In this episode of the Supply Chain Buzz, Greg and Scott are joined by Paul Noble, Mary Kate Love, and Lettie Barrett as they discuss the top supply chain news of the week.

Intro/Outro (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 (00:00:35):

Hey, good morning, Scott Loudin, Greg white with you here own the buzz. Greg white. How are you doing today? I’m doing quite well. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, today is my father’s birthday. He’s the hugest K U fan. And he’s going to get a personal message from head coach, bill self. And I just previewed it just a few minutes ago. So, uh, there won’t be a dry in the house. I can tell you that. That is outstanding, man. What a great gift. Yeah. Yeah. My sister pulled that off. So, so, uh, hopefully you all had a great weekend. You need to videotape him getting the message and share it with us. That’d be, that’d be one. Nobody’s going to be there, but yeah, next year I might a video. I might send the message. I have the message. So maybe I’ll post that somewhere. Let’s do that.

Scott Luton (00:01:31):

So, but for today here in supply chain buzz where we, every week, Monday 12 noon, we tackle some of the biggest stories and developments across the world of global supply chain. And it’s no different here today. However, the contents in different, however, this is supply chain buzz takeover day from our friends at Verisign and Georgia Pacific. We’ve got an outstanding conversation teed up. Don’t worry, Greg. Yeah. Yeah. I’m looking forward to it. Uh, and we did just barely a Virta complete takeover. So we had to get permission to be on our own episode. Didn’t we? Hey. Hey, all in. Good fun for sure. All good. But you know, we’ve got a really interesting conversation. We’re going to of course talk about the vaccine distribution. We’re going to talk about sustainable packaging. We’re going to talk about, uh, antifragile supply chains. I love that, that phrase.

Scott Luton (00:02:25):

Um, so stay tuned quick programming. If you enjoyed today’s episode, be sure to find us wherever you get your podcast search for supply chain now and subscribe for free. So you don’t miss conversations just like this. All right. So we I’ve got a, uh, chock full conversation here today. Uh, Greg, are you ready to get started? Let’s do this thing. All right. So we wanna welcome in our esteemed panel here today. We’ve got Paul Noble, founder and CEO at Verisign, Lenny Barrett, senior business analyst, also with Verisign and our dear friend, Mary Kate love operations business integration lead with Georgia Pacific and

Greg White (00:03:01):

Founder of national supply chain. Day one. We are an enriched company here during the year.

Scott Luton (00:03:11):

Greg. I want to pick up where you left off right before we switched because, uh, all three are dear friends. But the last time I think one of the last times we collaborated with Mary Kate, she was, she had just coined and founded national supply chain day. And we had a gangbuster conversation, fast moving capacity. It was moving so fast. It was moving so fast that, um, I got kicked out of the stream.

Paul Noble (00:03:36):

Oh gosh. Was that when we had to fly solo? M K I

Mary Kate Love (00:03:39):

I’ll never forget it. I’ll never, we just kind of looked at each other and we’re like, yeah, we got this. Okay. I’ll say as a watcher and a viewer, I didn’t notice a difference. Good. You guys did a great job. I agree with you Len and I try to forget those moments, but yeah.

Scott Luton (00:03:59):

All right. So, uh, folks, uh, hope y’all brought your work boots here today. We got a ton of stuff to get through. I’m glad that each of y’all could make time off your busy schedule to join us here on the bus. So Paul Leddy and Mary, uh, Mary Kay and Greg, we’re going to start with what everybody’s talking about, whether you’re in supply chain or, or anything else, and the other aspect of global business. And that is what we’re referring to as the noble mission, right? The vaccine distribution that is kicked off really got ramped up, uh, hit a new phase over the weekend. And certainly today, you know, Tom magazine, uh, is weighing in talking about how, uh, the distribution has begun, right? First shipments arriving here today, supply chain dive, of course, one of our favorite sources for supply chain, uh, content, how the supply chain has been preparing for this moment, love that by our friend, Matt Leonard and the wall street journal, of course would just some great supply chain reporting, uh, talks about also, uh, as the pandemic continues to surge across the U S Hey, here’s good news. Uh, because hospitals are gearing up and that vaccine has begun to be shipped. So let’s get down into the weeds a little bit here. Let’s talk about, what’s really kind of maybe taking place behind the headlines when it comes to the vaccine. Paul, let’s start with you, uh, good morning and tell us, tell us something we should be maybe tracking here, uh, across global supply chain.

