“How do you do the change management? How do you align the stakeholders? How do you get them together? How do you align the organization? So that digital management is worth a million dollars.”

• Radu Palamariu, Managing Director Asia Pacific at Alcott Global

From his home base in Singapore, Radu Palamariu with Alcott Global is heavily involved in several of the company’s business lines, including executive search, content creation, and digital events. The fact that he usually works with supply chain senior directors and above provides him with a unique top-down look at the current supply chain market.

In this conversation, Radu shares his philosophy about talent and leadership with Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton:

• Why excellent soft skills – including self-control, relationship building, and a positive mindset – are more important now in supply chain talent than ever before
• The role that strong leadership skills and team chemistry will play in deciding how much responsibility is abdicated to technology in the years to come
• Why he and his team have decided that now is the time to launch their first digital event.

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 morning, Scott Luton. Greg white are early on our talent Tuesday, but welcome to supply chain now. Welcome to today’s live stream, Greg, how are you doing? I’m awake. I’m doing everybody probably knows this is a little early to be on the air for me, but we have to be respectful of his time because he is in Singapore caress ride. So it’s nighttime his time. Hey, you know, when you can enter for us, that’s right. When you can sign the rock of Singapore to sign, join our livestream, you work around his, his schedule. So no kidding aside. Radu is a great friend of the show. We’re talking about Roger polymer, uh, Paula, Mario, uh, with Alcott global, right? Um, outstanding guru and talent. It’s got a great event coming up. We’re gonna dive into all of that on this first edition of our talent, Tuesday here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:01:25):

So stay tuned for what should be a very informative but fun conversation. And Greg, what’s our aim to raise your supply chain IQ outstanding, man, you’re you’re ready for your supply chain talent IQ particularly today, right? That is right. All. So a quick programming for we get started here today with Radu. If you enjoy our live stream episode, be sure to check out our podcast today, we publish the latest in our logistics with purpose series, which we love one of our favorites. Certainly one of my favorites, uh, that is made possible while our great friends over vector global logistics. So you can find that and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. From what Greg reminded me, we’re going to have to ask Radu about his podcast. One thing that we did not add to my notes here today. Um, alright. When you want me to remind you. Yeah. Okay.

Scott Luton (00:02:25):

Alright. So with no further ado, let’s do this. Let’s bring in Radu, Mar you direct a managing director, Asia Pacific with Alcott global. Hey Rodney, how are you doing? Hey guys, I’m very good pleasant to be here with you and many things for the invitation and also the warm welcome. I really hope I can live up to the expectations. You know, I’m not sure anybody regards me as a guru, but I really appreciate that introduction. Well, great to have you, so look forward to catching up with you. Definitely. Uh, now we, we know that most of the world knows Radu, but, uh, for the three or four folks that may not would love to get, you know, let our audience get to know you a little better. Right? So first off you tell us where you’re from and give us an anecdote or two about your upbringing.

Radu Palamariu (00:03:16):

Um, so originally, originally I was born in Romania, actually in Eastern Europe. So, um, I’m not connected though to, to Dracula. Uh, you know, I was, you know, I was born in Transylvania, which is the same Hansel. So that explains why I like garlic because you know, you are somewhat safe, um, by hook or by crook. And actually, you know, it works in a non where otherwise the garlic does, even if you don’t get a text, you know, usually that’s another bill repentant sort of, um, robber. But, uh, so I come from Romania Eastern Europe. Um, about 12 years ago, I came to Singapore. Um, uh, it was a certain act of randomness because at that time I didn’t really even know where Singapore was. It was 2008 and it’s Singapore wasn’t as well known as it is today. You know, we’ve had a lot of things happening in this 12 years, but, you know, I got an amazing opportunity to come here as a management consulting in a management consulting firm. I took it and never looked back, I guess. So now two kids later, um, well plugged into Singapore into Asia Pacific and, uh, and yeah, basically enjoying, enjoying a lot this, uh, this part of the world.

Scott Luton (00:04:27):

Great. Love it. Love it. Hey, real quick. I got to recognize a lot of folks that tuned in for, uh, Roger’s perspective here today. We’ve got Sean Conrad. It’s been a while. Sean hope this finds you well early, where it gets the worm. Indeed, of course, Don long. Um, great to have him here. He is a R on our spelunker Splunkers or in caves or a mountain climber. Uh, Don hope is find your well, uh, DC DC’s for Gola. I get that right close [inaudible] that’s right. Uh, DC. Good morning. Uh, yes. For, for me in particular, but you know, Tom is tough for me, evidently, uh, DC, hope this finds you well, I appreciate it. I’ve enjoyed your content here lately on LinkedIn looking forward to our July event. And let’s see here, honey, honey is, is checking us out on LinkedIn. Great to have you part of the live stream here. And you know, it would not be a live stream Radu and Greg, unless we had Nerf with us here. Um, so he only knows 19,000 Rodgers from Romania Radu. Um, so he I’ll tell you [inaudible] has been our resident comedian here on our lives.

Radu Palamariu (00:05:45):

I just want to be, you know, just want everyone to know that I was very careful with my hair this morning because I knew the Nirvana would be on here.

Scott Luton (00:05:52):

That’s right. That’s right. And one more a manual. Uh, great to have you here, LinkedIn with us on live stream. Thanks for tuning in. Okay. So Radu, if I heard you correctly, about 12 years ago, you took a whim. You weren’t even sure where Singapore was on the map. And then gosh, 12 years later, you’re rocking and rolling. Uh, the business appears ball all, uh, outside observations do really well. Of course, you and a lot of folks know you with an industry and we’ll talk about one of your latest, big industry, global plays here. Um, things appear to do real. Uh, what’s it like, what have you come to really love about living in Singapore and the local culture and the local market? What, what do you enjoy the most Darien?

Radu Palamariu (00:06:44):

So, you know, truth be told. So I, I, I think I should explain for the people that may not know what the reason is. I certainly had no idea, no clue what it was 12 years ago. So basically I was given the description that, yeah, it’s this thing that smells like rotten onions. So, you know, it paints a picture, right? So about six months, I think in my stay in Singapore, never wanted to go anywhere near that because rotten onions, you don’t really want to be eating. So for the, for the, you know, also to, to describe it, it’s like a spiky kind of a thing. Right. So, um, but yes, you know, to your point, Greg, I tried it six months, uh, in and never looked back again. So I it’s, it’s one of those things where you either hate or love. And I definitely love it to me.

Radu Palamariu (00:07:30):

It tastes like custard. Uh, most people think that I’m nuts, which probably I am, but I like to think positively way. And, uh, and yeah, I mean, I love durian, so there’s definitely one thing that I love about Singapore Southeast Asia and wherever you can find the area, but on, um, business know that I think Singapore is just an amazing, amazing place from an ease of doing business. I mean, they consistently rank it’s between them and New Zealand, right? Number one for ease of doing business. It’s, you know, when we set up a little bit global to give a sense to the audience, took us 15 minutes, um, is just insanely insanely, uh, proactive systems. The government does so much things to, to make everything digital and seamless, right? Everything is done online. Most of, I mean, you basically never need to go to a physical office.

