Episode Summary
In this special episode of the Supply Chain Buzz, Scott Luton and Greg White look forward to 2020 and all that’s in store for Supply Chain Now Radio.
Episode Transcript
Hey, everybody, Scott Luton with Supply Chain Now Radio and my dear colleague Greg White.
[00:00:44] Good to see everybody.
[00:00:46] I won’t forget that again, Greg. Thanks. So we as we wrap up or get close to wrapping up to 20 19 here at Supply Chain Now Radio, we are so thankful and grateful for all the support and the advocates and their listeners and our sponsors, you name it, that’s made this year a resounding success, but equally as important. Greg, we’re excited about twenty twenty, right?
[00:01:11] Yeah, we got a lot going on.
[00:01:15] I see big things on the horizon generally for supply chain and for commerce in general as well. Absolutely. So we’re starting a number, a new series, right? We’re starting Logistics with a purpose with our friends at Vector Global Logistics. And by the time this plays, that first episode may be out. All right.
[00:01:38] Absolutely. In fact, you and I both are enjoying the fruits of the first episode where we brawled. Right. Mike Mahina, thanks to Enrica. That’s right. Thanks, Enrique and Adrian over Vector Global Logistics, our partners for that series. Logistics with a purpose and how to get Millgate conversation that we’ll be releasing really soon about all the really neat that they’re serving industry. They’re serving farmers globally, all while producing some some high quality coffee that that we’re enjoying is fueling this episode this morning. So stay tuned for that Repat podcast. But in the bigger sense, speaking of that series, what did you find different? What’s what do you think can be so unique about this Logistics with a purpose series?
[00:02:23] Greg, you know what? What I really like is that it? It’s a subtle, maybe not so subtle challenge to companies to make giving back part of their business model at Vector, right. They donate to various causes for every single container that they ship. So the US operation contributes food to villages in Africa. The Mexico operation contributes to kids in need. And thus the and operation contributes to kids in need for every single container that they ship. It’s a great way to to create accountability for yourself. And it’s also really easy to do every, you know, every container, every dollar. Pick a pick a metric and just tie your contributions to that and make it part of your business model.
[00:03:13] You know, I’m with you. And there was so much it was just that was the first episode with Throbbed Works, dawg. But right. Ton of passion in the room. That vector is a they take your culture very seriously as Greg. Yeah. And you know, with passion, you know, you’re in great content. So looking forward to our listeners giving us feedback on that new series and I should micro-mini Mike Mannino sorry.
[00:03:41] Mike Meniere’s personal story is really, really inspiring as well. I mean, how he came to feel led to do what he’s doing with Thrive Farmers and Thrive Works is, you know, it’s a great it’s a great hour for a person.
[00:03:56] Yeah, inspiration. So on this little snippet that we’re doing here today, we’re in cover five developments for twenty twenty. And the first one is that Logistics with a purpose series right to do thanks to our partners over at Vector Global Logistics. So what is the second big development, Greg, that we’re excited about for 2020?
[00:04:16] The U.S. Bank Free Payment Index. So we’re partnering with U.S. Bank and quarterly people probably already know or hopefully they know about the fact that they’re releasing this freight payment index quarterly that talks about the amount of shipments and the spend on those shipments each quarter and what that indicates in terms of impact on the industry, the economy. So they’ve got a fellow named Bob Costello who comments on that when that comes out. And now we’ll be doing that and live streaming that on Supply Chain Now Radio. So pretty exciting development. It’s a great indicator of what’s going on in the market. And as we know, there’s been a lot going on in the market this year. It’s good to have this out there for our listeners and viewers and allow them to hear it right away right when the information drops. They don’t have to look to page 48 of pick your favorite industry mag. They can see it right when it happens here. The commentary directly from Bob or other representatives at U.S. Bank and understand where things stand in the industry.
