Supply Chain Now
Episode 288

Episode Summary

For Episode 288, Scott and Greg welcomed Adam Robinson with Cerasis to the Supply Chain Now Studio in Atlanta, Georgia.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live from Supply chain capital of the country, Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology’s the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

 

[00:00:29] Hey, good afternoon. Scott Luton here with you, Liveline Supply chain. Now welcome back to the show. You got to stay tuned to. We’ve got an outstanding show in the hopper lined up for you today as we spend time with newsmaker Adam Robinson of cirrhosis. And we’re looking forward to a very lively conversation with Adam and the gang here. Quick programing note, like all of us, here’s an supply chain. Now you can find us wherever you get your podcasts from. Make sure to subscribe. So don’t miss anything. Let’s think a few of our sponsors allow us to bring the best practices to you. Our audience. Vector Global Logistics U.S. Bank Epic’s Atlanta Verusen Supply chain Realestate.com anymore. You can check out each of our sponsors on the show notes of this episode. Let’s bring in my fearless co-host on today’s show, Greg White Serial Supply chain, tech entrepreneur, kronic disruptor and trusted advisor. Greg, how you doing?

 

[00:01:22] You sound good. I thought was like an octave down this morning. Now. Now I think you sound good. Okay, good. We’ll check it out. Don’t breathe already for radio. Yeah, that’s right. So let him breathe.

 

[00:01:33] Now, don’t forget. So our audience can already tell. We’ve got our equal in terms of liveliness and yes. There in the studio with us here today. So welcome in Adam Robinson, marketing manager. Sarah ACIS and host of the Freight Project podcast, which we love. You can find that everywhere. Adam, good morning.

 

[00:01:51] Good morning. Thanks for having me, guys. Longtime and Myer and I feel like we’ve brought the powerhouse of worlds together.

 

[00:01:57] Yeah, likewise. Yeah, no doubt. Well, and vise versa.

 

[00:02:00] You know, we’ve been tracking you what you’ve done and in the content and the ideas that you share with industry as well as some of the news you’re making, which we’ll tackle in a second. Yeah. And clearly, you’re we’re kindred spirits. You love to do that stuff in it. And it shows it. You can hear that and you can see that in your content. Yeah.

 

[00:02:18] Yeah. I can’t believe we get the money perhaps out of this stuff. We have paid to do this stuff for fun. But yeah, I mean, honestly, in a supply chain, if you do have a passion for it, you probably won’t stay in it long. That’s right. It’s one of those things. I think if you don’t come from the industry and you get into it, you never leave. You get addicted to it. It’s a big part of the economy. It touches everything we do. So they are exciting. Got a lot of legs lately.

 

[00:02:38] It’s it’s exciting. At the same time, we have this new concept for one of our shows. Supply chain is boring.

 

[00:02:44] Hey, go right to the heart. Isn’t that isn’t that. But it’s boring if it’s good. Isn’t that how it’s all?

 

[00:02:49] Well, I think I think it’s kind of an ironic title, right. I mean, because it’s anything but. That’s right. But I think if you look at it from the outside, people are going, as Scott has said. People listen to Supply chain podcast.

 

[00:03:00] Right. Right. Well, if it’s any indication how boring it might seem. We just, you know, have a new customer that does snowplows the front of snowplows and people then, you know, put it on their truck. Oh, yeah. That’s the kind of stuff you don’t ever think about that’s still gotta supply chain. So we need to use it.

 

[00:03:15] It’s hard to believe that there’s a business for so many things right now.

 

[00:03:19] Yeah. I mean, in Texas, in Atlanta, we would never think that there’s a business for snowplow.

 

[00:03:23] Yeah. Thank goodness we would use those snowplows for different purposes on the interstates.

 

[00:03:28] Yeah. Rustling up some cattle. Yeah. Or Verusen that slow driver move that drives for you, right? You’re going under 80 in Atlanta and there’s a snowplow behind your hot excess speed. Love it.

 

[00:03:39] All right. So as our audience, if you can’t tell, this is gonna be a fast moving conversation. So lots of passion in the room. Hang. I really have been excited about making this this episode happen. So, yeah, we’re gonna dove into Adam’s backstory and so his perspective here momentarily. But first, we’re checking in with Malcolm and the whole news team at Supply chain now.

 

[00:03:58] Greg, what’s going all this news specifically for Steve Carbone, who who he and and Kristi Bishop constantly ask us, okay, to make sure that we have a news item when we open the show. So for you guys. All right, Tina. That’s right. That’s right. Hey, you know what? I love it when we hear from from the audience, from our listeners, that, I mean, they they do give us insights as to what they want to hear.

 

[00:04:22] Yes, that’s great. I mean, that’s who. That’s who. That’s who our customers really are. All right. So USMC, hey was recently ratified by the House and the Senate, and it’s going to signature today. Oh, excellent. And we’ll be right. It will be signed by the president. And the interesting thing about that is there’s already hope for the Mexican economy. It’s it’s been in recession. They’re hoping for equilibrium. So a stagnant, acommon economy this year and then looking towards some upside because of the ratification of that. Look, I think virtually.

 

[00:04:59] Everyone agrees that this is a good thing.

 

[00:05:02] Usmc is the U.S. Mexico Canada Trade Agreement that replaces NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. We’re doing OK. We’ll see.

 

[00:05:12] That’s this is important stuff. This EFT sirens just for that or this inflammatory rhetoric over here. So you were. And fires left and right. We warned you we’re out in the thick of things here in Atlanta.

 

[00:05:22] So, yeah, yes. As we told Adam, the most dangerous intersection in Atlanta, the Mexican army is on fire. Appreciate that, guys. Thank you. Thank you.

 

[00:05:32] So anyway, so that the you know, the thing that we’re all hoping for is that this accrues to the benefit of all of the economies. It relieves a lot of the strain of these economies working together. It accomplishes I think the goal is that it accomplishes what we hoped NAFTA would accomplish. And I think the economy and and world trade has just outgrown NAFTA. And it’s time for a new agreement. So, look, I’m a big fan of this. I think it’s great. Whatever’s great for Mexico and Canada is great for the U.S.. You know, we’re big fans of our southeastern U.S..

 

[00:06:11] Well, there’s a lot of freight going back. And trade is right, you know, and the better that the Mexican economy is, they’ll lower their unemployment rate, which is better for crime and those kinds of things. You know, we all know if you ever move anything from the U.S. into Mexico, it can sometimes cause a lot of delays fraught with danger. Now we’re going to see an immediate impact, but if their economy is improved, that maybe our freight moves in total are more efficient. So in turn, it improves our economy as well. So, you know, we think that’s the biggest deal in those trade deals that we’re signing. We’ve got to make sure it’s mutually beneficial for everyone, not just one sided, perhaps. And I think they’ve achieved that here, even in a tough political environment. And so we’ve got to look at that as a country and see that as a win.

 

[00:06:51] Yeah, no doubt. And and there’s a lot of production, obviously, as well, not just freight moving back and forth, but a lot of companies that either are U.S. companies or companies that do business with the U.S. they have McKeel Doors or or other facilities located in Mexico to produce goods that are ultimately consumed here in the states. And anything that helps that, you know, ultimately helps our economy.

 

[00:07:16] Well, you know, both of you all have alluded to this, but the headaches that less than efficient relationships between countries, especially here in North America, it just adds to the stress and the complexity that supply chain practitioners have to fight each and every day. So the easier we can make it for them that everyone wins. Right. Everyone wins. OK. So it also tees us up for more growth, which, you know, we depending on what source you’re looking at, the economy, you know, might have some varying levels of of headwinds ahead of us in 2020 and beyond. So let’s is that unless anyone has questions, OK?

 

[00:08:00] No, I think I think it’s you know, it’s just a quick heads up. Yeah. Right. So I think it’s it’s good that it’s good is getting done.

 

[00:08:06] It’s good stuff getting done. We need that. You alluded to the environment and not to get political, but this stuff got, you know, business supply chain, the economy, nothing stops for whatever is taking place. So it’s good to see you still got to brush our teeth. That’s true. That’s right. No matter what’s going on. So I guess you don’t have to. But if you should, if you want teeth, you should. Adam, I’m bringing you home to tell my kids. We gotta get that through. OK, so let’s let’s dove right into cover our feature segment here today.

 

[00:08:35] We’re excited Greg White to have Adam Robinson, marketing manager with Sarah Assis and host of the Freight Project podcast in studio with us here today. I will tell you in a second what brings them to Atlanta. That’s pretty cool. It’s a pretty cool story. But first, Adam, let’s start with you know, let’s paint a picture of who you are. Tell us about where you grew up and and you guys give us some dirt on your upbringing.

 

[00:08:56] Yes. Sheer was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I live there. Tell us about 12 living in Tulsa, Tom Clanton and all the time. And Williams, Garth Brooks a little bit. Reba McEntire. Good stuff. My parents were friends with Garth in the early days. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I went to Midnight Rodeo with him and his wife Sandy before he got with Tricia. Of course, left her for Tricia. Oh, wow. I should go in there. Sorry. Yes. But, you know, my grandfather was a railroad conductor, actually. So what railroad? I want to say BNSF. Yeah, but that could be a different name earlier. Back in those days it would have been just Santa Fe back then probably. And you know, he always wore as overalls. He always looked like a train conductor. Use a heck of a guy so you can say freights been in my blood ever since I was born thanks to him. But, you know, my mom got a job. We moved to San Antonio when I was about 12 and didn’t have any sports teams I could claim in Tulsa at the time the thunder weren’t around. So I was a huge Braves fair, not a Tulsa hurricane fan. Oh, well. To because that’s basically what our NBA team was back. Right. But there were Oral Roberts. I guess you got room for them. Yeah. Hey, Braves, the big brace fan growing up. Absolutely. Well, you can pick one year in Oklahoma is the best team at the time. What was the Braves? It was nice when they finally got over the hump. And, you know, Gregg got him one and only five. That was beautiful. Oh, that was a beautiful city. Not forgotten.

