“We’re big believers, that technology is gonna open doors for so many opportunities for folks that are willing to learn more, learn new things, get out of their comfort zone. And most importantly, take the action and walk through those doors of opportunity.”

-Scott Luton, Host, Supply Chain Now

Today on Supply Chain Now, Scott and Greg share the Supply Chain Buzz, and discuss the top stories in supply chain this week.

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, Scott Luton, Greg white with you here on supply chain. Now. Welcome to today’s live stream, Greg. Good morning. How are you doing? I am doing very well back from totally non vacation, but a little bit of travels last week. Right? Right. So yeah, very well. We had some great food over the weekend. Yes. From a variety of the house and met in person, folks appropriately masked. I wish I could show you my Darth Vader mask that I wore. Um, you’re not messing around when it come to mass. That is a, that is a, a one heavy duty, no mess around full on respirator. I’m telling you when I walk in places, I still think they think I’m going to Rob them. Well, Hey, uh, before we even get started, we’ve got two very special people that are already tuned in with this here three now, uh, Jeff Miller.

Scott Luton (00:01:30):

So Jeff, uh, all the best to you and your family safe travels. We’re looking forward to having you back. I know that you’ve been off the grid a bit, but a firm on behalf of Greg and our entire team here, you’re in our thoughts and prayers. And, uh, we look forward to reconnecting with you soon. Um, Felicia, Felicia with the RLA, the reverse logistics association. She’s right here with us. They they’ve got no shortage of events, Felicia. Great to have you here. And then finally, one quick shout out. You can’t have a live stream without BNG. Claying right. Yeah. Yeah. Settled in, in New York I reckon by now. Right? Alright. So today is the supply chain buzz as always every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time, Greg and I tackle some of the biggest news stories are taking place across global supply chain. Um, and of course it’s not just our take, it’s your take our communities take.

Scott Luton (00:02:23):

And they always bring it. They never let us down to the Gregg never, ever, ever. And I’m glad to have Jeff here. I haven’t argued with anybody lately. So, um, Hey, quick program before we get started here today. So if you enjoyed the live stream episode, uh, please be sure to check out our podcasts wherever you get your podcasts from today, Greg, we published the first episode that is associated with the 2020 AIAG supply chain summit. That is Greg what’s the acronym stand for that is the automotive industry action group, Scott, he interviewed. And it’s all about,

Greg White (00:03:00):

Because last week you did a lot of those interviews, right. But, um, the one we published today is that Jim?

Scott Luton (00:03:09):

No, that was a, we had our friends at [inaudible] with this and we’ll

Greg White (00:03:13):

Oh yeah. That one. Yes. I’m sure need some work.

Scott Luton (00:03:19):

Well, we’re going to talk about that episode in the second one, they show so to our audience, uh, great to have you here. Uh, and again, if you enjoy the live stream, be sure to check out our podcast, just search for supply chain. Now, wherever your podcast from. Alright, so Greg, are we ready to dive into the headlines?

Greg White (00:03:36):

Are you ready to talk headlines before we get back to everybody else? We need to acknowledge that it’s getting to be a long list. Isn’t it agreed?

Scott Luton (00:03:44):

Well, let’s dive right in. So this story is great news, big news, but it’s not going to surprise many folks that certainly the folks that have been, uh, tuning into our live stream. So warehousing is breaking records in this story from Matt Leonard in the talent and supply chain dive team, the warehousing industry is not only back to its pre pandemic levels of employment, but Greg, at 1.2, 5 million workers in the warehouse and storage sector in September that my friend is the highest recorded workforce number ever for the industry. Wow. And that’s according. Yeah. Ever, ever history, according to the Bureau of labor statistics. Now, now we know, and all the talented people in audience knows e-commerce is a huge driver. And all of that, the article States that eCommerce sales jumped 32% from Q one Q two to reach a record breaking 212 billion B as in Bezos, a number now, Greg, did you ever ask yourself, Hey, for context, what can we compare that to? Well, I got something for you according to the IMF.

Greg White (00:04:53):

Oh, that was a rhetorical question. I didn’t give you a chance, the ultimate rhetorical. So according to the,

Scott Luton (00:05:02):

That puts e-commerce at about the size of the entire 2019 economy of Greece. That is interesting perspective there. Now of course e-commerce is driving. Also we know automation and robotics are really, uh, disseminating throughout right. Organizations are looking at automation and bots to thrive more and more, but also seasonal employment. As the article speaks to, uh, you know, companies are leveraging more and more human talent to also especially deal with peak DHL 7,000. So who there is a, their seasonal employment number, XPO 25 K FedEx, 70,000 ups and Amazon each are bringing on a a hundred thousand people. Right? Right. So one final note here, Greg, before I get your take on this. So speaking of XPO, uh, we’re big fans of a lot of that thought leadership that comes out of there. Some innovative stuff. They’re doing

Greg White (00:06:02):

Fact chattery served as

Scott Luton (00:06:05):

For supply chain Americas. He’s quoted in the article that, uh, and says that beyond leveraging their, their automation efforts, which is massive, uh, seasonal hiring again, impressive. It’s 25,000, but they’re looking to add 3 million square feet of warehouse space in North America alone to tackle peak. That is interesting. Now we published a great interview with Ashfaq asphalt last week. We’ll talk about that here towards the end. It’s a lot more to come there, but Greg, like we said, at the beginning, not too many surprises here, right?

Greg White (00:06:40):

None at all. And could the timing be better? I mean, with the veritable, a collapse of the service industry, otherwise restaurants and, um, people who service office buildings and security personnel and, and, you know, we were hearing a lot about, uh, those industries. These are great, um, replacement jobs and I wonder how much ability supply chain expansion and this new, you know, this new recognition of how important and how hands on supply chain is. I wonder how much impact that will have on re employing people. I mean, maybe that’s part of the new normal. We may be seeing the new normal as more hands on watching

Scott Luton (00:07:31):

Know that’s a great point. And I think there’s a lot to that. Um, that possible prediction, I think, secondly, as we’ve talked about that, and I love banging the drum on this is that technology beyond peak, right? While there’s numbers, we were just talking about offered temporary opportunities, right. But big believers, that technology is gonna open door for so many opportunities for folks that are willing to learn more, learn new things, get out of their comfort zone. And most importantly, walk, take the action and walk through those doors of opportunity. So excited about this and clearly the historic times that we’re living in supply chain and otherwise in 2020, this is yet one more chapter.

Greg White (00:08:09):

Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, imagine what there are 44 million supply chain professionals going into covert. Imagine if that number grows dramatically and I bet you that it will with supply chain in the forefront as it is, whether it is physical logistics like this or other roles, if you’re looking for a job looking at supply chain as, as Sandra McQuillan says, come on down.

Scott Luton (00:08:39):

Yeah. A little, throw it back to the price is right. Um, all right. So Greg, before we hit headline number two, let’s, let’s say a load, a few folks here, cause you’re right. There’s a ton of folks here. Ton of good old friends and some new ones here. Yes. A Daria Patel. He’s been with us time and time again. Great to have you here. Daria, uh, David of course, uh, love what David brings the table, including his sense of humor. He had her FOD keep us on our, on our, uh, on our toes clay, the dog Phillips. I feel like I should add something prior to the dog and not bulldog cause that’s, that’s too prevalent here in Georgia. I liked the dog and you know, I’ve been watching college game day and the bear is taken an ever more prominent role on college game day.