Radu Palamariu (00:08:17):

So it’s just amazing for doing business. And it is for me, it’s the best place in Asia to do business. And definitely is the heart of Southeast Asia. 100%. Now for China, you can argue is it’s definitely Shanghai, most likely or Beijing, one of the two, but for Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia, I would say, Singapore is that place. And if from here you, you can do business anywhere and from just an ease of life as well. Right? So literally when we used to be able to fly, you fly into Singapore, right? Thanks for 30 minutes, you’re off and you get home in five minutes, max, you cannot cannot do that anywhere else in Asia, it’s just not possible. It’s just not possible. You would spend three to four hours, you know, airport traffic, right. And then home. So it’s just, to me, it’s just an incredible place. And I would urge and encourage people to come visit if they can once and you know, why not? And I have some business here.

Scott Luton (00:09:19):

Well, all right. So we want to next, but I’m going to give a few shout outs to some of the folks that have chimed in, but we want to ask you about Alcott global, what the firm does, where you specialize and then where you spend your time. So that’s coming up next, but Greg, real quick, we’ve got quite the international audience with us here this morning to Tachi is a, with this own LinkedIn from Nigeria. I hope this finds you. Well, sir. Uh, let’s see here, Anthony, Anthony is tuned in via LinkedIn from Nairobi. Uh, great to have you here. Uh, and Gwen is from Vietnam. Outstanding. Um, and I think we’ve got one more here. Cigar good evening from India also via LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is, we’ve done this early enough that everybody hasn’t gone to bed yet. Right. Right. And LinkedIn is rewinding down like redu right now. And clearly LinkedIn is proven to be the international, uh, platform of choice here. Okay. So, and thanks again to all of our attendees for tuning in for this conversation with Radu. All right. So Alcott global. Tell us about what the firm does, where you specialize and in particular, Roger, where you spend your time.

Radu Palamariu (00:10:35):

Um, what, what we, what we like to say that we do now, and it has evolved, but at this current moment, when somebody asks me, what does elegant global stand for? We stand for connecting the supply chain ecosystem in APEC and globally. So it’s a big vision. It’s big words, it’s a mouth full, you can argue, but that’s what we want to believe. And we want to be trying to do now, how do we do that? How do we connect the supply chain ecosystem? There’s a couple of things from a business perspective and you can call them business units or services that we specialize in. So number one, executive search. So we have an arm that very much focuses on executive search within supply chain realm that we define for ourselves, because as many people there’s many definitions of supply chain, really, but we tend to keep things simple. It’s plan procure, make, deliver the four pieces as long as the role sits within those four rights. So it can be chief operations officer, obviously as well, chief supply chain officer, a VP level, chief procurement officer, head of planning and so on, we will do that. And also we work quite closely with the idea center industries, right? So then it would be shipping, uh, logistics, companies,

Radu Palamariu (00:11:54):

companies, uh, delivery, uh, platforms like Uber, or, you know, I’m just giving an example, Uber freight and so on. So that’s one chunk of, of the focus areas for us. The second chunk of the focus areas is what I would define as content. Now content means many things. So for us, uh, and you know, obviously you guys are great at that as well. So we have a podcast as well. Like you mentioned to the two for Greg to remain outstanding. No problem. I’ll do that. I’ll do my shameless podcast, you know, apart from supply chain, the supply chain now. So, uh, so we have leaders in supply chain where we basically started about three years ago, uh, as a side hustle, really. So the intent was, look, how can we basically get some of these C level executives that are, some of them are clients, or some of them are people that we respect to share ideas with the whole industry, make it in a seamless way three-way accessible tool.

Radu Palamariu (00:12:58):

Cause you have all the events where you can potentially catch some of these gentlemen and, and, and, and, and, you know, men and women, but it’s not easy. It’s not easy to do that. And it’s usually 100, 200, 300 people. So we started that incredibly successful and we had a lot of different C-level and CEOs and so on. And, you know, we’re still going. Then we have articles, we have a YouTube series where we do some, you know, ask the head Hunter series and a couple of tips and tricks for job seekers. And so on. We put out a number of other things. So that’s the content and the third one and the last one, and it’s kind of fresh off the, off the shelf. We have decided to go into also into digital events for now. So we have put together and then, you know, we’ll talk more about it. We have put together the supply chain summit online, uh, it’s going to happen in July. And, you know, we have a very proud to have a pretty good, uh, great, I think a lineup of speakers and, you know, we’re going to start to do that as well.

Scott Luton (00:13:54):

I’m Ron turnout. We’ve been seeing that we’re proud to be a media partner and, and that, uh, that virtual supply chain summit. All right. So Greg is about to take a deep dive with Radu on the talent market, to our audience. Um, what we’re going to be asking Radu in this net with this next question is what are some of his key observations related to the current talent market? Now, we all know it’s a unique, challenging time, but we’d love for you to weigh in. Think about what you’re seeing in the talent market. Put your comments in there. As we get through Roger’s perspective, we’ll share yours as well. Uh, one other shout out before Greg, we get started on the talent conversation, Sylvia, who of course tunes in via Charleston on LinkedIn today is her mom’s 85th birthday. Uh, hopefully you are making jam and taking your mom out or having a nice special time with your mom here today. And, you know, Sylvia also, uh, knows quite a bit about the, the supplication

Radu Palamariu (00:14:52):

workforce. So we’ll see what she weighs in with. Alright, so Greg,

Greg White (00:14:56):

yeah, I’ll follow you here. So, like Scott said, um, give us some, some of the things you’re seeing in the marketplace today, I know you focus, as you said on senior director and above talent. So I’m interested in what you’re seeing in terms of movement, or just generally observations you have on market today.

Radu Palamariu (00:15:19):

Yes. With pleasure. And I really want to encourage, uh, um, the active listeners and viewers of this. I’m, I’m thrilled to, to listen to their questions. And I think that makes the most, you know, so definitely ask and, and, you know, hopefully I’ll be able to answer, right. So feel free to put me on the spot, especially if you have to pick a fight with me now is the right time. So, you know, so, um, I would say number, number one, right? So number one, and I would brief before I start, I would reframe, I don’t think I’m going to say anything that is rocket science is just that, you know, a lot of the times we, as human beings forget that it’s about the fundamentals. And so, um, I would say now more than ever, it’s about the soft skills, right? So talent, talent, you know, is, is something that’s pretty, you know, pretty fluffy.

Radu Palamariu (00:16:12):

So I’ll try to make it a bit practical. So I think what companies really need in general, but especially now, right, is people that can drive and have excellence soft skills at that senior level within supply chain right now, what do I mean by soft skills? Right. Let’s make it practical as the next question. Yeah. So it’s, you know, you have crisis management, which you can argue that it’s a little bit of a combination between technical skills and soft skills, but I would say that it’s more soft skills, right? You need to know how do you manage the situation? How first, how do you manage yourself? Right. Because if you freak out, if you lose your right, right. That’s it really simple things, but you, you know, so it’s, it’s, it’s a reality that in today’s world, even before COVID we as supply chain professionals and most supply chain professionals activate in a crisis mode, there’s no most, it’s no such thing as normal anymore. It’s from crisis to crisis. Now, if it wasn’t copied, which obviously is at a scale that we’ve never seen before, but we had volcano eruption in Philippines, in Iceland a few years ago, we had a, is there going to be a war between Iran and USA or not. Right. You always have something happening.

Greg White (00:17:19):

Yeah. Right. There’s all kinds of that.