[00:05:26] So very you know, it’s a outstanding opportunity to put your pulse on the market. You know, if you’re supply chain professional listening to this, you get just how big of a portion the Logistics and transportation spend is of a supply chain. And you know why it’s so important to monitor that and know where we’re going and know where we are today and know where we’re going. But, you know, if you’re not in Supply chain, that might be news to you. And that’s fine. We all don’t know. We don’t know. But that that’s why these freight payment indexes that U.S. bank puts out are so helpful. That’s why also you see so much analysis on freight spend, on transportation, because it is still the backbone of the global supply chain.
[00:06:10] It is. And it’s a bit in flux. I mean, look, we’ve seen some carriers go down. In 2019. Over. But nobody really knows what either the economy or the industry holds for 2020. It’s an election year in the States. There’s a lot going on globally. And I think, you know, it’s it’s good. It’s going to be good for people to be able to get firsthand instantaneous knowledge of where we stand and where that makes it appear that we’re going, right?
[00:06:38] Absolutely. And to your first point you made there, almost 800 transportation firms went out of business through the third quarter of twenty nineteen. Very challenging time. So hopefully 2020. There’s a lot of mat mixed and we’ve covered it. And so we’ve spoken to a variety of experts that are much better at being economists than I am. I respect your ability to be economist, Greg. But there’s a lot of economists, there’s a lot of mixed views on what’s going to take place in 2020. So but but regardless, this this our coverage of the freight payment index will be a big part of giving our listeners a sense of what to expect and where to go in and how things are going transpire from a shipping spend. OK. So that’s the second big development for 2020 that we’re really excited about. Thirdly, Greg, so, you know, when we first started doing an ad building series at Supply Chain Now Radio to really diversify our thought leadership and what we cover because, you know, the global inin supply chain space, there’s so much you could cover in an out podcast, just you don’t have enough time. So. Unfortunately, one things we learned is that we weren’t doing a great job offering diverse speakers bureau for lack of a better word. Right. Yeah, we had a very monolithic. If you looked at all of our guests through through a hundred episodes or so. Unfortunately, we didn’t do a good job offering a lot of diverse thought leadership. So one of the things and when we put a few things in place to try to address this and there’s still a we’re still on a journey. But one things we did that really worked well and resonated and got a lot of feedback on is creating this full access series. Yeah. Spotlights women, exceptional leaders, first off, but exceptional leaders that happen to be women across industry. And Gregg added that that’s really resonated with you as well. Right.
[00:08:42] I have three daughters. Right. And so it is it’s particularly important to me. But also, I have a mother and a wife, and that’s important as well. So. Yeah, and so can we talk about Cindy and Hurley Lu? Yeah. So Cindy Longo, who is vise president of the Supply chain Practice at Cap Gemini, has stepped up and Cap Gemini is going to sponsor that series. They’re going to sponsor five or so episodes of that series.
[00:09:13] And we’re going to talk to some of the really prominent and well-known, you know, leaders in the industry.
[00:09:23] We’re aiming pretty high and and looking looking forward to, you know, the common phrase. If you if you can see, you can be at. Right. We’re trying to enable people to be able to see that there is an opportunity, despite the, you know, the issues and the hurdles in place right now. But like many people have, if you if you battle through it, there isn’t a great opportunity for success. I think back to a number of our guests, previous guests on full access who’ve gone through tremendous trials and tribulations. Andrea Bellamy, Susan Clark and Tanya Allen, you know, come particularly to mind. But, you know, those are those have been great series and great stories about getting to leadership, not just from the standpoint of being a female in Supply chain or the technology world, but also some of them are you know, they come from from harsh home conditions in term in terms of both their home life or their even their country that they’re from. So it was a great opportunity. It’s a great opportunity to see people really succeed through the through troubles and tribulations slightly versus they love it. And Cindy is you know, she’s first of all, she is a. Great example of a leader herself. She’ll be our first episode. So people get to know her. She’s gonna help us co-host this thing as we do it.
[00:11:00] She’s going to help us find no guests for the show. We have our own ideas and she’s gonna help us find some additional. So I’m excited about it. Yeah.
