:46):

Well, and going back to where you started, you can drop it, but you then got to eat it. You then got to eat it.

Kim Reuter (09:52):

On. Yeah, you can’t repair it.

Scott Luton (09:55):

You can’t repair it. Although I’ve seen folks try with duct tape, but that’s a different story. All right, so Kim, one more thing I want to check in in this opener as it relates to July 4th themes. Let’s check in on some of the pricing for some of the foods we put on the grill. I’m going to start with hotdogs. So the good news there is hotdogs this year from a pricing standpoint, well, they’re going to cost you about the same as last year, but condiments, they’re surging. Y’all might have noticed that I’m walking through the store, relishes, even pickles, ketchup. What in the world? But Kim, you know what? It gets worse because there’s not a whole bunch of good news for your burgers. Get this, the price of a pound of ground beef is up almost 13% from a year ago. And as Fortune reports here, some say prices won’t be coming down until 2028.

(10:45):

Why? Well, put simply herd counts have been reduced due to fertilizer and fuel being more expensive as well as continued hot and dry conditions. You have those supply side issues. But on the demand side, the protein rage continues and part of that, the demand for red meat in the US also continues to remain high. So Kim, what went on your grill for the July 4th celebration?

Kim Reuter (11:13):

I love a good hamburger. Fortunately, we have access to some local beef that’s locally raised. We’ve been able to tap into a lot of that local market here. But the prices, as you said, in the grocery store have gotten out of control. I went to go buy a mayo the other day and it was $6 for mayonnaise. I actually had go, I came home and checked the price just to make sure I didn’t get scammed at the grocery store. I could not believe in a man glove. So I don’t think beef prices are coming down. For years we lived under the red meat’s going to kill you. Do you remember this? Yes. We’re old enough to remember, don’t eat beef, that’s going to make your heart stop. Well, we’ve swung and we’re on the other end of this now and we are loving the red meat and we’re loving charred red meat.

(11:55):

So demand is up, supply’s down.

Scott Luton (11:58):

That’s right. And a couple weeks ago, a month or so ago, we reported on the screwworm folks, which had been eradicated, but it’s back. And one of the things there, and folks that tuned into that episode might recall this, but Kim, one thing I found interesting there, and we could talk for a couple hours about the screwworm, but the workforce challenges. One of the ways they eradicated a screwworm is really with a lot of manual components of the workforce getting out and helping to deploy corrective measures and whatnot. And of course, these days there’s not nearly as big of a manual workforce in ranching and that is one of the challenges they have. So it’s really fascinating. That and many other things have led to, I think you and I both mentioned herd counts. They’re not just down over the last decade or two. I’ve been told they’re like 90, 100-year lows when it comes to herd counts.

(12:52):

So Kim, we got our work cut out and rebuilding those, huh?

Kim Reuter (12:56):

We do. Another big thing that happened, there was a lot of impact that happened in COVID. Ranching land was purchased up during COVID when people were getting out of big cities and started to put borders around lands that had been raised in ranch for centuries and have now either fallen out of families or fallen into land disputes. And that has really impacted the free grazing cattle industry. Man,

Scott Luton (13:19):

I’ll tell you what. So folks, stay tuned. And hey, we’d love to know, I know there’s so much more to July 4th celebrations everywhere. We’d love to get your thoughts, whether they’re supply chain related or not. We’d love to learn more. So Kim, before we bring on our great guest here today, we haven’t conducted a formal official supply chain leadership pulse check in a couple months. And I know that you talk and advise and help all kinds of supply chain leaders all the time around the globe. And I’d love to know as you’re having those conversations here lately and we’re here smack dab in the middle of the year just about, which is hard to believe, what’s a priority or two for a lot of supply chain leaders out there, Kim?

Kim Reuter (14:03):

So right now, if you’re a supply chain leader, you need to be conducting your mid-year check-in. You should really have a quarterly check-in, but if you don’t, you definitely need a mid-year check-in. And what that is is really you need to look at your projections versus your actuals. How are you actually running? How are your costs running? How are the number of containers you’re importing or exporting or your outbound packages? Basically, how are you performing to how you thought you were going to perform? And out of that needs to come some action items. Do we need to renew visit contracts? Do we need to talk to our carriers? Are we over or under allocated? What needs to happen to make sure that the second half of the year has been hopefully as successful as the first half of the year? The second thing you need to be doing right now is your holiday planning.

(14:49):

I know. I know you just got off the beach. Holiday plan, baby. Santa is coming. He comes every year. And what does that mean if you are on supply chain? I’m going to tell you something most of you don’t do. Go talk to marketing. I know you don’t want to do it. You got to go talk to marketing and merch planning because you need to know what they’re thinking. They’re setting up their plans right now. They’re putting it. They haven’t already put in their buys. They already have. In order for you to be prepared and have a smooth holiday, you need to go plug in with marketing and merch planning right now.