Radu Palamariu (00:17:22):

Yeah. So I think that that kind of mindset of, okay, look, I’m the leader of the pack. I’m the leader of the team, you know, I need to stand and I need to manage the team. I need to give them that calmness, that vision, that, okay, how do we put together? Get together, do crisis management, risk management, assessment, fight teams, crisis teams, right. And get those going. And then one in particular there awhile, I want to point out on top of, of course you need to be creative, entrepreneurial and all that. But one that is really distinguishing the ones that are making it well and actually thriving through this and the ones that are not is the building relationships and partnership skills. That is, I am amazed at how many people I have such a short, limited type of, no, give me cheaper rate. Give me, yeah.

Radu Palamariu (00:18:10):

But this doesn’t work. Right. I mean, this really, truly, it doesn’t work. And especially when you’re in the crisis mode, forget it. I mean, those people that you’ve tried to screw over price or to, you know, to lower okay, good luck now. Right. So, you know, you’ll provide some talking both internally and externally. It applies both, right? So obviously an inside the organization, if you’re on the supply chain side, you better have good relationships with the CFO, right. Or with, you know, marketing or sales. I mean, you can’t cause otherwise you don’t get anything done internally, but also externally with your partner. So I’ve seen that as a big, big differentiator. So all this, I hope I made it a bit more practical.

Greg White (00:18:46):

I think that’s really an important thing is particularly the external relationships. Because we, as this sort of came down, we reported on an article and I can’t remember exactly who it was, but they said it’s too late to make friends now. Yeah. Right. You have to, you have to have nurtured a positive relationship with someone and now be able to leverage and maybe even strain that relationship somewhat because of these difficult times, but it’s too late to make friends now. And we’re seeing that by the way in the PPE market, which is decidedly, disjointed, corrupt, and, and inefficient. And there are a lot of people trying to, as you’re talking about redo there, they’re trying to make a lot of, um, snap judgements, quick moves being opportunistic, and it’s just not, not working.

Scott Luton (00:19:35):

Hey, if I could, uh, you know, the phrase that comes to mind for me is, is blessed are the peacemakers we need, we need peacemakers folks that will build rapport with folks to Greg’s point in advance. Right. Uh, it’s very difficult to have that microwave relationship if you haven’t really worked at it as a leader is what I’m hearing Radu and Greg speak to. And it’s so important right now, internally and externally. Um, real quick, before we get back to Greg and Roger here, I want to say hello to Fred Tolbert. Who’s tuned in Kevin Bell. Who’s tuned in, uh, Keith Singleton. Great. Keith back with its own livestream. Uh, I’ll tell you, there was, there was lots of t-shirt, uh, quotables. Last time Keith Singleton was here with us, uh, Joseph Maretta and even mr. Supply chain. And I got to share it to, to prove it, mr. Supply chain, Daniel Stan is here with us. The one and only

Greg White (00:20:27):

we must’ve caught in between, um, LinkedIn learning sessions. Right?

Scott Luton (00:20:31):

Well, I haven’t been able to get his agent on the phone book. Roger’s agent was easier to get on the phone, but, uh, nevertheless, great to have all of these good people in lab stream for this conversation we’re having where I do all right. Back to the action.

Radu Palamariu (00:20:45):

I just wanted to and build a little bit upon. Cause I think this is, uh, an important, cause this is a mindset. So, you know, soft skills, mostly STEM, of course you need to practice it, but it’s also starts with mindset and this longterm mindset is something that so many people are failing. It. It’s just incredible. It’s like, you know, it’s like, you have the boss that says, okay, I need lower costs, so, okay. I’m going to go and screw my supplier. Yeah. But you know, yeah, you can do that. But then the crisis will hit then for sure, that supply will say, well, see you later alligator, because I have a lot of other people that are knocking on my door. So you screwed me. I’m going to screw you back. Right. But this is exactly what happens. And you don’t build relationships over one interaction.

Radu Palamariu (00:21:29):

You’ll do it over time. So if you don’t have the right mindset, that’s it. Right. So I think in, in a silver lining, the silver lining is that by hook or by crook, people need to have picked up after this with sometimes some, some of them will go boss, Steven, but Hey, look, you can start again. Right? So you better get on the bandwagon of longterm and relationship thin. I’ve seen companies that have this mindset that I think is exactly the right mindset, right? So top four, five fortune 500 then, I mean, let’s talk automotive, right? If, if one of your suppliers gets bust, you can’t make the bloody car anymore by the show missing one piece in your car, that’s it. Right. You can have all the rest of the suppliers, you can build the car. So, so what I have seen, I mean, simplistically put an example, but it is a real example, right? So I’ve seen, uh, some of our clients that literally went to this place and okay, can we extend your payment terms? Can we fascinate? Can we help you with your, because they realize, look, we are all in this together. We have that ecosystem. And unless we do it together, I’m still going to be hurt. You know what I mean? So I think that’s the right type of approach.

Greg White (00:22:38):

One of the technical skills of crisis management too, is, is diversification and, and multiplication of sources, right? Don’t have one person that makes that one part that could stop you from being produced. Right? You have to, and, and I’ve seen companies that have done this for decades and it still astounds me that there were such a large group, can’t say if it was a majority of minority, but such a large group of companies that were completely stagnated by this crisis because they had no plan B. So I think that’s another great, that’s the technical side, right? Not the soft side, I guess, of, of crisis management is and have a plan and have a plan B

Radu Palamariu (00:23:21):

and you need to have one risk officer or some, some person that companies that have no even idea that that term existed or that role existed, get a risk person and listen to that risk person, if you’re going to get it right, because we can get one and then you just keep them somewhere in the corner of the office and never pay attention. So I think that has also changed. And also what has changed is the importance of supply chain. That’s another thing that most, not most, I don’t want to say most, but some companies like all of the supply chain, right. Just get my stuff delivered right now. I think they realize, well, without that, basically my business can go to pieces. So there’s always still the linings right now. If I can point to where I see the market, right. Then the talent and, and, and, and, um, and so on, I would say again, I’m going to use a buzzword. I can’t help it. I’ll try to make it practical after this, isn’t it. But I promise it’s not AI and it’s not blockchain.

Radu Palamariu (00:24:19):

So I, I, I see a highlight, um, explosion of, of companies needing digital skills. Now, what do I mean by digital skills? I mean, first person in supply chain, uh, project manager, director, operations, head, whatever you name it they’ve can come in and say, okay guys, we don’t have visibility. We don’t have, you know, we don’t know where our stuff is. We don’t know. Our planning is all through the, you know, through the roof. When we were going to fail miserably, how do we pull up in four to eight weeks? You don’t have three years. I don’t wanna name big companies. You don’t have three years implement. You have four to eight weeks. Right. So how do we do that? You need that type of, that’s why I call it digital skills, right? You’ve done it before, you know who to call, you know, what kind of vendors and providers and partners can turn it up fast and you are able, you know, the technology is not usually, it’s never the problem. The problem is, and this is where, where the crux is. How do you do the change management? How do you align the stakeholders? How do you get them together? How do you align the organization? So that digital management together is million dollar worth and organizational scrambling their head when we find like, okay, so that’s what I’m seeing that it has further enhanced the price tag and the value that people see in that type of skills within supply chain.

