“Our advice to organizations is to look at your [risk] playbooks again and really start to think about some of the scenarios that seem unrealistic at the time, but we never know what is going to go from unrealistic to realistic.”

– Mike Griswold, Vice President of Research, Retail at Gartner

Every corporate leadership team is simultaneously dealing with macro disruptions and the unique circumstances within their own company’s walls. In this challenging environment, there are three things that all leaders need to know about according to Gartner research: purpose driven organizations, business model transformation, and digital orchestration.

Mike Griswold is the Vice President of Research at Gartner, specializing in retail with a particular focus on forecasting and replenishment. He is responsible for Gartner’s annual Top 25 Supply Chain ranking and joins Supply Chain Now on a monthly basis to discuss the latest in retail supply chains from an analyst’s perspective.

In this conversation, Mike provides his observations with Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton about:

· What he sees companies doing to make the best of their current circumstances today, and how they are starting to position to do well in an uncertain future

· The critical (and considerable) difference between cost cutting and cost optimization

· Why all long-term planning should include a thorough skills assessment for the current supply chain team

Intro (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. Or good afternoon, Scott Luton, Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now, Greg, how are you doing? I am doing great. You know what? The buildup to this particular episode has been fascinating. You throw a book and Mike Griswold’s name out there before they are dialing it up. They are, and you know what we’re going to, and we’re going to touch on this in just a minute, but it’s not any book. It is one of the leading publications that are helping supply chain professionals everywhere, right? Uh, uh, an uncover the verbiage, you know, the acronyms that’s right. And, and, and learn language and, and get better. So we’ll talk, we’ll tackle that in just one minute, but we’re excited about today. We’re continuing our series supply chain today and tomorrow with Mike Griswold with Gardner. So our audiences is, um, we’ve got a wonderful show in store.

Scott Luton (00:01:22):

So looking forward to all of their feedback and participations will. All right. Yeah, no doubt. Um, we’re going to challenge them a little bit on some of that feedback. I see that our top reviewers, so Sofia data is here with us. So welcome. Can’t have a live stream without Sophia, and we’re looking forward to actually getting her thoughts in a dedicated show, uh, in a few weeks. So it’s great to have you here, Nicole. Great to have you as well via LinkedIn and Kayvon. Also, LinkedIn, he’s been with this last couple of labs. Strains. Yeah. Uh, hello, Asda and hello, Tim and Daria. So great to have all of y’all here. Uh, I look forward to your feedback. Latiya Thomas is here with this as well at Tia. Good afternoon. All right. So let’s tackle a, uh, just a couple of programming items before we get started here.

Scott Luton (00:02:11):

So first off Greg folks enjoy our live stream. Hey, check out our podcasts and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts from. Yes, please do that’s item number one, item two. So Greg, we had a great time with Bobby Holland, uh, with us bank and tr Trent Zuberi with Kraft Heinz, and it was all about freight freight spend freight rates, uh, and it kind of built on, uh, the conversation was built around the freight payment index that the U S bank puts out. How many times can you say bank freight and good time in the same sentence? That is right. I mean, it was, it was a blowout, first of all, uh, Bobby brings it every time. Uh, you know, of course he brings the data, but the analysis and the insights that he provides are incredibly valuable.

Greg White (00:03:00):

And Trent, he’s a wrestling fan. We talked, we talked, um, the intricacies and the delicacies of, uh, macaroni and cheese. Um, not only fascinating discussion plus really, uh, finally something. Um, I mean, we, you know, the analysis of that quarter was of course interesting perspective, but I think it also gave us some insights into, uh, where, where it looks like we’re going and it appears we are going that way this quarter. Right? Absolutely.

Scott Luton (00:03:37):

Uh, so we’ve gotten a lot of feedback around this episode, so, so wanted to make sure everyone knows replay’s out there both via, uh, the video and the, the podcasts y’all can check that out in our episode library and we’ll make sure folks know their freight payment index and all the data behind it. Um, that so many, you know, thousands of, of transportation and supply chain leaders use that’s free to sign up for. So you can check that out@freightdotusbank.com.

Greg White (00:04:04):

I challenge you to get it and analyze it before we do right. And bring your best shot when we do the release show.

Scott Luton (00:04:12):

That is right. Alright. So before we bring on Mike Griswold, let’s say hello to a few folks, and then we’re going to challenge the audience. So, uh, first off and they are, and they’re flying in here and cinema is tuned in from Paris via LinkedIn. Great to have you here. It’s probably a seam. So my apologies, uh, seeing great to have you with us

Scott Luton (00:04:31):

A new day is tuned in, okay.

Scott Luton (00:04:33):

LinkedIn, Daniel Hart, net, which we knew he, he gave us a little shout out on LinkedIn. Great to have you here with us. And yes, the book is signed. I’m gonna share in just a moment, Andres, uh, T squared back with us, Keith from the great lakes, state Nairobi, Stephan of course, Stephen. Good morning. Maricio Joseph Valentine. Mr. Reverse logistics

Greg White (00:04:57):

Every day is Valentine’s day. That’s right?

Scott Luton (00:05:00):

Yeah. Everybody. Alright. So one last, uh, programming note here we are going to be giving away three copies of supply chain management for dummies written by our friend Daniel Stanton, mr. Supply chain himself. This, this book has been flying off the shelves. I think it’s been out for probably a couple of years now. I think they’re moving into, uh, the next printing.

Greg White (00:05:22):

Think for third or fourth audition, something like that and no edition new edition. Great man.

Scott Luton (00:05:31):

We’re going to give this away. And the bar is simple. The challenge is simple. The, the participants that share the most feedback on some of the top things, you know, the theme here today is real simple top things to consider in supply chain today and tomorrow. So folks that, that offer feedback there. And the second item is, are folks that offer feedback on the great insights that Mike Griswold will be sharing. So I’d love to get questions or your comments on what, on the conversation today. So the most active three participants, we’re going to be sending out this book,

Greg White (00:06:06):

Uh, let’s do let’s throw a relevant and compelling element in there. That’s fair, right? It’s very fair. And we aren’t judging by the way you’re being done from behind the scenes,

Scott Luton (00:06:19):

Right? Clay and Amanda, the dog and our CFO

Greg White (00:06:22):

Are going to know how proud they are. That’s right.

Scott Luton (00:06:25):

Hey, one more. Shout out. Gary Smith is with us here. And Gary is an apex hall of Famer, uh, that hails from New York city. He’s been on the show several times with us. He is a wonderful, uh, a thought leader in the world of supply chain. And I think this is his first live stream where the, so Gary hope this finds you well, and I look forward to your next keynote, cause I know you do a lot of them, so great to have you here. All right. So with no further do we need to bring in Mike Griswold vice-president analyst with the one only Gardner. Hey, good morning, Mike, how are you doing?

Mike Griswold (00:07:00):

Hey guys, I’m great. I’m a little worried that all this build up around a supply chain for dummies book and he got a dummy on, so we’ll see. We’ll see how this goes. We’ll see. We’ll see how well you did your studies. Yeah. We’ll see how well it goes, but it’s a welcome everyone that you identified. Scott is great to be here. I really look forward to spending time with you guys and the folks that are kind enough to join us. So really looking forward to today’s episode. Yeah, no doubt.