[00:11:11] You know, Cap Gemini. Obviously, they’re up. They’re leading a huge global initiatives in Supply chain to do to tap into Cyndi’s experience or expertise. And really, her passion is an outstanding element, an added dynamic to the show. But, you know, we’ve got gotta go back to something shared there, because if we’ve had one piece of feedback from all of the outstanding female leaders that we’ve interact with, both be on the show and just just, you know, out being in our network, it’s that what you what you shared? They need to see it. There’s there’s such a demand to see the top female leaders so that it communicates to your daughters. To my daughters, to you. Ah, ah, ah. A little girls in grade school that it can be done if they can aspire and reach the top levels of industry. At the top levels of government, top levels of anything. They need to see it. And we’ve heard that if we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times. So we’re trying to act on that and and bake that into our series.
[00:12:18] Well, look, we we both and I think a lot of people believe strongly that to get better decisions, to get to more effective solutions, you have to have diversity of thought that, you know, I say this often in episodes when you talk about a I.
[00:12:36] Right. We talk about artificial intelligence. They don’t say throw smarter brains at it. They say for a more brains added. Right. Three people in the room with diverse points of view and diverse upbringings, diverse trials and tribulations. They bring better solutions than one person in the room or two people in there in a room that look remarkably similar. Right. Right. With similar upbringings and that sort of thing. So, look, it’s just it’s just the nature of things. And it’s time. It’s well past time. But, you know, we’re we’re lucky to have a platform where we can advocate for this strongly and hopefully raise awareness and not just awareness, but raise action. Right. Deeds, not words, says my good friend Scott Luton.
[00:13:28] Well, and I blatantly stole that from our friends over at Vetlanta.
[00:13:31] Yeah, yeah. Lloyd Knight says it also. Right. Exactly. So there are no new jokes. Scott only new audiences.
[00:13:40] So I like that. It makes you feel great. I stole that from a guy who was a comedian. All right.
[00:13:47] So recap real quick. Develop. Number one was the Logistics with a purpose. That new series, Vector Global Logistics. Number Two was our new partnership with US Bank A diving into their quarterly freight payment index, which we’re excited about. And number three, Cap Gemini’s involvement and us. Yeah, we’re full access series and having Cindy who Lu leads their supply chain practice practice having her and her insights as a regular part of that is gonna be it’s gonna take that series to a whole new level. So excited about that. Now. Number four of five is something folks have probably heard us talk about this quite a bit. We’re in year two of the Atlanta Supply chain awards. Oh, yeah. With a group of outstanding partners. And in twenty nineteen we found that the first year where the whole aim was simple is to celebrate Supply chain success across the land in Supply chain Ryder. They have some kind of presence in metro Atlanta and you’re one was a smashing success. Thanks to all the partnerships and thanks to how the market helped resonate with the market. So we’re building in year two, right Greg?
[00:15:02] Yeah. You know, new were first of all, we’re going to have more people there. Half again, more so more attendees. It’s going to be tied to Moto X. This year actually occurring at the Georgia World Congress Center where motets happen. It’s gonna be on March 10th. And, you know, a slew of nominations in already. And we’re looking for more. By the way, don’t be shy. Nominate your own your own company if you feel strongly about it. Right. Tell us a good story.
[00:15:35] You know, we’re really looking to reward and award companies that are either in Atlanta or have a presence in Atlanta, do business in Atlanta that are doing great things in Supply chain.
[00:15:48] And and, you know, I’m I think we’re both honored to have Christian Fisher, the CEO of president and CEO of of Georgia Pacific B are our keynote speaker. And Sharon Cooper, who is unbelievable, B, R and C, she’s going to be you know, it would take you an hour to just talk about her bio. My suggestion is you just go to last fly change awards dot com and read it. It’s fascinating. Amazing. And she’s still doing great things here in Atlanta to help enable business and business people as well. So. And then, you know, you know, obviously we’ve got some some great sponsors. I think we’re going to hear about another big one later today. I believe so. By the time this publishes, we will have already.