Scott Luton (00:09:23):

I really think we need to have a chart of what’s going on in supply chain and clay can inform us. Agreed, agreed too much pressure for clay to you. Nope. Well, it’s time to flip the tables on him. And for that matter, Amanda, again soon, and we’ll we’ll might do just that in our upcoming 500th episode, which is crazy. Um, Sophia, our resident supply chain analyst and ambassador. Great to have you here as always Sophia Michael Michael Avra. Hey Michael, I got your LinkedIn note. I appreciate that. We need to take you up on that, but hopefully you’re doing well and great to have you here tuned in and be the live stream. Greg. We have Albina Albina and I apologize if I got that wrong. We, we, we try our hardest. I promise you, uh, Eric and Larry, Larry Klein enjoyed your comments. I think it was last week as we were talking about freight forwarding and, or, or maybe lean is where Larry chimed in.

Scott Luton (00:10:23):

That was great last week. Uh, memory of course, memory. I love Greg, have you been following memory own some other channels running routine? I saw that from Instagram, she’s running, but also her culinary skills. Uh, Amanda and I were inspired with something she shared last week, um, mussels or oysters. I get them confused and we had that last night. Thanks to the memories. That’s awesome. Hello, Mary, uh, uh, adventures. So enjoy what you’re doing there. Memory and peer peer, a fellow resident of supply chain, city, Atlanta, GA. Great to have you were here with us P air. Alright, so Greg, let’s keep driving. We’ve got a ton to tackle here. This is kind of a supplemental piece to the warehousing story. So when I posted this on Twitter over the weekend, one of our favorites, a beer at the kurta who is a supply chain, chief supply chain officer with a well known furniture, uh, enterprise here in Madison can’t find enough people.

Scott Luton (00:11:23):

He was, he was adding great succinct color commentary to what is there is a, uh, a plethora, a, a dearth, sorry, use the wrong T H a dirt of warehouse talent. So one of the more reason why we’re turning to robotics there. Okay. So let’s talk about, about paper versus plastic. Greg, have you been, ever been asked that question in the past decades? I have, but you know, that question has essentially gone away and now is plastic right back, baby. It’s back. Angel’s question is back, but it means something new. So, well, if just collaborate a little bit more, let’s add a little context of that. So in the story from wall street journal, we learned about the huge challenges of taking plastics out of global supply chain, particularly related to the food industry. So as we can all attest, there’s a large consumer sentiment to using less plastic.

Scott Luton (00:12:20):

At least I feel it in our household. And, and I think about it every time I may, I may turn to as a plastic bag for a one use, right? But paper is appealing the coordinates to the articles it’s made from renewable resources, more to come on that easily recyclable, which I’m not sure about that in our experience and what I just talked about. Not many folks, I just want to use single use plastics. So Greg paper has begun to replace as we’ve both experienced plastic straws bags, fruit trays, even shrink wrap for drinks, but a brief history lesson. So just prior to world war II, CPG was all about paper, right? Paper was dominant force plastics functionality began to permeate the industry because it was water resistant, it was grease resistant, and it was a lot easier to seal things. Right now, manufacturers are trying to plasticized paper, uh, really to get their cake and eat it too.

Scott Luton (00:13:20):

Uh, they’re experiencing big challenges though, for example, did you know that once they coat paper to get better resistance to the elements that take and just some of those plastic advantages, it immediately becomes more difficult to recycle. In fact, Greg, there is draft legislation in Europe to treat coded paper, to regulate that the same way they regulate single use plastic. It really speaks to the challenges of recycling it, additional challenges to use in paper more is shelf life expectations, which consumers are after certainly, and, and overall different climate, um, you know, climates that the products will find themselves in. And for those durations, uh, now the plastics industry, Greg, do you think they’d have anything to say about this, a big shift here? I doubt it. No. As you might expect, they’ve got something to say or to hear they claim that paper uses more resources to produce and they point to deforestation concerns.

Scott Luton (00:14:19):

We talked about that, I think on a buzzer two ago, some of the cool things that Unilever is doing, um, the article sites of variety of organizations that are making gains while experiencing these pains and challenges in this paper versus plastic battle, including Unilever, Nestle, P and G and West rock, of course, West rock based right here in the Atlanta area. But you know what this brings to my mind, Greg, of course, there’s not going to be any easy answers here because we really are trying to get our cake and eat it too in many ways and in a good positive way. So we kind of should expect these, these, um, these learning pains, right?

Greg White (00:14:57):

Well, yeah, of course. And I think, you know, I can’t believe I’m going to do this. I’m going to validate somewhat of the classic industries, um, statement. And that is that 68 million trees are cut down a year for paper products. Now what they don’t say. And with us living in a paper producing state Georgia, is that those trees only exist to create paper. Right? We’ve got a hole when you get below the gnat line, a certain point in Georgia, it’s nothing but pine forest. Right. And they are manmade pine forest solely for the purpose of producing paper. So, um, and they are rapidly replenished with trees and various systematically done. So, so I think we have to acknowledge that there is maybe the slightest bit of self-interest at play here, but, and I bet you didn’t know this Scott. I happened to know a little bit about paper and coated paper because I was in the printing industry. Now I am no Sarah Scutter, but I know a bit about printing. And I do know that a 25% of all waste in all landfills, all municipal landfills is paper. And I know that it is at one point when we were having the paper plastic discussion, it was far greater percentage of waste, uh, in inland fields. And the problem with paper is not that it is so predominant. The problem is that it is so rarely recycled. That that is a situation that we need to address. We need to yep. Go ahead.

Scott Luton (00:16:37):

I agree with you in that, you know, so when I read that about the executives that were cited in article, there, there were several unnamed executives about how they said paper was more easily recyclable. I’m immediately thinking of my household, we’re allowed the paper we use, think of it again, it’s napkins, they get dirty, right? Or they get wet, or, um, you know, even the article even talked about how it’s easier for consumers to make the decision of where to put the paper products and the recyclable bins. But the mix-match that we know, if you look at the recycling industry, one of the things they’re struggling with is separating all the different, um, recyclable products. And number two, um, I can’t remember the term they used, but basically it’s their dirty products and, and there’s less value in cleaning and then reentering the, the now decontaminated product to be recycled. So no shortage of challenges, but you know what the good news here is that these major huge companies with huge footprints, they’re putting a lot of their innovative resources to, into the battle to figure out how we can, at least despite the challenge that we have with paper, at least take some plastics out of supply chain,

Greg White (00:17:50):

Which we know are contributing to some of the things we’ve all been reading about in recent years at the very least paper does not have a half life, which is only a mild exaggeration of plastics, which is approximately 400 years. So, um, and we have seen that, you know, especially in some of the emerging economies, they are frequently, plastics are frequently disposed of into the rivers, which lead to the oceans. Right, right. Yes. So a lot more to come on, a lot of challenges here, at least we’re attempting to move the right direction. I think people have the right awareness these days, at least people in industrialized and in first world countries do. And I think the first world world is starting to engage with emerging emerging economies to start to help them solve that problem. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, but there is this great collection, the ocean ocean initiative or whatever.