Scott Luton (00:07:27):

We always do as well. I mean, I lost count how many appearances you’ve made, but each one of them, we get a lot of great feedback and reviews and participation. So, um, alright. So Greg, we kind of want to set the table a bit before we dive into his, his stuff.

Greg White (00:07:41):

Yeah. I’m Mike. So we’ve got some new audience and some folks from all over the world. There may be folks who don’t know what the gardener organization is. So give us a little brief on what Gartner’s all about. Yeah, sure. So Gardner’s the world’s largest research and advisory firm. We help folks with their mission critical priorities to help them get through people, process and technology challenges through written research interactions with analysts. And then hopefully, uh, when things are better joining us at some of our largest events for supply chain professionals this year, we’ll talk at the end this year is, are going to be virtual. But every year we have the world’s largest gathering of supply chain professionals in a couple of spots around the world. So that’s what we do. And by area, my background is retail. Uh, I spend most of my time talking to organizations around forecasting, replenishment sales and operations planning. But recently, as we’ve talked about in some of our sessions, you know, how do, how do we help people get through the disruption that we’re all dealing with? Now, Gardner is the very tippy tip top of analyst firms who, who gauge what’s going on in the market, who look at the direction of, of the market

Greg White (00:08:56):

And of the solutions in the marketplace for it, retail, manufacturing, distribution, supply chain, and a number of host of other aspects of the business, the biggest companies in the world come to you guys and say, we need a solution for X, who should we talk to? Or we are a solution for X, right? What do we need to do to serve the market better? And just by the way that tippy tip top is a highly technical and scientific, put a definition in, in the comment stream for those. So, all right. So you’re, so, um, you’re responsible for a particular, I mean, obviously you do analysis and you interact with the technology providers and the retailers and manufacturers and distributors and whomever else has questions. You conduct research and you have a particular initiative that you do every year. Can you tell the audience a little bit about that?

Mike Griswold (00:09:50):

Are you referring to the supply chain top 25? Gosh, I hope I am. Yes. Yes. So I have responsibility for that program, which has, you know, a pretty structured methodology that, uh, based on the methodology, which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative measures, we identify what we think are the 30 best supply chains in the world. We have a top 25 and then we have five organizations that have gone above and beyond the criteria in our masters. So Amazon, Apple, P and G McDonald’s and Unilever are the organizations that are mastered, but we run that every year. Uh, it’s a, it’s a highly I’ll call. It discussed, debated, uh, piece of research when it comes out. Um, but it’s, uh, it’s our attempt to, to showcase companies that we think are doing some really leading things in the supply chain.

Greg White (00:10:45):

And, and w when we brought that out this year, we talked about it here. Obviously you talk about it in your events, virtual and physical, but we talk about here. And so folks can go back and take a look at that. Some great examples of companies doing things that any company could do to improve their excellence. Who’s watching.

Mike Griswold (00:11:03):

There were three things that, that we identified as part of the research. One is purpose driven organizations. And certainly during the pandemic, we’ve seen lots of instances of organizations rallying around that particular purpose business model transformation was the second, you know, as, as parts of businesses were shut down as access to manufacturing and suppliers were shut down, organizations needed to change, you know, how, or at least bring in some additional business models. And then the third one was digital orchestration. And we’ve seen an incredible interest in digital, whether that’s from the physical side, like automation, whether that’s from the technology side around things like machine learning and AI, and you’re exactly right. Greg, part of the reason we do the top 25 is to share those stories, the broader community, with the hope that people will find nuggets and pieces that they can latch onto and bring into their own organization. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:12:03):

You know, w we featured Mike, uh, on a, on a webinar a couple months back that, that where he offered the key takeaways from the most recent top 25 lists, a lot of good stuff there. Our listeners can check that out on our YouTube channel. All right. So with no further do, we’re going to dive in to three of the things that’s really between your ears today and looking forward, Mike, in the world of supply chain. So where do we want to start?

Mike Griswold (00:12:28):

Oh, why don’t we start with just the, I would say, let’s start with the macro level. You know, what are we seeing around people planning to get through what we’re getting through today, but also position themselves moving forward. And I think the gardener position, and we’ve talked about this for probably the last two years, is this idea of disruption is the new normal. And I think we all are hoping that we don’t see a disruption like we’re experiencing now both from a magnitude and from a duration, but I think we’re, we’re killing. We’re kidding ourselves. If we think that there will not be some other disruption, right? We saw no earthquakes and tsunamis before the pandemic, we will see potentially political and geopolitical disruptions later this year. The world is, is, is a place now that is full of disruption. And I think what this current pandemic has highlighted for organizations is the need to revisit their risk contingency and their risk playbook.

Mike Griswold (00:13:34):

We may have talked last month. I think many organizations, retail and otherwise, I think over the course of the last couple of years have built some pretty well thought out. And what at the time seemed to be pretty durable, risk playbooks. I think, however, what the pandemic did is it highlighted for us the requirement to really, really think outside the box, you know, even the best retail risk playbook probably did not have in it. The scenario where stores were were stores were literally closed for three months, no customer access, no associate access. So our advice to organizations is to really look again at your playbooks and really start to think about some of those scenarios that maybe at the time seem unrealistic, but we never know what is going to go from unrealistic to realistic. I’m thinking of, I’m going, I’m a big movie guy in a movie quote guy, and I’m going to take us back to world war Z, the Brad Pitt zombie movie.

Mike Griswold (00:14:47):

And if you recall, I think it was Jerusalem. One of the cities in Israel actually had already built a wall around the city to protect themselves and they were asked, well, why did you think to build a wall? And they talked about having this council, and there was one person on the council whose only job was to think about the most unlikely scenario and how would they build a contingency around that? Obviously, a zombie apocalypse was pretty unlikely, but they had someone had thought of that. They had talked about it and they hit the wall. So I’m not suggesting to our audience that we have to plan for the zombie apocalypse, but I would suggest that you encourage people to fake about different risk scenarios. And is your supply chain prepared for that? And to what degree do we need to build capabilities to be pro to be prepared for that?

Mike Griswold (00:15:40):

We’ll talk a little bit, I think, in the next topic around planning. Cause I think for us on the supply chain side and a gardener, that was one of our hottest and continues to be one of our hottest topics, um, during this, during this, uh, disruption. But I think that that planning for today learning from today, that’s the other thing I think organizations need to take account of is what have we learned about ourselves during this disruption? What do we need to do better? And then how do we start to set ourselves up for that? Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:16:12):

All right. So Greg, I’m going to get you to weigh in one second. We have, the comments are overflowing. I want to highlight just a couple of

Greg White (00:16:19):

Right. Or Greg piggyback over.

Scott Luton (00:16:21):

Right. So, um, let’s see here, let’s start with a seam C it seemed talks about kind of what you were talking about, these, these BCPS business continuity plans and how there’s gonna be several waves of disruption. Yeah. I hope that’s optimistic thinking. So we’ll see, uh, Daniel Hartnett says, right,

Greg White (00:16:41):

Unfortunately, disruptions from risks hidden in the supply chain. Aren’t going away. We’ll need to proactive.