Scott Luton (15:22):

Okay, that has been there, done that advice from the one-on-one Kim order. If we’re going to go a few months without a pulse check, we need to make that first one coming back to be a powerful take your medicine, do this, and Kim, you delivered. So folks, lean into the pain now. Although I got a soft place in my heart for all those marketing folks out there. It’s not that bad, folks. Take your medicine, go get aligned on plans. It’ll make the rest of the year and into the new year.

Kim Reuter (15:48):

So much better. Your customer will be happier. Your cost, believe it or not, your costs will be lower because you’re not going to make a lot of mistakes and you’re going to predict and you’re going to know when stuff is going to happen and you can plan for it. It is the bigest mistake I see companies make.

Scott Luton (16:04):

And you’ve been around the block a time or two. A common mistake. All right, so folks, there’s your supply chain leadership pulse check. And next up, Ken and I are really both delighted to feature a great guest joining us here today on The Buzz. So I first met Todd Hamas at Amazon Business Reshape in Seattle last year where I enjoyed his keynote as well as a sidebar one-on-one interview that touched on all sorts of topics. Now I also enjoyed while I was there in Kim’s former stomping grounds there in Seattle, I also enjoyed interviewing a variety of business leaders in attendance at Reshape where I left with lots of eureka moments. So I’m delighted to welcome Todd back here with us this time on the buzz as we share a brief conversation I enjoyed with Todd a few weeks ago. So I sat down with Todd a few weeks ago.

(16:51):

He’s been with Amazon over 26 years and he’s seen it all over that time. Maybe the book’s coming soon. I don’t know. I think you’ll enjoy his perspective. Please join me in welcoming Todd Hamas, Vice President and General Manager with Amazon Business Worldwide. Hey Todd, great to have you back here on supply chain now. How you doing?

Todd Heimes (17:09):

Great, Scott. Thanks for having me. Good to be back.

Scott Luton (17:12):

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed our time together back at Amazon Business Reshape 2025. That was last November, which might as well be like 27 years ago. Does it feel like that to you?

Todd Heimes (17:24):

Yeah, it does. And as we were talking before the show here, just opened our registration for Reshape 2026 in October in Nashville. So I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

Scott Luton (17:37):

Outstanding, Todd, we’re going to make that happen to folks. Amazon Business Reshape better be on your radar in Nashville this year. So we’ll touch on more maybe later in this session. But hey, Todd, since we last spoke 27 years ago, supply chain and procurement leaders have continued to balance quite a few things, persistent global volatility. Let’s see here. Tariff and trade anybody? Is that a bit of a challenge? Of course, it’s been lots of uncertainty there. Pressure to reduce costs while improving service, rising expectations from our dear customers around speed and visibility and of course a continued and rapid emergence of AI-driven operations. So all that begs all that many, many other things. It begs a question where I want to start with you here today, Todd, is what’s your take on today’s supply chain environment?

Todd Heimes (18:26):

Yeah, you’re right, Scott. You listed a lot of things there and really all of those different components are impacting our customers every day. And I’ll tell you, what I think has changed is that speed and visibility, they’re not really operational goals anymore. They’re really existential. They’re survival requirements at this point. Organizations, if they can’t see their full spend in real time, they really can only react to these disruptions rather than anticipate them. This complexity, this macroeconomic complexity, it’s challenging and it’s continue to raise expectations and it’s kind of all hitting at once. And we now expect our leaders to be able to solve these multiple problems simultaneously. And as you mentioned, AI is emerging as a real force multiplier. It’s helping teams make faster, more data-driven decisions really in the middle of all of this volatility. Yeah,

Scott Luton (19:25):

Todd, right out of the gate, you’ve shared plenty of things. We could have a whole podcast series out of your response. But one big thing that I think you nailed right on the head is the risk of staying in reactive mode is massive. We got to your point. We got to get out of the head. And fortunately, between technology and how the procurement and supply chain has evolved, we’ve got a terrific opportunity to do just that and be much, much more proactive. So sticking with procurement supply chains, from your vantage point at Amazon Business, what are some of the biggest shifts reshaping those specific sectors or industries in their operations right now, Todd?

Todd Heimes (20:04):

Yeah, Scott, you mentioned it. I think the biggest shift that we’re seeing is this movement where procurement is moving from reactive to proactive. For years, teams really managed their different spend profiles after the fact. And now the expectation is that they have visibility with data and that they can really take real-time changes, make real-time actions. Organizations that can see their full spend picture as it happens, they’re the ones that are able to anticipate these disruptions that we mentioned just a few minutes ago instead of scrambling after the fact to respond. And I see it every day from our customers. The ones that are pulling ahead, they’re not just buying the new tools and the better tools, but they’re also fundamentally changing the way they operate and they’re moving from really backwards looking to a forward-looking

Scott Luton (21:04):

Operation.One of the recurring themes, especially this year is something you’re touching on there. Folks are reinventing their supply chain operating models or their business operating models, not because they want to and they want one more project, but out of necessity. And that’s kind of what you’re speaking to, at least in my ears. So let me ask you this as organizations try to continue to move faster and faster in this ever faster business environment where the velocity of business is just leaping ahead, it seems like every hour. We try to move faster, but we also try to stay resilient and successful. Where are you seeing some of the biggest friction points in how leaders are trying to strike that balance?