[00:16:42] So we may have to add it at a note at the end of.
[00:16:48] So, yeah, it’s a great opportunity to celebrate what’s going on in Atlanta. The Supply chain City. You’re welcome. Ben Harris and Metro Atlanta Chamber. Look, you know, I’ve been saying this for years. I’ve had this discussion in the technology community in Atlanta. This city needs to be recognized for Supply chain. We’re recognized for fintech. We’re recognized for health care tech. We need to be recognized. My original position was for supply chain tech, but just supply chain in general. Yeah, right. We have we have the confluence of three of the of the busiest interstates in America right here in Atlanta. We have tons of warehousing, lots of physical infrastructure and physical operations in terms of Logistics and supply chain Technical mathematic. We’ve got Georgia Tech. You know, the premier Supply chain University in the world. I would argue and that and a great incubation system, both Veha ATDC and Georgia Tech and other incubators around town. So it’s it’s a great environment and it’s, you know, it’s time to celebrate.
[00:17:59] Absolutely. And it’s tough to. We’ve had so much support. You know, we can’t think everybody enough here recently, though, to top back to the third development with full access. One of the recent developments we’ve had with the Supply chain Awards is we have partnered with women in manufacturing in their Georgia chapter. Know any organization, national organization that is so much great work of engaging and creating awareness of women in manufacturing and and also bringing in other women that may not have the awareness of what takes place in manufacturing the careers and opportunities. But anyway, working with women, we have created a new award that we’re calling the in the in Inclusive Leadership Excellence Award. We’re basically we’re recognized organizations that have successfully not just engaged women in their workforce, especially at leadership levels. Also, they’re they’re well-represented with an organization and they’ve got profession village programs that are providing opportunities for women to advance into top tiers of leadership and. Fantastic. Really excited about that. It just it was the latest development in a string in the last few weeks. But Atlanta Supply chain awards dot com to nominate register to attend the sponsor. And we should also mention Moad X. Moad X is free to attend. We’re so thankful that they’re hosting and supporting our event. Motet Huge. Yeah. Thirty five thousand of your closest friends and supply chain neighbors come Trident has been here, says the largest supply chain trade show in the western hemisphere. So Modoc show dot.com learn more MDX to come. That brings us to that was a first for that brings us to the fifth development that we’ve already kicked off really here late at the end of twenty nineteen, but will spill over into 0:40 and tell us about that Greg.
[00:19:56] Yeah. So that’s Gardner right. We’re working with Mike Griswald for on a series we’re calling Supply chain today and tomorrow. Right. We get on that, right. Yeah. Good. So Mike Griswald, grizzled industry veteran from retail and Supply chain and now VFP research analyst at Gartner. You know, we’ve known him for a long time. He was the analysts that I most try to impress when I was in in technology. He is a very knowledgeable individual, both from the standpoint of being an analyst today, but also having been a practitioner for, I’m going to say years so as not to put it years on him. But it might be that he’s so knowledgeable. He’s very down to earth. Great analyst, great practitioner, great golfer. Don’t play him for money. I’m not kidding. And and a fantastic basketball coach of a of a girls basketball team in Boise, Idaho. So passionate about. Yes. And very knowledgeable in that as well. But look, he knows what you need to know, whether you’re a realtor or a realtor, whether you’re a retailer, a man, even if you’re a realtor, actually ask Port Richmond. That’s right. If you’re if you’re a supply chain realtor, you do need to know what he knows. Real estate, retail, manufacturing, distribution, whether you’re a technology provider or a services provider. These are the kind of this is the kind of knowledge that you need to have. You can find out what’s going on in the industry, what are the needs that need to be met to help you direct your services and products. If you’re on the other side of the equation, you can find out who the reliable and good service providers and technology providers are. So if you have an initiative, you know who to consider and just generally his view on people and processes as well, because none of those solutions survive. If you don’t have good processes and you don’t have buy-in and good training and good people to execute those. So we’re gonna talk a lot about those things and a lot about very timely subjects in that series. I’m excited about it too.