Scott Luton (00:16:46):

We identify and address good stuff there. Um, key says here, many organizations do visit their risk playbooks from time to time, but it tends to be a formality like for ISO certifications.

Greg White (00:17:00):

That’s a great point. Incredible insight, right? Yes. Is it needs to be more intentional and active than obligation. Yep.

Scott Luton (00:17:08):

And one more item here from Stephan, the longer the supply chain, the more disruption points it has. The current talk about reassuring or near shoring is certainly something nice to see. So good stuff there.

Greg White (00:17:20):

Uh, Stephan. Alright, great.

Scott Luton (00:17:23):

I know you want to kind of weigh in on some of the things that that might share, uh, please do so then we’ll revisit it. Yeah.

Greg White (00:17:29):

Yeah. I think we need to, you know, when, when you think about, um, dealing with current and future disruptions, this is as much a question for you, Mike, as it is a statement in that is my perception is that risk management needs to become the forefront of supply chain rather than cost reduction. I think it’s arguable that though my

Greg White (00:17:50):

Belief that cost reduction is still too high on the priority list I would consider cost. I would consider the potential of disruption. I would consider interruptions and the goals of, of hitting customer experience goals. As those things you need to assess the risk of that was a poorly structured sentence. But, but if we think about supply chain as a risk based venture and we work back from there, we’re a lot more successful than the model that we’ve used to date. That it’s always been my take as you know, but I’m curious what you think and are maybe even seeing in terms of a change there.

Mike Griswold (00:18:32):

Yeah, I think Greg, I agree completely if I rewind to some of the conversations we’ve had in the past, um, in this forum around this idea of, of navigating through turns, right? If we just use, you know, turns into disruptions, kind of synonymous there, there’s a couple of things that we’ve been writing about around, you know, things we want organizations to think about. One of them is, is cost optimization, not cost cutting. And there’s a big difference, right? It’s understanding, you know, kind of two discrete exercises. One is yes. We probably have areas where we are inefficient and we need to think about cost cutting, but that can’t be the only mantra we have to be thinking about cost optimization. So we have an opportunity to reinvest the other, uh, observation from organizations coming through these disruptions, you know, better than they went into it is there is continual investment.

Mike Griswold (00:19:29):

It’s not like we shut the spicket off and we invest anymore. Right? We use comp, we use cost optimization to create some funding. And then we identify where do we need to invest? And we have the moral fortitude to invest. And that I think is going to be one of the things that hopefully organizations take out of this disruption is, you know, you can’t cost cut your way to survival. You need, and you’re going to need to have the fortitude to invest. Now the, I think the art of this is figuring out where to invest and what do I invest in? What do I potentially put on hold? Um, and I think, you know, it’s going to be investment in things around visibility. It’s going to be around planning. Um, and it’s going to be around advanced analytics, augmenting with things like machine learning and AI. Those are where I think organizations are going to have to be bold enough to invest.

Greg White (00:20:33):

Yup. Yeah. I mean, I think we need to, we need to shift focus to risk management first, the very first and frankly only goal of supply chain is put the

Greg White (00:20:48):

Product in the consumer’s hand. Right? If you think about, I think all the way back to potentially caveman days, the very first time I gave you a piece of my kill or that vegetable, that extra vegetable that I, I had from whatever I was growing or might have found in the woods or whatever, right. That is a supply chain transaction. When that person becomes dependent on that, I have to assure that I deliver first, everything else is a hindrance to the surety of that delivery, a risk, if you will, and you have to manage those appropriately, including costs,

Scott Luton (00:21:23):

All right, so much good stuff here. And the comments are coming out of our ears, which is great. And a lot of astute comments here, I’m gonna share a few Sophia says plan for the effect rather than for the threat, good stuff there from Sophia.

Mike Griswold (00:21:38):

I think Scott, the other thing I’ll add to that is Sophia had a, had a, had a, a statistic there around months, long disruptions happening, I think almost every four years. I couldn’t agree more. And her last comment, I agree with completely it’s, it’s understanding the effect that is going to hit your supply chain and how do you, how do you create the appropriate response for that greet completely great observations

Scott Luton (00:22:04):

Standing. And, and here’s the, uh, the research that stuff will brought to the table here. According to the McKinsey research published last week, one month lasting disruptions are expected to happen almost every four years. So good stuff there. Sophia, Hey, quick shout out to, uh, uh, edip maybe from bath United Kingdom. Great to have you here might be your first time with us and great to have you all right. Couple of comments here from the audience, um, Dennis says, Hey, that’s what drives the transition from resilience to pros zillions.

Greg White (00:22:36):

I like that. I got to the next level of preparedness as anticipating, not yet

Scott Luton (00:22:42):

Only recovering from disruption. Good stuff there. Uh, let’s see here, let’s say Keith Key says anything. It goes back to your world war II. If you read the book, uh, there is a chapter that I character comments about a global supply chain and how many supplies are shipped all over the world to make one product who would have known world war Z and, and the, the writers yeah,

Greg White (00:23:05):

Z rep and supply chain.

Scott Luton (00:23:08):

So Gary talks about tabletop exercises as being a great way to plan for future disruptions. Good stuff there from our friend, Gary, uh, Kayvon says essential for a business continuity plan. Again, that BCP, uh, to be resilient, it’s proactive planning for absorption mix of proactive and reactive planning for better recovery and finally reactive planning for resumption good stuff there. And I think we had one more comment I’m going to share here. Uh, lots of folks agreeing with some of your cost reduction comments, both of y’all were making, uh, but art says this convergence of the physical and supply chain is mandatory. Supply chain leaders must be able to demonstrate their decisions impact on the companies,

Greg White (00:23:53):

Natural and nonfinancial performance,

Scott Luton (00:23:54):

For example, revenue, margins, cash, et cetera. If the supply chain can not digitally, uh, easy for you to say digitally link, the supply demand side financially it’s disruptions will lead to significant financial challenges.

Mike Griswold (00:24:10):

Yeah. Yeah. I w I would just kind of a Bernard that’s a fantastic observation and I have two quick thoughts. One is, as I talk to organizations, we’re seeing much more involvement from the CFO in these initiatives, any initiative that they want to push forward, the CFO is much more involved. And part of the reason I think that we have three financial measures in our supply chain, top 25 methodology return out physical assets, revenue through revenue growth and inventory turns is because we want to demonstrate, or at least try to demonstrate that linkage that the supply chain has in enabling financial performance. So great observations for Bernard. And I couldn’t agree more with what he said. All right.

Scott Luton (00:24:55):

Stephen goes back to your terms there. Mike investing in industry returns, always one of my favorite things to say, statistics are clear on the advantages. Unfortunately, many companies do not see the value of investments, only the value of the cash in hand. Good, good stuff there as Stephan’s really savvy to that today, man, he’s really bringing it.

Greg White (00:25:16):

He was one, you know, you know, he’s not even in supply chain yet, Mike, so somebody is missing out on the analysis that Stephan can provide.

Scott Luton (00:25:24):

That’s right. Hey, one more comment. Before we move to, uh, planning, which is one of my favorite topics, our favorite topics to talk about here, Greg Murray says too often, other areas of the company have hair, uh, have heavier weigh in over the supply chain over the supply chain leaders. There must be alignment to drive the right functionality and risk avoidance.