Greg White (00:25:43):

That’s a really good point. I think companies have less tolerance for a three to five year, 100 to $500 million implementation of an ERP system. And they shouldn’t have to, by the way, because with the advent of cloud technologies that are configurable, instead of customizable, they’re more rapidly deployed and more supportable over the longterm. And there, I kind of hate to say this, but you made me think of this. They’re virtually disposable. If you need a solution for a year, while you move on to a more mature solution, you can absolutely do that. This on demand nature of some of these technologies allows you to do that. And some of them are actually mature enough to be a longterm solution for you. But as you said, you have to align the organization, your business processes, management goals, and all of those things. And we can’t have this, and we’ve had this for a lot of years. We can’t have this plug in some tech and miracles will happen perspective. Right. We have to get engaged as managers. You’re right.

Scott Luton (00:26:46):

Yup. All right. So let’s, let’s let our audience weigh and we’ve got a couple of comments here. When I grab from our live stream. First off, want to say hello to a regular live streamer and fierce supply chain trivia, competitor, Benjamin gold claim. Hopefully this finds you well, thanks for tuning in. All right. So and says she agrees. Relationship management is a big part of supply chain management question. How did companies help supply chain people develop this mindset, hiring the right people to begin with or nurturing this mindset by having the right KPIs? Interesting comments and questions there from Anne. Thanks for tuning in, uh, Sylvia, uh, weighs in she’s. She loves this a lot of what you’re talking about. Uh, the 30, 60, 90 day snapshot vision has to change inclusiveness and shepherd leadership built strong culture and partnerships. She’s got friends in logistics for 38 years, uh, which they are, they are her mentors, kindred spirits and customers.

Scott Luton (00:27:45):

I’m not familiar. I don’t think was shepherd leadership. So maybe one of you are, uh, but Sylvia would love for you to kind of give us an explanation there. Um, Benjamin weighs in, so you worked at a summer camp, he had a whole day of training, dedicated to risk situations, ranging from bee stings to bomb threats. Right. You never know what’s going to happen. That’s you know, um, Greg, if we’ve said it, once we’ve said it a thousand times about this, how risk has got maybe a couple of seats at the table. Now it’s interesting to kind of hear that perspective and see, and hear how it’s getting, you know, from fortune 500 all the way down to summer camps, where they’re prepping folks for the, what ifs. And that’s really where we are right now, right?

Greg White (00:28:30):

Yeah. I guess it’s more natural for some people and therefore some organizations, but I’ve always been a person who tries to predict that that which cannot possibly be predicted right. And provision for that. Right. Look at, uh, you know, it’s one of the tenants of war planning, right. But look for what could happen, how could you get outflanked by a competitor or a situation, right. And, and provision for that. You don’t have to have a grand plan for it, but you need to at least be aware that it could happen. And it’s surprising that it, that it, it doesn’t right.

Scott Luton (00:29:06):

Uh, mr. Supply chain, uh, by the way, he thought your buzzword Radu was going to be controlled tower. So that’s good. We all were wrong there. I’m afraid. I don’t.

Greg White (00:29:19):

Those words that I don’t understand, talk about that one of our next shows is controlled powers. So, and what the heck? That means

Scott Luton (00:29:28):

Daniel loves his combination of supply chain management and project management and digital skills. So good stuff there. Uh, Keith goes back to Ann’s comment and key says, Hey, it’s all about hiring the right. Um, and

Greg White (00:29:44):

back to Ann’s question to get a chance.

Scott Luton (00:29:46):

Yep. One last comment from the audience, Sean Conrad says change management and digital tool as a nation. I mean, they’ve been a cup of coffee or two to get that right. So important. The culture must embrace the change to truly reap the rewards. Good stuff there from Sean. Okay. Greg, you wanted to go back for a minute.

Greg White (00:30:05):

Well, I think it is hiring the right people and of course, Keith, you know, always with the wisdom, right. We need to get him back in the studio. Um, but I think the second portion of Ann’s question is particularly correct because you can miss guide good people with bad motivation and you get what you pay for, right. If, if you pay for reduction in cost for product, then what you’re going to get is tough, brutal negotiations with vendors at the cost of anything else to get low cost. What I’ve often advocated and tried to do as a manager myself, is to, is to think through right, the unintended consequences of KPIs and particularly of fiscal motivation of, of team members to make sure that we get exactly what we want. If we motivate this, then what is the bad result that we could get that we don’t want and think through that, and having had sales staffs at the companies that I’ve had very, very conscious of what I want to motivate and, and how you want to organize the team to get the right results for your customers, for your business partners, for the internal team, it takes a lot of thinking and it really, you really have to take what is often a commonly applied model and assume it has something wrong with it and figure out what bad result it can motivate.

Greg White (00:31:37):

I’d love to hear your thoughts there.

Radu Palamariu (00:31:40):

So, so firstly, um, I could not agree more with Keith. Um, and, and if you do need any help for hiring, I know a very good company and that would be, I don’t hesitate. You know, I happen to know also, uh, the MD is a good friend of mine. Um, when I look in the mirror and so eloquent global is so, um, so shameless blog, I move on to the actual answer to the question. So, uh, yes, we are in recruitment then, but I do believe, I mean, I, I am also passionate and I do believe that it is again, I’m saying something that is so fundamental, but I’ll say it anyway. It’s all about the people, right? I mean, for now, robots are not ruling the world for now. Right. You know, it’s all about the people, you know, you can have the best technology, the best, whatever you have a crap team, you have a team that doesn’t get together. I just like in football or whatever basketball, you can have the top stars, they don’t work together. They don’t play together. You’re gonna lose, you’re going to lose to a

Radu Palamariu (00:32:40):

mediocre team that plays together. Right? So you get the right people, you get the right results now mindset, right? How do you, how do you get that mindset? How do you get that longterm? Well, it starts at the top, right? You got the wrong chief supply chain, officer, chief executive officer you’re screwed. That’s it? I mean, it’s as simple as that. Right? So, you know, escape. Yes, absolutely. Spot on Greg and the KPIs come from that mindset. Right? So fundamentally I like to look at 3000 feet, right? 3000 feet, you’ve got the right mindset from the C level. It will cascade down. It will see each other into the sea in that you will see it in and observe it in the KPIs. You will observe it in the mindset of the people. Those people will hire people that fit within that. No, we are here.

Radu Palamariu (00:33:24):

This is how we do things in this company. That’s basically what mindset is, right. It’s culture. It translates into the culture of the company. Right. And basically that’s when you’ve got that long term, does it happen overnight? You just, you know, walk into the room and then all of a sudden locate guys from tomorrow, we’re going to think longterm screw that. No, of course not. Right. I mean, unless you demonstrate it, you walk the talk, you do it yourself. As the leader of the team, chief supply chain, officer, chief operations officer, whatever it may be. Right. And you do it consistently over a period of time and you hire people and embrace the team and encourage them. It ain’t going to happen. So I think it’s, you know, hiring the right people is, is a big chunk of that. And at the same time, it has to start at sea level. If it’s not there, you know, you can have it in pockets, right. And you can have the best intention as the supply chain director. You ha you may have it at the personal level. You made endorse it in your team. But if you also get a KPI from the top that says, look, get me the lowest cost. I dare you build a strongest longterm partnership

Scott Luton (00:34:21):

Radu. You’re gaining some fans here. The dog weighs in clay. Phillips says, you can hear the passion and Roger’s voice and philosophy. And I gotta tell ya, uh, you know, it’s been a little while since we connected on a call Radu and I am seeing, I always knew he had some passion, but man, you, you clearly, you LA seems like you are enjoying this lifelong study on leadership and culture and talent and what, what makes certain businesses thrive while others flail about?

