“Take a learning mindset: If something doesn’t work out the way you expect, what can you learn from it?”

– Claudia Freed, President & CEO of EALgreen

“I think people will realize that what we used to think was the only way to get it done… There’s another way to do it.”

– Chuck Easley, Program Manager and Instructor at the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute

Education is a key ingredient for personal success and upward mobility, and both of the guests in this interview are actively involved in making sure talented young people get the education they want and need.

Claudia Freed is the President & CEO of EALgreen, where she helps students get an education beyond high school. Chuck Easley is a Program Manager and Instructor at the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute where their fast-track online certification programs pairs young people and veterans in the Metro Atlanta area with employers who can put their skills and talent to use.

In this conversation, Claudia and Chuck provide their honest points of view with Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton about:

· The many creative ways universities and the private sector can come together to promote education and opportunity while also being good stewards of their bottom line

· How what we have learned during the coronavirus pandemic is likely to change supply chain management going forward, including increased enterprise investment and a better understanding of the benefits of sourcing locally

· The challenges and advantages of online education, and why the current ‘experiment’ to continue grade level through high school at home may provide important learnings that can be applied to career training

Intro – Amanda Luton (00:00:05):

It’s time for supply chain. Now broadcasting live from the supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia heard around the world. Supply chain. Now spotlights the best in all things, supply chain, the people, the technologies, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.

Scott Luton (00:00:29):

Hey, good afternoon, Scott Luton and Greg white. Once again with you on supply chain now, welcome to today’s live stream, Greg, how are you doing? I’m doing fantastic. Scott sun is shining so beautiful day. What day is it? We’re talking supply it’s Monday. Isn’t every day, Monday. It’s like Groundhog day. Well, you know, it does feel like Friday in many ways. Um, we’ve had a great start to the week and today’s episode really excited about two guests repeat guests that, that our audience is going to really, really enjoy. So we’ll save that surprise for a second, but as always, it’s going to be a very lively and informative discussion where we’re working hard to raise our listeners supply chain leadership IQ, right? Darn Skippy. I mean, that’s, that’s really what we’re here for is helping people learn, helping people solve problems, presenting smart people to them who can help them with that much smarter than us, or at least I won’t speak for you, Greg, but you’re a pretty sharp guy too.

Scott Luton (00:01:29):

Hey. Yeah. If our audience likes our live streams, they should definitely check out our podcasts. And today, one of my favorite recent podcasts, we published with Rebecca Bowman, a supply chain leader with the Clorox company and a great story all the way around, but one of my favorite parts was how hurt her father worked. So he, he was a, um, a Brasier if you know, that, that process of manufacturing and they worked out and when she was younger, they worked a lot side by side. And that’s how she developed a love for manufacturing and production and that environment, you know, just a really special story. So, uh, Greg, where can folks go to find our podcasts? They can find them at supply chain now, radio.com or any of the streaming platforms where you get your podcasts. And also very often there’s video included. So they’re on YouTube, outstanding, good stuff.

Scott Luton (00:02:23):

Um, okay. So find us and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. So Greg, with no further ado, I want to welcome in our guests. Claudia freed, president and CEO at E L green and Chuck easily, Georgia tech supply chain and logistics Institute, program manager, instructor, and a big guru in the business school. So spring and Claudia, Hey, Hey Claudia, Chuck, how y’all doing great. How are you doing fantastic here. So Claudia, on this of the camera, Hey, real quick. The platform we use here has added new functionality where we can actually incorporate LinkedIn comments. So let’s welcome in one of our first attendees. Great to have you back. He’s an actor and live streams and I believe supply chain tributes are great to have you. Um, all right. So Chuck and Claudia, what I love about, I love that y’all are both salt of the earth people, great thought leaders, but you’re also repeat guests on supply chain now. So I gotta be a little bit, um, a selfish about that’s my favorite attribute. Uh, so Chuck, this is your third appearance quality. Of course you were on the show with us out in Vegas at the reverse logistics association conference. So your second appearance, uh, let’s let’s um, give our audience a chance to get to know you really quickly. Cause we got some really neat stuff to dive into. So Claudia, tell us a bit about yourself.

Claudia Freed (00:03:56):

Thanks Greg and Scott. And it’s great to share this moment with you, Chuck. My name is Claudia freed. I am the CEO of Vaal. You will hear it in an accent, which I love to share with Greg, our stories about being from Argentina. Um, I’ve been involved with the organization from the very beginning. I we’ll talk a little bit more about what that means and why that is so important when we are looking for motivation. I have twin daughters. One is an accordion player and the other one is a landscape architect.

Scott Luton (00:04:27):

Wow. Not remember the music, the accordion skill from the first go round. Claudia. That’s outstanding. Yeah. I can probably use both of them in wedding preparations. So

Claudia Freed (00:04:44):

they are ready for hire

Scott Luton (00:04:47):

well, your daughter, this architect clearly is making George Castanza very jealous. That was his lifelong dream, right. To be an architect. So what a great family let’s dive deeper into that in upcoming shows. All right. So Chuck, tell us about yourself. Check easily. I come to you representing the Georgia tech. So patching the logistics Institute. I’m also a professor of practice in the business school at Georgia tech. My journey to here included graduating from Georgia tech, going into consulting consulting with some of the top 15 suppliers and retailers around the world. Then also running the enterprise portfolio with Lowe’s and then also consulting as well on my own. I was a firm called Parker, Avery, and then also Walgreens, where I helped them with their implementation of ADA requirements in the pharmacy. Outstanding. I know a bunch of folks from Parker, Avery, that’s a good crew, kind of a boot boutique group and a number of, we started at the same firm, Kurt salmon morphed out into corporate and came back together.

Scott Luton (00:05:55):

Yeah, very cool. Outstanding. Well, Hey, real quick. Uh, [inaudible] Sadie and clay. Welcome back to each of y’all clay, the dog, or our producer here at our live streams. Hope you’re doing well clay and one of the individual call let’s see here. Uh, Kyle Reeves who’s tuned in via LinkedIn. He is a comment. It hasn’t quite hit the feed just yet. So, alright. One last comment about, um, about Chuck and Claudia, you and I go back a ways Chuck and I go back a little bit longer. So I know a little bit more about Chuck. He is, um, you know, as Greg likes to say, give forward, Chuck is deep into giving back to the community. Uh, you know, we met at supply chain day, which is a great program that, uh, the George tech supply chain logistics Institute, um, puts in place. And it’s a big really, it’s a big part of their give back.

Scott Luton (00:06:47):

He’s involved in the leap program and a number of other ways of giving back, giving forward to the community. So I love that about you Chuck, and really, you got a lot of kindred spirits with Claudia, who who’s also involved in a number of different ways in the community. So lots of, um, lots of camaraderie in that regard for this show. So along those lines, Greg, where do we want to start? As we start to pick Claudia and Chuck’s brain, right? We want some good news, right? Yeah. Let, let’s start with a little bit of good news. We’re actually hearing a little bit of good news. So let’s start Claudia. You go first. What’d he say?