Greg White (00:18:56):

They’ve got a huge boom system where they collected. They’ve got these little conveyors that they can set up in the, in the rivers and Indonesia, which is one of the most predominant polluters on the planet to collect the plastics before they get to the ocean and to enable them to be hauled away. So, um, look, there’s all kinds of ways to attack this problem. And I’m glad that we’re, we’re thinking and doing something about it. Agreed. So I’ll check that out via the walls, a great team of at wall street journal. I think this was part of the logistics report, which we get an email every day from Paul Page, the team. Great reporting there. Um, all right. So Greg, let’s say low to a few folks on the paler Keith Duckworth. So he’s calling in from the state that has Berrien Springs, Christmas, pickle, capital of the world.

Greg White (00:19:45):

Okay. That’s a new one for me. I had never even heard of a Christmas pickle. That sounds like a Mayberry episode. A and B may be involved there with, with making some of those infamous, terrible pickles, but we’ll find out what the Christmas Pickle’s all about. We also ought to acknowledge our neighbors to the North for whom it is Thanksgiving, Canada. That’s right. That’s a good point. Um, Jeff says, Hey, for warehouse employment to be at this all time high with the increasing use of automation means that the per capita productivity of the workers is also rising. This is a virtuous cycle. I love that term virtuous cycle, man. He’s always elevating the conversation that acknowledges the data that you provided right after, right? Not only is his warehouse employment rising, but there’s clearly much more opportunity for it to rise and to sustain as you know, based on the data that you provided and then, uh, beers. Affirmation. Yes. Well, all right. So there’s a ton of comments

Scott Luton (00:20:48):

Go to a warehouse. So Tom, uh, Tom, Greg, there’s a ton of it. Comments here on both of these stories. I’m going to shoot through these real quick, cause I want to try to give as many, uh, folks, as Larry says, the department of defense could learn from this where I am. We are in the stone age as far as warehouse management. All right. Everybody is seen, everybody has to have seen Indiana Jones by now. They lost the arc of the covenant. Okay. Oh, it was a good movie, man. They don’t make movies like that anymore. It’s a shame. All right, Benjamin, I checked the door every morning. We stay up to date on ocean logistics, news and binges, referring to the supply chain dive, which provided the first story. I agree with you. We were big fans of their, um, their reporting. Uh, let’s see here.

Scott Luton (00:21:42):

Uh, Gary Smith is with us. Warehousing is only one aspect of supply chain. The possibilities are endless well said, Gary, especially if you look at it from the end to end point of view, all right, Larry, you are right. The NLCS starts today. Go Braves game one. Uh, so excited the Braves playing perhaps the other best team in the majors this year, the Dodgers. So we’ll see how that goes, but, uh, uh, kindred spirits with you, Larry. Um, all right. So Tom’s with us. So Tom is a re uh, Greg is, you know, he’s relocated, veteran’s got some experience in supply chain. He’s now in the upstate of South Carolina. And there he says he is seeing an increase in warehouse jobs in Greenville, South Carolina, the metroplex, the Greenville Spartanburg metroplex. Sounds good to me. It’s been called that since the eighties. Really? Gosh, I’m from South Carolina.

Scott Luton (00:22:38):

I hadn’t heard that, man. I’m in the stone age like me, me and Larry are back here in the stone age, I guess. Um, alright. So Aaron fried, who has been weighing in hot and heavy and recent livestreams cause stuff. In fact, we gotta, we got to circle back to that Tesla conversation. He says a number of new warehouses opening up in Richmond, Virginia. Yeah. They got to tell you they’re opening up certainly across the Southeast and for that matter coast to coast, um, see Michael says fantastic article, especially enjoyed the challenge just in the warmer regions of the world. Agreed. Mako climate is a big deal there. Well also humidity, right? I mean, paper is not as resilient to humidity as plastic is of course. Yep. Yup. Key says, uh, the inventions on board that actually use plant-based compounds that mimic plastic. So that’s a good point. There actually, there’s actually a, company’s a number of companies and I had heard about it sometime back, but haven’t heard anything recently making plastic bags out of cornstarch that dissolves in warm water.

Greg White (00:23:46):

Really? So bring your bags home, throw them in the sink, right? Not even boiling water, just warm water in a way they go

Scott Luton (00:23:54):

Love it. Love it. Sophia talks along those lines a little bit. Some other companies are using algae to replace plastic. This algae is biodegradable and a plague in many lakes in different countries, including Mexico. Good stuff there. Um, let’s see. Michael also says, it’s going to be interesting to see how effective the plastic eating enzyme just developed performs on a mass scale. And if that helps reduce plastics after use, huh? Um, Casiano to your point, Greg, happy Thanksgiving from Canada. Cassiana great to have you here with us and happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. All right. A couple of quick, quick comments, sorry, Greg. I had to get through. As many of these folks are weighing in, they’re jumping out of the week, uh, with, with, uh, the juices clearly going through here, coursing through veins. Philippe says what you’re talking about is a very delicate matter.

Scott Luton (00:24:49):

Consider for example, the millions of workers in India, dependent on the plastic industry, fully pay. That is an excellent point. And Greg, I know you’re going to weigh in here, but really quick. It’s all about checks and balances in global supply chain and not, and far beyond the workforce component, you got pricing, you’ve got infrastructure. You’ve got, you know, when you, when you make adjustments here, you have the ripple felt ripple effect a ripple effect elsewhere. And that’s what I really wish, Greg, that consumers that are demanding with FIS own tables for nearshoring and own shoring initials take place, really understand the big picture. So Greg, what’s some of your comments here.

Greg White (00:25:32):

It’s all about economics. Look, I mean, you can go all the way back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, right? Your first need is, is safety and security. And you know, in, in some of the places that Philippe is talking about in India, just survival is critical. You don’t think about conservation. You don’t think about some of those higher purposes while all you’re trying to do is survive through the day. I think about the, um, agricultural age here in the States, which seems like so long ago, but for my state, Kansas was not that long ago. And the mere survival, um, factor didn’t really allow people to think about whether they were overusing water or, you know, the dust bowl, right during the depression in the thirties, right? Didn’t even allow them to think about whether they were properly, um, utilizing the land to grow the crops.

Greg White (00:26:25):

And that had a big effect. But that lesson, that lesson of the dust bowl is something that we should not let go past us. And if we need to support emerging economies, like so many of those in India, we need to do so with a way that doesn’t sacrifice the entire planet. So there’s a medium there, but the truth is it is all about economics. We’ve got to make it economically feasible, to be circular, to, to recycle, to do all these things that we want to do to save our planet because the truth is it isn’t going to matter as much as we all sit here and kvetch about it in this, in these calls and these discussions, when we go to the store, we vote with our wallets. So I will always put the onus back on the consumer. We should vote with our wallets, which is by the way, not only difficult to do from an economic standpoint, but from, even from an understanding of how you are contributing to the uplift or demise of the world, it’s your help to know what kind of products your products are packaged in, right? You’re voting whether you like it or not. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:27:38):

Undoubtedly, whether you embrace it and actively vote or you know, it, it’s not front of front of mine. So great point there, Greg and a Philippe memory says she raises a great point here. Again, it goes back to pluses and minuses, right? Can we talk about the impact of disposable face mass? That’s a major concern for the environment. Great point memory. Great point. I’ll tell you that Greg is, is waging, at least a one family war on non-disposable face mask. You should have seen this thing was, was, was worth it’s thing is worth adding Darth to the front of Greg’s name somewhere. So, um, but kidding aside memory, great point. And you know, you can’t go to many grocery stores or other retail stores and in the parking lot sees several of disposable face mass on the, um, on the ground. So, all right. Thanks for all the great comments. Clearly these first two stories have got a lot of things going a lot of, uh, perspective, uh, got the juices going. So let’s keep driving Greg cause this third one, the start third story. We’re gonna get some good news, despite all the challenges you’re going to give us some good news, Greg, especially in the world of retail,

Greg White (00:28:50):

I’m going to start with a quick smack of reality, but we are going to get to some good news. And that is as you know, periodically, we have, um, identified the list of retailers that have gone bankrupt this year. And that list is now 27 people or 27 companies. And there are 17 more companies at high risk of, of, uh, going out of business, uh, inclusive of some companies that have recently had some good news, but five particular retailers are able to win and even enhance their business during this. And it’s interesting what some of the dynamics of our, for instance, one is chewy. Everyone’s still feeding their dogs thankfully, but also chewy was 100% online to begin with. So, um, their sales increased, uh, in, even in March and April, when I think we all thought the economy was collapsing in April, right? Yep.