Radu Palamariu (00:34:52):

I mean, I can only agree with that. So thanks. Disagree with that. So I appreciate it, Scott. I you’ll tell me where the bank account and I’ll transfer.

Scott Luton (00:35:04):

Okay. All right. So

Greg White (00:35:06):

that’s a really valid point though. And I neglected to say that is that culture in any company starts at the top, whether intentional or by mistake, the culture begins with the, the chief executive officer, right? Whoever, whoever guides, the entirety of the team sets that culture for better or for worse. So that’s a really excellent point. Redu. And I, and, and I think that you, you experienced that a lot, placing executives, you must experience the situation. You must of have experienced the situation to give you such passion that you’ve placed. Somebody, you know, is really special inadvertently in a culture that doesn’t fit them. And it’s, and it’s created issues.

Radu Palamariu (00:35:50):

I try, I try not to do it. Literally. I literally, we literally take these things and I mean, it has evolved and I’m not going to sit here and claim that, you know, I’m Muslim mother Teresa, and I have always been this, but we do have principles ourselves. Right. So as you try to do the right thing, right, because you are basically playing, you’re not playing, but you’re, you’re influencing people’s lives. Right. I mean, somebody’s making the wrong career decision that, you know, influences him, her family, the company. Right. So it’s, it’s a bunch of things that are connected to that. So we really try to, and can we, you know, did we achieve the silver bullet? Can you always get it right? No, because you know, you know why? Cause we’re human beings, right. You know, even if the board has a certain idea so that at some point and engages us or the CEO or whoever engages us, that idea can change.

Radu Palamariu (00:36:40):

Or they may not realize that they have missing pieces. And to the best of our ability and knowledge, we of course tried to be like, detective like Sherlock Holmes and explore different things and make sure that when we go to market, then everything is aligned and still, it can go to pieces because you wait a few months after, all right. So we’re not machines, but I would say that it’s not possible. I mean, it’s, it’s basically, if you hire the right person in the wrong culture is going to fail. Even if that person is Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi, I’m just because I like football. And I actually don’t like resend the wrong, but I like miss. So, you know, you you’ll hire messy, but that’s it right. The team. They don’t want to play with him so hard too. But what do you expect that to happen?

Radu Palamariu (00:37:24):

You either empower MSCI and say, look, you fire everybody that you don’t like, or it doesn’t get on the bandwagon. Right? Listen, you’re the CEO. You’re the captain of the team fire. Everybody who doesn’t listen, we give you full empowerment with the board, go for it. This is what we need to achieve. This is a longterm. If you do that, no problem. Then you can rebuild. And maybe it’s not going to happen in the first year, the second year, but you’re going to have it in the third year, but you hired messy and you say, yeah, but you know, I like this XYZ. Then you have to find a way to play with them. No. Then forget it. Then don’t hire message. Just keep doing what you’re doing. Cause they’re gonna fail. And those one X, Y, Z, I’m going to kill messy after all, because they’re going to be politics and they’re going to be all sorts of things. Right? I mean, this is, I’m just trying to keep it real. This has happened. I’ve seen it. It will continue to happen. So let’s, you know, let’s stop fooling around. Right. Cause it’s very expensive for companies to do it. Right. It affects the credibility as well as the emotions of a lot of people in big organizations. But I keep seeing this. So fundamentally I hope I’m somewhat of giving a flavor.

Greg White (00:38:27):

Yeah. Don’t, don’t hire a tiger and immediately put them in a cage. Right. I mean, that, that is really, um, the essence. I read that

Radu Palamariu (00:38:37):

in a book somewhere.

Scott Luton (00:38:41):

Well, so, all right. So we’re working through your top three observations Radu, and I don’t want to, uh, we got some comments want to share from the audience. Uh, um, I, I’m not sure if we hit everything on your list, but I have the third one. Okay, great. Well, real quick, I’m going to recognize a few comments here we had from the audience. Uh, one, you know, we’re talking about risk earlier. Kevin Bell weighs in, they’re seeing an increase in patent litigation, lawsuits related to supply chain technologies, which is not a surprise, but it’s gotta be paid attention to by supply chain companies. Good stuff. They’re kind of a different twist on risk. Uh, Don long Don. And I know you weighed in earlier on the value of veterans within supply chains. We’ll, we’ll wrap back around on that, but he’s really enjoying the people conversation, uh, agreed. Neuro Fahd says culture is everything. And then he follows that up with not even bacteria can thrive without culture. Good stuff. He needs his own show. Yeah, he does. Steve green. Steve hope this finds you well, thanks for tuning in on LinkedIn leadership transforms the culture. And then finally, uh, Keith, the smell of the place tells you a lot. We’re in the people business. Every stakeholder is equally important. And finally, Rob Moore says, this is an awesome way of thinking. I’m on board with this. As I’m starting my own business with this, probably the people first mentality of being front and center. And if I got that wrong, Rob, please let me know, okay,

Radu Palamariu (00:40:16):

culture is everything. And whether you do it intentionally or mistakenly, you will set the culture. So be very, very intentional,

Scott Luton (00:40:23):

excellent point. All right, Radu, big number three. And then we’re gonna move to, uh, your tips on how companies can get more serious about bringing Tylenol. Rado go ahead.

Radu Palamariu (00:40:34):

The third one, the third piece that I wanted to bring about is the reality in such crisis like coffee and in the subsequent Fulani economic crisis that we are experiencing and, and challenges, economic challenges that very experiencing, a lot of people are wondering, right? You end up wondering, you know, am I going to lose my job? Is the company going to restructure? Am I safe? What’s going to happen to me. Then you have, you know, 40 million unemployed. I, I haven’t followed the numbers recently, but you know, millions and millions unemployed in us, it’s happening everywhere, Singapore, where I am in Asia overall. Right? So it’s something so on suddenly is uncertainty is a big, big here. Let’s use simple. The word is fear, right? People are afraid, right? So people in organizations would be afraid. Am I going to lose my job? I’m going to have an income. So how do you deal with that? Right. So there is obviously because you don’t want to lose your top talent because they might say, Oh, I’m not so sure if the company is going anywhere, let me just flip

Radu Palamariu (00:41:34):

my CVS around and they will find the job. Right. And you also want to make sure that the motivation or peace of mind is there so that people can continue to perform and do their jobs. And obviously, uh, mitigate that. And on top of that, you have worked from home and all the other things that have added stress into this environment in the last three to six months, right? Depending on where we are and where we live. So I would say that there’s two pieces to this, right? So one piece is the executive C level. Whoever is leading the company is their job is their responsibility to over communicate, to be there to say, look, you know, this is what we are doing. Try to help on possibly depending on possibilities, right? Maybe a Google will give people $2,000 to buy stuff for their house to, you know, to buy a desk and whatnot.