Claudia Freed (00:07:20):

So the good news is always about our mission, right? And our mission is to help students get an education beyond high school. So anything that involves student success or anything that we can do to help them is good news to us. So on Saturday, just a few days ago, our board of directors approved it $650,000 scholarship budget so that we can continue to meet our mission during this time of crisis. That is great news for us.

Scott Luton (00:07:49):

It is, especially in these tough times where, you know, we’re seeing athletic programs take, I mean, we’re seeing a lot of pullback. So here, uh, groups doubling down on scholarships, which are so critical, that is outstanding. So great to hear Claudia.

Claudia Freed (00:08:04):

In fact, we asked for $400,000 and the board recognized that this is the time to really double down as she said, and really have faith in the team in the plan. And we’ll talk a little bit about that, so, right. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:08:18):

That’s yeah. That’s incredibly good news. The board of directors over deliver on a request. That’s pretty impressive.

Claudia Freed (00:08:27):

Yeah. The team made the case, so that’s good.

Scott Luton (00:08:33):

It must have been a great, it must have Claudia. You closed them. That’s fantastic. Hey, real quick. Cause we won’t get, we can get Chuck’s good news too. We’ve got a couple of folks st lo too, including, uh, Latiya Thomas, who was on the last thing where this just last week, Claudia, I think you called that one came and brought it. And we left there with at least seven t-shirt isms, which we’re going to coin that word around here. Uh, she’s doing great work. Uh, Felicia an interview with her parents. I think that’s right. That’s right. Felicia with the reverse logistics association. Of course. That’s a good word. RLA so hope you’re doing well, Felicia and yes, Claudia is a great contributor to the reverse logistics industry as well, uh, DC, who was on the live stream and talk about what tackled a transformation, a number of different ways, a very sharp conversation there. And I think we had one more person to say hello to, uh, of course our CMO, Amanda Luton, then the home studio with me, she is behind the scenes trying to engage the folks that are tuned in. So with all that said, uh, Chuck let’s tell it, what, what good news

Chuck Easley (00:09:43):

did you bring with you today? Well, some of it is somewhat pending, but I think the, the mission of our Georgia tech supply chain logistics Institute of course is focused on opportunity youth. It’s focused on veterans transitioning and focused on, um, members of our, um, population that have disabilities or people might say differently challenged. Right. Right. And so, uh, what we’ve been doing is partnering with different, um, employer partners in the metropolitan Atlanta area, as well as in the state of Georgia. So focus on partnerships that we can do in response to this huge impact in the need in supply chain. Yeah. One of the funniest things that I see often is people who may have just learned the word supply chain by standing in a line somewhere right now, kind of like bring your Riley in mash with hope.

Chuck Easley (00:10:39):

And so what we’re really finding is more people really don’t know about it. Well, what we’re trying to do is to have a group focused on improving economic mobility, being able to have some kind of sustainability within their own community and earn a living in this area that has so much growth by providing training to them online, that it has no hurdles because it is online. Training comes from a grant that started with JP Morgan chase. And we’re continuing to, to get funding from other avenues and applying for that now and have some really exciting opportunities coming forward. Some things we’re looking to do with the United way, we just wrapped up a partnership with the United way where we focused on translating some of our courses into Spanish. And we had members from the Latin American association go through our training program. I had a kickoff at an award ceremony. We did it all virtually. We started it pre COVID. We finished it in the middle and everyone, everyone in the cohort finished

Scott Luton (00:11:36):

outstanding. How’d you? That’s going to be the word of the day. That’s right. It’s kind of good news. Outstanding is going to be clearly the word of the day throughout this episode. So good stuff, Claudia, most of you were in podcasting by the way.

Chuck Easley (00:11:53):

Awesome.

Scott Luton (00:11:54):

Second, absolutely guilty as charged. All right. So Hey, want to say hello to Rob Morris, who is tuned in, I think via YouTube is his where he’s checking labs stream here today. Alright. So we want to shift gears, right? Right. Yeah. As much as we want to dwell in good news. Cause we all need it every day. And especially during these challenging times, but Greg, what are we, what are we gonna pick Claudia’s and Chuck’s brain the most about today? What should we talk? Let’s talk about a couple of things that might have been learned during this, this time period, this pandemic and seismic societal disruption that we’re going through, I guess, want to go first. These are my ears.

Claudia Freed (00:12:50):

You know, I, this is what I love about okay. Doing this live and, and having the community to hear what Chuck is talking about, what is success for them? So an important piece for us is really having what we learned from this. So we learned the importance of having a plan and the importance of having a mindset that, and I will see to execute that plan. Hmm. So let me give you an example. When I came to this country and I learned to speak English as an adult, I had a poster that said experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. No, I’ve done research about that. And it has been most recently attributed to a professor at Carnegie Mellon. Randy Pausch you may recall the last lecture, but I came to this country in 1980 and I had that poster back then.

Claudia Freed (00:13:48):

So this idea of taking the mindset of learning. So if something doesn’t work out the way you expect, what can you learn from it? So at EAL in 2012, we put together a plan hour, Oh, crisis in the organization. It has to do with personal crisis and employee illnesses. And so back then eight years ago, we put together a business continuity plan. So that was our roadmap. So we had a plan in place when our business expanded to California and we were dealing with the California facility, could have been subject to earthquakes or fires. We then the client. And we said, what do we need to do in case that if we had to operate remotely? So we even had a plan for remote locations,

Scott Luton (00:14:42):

how long ago this was back in 2012. Well, so y’alls crystal ball was working really well, uh, eight years ago. Right?

Claudia Freed (00:14:53):

Well, it was in a way because it enabled us to do something else which really is intrinsic. Yeah. And critical to this ability to having delivered the news to you today, it allowed us also to put something in place called the minimum cash reserve. Now I say nonprofit organization as any business, you really, your cash flow and your ability to have financial strong footing is very important to executing any plan. So from a supply chain effective, we had a plan. And then we built in that plan redundancy. Um, I hope that my colleague, Tony Rivera is on the call is our transportation guru. And so through Tony, we have been able to put together a plan that has to redundancy. We have transportation partner B and C were able to move through that. So when things began to get very agitated with the COVID, we quickly were able to negotiate new relationships. So I can not emphasize enough the idea of both having a plan and a mindset to learn from it and quickly adapt to the new reality.

Scott Luton (00:16:00):

So Claudia, if I can just connect the dots for our listeners real quick. So, and Antonio RO Rivera, Tony is the colleague that Claudia is referring to and when he’s not, uh, doing big things in supply chain, the business world, he is, uh, really a fierce competitor when it comes to supply chain trivia, right. Greg, he finished, he tied for second in our most recent competition. So excellent. I think he only missed one question shut. We got to get you, uh, in, in those competitions. All right. So Claudia, just to connect the dots real quick, cause it, you mentioned EAL EAL green is your organization, right where you serve as, as, um, a founder and CEO. Correct.