Paul Noble (00:05:25):

Yeah, thanks everyone. I think it was the, uh, first time I met Greg was on a podcast with, uh, Mary Kay NEI, uh, back

Mary Kate Love (00:05:35):

To back full circle.

Paul Noble (00:05:37):

That was a, the bank of America building. Right. We were Flexport Flexport.

Mary Kate Love (00:05:42):

I got a parking ticket that day. Actually the reminder back to Scott, I share, I can still do that.

Paul Noble (00:05:52):

And Greg gave me a ride back to the office cause it was raining. It’s right, gentlemen. Thank, um, anyway, so no one, I did rail our conversation. Now it’s been really exciting to watch the mobilization of, you know, all the different parties from public to private and, uh, nothing short of miraculous. Being able to not only spin the vaccine up and record record time, but giving everyone exposure to the, you know, what’s necessary to get, get things produced. And from point a to point Z really cause it’s gone to so many different places. Um, again, I, I we’ve talked about it a lot of times, you know, things coming out of this pandemic, you know, really exposing where supply chains are going and, and the, and the needs of complex supply chains globally. And so I think everyone’s getting a front row seat to, uh, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on everyone really coming together as, as humans and, uh, and helping one, uh, one another out is exciting for me to follow. And I think it’s, uh, I know my Twitter feeds been jammed with updates and opinions and angles, and it’s just really, really exciting. Uh, that’s my big takeaway is it’s miraculous.

Scott Luton (00:07:15):

I love that. I want to get, uh, letting you and Mary, Kate and Greg away and really quick, we’ve been talking about the noble mission when it comes to vaccine distribution for a weeks, if not months now. And we’ve got some pushback over the weekend, uh, I was told that, Hey, supply chain folks just making money and, well, absolutely. I mean a FedEx. Yeah. That could be doing other things true, but here here’s the deal. W while of course, Scott, it was, you know, um, while FedEx and ups and the story of the weekend working together and undoubtedly the right they’re charging for shipments, just like any other transportation organization does. However, I was talking to Jenny Froom this morning and she was talking about, you know, getting access to Africa and some things are just gonna have to take place such as navigating across rivers with no bridges. That’s when this really become that, that noble element of this really takes place because no, one’s going to make a million bucks, you know, to do that. They’re going to just find a way right. And serve communities, uh, across the world. And that’s that in my book at least is what really, while this is a noble mission. All right. So Leddy, let’s go to you. What else are you tracking when it comes to this vaccine distribution?

Lettie Barrett (00:08:25):

Yeah. Well, I think kind of going off of what you guys have already acknowledged, I really love that just for a country that’s been so divided, particularly over the year. This is something that’s really required union from a lot of different parties and partnerships, and so totally agree. This is going to be really just the union of a lot of, a lot of different people and companies, and some excited to see that unfold. I particularly have gone into a COVID hole, uh, of research learning more about the software system that they are using to track, uh, the vaccines starting, I guess, this weekend and today particularly apologies if I pronounce it wrong, but I think it’s, uh, to be serious. I don’t know if that’s correct. It seems so interesting to me, you know, there’s a lot of history there, um, and, and really just identifying the high risk population so that they can make sure that they’re, we’re going to do this first round of distribution so effectively.

Lettie Barrett (00:09:21):

And so I’m really interested to see, uh, the successes and the learnings from that. I know you see a lot about, uh, just since the summer really we’ve been practicing and practicing all different types of scenarios. Um, but I know they’ve said that failure is not an option, so I’m excited to see just the unique ways that we’ll address, um, the challenges that, that we could not foresee. Um, and specifically something that was super interesting to me with, with specifically the, the Tiberius system is just, um, the way that they are a great example, that, uh, I think something I read about how they had a map of Alabama, for example, and how they were able to see kind of the trending cases by counting. And then they were able to overlay just different vaccine scenarios in order to find the best distribution routes. And so that was super interesting to me, super, um, unique and I think just going to be awesome to see, um, just the best distribution strategies that they can find. Yeah.