Todd Heimes (21:44):

Yeah, friction is key. There’s friction really everywhere throughout the business operations and it often doesn’t really show up immediately in the balance sheet, but eventually all of this friction does cause delays and eventually it does impact the bottom line. Most often I think what we see is that manual processes are really where there’s a ton of friction. Whether or not that’s chasing duplicate orders, maybe chasing invoices, manual approvals, all of these things are really friction points. And one of the next emerging trends that we see is also the scene between where the different automation tools that our customers use. The scene between those is often a friction point. Trying to figure out how to integrate the new tools and the new systems that you purchase as a procurement team is really critical. And then finally, one of the friction points that we see a lot of, and it’s really not a technical hurdle, it’s really skepticism around these new systems.

(22:54):

Change, I think we all know change is hard and that sort of skepticism and unwillingness to change, that’s something that we see often and that’s a big friction point.

Scott Luton (23:04):

Yeah, I’m with you. The many things you shared there, two things stick out in terms of themes we talk about and our SE and global fan knows this. Keep me honest out there, but manual everything. We have this tremendous opportunity here in the golden age of supply chain tech to really get rid of all that manual friction you are talking about and freeing up our team members to spend their time in all sorts of new exciting ways. And then secondly, that skepticism when it comes to new anything is in our bones as humans. However, oftentimes what I’ve seen is that skepticism bleeds over to lack of adoption. And then when we have lack of adoption like we have oftentimes we have not nearly the ROI we want to get on technical platforms or innovations or new tech, you name it.

Todd Heimes (23:50):

Do

Scott Luton (23:50):

You see the same thing, Todd?

Todd Heimes (23:51):

Yeah. If we talk to procurement teams, customers of ours really of all sizes in all industries, and we really encourage procurement teams to lean in and let go of that skepticism when they can embrace new technology, make changes to their proceses, they can reduce cost and really start to have an impact on their organization in a positive way. And that really lets procurement have a seat at the big table and that can be impactful.

Scott Luton (24:22):

We need to make sure that happens. Procurement, supply chain, these leaders need to have, and oftentimes they are having a seat finally at the big table as you said. Okay. And of course, folks, we’re not talking about healthy skepticism. That’s important. We’re talking about how leaders as they manage change and plan for change, overcoming that healthy and non-healthy skepticism and why we’re doing this is a really important part of that approach. Okay, so all to this end a bit, Amazon Business, Todd, has recently announced a special Amazon Quick benefit for prime business members. So if you could, a few folks out there that are new to Amazon Quick, tell us more about that and perhaps more importantly, what it means for business buying.

Todd Heimes (25:09):

Yeah, this is super exciting. Amazon Quick is an AI teammate. It can really help change the way you work. It learns what matters to you and to your team and sort of grounds everything you do in real business data. And it goes beyond answers really. So Amazon Quick can help with scheduling, can help with building deliverables, creating dashboards, and really acting on your behalf. Now what makes Quick different is that it’s proactive and it works for you. It connects to apps and data sources that your team already uses, and it can also take action and give you the green light so that your team isn’t spending its time writing AI prompts. So for business buying specifically, it means teams can conduct deep research across the internet and through internal files and can create documents and proposals and spreadsheets and really can automate a lot of the manual processes that your teams are doing today.

Scott Luton (26:19):

Todd, I love it. Two things that come to mind hearing you kind of unpack that a bit. Number one, let’s automate almost any repetitive task that we can. Who likes filling out the same form a hundred times a day manually? No one, right? And then secondly, where you started that response, dealing with real business data, dealing with reality. Todd, it’s kind of helpful if we stay in a no fluff zone and we don’t plan our business around unicorns and candy and how things should be, Todd. We got to keep it real, huh?

Todd Heimes (26:52):

That’s right. That’s right.

Scott Luton (26:54):

All right, so what customer problems? So when you and the Amazon Business Leadership Team came together and thought about those customer problems that y’all are specifically trying to solve with Amazon Quick, which of course is a special offering for Prime business members, what comes to mind, Todd? What were y’all targeting?

Todd Heimes (27:11):

Well, the first thing I think to know is that in Amazon Business, we use Quick ourselves. We built it and tested it on our own problems first. And a lot of those problems are very complex. We have a lot of programmatic challenges that we deal with every day and we want our customers really to benefit from that same automation that we experience here in Amazon Business. As I mentioned, Quick works across a broad spectrum of tools, consolidating information and tracking what matters. And it helps teams formulate faster, sharper responses. And you’re right, you mentioned that there’s a special deal for Prime Business members and that’s a 20% discount on every seat up to 300. So we’re trying to make it super easy for teams to connect and for team of every size that can use this AI tool to leverage how they work. Quick is grounded, as you mentioned, as I said earlier, in real business data.