Claudia Freed (00:16:41):

I serve as the CEO and I was the first student because to your point, Scott and I, I appreciate where you’re going with the question. So what is he a yell and why is it, why are we involved in supply chain? So we are a nonprofit organization that is a supply chain partner for companies that have excess and surplus materials. And back in 1982, two entrepreneurs decided that they will use the power of the supply chain to reallocate resources from companies and businesses that no longer needed the products and redistribute that two college campuses Hmm. In exchange for a scholarship

Scott Luton (00:17:20):

that’s outstanding, you know, you know, um, Claudia, I know you’re passionate about this because it’s been a part of, lot of our live streams, but there’s so much waste. Um, you know, okay, we’re getting a little bit better because I think more consumers are willing to take re remanufactured stuff or buy used stuff on all the different platforms, but you’re still to your point, so much waste out there. So to see a group like yours, you know, be able to present a whole new Avenue. I mean, that’s, that’s some good news, Claudia.

Claudia Freed (00:17:50):

And I think speaking about having a crystal ball or whatever you call it, when you are able to see a trend and we talk a lot in your show about trends and insights, and you’re able to see trends and insight at dedicated portion of your team to really begin to explore those ideas because you never know when the conditions will come up, that you will be able to execute that. So that’s, that’s how we are involved folks in the reduction of waste and empowering individuals through education.

Chuck Easley (00:18:23):

Great. If I can Claudia, Greg weigh in a little bit, what you’ve heard so far, Claudia shear, what do you think is the most, uh, impactful for our listeners to kind of hear from that?

Greg White (00:18:35):

I think what is most impactful? And I think people will recognize this immediately in these times is that EAL green and her organization and Claudia herself did not wait for a crisis to put a crisis management plan in place, right. Provision, you know, this is, I have my supply chain rules, right. And one of the very first supply chain rules is plan for what you could never possibly predict. Right. Right. And it doesn’t have to be costly. It doesn’t have to be, you know, some of the exorbitant things that we’re talking about is recovery or, or planning for the next disruption opportunities. It’s just have a plan, a have a plan B have options. You know, the, the three vendors is something that is just prudent to do and would have been prudent for anyone to do. And many, many companies did. We’ve talked about obviously, Claudia, your company, but Chick-Filet has secondary suppliers. Many other companies have done the same. And, um, that, that is the, that’s the thing that hits me the hardest, really the other is to have a plan. Right. But as the great philosopher, Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Chuck Easley (00:19:52):

Right. That quote is getting so much play in the pandemic environment. I mean, and I don’t know if y’all have seen Mike Tyson is training to make a comeback and he looks great. I would get in the ring with him. I don’t care if he’s a hundred, I’m not getting in the ring with him anyway. Hey, if I can. So Chuck st. Quick question to you, if you can weigh in, on, on what Claudia shared just really quick so far, and we’re gonna go back to Claudia. Okay. Mmm. Why say that the two big things I learned at this juncture, and I’ll try to, it may be a little more on the technical side, but I think it’s related because what Clark was saying is the technical aspect to it too, around planning. So mine is a little bit more around execution. There’s a fundamental thing that you learn in supply chain called PA peak to average ratio.

Chuck Easley (00:20:42):

The need to have it, the need to understand what it represents, the need to understand where the curves, how you tackle it, how you anticipate, how you adjust. Hmm. What I’ve seen is an absence. I have an appreciation for that because we know that even without COVID-19 things that out of straight line, it’s not a 45 degree angle, it’s going to have peaks and valleys. It’s going to look like a city skyline. And so you have to be able to interpolate what you think that being is going to be, but what the extremities may be, because oftentimes that’s, when not only do you have a tipping of the cart or a major disruption, that’s when either you can differentiate yourself from a competitive standpoint or opportunities come up. And so I’d say that appreciates, but what that really means and really understanding what it looks like and what it represents.

Chuck Easley (00:21:33):

Quick example, most retailers, I have a peak to average ratio of about Hmm, 30%. So 1.3, 1.4, something like that. Most returns that happens in the fall late fall, but in home improvement happens in March. Right. Okay. in.com, it happens in the fall late fall as well. However, it’s the ratio of like one to four, one to five around August, usually have something for supplies for school supplies. So it’s not necessarily, and also clothing for you. If we can have an appreciation for those things that happen quickly ran out of paper towels, I mean, ran out of toilet paper, right.

Chuck Easley (00:22:12):

Unless they purchased a 12 or 18 months supply, they’re going to need some more. That’s true. Okay. We’ve heard you got a lot of analytics out there and is that how much got purchased? Right. You know, where it went and you should have some way of knowing how are we going to replenish that and managing as we go through, some might be reducing what people can buy the amount, but at the same time, you should be less surprised. Yeah. The other thing that I would throw out is parallel is systems thinking. So that’s a little bit more on the so strategy, um, you know, are you only in the business of working this channel? Yeah. Just that, but what if that channel is no longer, has it a pot of gold at the end? Yeah. Okay. So like if you were an Amazon seller and determined not to be essential product.

Chuck Easley (00:23:03):

Exactly. And so that kind of flexibility of recognizing what is our true mission? What are we doing really helps change the thinking. Yeah. I think Cisco has made some adjustments. I love the commercials and that dental aspect of it. You’re delivering to a restaurant tours and what have you, however, that’s shutting down, but what are you doing? You’re delivering food, right? So is there another, maybe some other channels groceries maybe directly cause you know, that’s a whole other opening because what happens is that begins to create. And what I say in some of my classes, disruption can create opportunity. Yes. I love that. That’s going to be on the back of a tee shirt, Chuck and sent some

Scott Luton (00:23:50):

things that I would throw out in the advent of the last dance and things over the past few weeks. Um, John Wooten at UCLA, you know, matter of fact, talking to a student this morning know, don’t let what you can’t do, get in the way of what you can do of that. Alright. So, so if I can weigh in right here, cause I want to circle back to Claudia and by the way, stay has got an outstanding question. We’re going to try to fit that in. Right, Tom. So stand by a great question, Claudia. So, so I love how we are able to kind of piggyback on different thoughts here. Uh, so one other big observation from the pandemic environment related to supply chain, what would that be

Claudia Freed (00:24:33):

for us? It’s been really the idea that supply chain is not just about moving products, right? So when we think about, from the condemning perspective, we think about services, education, we are in the business of creating opportunity. So how do you reconcile, let’s say opportunity from the infrastructure. What does it take to get a college student, to continue their education during a time when maybe depending on what statistics you look at any time between one in five, or maybe even wanting forward in some rural areas may not have access to internet or to the hardware necessary to learn online. So when we think about the pandemic in particular, we have two pieces of our model. One is how we execute the mission and then the system by which we execute the business model. So what the tension between what is now being called, having a strategy. So how do you reconcile those two? And I think that dependent makes it really highlighted. First, you have to take care of your people. So we invested quickly on the health and safety of our team. Then we need to go to our partners and say, what do you need from us? And as I said earlier, with the importance of a plan about logistics and redundancy, and so just like Chuck was talking about, you know, don’t have all your eggs in one basket. That’s not ever a good plan.