Greg White (00:29:49):

Even the worms got to eat Gregg theirs, their, uh, their sales increased 28.7%. And even though traditional retail pet stores were deemed essential, there was an incredible reduction in traffic and, uh, because people were staying home in droves and, and chewy capitalized on that as well. So that, um, their net sales grew something like 47. Let me look, uh, in the most recent quarter, 47%, $1.7 billion with what they call auto-ship, meaning people basically putting a schedule on their dog food, um, $1.2 billion worth of sales. So they, uh, they succeeded because of their own online edness, Lulu lemon. Okay. So as we all started to gain the COVID-19, we all started getting a little bit more, uh, hopefully, or many of us started getting a little bit more diligent about our, um, exercise routines. Uh, one person who I’d like to acknowledge is near Fahd, not a Ravitch who I think he has lost something like 16 pounds in three weeks, something ridiculous like that.

Greg White (00:31:13):

Now, first of all, in the [inaudible] FOD is a giant he’s six foot six. So literally a giant he’s six foot six, but he’s trying to drop, um, I don’t know exactly. I’m sure he’ll let us know. He’s trying to drop a few lbs there, kgs kgs in his case though, he does a great job for those of us who are metrically disinclined to convert it to pounds. So I appreciate that also. Um, but the, you know, the sales and clothing went down almost as much as sales and airlines, 89% because it didn’t matter what any of us wore anymore. And of course, people weren’t buying pants at the rate, they were buying tops. I think we’ve addressed that point as well, but because of the exercise thing, Lulu lemon has benefited likewise with our friends at Dick’s sporting goods. Um, though they did have a drop in sales in the stores, their, um, their sales have been driven pretty heavily by their online presence, which they had conquered many decades ago.

Greg White (00:32:22):

Uh, and I’ve been pretty, uh, pretty good, uh, performer, if you’ve ever the sporting goods industry in general, by the way is really, really good at online sales, they started kind of the revolution in selling online. I’m going to say Scott over two decades ago, wholesale clubs like BJ’s and Costco, they have all done really, really well. And our friends who, frankly, I was a little bit worried about despite the success that they had at target, our friends at target have turned out to be a great resource for so many discount and department store products online. And they have really capitalized and they have literally put billions into their ability to not only capitalize, but to also perform in terms of fulfillment better as well. So those are just a few, but the most prominent companies that have, that have done well here. And a lot of that has to do with resilience, right? It has to do with automation and it has to do with, uh, the, the adaptability that they have shown in in these times. You know,

Scott Luton (00:33:36):

Greg, I want to follow up your point. You’re not both a part of the, um, webinars

Greg White (00:33:40):

With the great folks over at gray, orange

Scott Luton (00:33:42):

And cap Gemini. And since you said it resilience, of course, that’s on the tips of, of most everybody’s tongue, especially in supply chain. One of the things, one of the key takeaways from the whole discussion for me was either Jeff or Cindy referred to the opposite of resilience,

Greg White (00:33:59):

Fragile. Yes. For Jill yeah. Fragility, right?

Scott Luton (00:34:02):

So I’ve taken that nugget and I’ve used it in a couple of conversations. I used it on a, um, uh, a neat panel discussion with our friends at SAP. And it really, the more I talk about that and the more I get people’s reaction to that, it really, it’s such a great counterpoint that fights back against the cliche. That resilience is that word is just the word, not the notion behind it. And it really gets you to thinking, and I, and what I heard is you described some of these retailers is not only were they making efforts to develop a mature level, a more mature level of resilience, but they were recognizing where their, their models might be more fragile than other places and embracing it and acknowledging it and building a plan to attack it,

Greg White (00:34:49):

Undoubtedly and their, and their resiliency in a lot of cases. And I don’t think we want to gloss over this. Their resiliency in a lot of cases started with fiscal responsibility, not, not supply chain, but these were companies that were not overly Laden with debt, right. That weren’t, um, sort of living hand to mouth, like so many companies were before COVID they had adequate reserves and they were using them already to improve their businesses. I mean, you don’t do a $1.4 billion project overnight. Obviously some of those projects had to have been underway. Right? Yep. So, so there were companies that while not responding directly to COVID are not expecting clearly no one expected a global seismic disruption, but they were working to improve their own lot, their own methodology, even prior to this. And that’s, that’s a critical part of resiliency resiliency. Doesn’t start. When you get smacked in the face, resiliency starts when you’re trying to reduce the fragility of your, of your organization

Scott Luton (00:36:03):

And lots of these companies, weren’t blaming the pandemic for some of their challenges that to your point, it goes back to being sound in the first place, right.

Greg White (00:36:12):

And not in the management teams that blame the blame, the, the pandemic have probably blamed a lot of other situations in the past. You can lots of boogie management teams don’t blame, right.

Scott Luton (00:36:29):

With us current sit tight. I know you’re busy, got a thousand things going on. We’re going to talk about tech talk here, uh, in the second half of the show, but yeah, 500 episodes coming in hot. You’re right. Corrine. Uh, let’s see here. Uh, Aaron says, Oh, Aaron is defining the kvetch word. There’s uh, Greg, your use of that word has

Greg White (00:36:50):

Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:36:52):

Yiddish word, meaning to complain, to bitch about to why not to be confused with commits, which is cracking wise or bothering someone who is working with unneeded comments,

Greg White (00:37:02):

Terry, Erin loved that, you know, just so you know, Aaron so easier to spell than Chachi, which is another Yiddish word. Right. I, I I’d love to, I’d love to see everyone’s spelling of chotsky. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:37:14):

And, uh, this week we’re celebrating dictionary day,

Greg White (00:37:19):

Which the calls Noah Webster’s really true. Are you just doing that true?

Scott Luton (00:37:23):

No. Webster was born. I think it was October 16th and I’m sure Amanda or clay will correct me. Um, but, and that his birth date, it, since he’s the first to compile the first American dictionary of the English language is referred to in celebrated sub parts of world, I guess, as, as a dictionary day. Alright, let’s see here, Amanda, speaking of Amanda, she’s heard wonderful things about Chewie’s excellent customer service.

Greg White (00:37:49):

If your pet passes away, they’ll say

Scott Luton (00:37:51):

And flowers and the sympathy note and credit or postpone subscriptions. Wow. Wow. How about that? Keith says regarding church, man, you really opened up a can of worms.

Greg White (00:38:02):

Well, I mean, they are legendary in terms of customer experience and by the way, we’re going to be talking to another ledge group of legends in customer experience as well, right? Yes.