(28:17):

And it works across all the different files and apps that you use, Outlook, Slack, Excel. I mean, we’re doing it ourselves here. I just was witnessing or sat in on kind of a science fair that we have here

(28:32):

Yesterday. And people were demoing how non-developers vibe coding in quick new tools that really help us grab data, do research and work across a bunch of different apps. It’s really powerful.

Scott Luton (28:48):

So Todd, that sounds like a much higher falutin science fair than my hurricanes or volcanoes back in middle school. Fascinating stuff. I want to pull out one of the things we’ve touched on in our chat so far that we all know we probably feel the pressure on, teams are being asked to do more and more and more with fewer resources while of course supporting more operations that got to be, let’s face it, they got to be more dynamic. This certainly applies maybe at the top of the list to supply chain and procurement professionals. So I want to ask you, how can those folks out there that we cater to, we serve, and we empower those hardworking supply chain and procurement professionals, how can they practically leverage Amazon Quick in their day-to-day operations?

Todd Heimes (29:34):

Yeah, it’s a great question. Amazon Quick, it’s already helping customers. We’ve had customers for a while, early users working with Quick, including some companies like AstraZeneca, BMW Group and 3M. They’ve all put Quick to work automating, streamlining their data management and really making research easier Some of the examples that I hear about are, let’s say you’re a large company with many suppliers. Years ago you’d have to have somebody go and research each one of those suppliers. That takes a lot of work going to different websites, maybe even printing reports and reading them. Well, now Quick can go out and do that research for you and really streamline that process. So we’re hearing that from customers. It’s very exciting. Users can also establish roles within Quick that really helps learn how your organization operates and then synthesize different decision that you’re trying to make. So maybe that’s pricing, maybe it’s supplier choices, maybe it’s marketing reports and data analytics.

(30:48):

All this can really be streamlined now with Quick. So I think to your question, professionals in supply chain and procurement, I think they can really embrace some of these opportunities that we’re seeing with AI and with Quick, and it’s going to be powerful.

Scott Luton (31:02):

All right. So you shared some examples and you shared some early movers and folks, big companies, successful companies leveraging Amazon Quick. Putting a sharper point on the pencil. Did I use that phrase right? I think I did. Where do you see the strongest? Thank you. Thank you, Todd. You’re reading my mind here. Where do you see the strongest use cases today?

Todd Heimes (31:23):

Well, one of the things that I am most excited about is that this is really helping small teams have enterprise level capacity. When a small but growing procurement team can use a tool like Quick to run deep research and generate comparisons across different suppliers, I mean, they’re really now able to compete at the same level that an enterprise level procurement team or supply chain team is able to operate at. So you really see smaller organizations being able to operate like a larger organization. It’s very exciting. Document creation is maybe a sleeper hit. I mean teams, and I see this every day here in Amazon Business, but teams are able to really fast track the writing of documents or proposals or narratives and then the RFP process then can just move that much quicker. So there’s a lot of excitement, small and large organizations.

Scott Luton (32:25):

Latan, you called that a sleeper hit. I got that right, Todd.

Todd Heimes (32:28):

That’s right.

Scott Luton (32:29):

I like it. I like it because you know what? When I was in manufacturing space trying to seek out new suppliers, I know I didn’t like creating all those documents from the RFPs to laying out the information as we make choices. I mean, that is a ton of work. So that might move up the charts from sleeper hit to a recurring top 10 hit. We’ll see

Todd Heimes (32:49):

Tom. Might be. You’re right though. You mentioned earlier there’s a lot of the manual work that all of us do in our jobs and especially in supply chain and procurement team, automating that and not having to repeat those manual tasks. I think we’re all going to love that. We can spend our time on more strategic activities, which is what we really want to do.

Scott Luton (33:07):

That’s right. Talking with the suppliers, right? Ideating with the suppliers, strengthening the ecosystem. So this might be the most obvious statement I’m going to make, but I can’t help it. I feel it. Global business is entering a very different era. It is really amazing whether you study leadership or study innovation or study technology or study how global supply chain’s evolving an incredibly exciting new chapter. But core to that, that’s a book, one of the strongest chapters is going to be automation in the AI and how they’re fundamentally changing workflows, outcomes, just about everything. Really it’s incredible. So how do you see AI moving back out to the broader picture when it comes to AI? How do you see AI in particular reshaping procurement over the next four to five years? Three to four years.

Todd Heimes (33:55):

Yeah, I think we’ve been talking a bit about how we’re going to be moving towards a model where AI handles routine, repeatable tasks and our supply chain and procurement teams really start refocusing on strategy and what matters most. And that’s those connections that you mentioned with suppliers. That’s connections with our internal teams because there’s a lot of internal teams that we need to get buy-in from as a supply chain or a procurement team. So letting Sky handle some of those more manual steps in between and the procurement and supply chain teams really focusing on strategy. I see that as really major trend in the industry. But this adoption, it really requires trust and that trust takes time. So I think organizations that we talk to, our customers, really we want to see them start building that muscle now because there’s this massive advantage that this technology is going to bring to bear and we really need to get started today.