Scott Luton (00:26:02):

That’s right. Hey, real quick, Claudia, uh, Steve Kay is regular listener and we love he’s been on the livestream show as well. He clearly it’s been on your website and checked out the EAL green impact report and he is a big fan clearly, extremely impressive and well presented. So great work. So good stuff there, Claudia.

Claudia Freed (00:26:20):

Great. You know, that’s a shout out to our team. We did that internally and we, um, one of the ways that we are very frugal, we design our own content and we write it ourselves. So I will make sure then our colleague Leon, here’s what Steve said. Good wishes and kudos. So thank you for that.

Scott Luton (00:26:40):

Hey, and, uh, Steve, I like that avatar. I’m gonna get one

Chuck Easley (00:26:43):

of those. So whether it was appropriate to comment on that, but that’s pretty good. I love it. Hey, uh, God’s got a little surprise comment for his wife, Claudia, uh, Victoria says proud of you mom. So was good. That’s the landscape architect. I need to talk to her as well because your mother is very proud of you. So greetings Victoria. Alright, so I’m going to I’ll circle back in a minute, Claudia, cause we’re going to pose a question from the audience too, to everyone here, especially related to business continuity planning, Chuck you’ve shared a lot and it’s tough to, you know, it’s tough to get all of these thoughts in a, in an hour long live stream. Um, what else we need to take of the key lessons learned in this pandemic environment is unique times, especially from a supply chain perspective, what else sticks out and from where you sit, I would, I would come back to understanding the application of what I call systems a holistic thinking to break it down.

Chuck Easley (00:27:47):

One of the things that we’re seeing, if you think about what’s happening with the pandemic, um, when they talk about the advent of the testing kits and all of the supplies and things that go into that in, in supply chain, there’s, there’s an aspect of most, uh, channel’s called, you know, you have some kind of a bundling or kidney function or combat combining function, right? Takes multiple aspects, pulls them together to create the final product and your traditional retail. It might be a gift with purchase. In other instances, I remember early in my career and one of the most memorable moments was, and I still carry it to this day. And that is micro stove optimization.

Chuck Easley (00:28:34):

Micro sub optimization can create mass override and poor performance. But Hey, I grew up in South Carolina. You gotta slow that down a little bit, Chuck, and walk me through that. What you get is a, a multitude of concepts of we’re going to get the best price for this. We like the best price for that. We’re not a contractor, all these bad things. They live in a miraculous and bring them all together because they can’t go independently together and then send them out. Well, you just create a bottleneck. And the next thing that you Craig, it is each of those three, four, five things that need to be combined are not necessarily being made the same place. They may not arrive at the same time. And you’re not certain if they meet each other’s required specs until they all get there and you test it, right? Yeah. Yeah. You can chase costs and go, Whoa, well, not get the best cost with this thing. And the best cost for that thing, which you’re missing the point. It means nothing until it’s all together. Yeah. I remember very vividly being in a distribution center and there was a top and a bottom outfit for an apparel.

Chuck Easley (00:29:44):

And the belts came from some other place. The tops came in from Europe. The bottoms came in from Asia, the belts. I still don’t know where they’re supposed to come from and we couldn’t sell it. They was selling it as a unit. Everybody remembers the old Garanimals U mass and the top, the bottle, but the belts hadn’t come yet. So we were holding stuff for like two, three, four, five weeks missing dates, belts, come here. I am four o’clock in the morning. What happens is that gets missed because from a cost standpoint, you did get the best cost for each of those things independently. Right? They have to be solved interdependently. You have to rethink that. And I think part of what’s happening around the supply chain is realizing that when you go after certain things, reverse logistics deals with it all the time. Yeah.

Chuck Easley (00:30:37):

Certain things, what starts to happen is you optimize in one way, but you miss the collective and what you’re trying to to do. And I think we see that so many times where the consolidation of those multiple sourcing points is, is costly, but not accounted for, or as you described there, Chuck with the, um, I don’t know if it was Garanimals, but I remember Garanimals let’s call it that Garanimals example. Um, and if anyone doesn’t know what that is, look it up. It’s an eighties thing. But if you, if you think about that, the, the thing that didn’t get captured there that allowed that to happen is the cost of loss sale. Exactly. Right.

Chuck Easley (00:31:27):

Which is much later in the summertime, right. Or whatever. And you, you missed a big opportunity to sell there. And we have to be careful in, in supply chain to account for the cost of things that we otherwise consider soft. Yes. Right. Things in supply chain, everything to really balance that if you don’t, you’re, you’re going to, not only, you know, we use the, you know, a joke right in on the inbound side is supply chain. You chase after pennies. Yeah. You pay in dollars. Cause it didn’t sound that PA scenario that you described. Um, the, you know, the thing that you have to think about from that standpoint is, um, not, not only the peak in the average, but how much risk are you willing to take to hit peak because that costs you money to that standing inventory. I think having a plan, like what Paul, you talked about earlier, if you have a liquidation approach, if you a relationship approach

Claudia Freed (00:32:40):

with your vendors or with the suppliers and say, Hey know, if we hit this point, a yellow lights. Yeah. Plan B on standby. We, and then if we hit this red light, we need it. And we know that it’ll take them two hours to get here, but we told them two weeks in advance, as opposed to we don’t, we don’t have anything. Right. I gotta wait in here. We’re about halfway through the live stream. And I know we’ve got some, some, uh, hard stops. I want to get to this question because each of you have spoken to some point around continuity plans and, and kind of picked up on your comment, Greg, about doing them before you need them basically. So, Claudia, we’ll start with you. Just this question here, have you seen these, these continuity plans for the crisis? Not just being relevant, but also being executable and your thoughts?

Claudia Freed (00:33:35):

Great point. Um, you know, the previous Mike Tyson saying, I once had the privilege of working as an advisor to Harold Washington, the mayor of Chicago, and he was famous for talking about that. It’s science that sits on the shelf. It’s just a plan. If you don’t translate that into an executable idea, you really have not been accomplished very much. So I learned that from Harold Washington. So the idea of the continuity plan, which by the way, anyone who is interested in looking at what it looks like, what are the components or the elements that we identified as critical, I am happy to share and they start plans that are available. You just have to do some homework around what is important to your organization. So happy to share how we came about that. But for us, it’s really pivot around three things. Number one, when you have a small team or critical information.