Mike Griswold (00:25:47):

So that, that’s a great observation. When I look at our supply chain, top 25 companies, and one of my colleagues is doing a presentation on this at our virtual event in October, the span of control of supply chain, top 25 companies is broader how they define the supply chain is broader than non top 25 companies. So if you think about the score model, plan source, make deliver customer service in top 25 companies, supply chain owns all of that. And I think we all have our own experiences where we’ve had discussions with companies and they’ve said, this is my supply chain. And it starts and stops with distribution centers and trucks. That that is not as, I mean, that is not a supply chain, right. Or it is a very immature perspective on a supply chain. So Maurice comments are spot on the, the broader, the span of control.

Mike Griswold (00:26:41):

I think the easier is to be resilient pros Zilliant has, as we’ve now heard as well. So great comments stoked also acknowledged the fact that it is more than a financial, um, or even customer specifically customer experience impact. It’s an impact on the brand itself. Yes. Which requires you to bring merchandising and store operations and, and other aspects sourcing and other aspects of the business into it because the supply chain is so front and center right now, whether you’re conducting fair trade, uh, embracing fair labor practice or not, um, you know, whether you’re, you’re supporting sustainability becomes a part of your brand. And that is an important integration as well. Great point. Alright.

Scott Luton (00:27:30):

I want to pose, I want to get y’alls reader’s digest, answer on this, a very short and succinct to the Coon jizz question before we move to planning. So if you had one piece of advice to give to young adults heading into the supply chain industry, as Nikunj puts it, what would that advice be? And I’ll give you a second to think about it. Cause my one piece of advice,

Greg White (00:27:49):

The Coons is to network network network, whether it’s

Scott Luton (00:27:52):

Associations, whether it’s through social media, um, but make these connections, get their perspective, uh, you know, really being a part of the supply, the global supply chain community benefits your career and your sense of understanding about all the complexities that is global supply chain in ways that if you isolate like so many folks in the past have done where, you know, you don’t get out outside of four walls, do that. Don’t let don’t make that mistake. All right. So Greg, what was your, what’s your one piece of advice and then we’ll move to Mike and then we start planning,

Greg White (00:28:22):

Start with the customer in mind first. Love it. All right, Mike, I think because the supply chain is different. Can’t be different by industry is finding an industry that you love and then figure out where you want. What role do you want to play in that supply chain? The supply chain has lots of different roles, right? If we go back to this idea of plant source, make, deliver customer service, right? There’s lots of things that people can embrace in that. But I think it’s really important that you find an industry that you like or that you’re interested in because that will, to me, makes all the difference around where you want to go and what you want to do. Yup. Great.

Scott Luton (00:29:02):

And I’ll tell you this, uh, uh, MTRs I believe if I apologize if I’m mispronouncing that, but you’re asking for resources, Hey, check out. Uh, Gary here with us as a leader with an apex [inaudible] they offer certifications and in a community, that’d be a great resource to check the checkout. If you’re looking to kind of bone up on your understanding,

Greg White (00:29:23):

Ed X is also really good. So it’s a site where the top supply chain schools give classes for free. So love that. I think it’s ed x.com. My wife is going to Harvard right now. Wow. All so we’re, that’s a great foreshadowed cause I we’re going to touch on, uh, uh,

Scott Luton (00:29:44):

Watch and school rankings here momentarily, but we’ve been talking about getting to your next point here. Mike’s let’s dive into planning.

Mike Griswold (00:29:51):

Yeah. I mean, I think it’s the pandemic and the disruption we’ve been through, I think has highlighted the need to be able to, to plan in an environment where we have so much uncertainty and we have from the retail side, we have unreliable demand signals. We have demand signals that look very different than they’ve, would’ve looked historically. And I think it really starts to, for all organizations plays a premium on that sales and operations planning that sales and operations execution activity. Now for us at retail, both of those disciplines are relatively immature. We’ve seen a lot of traction the last two years in sales and operations execution that short term planning horizon. But I think organizations, you know, have been forced to embrace some of the disciplines like cross functional collaboration, being more data-driven, um, understanding what problem we’re trying to solve, having a set of metrics that helps us understand are we solving the right problem?

Mike Griswold (00:31:00):

Are we solving in the right way? So I would ask organizations to really think about that planning governance body, whether that’s SNOP SNOP, whatever you call it. Um, as, as that discipline moving forward, that’s going to help us, you know, emerge on the other side of this disruption, you know, and as Sophia has said, the next door disruptions that we’re going to see, it just helps us come through this. On the other side, there are people element to this, for sure. And I would argue for many organizations, it’s the people in process work that has the most work to do. Um, certainly there’s technology that can enable some of this, but without the right people, a process infrastructure and discipline, the technology piece is, is frankly a waste of time. Um, so I, I think it’s it’s how do we put those, those disciplines in place that will help shepherd us through this disruption? And then the ones that are, that are coming at us will be coming at us.

Scott Luton (00:32:00):

Greg, I know you want to weigh in on some of what?

Greg White (00:32:03):

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it goes to the [inaudible] discussion we had earlier, right? It is trying to anticipate not just what you expect to happen from a demand standpoint, but also from a disruption standpoint, you have to plan for those disruptions. I’m I’m I hearkened back to a great athletic coach who wants told me, I can tell you with one question who is going to be great. He was speaking specifically of swimmers. My oldest daughter is a student athlete, but I think this applies in, in business. And that one question, do you love to win? Or do you hate to lose? Because universally the greats are those who hate to lose because what that drives one to do is to eliminate any possibility, to think through all the possible scenarios and eliminate any possibility that you could experience defeat. And that drives you to, to that success.

Scott Luton (00:33:04):

Love that. Alright. So Greg and Mike, we’re gonna take some comments of folks weigh in on planning, uh, and, and anything else on your mind that’s that’s front and center for supply chain leaders. Uh, I’m going to share this from Tim Ingram. Supply chain is the oldest profession in documented history. I think you’d have some argument there, name a time in which humans,

Greg White (00:33:25):

News logistics. Great point there, Tim. Great to have you here. Well, if you think about it, supply chain could have contributed to the other perceived. Yes, because there was a trade of sorts. Yes. What gets us that with 30 foot pole? Well, we know, we know Greg would touch all of those, um, those comments. No, I think the, the raising of the logistics topic, I think is a really good one. The reason I say that is when I, when we think about planning and I do this myself, I initially jumped right to demand, but what we’re also seeing over the course of the pandemic and what I would suggest we’re going to see in other disruptions is the general planning of capacity. Do I have enough DC capacity? You guys, you know, in your earlier, uh, before I came out, come up, came on, talked about some things around freight, you know, do we have transportation capacity?

Mike Griswold (00:34:21):

Does, is there enough transportation capacity in the market? You know, we saw some retailers very early in the pandemic booking, oversee ship capacity, months in advance because they knew at some point factories would reopen in the far East, we’re going to need to get stuff over the water. So they went into booking capacity way earlier than others. So this idea of planning, the demand piece, I think is front and center, but the cabin around logistics triggered a thought that, Hey, we’ve got other capacities that we need to be planning for as well. Yeah. And you know, that’s Mike, that’s a risk mitigation on two fronts. One obviously having the capacity available to is a cost front because even though ocean shipping capacity is the same as last year, rates are 50% higher than last year. So they actually mitigated the physical and the economic risk by doing that. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:35:21):

This comment from, uh, Keith, uh, says, how do you proactively plan for something that you are trying to reduce cost? Isn’t it hard to be proactive when you’re basing everything just in time, this probably makes communication a prime resource.