Scott Luton (00:38:14):

Right around the corner. Chewie who relishes picking up a 50 pound bag of dog food and hauling it home from the store all when you can just have it delivered right to your door. Right. That’s I’m sure that’s helping.

Greg White (00:38:28):

I don’t think it’s only workout. I get Keith. So

Scott Luton (00:38:32):

Hey, host way is with us and hosts way. First off, I liked your, your LinkedIn posts last week about kind of embrace the suck as an entrepreneur. Those are certainly some days that where you have to do that more than others. And then secondly has way you taught. You asked me about the Amy conference coming up. We’re gonna talk about that at the end. And I’ll try to answer your question in terms of why, why come out cause you’re considering joining us for that event. So we’ll talk about that. All right. So Greg, with that in mind, as many, as much as I love these comments, we better keep driving with this last headline that I just at the last minute picked up off your Slack feed made a quick graphic. So we can tee you up

Greg White (00:39:12):

For the movement. We have to acknowledge this. This actually came out last Thursday, but, um, it was after we had done our, our live stream that day. And of course that one’s not all about news, but this happens. Uh, so the way that they’ve presented this is as if this has never happened in the past, right? IBM to break up 109 year old company to focus on cloud growth. I love these, um, hyperbolic headlines that we are living through in this day and age. The truth is if you think back IBM has done this a number of times. Um, and in fact, if you have a Lenovo computer, that computer was once called an IBM computer and they divested of that, they’ve divested of other parts of their business. And what they are doing is they feel like cloud because it is a commoditized industry is low margin and high, highly competitive.

Greg White (00:40:09):

And if they feel like it is hiding the value of their other, uh, aspects of the business and therefore driving down stock valuation, this is how economics work folks. So they’re going to divest this company, create another public company as yet on named for the cloud applications. And that will actually raise the valuation of relative to revenue and, and, and profit and that sort of thing of IBM itself. So really smart move. Um, Brad Jacobs at XPO was considering breaking XPO into, I can’t even remember four or five entities just prior to Kobe to do this exact same thing. It’s an incredible service to the industry because now we’ve got a company focused on this marketplace, a low margin and competitive marketplace where they can really focus their efforts on a single thing. And, um, and then you’ve got another entity that’s going to be much more profitable because of it. Stock has already gone up by the way. So keep your eye. If you’re, if you’re thinking there’s a stock opportunity, there might be. But again, I’m definitely no expert, but the stock has already gone up in reflection of this, just to be clear, whatever it does, it does change the business for IBM yet again, ever evolving.

Greg White (00:41:33):

Yeah,

Scott Luton (00:41:34):

That’s right. And that’s a perfect segue cause big blue, if anything, they are ever evolving and, and more often than not the way they make those educated gambles with their chips, I’ve worked out the article, spoke to how they exited the networking business. They exited the PC manufacturing business, the eggs, the chips business to be in position for this next big shift. And it’s really, you know, we did a show on, on kind of the, the, um, the history of the IBM the organization dating back to its earliest times where basically three or four businesses got together. And it really is fascinating how they have continued to find ways to evolve by making big, bold bets. So regardless of whatever you think of, IBM, you gotta hand it to them. They, they pick and choose those moments pretty well.

Greg White (00:42:21):

It’s not the most, I mean, in this day of unicorns, it’s not the most exciting business, but it is everywhere, right? I mean, you have to, you have to acknowledge UBIC ubiquitousness of IBM in the business environment.

Scott Luton (00:42:36):

Yup. Sophia great, great point. Turning obstacles into opportunities. That’s what cutting edge leaders tend to do a lot better than, than many others. So great point there, which is referenced. It won’t say a load of Latiya Thomas. She’s one of our favorites she’s been on with us a couple of times. Latiya hope your, um, everything you’re involved with right now, it seems like you’ve got three or four leadership positions. Hopefully it’s all going well. And we look forward to reconnecting with you again here soon. And then the Mo demo Perez is with us, uh, the Prince of supply chain and Panama, perhaps. Uh, but love to have you with us demo and looking forward to getting you on the show here really soon. All right. So Greg, with this next segment, I’ve got 1243 Eastern time. So we have a few minutes here. We kind of wanted to look back.

Scott Luton (00:43:22):

We don’t have a guest, this, this phone today’s bus. So we want to kind of look what’s that we’re our own guests. Yes, that’s right. That and the community is always our guests, but we kind of wanted to look back at the last week and offer a few highlights from some of the conversations we’ve had and, and, you know, I’m sure everyone doesn’t have a chance to, to consume every podcast. We put out Monday through Friday or Monday through Saturday. But, um, you know, we want to kind of highlight a few in particular. And of course, one of the highlights for me last week, Greg was, you know, you were, um, I think you were actually serving the audience, right. That, and you had a, you were on a panel of your own that morning. Yeah, that’s right. Laura says, Siri joined us with the one and only Korean bursa last Monday on the buzz and to our audience that might have had the opportunity to, to, to, to, um, and then on that, it was my first experience with Laura directly write, read, and consume plenty of her keynotes, whatnot. But Greg, in 25 minutes time, I’d be hard pressed to find too many other folks that have appeared in any of our shows that drop that much knowledge in that short amount of time. What was your

Greg White (00:44:36):

Thought there? Absolutely. I mean, you know, when you think about influencers these days, that name gets cast around by your ability to drag 40,000 people or so around with you. But Laura says Siri influences the owners, the founders, the CEOs, the executives, the supply chain professionals and the supply chain leaders of major companies around the world and has for decades, she was at, uh, AMR before Gartner bought it, went out on her own and created her own version of gardener, Laura incorporated, which is basically what supply chain insights and provides that value in such a, if anyone saw the show, such a straightforward down to earth, no BS way. Right, right. If you don’t deserve Slack, you’re not going to get it from Laura. I would encourage folks if you didn’t see this episode to go back and watch it engage with her because she is a pro and she is on wavering in terms of her, uh, objectivity and, and integrity. Yup.

Scott Luton (00:45:47):

Well put Greg as always, uh, the precise communicator that you are.

Greg White (00:45:52):

Well, I was, uh, when, when I had technology companies I’ve been kicked in the stones once or twice by Laura. And so I, I mean, I’ve experienced that straight forward newness and I really, really appreciate it. Right.

Scott Luton (00:46:07):

I do too. I do too. Um, so I’m not sure who this LinkedIn user is, but he or she says that they’re trying to catch up on the podcast. Thanks for sharing them with those of us learning and trying to grow our knowledge. Hey, that’s what we’re after. So, uh, I appreciate you calling that out. Philippe says since listing the Laura, I’m starting my day with a couple of her comments on supply chain, great perspective to immerse oneself in supply chain. I agree.

Greg White (00:46:34):

400,000 other people, right? Yes, yes,

Scott Luton (00:46:39):

Yes. To your point, Greg, when you said folks were throwing that influencer of name out it here, there, and everywhere. But when, when 400,000 folks are following every thought you put out there, Laura is chief influencer in charge. Perhaps

Greg White (00:46:54):

It says people are changing their business because of you. That’s what I mean. That’s what I mean by influencer. I mean retailers and technology providers and physical logistics providers change their business based on the insights that they get. Yep. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:47:13):

So, uh, and by the way, that was Ron and LinkedIn notes, I was trying to catch up on the podcast or Rhonda, thanks for joining us. And thanks for the note Amanda or clay memory says, can you have Sandra McQuillan back on as a guest hurting sites, her insights are thought provoking are completely

Greg White (00:47:30):

Agree. We ought to drop, uh, w we’ll um, in the comments, maybe not now, but after this show, um, goes into recording, we’ll drop a couple of the episodes we’ve done with Sandra. The latest one was, um, a lot about sustainability and incredible. Yeah, there it’s already in there. Holy mackerel.