Scott Luton (35:03):

That is right. As I like to say a lot oftentimes, Todd, the risk and the costs of choosing to be a laggard in this industry and clinging to how business has always been done, those risks and costs keep going up by the day.

Todd Heimes (35:17):

You don’t want to five years from now wish that you would’ve gotten on the automation train. That’s not going to be good.

Scott Luton (35:23):

But on a lighter note, I asked you a very unfair question. What do you see over the next three, four, five years? I don’t know about you, Todd. I’m not sure what’s going to happen over the next three to four or five hours. My crystal ball’s been broken for quite some time, but I think yours is working pretty good. All right. Come down to homestretch here in our chat. Todd, I want to ask you, many leaders listening are watching us. They’re trying their hardest to modernize supply chain and procurement and the operations and the outcomes and to help their teams find more success all while managing non-stop disruption. It comes with territory to be fair. We just had extra doses it seems like recent years.

Kim Reuter (36:01):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (36:02):

We could talk about this next question for a couple hours, I know, but if you had to offer up one practical step that supply chain leaders should take right now to build more agile procurement operations, what would you suggest to folks out there?

Todd Heimes (36:15):

Well, I think I would suggest a couple of things. First of all, I think you should try to get visibility into your full spend. I think you really can’t optimize what you can’t see. So that would be my first thing. The second thing is I would try to start small with AI, pick one high friction point and see if we can automate that. Like I mentioned earlier, here at Amazon Business, we’re using Quick to try to automate a bunch of different things. And I would encourage your listeners to do that as well, pick one thing and try to automate it. And then the next thing is let’s really focus on this trust and overcoming the skepticism and really thinking about how we can encourage our teams to focus on the benefits of these new tools and take that leap and build that resilience. And I think we’re going to see real positive change in the future.

Scott Luton (37:13):

Yeah, you hit that trust is everything. And when we’re trying to drive change as leaders, if we’re not ensuring that we’re protecting and growing that trust, not just with our team members, but our suppliers, the whole ecosystem, I think that’s where really good change overcomes that skepticism that we’ve referenced a couple times and really optimizes adoption and the outcomes, that’s where it starts. So good stuff there, Todd. One more thing you mentioned, organizations out there on whatever maturity curve you want to look at, AI, how they do business, digital transformation, whatever. You got different organizations at different points, but I like your practical no-nonsense advice. Pick one opportunity. Target one opportunity, start there. But the important thing is just to start, right, Todd? You were talking about that earlier. Don’t wait. Don’t wait because the costs go up.

Todd Heimes (38:02):

Yeah, just get started. And I think we all have, as we’ve talked about here, manual processes in our organizations and trying to streamline or automate one of those. I think that’s a proof point that really starts to get you excited about the new technology that we have, the new tools.

Scott Luton (38:18):

Agreed. And at the same time too, you got hardworking team members out there that want to have easier days to find more success. And I think leaning into a lot of things you’ve shared here today is a great way to do just that. So Todd, I want to make sure folks can easily learn more about Amazon Quick, take advantage of the offer you mentioned earlier. What’s the easiest way? Wht would you point people?

Todd Heimes (38:41):

Yeah, great. Your listeners can learn more about Amazon Business, Amazon Quick, and the Prime Business offer that I mentioned by going to amazon.com/business.

Scott Luton (38:53):

Excellent. Excellent.

Todd Heimes (38:54):

And when you get there, you’ll see that you can start a 30-day free trial for Quick, and you can have your teams up and running with a shared AI workspace within minutes. It’s very quick, it’s painless. And I mentioned a 20% discount. Now this applies, as I said, to every seat for eligible US Prime business members for Quick Plus, and it supports up to 300 users. So it really scales with you as your team grows. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. I like to respond to messages, love to hear from people, and we like to try to keep everybody informed with what we’re doing here on Amazon Business through LinkedIn.

Scott Luton (39:36):

Todd, I told you your crystal ball was working really good. You knew I was going to ask you how folks can connect with you. See? It’s living proof.

Todd Heimes (39:42):

You would.

Scott Luton (39:43):

So two follow-up questions there at amazon.com/business. You mentioned Reshape earlier, which is an outstanding event. Went last year. Folks, you’re going to find great keynotes, great opportunities to have sidebar conversations, lots of good programming. Can folks find more information at amazon.com/business on Reshape as well, Todd?

Todd Heimes (40:04):

That’s right. You can hear about Reshape, which we’re hosting again this year. This is going to be in October in Nashville. We’ve got a bunch of posts on LinkedIn about Reshape, so please take a look there and then you can also read about it on amazon.com/business.

Scott Luton (40:20):

Outstanding. We’re going to drop that link there in the chat, I’m sure. Make it real easy, folks. One click away to learn about any of this stuff. And finally, Todd, if we go to that URL, amazon.com/business, we learned that you play the guitar, you’re going to be in Nashville. Do we have any song recordings of you singing country at amazon.com/business? Can we get any of that?

Todd Heimes (40:44):

We do not have any recordings of me playing the guitar. Not yet, but Dare to Dream. If I continue to use Amazon Quick to free up my time, maybe I’ll put some recordings on some of my favorite songs out there on the website.