Mike Griswold (00:35:35):

Yeah. Keith, that’s a great, the, the SNOP SNOP processes are built to facilitate that communication piece. I would submit a, this is to some of the earlier comment around near shoring and bringing some of that, those nodes of the supply chain a little bit closer to Greg’s point around the consumer. I think we are seeing many organizations and Greg would like your thought on this as well. I’m seeing many organizations rethink that just in time. Not only because of disruption, but also because if I think about retail and the incredible growth we’ve seen, you know, we were seeing it pre pandemic around e-commerce it exploded during the pandemic. This idea of just in time, I think is becoming problematic. And back to Keith’s point around how do you balance the cost of that? Right. We now have to sell the organization on the fact that we’re going to carry more inventory. Here’s why, right. Here’s the customer benefit of that. But, you know, I, the just-in-time piece, I’m hearing less people talk about that, um, because of, of the requirement to have enough inventory to get through these disruptions.

Greg White (00:36:45):

Yeah. Well, one Mike, I think we have to acknowledge that Justin time is not a universal supply chain concept. It’s largely occurring in the manufacturing sector or the manufacturing sector has arguably burdened the distribution and the retail sector with safety stocks and been able to create mass efficiencies at their level by having this just in time lean methodology. But what I think and retailers recognize this a long time ago, you can’t only have safety stock in one node, or right. You have to have it literally at every node, at least the nodes you can control in case of disruptions like this. So manufacturers who were caught off guard, um, hopefully we’ll begin to participate in that. And at the same time, I think that could lessen the burden for retailers by not forcing them to carry so much stock. I was having a discussion earlier with demo Spanish Pettis from, uh, Panama today.

Greg White (00:37:46):

And his concern was how to retailers respond to the fact that they have in store now in e-commerce demand. And the fact is they have retailers have so much quote unquote safety stock because of the presentation requirement, presentation, stock environment, which is basically stock for viewing pleasure only to make the store look full that far, usually far exceeds the amount of demand that any item has, right? So that actually helps them be responsive to, to, um, uh, to disruptions even more than manufacturing. I think the largest part of the verge of the burden, sorry, in the supply chain is in manufacturing. And that is the segment of supply chain that needs to be better in terms of planning. Well put, well, put, we’re going to have

Scott Luton (00:38:36):

To, I want to share this a comment from Luke Mike we’re diving into I believe talent next, but before we do, I want to share this comment and then we can share the school rankings we talked about pre-show Oh, great. Thanks. So Luke says, uh, Oh, I’m just gonna read this off. Cause I want to cover my cup, uh, as a recent supply chain graduate. This comes from Luke Tappin as a recent supply chain graduate. And I fully agree that networking is essential as well as being interested in the industry. I think it is also important to understand that the popular company is not always the right company. Many students only feel successful if they get an offer at the cool company. He says, for example, I graduated from Wayne state university, a top 25 school ranked by Gardner and being in Detroit, the majority of students only want to get into an OEM, although there is a lot of, uh,

Greg White (00:39:37):

Yeah. All right. So even just in that marketplace,

Scott Luton (00:39:42):

Great stuff there from Luke. I love those comments. Right? We’ve got it. We got to break through some of the stereotypical thinking, uh, at all levels, uh, the front end of folks, coming into the pipeline and at senior levels and all points in between. But, um, let’s talk about the top 25 supply chain schools in that program for a second mic. Okay.

Mike Griswold (00:40:01):

Yeah. So we have, um, one of my colleagues, Dana Stiffler runs a program every other year where we go through a methodology. I don’t have all the specifics. I apologize for all of the details around the methodology, but there is a methodology. It looks at things like, um, the, the quantity of courses that are in the supply chain. It looks at, um, you know, research that comes out of the schools. Um, and we basically create every other year a list of the top supply chain company, top supply chain, college universities, graduate and undergraduate, uh, albeit North America. So apologies. I know we have some folks from the UK and some folks from France. Um, we are working on broadening this, um, to be a little bit more global. Uh, but right now this is, uh, North America only. And frankly it’s probably just us centric, I would suggest.

Mike Griswold (00:40:52):

Uh, but it’s, you know, I think we, we, we, we’ve done this for a number of years now. I think in an attempt to similar to what we try to do with the top 25, you know, raise the bar for the profession. We’re trying to highlight for folks like Luke in terms of, Hey, I want to get into the supply chain. You know, I want to have some academic background around the supply chain, where should I be thinking about going? Right. The other thing we try to do is we try to get our clients to engage with these colleges and universities as well, to help them understand them being the college and university. What, what does business need to know about the supply chain? Is that represented in the curriculum? And if not, how do we get it in? Um, you know, I know a couple of the retailers that I work with heavily involved with, with Georgia tech heavily involved the university of Tennessee Auburn.

Mike Griswold (00:41:54):

So, you know, part of this I think is also on the organization side, how do we build those relationships with these colleges, universities, but, you know, I, I think we, we are talking about this a lot on the gardener side, you know, I mentioned, you know, one of the hot topics during the pandemic has been, um, planning, certainly the hottest topic has been talent. Everything from how do we get people to work from home, right? How do we make that transition? And what do we think about that? Particularly for supply chain professionals who traditionally have been office bound, right? How do we engage that world? Um, two things like, I need to go look for talent. What’s what are the skillsets and where should I start looking? Yep. Right. It, I have a quick break. Scott, do you have a degree in supply chain? I do not.

Greg White (00:42:46):

Mike Griswold. I do not do I, so do not let a degree or even school define you a great insight by Thomas is if it’s something you have a gift for, and that gift is going to be based around problem solving, embracing problems, analytical capability, the ability to do some math, you doesn’t have to be great. I can tell you that from personal experience and, um, and a passion for getting things into people’s hands, it, this could be the right area for you. And there are masters programs out there if you don’t have an undergrad degree. Right.

Scott Luton (00:43:34):

So you’re, you’re, you’re still my thunder, a smidge cause I’m gonna share two great comments from Latiya Greg. Well, very well put, um, before we do share Latina’s perspective, Hey, supply chain quarterly, where we were showing that press release about the top 10 schools. That’s a great resource as is CSC and p.org. Going back to some of the questions about resources and whatnot. Check I’ll check that out, but congrats. So university of Arkansas, which happened

Greg White (00:43:58):

Rank at the top of the Gartner supply chain school rankings, we didn’t put any names or phone numbers up there. Did we? Cause I can expect some nasty phone calls from,

Scott Luton (00:44:09):

So let’s say Latiya you make two great points here. I want to share these. So first off she says, coming from one of the underdog schools, Mo Morgan state university, I encourage students to not let the university define them also to the employer seeking talent, considered the underdog schools too.

Greg White (00:44:27):

That is such a great, great

Scott Luton (00:44:29):

Point. And then she also says one, the thing here, students, please do not be afraid to challenge the current processes at accompany. Your voice should matter. Your voice should be heard, bring the innovative ideas and be confident.