Claudia Freed (00:34:37):

So in the event that something happened to me, the next person, whether it’s a member of my team or a member of the board will be able to not miss a beat. You really don’t want to be in a crisis to figure out how to shut off the water in your building. Okay. That has to be, that has to be part of your plan. And there’s back to the micro comment. No detail is too small. You really have to take the time. So it took us about two and a half weeks to put all the details together. Number one, making sure that you have the information, then you have to have an accountability system, you know, ABC person needs to do, and this is what you’re responsible and why. And then this mindset of learning. So when we expanded to California and Illinois, we never worry about earthquakes. Maybe we should should’ve. So we made sure how do we keep our people safe? So the

Chuck Easley (00:35:38):

plan, which, by the way we expanded it. Yeah. Recovery. And we haven’t even talked about technology here. Okay. Wow. You plan and you execute and you revise all the time, but you haven’t planned to cycle constant cycle. Right. They can’t just sit on the shelf and be looked at every 20 years. Hey. All right. So I know Greg and Chuck you’re chomping at the bit to get on that continent question, but I’ve got a different question for each of y’all. Cause they’re rolling in here. And um, so say D and I, and I’m opposed this to you, Chuck, this is kind of a different turn, but highly relevant. We’re talking about this yesterday, Greg, on the buzz. So city asks, what do you think about working on the show? Well, that’s great. Hey, D wants to get your take, Chuck, Greg, I’ve got another one for you about working from home, especially from a supply chain standpoint, post pandemic.

Chuck Easley (00:36:50):

We know we’re making, you know, we’re doing, we’ve got to do now to protect people and keep things moving. So what’s your take on that post pandemic in the new normal is Gartner’s calling it, Oh, the aftermath, sorry. I’m thinking of two things happening. I think there’s a concept of the new normal that people have that already exist with some part of our economy. [inaudible] Mmm. The amount of people who’ve been working from home, the whole concept of hoteling in corporate environments and all that sort of thing, where you don’t necessarily have a permanent workspace is somewhat transient where there’s some aspects of our economy that have gone there. Um, I think the other component is actually now catching up to what may have been some paradigms. It’s gotta be this way. This is the only way he has a we’re trying to get done. Mmm.

Chuck Easley (00:37:36):

Was forced and it’s continuing to be forced to do it differently and see if they’re getting results because what’s happened is the foxhole was being Craig and it says to still meet these demands while we’re unable to physically locate ourselves in a particular place, we still have to be able to execute the work. What happens in that is you’ll see things like technology or certain advancements that may have been seen as a luxury or for only certain people. Or if you’re trying to act like you’re real fancy or trying to impress someone now isn’t exactly what you’re talking about.

Chuck Easley (00:38:11):

Necessity where previously it was. Oh yeah. You just want to be able to say that. So people go, Oh wow. But now it’s we can’t do it without it. And so what happens with that is when the dust settles. Hmm. My sense is that there’ll be some things more than we think that are more than executable, more than reliable. That can be done still working remotely without having to be in touch. I think it leverages, you know, what car you said earlier, communication is going to be that much more critical. Yeah. Yeah. You may not be able to walk down the hall. You may not be being able to, and, and it’s different than an email because we can still have eye contact with you. You know, I think what’ll start to happen is the way it gets done the way we begin to trust each other fruit, um, we’ll come to a reality and what’s driving. It is the domain. Yeah. Without the demand people could, it’s just like a continuity plan, right. If you aren’t really vested and it sits on a shelf for 20 years, then when you actually got to use it. Yeah. You really didn’t pay attention to developing. It is to be talking about floppy disks.

Chuck Easley (00:39:26):

What really happens is, is like back to the Mike Tyson quote, right. You know, a plan is great. Then you start to execute it right. When you realize what adjustments you have to make, if you don’t have the plan, the right hand will know the left hand is doing and you’ll just go around in circles. So yeah. Yeah. I think that’s one of the biggest things that are happening is because of the technology we have the way in which we’re learning how to work, redefining that we can still achieve service level results. And I think people will realize that what we used to think was the only way to get it done. There’s another way to do it. Yes. All right. So I got to weigh in Greg. I’ve got a great question for you and change. Hey, this is a lightning round and by the way, Claudia, you can see that the dog clay Phillips, like you iterate, iterate, iterate, quote. All right. So let’s, I’m sorry. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m glad that you already met him before. All right. So Greg, and to our listeners, if you don’t know, the, uh, Georgia tech and the university of Georgia are bitter rivals and the buzz is Georgia Tech’s mascot. And of course dogs are UGA. All right. So Greg shifting gears, I know you’re dying away in a couple of these earlier questions, but this one came in specifically earmarked for you, risk analysis of visibility platforms. Do you think they help the logistics industry during the pandemic? This is from Arabic.

Greg White (00:40:54):

Yeah. Um, I mean, anything that assesses that assesses the potential for risk or the depth of risks goes to exactly what Claudia and and Chuck have been saying, right? One of the things we have to have, look, this is very fundamental. Assume the worst and X and hope for the best. And you know, Chuck talking about a plan and Claudia talking about a plan, these are ancient ancient military, and I mean, literally ancient military concepts, right. Having a plan. And the knowing that the first thing that will happen is that will change as an ancient military concept. Logistics is a military concept. You had a mobile workforce that was going to be away from home for months or in the ancient days, literally years on end. So they’re there. These are not new problems. All we have to do is we have to recognize those. And I would encourage, this is not going to sound crazy, but it’s not a joke. I would encourage you to study Roman military history as a precursor or a foundation for supply chain. They were absolutely brilliant. They could move water, hundreds of miles, right. And military, and they live not.

Scott Luton (00:42:15):

And not Rome Georgia. Correct. Just to clarify,

Greg White (00:42:21):

the visibility is just, is just something that’s relatively newly available because of the availability of data that we have today. And it’s, instead of assuming, lack of visibility, you assume the availability of visibility, say that three times fast, and then use that to develop your plans, right. You then, and use that also to maintain the executability of the plans as Chuck was talking about, because that constant flow of data will indicate to you when things are changing, when floppy discs are going away, right. A trap

Scott Luton (00:43:01):

aren’t going away. Alright. So a lot of abilities there, Greg, and you got it all out very eloquently. So I can appreciate that a lot better than I can. Hey, uh, so I want to circle back to you, Claudia. And we’ve got about, um, you know, uh, we’re about three forces that the show here, Tony submits a great question. And Claudia, this is, we are going to make this one for the panel. Uh, so hopefully he talks about the pandemic. Most governments, businesses and consumers were caught off guard moving forward. Hopefully everyone will be more prepared, but what’s going to change moving forward. And we talked about some of the lessons learned thus far. What’s give me one big, bold break out your crystal ball. What’s one big thing that may change moving forward.

Claudia Freed (00:43:46):

I would say that, you know, we’re going back somewhat to in time that one big thing, I think we’re recognizing that the supply chains are going to become in some aspects more local. I think this idea that we talked about the bells coming from one country and the blouse from another, I mean, the reality is that whether it’s your ecosystem in your own community or how we eat or how we get rid of waste, this is no longer calling plastic across the ocean, uh, to China. I mean, we can talk the whole conversation about waste. Yeah. So I, in my opinion, I think that there will be, we adjustment very costly in some ways. So I think that

Chuck Easley (00:44:32):

it’s inevitable. Yeah. Great point. I’ll throw in real quick. Uh, the rise of risk, you know, risk has been, uh, having a seat at the table and getting a lot more important risk mitigation risk management for, for several years now. But I think moving ahead, we’re going to see a lot more investment. We’ve heard chief risk management officers. I think we’re going to see a lot more investment in the visibility that of course has been in demand, but with some of these, uh, analytics programs that are out there that help really help get your finger on the pulse of, of, of, um, getting out in front of some of these risks that are posed global supply chains. I think we’ll certainly see a lot more investment in those areas in the coming months, Chuck, same question to you. One Guinea, one thing that may change moving forward.