Scott Luton (40:58):

I’m going to hold you to it. Dare to Dream. I’m going to steal that from you too. All right, good stuff. Todd Hymus, Vice President and General Manager with Amazon Business Worldwide. Todd, a pleasure once again to learn from you. I really enjoy your perspective and I can’t wait till you join us again here on Supply Chain Now.

Todd Heimes (41:14):

Great. Thank you, Scott. It’s been a pleasure. Appreciate it.

Scott Luton (41:18):

All right. Thank you, Todd. Now folks, let’s get back to the buzz. Hey, that was good stuff there. Todd, once again. And folks, hey, be sure to have Amazon Business Reshape on your calendars as it’s coming to Nashville in October. And if you go, make sure. Kim, I’d love to get your restaurant recommendation Nashville, but for me, Hay Bees. There’s lots of other Nashville Hot Chicken, but for me, I’ll wait in line for that Hattie Bees. How about you, Kim? Do you have a go – to place in Nashville? Unfortunately,

Kim Reuter (41:48):

I do not. I think I got to work on that.

Scott Luton (41:51):

We got to go and we’re going to have a culinary and supply chain tour of Nashville. All right, so folks, moving right along. I want to talk about the GLP-1 boom, sonic boom, man. The impact that boom is having too on healthcare logistics. So folks, a lot of y’all know out there, GLP-1 is a drug used for weight loss and it continues to gain new applications and new users. In fact, when it comes to applications, it’s in pill form now too. Beyond the weight loss sector and as it applies to healthcare logistics, get this. The World Health Organization, the WHO, says up to 50% of global vaccines are wasted each year with a big portion of those being due to cold chain storage issues. So Kim, love to get your thoughts on what we’re seeing in this boom related to healthcare logistics.

Kim Reuter (42:44):

So we’re seeing a boom in cold chain period with GLP, with at-home delivery, with perishable products. As you guys know, I just launched another oyster business. It’s my fourth or fifth e-commerce business, and that’s definitely a cold chain business. So there’s a lot more cold chain happening. But what GLP has really put pressure on the industry because it has a extremely specific range that it has to be shipped in, which is oddly very close to the oyster range, which I find very fascinating for some reason. It has to be traceable. And this temperature change, it can really impact someone’s life. So it’s extremely important that you know that the product is kept cold. And in this very specific range, which is 36 to 46 degrees, that’s 10 degrees, that’s hard. So what we’re seeing on the distribution side is a lot of emphasis on temperature control, temperature range control, making sure that at no point in the supply chain to the pharmacy that there are no changes in temperature.

(43:45):

And because this is a high value product, there’s a lot of liability. So we got to know if something happened, who messed up and who’s paying the bill? And then the other piece is that when we’re shipping it to consumers at home, we also have to make sure that we’re also getting it to them. Cannot use dry ice because the product cannot be frozen. So it’s a very, very sensitive product.

Scott Luton (44:09):

Kim, that’s fascinating stuff. And the good news is beyond all those very serious risks, life-threatening risks, we’ve seen a ton of innovation when it comes to technology to monitor not only temp, but also since they’re high value items, we’ve seen a lot of innovative technologies address cargo theft, which is still on the rise, Kim. It’s amazing.

Kim Reuter (44:30):

Cargo theft, we talk about it all the time. I know you and I have had a, we’ve done a couple podcasts on cargo theft. I know I’ve done a couple podcasts with Torsten over in Europe with cargo theft. Huge issue over there. But every time I think about cargo theft, it takes me back to my very early career when we were shipping cigarettes out of Virginia. And we at the time, the theft was so bad with cigarettes. So this was back when cigarettes were and was so bad that they had to weld the door shut on the container actually weld them shuts and put steel panels in the floor because they were drilling as if anybody has been in a container, the floors are wood. They were cutting through the floors, which they’re not thin wood by the way. They’re like three or four inches.

(45:13):

So they were cutting through the floors and dropping the oysters or dropping the oysters off, dropping these cigarettes out. And so every time I hear a thing of cargo theft, it takes you back to probably early ’90s when we were still shipping cigarettes out of Virginia.

Scott Luton (45:27):

You swap out cigarettes for whatever these days, copper or other things. A lot of the metals right now –

Kim Reuter (45:33):

Metals are huge.

Scott Luton (45:34):

Bad actors. And you know what, Kim as we talk about cargo theft, it’s not so much the one-offs anymore. There are big time criminal operations, big operations

Kim Reuter (45:43):

That

Scott Luton (45:44):

Are making a killing, unfortunately Kim, huh?

Kim Reuter (45:47):

Yeah. We had a big seafood steal about six or seven months ago, $250,000 container worth of our shipment worth of seafood.

Scott Luton (45:54):

Wow.

Kim Reuter (45:54):

Yeah, it’s everywhere and it’s pretty easy in pickings.