 

[00:10:20] We had a Twitter exchange where I knew that. But I don’t think we it it was lost on me. So we’ve got a fellow Braves fan and clearly a diehard. It goes back a ways in the studio. Absolutely. All right.

 

[00:10:32] So let’s take a little departure. Oh, boy. Right. Little this dude knows Braves history like. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not a quiz. But, oh, you know, players and pitchers report, what, in two weeks? Rightly so. Moving fast spring training.

 

[00:10:46] Give me one bold move that the Braves can make today. That would you, after losing Josh Donaldson. Right. Braves are still even with the Morris Marcell izuna pick up. They’re still, you know, looking for some extra firepower. What’s give me one move that we can make the data?

 

[00:11:01] Well, I don’t know if it’s possible, but yeah, they they need a a slinger. I mean, everything’s going back to pitching, right? We had those waves in baseball was pitching in the 90s. And then the big boom when McGuire and Sosa came out. And whatever reason and why that happened, well, maybe kind of not know. Or we do know. So it’s nice to get the pitching back. So maybe a big move for a pitcher. I love it. Like another ace. Yeah, like if. Can we get Strasburg somehow? Probably not. He’s locked up pretty big. But the angels are looking pretty good this year. Mike Trout, not even in his prime, I don’t thing. And then they boosted up on some pitching. And I just think that’s where the league’s going. You know, so precision hitting requires precision pitching. I wouldn’t want to be an MLB player right now. It’s a tough game.

 

[00:11:44] Well, especially after this past season, because now you’re going to have to guess what the pitches.

 

[00:11:48] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hitters. Hitters won’t have that. However, they won’t have the signal are so weak.

 

[00:11:55] We could probably talk baseball quite a bit. Love. I love a Phillip Braves fan so much, especially worth where they’re moving to and kind of. This young nucleus of a team. So much energy and excitement around that team right now. So let’s let’s talk with a grown up and tall, so.

 

[00:12:12] Yeah. Move to San Antonio. OK. Became a huge Spurs fan as a good time. I moved there about 94 and Tim Duncan came in 97. And then him and Gregg Popovich just rattled off a 17 year run that no other team in any sport, even because they played with logical, smart basketball. And a lot of people like to make fun of why they call him Mr. Load Management, because he doesn’t play as many minutes as like LeBron or something like that. Right. But you can always obviously blame Gregg Popovich for that new move today. So, you know, I kind of appreciate the utilization of your assets in the best way possible so you can win.

 

[00:12:47] You know, basketball can be exciting. Nobody wants to do the full port caret, full court press or play defense per say. But that’s what wins games. So I like winners. It was fun and convenient because they were in San Antonio. And then I wanted to head out, head over to I was gonna be a doctor. But then my first station in senior year, I went to a pre-med magnet school called Health Careers High School in San Antonio. And I went to the E.R. is my first rotation and immediately said, I do not want to be a doctor after seeing a lot of blood for the first time.

 

[00:13:19] So I said, OK, go to U.T. Austin mainly because if you’re in the top 10 percent, it’s automatic. So it was easy acceptance when my best friend and I worked at Smoothie Kings, believe it or not, and managed three of those in Austin. And I had a lot of fun at school. I didn’t take college too seriously, unfortunately, but I made it.

 

[00:13:38] And you wrote the triage in the smoothies. Oh, disasters. Get them on the gurney.

 

[00:13:46] Well, fortunately not. But that was a pretty high powered smoothie.

 

[00:13:50] But I’ll tell you what, I probably learned the most in my experience working it, just making, you know, the Smoothie Kings profitable, you know, spoils quickly.

 

[00:13:59] Yes. So I’m with you. I waited tables grown up. That’s a very humbling experience. But at TI, nothing team one. You should do it. Everyone should do it. That’s what you’re EFT service. Give you that service mindset.

 

[00:14:10] And before that, I didn’t do Smoothie King but bag groceries at my local Winn-Dixie for four thirty five an hour. Nice. And that, you know, it’s all about if you can if kids can learn the notion, this notion of customer service. Right. What folks pay for what they expect early on. To your point. It can’t teach you up for the ride.

 

[00:14:28] It’s everybody’s in customer service, no matter what your job. You know, and we’re coming out with a new concept, a video podcast, kind of like what you guys are doing here later in the year called delivered. Right. And so we’re all trying to deliver something. But at the end of the day, whether you work in freight marketing, if you’re a CEO, your job is to give your customer that great experience, to deliver that experience that we’re all delivering something, whether it be a podcast live here or or freight or delivering something extra. So, you know, service mindset is. Pretty critical. Right. And so, you know, now we we moved to Pensacola for a few years there, and now we’re we’re in Frisco, Texas. Me and my wife, I got two kiddos. Mason and Finley may not look like it, but I’m approaching 40 and I do have a teenager and a very sharp daughter that plays. She’s 9. She turns 10 in May, plays four different instruments. Wow. Yeah, I think. What are they? She plays the guitar. She plays the piano. She plays the bass. And I guess the acoustic guitar is pretty much the guitar. So she’s made making entry, basically.

 

[00:15:31] I hope I’ll try to get some of that Taylor Swift money. I can’t do this podcast and supply chain gig forever. Yeah. All right.

 

[00:15:37] So I got to keep you in the manner to which you be kind of becoming president. I just want to be your manager.

 

[00:15:41] So speaking of gig, what what. How did you land your current role? Sarah?

 

[00:15:48] Yeah. That was interesting. So, you know, after Smoothie King, believe it or not, a real estate agent saw me working there. He kind of came in every day and he would just really appreciate it. I think that level of detail and service that I put out there consistently, he said, hey, come and work for me as a real estate assistant. I did the contract a close part. So really kind of paper intensive. And he’s one of the top realtors in Austin, Texas at the time. And I learned a lot from him. Thank you, Edward Farmer. If you’re out there listening, I’ll do it. My theory is now I’ll just send up to a tweet. But, you know, so I did that for a little while. And then I met this company called HRR Trust. They were doing these seminars across the country at real estate offices. And ours was Keller Williams. And I got to know those folks. It was kind of a startup. And what they did is they were a PTO model. So sort of like admin staff in those companies. You know, we’re used to hiring 50 people, smaller companies that didn’t, you know, have a big group to get good health insurance or they took care. Their payroll helped really streamline some of those administrative functions, small companies.

 

[00:16:48] But there was a pretty big underserved market in the real estate agents and the ten ninety nine folks. And in 2003, we didn’t have Obamacare. And, you know, you’re still rated on your preexisting conditions. And if a real in America, the average age is 55 and you’re an American, most likely you have something wrong with you. And so your insurance, even if you’re very successful real estate agent, costs a lot of money. So what H.R. trusted is they really kind of looked at them and said that’s a pretty big underserved market. It’s very risky, too. But what they were able to do is sign up these ten ninety nine agents and kind of make them an employee of H.R. Trust, leased them back to their business run payroll and get them more secure health insurance. Now, when I came on board just as a sales guy, they had about 42 salespeople. They would spend a lot of money going across the country, doing these seminars, putting ads in newspapers, that kind of thing. And in 2003, after college, I’d a fraternity brother, I kind of said, this seems inefficient. This seems expensive. We’re not really signing up customers at a good clip. How can we do this a little bit better?

 

[00:17:49] So 2003, you know, it was a big deal, but we were able to get all of the real estate agents email addresses by simply contacting the National Association Realtors and saying, can I get your e-mail addresses? And they’re like, give us money. We’ll give you money. And so my buddy was able to set up servers that emailed them 24/7, which is probably technically spam in today’s it is now. But it’s such an underserved market that it really took off. We got a ton of response and pretty soon I was heading up the sales and marketing. They promoted me. And so I said, all right, I was going, well, we’ve got a good response. Fortunately, we were had to let a lot of salespeople go. We didn’t need them anymore. We didn’t have to spend that money. We made it more efficient. And then we found out another problem.

 

[00:18:34] Once we got them interested, they had to fill out and fax paperwork. So I went back to my fraternity brother and I said, hey, man, can you build me an online forum? Back then, there were the programs today. Yeah. We should probably explain to our listeners what a fax is. Yeah. Yeah. You know, unless you’re in freight forwarding, you probably don’t use for. That’s right. And that’s going to go away. Yeah. Right. Right. But you know, it’s it was an inefficient process again. And so we streamlined it and we went from about a million dollar company to an eighty five million dollar company. You know, when the problems happened with the owners, we went to a third party self-funded health insurance program. You’re usually supposed to give that money to a trusted third party that the owners can’t touch. And that did not happen. They took the premium monies and unfortunately, they went to jail. So I I didn’t have a job at that point. All of a sudden had a brand new baby boy. And me and my wife moved to be near her father in Pensacola. And that’s where I went into the world of media working for the Pensacola News Journal, selling ads actually sell the employment job ads. Six lines, four hundred fifty dollars in an upsell on CareerBuilder.com. And so that was about 2006, really got interested in digital, helped him transition from print to selling digital ads. We were really successful for that paper and eventually working for the newspaper industry. And Gannett get you laid off and not everybody.

 

[00:19:55] But at the time in Florida, the classifieds. Was hit pretty hard. The newspaper industry was doing pretty tough and had to restructure. I was younger. Most of the other managers at the time were older. And my boss at the time, Bobby Rice, said, look, this is going to hurt today, but I’m gonna let you go. I’m gonna lay you off. I’ve gotta lay off somebody. But you’re young and this is gonna suck today. But I’m telling you, you’re gonna look back and be thankful this happened. And sure enough, you know, I got us moving back to Texas where we’re from moved to Frisco. Been there ever since. I worked at a social media startup pretty quickly and eventually kind of went out on my own. And I wasn’t doing anything in the summer of 2012, but serving a few clients on the side. And a headhunter came along looking for Sarah Sissi’s first marketing manager. They’d never marketed the company before. Well, and I didn’t know if I was going to take it, but I kind of did some research in the industry about seven and a half years ago now. And I said, I’m about to kill fish in a barrel when it comes to search engine optimization because there may be a lot of podcasts in content now in Supply chain and I know a lot of companies have a far, far way to go. But then I said, wow, I could probably own this if I just did what I know how to do. And that’s producing content. That search engine optimized content that’s helpful to the target audience. Being open handed, being a connector and giving them value. The process of selling a three P.l is a very consultative solutions based conversation. And so content is perfect for that. You can answer their questions. And so when people get on the Google machine and say, what is LTL freight class, we’re gonna be number one in the world. And we’re a much smaller company than some of our competitors. And so it led us to have a really big competitive advantage.