Chuck Easley (00:45:19):

I think it’s been a challenge all the way through professionally. Uh, when I, as a consultant, I’m also leading a department from a corporate standpoint. Mmm. When you have a strategy, usually people try to make sure you have some kind of plan. If you don’t, you need to make sure you do. You also need to have some kind of continuous and all that kind of good stuff. Well, and you have some kind of model, but what you have to appreciate it is you have, and we can go back in time and look at this. It all different aspects of history. You have aspects where winter disasters happen or major catastrophe or major event. Well, true disruption. Any of the above some entity somewhere was the Canary in the coal mine.

Chuck Easley (00:46:14):

Now what’s tends to happen is you learn and you’ll hear you didn’t yell out enough. I think part of what we’re going to begin to see in here is people may not need the yell quite as loud as they may have before. And aspects of risk analysis things where you may have had it to check the box, versus we have to make sure that we continue to succeed and continue to survive. Here’s a different perspective. And so you’ll have an audience quicker. Yup. I think what you also have is a greater appreciation for the nimbleness that may be required if you, if, if you weigh 500 pounds and you’re six foot nine and you have a size four shoe, you’re not going to have much balance, right? So you gotta have a good foundation that allows you to have the flexibility is going to be needed because we know one thing for sure, what we’re doing right now is not going to be exactly the same 20 years from now. It’ll be the same. The principles will be the same, but yeah, that guideline of understanding strategically, what are we trying to accomplish? The plan helps everyone kind of know what their role is, but then in the same time, have the awareness and, and the

Scott Luton (00:47:30):

expectation. I think Greg kind of alluded to it around risk analysis of visibility, expectation, and a seat at the table and ears hearing. What level of risk is this? Yep. Yup. All right. So for the sake of time, Greg, we’re going to keep driving. I want to share a couple of these comments from the audience here. So SNI ha I can’t share both of your comments and an earlier comment. She talked about how tech plays a big role in making, uh, streamline these processes and she hashtags IOT. And then the followup comment, we need more and more manufacturers to adopt tech to make the seamless, so good stuff there. Going back to the work from home, remote working, Rob Morris weighs in, I felt working from home and I’m reading things for folks that may listen to the audio version of live stream. So I know all of y’all are, can read very well.

Scott Luton (00:48:19):

Uh, I feel working from home can be cheap, a cheap way to go for some and give some, a chance to send more or spend more time with family. He types, he types like I do Rob, uh, also kids learn. They first work, uh, their first work habits from the parents. So it can be a great thing in the long run. Yeah, that’s that is, um, that is something that is probably under, um, that doesn’t get enough time and attention because I’ll tell ya, I don’t know about y’all, but in a couple of months we’ve been home and the kids have been home. They have, if, if we thought they were observant about where we spend our time as entrepreneurs, they are doubling down, they’re launching their own initiatives. I think there’s an incubator in the playroom. If I’m not mistaken,

Claudia Freed (00:49:04):

I would agree with you that it could be a conversation all on its own about what is happening on e-learning. I see are some reports about children and this is K through 12 that perform poorly in the classroom. All of a sudden they are just like getting a B pluses online. So is that an issue that someone is helping them? So the issue of integrity and accountability, or is that the issue of learning like Maria Montessori talked about that we all learn differently by doing some learn by listening some learn by. So I think that this idea of online learning for the workplace and one area that I think it’s important is that I do think it hurts creativity because the collaboration that happens in between meetings, brainstorming about a concept is, is, is really difficult to do despite having beautiful co-panelists and hosts. It’s very, very hard. And so this is great activity in the short term. I think we need to find a way to go back to do something like that.

Scott Luton (00:50:18):

Yeah. Great points being present. I mean, being present is very, very valuable. The water cooler that quick pass

Greg White (00:50:28):

in the hallway, whatever it is, that’s important for creativity and problem solving.

Scott Luton (00:50:32):

Yep. Hey, we’re going fast here going from topic to topic that that’s how the comments are coming in. So I kind of want to start a wrap on this comment, uh, because I’ll tell you, we’ve talked about it a lot on our live streams and podcast, Greg, the importance of protecting, not just our frontline and the healthcare and medical folks and, uh, but our, our supply chain, our end to end supply chain from the truck drivers to the folks in the plants and the fulfillment centers to as Brett, uh, Vanwinkle talks about. Yep. He’s a frontline worker in grocery retail. You know, that was my first job stocking shelves and bagging groceries. And I’m not sure if that’s what Brett does, but that’s what I did. Um, and you know, all of those folks are exposed or, or at least Mmm, could be the risky jobs, right.

Scott Luton (00:51:18):

Especially in, in this. Uh, but I love Brett’s comment here. He’s seen the importance of supply chain and not only that, but he’s majoring in the field. That is so awesome. And, and w w we hope that’s a silver lining in this pandemic that, that now that global supply chains on the tips of more tongues than ever before, we’re going to continue to see much more interest and a lot more of the top talent coming into the field, Greg, um, weigh in on that. And real quick as we wrap up with, uh, Chuck and Claudia.

Greg White (00:51:49):

Yeah. First of all, thank you to Brett and other unsung heroes, like the cleaning people in health care facilities who are really on the front line and get almost no mention whatsoever, but people who are, uh, not necessarily medically equipped to handle this, but face these exposures every day and a quick tip to Brett, never, ever forget that the supply chain begins and ends with the consumer. That is a common, that is a common, um, what am I want to say, deletion that we inevitably make? We don’t think consumer have not historically thought of the consumer as part of the supply chain, but they are

Scott Luton (00:52:30):

without them. Yep. Yeah. All right. So we’ve gotten the move to final comments and Tony Schroeder. I see your question. I’m not gonna be able to get to that, but love what you and RLA are doing and hope you’re doing well, sir. Um, okay. So two, we’ll start with Claudia. So Claudia, um, in typical debate fashion wrap up with your, either your key challenge or one final thought for the audience, and then also make sure we know how to get in touch with you and EAL green.

Claudia Freed (00:52:59):

I think that the key challenge is that while the universe and the environment is changing, don’t be afraid to give organizations and partners a new opportunity to present how they can help your business. I think that you’re in a crisis, we tend to gravitate towards they’re familiar and they know so, or organizations that have such green 40 years of experience in helping with their surplus and excess materials have a look at new partners because in some cases, some of them, they may be getting, they may have been getting ready for a moment like this. What, an opportunity like that for a long time. So borrowing from a previous guest of yours on the program, uh, this is not about, um, there are business opportunities. Don’t be opportunistic. I love what I learned from the program. And I think that’s a concept that there is always an opportunity for new businesses to establish new partnerships

Chuck Easley (00:54:00):

outstanding. And that was Kevin Bell with Arnold golden burger here in town, a great interview, Claudia. Um, we love you being a part of these conversations as well, but how can folks reach out? I mean, you got so much going on such good news. You’re, you’re driving change. You don’t, it’s a really cool things. And then reverse logistics and sustainability space. How can folks plug in?