[00:22:27] We just released the first episode would also that we talked with him about we’ll continue talking with him about because it’s if you’re a football fan, you love your top twenty five, your supply chain. You’ve got to be intrigued with Gartner’s top 25 supply chain that they produce every year. And Mike lead zet now this episode which is available, you know Supply Chain Now Radio BCom just to check it out exept said 2:41. He talks about some of the changes for the twenty twenty top twenty five Supply chain rankings, and it really you know, it’s such a. It will. It’s Gardiner. You can get expert analysis, but there’s so much to learn, even if, you know, a lot of it is focused out of the public companies and large companies. But it really gives you some insights on where we’re headed and when. One of the big things, Greg, I think we learned from the first episode was how they’re baking in the CSR component.
[00:23:23] Yeah. Maureen right to the social responsibility in to qualifying and ranking in the top twenty five. Yep. And. So they don’t get very agreed.
[00:23:36] You know, we just we wrapped it with our our buddy Tony Sciarrotta with the reverse Logistics reverse Logistics Association, of course, their mantra, they’re about sustainability. So that’s it was welcome news for him. And looking forward to seeing the continued content that comes out from that series with Mike Griswald, BP. BP analyst with Gartner.
[00:24:00] Hey, before we wrap, can I tease with a still in development, but your honorable mention new offering. So we’re going to we’re going to start an international series as well. So we have a host for that and you all are going to love them. And it’s gonna be a really good perspective on international supply chain from people in the international community. So study your foreign languages. It could come at you in any language. Truth be told, we speak. We speak English in forty one and forty one countries. So. But really gonna be great to include the whole global perspective on supply chain, especially as economies and and countries become more borderless over time. Right.
[00:24:53] Yeah. Great point. And what you’re alluding to, there were 41 countries as we as we do kind of move to close here today. So as we talked about earlier, we’re continue to look for ways to diversify what we cover and where we cover it and who is whose analysis we’re featuring. And so part of that is to really from a global standpoint, we want to truly be a voice of the global India and Supply chain industry and bring you the stories that, you know, don’t just transpire here in Atlanta. We love doing business in Atlanta and we’ll always be partial. But we want to cover the West Coast. We want to cover Europe. We want to bring you stories from South America and so on. With all that said, we’ve been diversifying the content and and really trying to get as creative as possible to bring the developments and stories, innovations to our audience. We’ve seen a lot of feedback, including from us Sheer metric standpoint. We’re requested over 6 mean that plays lightly to, as Regie mentioned, the. Speaking English in 41 countries via third parties. We found that we are podcasts have hit business podcast leadership charts in 41 countries and 2019 alone. And we’re rural, you know, as entrepreneurs. Real proud that the content that you worked really hard to create and the people you look to engage in thought leadership, you work hard to pull out of them. It resonates with the marketplace and hopefully all that lands right way. You know, we are very humble about where we are and what we’ve done and where we’re headed.
[00:26:25] But, you know, as God’s very humble well, people are less humble. Well, you know what?
[00:26:33] As as everyone probably watching this can appreciate, everyone looks at their metrics these days. That’s why there’s so much data at your fingertips and even the podcasting space. Digital media space, where sometimes these reindeer games being played is so important to make sure that the voice of the customer is front and center.
[00:26:53] And we’re serving our audience. Right. And we want to make sure that we’re staying on top of that, that we’re delivering the kind of content that our audience wants.
[00:27:01] Yeah, well put, as always. So, you know, we should as we close here, let’s I want to recognize just a few of our sponsors that have been there from from day one that we’re really excited of the effective syndicate. We this year we had the coach’s corner that really resonated. We had a lot of interaction between Bo Gruver. Effective syndicate is outstanding people and process consulting firm and Bo is all about passion. Bo’s got it in spades. Yeah. And he also is willing, Gregg, which I loved to put him put himself out there, you know, spoke to market. Hey, bring me your your toughest questions. And we have entomb in basically a lot of podcasts, so.