Radu Palamariu (00:42:21):

Maybe another company doesn’t have that much money. Right. But you can do small things. You can do conferences. You can do check-ins. You can do so many simple, free human fundamentally good behaviors just to show your stuff and show your team. Look, I’m there with you. We will get through this. We might need right. Keep it real as well. Right? A Airbnb guy. No, he kept it real, sorry, guys. We have to let go of people. I mean, what can I do, right. But I have a pledge here. I don’t know if you saw that memo. I have a pledge. I will do my best to help you guys and so on. Right. That’s the right way to do it. Then you have another company that I’m not going to name because they did a shit job at it. Pardon my French, you know, they just fired everybody or over a zoom conference call.

Radu Palamariu (00:43:11):

And it wasn’t even pre-framed. I mean, that’s absolutely idiotic behavior, right. I’m using very strong words, but it is an idiotic behind because then you basically send the message to your staff that I don’t really care about you. Right. So, okay, great. Then, you know, don’t be surprised that they’re going to jump ship at the first option that they’re going to get. And secondly, you just destroyed your employer brand, like who the, who will want to work with you with such behaviors. So again, longterm short term, you know, that discussion that we just had, right. It reflects here as well. So, um, okay. So this is on the executive side, but on the employee side, because it’s not like you’re just, you know, um, in the middle of a rough sea and a storm and there’s nothing and you’re helpless and you know, you just hit the, let the waves hit you in the head.

Radu Palamariu (00:43:54):

No, we have also as an employee is you have control, right? So you have, you can take ownership for your own learning. So will companies, you structure will the organization. Yeah. I mean, this happened before the crisis is going to happen after the crisis there’s going to handle in between the crisis accepted change is the only constant. Right. So I mean, you don’t like it. Well, tough luck, right? I mean, what, you know, you want to fight reality, you’re going to lose. So basically that’s something that I’m, I’m passionate. And then also trying to tell people, look, look, it’s okay to feel fear. I feel fear. Right? Everybody feels fear, but don’t get paralyzed by it. Right. And, or maybe be paralyzed one week, two weeks, three weeks. I don’t know. But go speak to your friends, get different ideas. Right. And do something like pick up a course, get, you know, go on Coursera, do a bunch of things to hone your digital skills, right. Project management, listen to mr. Supply chain on LinkedIn, pick up some new ways of doing stuff. Take on some new projects, do some new things that can get you in the best position that even if the company will change because they will change, the companies will change. You still have the relevant skill sets to keep yourself, uh, valid with the right type of value, add that you can provide to the company. So I would, I would put this into a big bowl of constant learning.

Greg White (00:45:10):

Yep. I think that’s a really, that’s a really, really good approach is always be improving. Right. Always happy, but never satisfied. Right. Always be thankful for where you are, but always be reaching for more.

Scott Luton (00:45:24):

Yup. Uh, and, and, and, you know, organizations and leadership have a big part of the owners there to make sure they’re investing in their team and, and, and helping them develop into, you know, not being the same person in the same seat, doing the same things five years later or even one year later. So it’s really important. Um, all right. So we’ve kind of walked through raw dues, top three observations of the, of the current talent market and you know, a lot of stuff to digest there. Um, Greg next. Okay.

Greg White (00:45:53):

So we know a lot of things are going to be changing, right? Lots of companies have. I mean, as you said, unemployment is rampant everywhere, right. Approaching in the States, approaching depression, era levels. So, um, we know that there’s going to be a lot of shifting, right? When the economy comes back or as companies start to come back online, there’s going to be a lot of shifting certain companies even had an active strategy to exit their, their least performers and try to upskill when the economy comes back from this massive pool of talent. So there’s going to be, uh, I think it’s still going to be a, an employer’s market, but there’s going to be a lot of good talent in the marketplace. So how does a company position themselves to attract that top talent? Scott used the term employer of choice. Right. But how do you be that company that is able to get the best talent when, when things start to turn around and you start to hire staff?

Radu Palamariu (00:47:00):

Yes. I’ve, you know, I’m, if I’m to distill a little bit, um, and I don’t want to claim that I have the solution that I, what the heck one, one. Yeah, exactly. I actually, I, you know, I was just trying to be more, this actually never works for me. Um, so my, my point of view, um, simplistically is walk the talk. What do I mean by that? I do. Do you know the term NATO? I mean, you know, NATO acronym, you know, okay. The military stuff, but it does also stand for something it stands for. No action talk only. So let me, let me share what I mean by more of the talk and avoid NATO. Right. In essence, most, if not all, but most of the companies on this planet, unless you’re selling arms or, you know, uh, you’re an illegal cartel somewhere. You have, you have good vision, you have good values on your walls, correct.

Radu Palamariu (00:48:11):

You walk into the office and then you’re like, okay, you know, these are the principles that I, like I said, look, Elica global sends, you know, we connect the splits and ecosystem. So I think most companies, we can agree have the right fundamentals in place. The problem. Also, most companies have no freaking clue what those values are, what they stand for and what are we doing here? I mean, apart from cashing in a paycheck, right. So I don’t know how to live them every day. Right? Yeah. I can say that as a head Hunter and know executive search, I have not come across very, a lot of companies where this was clear from the top, you know, all the way cascaded down, you know, it may be on the walls. And, you know, I have come across plenty of places where they was on the walls and you ask the CEO, what’s your values. And like, then you list, you know, can you list your values?

Radu Palamariu (00:49:09):

Of course, I don’t necessarily want to ask such questions cause you know, um, but you know, sometimes I do because like, you know, that’s so obvious if you do not know what you stand for, like you rightfully said culture, it happens anyways, whether it’s conscious or unconscious, whether you guide it or you don’t guide it, it still happens. It’s the way people behave. Yeah. You don’t want as the CEO to take ownership for that. Well, tough luck anyways, it’s going to happen. So it just means that you’re not a good CEO. I’m sorry. Um, so employer of choice, do you want to be employer of choice? Well, walk the talk you have, you have nice values. You have nice vision, right? Be the Airbnb guy. Don’t be the other jerks that fires their stuff over zoom. And then expect that once this comes up, all the talent will jump at you and say, Whoa, I really wish I can work for you guys and get fired over zoom is my dream.

Radu Palamariu (00:50:00):

I mean, seriously. It’s like, it’s such simple, fundamental stuff that, yeah. Walk the talk. So I’m sure most companies have really good fundamentals. They have good vision, they have good values, but is the board still knowing their values? Are they still walking their videos? Are they just caring about how much the stock price is? Right as my great grandmother. So basically that’s paved good intentions. You need to treat people right. And how you treat people now. And how do you communicate to your staff and how do you treat your teams and how do you obviously, what do you put out in the world? Are you a type of company that helped others and gave mosques? And you know, I mean, there’s been plenty of good examples when people and companies came together in this crisis and help the broader society. Right? Not necessarily, of course, it’s good. PR of course it’s good marketing. Of course they’re not totally selfless, but still they’re doing their part. Right. As opposed to others, we just took advantage of every little thing to make more money. Alright.

Scott Luton (00:51:01):

So we’ve got a question from Kevin Bell, but you got to give us, you’re talking about in the board room and C level executives. You got to give us the 15 second answer for the second

Radu Palamariu (00:51:11):

Tom here, Rodney, is that even possible?

Scott Luton (00:51:15):

Kevin asks, do you believe there will be a shakeup in C suite executives to make sure you’ve got new leaders in old companies to adapt your reader’s digest response to that?