 

[00:21:36] And your identity is much bigger than your company. It is. Well, we I mean, don’t you think? Absolutely. That’s a good part of any growing company is to look bigger than you are. I used to love that. I mean, I’ve worked at companies and had companies in the past where somebody comes to our corporate office and they go, oh, we thought you were much bigger than this.

 

[00:21:54] I get that all the time. You know, I started getting pretty soon in a couple of years after I started messages from people like the V.P. of FedEx and the other big companies. And they’d be like, how are you beating us on these keywords? How are you eating our lunch? And I go, I know all the secrets. And they said, well, how many peoples on your team? How do you make all this happen? How do you put out a weekly podcast, a blog, a day, two videos a day, a white paper every other week? How do you do that? You must have an army. And I go. Not just me and my video guy, and that’s it. And if I’m telling you, if you can, obviously my career, that story there that I’ve crafted very carefully is it’s really just built on efficiency. You know, what are they trying to do in the supply chain? So I think that’s why I love this supply chain, right? Yeah. On the side in my personal life, I play a lot of Minecraft. It’s a logical block based, a big game. One step in front of the other. And if you can make things efficient, you can do a lot of powerful things for not a lot of money. And it’s just kind of a challenge in a game for me to see how I can outpace people. And really reminds me, if you’ve ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath, right? Yeah. Where they talk about in basketball, the full port, the full court press and teams who did it like Rick Pitino at Louisville, were very successful. Now the purist hate that, right? They hate that’s not the way the game should be played, but not breaking the rule. Right. And it’s hard it’s hard to stick to that discipline. And if you can execute every single day and not let it go as stay with your strategy, you’re gonna outpace a lot of people who you shouldn’t be out.

 

[00:23:25] Yeah, I liked personally like Oliver Purnell at Clemson than his diamond press. I do. Coast to coast, coast to coast. Unfortunately, he moved on to pick up in Minnesota or Chicago. But that diamond pressed to your point that you apply so much pressure. And of course the whole offseason you’re training conditioning to outfit for people, to outhustle people, to outlast people, right? That’s right.

 

[00:23:52] What has a lot to do with the personnel you have destroyed? We had a very short high school team. Right.

 

[00:23:56] I was the tallest guy on the high school team at 6 foot 2. So let’s talk basketball about it. So you’re 8 foot 3 or something, Greg? He’s 8 foot 3 to me. Yeah, I’m 5 foot 1 re-recording that. I don’t like people now. We’ve got a box. Okay. Yeah. I’ll never know.

 

[00:24:12] But you’re right. You got to get at it. Build the engine around the team you got. Tell us about what the company does.

 

[00:24:18] Yeah. It’s a company started in 1998. They did a magical thing back then before Google was even invented. They had their web based E.M.S. onboard. So, you know, they were able to have people not install software. You could go online and you could at that time, LCL, it still is a very complex puzzle. You could put in your information of your shipment details and it would match you to a bunch of LTL carriers. And I think what’s unique about Sarah this is that it’s not just a TMX where, you know, API is come in to a carrier, although there is an option for just that where you can use your rates. But we also offered services or offer services that negotiate those rates on your behalf because often the mid-level market. Shipper, and that’s who primarily the LTL shipper that Sara says serves not the $50 million freight on freight spends or that even the 20 million. But if you’re in that, you know, five, you know, one to ten million dollar freight spend and you’re maybe a distributor out of motive, aftermarket manufacturer, and you kind of have some of these these freight things that, you know, might seem boring and nobody thinks about like the snowplow company. You know, they’re really struggling to find the talent in-house and even afford that talent to justify having them on board because their freight spend is relatively low and it’s tougher to get those rates when you’re spending that low.

 

[00:25:36] But you can’t get those rates if you get buying power from freight because of Sarah Sissi’s national pricing with these carriers, or if you have a higher spend and we can go to each lane and negotiate those on your behalf. So we give that tool for it to be efficient for the shipper at a book freight. You know, we integrate into all of their systems, so it’s sucked in automatically. So you don’t get details wrong. And if anything happens after the fact where there’s a claim or an invoice issue, we’re gonna go on their behalf again and make sure we get that done on their behalf. And so you have an instant freight management team at a fraction of the cost, really didn’t want you to try and find that talent or hire it. And so we’ve continually added on new features. We were one of the first to market to offer all the major e-commerce platforms, you know, Magento Shopify press to shop with commerce, that kind of stuff for LTL. You know, as the world changes and people expect an experience that’s as seamless as Amazon typically in the LTL environment. You didn’t have e-commerce because you didn’t know how to set it up. And this allows you to kind of instantly be on the level playing field of an X sectional experience where, you know, they’re able to manage that process. And they most recently, obviously, LTL shippers are going to have partial needs as the parcel volumes increase.

 

[00:26:49] So we’ve added LTL to parcel rate comparison in real time. And now I think what’s really most attractive in addition to our reverse Logistics product is that final mile side of things. There’s more LTL shippers shipping to consumers at home. We’re talking more about fridges, couches, that kind of stuff. But also imagine the equipment that goes into those little labs, right? And they also need a final mile solution. And so what into into like the labs, right? So like imaging equipment or something that’s really big and that it’s been really difficult for a traditional LCL carrier to get into that small office and radical lab. Yeah. Medical lab. Imagine imagine a big truck trying to get to your office here easily. Be tough. But yes, we experience that actually. Yes. He kind of really need a special’s final mile provider. And so what the the Sarah RSUs system does is it takes that first leg, which primarily might be 95 percent a traditional LTL carrier, but then it automatically hands off into a a final mail carrier. And so that whole process is seamless. And so it’s all about, as I said earlier, delivered. Right. You’re delivering an exceptional experience. And Sara CICE has been there as an advocate, as a partner, weirdness companies. You’re a p0 for freight. p0 for freight. Hey, you are circling like that.

 

[00:28:01] I mean, that’s what it that’s what it sounds like, doesn’t it? I mean, it services you basically say, I want my stuff to get to where I want it. Use Sarasota’s. Take it. That’s right. You handle it. It’s kind of like saying, OK, I want to hand over my employees and all the administration of health care and h are an employee handbooks. I want to hand that off to you trying to add or or 80p or whoever. Yeah. Handle it. And essentially what you do is you take that on for these companies. And I got to tell you, I think that’s a really valuable service because brands today, retailers or direct to consumer manufacturers brands today, they’re very good at what they do and they’re terrible at what is not their core business. That’s right. And why specialize? I mean, if you are LVMH or if you’re, you know, pick pick a brand, if you’re Harry’s razors. Right. Or or whatever. Or Wayfair. Right. Right. Wayfair, get. Be good and be great at what you’re good at.

 

[00:29:00] Know one thing that theme song is, say, the next 18.

 

[00:29:03] Can’t believe you even mentioned it. It’s already in my head already. And I had. Thank you. Thanks a lot. You’re welcome.

 

[00:29:08] You know, it’s the hedgehog concept. The good to great hedgehog concept. Do what you’re best at. Right. And be better than anyone else in the world. And that’s how you make your money.

 

[00:29:18] Yeah. Yeah. One thing. I think that’s what’s most unique in this space is that technically your freight broker. Right? Technically. But, you know, we’re not transactional. We’re very strategic, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And so I think I think that’s what has made us so valuable. You know, hence the big news that we feel. Yeah.

 

[00:29:33] So let’s talk about that, because that is what made you so valuable.

 

[00:29:36] And therefore, yeah, we’ve been acquired by Global Trends, which is the, you know, the eighth largest freight broker in America. And specifically, I think they were interested in some of that final mile reverse Logistics capability and the prowess with LTL. So, yeah, it’s very exciting. We just got that announced, I think a week and a half ago. And I met my new CEO, Rene Krug on Monday. And she’s great. And I can’t wait to see what the two combined efforts are gonna do.

 

[00:30:01] Mm hmm. Yeah, well, it is. I think it opens doors for both companies. It opens doors. But they’ve also been on this is just their latest home run. Yeoville Trans has been owned quite a streak. Eleventh acquisition in two years or three years, BlueBell.

 

[00:30:17] We’ve had their executive chairman, Bob Barot Farrell a couple times. And that’s when we first took notice of of their leadership culture. Some of the advantages, I think twenty nineteen was their year of technology. I think internally. So to see it see the news as it was published that you are joining forces, man. To your point, Greg, it does open all to all sorts of opportunities. So so any anything you can share around what may be the corner around the corner for this newest partnership?

 

[00:30:48] Yeah, I’d like to make note to our audience that there is no PR person off camera to to knock down what you’re about to say. All right. So you got completely free ready on adult go for it. Well, I think even if they were, I think they’d agree with kind of some of this, if you noticed. Perfect.

 

[00:31:04] Appreciate that. But, you know, I think for us, it just makes sense. I talked about that national pricing, right? Yeah. Bigger buying power as an LTL shop at Sarah BCIS truckload happened.