Scott Luton (00:47:51):

I am, but don’t waste any time. Um, alright. So as much as we enjoyed that one, uh, I had the, uh, outstanding opportunity to sit down with asphalt cutlery, uh, PhD doctor. I should be calling him, uh, with XPO logistics, uh, he’s president of supply chain and for Americas for XPO. And just one quick takeaway here that echoes what Greg and, and numerous other people on all of our shows have been really embracing as a silver lining during these times is XPO truly is a thought leader when it comes to protecting the essential workers in supply chain. And they’re, they’re doing that a multiple multitude of different ways. He, he touched on a couple of those in the conversation we’ve published that last Friday and you all should check that out. XPO is doing some really neat things and we missed you on that episode, Greg, but I believe you were sailing. Uh, when we sat down with him,

Greg White (00:48:46):

You say, when,

Scott Luton (00:48:48):

All right, so tequila, sunrise, it missing the beat. These days continues to get bigger and bigger with bigger and bolder guests. And last week, Greg a featured a featured a second part of what

Greg White (00:49:00):

Yeah, Sarah Barnes Humphrey, of course from let’s talk supply chain, but also CEO of ships, as she says, S H I P Zed, uh, which is a Z here in America. Um, she sh these, I got, I’ve gotten good audio, good audience guidance to break these into two pieces because Scott has you and our audience know I cannot be contained by a clock. So these episodes tend to go an hour or more. So we broken them into a couple of slices. This second segment of the, of the interview is not only interesting because you get to hear how she uses reality TV to help her in business, which I’ve found fascinating and stunning, frankly from the beginning, but, but also some great takeaways for you as a person, as a supply chain professional and as a founder. And, um, and I mean pointed directly at you.

Greg White (00:50:02):

So, uh, she kinda got, um, let’s see, what do I want to say? She was a little bit agitated by what I was, what I drew out of her in that she was very good sport, but she was not expecting to answer some of the questions that I asked. So, and she did so like a champ. So I really appreciate it always great to uplift a female founder, even I, in what I do, don’t meet that many. So, uh, it’s great to have, um, women founders in technology. Uh, we certainly need the additional points of view agreed.

Scott Luton (00:50:40):

And you are the founder whisperer. So Greg Greg, when he says he’s not meeting enough, I mean the numbers games in his favor, cause he he’s having those conversations day in and day out. So great episode here. Love the series, love the niche and look forward to continue good stuff coming from the tech, tequila, sunrise, skunkworks, Greg good stuff there. Alright, so Kerryn, she may still be with us. She may not. We launched her

Greg White (00:51:04):

Tech talk digital supply chain podcast last week.

Scott Luton (00:51:07):

And we really got her, as I say, in the comment book vernacular, uh, her origin story. And as the title indicates, all roads do certainly lead the supply chain for one Korean bursa. And you’re not going to want to make a miss here in her background, which really helps present her point of view

Greg White (00:51:27):

That tech talks to me.

Scott Luton (00:51:29):

So you’re going to have some of the movers and shakers. In fact, as per our earlier guests last week, Laura says Siri, right, Corrine made that happen. And that was neat. So

Greg White (00:51:40):

Expect a lot more of that with the tech talk podcast and learn this first episode,

Scott Luton (00:51:45):

How Corrine some of her earliest supply chain management experience as a teenager working for a retail store, I think it was a hardware store, so you’re not going to miss it. Alright, so Greg, I keep driving here. I’ve got 1252. We’re going to try. And I know we’ve got a, we’ve got a, somewhat of a heart.

Greg White (00:52:04):

This was, this was an important episode, um,

Scott Luton (00:52:09):

With my friend Lauren net festival. And there’s so much here and that we don’t, can’t go into all of it and give it as justice. But, um, two things really got me going here. Uh, during our conversation one, Greg was Laura. Annette mentioned something that if you’ve been in the military, we all know firsthand. The levels of diversity. You’ll find that the U S military are, are extremely high and in their relationships and how folks, you know, it’s kinda like spot chain. You get past, you’re able to bridge all those gaps from a cultural experience or a geography experience, or just a walk of life, experience, bridge, all that to make the mission happen. And he really spoke to how powerful of that that experience was for him and how much he learned. He mentioned in particular, the Filipino, um, culture and history and how he had some great friends that had had that in their background, came hail from the Philippines and how much he learned there.

Scott Luton (00:53:09):

Um, secondly, Greg, and, and this is a gentleman that continues to serve after he exited the us Navy. He went on to graduate, I believe from the university of Chicago. He went on to, um, uh, serve with the, um, Sierra club, serving other veterans, really leveraging outdoors to help veterans overcome some of the PTSD and other challenges they have. So he talked about being stopped and accused by, um, police officers. And then in his words and his words, not them not seeing the us Navy veteran, then not seeing the university of Chicago graduate, then not seeing the, the constant give back, you know, volunteer leader or be a nonprofit leader. But in his words, them seeing him simply as a black man, and as he shared that with me, it was one of those moments where, you know, we all have our gaps in our point of view. And I had this, a big gap. I haven’t experienced that. And, and I, I really, our communities and our country needs the global community needs a lot more lower net best stalls and y’all should check out veteran voices. I’m a better person from hearing from his, his experiences. So Greg, that was, that was a special episode for me.

Greg White (00:54:30):

Yeah. That’s frustrating as hell. But to hear that, that still happens. And it is a great story that not only how it happened, but also how he, um, I don’t know, internalized it right.

Scott Luton (00:54:45):

And overcome, and, and, and, you know, despite a variety of obstacles that he presented in his, as he relayed those to me, he constantly overcoming so that he’s in a position to help others. And that man, that’s just, it’s just a great, good news feel, good story that other folks need to hear. So fair warning. There was a few more, few extra four letter words in this conversation as we,

Greg White (00:55:09):

More like a tequila sunrise episode,

Scott Luton (00:55:13):

But it’s well worth it. He’s such a, such a breath of fresh air. So love what he’s doing. And all of that leads us to, as we can, we’re gonna rappel some upcoming events, Greg, and, and, you know, in a similar, similar way, we’ve really enjoyed our AIG experiences and those learning moments we’ve had with that organization.

Greg White (00:55:31):

Right? Yep. Well, I mean, not, not just the learning that we’ve done about the automotive industry or supply chain or, or, uh, corporate responsibility, you know, the specific events that we’ve worked on, but the adaptability, the resiliency and the dog had determination of the folks at AIG, the first event to go from physical to virtual. And they did so in stellar fashion. And I think, you know, we talked about this with Jim Leo last week. Um, they are still leading the way in terms of how to engage an audience, how to provide a service to people who are now a days on online, on video all the time. So, I mean, there’s just so much going on there. And this, this focus on supply chain was really interesting with these folks.