Mike Griswold (00:44:44):

So I love that. So Latiya, those are, those are both, um, spot on and excellent comments. And thanks for sharing them. I think one of the things, if you were to talk to Dana on the Gartner side, who does that research? I think what she is seeing for sure is more and more colleges adding supply chain to their curriculums. Now it may not be yet to the level of some of the ones that are in the list, but Latina is exactly right, right. There are high quality, talented people coming from everywhere, uh, around the supply chain. And the other element that she, that she touched on, uh, goes back to the question around how to get into the supply chain. I think one of the things that new people going into the supply chain want to look at is frankly, you know, where can I make a difference?

Mike Griswold (00:45:33):

And some of that is going to be frankly, in not top 25 companies, right? It’s not that if you had a job offer from P and G, you want to turn it down. Um, but the question I think you want to ask yourself is, is what, where am I passionate in? Where do I feel I could make change? Right? And, and it’s an oftentimes it’s going to be an organizations that may be, are a little bit less mature, but are committed to the journey and, and finding organizations that are committed to that supply chain, maturity journey and being a part of that, I think is incredibly attractive for a lot of people and, and Latinas. Exactly right. It will often come, you know, the great ideas will often come from folks that went to the, you know, to the, to the, uh, I liked the way she put up the underdog schools.

Mike Griswold (00:46:22):

Um, and some of the best and most rewarding jobs will come from probably companies that, you know, may not be as top of mind as others. So those were both excellent pieces of, of observation that greed. All right, Greg, go ahead. Question around the journey is really important for companies came to mind, Henry shine in New York, in the medical industry, incredible commitment to supply chain, tractor supply growing like leaps and bounds with a good, very strong commitment to supply chain and some real underdogs Northgate Gonzalez markets in Anaheim, California, and coenzyme, a company in Norway that distributes convenience store goods, all with very strong, uh, supply chain commitments. You can find them anywhere, look for that passion and that initiative

Scott Luton (00:47:11):

Well put, all right, Philippe kinda kind echoes your point a little bit, uh, where to make the difference. Great tip. That’s what he’s trying to do and you’re away South America Philippe. Great. Uh, thanks so much for joining us and appreciate your efforts and your passion for, for really being the change and moving the needle. All right. Uh, we got dive into talent and, and we’ve got to do so. Not in a reader’s digest version, but, but close. Uh, so Mike, I think we’re going to dive into town

Mike Griswold (00:47:37):

As one of your third big topics as between your ears right now. Right? Well, it’s interesting, Scott. I want to digress briefly because other than you, me and Greg, I don’t know who else on the audience knows what reader’s digest is that may be a quick polling question, because my guess is that the demographic is trending young, younger than the three of us. So they may not know the reader’s digest it USA today, but I don’t know if anyone has looked at it.

Scott Luton (00:48:02):

I got, I got to share this real quick. So we were in schools talking to third, fourth and fifth graders about supply chain last couple of years. And one of my go-to phrases on the front end was, Hey, are y’all ready for jam packed hour or two

Greg White (00:48:15):

[inaudible]? And I learned

Scott Luton (00:48:17):

First couple of classes, no one knows at least in that demographic, what we, these are. So, uh, I gotta update my, my lexicon here.

Mike Griswold (00:48:24):

Yes. Um, so, so back to the question, I think one of the, one of the hard exercises I think that organizations need to embark on is, is a skill set assessment, which is basically saying, here are the skills that we’re going to need two to three years from now, whether that’s, you know, interpersonal communication, um, collaboration and consensus building, whatever those, you know, soft people skills are, but we’re also going to need, you know, some, some more analytical, uh, science-based type of skills, whatever those might be. I think an organization needs to go through and take a very reflective, honest look at the skill sets they have and the skill sets they’re going to need and start mapping a path forward. We know we’re going to need some expertise around data science and the ability to apply and understand data. We’re going to need people that have some fluency in machine learning and AI, right?

Mike Griswold (00:49:27):

You may not need 15 of them running around. But if I think about, you know, a retail organization in general, right, is we think about the next two to three years, right? We’re going to need someone that understands machine learning and AI, we’re going to need someone that understands the data history within an organization. How do we, um, you know, cleanse it, enhance it, stabilize it so that machine learning and AI can use it and then we’re going to need it. And to me, this is going to be the most critical skill is we’re going to need business people that can interpret the data. And I think organizations, um, to me, the best strategy in my personal opinion, is finding those people that already understand the business and send them to school to understand some of the data stuff. I think it can be really hard to take someone with a purely science background and have them understand what happens.

Mike Griswold (00:50:31):

You know, when we, when we promote Wheaties at the front cover in an ad, right? So it’s, it’s building that business Acument and enhancing and augmenting it with some of the science capabilities. Those are the skillsets that we need to start thinking about how do we get them in the organization? And for us in retail, I think we have frankly, a harder job than any other industry just based on our ability to pay for that talent. Right? We do not have the resources financially, typically that you would find, say in a consumer products company or a high tech company, or a life sciences company, as an example, which is why I go back to that earlier discussion around, find an industry you’re passionate about, because if you’re passionate about retail, I hate to tell you you’re not going to make as much money in the supply chain, as you are in some of these other industries and money, doesn’t have to be the most important thing.

Mike Griswold (00:51:30):

And what we’re finding from some of our research is that these, these younger generations of, of people coming into the workforce, it is for many of them, it’s more about purpose and making a difference and being part of an organization that I’m proud to be part of. Yeah, they’re not doing it for free. Don’t get me wrong. But money is a little bit further down the list of priorities, um, when it comes to finding, you know, that job. So this, I apologize, that was kind of a bit of a digression, but it is the skillset assessment, um, and looking forward and charting a path now, because my last comment is, if you identify the skills you need for three years from now, and you wait three years to get them, they will be there. Uh, a, they will be there and B the skills will be different. It’s a really good point. It is. All right, Greg,

Scott Luton (00:52:21):

Would you add when, think of talent today and in the months to come, what’s it called

Greg White (00:52:27):

Common or two? Yeah, I think, um, I’m surprised, frankly. I was surprised by the statement that it will get harder, not easier to find in this job environment, but on thinking about it, I realized that supply chain is now even more in the forefront, more competitive and people are flooding to this. We hear Scott and I probably every single day hear from somebody who wants to enter the supply chain industry. Um, but we’re going to have more positions in supply chain and more applications for supply chain. So I get that. It was a little counterintuitive at first, but I get it. I think the other thing is that if you are, purpose-driven consider this purpose, all, all of the perspective, all of, uh, I said all the vast, vast majority, nearly all of the perspective and nearly all of the money in supply chain is on manufacturing.

Greg White (00:53:23):

The presumption is that defines how supply chain is done. And the fact is it’s not that way at all. So if you’re looking for a purpose, consider this manufacturer’s net margin, that’s after taxes and all expenses make 12 to 22% net margin distributors make zero or less to about one and a half or 2% net margin. And retailers make three to 5% net margin. And they hold the biggest burden. As we talked about earlier in the supply chain, if your purpose is to do something good, one for the consumer and two for a company, retail and distribution are where to do it. If, if you want to learn about manufacturing and push supply chain, rather than pull supply chain, um, then the manufacturers and brands are, are aware to do it though. Even that market is changing dramatically as direct to consumer becomes more prevalent.