 

[00:31:15] We did that for our customers, but was more like I don’t wanna go any one. Where else right now can you help me? We are opportunistic. Right? Yeah. It was more of that’s not our core. We’re good at it, but we’re going to help our customers. We don’t want to just have them go somewhere else. They’d be silly. But global trends is the flip side issue, right? They have full truckload and they’re darn good at that. And with LTL, LTL happens at their shop too, but it’s a little bit more transactional. So they’ve been very strategic on the full truckload side. We’ve been very strategic on the LTL side. And pretty soon you’re going to see the landing mile. Oh, yeah. I think that’s the big one, right? Is is that final mile piece. And I think that’s what they were most interested in. And that reverse Logistics piece and e-commerce, because all three of those go hand-in-hand. They actually almost can’t be separated so that that suite of products is going to be very attractive. And I think pretty soon what you’re gonna see from global trends and Sarah Saracen’s LTL full truckload, you’re gonna probably see some more focus on partial as well. And I think Renay is the right CEO for to lead us into that vision.

 

[00:32:16] And I think with those combined efforts, you’re just going to get more greatness out of both. And I think what I want to bring from a marketing perspective, when we all join forces and become one big brand, is just to let the folks know that you have a partner long term, that you’re not in this fight alone and that you’re gonna be able to achieve your goals because we’re there with you and to continue kind of that spirit of being a good company for people to deal with. Because if you’ve been afraid at any point and it’s getting a lot better, the word freight broker can sometimes hark in this sense in a freight manager that Digitas trying to get margins. They’re trying to gouge me. I don’t need them. I could do this on my own. And yeah, maybe it can. But can you do it as well? Can you do it as efficiently? And when you get numbers that are in the millions of freight, it gets harder and harder and harder to keep that talent and to do it quickly. So I think it’s going to help shippers at large. And I’m I’m really excited to see what we’re gonna do.

 

[00:33:07] We are, too. We are. Really need to see. These two companies that we’ve been tracking for quite some time join forces, so congrats.

 

[00:33:13] These are bittersweet for me, right? I mean, the last seven years I have been WSIS and Adam Robinson. Just like that. And, you know, I’m on these videos. I’m on this podcast on as a representative of Saracen’s. And even our owner, Ludde, Steve Ludvigsen, he said, I can’t you know, I’ll have no qualms about the brand going away. And I was like, what kind of do. I kind of do.

 

[00:33:33] He doesn’t have qualms because he’s getting a multimillion dollar check.

 

[00:33:36] That’s why he doesn’t have any qualms about it. That’s so true.

 

[00:33:39] So let’s let’s switch gears from that good news to some more good news. So till share with our audience what brings you to Atlanta.

 

[00:33:46] Yeah. Well, so a couple of months ago, it was brought to my attention an award called the Alliance Award. And it’s put out by Logistics management in partnership with s.m C-3. And I just had the jump start conference. Essam C-3 is a great Atlanta company. Yeah. Right. Yellen. So, you know, they’ve always been a provider of some of their products to us for our ratings. So we’ve been going to jump start. Our carrier relations team goes there for forever. And so, you know, we put together the award is all about alliance and people working together. And I think we were able to tell some really cool, compelling stories of true collaboration and supply chain achieving amazing results. So we have a couple of resellers, agency partners that resell Saracen’s. One of them is Motus Logistics. And they had two customers that came to us, Fleck’s, Austin, Texas. All that we’d helped, you know, kind of reduce some of their their costs in freight.

 

[00:34:40] But as we kind of got more integrated with the customer, we were able to, you know, have the TMX integrate into their ERP.

 

[00:34:45] They started getting some of those details coming in without any errors, but because they have more of a dimensional kind of freight, which is a little bit hard to get accurate and because carriers actually purchased, Dimensionalize was so describe.. dimensional for our listeners who might not know LTL freight clas. Traditionally it’s a 90 year old class system at this point in MFC puts this out. Happy birthday.

 

[00:35:07] Yeah, pretty old, but it’s, you know, as it was based on things like ability, how hard it was to carry the weight and somewhat the space. It wasn’t really about the space, but more and more as LTL carriers are trying to remain profitable, as we’ve seen with bankruptcies on any MF last year in Celadon. And you know, they’re really starting to move towards this more dimensional pricing. So it’s going to be cubing that out. So it’s the focus is more on the space that it takes up.

 

[00:35:36] Pyeong with the weight huba adjusted weight is the old term. Yeah, right. That’s big in the food industry. And Parslow has been doing Dem pricing a little more for, you know, a lot more years than LTL has. And I think ultimately it’s really apropos of blog we published today on Sayres Ask.com Forward Slash blog promo. You know what LTL freight class and how we’re kind of seeing as hybridized class system with the new dimensional pricing. And so these new customers were had freight that was more apt for dimensional pricing.

 

[00:36:06] And and so, you know, they were having issues with maybe not getting those accurate or they were getting a bunch of Ridgway’s and reclass is. And so they had to spend the man hours and the touchpoints to to deal with the auditing and kind of capture that back and get it get it right. And so Motus, one of their veep’s JAHREN clop, Stein, who represented us on a panel yesterday at the conference. You know, he had this idea. I said, well, the carriers have dimensionalize hours. What if the shippers have dimensionalize hours? And so he reached out to a company called Freight SNAP. And in working with Freight SNAP, our Sarah WSIS technology department, we have an in-house team. So that gives us a lot of power to do these kinds of things. And obviously, these trustor cost customers trusted him. We were able to kind of bring Motus, the seller, the two customers, Sara sis- and Freight SNAP together, where we integrated freight snap into Saracen’s. So when that dimensionalize are at their location, capture those details. Then it automatically went into the Ryder and it decreased their amount of instances of freeway’s and re classes considerably. They will they add an extra 5 percent of savings overall in freight reduction. That’s a big deal and it really took that true collaboration, putting the customer’s problems at the heart of it and using technology and the resources that you have and getting a little creative to get those results. And I think that is most likely why we won the Alliance Award for the first time.

 

[00:37:25] Congratulations. SABC Three is a well respected organizations with decades of service industry happened to be headquartered in the metro Atlanta area. Think in Peachtree City technically and that jump start event is a well attended annual event. A lot of great best practices. Always great keynotes in exceptional transportation networking, which I’m sure you all enjoyed this week.

 

[00:37:46] Absolutely. So congratulations. Let’s talk podcast. Yeah. And we could probably talk about this for hours. So I want to I want to capture this kind of an assignment because I really value your past. If you can’t tell. Not only does Adam bring passion to the table and professionally, he gets marketing, he gets content generation. He gets like. Broadcast journalism feel. But man, you can just tell by listening to you wanted your stuff. You know, the industry just listening, the insiders, the companies, you mentioned the developments. You will. It is just like flowing out of you. So let’s talk about this freight project podcast and let’s talk about namely, what was the genesis when when you launched it? And why do you do it?

 

[00:38:31] Well, you know, I think podcast in general in the consumer market, the world were just sorta taken off. This is about 2017. I believe. No. 18. 2018 is when we first launched it in August, first episode with Mr. Steve Ludvigsen, the only one because I am not sure he likes to be on the bottom.

 

[00:38:49] Is that right? He gets a little nervous, but he’s good at it.

 

[00:38:53] That’s like a lot of people. Lot people get nervous, but they’re natural communicators. Yeah. He’s got to convince them that, you know, the folks won’t hear him.

 

[00:38:59] Well, all you gotta tell him is we’re recording this and we’ll edit it for you.

 

[00:39:03] And then they’re like, oh, yeah, that’s okay. That’s what I do. You know, adding part’s pretty fun, too.

 

[00:39:07] If I say 40 times, you’re gonna cut could 30 of them.

 

[00:39:13] Yeah, I think that’s actually his exact thing. He hates that. He sounds and he says the word quite a bit. I sing quite a bit. I say, you know, quite a bit as you only you only know those things cause you and I have to edit the podcasts themselves. But I think for me the biggest thing is that it kinda goes back to freight. Right. And there’s so many players around ultimately getting freight delivered and freight into the hands of your customer. There’s a lot of details that go into it. It’s a big umbrella and every part of the supply chain impacts freight. And you can’t, you know, isolate yourself from the possibility of what your audience is wanting to receive in the way of information. Their job title might be director of Supply chain. It might be CEO. It might be just freight co-ordinator. But they’re all going to have varying levels of understanding, varying levels of information. And I love to weave in not only some of the experts at Sarah sis- and their voices of what their day to day job is. I don’t think enough marketers get their people on board to state. Here’s what I do for my job. Here’s the value I give to customers. And as a marketer, I don’t want to tell that story alone. I want them to tell that story.

 

[00:40:17] It’s also a great way for me to continue to understand the intimate details of how our company operates and embed that in everything else we do. But I think the most exciting part is if I would take the first day of the podcast today, I’ve had no better education and I. Sure, you guys can agree by having some of these experts on and just hearing them talk about what they know and what they do. And it’s very important for me. I think a lot of people and companies, especially marketers, are afraid to have SMI competitors on board. And I’m not. It’s not about necessarily shutting out your competitors. Right, because your audience is going to know that’s sort of biased and you’re curtailing this and there’s some element to that. And all we do, and rightly so, that’s a function of my job. But, you know, if I can get people on who truly are smart and can add value, we’re the ones pushing it out. Yeah, my name’s on it. Their names on it. Services is on it. And, you know, I really just appreciate what they have to bring to the table. And we kind of do more of a a very big Q&A kind of format. I wanted to be really educational and listenable. Yes.

 

[00:41:20] I like. I love that word.

 

[00:41:22] Well, listenable. To do this job right, you have to be naturally curious. Yep. Right. I mean, you don’t do most of the talking. You know, sometimes that you shouldn’t you shouldn’t do most of the talking. But you have to be naturally curious. And I think, you know, I’ve been in the supply chain for this is my code word, Adam, over two decades. And and, you know, when I when I was in retail, I we launched paedos and we had this dark room with what I thought were really creepy people. We called expediters and they handled all of what you guys handle. So I just launched a p.O and then screamed to get it there on time and other people handled that. And just doing doing supply chain. Now, I have learned so much about the inner workings of transportation particularly. That’s probably the area where I was least educated. And it’s so valuable and so necessary today because consumers are more aware of supply chain. More than ever that they even say supply chain is astounding to me.