[00:27:45] So, hey, if not, I’d like to highlight one of the things that they’re doing that I would find valuable if I was trying to solve some problems.
[00:27:54] And that is they’ve got this traction concept where not only do they train you on, let’s say, Six Sigma more better processes generally, but then they help you implement those and they kind of work themselves out of a job by getting your people to a higher level of confidence. I always love that model. Look, when I started consulting ages ago and I mean ages ago, that was a model that I really enjoyed. Because you know what? One of Bo’s passions is to make sure that he actually delivers sustainable results to his his clients. And I think that’s so, so important. All right. The model that he’s using, I can verify it works, so.
[00:28:37] Absolutely. And so you’re Talentstream has been their friend from the beginning. Apex Atlanta Supplychainrealestate.com. Greg mentioned the word Richmond earlier. What a standing resource that brings that specialized view of your real estate needs from a supply chain Logistics manufacturing standpoint, war does excellent work. He and his team and then probably, you know, we both looked at each other.
[00:29:04] Supply chain real estate. Really? There’s a business for that. I mean, I mean, we’ve both been in the industry for a long time. To think about the fact that there is somebody who specializes in finding you that next warehouse or distribution center or whatever depot, whatever it is. You know, it’s one of those. Why didn’t I think of that? Why did you know? Why didn’t I know that that exists? But it it’s really good to have that level of specialization. And Ward is as much maybe more a study Europe supply chain than he really is real estate. I mean, you know, what we’ve learned from talking to him is that he gets really engaged in learning about real estate and it helps him be more effective in doing what he’s doing as a as a realtor. So interesting approach for sure.
[00:29:52] And then we should also recognize Verusen, which is an outstanding todeath, were based here in Atlanta. We’ve talked about Vector Global Logistics and then we’ve talked about the reverse Logistics Association, looking forward to their cover, their conference in February. And finally, Spend Management Experts, which, you know, we’ve talked about freight in and controlling spend in general is doing a lot of great work helping organizations really optimize or supply chain performance. So I think I don’t think we missed anybody thus far.
[00:30:26] It’s get back to him later. I did.
[00:30:31] Well, we are really excited when we think our listeners and our supporters and our advocates, you know, this is this is absolutely a journey of deliberate passion. I mean, this is the folks we sit down with. These are stories that have got to be heard. You know, Greg mentioned some of the personal journeys through adversity that that full accessors covers. And, you know, every episode and every interview is not the same. But when you when you sit down, someone that’s overcome some of the trials and the challenges that some of these folks have, some these leaders have overcome. Hopefully it inspires our audience as much as inspires us. So with that said, Greg, any final words before we we wrap?
[00:31:18] 2019. A wild, wacky up and down year overall.
[00:31:25] Great. And we all made it through and I think it’s great to look back on it. Right. And think about how what you liked about it, what you’d like to change into the coming year. Join us and share the journey of some of these folks that we’re talking to. You’re going to learn a lot. And I learn a lot in every episode. So you’re going to learn a lot. And, you know, if you’ve got something you’d like to see from us, let us know. Soundoff Really?
[00:32:01] All right, so Malcolm ALK about me and note that I did ProPurchaser.com. Oh, right. Great partner of ours in the procurement practices space. So check them out. ProPurchaser.com outstanding resource.
[00:32:15] Thank you, Malcolm.
[00:32:16] As always, he’s always saved us from putting our foot in our mouth. Ray really enjoyed this great, great loved her work together, along with all the folks on the team. Amanda and Clay and Jessica and Chris and Kelly and Michelle and all of the folks that played a part. 2020’s is is bright for the industry. There’s not a better time to be involved in global and then supply chain. And it’s also very bright for our business because of the folks that come on and want to share their their thoughts and best practices and insight. So thanks for all the support and we will see y’all in 2020, if not sooner.
[00:32:55] Thanks, Greg. All right. Take care.
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