Scott Luton (45:57):

Well, folks, if you are shipping stuff and this is a big threat to you, which really is a threat for everybody, go check out. There’s a lot of cool things going on. Tive, it was a show that we’ve had here. Great technology platform. I think Kim joined me for a previous podcast. They’re doing some really cool things, T-I-V-E. Okay. So Kim, speaking of organizations coming up with new innovative ways of solving old and new problems, whenever I think of things like that, I think of startups and founders and individuals and teams that look at the world very differently and look at problems, whether they’re old or new very differently. And I’ll tell you what you have, we’ve talked about this a lot between shows. You have advised and worked with a ton of founders over the years, and I can’t wait because you should have a book coming out on all the anecdotes you’ve accumulated through all that work.

(46:52):

But what’s one of your favorite anecdotes from your work with startups and founders, Kim?

Kim Reuter (46:58):

So as you know, I go a couple of my own startups at Amazon in addition to my own business and my podcast. But the one thing I see across the board of a startup, and as you mentioned, I’m also working on a book, but this is my succinct piece of advice I give to founders whenever I speak to them. They don’t really like it, but this is it. You have to plan to make money year one. So many startups start out with, we don’t have to make money for the first couple, two years, three years. We’ve got plenty of funding, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you start out with a plan to make year one money, even if you don’t, you have already instilled the rigor and the practice and the measurements and the KPIs and all of the processes that you need to be successful from there on.

(47:45):

Too many companies start year one. If they’re lucky to get seed money, they spend it on bonkers crap that doesn’t make any kind of sense. They overhire, they get big offices and they fail. Most startups fail. 80% of startups fail in the first two years. So year one, try to make money.

Scott Luton (48:02):

I love that advice. The word or the phrase pre-revenue has become very abundant. And this is my third startup here at supply chain now. And I don’t know if we qualify as a startup anymore, but I think that mindset that you just encourage folks to subscribe to is one that has been in my bones. I don’t know what it’s like to be pre-revenue. It sounds like in some cases it’s kind of cool because there

Kim Reuter (48:28):

Are

Scott Luton (48:29):

Pictures.

Kim Reuter (48:29):

I would love to be pre-revenue, but I don’t even know what that’s about. Same. It looks fun.

Scott Luton (48:35):

Same, same. I’m a

Kim Reuter (48:35):

Pre-time. There’s a lot of parties in pre-revenue actually.

Scott Luton (48:39):

Folks, going back to Kim’s advice, plan for year one revenue.Nothing’s guaranteed. Okay. So Kim, as we continue on here on the buzz, I want to share one quick note before we move on to our next item. And this comes from our friends at Zebra Technologies. Folks, running a high throughput distribution center means every second counts, right? False jams, package recirculation, missed SLAs that cost you tons of time, money, and creates lots of headaches. Now, Zebra Technologies changes the game with powerfully simple machine vision. Powered by AI, Zebra makes machine vision easier to access, simpler to deploy, and infinitely scalable. Whether it’s streamlining dock door operations or speeding up pack bench scanning or detecting conveyor jams, Zebra takes you from pilot to production with total confidence. Fix your toughest warehouse challenges today by partnering with Zebra Technology’s vision made easy, powerfully simple, and always scalable. You can learn more at zebra.com or check out the link.

(49:48):

We’re dropping in the comments. So Kim, it’s hard to believe as we hit this next item, but it truly is in the second half of the year. And you know what? I love when we break out our crystal ball, crank it up. Mine likes to run on gas. Sometimes I feel like I need to hook it up to some solar panels maybe and may work a little better. I don’t know. But I want to tap into some fearless predictions or at least one good bold fearless prediction for the second half of the year. Kim, what comes to mind?

Kim Reuter (50:22):

This is probably not going to shock anyone. I normally try to come up with something slightly more original, but costs are going to keep going up. Fuel cost is not going to come down. We are not going to see a huge decline in our fuel costs and it’s going to jack up everything just as it has been all along. So as part of this we talked about with the leadership pulse as you’re looking at your performance and you’re planning for second half, you really need to go look at your contracts. You need to understand what you agreed to with fuel service charges and bunkers and all this other stuff because it’s not going away.

Scott Luton (50:53):

That’s a good one. And I’m going to add one that may not surprise people as well. And we’ve been watching the Persian Gulf situation continue to evolve. And hey, we talked about this I think last week. I love the cessation of military action. I love that. I’ll take that as a win. However, and I’m not going to get into the whole deal because there’s all kinds of perspectives there, that’s

Kim Reuter (51:17):

Fine. But as a veteran, you have a perspective.

Scott Luton (51:19):

That’s right, Kim, I do. And the perspective I definitely would like to share is I don’t see the traffic through the strait of Hormels really getting largely back to normal before the end of the year. I don’t. And I hate to be pessimistic about that, but I’m monitoring. There’s a couple different sources that try to actively in real time talk about the traffic going through there. NBC News does regular reporting on that. It’s really tough in any given moment to know exactly in the last 24 hours what transited with full faith and trust. However, all the data I’m looking at and then monitoring how these negotiations are doing and some of the challenges, some of the wording, some of the leverage, newfound leverage I would ad, and capabilities. I hate to be pessimistic, but I think I’m very practically pessimistic that we’ve got… And you know what?