 

[00:42:29] And last year you started hearing it conservers saying Supply chain. That’s Amazon’s fault in a way, but in a good way, great weather, whether our whether we like the expectations they set or not. And some of them are tough to me, but we’re all trying very hard. And I think doing it quite well is that Amazon isn’t really a retail company. At least they’re selling part Daryl Logistics company and kind of like Wayfair. Right. And if they’re good at Logistics and their customer receives their product on time, it’s a good experience the entire way. They’re going to keep using it. They’re going to tell their friends. Right. So, you know, it’s all about that.

 

[00:43:03] It is. And I would argue just maitake. We had a great Twitter exchange here recently. Where? We’re we’re pretty passionate that the supply chain into an industry does not get there’s not enough awareness of it.

 

[00:43:15] We’ve gone in the schools dozens of time with a Supply chain win win project where we’re talking and we’ve all got small kids, but we go into a variety of schools taught third, fourth and fifth graders and they don’t. They’re very sharp, but supply chain soon critical roles in Supply chain. There’s not a ton of practical education around that. I’m letting them up those stones. But what that leads to folks like like me, where I graduate college, never having set foot into a warehouse or manufacturing facility, much less know what the opportunities are around these these incredibly world changing industries. So what I like about Amazon and what I would propose is happening is to your point, consumers do care. And then a lot of consumers are smart, but some are one or two. How in the world can something get here in two days or less? And I look at three things. We’re not incursions behavior, but look at three things we don’t like to whom we sit on our doorstep and it goes back in my account magically there. They’re curious about that. And for all the things Amazon is doing. And to your point to both y’alls point, holy cow. What the shortlist is, what they’re not doing. The one good thing from all of that I think they’re doing is they are putting a spotlight on all those things that take place and maybe not defining it. But a lot of consumers are wanting to know more about this industry. And that’s a great thing because this industry has got it is competing for the top talent, unlike not again, it’s not about 20 years ago, but these days it’s competing Gates, financial services, professional services, the tech that the non supply chain technology industry for the top talent, all these channel technology.

 

[00:44:54] Yes. Yes. It’s competing against technology.

 

[00:44:57] Right. Yeah. I mean that’s what that’s ultimately what Saracen’s are in global trends has to be as well. Right. Because you may work at a company Lu ships freight, but at the same time you it’s probably difficult to also have a technology team who can make that happen as efficiently as possible without spending a lot of money. That’s right. So, you know, it’s incumbent, I think, upon those technology providers, these big freight brokers, these big companies to educate the marketplace, to let them know how serious this stuff is. It ultimately is the backbone of our economy. Yes. You know, you started off at the U.S. NCA being ratified, and that’s gonna have a huge impact on the Supply chain in a positive way. And, you know, everything we do ties back to that supply chain. And so I think we’ve got to become more aware. But it’s also on us to make those aware.

 

[00:45:41] Yes, I’m with you. All right. So let’s shift gears and focus. We want to make sure the freight project podcast, you could find that wherever you get podcast from. You have one favorite channel where you get your podcast, Froome.

 

[00:45:51] I use Google Play, believe it or not. Yeah. Yeah. An Android phone. I’m an Android phone user and I always have been. I have.

 

[00:45:58] If you go to my LinkedIn profile, you will see my horrible note that I wrote to Steve Jobs, R.I.P. my bad. I’m sorry you were live then. And I basically it said that eventually because of Apple’s closed system of development, although it makes really great products and all of that, I think eventually that non openness will come to hurt them in the long run. Yeah. Well and I think Google did in the 80s. It did. That’s what cost him his job. He first and without.

 

[00:46:26] This is a much more open environment than it was in the 80s.

 

[00:46:30] Yeah. Not that I was around. Totally. I mean, you look at a bounce, right? The the most profitable thing that not the most profitable a big profitable part of Apple right now are those airports. And they purchased another company to get there. And that was not going on as much except, you know, where Steve Jobs was around is a very big closed system. And I think we’re gonna see more openness. But if you look at Apple, you know, where are they on VR, where Facebooks owning now with Oculus, where are they on self-driving cars? Google’s pretty far ahead with waymo and some other things with Tesla. That’s because I think they open up more collaboration and more innovative ideas and more diversity.

 

[00:47:08] And I think you’re going to see Mr. Cook, who’s a supply chain guy, by the way. I think that’s kind of one of the things that you’re going to see and why Apple eventually will price cut down those walls. But yeah, I like listening to a podcast on Google Play, but you can find it on Spotify, i-Tunes, all of that stuff everywhere.

 

[00:47:28] Yeah. You mean some waymo Wimoweh, just, of course, as you know, expanded some of their autonomous vehicles, operate a testing in Texas and one other someone Sherkin. I’m in Arizona. Arizona. Autonomous Trucking in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Yeah. So I’m not sure what’s the closest interstate where first go is looking.

 

[00:47:45] We’re Dallas North Tollway is a big one. But then next to that is probably ten thirty five tenths down in Austin. Okay.

 

[00:47:51] So it’s 10, 20 and 45 that you can expect to see the vehicles on in.

 

[00:47:55] So in Texas, snapshots as you’re taking the family to the Sunday after church dinner and you pass by the autonomous truck choosing to give him a wink. Yes. Let’s see if those robots the up blow their horn that.

 

[00:48:09] I love doing that as a kid. My kids don’t do that, and I think that’s one of those lost. That is your fault. It is my you should turn it. And boy, just like technology companies got to educate the marketplace on what they do need to help my kids figure out how their kids forecki. How did you miss that? We got to cut that part out so people know that.

 

[00:48:28] So let’s talk let’s broaden it back out. And, you know, when you think about this global India in Supply chain space, that’s changing by the second. It feels like some somedays. You know what? What issues or trends or something? Developments in the industry? What what are one or two things that are on your radar that you’re tracking or find more intriguing than anything else?

 

[00:48:49] Yeah, that this is a people driven business and that will put more focus on talent, rightly so, as you mentioned, on the customers and their experience.

 

[00:48:58] But I also think working better together that it’s not a zero sum game. A man that, if it was me, probably wouldn’t work well. Supply chain. And it’s an old adage you’re only as strong as your weakest link, right. And if you allow yourself to be so defensive in working with vendors, partners or quasi competitors, just look at the story I told about what one? The Alliance award. Imagine if the egos were in there, if there wasn’t an open conversation, if there wasn’t trust. You took people to get that over the line and a lot of different kinds of people, you know, and the supply chain is not just warehouses. There’s a lot of them. We actually have a capacity glut right now in warehouses going on. And that’s not a bad thing. And I think that’s you know, why we’ve seen an 11 year bull run in the economy. Not because I say this all the time. It’s not because necessarily any president or any Congress is doing anything. By the way, we’ve run deficits, we run the economy, people, not politicians. And no one should get credit for it, although there are things that can help. I think it’s because Supply chain has become really good at handling inventory. Inventory is cash. And if there’s much inventory and not enough demand, that’s when you start seeing recessions. And so I think the more we put people at the center of that who rely on good partners and good tools, we’re gonna continue to see a great economy. You know, and there’s not going to maybe be five percent growth, but I think I’d rather have 10, 11 years of two and a half to three percent than years where it’s low and years where it’s spiking. What we’re getting actually is stability. And hopefully we can’t get a surplus because we do have a deficit that’s getting pretty big. But, you know, and I think once again, it’s going to be the folks in the Supply chain that ultimately help that, too.

 

[00:50:37] Yeah. So how can we make sure? Well, of course, will include links in the show notes. How can folks learn more about you and connect with you and seriousness. And of course, we’ve talked about the podcast. We’ll include link there as well. But the Web site or so the adventure going to be clearly over here in Atlanta. Yeah. Jump start.

 

[00:50:59] Yeah. Oh, definitely. Sarah, this dot com and Sarah BCIS on Twitter and and me on Twitter. Adam Robinson CDM. So pretty lively community over the last year, if I have to say so myself, building there where I think we’re ussery or a big part of that. But there’s a lot of great folks out there on Twitter, so I really encourage more and more folks to get on there and join.

 

[00:51:21] So let’s dispel that notion. Rob Cook was I think there’s so many folks that think of Twitter, maybe then they were Trident or maybe maybe they’ve had a previous experience. Yes. Yeah. But to your point, there are from a news and content ideas from from really kind of interpersonal relationship communities. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it really is. I mean Twitter is such a get such a bad rap sometimes.

 

[00:51:43] Well you have a you have new found ability to refine what’s coming at you in Twitter. I mean it’s it’s Hurley timeline. Right. I came over and I felt overwhelmed by Twitter and lots of stuff that I was not interested in. Right now you can refine it much like you can on LinkedIn. You can refine what’s coming at you and you can you can limit it to what you’re interested in. So I think if you haven’t been on Twitter in awhile, give it a shot. Supply chain. Actually, yeah, it can actually be a valuable business tool.

 

[00:52:13] Yeah, I feel like we’re all buddies before we ever met, you know, and it’s great. I mean, we rely on each other a little bit. We help each other out and it’s fantastic. I think we’re all better for it.

 

[00:52:22] Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s kind of a airbrushed talks about a digital one these days.

 

[00:52:27] But, you know, they’re already in Supply chain, you know, having been the military Supply chain was the closest you could really get to that. That camaraderie in that that everyone is kind of pointing towards one mission which is taking care of the customer and the right things, the right price, right place on time. And there’s little that it spills over that sense of community that since the camaraderie that spills right over into a social media chain where it actually is Kathee like say social media can be social, you know.

 

[00:52:54] Absolutely. Absolutely. We have some good football discussions on there.

 

[00:52:58] I already know you guys are rooting for everybody. Super Bowl. I’m rooting for. But they deserve it.

 

[00:53:05] Yeah. Thank you. You deserve it. If D.

 

[00:53:09] Man, come on. He talk about a outlier. That guy is breaking the rules and I love it.

 

[00:53:15] Yeah, we did too. Yeah. Okay. We’ve been chat with Avin. Adam Robinson, marketing manager with Cirrhosis Will award winning organization.