Claudia Freed (00:54:21):

You know, I got me a yell and at me, Tony Cal. So we are inviting everyone to connect with EAL green on LinkedIn. If you want to find us individually, Claudia, that freed, I am on Twitter. I may be soon on Instagram. You know, we are everywhere, but if you want to text me, my cell phone number is (630) 670-3321. We did it in Las Vegas and I did get two phone calls. So I want you to know that what you are doing to help organizations get more visibility is, is incredible. So Ian green.org, and read our impact report

Chuck Easley (00:55:05):

outstanding, that can be found@ealgreen.org. Perfect. Thanks so much, Claudia. So stay tuned, hang tight for just a second. Chuck, same question to you. Give us your final thought and let’s make sure folks can, uh, can plug in with you as well. Sure. Final thought that I will say is this is a time of creative thinking. Disruption has occurred and will continue to occur. There will be opportunities there and call. You mentioned that as well. Look for partnerships, there are opportunities that exist to still be able to accomplish what you need to now, but also what may be needed in the future. I think one of the biggest challenges that we’re gonna face is how is it that we can reach for what we need to be doing and let go of some things that may not be as efficient or as effective as they were and feel and be that vulnerable.

Chuck Easley (00:55:58):

That’s one of those things where in this space of trying to reach for something next, trusting in that you may have partnerships, it’s going to force us to think about it differently. It’s going to make us redefine what work looks like, what the outcomes may be. And I, I think that’s going to be a very powerful thing because you can count trust, um, and, and a sense of accomplishment cause is sort of experiencing it in a way, you know, it’s just like, people may not, no was supply chain is, but they definitely going to have an opinion. Okay. And so I think this is a chance for us to help them really clarify what it is. Hmm. I would also say, yeah, truly understanding, right. Product, right time, right. Place, right amount.

Chuck Easley (00:56:51):

And it’s, it’s easy to make that cliche. There’s a lot behind that in there. Chuck, where people and what happens is it moves, it used to be in a store, right. That might be on your doorstep. Right. Right. Now I’d be in the trunk of your car and someone brings it out. But if you, if you hold to that and understand it and really drive toward all the underpinnings, like supply chain is five things happening all at the same time, ideas. Yeah. Money, information, um, products. Right? All of those people, all those things happened at the same time. So folks aren’t folks are no longer impressed by all of that. They expect it that’s right. Record time. Right, right. Really good synchronization coordination, execution. And so, and those that can do it, we’ll get a gold medal and others that can’t, I’m going to have to retool. It won’t be around very long. That’s right. If you want to find me, um, I would say I’m at M dot easily. C H U C K dot E a S L E Y P E. That’s like Paul and Edward dot [inaudible] dot EDU. Um, you can also go to our site. Mmm.

Chuck Easley (00:58:07):

SEL at GT I’m actually got tech.edu/leap. Any one of those you’ll find me. Mmm. I’m pretty flexible to get, you can find me on LinkedIn, Chuck easily on LinkedIn as well. But again, just remember our site is SEL at [inaudible] dot EDU, and then you can also find me Chuck that easily@pegottech.edu. Great. We’re going to throw up that URL here in just a second and get that out in the channels. And we’ve got both of your LinkedIn profiles, easy for folks to reach in the notes of a couple channels here. Okay. So on the, on the tail end, if you’re trying to find more about the leap program, you can just put LTAP at the end, I got tech backslash, Lea P for logistics, education and pathways. We love our acronyms and supply chain and you know, what else we love in supply chain?

Claudia Freed (00:59:26):

She challenged me to dance and I said, I’m not going to dance, but just to grab this off, I got it. Yeah. Vegas. And so today, happy birthday, Amanda.

Scott Luton (01:00:05):

Yeah.

Claudia Freed (01:00:07):

Put some makeup on.

Scott Luton (01:00:10):

Thanks so much, Claudia that has made our day undoubtedly and, and you know, it’s great. And a great, great to reconnect with two folks that, you know, we could be talking about the world cup or supply chain or football or whatever, and really enjoy your take and your worldview. So thank you so much to Claudia freed president CEO with EAL green. I want to throw a founder in there, but you were the first student. I knew that there was an early connection. I was reaching for straws there, but great to connect with you, Claudia freed. And of course Chucky’s like he was deeply involved with a wide variety of things at the Georgia tech supply chain logistics Institute, including the leap program, which is really helping to build a pipeline of great talent coming into the logistics industry, which we know we need. We’re gonna need a lot more of in the year, the months and years to come. So thanks so much Chuck for coming back and we’ll have you, you bet. We’ll have you back home real soon. Thanks very much. Alright. Thanks everybody. Thanks Claudia. Thanks Chuck. Take care. Wow. Hey clay. Hey, well, Hey, so real quick, Greg, what? Um, that was a great conversation. We couldn’t get, I mean, there were some big meaty subjects, you know, somebody might have come out on the table. I think we did a pretty good job of diving into some, but folks like Chuck and Claudia an hour just doesn’t do it justice.

Greg White (01:01:38):

So one thing that I noticed immediately about Chuck is even before we went on the air, is that would be somebody great to have as a professor, he’s engaging interesting. He’s knowledgeable, but he puts it into terms that, cause I was thinking as he was having his discussion, how, what a terrible student I was and how bored I wasn’t so many of my classes and I thought I could sit through that. Right, right. I mean, um, we have a whole show dedicated to supply chain is boring. Right. That’s right. I actually sit through that and he refutes every notion of that. And of course, Claudia, she’s a great person. Um, we really enjoyed meeting her in Las Vegas and we love what her and her organization do.

Scott Luton (01:02:20):

And the story, her life story is inspiring. Even if you’re not from Argentina, it’s inspiring. Um, and yeah. Yeah. What great topics and great deaths. One quick thing. Okay. Yeah. Tell me [inaudible] yes. The short answer is yes. Okay. On that note to all the folks that commented or, or post questions, sorry, we couldn’t get to everybody. You know, when we have a two panelists versus one, we have a little less time to get to everybody’s, you know, thought leadership that we want them to share. So, but thanks for making it lively and engaging and interactive love, certainly love the audience plugs into our live stream. So we’ll get to that. We can get to those questions after this gets posted to LinkedIn as well, to put it in comments and we’ll get some, uh, conversations going there. All right. So clay, you surprised us, you jumped into the stream before we wrapped up today.