Scott Luton (00:54:21):

All right. So one quick comment, I want to make about talent. And I believe that we’ve seen a ton of technology enter, uh, and disrupt the talent acquisition space in the months to come. It’s going to triple down is my view. And the, secondly it really challenged companies think about the candidate experience. You know, there’s a lot of frustration around candidates, never hearing anything back, especially even well qualified candidates really think about that candidate experience that’ll help your talent acquisition, right.

Greg White (00:54:49):

For it to be more successful. Okay.

Scott Luton (00:54:52):

Just read a couple of comments and then Mike, we’re going to make sure folks know how to connect with you. I hate that we’re almost at the bottom of the hour or top of the hour or whatever that phrase is really enjoy, really enjoy our conversations with you, Mike. So practical been there, done that. Ish. All right. So a seam says, I give my team’s opportunity.

Greg White (00:55:11):

These two immerse on the supply chain operations.

Scott Luton (00:55:14):

Can it warehouse shipping inventory management, for example, particularly during a induction time, it might be that’s maybe that’s early.

Greg White (00:55:23):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go ahead Mike. Oh, no, sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt Scott. Go ahead.

Scott Luton (00:55:29):

You’re later on with warehouse visits, uh, and you know, doing tours with Amazon. Uh, so that’s what a seam shares and you want to make a quick comment on that.

Mike Griswold (00:55:38):

I would say I’ve seen that that’s a best practice. I think creating as many different experiences within a company supply chain, that idea of a rotation program, uh, I think is, is the way to go for a couple of reasons. It, it certainly helps expose new people to different parts of the business. Uh, and it, I think it helps, um, a, a, a new associate kind of land in terms of where might they want to pursue longer term. Yeah. So I think that that rotation is an excellent idea, encourage everyone. Um, and I think the challenge that some people have is, Hey, I just brought this person in. They need to be productive like day one. And I think playing this for the longer haul and saying, look, I’m going to give this person a year. I’m going to give them as many different supply chain experiences as I have as I can and let them kind of self-select, you know, where do they see themselves? And also, I think lastly, letting people have those experiences, but not feel like the next decision they make is their last decision. Um, because what we’re finding, particularly, you know, with this with a younger generation of workers is they’re looking for multiple experiences. And I think in order to retain the talent that you work so hard to get, you’re going to need to figure out how to give people different experiences.

Scott Luton (00:57:00):

Yeah. Well said, and, you know, unfortunately the three legged stool, talent, acquisition, talent development, and talent retention, you know, I think we’re starting to see more focus and emphasis on retention, but we still got a long way to go. Uh, completely. It took a little while for development to get around that. I think more and more, we’re seeing a lot more of that in the market. All right. I want to read a few comments and then we’re gonna make sure folks know how to connect with Mike. So Sylvia says 1% knowledge, not 90% attitude. You can learn

Greg White (00:57:27):

Anything with the right attitude. Love that completely.

Scott Luton (00:57:32):

Stephan echoes something that both of y’all touched on Greg and Mike from experience, good money will not make the job fun. It will just make you stick around and be busy,

Greg White (00:57:44):

Either bumper sticker of that or a tee shirt. Perfect.

Scott Luton (00:57:49):

It’s the Keith Moore says on personnel data literacy, there will always be a balancing act required when trying to trade off AI value with business interpret interoperability. I think I said that right,

Greg White (00:58:03):

By the way.

Scott Luton (00:58:05):

Unfortunately, the more complex the mathematics, for example, deep learning, the more challenging it is to assess and understand, uh, Mericio. Great to have you here via LinkedIn. Uh, love to learn about other industries in their supply chain management perspective, uh, agreed with you at Maricio. And, uh, one final comment here from our dear friend, Claudia, congratulations. She says that she celebrated 25 years at EAL green yesterday. So she can certainly share a few lessons learned about purpose and motivation Claudia correlations. Absolutely. For on behalf of our entire team here, Claude has been on the show. We’ve been fortunate to have her perspective a couple of times. Congratulations. And we look forward to reconnecting again real soon, Claudia. All right. So Greg, I hate the, I hate to wind it down with Mike, but we’re going to, we’ve got, we’ve got to give up some books here momentarily. We’re going to share a couple of events coming up, but first Mike, how can folks connect with you and all the great things you’re doing to Gardner?

Greg White (00:59:06):

Yeah. You sure? Cause I have a feeling don’t no, that’s fine. Easiest way. Mike Decker is welded gartner.com. I do want to share real quickly. We moved our supply chain events that I referenced earlier. We moved them to, to virtual events. So we’re doing a virtual, um, a B event October 6th through the eighth. And we’re doing our North American virtual event November 3rd through fifth. And what that means is we will still have breakout sessions that you can dial into. We’re still doing the, ask the experts and round tables. So a lot of the formats we’re continuing to offer, they’ll just be in a virtual format, so hopefully can connect with people there. But again, thanks for having me guys. It was great. Yeah. Awesome.

Scott Luton (00:59:53):

So we included a Mike’s LinkedIn profile in the notes. You can get a better sense of what he does and what he’s involved in as well as probably find some of these things. He mentioned the, his profile. So check that out. Uh, Mike, always a pleasure. Do you want to stick around for the day

Greg White (01:00:06):

Drawing? Um, I have to go to another client call, unfortunately. So send me a back channel. Cause I’m dying to know who got the, who got the books. Awesome. Before you go

Scott Luton (01:00:20):

Well, Hey, uh, really appreciate, uh, your, your monthly perspective you share with us and our audience. We’re better off for it. And on that note, all the best of Mike Griswold vice-president analyst with Gartner.

Greg White (01:00:33):

Thanks guys. Talk to you next month. Alright. Bye bye.

Scott Luton (01:00:39):

All right. Well Greg, we knew two things. We knew. Number one, that, that Mike was not gonna let us down. He always brings it. But number two, we knew that our audience wasn’t gonna let us down because they always bring it in. And I apologize in advance because I couldn’t share all the comments,

Greg White (01:00:57):

Discussions with many observations. I have to say, as we were sitting here, I wondered if people realize who they are talking to. One of the premier talents, one of the premier authorities in the supply chain industry. I mean, this is not an influencer like we’re influencers. This is somebody that the CEO and chief supply chain officer of mandolins of Walmart, of Amazon go to figure out what’s going on in supply chain. And um, I mean, it’s hard to hold Mike and high enough esteem because he’s kind of a down to earth kind of cat. But, um, he’s a practitioner first as I’ve said many times before, but now those practitioners go to him, looking at retail and expertise.

Scott Luton (01:01:44):

Well, put a couple of quick comments for, we share some final thoughts and give away books. So Nairobi, you’re looking for information on negotiating ranks. Hey, someone to connect with Jamie is Jamie that’s right? And Jaman will be on the, Hey, join us tomorrow. We’re going to have a live stream at 12, 12 noon on Thursday. And, and I think the second half we’re going to have Jaman and a trucking company executive. So that’d be a great question to pose to the experts. So thanks for joining in today, Nairobi. And then one of the comment here, uh, Greg from Brian says, great session. We need more discussions around preparing supply chain talent, always helpful to us, Brian. That’s a great,

Greg White (01:02:26):

Excellent comment. Yeah. Let’s we’re gonna make that happen because you know, before COVID well, I mean, so many people were on a track before COVID, but I think it’s time. It is definitely time to start talking about that important getting back to reasonable levels, right?