 

[00:53:24] That’s right. And rightly acquired. So very, very hot commodity right now.

 

[00:53:28] Right. Well, you know what? After things kind of settle out and the wiring is kind of taking place and and things have gotten aligned and some of these awesome doors of opportunity y’all be able to walk through. Have you back? Absolutely. And we’ll get an update on kind of what lies ahead of that point. World dominance.

 

[00:53:45] That’s our header. The world is not going to be collaborative until we done.

 

[00:53:51] Well, that’s what Amazon Oracle is. Right. To our listeners, you can learn more about Sarah, this series, this dot com birley. Appreciate coming on, Adam. Thanks for having me. All right. So, Greg, we going to wrap up today on a couple of upcoming events we’re gonna be at.

 

[00:54:05] We invite our audience come out and checks out in person. In the meantime, if you can’t find what you’re looking for with it, should note something we’ve said here today. Previous podcast, you name it. Shoot us a note to Amanda at Supply Chain Now Radio WSJ.com and you have tried to be a bot for you. We’ll try to serve you as a resource as best we can. Okay. So what’s coming up top of the list?

 

[00:54:27] Well, depending on when this publishes, either will be or will have just been at reverse. Logistics association. Right? RLA.

 

[00:54:38] Org that is in Vegas baby for February 4th through the 6th.

 

[00:54:42] And thanks to Tony Serota, by the way, for getting us tickets to the Beatles Love Show, which we hear is one of the best in Vegas.

 

[00:54:48] Got to see Paul McCartney live last year. Not really as big moment. Mike Me, my kids in my life.

 

[00:54:53] Man Yeah, especially daughter who plays. Oh, yeah. For the four instruments that she walk away. Oh, she was. Yeah. They’re big into the Beatles. That’s their favorite band. Well, this this EPSA part puppet, after this event, we’re looking forward. We will have just been. That’s right. In Vegas, baby. That’s right there. We can edit all the other rest of it.

 

[00:55:10] Yes. We’re it’s all about reverse Logistics and return. So we’ll have some key takeaways from that show. On the other side. And then, of course. mutex.

 

[00:55:17] Yeah. motets show dot com. Thirty five thousand of your closest friends in Supply chain. You’re gonna be there? No, not this year. Our next shows, Home Delivery World, focusing on the final mile. I’m telling you, this Moto X thing is cool. They are building little conveyor systems and materials handling systems. It’s like tiny little warehouse. I see tiny. They’re 50 by 50 right now.

 

[00:55:39] Warehouses on the show floor. It’s amazing. That’s pretty cool. Yeah. Not the main one.

 

[00:55:43] It is. And on March 10th, with Moto X as a backdrop, they’re hosting our 2020 Supply chain Awards. We’re excited to have Kristian Fisher, president CEO of Georgia-Pacific, as our keynote sponsorships, registrations and nominations are still open in particular. It’s not innately nominations, but nominations. We’ve got a slew of them. But here we as we move into the final stretch, we have made February 15th our deadline. So get those in. So to quit your ls there, as Greg mentioned, mode X showcase mode X is free to go to. Yeah. Excellent networking, great breast best practice sharing and kind of market intel gathering MDX show dot com. And then of course, Lina Supply chain words. We have a very convoluted Eurail for this one. Note with Greg.

 

[00:56:25] Very complicated. Yes, it’s the Atlanta. It’s Atlanta. Supply chain Awards dot com.

 

[00:56:31] We dropped the the like they said, a social network. Right. Drop of the snow. Yeah. I don’t know how we came up with that. Our grasp for the obvious is incredible. Adam consulted with us as well. It’s probably my fault. I’ll take the blame by then.

 

[00:56:45] Amy, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence is bringing its lean summit back to Atlanta. Great regional event. Although last year we had folks coast-to-coast big team from California came out May 4th to the 7th and be all about lean contains improvement manufacturing, best practices. We are going to be on site streaming live on May 4th as that event kicks off A.M.E. DOT award or for any of these events. You can check out our events tab at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com to learn too, because it’s changing fast.

 

[00:57:14] It is changing. We have shows that are coming up and some that are too far out to announce. But even radio, we’re going to have a busy summer. Yes, even radio is disappearing. We haven’t we have really, Chad as a whole. You haven’t noticed Lu re-brand. If you’re if you’re watching this on YouTube. Yes. You can see our new brand. We did drop radio because we felt like forewords was too much. And and clearly sometimes one word for me is too much. And my children don’t know what a radio is.

 

[00:57:42] So my non-evil well, so really enjoy the conversation. Vay Yeah, another great episode to our audience. Be sure to check out other upcoming events, replays of our interviews, other resources at Supply chain. Now Radio Okarma still in New York. You can finally sample podcast SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube, Google Play where you find the freight project podcast. Be sure to subscribe to your missing thing on behalf the entire. Team Scott Luton here wishing you a wonderful week ahead and we’ll see you next time on Supply chain Now.  Thanks everybody.

Featured Guests

Adam Robinson serves as Marketing Manager for Cerasis, where he oversees the overall marketing strategy for the company including website development, social media and content marketing, trade show marketing, email campaigns, and webinar marketing. Cerasis is a third party logistics company that has a strong focus on technology and managed transportation services. The company was recently acquired by GlobalTranz, one of the world’s largest logistics services providers and 3PLs. Learn more about Cerasis: https://cerasis.com/

Hosts

Greg White

Principal & Host

Scott W. Luton

Founder, CEO, & Host

You May Also Like

Click to view other episodes in this program

Additional Links & Resources

Subscribe to Supply Chain Now

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn

Connect with Greg on LinkedIn

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn

SCN Ranked #1 Supply Chain Podcast via FeedSpot

Gartner Supply Chain Symposium in Orlando

SCNR to Broadcast Live at MODEX 2020

SCNR to Broadcast Live at AME Atlanta 2020 Lean Summit

2020 Atlanta Supply Chain Awards

SCNR on YouTube

The Latest Issue of the Supply Chain Pulse

Learn More about Resilience360

Coronavirus Impact on Supply Chain Operations

2020 AIAG Supply Chain Summit

2020 AIAG Corporate Responsibility Summit

Check Out Our Sponsors

Demo Perez

Host, Supply Chain Now en Espanol

Demo Perez started his career in 1997 in the industry by chance when a relative asked him for help for two just weeks putting together an operation for FedEx Express at the Colon Free Zone, an area where he was never been but accepted the challenge. Worked in all roles possible from a truck driver to currier to a sales representative, helped the brand introduction, market share growth and recognition in the Colon Free Zone, at the end of 1999 had the chance to meet and have a chat with Fred Smith ( FedEx CEO), joined another company in 2018 who took over the FedEx operations as Operations and sales manager, in 2004 accepted the challenge from his company to leave the FedEx operations and business to take over the operation and business of DHL Express, his major competitor and rival so couldn’t say no, by changing completely its operation model in the Free Zone. In 2005 started his first entrepreneurial journey by quitting his job and joining two friends to start a Freight Forwarding company. After 8 months was recruited back by his company LSP with the General Manager role with the challenge of growing the company and make it fully capable warehousing 3PL. By 2009 joined CSCMP and WERC and started his journey of learning and growing his international network and high-level learning. In 2012 for the first time joined a local association ( the Panama Maritime Chamber) and worked in the country’s first Logistics Strategy plan, joined and lead other associations ending as president of the Panama Logistics Council in 2017. By finishing his professional mission at LSP with a company that was 8 times the size it was when accepted the role as GM with so many jobs generated and several young professionals coached, having great financial results, took the decision to move forward and start his own business from scratch by the end of 2019. with a friend and colleague co-founded IPL Group a company that started as a boutique 3PL and now is gearing up for the post-Covid era by moving to the big leagues.

Connect on :

Mary Kate Love

VP, Marketing

Mary Kate Love is currently the VP of marketing at Supply Chain Now focused on brand strategy and audience + revenue growth. Mary Kate’s career is a testament to her versatility and innovative spirit: she has experience in start-ups, venture capital, and building innovation initiatives from the ground up: she previously helped lead the build-out of the Supply Chain Innovation Center at Georgia-Pacific and before that, MxD (Manufacturing times Digital): the Department of Defense’s digital manufacturing innovation center. Mary Kate has a passion for taking complicated ideas and turning them into reality: she was one of the first team members at MxD and the first team member at the Supply Chain Innovation Center at Georgia-Pacific.

Mary Kate dedicates her extra time to education and mentorship: she was one of the founding Board Members for Women Influence Chicago and led an initiative for a city-wide job shadow day for young women across Chicago tech companies and was previously on the Board of Directors at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Young Irish Fellowship Board and the UN Committee for Women. Mary Kate is the founder of National Supply Chain Day and enjoys co-hosting podcasts at Supply Chain Now. Mary Kate is from the south side of Chicago, a mom of two baby boys, and an avid 16-inch softball player. She holds a BS in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Connect on :

Joshua Miranda

Marketing Specialist

Joshua is a student from Institute of Technology and Higher Education of Monterrey Campus Guadalajara in Communication and Digital Media. His experience ranges from Plug and Play México, DearDoc, and Nissan México creating unique social media marketing campaigns and graphics design. Joshua helps to amplify the voice of supply chain here at Supply Chain Now by assisting in graphic design, content creation, asset logistics, and more.  In his free time he likes to read and write short stories as well as watch movies and television series.

Donna Krache

Director of Communications and Executive Producer

Donna Krache is a former CNN executive producer who has won several awards in journalism and communication, including three Peabodys.  She has 30 years’ experience in broadcast and digital journalism. She led the first production team at CNN to convert its show to a digital platform. She has authored many articles for CNN and other media outlets. She taught digital journalism at Georgia State University and Arizona State University. Krache holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of New Orleans. She is a serious sports fan who loves the Braves. She is president of the Dave Krache Foundation. Named in honor of her late husband, this non-profit pays fees for kids who want to play sports but whose parents are facing economic challenges.