Scott Luton (00:56:25):

Yup. Agreed. Uh, and so Jared has who Greg is referring to. We dropped that episode today, sir, Jerry is doing some really cool things, especially when it comes to leveraging IOT and many of the other, um, uh, industry 4.0 technologies to drive supply chain success, Katie and Rob, or really enjoyed that episode. And it kicks off a series of, uh, what would be six or seven different podcasts interviews all associated with the 2020 supply chain summit. So that’s the segue into events folks. The summit is not only is it full of folks you need to hear from, but it’s really inexpensive. I think it’s like $49 to attend. The link is in the show notes. Y’all check that out as Greg. And I like to say, I think Greg coined it shouldn’t is in the name AIAG in that accident. That is a very important word in that acronym.

Scott Luton (00:57:16):

Okay. So let’s talk about some events, Greg, as we wrap here. So SAP customer experience, Hey folks, um, maybe I’m a late, late to the party, but CX is huge. It’s been huge for awhile. We all use different vernacular and different industries and sectors. And that might be one reason why, um, a little bit slow sometimes, but SAP is hosted a free event dedicated to the world of CX. Uh there’s as you all might know, there’s a ton of things going on from a CX standpoint in supply chain. Greg has, we’d sat down and talked about over some delicious pizza on Saturday. Yes. Uh, we talked about the mask. Yes ma’am and it’s tough to eat pizza with a mask. It is. Yeah. Um, CSC, MP, great organization there, uh, in a 2019 survey, they polled, I think just over 500 supply chain professionals from across the world.

Scott Luton (00:58:15):

And 61% of them, Greg said that customer experience would surpass price and product to become the driving. The number one driving factor in business in five years. I believe if I’ve got all that. Right. So free event on October 14th and 15th, certainly the 14th, uh, to kind of maybe consume some points of view related to CX Greg you’re take customer experience as the goal of supply chain. Right. I mean, as, as many people have said, no, uh, no product, no program, right? Yes. Um, so look that it’s the sole purpose that supply chain exists is for customer experience. Let’s break the supply chain. I’m doing this frequently as much for my recognition as anyone else’s let’s break supply chain, is it down into what it is? Someone wants the extra tomato you grew probably maybe your next door neighbor, you hand it to them. End of supply chain, right? Customer the customer satisfied, great

Greg White (00:59:22):

Customer experience. Right? So everything else that we put in place in the supply chain is a, is an, a hurdle or hindrance to that, including our desire to, uh, save, save money by producing out of the country or the consumers desire to have tomatoes year round, which forced us to get them from other parts of the world. So there are probably a lot of people on this show right now who have never known that there used to be a season for tomatoes. There was a time of year when you didn’t get tomatoes, right? So what we have to acknowledge is as supply chain professionals and as consumers that we are complicating our own experience, our own customer experience by virtue of, of how we desire goods and how we expect the, the, uh, pricing and availability to be delivered. Vis-a-vis the supply chain very much

Scott Luton (01:00:19):

Nice, very nice, Greg. And I’m glad that the days of not having access to made us a year or two you’re a year round are long gone. Even if they aren’t the home grown tomatoes that we might have access to Amber. Um, so here clay, so, uh, let me be transparent about this. Clay is my brother, brother.

Greg White (01:00:38):

I did not know he was an MBA. That’s pretty impressive, much smarter than I am. You should

Scott Luton (01:00:45):

And solve the universal ILS. Sometimes clay is active. He’s a thought leader in the CX space, he’s with a group called Medallia and he’s been, he’s been doing some big things for a number of years. So he says supply chain and customer experience are inextricably linked

Greg White (01:01:02):

Dead. Why don’t you tell me that like eight years ago, at least that would have been,

Scott Luton (01:01:09):

I check him out, connect with him, really neat. Things are doing in the CX space. And, you know, as this recent experience, we’re having a lot of fun with related to SAP. You can learn something from anyone you sit down with, you know, for 30 minutes to have a conversation, you know, and, and, and some what you learn, you may be the only person in the world that is new to so really enjoy the conversations we’ve had here around CX James. I like this feedback, Greg, check this out.

Greg White (01:01:39):

You got more people need to be congratulatory of us, so we don’t have to be. So self-congratulatory thank you very much. I’m glad that it lands that way because look, we not only have a tremendous passion for, for this industry, but for serving the, our community by delivering it in a way that is interesting, right. Inspiring, engaging. So thank you. It’s good to know that it’s landing that way. At least sometimes.

Scott Luton (01:02:10):

And the word earnest is such a powerful word there, James. So really appreciate it. We need to bring it to all of our live streams and get you to pepper. Some comments in there. I’m kidding, but thank you so much for sharing. It makes our day. Alright, so, um, let’s keep driving with events for the sake of time real quick. So I’ll make sure we give resources to people and especially free inexpensive resources like SAP customer experience. You’ll learn something sitting down and spending time with this group here. Alright. So this is, this is an opportunity to share your experiences and insights. So this is the second annual supply chain state of supply chain sustainability report that CSC, MP and MIT and others are putting together and they need your input. So I’ve got the link in the show notes, please take a moment to click on that and take some answers. Some questions. The report will be better off for it. So shit, y’all check that out now, AME. So Greg, um, let’s talk about Amy for a minute. And some of the major things that we part of this panel session coming up in a few.

Greg White (01:03:16):

Yeah, well, I mean, uh, lean, right? I mean think about how much he lean has taken and, um, and, uh, the, you know, the other aspects of manufacturing that need to be discussed, and this is an organization focused on this. We’ve actually, uh, interviewed and had some other events with the AME team in the past. And it’s always productive that I don’t, this is kind of a sneaky organization in, in that it’s not huge, right? It’s not a huge organization, but, but what they do is they show you firsthand how manufacturing works. They allow you to engage one manufacturer with another and learn from that. Um, and this is the new way of doing that because we can’t, as you can see this as AME Toronto, I think we’ll all just have pictures of Toronto in the background, but the style, yeah. This time. So great, uh, group of folks, I don’t know if you’ve been following any of their discussion or promotion around this, but it’s going to be a really, really interesting discussion we’ll put.

Scott Luton (01:04:22):

And the other, one of the things we’re gonna talk about what we’re, we’re having a planning session for this breakout session this week, as a matter of fact, and it includes the CEO of AME Kimberly Humphrey. Uh, we’re going to be talking about fact and fiction when it comes to some of the reassuring and nearshoring conversations we’re having. So I think it’s gonna be a really Frank and informative conversation. Uh, you can check out AME, uh, and the host way finished first thought, first, we we’ve got the registration link in the show notes to anybody who wants to check it out. Um, but host, why you were asking about this event for you in particular,

Greg White (01:04:56):

I would argue, yes.

Scott Luton (01:04:58):

One of the litmus tests perhaps of, of determining if you would like to, to, um, be a part of Amy programming is if you want to grow your manufacturing industry network and, and really get finger on the pulse of what’s going on, especially in the U S manufacturing industry, this is gonna be a great group. This is gonna be a great, great organization. It’s not the most inexpensive registration, but they’ve a lot of heavy hit and breakout sessions, including our panel sessions. Y’all check that out. And again, great group for expanding your manufacturing network and really gaining insights from manufacturing. Exactly

Greg White (01:05:35):

Insights are the key because hosts way, at the very least you can figure out how their, uh, their processes might be across purposes with your own, that of transporting their goods. Right. And how you can create some, some collaboration, maybe some communication and maybe even some solutions to so that they don’t a half pack your truck, right. Or, or whatever else could happen. Right. Right. I mean, I think, I think the thing you have to recognize it in supply chain is that the butterfly effect is you love to say, Scott is so much, that’s such an appropriate anecdote here is that whatever happens upstream or downstream, it, it impacts everything up and downstream and in between. Yep.