(52:12):

One last thing. Even if today, Kim, and today’s July 6th, let’s say today for some reason we had newfound, 100% faith. All the parties negotiate and said, “Hey, we’ve got the best agreement and it works for everybody.” We’ve got such a backlog. I mean, the last count for me was still over 300 vessels. And of course we’ve got demining activities. We have a lot of things to still work out operationally. That’s going to take a lot of time even if we had the perfect diplomatic solution. So Kim, I’m not sure if you agree with that or not, but that’s what I see.

Kim Reuter (52:48):

I see too, and that’s what’s going to continue to jack up prices. For better or for worse, how it lands, we’re not going to clear that backlog and we are not going to be running at full throttle until probably a year from now.

Scott Luton (53:00):

And going out on a further limb here, we know how for decades, if not a couple hundred years, that choke point has existed for a reason. That’s how commerce has evolved and all. However, as we learn through every great massive challenge, that’s what fuels innovation. And I think right at this very moment, given what we’ve experienced through that one global chokepoint, we’ve got companies that are exploring and investing in alternative means, alternative channels. And Kim, that’s where I believe, and this is where hopefully my practical optimism kicks in. We’re going to take that silver lining to this really big challenge we’ve seen most of this year, and it’s going to lead to some breakthroughs that maybe will solve this long-time risk and regular risk in different ways. Kim, what you think?

Kim Reuter (53:50):

So fuel has always been a challenge for our country. Let’s not lie about it. And I’ve spent a lot of time in West Virginia. We shut down a lot of coal mining and I do believe there are opportunities for us to mine in cleaner ways that will allow us to use not only the actual premium product, but the byproduct of coal mining. There are a lot of things that are happening and building materials in other secondary markets. And then the other power that we seem to snub our nose out here a little bit in the US is nuclear. And that is one of the cleanest fuels we can have. Europe uses a lot of nuclear fuel, and I know there are conversations about revisiting the nuclear fuel. We’re past the Cold War. We’re not worried about getting blown up anymore. So I think we need to really start looking at alternatives.

(54:46):

And they’re not always going to be sexy green ones. I think we have to revisit some of the dirties and figure out how we can make them better.

Scott Luton (54:52):

We are certainly entering what I believe is going to be a new, much different nuclear age. And we’ve had lots of political commitment to investing and fueling, no pun intended, that new nuclear age. So we’ll see. We’re going to see. But with great challenges come, great new innovative solutions, and that’s where I subscribe to. So we’ll see how it all plays out. All right, so Kim, you never know where the conversations here on the buzz will take us, right? You never know, but you know what? Supply chain professionals out there, I know you’re thinking and talking about probably all of these topics we’re talking about some that we’ve seen and we’re used to, and then some that continue to evolve in new ways. So let us know your take on these topics. Kim, before we take off, it’s been really cool to see this new relationship we’ve had with the Journal of Business Logistics, Dr. Rodney Thomas and our friends over there.

(55:48):

They put out tons and tons of research. Well, in this new series that we’re calling the Manager’s Cut Research Briefings, they basically have taken all of these really heavy duty, robust white papers and research papers and they’ve cut it down to be able to folks get a gist in some of the key takeaways by investing a couple minutes of their time to read these managers cuts. So this most recent one we published was called the Sustainability Voice Missing from Most Boardrooms. So check that out. It might offer some counterintuitive thoughts for you to ponder and hopefully talk about. And you’ll find all of that over at our resource hub that you’ll find at supplychainow.com. Okay, Kim, what a full episode. I’ll tell you what, between our conversations and Todd Hamas and some of the cool things he shared, some of the innovations that he and his team working on over at Amazon, this was a big addition of the buzz.

(56:48):

So I got to ask you this. Amongst all your travels, all the different from keynoting to helping businesses move forward through old new challenges alike, how can folks track you down, Kim Reuter, and have a conversation with you?

Kim Reuter (57:01):

LinkedIn is probably the best way to do it. And also check me out on my website at clarityscalegrowth.

Scott Luton (57:07):

It is just that easy folks. Well, Kim, thanks for being here my friend. I also want to thank Todd Hamas with Amazon Business Worldwide. Terrific perspective he shared here. Also, big thanks to our friends at Zebra Technologies. Be sure to connect with them at zebra.com. Of course, big thanks to Amanda and Trisha behind the scenes as always helping to make production happen. But most importantly, big thanks to our global audience for being here with us. Keep the feedback coming. It is a blessing, folks. Keep it coming. But you know your homework, right? You got to take one thing you heard here today. Kim brought it. Todd brought it. We had some great comments here today. Take one thing, share it with your team. D something with it. Put it into practice. You notice about deeds, not words. That’s how we’re going to continue transforming global supply chain and leave no one behind.

(57:54):

And with all that said, on behalf of the whole supply chain now team, Scott Lewton, challenging you. Do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. We’ll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.

Todd Heimes (58:06):

Join the