Connect on :

Vicki White

Controller

Vicki has a long history of rising to challenges and keeping things up and running. First, she supported her family’s multi-million dollar business as controller for 12 years, beginning at the age of 17. Then, she worked as an office manager and controller for a wholesale food broker. But her biggest feat? Serving as the chief executive officer of her household, while her entrepreneur husband travelled the world extensively. She fed, nurtured, chaperoned, and chauffeured three daughters all while running a newsletter publishing business and remaining active in her community as a Stephen’s Minister, Sunday school teacher, school volunteer, licensed realtor and POA Board president (a title she holds to this day). A force to be reckoned with in the office, you might think twice before you meet Vicki on the tennis court! When she’s not keeping the books balanced at Supply Chain Now or playing tennis matches, you can find Vicki spending time with her husband Greg, her 4 fur babies, gardening, cleaning (yes, she loves to clean!) and learning new things.

Connect on :

Katherine Hintz

Creative Director, Producer, Host

Katherine Hintz, MBA is a marketing professional who strives to unite her love of people with a passion for positive experiences. Having a diverse background, which includes nonprofit work with digital marketing and start-ups, she serves as a leader who helps people live their most creative lives by cultivating community, order, collaboration, and respect. With equal parts creativity and analytics, she brings a unique skill set which fosters refining, problem solving, and connecting organizations with their true vision. In her free time, you can usually find her looking for her cup of coffee, playing with her puppy Charlie, and dreaming of her next road trip.

Connect on :

Kim Reuter

Host, The Freight Insider

From humble beginnings working the import docks, representing Fortune 500 giants, Ford, Michelin Tire, and Black & Decker; to Amazon technology patent holder and Nordstrom Change Leader, Kimberly Reuter has designed, implemented, and optimized best-in-class, highly scalable global logistics and retail operations all over the world. Kimberly’s ability to set strategic vision supported by bomb-proof processes, built on decades of hands-on experience, has elevated her to legendary status. Sought after by her peers and executives for her intellectual capital and keen insights, Kimberly is a thought leader in the retail logistics industry.

Connect on :

Kristi Porter

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Kristi Porter is VP of Sales and Marketing at Vector Global Logistics, a company that is changing the world through supply chain. In her role, she oversees all marketing efforts and supports the sales team in doing what they do best. In addition to this role, she is the Chief Do-Gooder at Signify, which assists nonprofits and social impact companies through copywriting and marketing strategy consulting. She has almost 20 years of professional experience, and loves every opportunity to help people do more good.

Connect on :

Sofia Rivas Herrera

Host, Supply Chain Now en Espanol

Sofia Rivas Herrera is a Mexican Industrial Engineer from Tecnologico de Monterrey class 2019. Upon graduation, she earned a scholarship to study MIT’s Graduate Certificate in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and graduated as one of the Top 3 performers of her class in 2020. She also has a multicultural background due to her international academic experiences at Singapore Management University and Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg. Sofia self-identifies as a Supply Chain enthusiast & ambassador sharing her passion for the field in her daily life.

Connect on :

Katherine Hintz

Sales and Marketing Coordinator

Katherine is a marketing professional and MBA candidate who strives to unite her love of people with a passion for positive experiences. Having a diverse background, which includes nonprofit work with digital marketing and start-ups, she serves as a leader who helps people live their most creative lives by cultivating community, order, collaboration, and respect. With equal parts creativity and analytics, she brings a unique skill set which fosters refining, problem solving, and connecting organizations with their true vision. In her free time, you can usually find her looking for her cup of coffee, playing with her puppy Charlie, and dreaming of her next road trip.

Connect on :

Kim Winter

Host, Supply Chain Now

The founder of Logistics Executive Group, Kim Winter delivers 40 years of executive leadership experience spanning Executive Search & Recruitment, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Corporate Advisory, Motivational Speaking, Trade Facilitation and across the Supply Chain, Logistics, 3PL, E-commerce, Life Science, Cold Chain, FMCG, Retail, Maritime, Defence, Aviation, Resources, and Industrial sectors. Operating from the company’s global offices, he is a regular contributor of thought leadership to industry and media, is a professional Master of Ceremonies, and is frequently invited to chair international events.

He is a Board member of over a dozen companies throughout APAC, India, and the Middle East, a New Zealand citizen, he holds formal resident status in Australia and the UAE, and is the Australia & New Zealand representative for the UAE Government-owned Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), the Middle East’s largest Economic Free Zone.

A triathlete and ex-professional rugby player, Kim is a qualified (IECL Sydney) executive coach and the Founder / Chairman of the successful not for profit humanitarian organization, Oasis Africa (www. oasisafrica.org.au), which has provided freedom from poverty through education to over 8000 mainly orphaned children in East Africa’s slums. Kim holds an MBA and BA from Massey & Victoria Universities (NZ).

Connect on :

Adrian Purtill

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Adrian Purtill serves as Business Development Manager at Vector Global Logistics, where he consults with importers and exporters in various industries to match their specific shipping requirements with the most effective supply chain solutions. Vector Global Logistics is an asset-free, multi-modal logistics company that provides exceptional sea freight, air freight, truck, rail, general logistic services and consulting for our clients. Our highly trained and professional team is committed to providing creative and effective solutions, always exceeding our customer’s expectations and fostering long-term relationships. With more than 20+ years of experience in both strategy consulting and logistics, Vector Global Logistics is your best choice to proactively minimize costs while having an exceptional service level.

Connect on :

Kevin Brown

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Kevin Brown is the Director of Business Development for Vector Global Logistics.  He has a dedicated interest in Major Account Management, Enterprise Sales, and Corporate Leadership. He offers 25 years of exceptional experience and superior performance in the sales of Logistics, Supply Chain, and Transportation Management. Kevin is a dynamic, high-impact, sales executive and corporate leader who has consistently exceeded corporate goals. He effectively coordinates multiple resources to solution sell large complex opportunities while focusing on corporate level contacts across the enterprise. His specialties include targeting and securing key accounts by analyzing customer’s current business processes and developing solutions to meet their corporate goals. Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.

Connect on :

Jose Miguel Irarrazaval

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Jose Manuel Irarrazaval es parte del equipo de Vector Global Logistics Chile. José Manuel es un gerente experimentado con experiencia en finanzas corporativas, fusiones y adquisiciones, financiamiento y reestructuración, inversión directa y financiera, tanto en Chile como en el exterior. José Manuel tiene su MBA de la Universidad de Pennsylvania- The Wharton School. Conéctese con Jose Manuel en LinkedIn.

Connect on :

Nick Roemer

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Nick Roemer has had a very diverse and extensive career within design and sales over the last 15 years stretching from China, Dubai, Germany, Holland, UK, and the USA. In the last 5 years, Nick has developed a hawk's eye for sustainable tech and the human-centric marketing and sales procedures that come with it. With his far-reaching and strong network within the logistics industry, Nick has been able to open new avenues and routes to market within major industries in the USA and the UAE. Nick lives by the ethos, “Give more than you take." His professional mission is to make the logistics industry leaner, cleaner and greener.

Connect on :

Allison Giddens

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Allison Krache Giddens has been with Win-Tech, a veteran-owned small business and aerospace precision machine shop, for 15 years, recently buying the company from her mentor and Win-Tech’s Founder, Dennis Winslow. She and her business partner, John Hudson now serve as Co-Presidents, leading the 33-year old company through the pandemic.

She holds undergraduate degrees in psychology and criminal justice from the University of Georgia, a Masters in Conflict Management from Kennesaw State University, a Masters in Manufacturing from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Certificate of Finance from the University of Georgia. She also holds certificates in Google Analytics, event planning, and Cybersecurity Risk Management from Harvard online. Allison founded the Georgia Chapter of Women in Manufacturing and currently serves as Treasurer. She serves on the Chattahoochee Technical College Foundation Board as its Secretary, the liveSAFE Resources Board of Directors as Resource Development Co-Chair, and on the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association Board as Membership Chair and is also a member of Cobb Executive Women. She is on the Board for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Northwest Area Councils. Allison runs The Dave Krache Foundation, a non-profit that helps pay sports fees for local kids in need.

Connect on :

Billy Taylor

Host of Dial P for Procurement

Billy Taylor is a Proven Business Excellence Practitioner and Leadership Guru with over 25 years leading operations for a Fortune 500 company, Goodyear. He is also the CEO of LinkedXL (Excellence), a Business Operating Systems Architecting Firm dedicated to implementing sustainable operating systems that drive sustainable results. Taylor’s achievements in the industry have made him a Next Generational Lean pacesetter with significant contributions.

An American business executive, Taylor has made a name for himself as an innovative and energetic industry professional with an indispensable passion for his craft of operational excellence. His journey started many years ago and has worked with renowned corporations such as The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) leading multi-site operations. With over 3 decades of service leading North America operations, he is experienced in a deeply rooted process driven approach in customer service, process integrity for sustainability.

A disciple of continuous improvement, Taylor’s love for people inspires commitment to helping others achieve their full potential. He is a dynamic speaker and hosts "The Winning Link," a popular podcast centered on business and leadership excellence with the #1 rated Supply Chain Now Network. As a leadership guru, Taylor has earned several invitations to universities, international conferences, global publications, and the U.S. Army to demonstrate how to achieve and sustain effective results through cultural acceptance and employee ownership. Leveraging the wisdom of his business acumen, strong influence as a speaker and podcaster Taylor is set to release "The Winning Link" book under McGraw Hill publishing in 2022. The book is a how-to manual to help readers understand the management of business interactions while teaching them how to Deine, Align, and Execute Winning in Business.

A servant leader, Taylor, was named by The National Diversity Council as one of the Top 100 Diversity Officers in the country in 2021. He features among Oklahoma's Most Admired CEOs and maintains key leadership roles with the Executive Advisory Board for The Shingo Institute "The Nobel Prize of Operations" and The Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME); two world-leading organizations for operational excellence, business development, and cultural learning.  He is also an Independent Director for the M-D Building Products Board, a proud American manufacturer of quality products since 1920.