Scott Luton (01:03:13):

And either, either we’re in trouble, we miss something good. Usually the case we put our foot in our mouth or, or I have been getting some texts from my South Carolina friends that didn’t appreciate that joke. Hey, really? I’m making fun of myself more than anyone else. So, uh, so Tom and, and, uh, Sam all was other folks, Hey, I promise not picking on my home state. So clay what’s what’s going on, you know what you missed, but, but I knew I was going to have to come in and say it because neither you would ever brag on yourself. Right? Never, never, never. I don’t know. I don’t know about that. I don’t know about the guy all the way down kid. So Scott, you’re going to be joining thinkers three 60, which is a premier thought leader in influencer platform as a top 25 supply chain thought leader.

Scott Luton (01:04:01):

Wow. How about that? Yeah, boy. And then Greg, you have waited your turn. Um, you’ve been honored by both rate links and thinkers three 60 as a top 10 thought leader. What Greg man say, I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised he brings it. Uh, today for the first time in about 200 conversations with Greg, I saw him Paul’s for the right word. That never happens the right word, that mentioning the wrong word right out there. Well, clay, this is, so you did surprise us a little bit in one live stream. What, um, uh, in the month of may, of course has been a real busy month as well. Well, I mean, you know that, uh, as, as Claudia spilled the beans, most importantly, our announcement today, it’s Amanda’s birthday. That’s right on that same note. Um, with Amanda leading the charge, our marketing team has as, uh, you know, leaps and bounds this month we’re we’re, uh, beating numbers just what, 19 days into the month.

Scott Luton (01:05:06):

And I shouldn’t Testament to what she’s doing and what we’re doing. And we know it’s because of our listeners and our followers. So, um, that’s good to end it with that. I agreed appreciate what you do. I mean, you and Amanda are behind the scenes so often appreciate what you do, uh, bring, uh, you know, help us facilitate this conversation. That’s what it’s all about, right? Our audience and North star is great content, hopefully that the audience enjoys and benefits from. And hopefully, especially in these challenging times, you know, it gets a moment to, um, you know, take your mind off of a lot of other things are going on. So thanks so much clay. Thanks for surprises. Uh, Claudia, both of y’all y’all in cahoots surprise, and Greg and I here this afternoon, we have lost control. So, um, let’s talk about some other cool things. So, uh, next trivia game, uh, June 3rd. So we should say again, connect the dots here. Kobe cannoli, our reigning champion, uh, knocked off mr. Inventory from the first edition, right? Congrats in close. Second place was Tony Rivera. Who’s on the live stream here today and day Grundy, right?

Greg White (01:06:16):

Yeah. And I know that both of them think of this as a grudge match. So the competition just continues to get fiercer and fiercer. Um, we had Angie Reno, Reno nine one one, and Sarah Barnes Humphrey talking smack before the last, uh, round round of trivia. And, and of course, uh, mr. Inventory Dimitrios gonna lose, uh, finished in the top five. So tough, tough competition. I am summoning and I will do it personally. If I have to I’m summoning Chris Gaffney, the chief supply chain strategy at Coca-Cola to, to come back. I have a feeling that he may have gone to do some studying after the CEO of Coca Cola found out he did this. He said, if you’re going to do it, you better win.

Scott Luton (01:07:08):

Well, you know, the competition’s fierce. Our next trivia contest is June 3rd. It’s our Eastern hemisphere edition. We’re putting it in the morning. So folks in the Eastern hemisphere don’t have to stay up till two or three in the morning, nine 30 Eastern daylight time. And we’ve got a new partner for this third edition. The great group, well known as say pics, which is all that’s right, Jenny Froome and the whole team down there. That’s doing a lot of great things in business and then supply chain in the, on the continent of Africa and really beyond. So come check it out, it’s free. And if you win, you come take our money. Right. Uh, and I promise you you’ll have a good time with, with a bunch of folks that, uh, enjoy the, the, uh, the industry that is global supply chain. All right. [inaudible] and again, kudos to Claudia’s team for making such a strong impression in that trivia match. Lastly, Greg, tell us about this webinar on May 27th.

Greg White (01:08:02):

Gardner is almost enough said, right? The premier analyst organization in technology and, and space, especially in supply chain, their supply chain, top 25 for 2020, um, curated and presented by Mike Griswold. He’s going to be reviewing some of the top takeaways from that on may 27, uh, at, at noon Eastern time. And we’re going to talk through some in invaluable information that regardless of the size of sophistication, the complexity or the, um, variation of your supply chain, that you can take away and start to apply to your business to make it better tomorrow. So join us there. It’s incredibly valuable information every year. Usually you have to pay thousands of dollars to,

Scott Luton (01:08:53):

to even hear about this. And that’s still an option that is just, okay, May 27th.

Greg White (01:09:03):

We, everything is free. That’s how we can afford our money back. Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:09:07):

Right. Come join us. Mike Griswold is always a great interview. We’ve enjoyed our monthly conversations with him and, and clearly our audience has as well. If you look at the ratings of that show. Okay. So, uh, one last, if there’s something that, uh, you can’t find that there’s something in there, check out our website for sure. But you can reach out to our birthday girl, Amanda, at very simple URL, uh, email address amanda@supplychainoutrated.com and we’ll do our best to serve as a resource for you. And with all of that said, Greg, what a great show I’ve got an hour and 10 minutes. We’ve packed a lot in that hour and 10 minutes. That way

Greg White (01:09:44):

we did indeed. One hot take for you. Okay. Now, uh, supply chain, this is my one thing that will come out of this supply chain will no longer be considered a back office front function. It will be a front office function and it will not only have a seat at the table. I predict that it will be at or near the head of the table. It’s more than a back office function. It’s more than competitive differentiation. It is the branding of your company. And if anyone has ever doubted that, ask anyone, who’s taken a beating for being out of stock on toilet paper or Clorox wipes,

Scott Luton (01:10:22):

hot takes, you always deliver, Hey, we’re gonna have to save this for the next one, but I love Tony’s response. Yes. I love that. Uh, of course we’re big fans of Tony too. So Tony look forward to connecting with you soon. All right. So Greg, I think that is a wrap if I’m not mistaken. So, um, to our audience, thanks so much for joining in today. A big thanks to Claudia and Chuck for, for, you know, they did not mail anything in. Yeah, of course. I don’t think they mail anything in for any conversation. Yeah. I think folks are going to benefit from their perspective. I think it reinforces some of the things out there. It probably puts a new spin on some of the thoughts, but are really going to have to have them back, maybe one at a time. Cause it’s the Tufts to feature these two, um, uh, thought leaders at the same time. Right?

Scott Luton (01:11:12):

What, what Chuck’s classes are because I predict there thousands of people out there going, I want to sign up for that. That’s right. I guarantee you. All right. So with all that said on behalf of the whole team here, uh, Scotland and signing off here today, best wishes and thoughts to all of our listeners, wherever you are. I know there’s challenging times for many folks, but there are absolutely brighter days ahead. We’re starting to see a little light or maybe a big light in the tunnel. And on that note, we look forward to you joining us next time here at supply chain. Now. Thanks everybody.