Radu Palamariu (00:51:27):

Yes. Okay. Love it. Yes. Yes. 10 seconds. More. Um, a lot of companies will fail. You will see more of this. What was that company Hertz or what? So the current, yeah, we will see more, this crisis will only make the failure of the ones that aren’t successful faster. And basically they will need to change if they’re going to survive. So hence they need to change the C suite. Yep. Okay. Excellent. I hate to keep pointing because Hertz already has. They did recently and then they just, they will again. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:52:00):

Yep. All right. So I hate to keep moving. I love, you know, we could, this could be an all day discussion. Roger. I love your perspective and your passion. All right. So moving right along, let’s uh, again, in a nutshell, tell us about this upcoming virtual supply chain summit. Again, supply chain now is a proud, uh, media partner, uh, as part of this global event and, and Radu, the reaction to this first digital event has been overwhelming from what I understand, right?

Radu Palamariu (00:52:30):

No. And you know, I just want to also thank you guys a lot for, for all that you’re doing and sharing and all the, you know, the help that you have lended this in terms of promoting this so deeply appreciate, um, yeah, look, it’s, it’s the first time we’re doing it, but it has been a mindblowing response. So we have close to 5,000 professionals in supply chain, um, executives, uh, all over the world, joining, we literally have 106 countries of the last count, um, and, uh, and is going to be a fantastic lineup of speakers. You can find all the details. You know, these are some of our keynote speakers, but on top of this, we have, um, 40, approximately 40 to 50 other panelists and speakers from, you know, from all over the world. We tried to keep it very diverse. We basically want this to be a knowledge sharing for the world of supply chain globally.

Radu Palamariu (00:53:22):

We have literally every continent covered and gonna be, uh, you know, uh, hopefully like it’s gonna feel like, uh, like a Ted type of a conference. And on top of that, we’re going to have two weeks of online networking. We have a platform that enables that one on one connection. So I think people will be thrilled by that value in terms of connecting to supply chain, like minded individuals in different parts of the world in the same part of the world that they are so really excited. I really hope that, uh, you know, many of the ones that, uh, that are listening, if you haven’t registered do register, and I hope to see you there

Scott Luton (00:53:57):

outstanding a great lineup of speakers. We can’t go through all of that right now. We don’t have time, but, but outstanding lineup of speakers, of thought leaders of folks that are true specialists in their area and beyond. And I bet, I don’t know, uh, the topic of leadership and culture Greg may or may not come up every day, all day as part of that.

Greg White (00:54:19):

Yeah. I can’t imagine that it would. Yeah, no, of course it will. Right. Um, I’m interested to see, to see this, you know, a lot, a lot of webinars, ring and conferencing and that sort of thing. It’s great to have somebody to do with your influence and your reach around the world. Um, do something like this to bring a bunch of companies together, lots of companies are doing these things for themselves and, uh, but it’s great to see, great to see somebody pulling the talent from, uh, a great wealth of companies together to have these discussions.

Scott Luton (00:54:54):

Yup. And the good news is you can still register. I think there’s still room and there’s about a month. It’s about a month away. So, uh, Roger, you let’s make sure folks know how they can find you, how they can find Alcott global and how they can find this event. Yeah,

Radu Palamariu (00:55:08):

sure. So, I mean, with, with me, it’s the easiest is to, to find me on LinkedIn. Um, I, I have mostly maxed out my connection limit. So, um, you know, the easiest is to, to, to, to hit follow I’m sorry. I cannot really accept much more, but you know, if follow it and then, you know, happy to engage and happy to. I mean, and I was so thrilled that I saw quite a few of the people that have been commenting that, that, that I know as well. And then, you know, a great to see such, you know, such a close community, even if, you know, globally with so many in supply chain, but it’s still a small world. So that’s, that’s with me now that with the company I’ll go global, you can go to a website, you can follow also the company on LinkedIn because there’s some ministry, interesting articles, reports.

Radu Palamariu (00:55:48):

And so on that we are sharing and for the event, yes, it’s still one month to go. You can register any time the sooner the better, because there’s some discounts and some, you know, some promo prices that you can be eligible for. We also have, I just want to do this blog for any students or people that are coming from countries that may not be, you know, we may qualify as emerging economies do drop me a note and I’ll make sure that you can attend the price is an issue. Um, so no problem. And for students specifically, we have free passes. So you just need to write to me or somebody in my team and yeah, the event, you can find all the information also on the website.

Scott Luton (00:56:24):

Yeah. Love that. Love that. Hey, uh, along those lines of what Radu just shared and Don, I know you’re a veteran’s advocate that that’s owned the live stream. Uh, you know, if you’re a veteran tuned in today and you’re looking to build your network and make that tough transition, sometimes tough trench session to the private sector, reach out to us. Now, if you’re retired, Oh six, uh, you know, I think you can afford your registration fees, but, you know, uh, if you, if, if, you know, making ends meet is challenging right now, reach out to me and we’ll see what we can do. scott@supplychainatradio.com. This is an outstanding virtual networking and professional development opportunity. And one, you know, make sure you can take advantage if you, if

Radu Palamariu (00:57:09):

just, I’ll just build upon that. So we’ve actually had one or two that are from the U S military specifically. And I was, you know, I was proud to be able to support in some, some small way. So absolutely like if, even if it is, you know, a developed economy, if you struggle right now, we’ve had some other people, if you lost your job or if, you know, write to us and we will do our best to accommodate now, I can’t promise a free ticket for everybody, but I can promise heavily discounted just right. Tell us what’s your story and happy to help

Scott Luton (00:57:38):

appreciate that. Really appreciate that sentiment, Greg. That’s awesome. So, uh, Don long and Daniel Stanton and any other veteran advocates, uh, you know, reach out, we’ll see what we can do. Okay. So we got to keep driving in Greg, you know, respond to where Roger’s coming from. I think that’s a breath of fresh air in today’s environment. Huh?

Greg White (00:57:59):

It’s an explosion of fresh air is what it is. And I’m glad to hear it, frankly. I’m, I’m thankful for the passion and the knowledge and the broad base that really you’re, you’re sharing this from. Right. Um, you’ve even prompted questions from the great Daniel Stanton. In fact, one question that he asked was how to companies teach and enforce their values. So very briefly you teach and enforce your values by hiring by them and doing so consciously and explicitly let people know what your values are when you hire them. You repeat your values. Constantly. People don’t hear you once until you’ve told them seven times. Let me repeat that. I’m not gonna repeat it seven times when people don’t hear you for the first time, until you’ve told them something seven times so consciously and explicitly repeat those values. We actually did it in every company.

Greg White (00:58:51):

I ran, we did it every week and gave a specific example. This is what customer obsession, which was one of our values, was this is what customer obsession means. And Bobby, you know, Bobby, enunciates it by doing X, right? Things like that. But also you have to hire and fire by them. We had a no strikes rule. If you, if you failed at any, if you were a no on any of the core values you were gone. So things like that are very, very important to, to communicate, to teach and enforce your values. Go ahead, redo

Radu Palamariu (00:59:25):

30 seconds. Um, the best illustration of that, Ken Allen, uh, CEO and board member in DHL transform loss-making DHL express, 2 billion euros to ma to making DHL express 2 billion euros. So 4 billion transformation. He explains we had, uh, we had him on the podcast. So you can look up can Ellen Ellicott podcast listen to that. It’s just 40 years of experience in that. And he explains how he took values and made it live from the top to the career that may or may not have gone to school. How he used music, just a brilliant is, you know, so I would just, I just endorse that podcast to everybody. So just listen to that and you will get some of the top answers.