Connect on :

Lori Sofian

Marketing Coordinator

Lori is currently completing a degree in marketing with an emphasis in digital marketing at the University of Georgia. When she’s not supporting the marketing efforts at Supply Chain Now, you can find her at music festivals – or working toward her dream goal of a fashion career. Lori is involved in many extracurricular activities and appreciates all the learning experiences UGA has brought her.

Connect on :

Chantel King

Social Media Manager

My name is Chantel King and I am the Social Media Specialist at Supply Chain Now. My job is to make sure our audience is engaged and educated on the abundant amount of information the supply chain industry has to offer.

Social Media and Communications has been my niche ever since I graduated from college at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. No, I am not a West Coast girl. I was born and raised in New Jersey, but my travel experience goes way beyond the garden state. My true passion is in creating editorial and graphic content that influences others to be great in whatever industry they are in. I’ve done this by working with lifestyle, financial, and editorial companies by providing resources to enhance their businesses.

Another passion of mine is trying new things. Whether it’s food, an activity, or a sport. I would like to say that I am an adventurous Taurus that never shies away from a new quest or challenge.

Connect on :

Trisha Cordes

Administrative Assistant

Trisha is new to the supply chain industry – but not to podcasting. She’s an experienced podcast manager and virtual assistant who also happens to have 20 years of experience as an elementary school teacher. It’s safe to say, she’s passionate about helping people, and she lives out that passion every day with the Supply Chain Now team, contributing to scheduling and podcast production.

Connect on :

Clay Phillips

Business Development Manager

Clay is passionate about two things: supply chain and the marketing that goes into it. Recently graduated with a degree in marketing at the University of Georgia, Clay got his start as a journalism major and inaugural member of the Owl’s football team at Kennesaw State University – but quickly saw tremendous opportunity in the Terry College of Business. He’s already putting his education to great use at Supply Chain Now, assisting with everything from sales and brand strategy to media production. Clay has contributed to initiatives such as our leap into video production, the guest blog series, and boosting social media presence, and after nearly two years in Supply Chain Now’s Marketing Department, Clay now heads up partnership and sales initiatives with the help of the rest of the Supply Chain Now sales team.

Connect on :

Amanda Luton

Vice President, Production

Amanda is a production and marketing veteran and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience across a variety of industries and organizations including Von Maur, Anthropologie, AmericasMart Atlanta, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Amanda currently manages, produces, and develops modern digital content for Supply Chain Now and their clients. Amanda has previously served as the VP of Information Systems and Webmaster on the Board of Directors for APICS Savannah, and founded and managed her own successful digital marketing firm, Magnolia Marketing Group. When she’s not leading the Supply Chain Now production team, you can find Amanda in the kitchen, reading, listening to podcasts, or enjoying time with family.

Connect on :

Constantine Limberakis

Host

Constantine Limberakis is a thought leader in the area of procurement and supply management. He has over 20 years of international experience, playing strategic roles in a wide spectrum of organizations related to analyst advisory, consulting, product marketing, product development, and market research.Throughout his career, he's been passionate about engaging global business leaders and the broader analyst and technology community with strategic content, speaking engagements, podcasts, research, webinars, and industry articles.Constantine holds a BA in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA in Finance & Marketing / Masters in Public & International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

Connect on :

Mary Kate Soliva

Host, Veteran Voices

Mary Kate Soliva is a veteran of the US Army and cofounder of the Guam Human Rights Initiative. She is currently in the Doctor of Criminal Justice program at Saint Leo University. She is passionate about combating human trafficking and has spent the last decade conducting training for military personnel and the local community.

Connect on :

Kelly Barner

Host of Dial P for Procurement

Kelly is the Owner and Managing Director of Buyers Meeting Point and MyPurchasingCenter. She has been in procurement since 2003, starting as a practitioner and then as the Associate Director of Consulting at Emptoris. She has covered procurement news, events, publications, solutions, trends, and relevant economics at Buyers Meeting Point since 2009. Kelly is also the General Manager at Art of Procurement and Business Survey Chair for the ISM-New York Report on Business. Kelly has her MBA from Babson College as well as an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and she has co-authored three books: ‘Supply Market Intelligence for Procurement Professionals’, ‘Procurement at a Crossroads’, and ‘Finance Unleashed’.

Connect on :

Enrique Alvarez

Host of Logistics with Purpose and Supply Chain Now en Español

Enrique serves as Managing Director at Vector Global Logistics and believes we all have a personal responsibility to change the world. He is hard working, relationship minded and pro-active. Enrique trusts that the key to logistics is having a good and responsible team that truly partners with the clients and does whatever is necessary to see them succeed. He is a proud sponsor of Vector’s unique results-based work environment and before venturing into logistics he worked for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). During his time at BCG, he worked in different industries such as Telecommunications, Energy, Industrial Goods, Building Materials, and Private Banking. His main focus was always on the operations, sales, and supply chain processes, with case focus on, logistics, growth strategy, and cost reduction. Prior to joining BCG, Enrique worked for Grupo Vitro, a Mexican glass manufacturer, for five years holding different positions from sales and logistics manager to supply chain project leader in charge of five warehouses in Colombia.

He has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business and a BS, in Mechanical Engineer from the Technologico de Monterrey in Mexico. Enrique’s passions are soccer and the ocean, and he also enjoys traveling, getting to know new people, and spending time with his wife and two kids, Emma and Enrique.

Connect on :

Kevin L. Jackson

Host of Digital Transformers

Kevin L. Jackson is a globally recognized Thought Leader, Industry Influencer and Founder/Author of the award winning “Cloud Musings” blog.  He has also been recognized as a “Top 5G Influencer” (Onalytica 2019, Radar 2020), a “Top 50 Global Digital Transformation Thought Leader” (Thinkers 360 2019) and provides strategic consulting and integrated social media services to AT&T, Intel, Broadcom, Ericsson and other leading companies. Mr. Jackson’s commercial experience includes Vice President J.P. Morgan Chase, Worldwide Sales Executive for IBM and SAIC (Engility) Director Cloud Solutions. He has served on teams that have supported digital transformation projects for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US Intelligence Community.  Kevin’s formal education includes a MS Computer Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School; MA National Security & Strategic Studies from Naval War College; and a BS Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy. Internationally recognizable firms that have sponsored articles authored by him include CiscoMicrosoft, Citrix and IBM.  Books include “Click to Transform” (Leaders Press, 2020), “Architecting Cloud Computing Solutions” (Packt, 2018), and “Practical Cloud Security: A Cross Industry View” (Taylor & Francis, 2016). He also delivers online training through Tulane UniversityO’Reilly MediaLinkedIn Learning, and Pluralsight.  Mr. Jackson retired from the U.S. Navy in 1994, earning specialties in Space Systems EngineeringCarrier Onboard Delivery Logistics and carrier-based Airborne Early Warning and Control. While active, he also served with the National Reconnaissance Office, Operational Support Office, providing tactical support to Navy and Marine Corps forces worldwide.

Connect on :

Tyler Ward

Director of Sales

Tyler Ward serves as Supply Chain Now's Director of Sales. Born and raised in Mid-Atlantic, Tyler is a proud graduate of Shippensburg University where he earned his degree in Communications. After college, he made his way to the beautiful state of Oregon, where he now lives with his wife and daughter.

With over a decade of experience in sales, Tyler has a proven track record of exceeding targets and leading high-performing teams. He credits his success to his ability to communicate effectively with customers and team members alike, as well as his strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

When he's not closing deals, you can find Tyler on the links or cheering on his favorite football and basketball teams. He also enjoys spending time with his family, playing pick-up basketball, and traveling back to Ocean City, Maryland, his favorite place!

Connect on :

Chris Barnes

Principal, Supply Chain Now
Host of Supply Chain is Boring

Talk about world-class: Chris is one of the few professionals in the world to hold CPIM-F, CLTD-F and CSCP-F designations from ASCM/APICS. He’s also the APICS coach – and our resident Supply Chain Doctor. When he’s not hosting programs with Supply Chain Now, he’s sharing supply chain knowledge on the APICS Coach Youtube channel or serving as a professional education instructor for the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistic Institute’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) program and University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Center for Professional Education courses.

Chris earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Bradley University, an MBA with emphasis in Industrial Psychology from the University of West Florida, and is a Doctoral in Supply Chain Management candidate.

Connect on :

Greg White

Principal & CMO, Supply Chain Now
Host of Supply Chain Now and TECHquila Sunrise

When rapid-growth technology companies, venture capital and private equity firms are looking for advisory, they call Greg – a founder, board director, advisor and catalyst of disruptive B2B technology and supply chain. An insightful visionary, Greg guides founders, investors and leadership teams in creating breakthroughs to gain market exposure and momentum – increasing overall company esteem and valuation.

Greg is a founder himself, creating Blue Ridge Solutions, a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader in cloud-native supply chain applications, and bringing to market Curo, a field service management solution. He has also held leadership roles with Servigistics (PTC) and E3 Corporation (JDA/Blue Yonder). As a principal and host at Supply Chain Now, Greg helps guide the company’s strategic direction, hosts industry leader discussions, community livestreams, and all in addition to executive producing and hosting his original YouTube channel and podcast, TEChquila Sunrise.

Connect on :

Scott W. Luton

Founder, CEO, & Host

As the founder and CEO of Supply Chain Now, you might say Scott is the voice of supply chain – but he’s too much of a team player to ever claim such a title. One thing’s for sure: he’s a tried and true supply chain expert. With over 15 years of experience in the end-to-end supply chain, Scott’s insights have appeared in major publications including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and CNN. He has also been named a top industry influencer by Thinkers360, ISCEA and more.

From 2009-2011, Scott was president of APICS Atlanta, and he continues to lead initiatives that support both the local business community and global industry. A United States Air Force Veteran, Scott has also regularly led efforts to give back to his fellow veteran community since his departure from active duty in 2002.

Connect on :