Scott Luton (01:02:43):

Yup. All right. So, uh, Amanda and clay, uh, how are we going to give out the three copies of the award? Y’all want to enter the stream? Give me a thumbs up. If you’d like to enter the stream. Amanda and clay are, so we’re getting

Greg White (01:03:00):

Thumbs down. Do you mean like put them on camera? Yeah. Do the winners and wills share it.

Scott Luton (01:03:08):

Yeah. Amanda, we’re gonna, we’re going to tackle this next three events, Amanda and clay, uh, want to offer those resources to the team and y’all text, uh, either text us to them or put them in the comments and we will congratulate and make sure we get addresses for the local lucky winners. All right. So Greg, we’ve got three things to share with the audience. We’ll make sure that they know that these outstanding networking and market Intel gathering

Greg White (01:03:31):

Opportunities. Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:03:33):

For starters, we’ve got float 2020 coming up, right. All about logistics, operations and warehousing. What, what appeals to you about this

Greg White (01:03:41):

One robots and to Shopify? I mean, if anyone is giving retailers, eCommerce companies a chance outside of the Amazon ecosystem, it’s Shopify, robotics are critical. We’ve had so many discussions around that are critical to in store fulfillment and, and last mile fulfillment in fulfillment centers, especially with the lingering, which will undoubtedly be the case, the lingering, uh, physical distancing, that’s going to be required in these facilities. We’re going to have to have it. So, um, you know, the, these are, you know, these are the companies that are making it happen. Yep.

Scott Luton (01:04:23):

Agreed. And you know, what’s so great about this event is free to attend. They’ve got a variety of tracks. They bake some fun into the event. They’ve baked some networking until you event. You’ve got, see, you got a variety of leaders keynoting, but including to Greg’s point to C-levels with Shopify, who’s, who’s making some,

Greg White (01:04:40):

Some big things happen across supply chain. Certainly e-commerce. So y’all check that out. We’ve got the link

Scott Luton (01:04:45):

In the comments of the show next up Greg supply chain USA, virtual 2020. What appeals to you about this event?

Greg White (01:04:55):

Just the list of speakers. First of all, um, well, one it’s a Reuters event. I mean, Reuters nuff said, and to the list of speakers that because they are Reuters, they can field, um, Colin Yankee from tractor supply, who we’ve already talked about today. Um, Sandra McQuillan the chief supply chain officer, um, from, and a host of others, uh, who are speaking and this free tea taste, tester path. Um, you know, I’m interested in having folks get a look at what is going to be offered at this, at this thing and, and decide whether they want to join up well. Uh, and, and there’s a, yeah, that tastes or pass, uh, you know, you’ll get a sense to be able to participate on some level. There’s probably the, do the whole thing. I’m imagining you have to register, but check it out. Uh, we’ve got link for your convenience in the show notes.

Greg White (01:05:52):

And then Greg, we’ve got a neat webinar coming up. You know, we’ve had a couple of shows with rate links, analytics, and this, this webinar on October six, all about standing up a control tower in 30 days. Yeah. I mean, I’m not sure that everybody even understands what a control tower is, or frankly, I mean, truthfully, right. It’s, it’s become sort of bug buzzwordy, but, um, in talking to the folks from rate links and, and from analytics, uh, I would encourage you to look at a live stream we did last week, um, and a, an a podcast we recorded yesterday that will be occurring before this session and get some perspective, understand what these two companies are about and the power of them joining together. They have a great perspective on how to, one of the discussions we’ve been having in the stream today, how to capture data, how to first focus on, on business transformation, then digital transformation, and then data to support that.

Greg White (01:06:58):

And our friend looks, smell advocates that as well. So it’s great having a like minds to have this discussion. Absolutely. A great point there, Greg. All right. So there’s three resources. There’s plenty of others, a big thanks to the folks dropping in, uh, um, URLs and sites in the comments. Thanks to Sophia. She dropped an X dot or Greg that you touched on outstanding resource to develop yourself professionally. All right. So to our winners again today, we’re giving away three copies of our dear friend, mr. Supply chain, Daniel Stanton’s book, supply chain management for dummies written. Yeah. How many, how many jokes? I said 10,000 times written for folks like myself. Um, so we’re given three copies way and Greg, we’ve got the winters. Are you ready? All right, let’s do it. Keith Duckworth is winter. Number one. So Keith, uh, we want to make sure we get, uh, get your, your physical address so we can ship it out to you. Congrats. And I, I liked some of your serious and your light hearted comments here today. Uh, so Keith Duckworth, Latiya Thomas at that’s a surefire winner. I mean, she really, I love her challenge that she posed to the audience and, uh, and some great advice. And the third Greg, our third winner third and final winner

Scott Luton (01:08:16):

Is Kayvon Tacori. So Kayvon was dropping in some knowledge kind of throughout, especially around, uh, business continuity plans. BCPS right. So those were our three winners today, Keith Latiya and Kayvon and Stephan and Sophia were very close runners up. But I mean, look, let’s, let’s, let’s address the irony of this. We’re given a book called supply chain for dummies to people who have just expressed their expertise. So this would be great document for brushing up your knowledge, right? Clearly those five people and many of the others in the industry knows supply chain and have great ideas about it. But this is just a great opportunity. So those of you who won, I compel you to share the knowledge that you, that inspires you in that book with the rest of us. That’s right. And make sure, Oh, wrong way. Make sure each of y’all send your addresses to Amanda at supply chain.

Scott Luton (01:09:12):

Now radio.com. Of course the T I’ve got yours, but y’all send your addresses there and we’ll make sure we get the book out to you as soon as possible. Um, and if there’s something you can’t find, there’s something we touched on today that, that, uh, is just unclear. Or if there’s a way we can be a resource for you, you can also shoot Amanda note and check us out at supply chain now, radio.com. All right. So Greg so much good stuff. Our audience brought it today. Really appreciated all the perspective and the engagement. I mean, this, this has really been one of my favorite episodes of the, I was going to say of the month, but we’re already in September. Yeah. Well, this is, I mean, these are three of the most important topics we can talk about right now or any time, frankly, and we should have been talking about, and we have been by the way with Mike and with others talking about these topics for months.

Scott Luton (01:10:01):

So if your company is a little bit behind on those, you might share some of those episodes and this one in particular with them, that’s right. What a great perspective to close on. So to everyone, especially to Mike Griswold and Gartner to Amanda and clay really kept the comments and conversations going, of course, to our North star is the audience and all the perspective and insights they shared today. And as Greg put it expertise as well, I learned so much from each and every one of these live streams. And I really that’s one of my favorite aspects about this whole thing. So Greg has always, we want to challenge the audience to keep doing what you’re doing, right. Do good, give forward and be the change that’s needed in this industry and the world. And on that note, we’ll see next time here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.