Scott Luton (01:00:08):

Love it, love it. All right. So we’re going to keep driving a couple upcoming events, uh, you know, SAP Sapphire now re-imagined then specifically converge kicked off yesterday, had a few technology glitches, Hey, in this day and age, when internet usage is record breaking and you’ve got 1,100 thousand people sign up, sometimes that happens. Uh, the good news is I think the keynote from yesterday and some of the sessions are available, uh, on demand now. And what’s that, and sting yes. Thing was incredible. Um, and of course, as you might expect, uh, an outstanding tech company like SAP, they got it fixed. So today should, should roll off without a hitch. And it’s free, you know, a lot like a lot of the cool things Roger’s doing. So, um, I think we’ve got the direct link to register or to plug in, uh, in the show notes and join Greg and I, as we tune in and check out the rest of the, uh, this week’s events at SAP Sapphire now. Okay. Uh, Radu, uh, well this one here, uh, upcoming webinars, June 25th, all about ERP and the post pandemic environment, uh, looking forward to rootstock joining us for that. Hey, we just added our house

Greg White (01:01:21):

juxtaposition though. Scott, one of the biggest, the biggest ERP in the industry and, and a cloud provider in ERP, you’re going to get both perspectives, right. Could be interesting. Juxtaposition of viewpoints look know from both of those companies.

Scott Luton (01:01:37):

Yep. And once I, uh, close out today’s live stream, I’m going to go to the dictionary and find out what juxtaposition, uh, I’m probably should all use it. I love that. That’s a great comment, Greg. Great comment. And you know, we’ve just added, uh, yesterday, as a matter of fact, uh, a couple of folks from the veteran aid, uh, vitamin angels will be joining, uh, as they’ve they’ve recently had some ERP revelations that they’re going to be sharing. So a lot of good stuff there on June 25th on a much different note, um, you know, the, this conversation we’re having July 15th, Rodney would love for you to join us as well. Cause this really needs to be a global conversation, despite a lot of the challenges we’re having here in the here recently, but this is going to be a Frank passionate, transparent conversation, a learning opportunity, not just Greg, we talked about this yesterday, you know, we’ve got this great panel here, but we don’t just want to hear from the panelists. We’re, you know, we want the global interactive audience to tune in and share their insights and their experiences and their perspectives because what we’re after Greg is a conversation, the dialogue itself, right?

Greg White (01:02:47):

Yeah, no doubt. I mean, you know, we’re going to get some great perspectives from some very thoughtful leaders on this topic, Tandra and David and DC, but I think it’s time, it’s time for an open dialogue here. Right. So let’s, let’s make it back and forth. Yeah. If you get the chance. Um, and I think we talked about this yesterday on the buzz as well. Scott Reed, um, Harvard business review an article in Harvard business review from way back 2002, I think called dear white boss. Uh, interesting, very well thought out perspective of black leaders, particularly black leaders, but do you know, in whatever country you’re in figure similar concerns by whatever minority groups you have in your respective countries, but a very interesting perspective of, um, how, you know, how life is lived as minority, even in leadership every day.

Scott Luton (01:03:43):

Yup. Six, six seek first understand we’ll all be a lot better off if that’s all what we all do. All right. And finally, uh, so Jordan’s for that special event, a special conversation, July 15th, uh, if, if there’s something you can not find supply chain already have.com, we’ve got Roger’s event on there. We’ve got both of those webinars on there. Uh, we’ve got, you know, our library of podcasts, you name it. And of course, if you can’t find something, you’re looking for amanda@supplychainnow.com, alright, as we close out, Radu boy, we have really, um, this, this conversations run the gamut at really admire. And, and, you know, I don’t say it if I don’t mean it, the passion and the energy you bring to this conversation really helps because it’s so critical, right? The right people in the right roles and the cultural side and the, in the professional development side and the constantly learning. Sometimes you need to get kind of smacked across the face to understand, Hey, this is really, really important stuff. And this is how we’re going to get through these challenging times by kind of getting back to the basics. And so kind of what you bring to the table to help with that smack in the face. You know, again, as Greg said, it was an explosion of fresh air. You got a coin that Greg, that might be our latest t-shirt ism.

Greg White (01:05:03):

Well, thank you for good words. My pleasure to have shed and hope it was yeah, it was relevant.

Scott Luton (01:05:08):

Yeah. Well, according to all the comments we’re getting from the lobstering and the folks that have tuned in, I think they enjoyed it, hopefully as much as we did. Um, but Radu one last word from you. And, uh, and then we’re going to see you next time on supply chain now. So what’s the one, what’s the, if folks paid attention to one thing, what would that be?

Radu Palamariu (01:05:30):

I will say yourselves. I mean, I think there’s the only piece that we have full control on. So, you know, you don’t change your CEO, you don’t change. So I mean, this was a great discussion, but when it comes down to what can we influence it’s ourselves? I mean, again, fundamentals, but don’t bitch, don’t moan. Don’t I don’t know what, what can you do to change your reality? And then the reality and help the reality around you. And I think we, as the overall global supply chain community, we can come together and help each other. So I think we changed. We started by changing ourselves a fundamental and let’s help the others as well.

Greg White (01:06:05):

Love that Greg love it. And every episode do good give forward and be the change. You can only do that from yourself out. So,

Scott Luton (01:06:15):

yup. And, and, uh, we really mean that the other thing that comes out is, is GSD, get stuff done, take action. You’d say, yeah, that’s right. But you know, w what Roger is saying, take action, make it happen, you know, own it. So, uh, with all that said, uh, Radu a pleasure. Thanks so much for tuning in here today. We’ve had a Radu Palam, uh, Palomar U managing director, Asia Pacific with Alcott global. We’ve got the link to his event across all streams. We’ve got his LinkedIn profile, a direct link in the show notes to Radu. Thanks so much.

Radu Palamariu (01:06:54):

My pleasure guys. Thanks for having me.

Scott Luton (01:06:55):

You bet. All right. So on behalf on that, with that said, uh, Greg, uh, really enjoyed today’s episode to our audience as Greg shared already a do good, give forward, be the change, um, you know, take control, get stuff done. Uh, Greg, we want to

Greg White (01:07:13):

own it. Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:07:14):

Own it. Yeah. Own it. Um, but Greg, thanks for, for tuning in early own, uh, talent Tuesday here at supply chain now. Right.

Greg White (01:07:24):

Do you ever, what can I say? I will actually show up for work on time no matter what time that is.

Scott Luton (01:07:29):

Well to our audience. Thank you for tuning in as well. Thanks for all the comments. No, we couldn’t get to all of them and some of the questions, but, uh, uh, take care of yourselves, invest in yourselves. And of course, take action. You know, seek first, understand, get involved in the, in the tough conversations and uncomfortable conversations. That’s the only way things get better. Greg, you’re going to,

Greg White (01:07:50):

I can’t believe you haven’t said this yet, so I’m going to say it for you, Scott deeds, not words. NATO is deeds, not words.

Scott Luton (01:07:59):

Yup. And that’s a perfect way to end today’s live stream. Thanks so much for tuning in on behalf of Greg, the whole team here on behalf of Radu. Uh, have a wonderful week ahead and we’ll see you next time here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.