Scott Luton (01:06:26):

Well put there, and your file was just talking about some of the pre-recs for anyone that attends a Canadian event, including maple syrup and other things

Greg White (01:06:36):

Losing beavers. Come on, man. They’re fun too funny. Alright.

Scott Luton (01:06:42):

Couple last things. So y’all check this out, stand up and sound off echoing kind of going back to some of the elements of the Dolores net, a Vestal conversation we had, this is going to be focused on two women that are really working hard to move the needle when it comes to equity in fortune 500 organizations. And, and not only are we going to hear their point of view and perspectives and experiences, but we’re going to equally hear from our audience. That’s what this whole standup and sound off series is all about is making sure our audience has equal time to, to not just ask questions, but to share what’s what their experiences have been. And Greg, as you say about the theme here, you don’t have to stand up, but you better sound off, right?

Greg White (01:07:25):

Yeah. That’s, that’s good. Yeah. Sound off. And look, you know, th the philosophy that we have taken since Scott, you and I have been working together is that very often this isn’t, this, these kinds of discussions are an uncomfortable discussion, but the truth is our philosophy gang is that the discussions that cause this discussion to be necessary, like the discussions that Lauren had had, those should be the uncomfortable discussing. And these are all about progress. They’re all about solution. No, one’s getting blamed. No, one’s getting their chops busted in these things. This is all about solutions and moving forward. And that’s why I love the spirit of these standup and sound off events. They’re not uncomfortable at all. Sometimes the topics, and sometimes the stories are heart wrenching, frankly. But, but you know, we’re all approaching this with the spirit of, of trying to move forward of trying to look at, I think we all want everyone to be happy. We want everyone to be treated fairly right. And have opportunity. Yeah. And you know, and that’s all we’re trying to solve here. That’s really what we’re after. Yep.

Scott Luton (01:08:40):

So y’all join us for that. Um, new website, uh, finally radio is dead at least here at supply chain now. And we use that tongue in cheek. Of course, I listen to sports talk all the time. I might be listening to the Braves in my car radio tonight, but, uh, you can,

Greg White (01:08:57):

No, radio’s not dead because, um, who was it? Serious? Just gave a what’s his name? $107 million contract. Really? Yeah. The shock jock guy. Oh, Howard stern. Howard stern. Really? How about that?

Scott Luton (01:09:17):

Um, well regardless, you can find us now@supplychainnow.com and our mission remains giving voice those moving us forward, especially cross global supply chain. Right. So check us out, let us know how we can.

Greg White (01:09:31):

Can I help? I want to, um, I want to pop,

Scott Luton (01:09:33):

But out, we’re going to, I want to wrap up on something here. Tom shared. Greg just about gets my chin. Um, Tom shared what I thought. I love his commentary here. And he says, Scott, thanks for sharing highlights of the Navy veteran discussion with Lauren at Vestal with this. I know for me, we did not talk about the word diversity. When I came into the military

Greg White (01:09:53):

Eighties, we just all work together

Scott Luton (01:09:56):

And made it happen. Mission first

Greg White (01:09:57):

You said, I worked with a diverse group of professionals throughout my career to include international and coalition partners from around the world.

Scott Luton (01:10:06):

And that has become a valuable experience. I bet that’s one of the reasons why Tom, it has been leading and doing things in supply chain because of that background. And man, ignore the noise, put the noise all aside. Let’s get the mission done with whoever we work with and, and give each other that mutual respect. And that’s certainly one of the things the military is good about, um, teaching its, uh, its members. So Greg gets you weigh in on that for a, um, we, we call it a day.

Greg White (01:10:35):

Yeah. I mean, see your, see your coworkers, see your fellow, um, mill, you know, your, your fellow soldiers, whatever you want. However you want to think about it. See them as people. And when you’re in a foxhole with bullets equally coming at all of you, it’s really, really easy to see that that’s true. Right. So, um, look, I’m probably a happy idiot when it comes to, to these topics because my family is relatively diverse. I mean, I look like, you know, you’d expect me to look right, but, but w I mean, when you dig into my family, you recognize that there’s significant amount of diversity and lived in a very diverse

Scott Luton (01:11:14):

Community. And I just never really even thought of, um, I honestly, I’ve never, even though I have, I’ve never had, um, um, those kinds of those kinds of experiences, or I’ve never internalized in the way that I’ve heard so many people internally and it’s tragic that those things happen. And, um, it really comes down to just viewing everyone as a person, just a person agreed. And along those lines this week as well. And I know these things because of the research we put in over the weekend for this week in business history. But this week is when Martin Luther King jr. Was awarded the Nobel peace prize. Of course, for all of this outstanding exceptional leadership, when it comes to fighting racial inequalities through the means of nonviolence. And he was one of the youngest ever, I think when he, when he was bestowed it, I think he was still was the youngest.

Scott Luton (01:12:06):

He was the youngest ever, I think in recent years has been, there’s been a couple of teenagers, which is really cool. Uh, get a bestow, the Nobel peace prize, but Hey, gotta learn from the past. Uh, and while you keep moving forward. So, um, good stuff here, Greg loved these episodes, man. There’s so many comments we couldn’t get to y’all keep them coming. Please. Larry says, all I cared about was if your raffle was pointed the same direction, I was darn Skippy. Larry, I’m sure you got some great stories this year. I was a lowly data analyst. I didn’t have this experience and the air force, but nevertheless, thanks for bringing the perspective today. Thanks for bringing your comments, your yeah. Your engagement, they sure did. Um, y’all join us tomorrow. We have live stream with great folks over at Omnia partners. We’re going to be talking about a GPO in a very forward thinking ways, not your grandmother’s or grandfather’s GPO, right, Greg?

Scott Luton (01:13:02):

Well, I mean, you know, the awakening that I’ve had is it’s not just about public or pub yeah. Dealing with the government. Right. So many companies are used to that, dealing with the GPO and dealing with the government, but now dealing with private sector commercial sector, it just makes so much sense. There’s so much power in it. You know, the thing that really struck me in the conversation or two that we’ve had with them is that it’s not all about price, right? It’s about a lasting relationship, so, yep. Agreed. And it’d be a good conversation. Whether you are looking to leverage the GPO in a very new 20, 50 way, we’ll call it. Or if you’re a supplier looking to, you know, plug into the network like that, you’re gonna learn a lot from Omnia partners tomorrow. You’re going to learn a lot from Mike Griswold with Gardner on Wednesdays live stream, and Thursday, we’re going to learn from a recent e-commerce executive.

Scott Luton (01:13:57):

Well, we’re still working on positioning due to some of the changes, but to stay tuned for that Thursdays, we get to kind of a look behind the scenes of some of the big movers and shakers in the world of e-commerce. So stay tuned for that. All right. So Greg, much as I hate to do it, uh, but we’re going to wrap up today’s episode friends, community members, participants, supply chain, practitioners, you name it, all the folks that chimed in here today. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. The best part of the journey. I mean, I don’t know why today it’s kind of really hit me that how engaged this community is, man. It’s great. It’s fantastic. Really appreciate it. This has been enlightening for me. I agree. Any, both. All right. So everyone, Hey, same challenge as always give a do good gift forward. Be the change that’s needed. And on that note, we’ll see. Next time here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.