Mary Kate Love (00:10:18):

Good stuff there. Mary Kate, what are you tracking here? Yeah, that’s awesome. I didn’t realize all that about the system. I’ll have to, I think all the narrative of this liberating. Um, I definitely what stands out for me and it’s something that I think I’ve talked about on this podcast a few times is I am, so I guess, taken aback by this partnership between, you know, you’ve got FedEx and ups on shipping, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens, all on actually administering the drugs. Then you’ve got McKesson, that’s bringing in all the other materials and kits that are needed other than the vaccine. It’s kind of something I didn’t think about, Oh yeah, you’re going to need the needles. You’re going to need everything else. And I think all of us in our lifetime have worked on collaborative projects together. Um, I know the three of us, the three guests, Leddy Paul and I have worked on collaborative projects with each other and the amount of time between one company and another company even take GP, for example, working with another company to sign on a contract and get going on that scope of work.

Mary Kate Love (00:11:21):

It just is not as fast as anyone would like it to be for. I think almost any company can say that, right, except, um, you know, probably smaller and more nimble companies. And certainly the United States federal government can not ever really say that they move very quickly. So I don’t take for granted, you know, I’ve focused a lot of my professional career on those smart partnerships and agile partnerships. And I really not taking this for granted that all of these corporations, all of them are huge. Um, which means they are really, um, great and great at making money. We know that right. We know FedEx and ups are great at making money, but the fact that they’ve kind of pushed aside other priorities to be able to get on these partnerships together, um, with the government really leading that charge is probably not something I expected to move as fast as it has.

Mary Kate Love (00:12:12):

And I know to us, it seems so slow. We were just talking about, you know, a couple months ago we said, Oh, will be if we just shut down for two weeks. Right. But this has moved so so quickly. And, um, I’m just, I’m so impressed by that. And I think it’s really laid this groundwork, you know, once you’ve got those partnerships established, they never really go away. So I think it laid the groundwork for, um, maybe some cool new, innovative projects, especially as it relates to supply chain to come around in the next few years.

Scott Luton (00:12:42):

Well said that spillover effect. I love that. What would that collaboration lead to in non pandemic, uh, topics and, and, and problems and complexities, a little of that. Mary Kay, Greg, what was some of the things you’re tracking here as it relates to the vaccine distribution? Yeah. Uh, I’m still struggling to get over your Twitter fight. Um, I have a new tagline, new tagline for Twitter, the Dunning Kruger effect on full display where the angry and incompetent express, their stupid opinions they’re called Charles. Yeah. Yeah. But I don’t think that really gives, does it justice anymore. Does it, uh, you know, the thing that I think that is important of course, is the coordination and collaboration. And dare I say it, the effectiveness of our government in, in facilitating this and funding it to enable and motivate vaccine producers to do something so fast. This is ordinarily a two to five year process that we’ve done in nine ish months.

Greg White (00:13:49):

So, uh, as everyone here has said, that is really impressive. I think the other thing is that eyes in the supply chain have been on how to do this from the very moment that even prospect of a vaccine came to the forefront. And that we thought about things like not, not just the impact on the supply chain for medical or vaccines, but the adjacent supply chains that will be impacted the security, the threat of criminality, the, um, you know, the, the data and technology that is required to facilitate it. And the fact that it’s going to a multitude of governments. Right, right. So, um, we’re thinking about how to get this to the last mile, even with the potential intervention of other governments that may or may not be highly motivated to do that. And we’ve been talking about, and this and determining how to resolve that for months.

Greg White (00:14:44):

And, you know, we saw it on full display. I dunno if you guys did see the trucks rolling out, somebody took a video of the trucks. It’s gotta be the most popular thing on Twitter. And I’m pretty sure that’s what brought you tube and Google down, uh, last night. So, um, so it’s, it’s clearly big news and as it should be, and I think it’s, it is noble. It is of course profitable for it’s going to be profitable for somebody. I don’t know who, but, but the fact is profit economics, as I say frequently, and we reinforce constantly is what drives people to do things that are good

Scott Luton (00:15:23):

That’s right. Including eradicating a pandemic. So a lot so much more to talk about. We’re only scratching the surface as we all know, but I want to circle back before we move on to the next story. Something that Paul said about, everyone’s got a front row seat, whether they like it or not, right. You’re not supply chain, you’re breaking out your popcorn and you’re enthralled with what’s taking place, perhaps for any of those members of our audience that are tracking, just know this, there’s going to be plenty of hurdles. This is not going to be perfect. The sheer complexities of, of, from a temperature standpoint of getting things from point a to point B to point Z and beyond and limit the spoilage. I mean, we’re talking about like next generation problem solving. So just don’t hammer anybody. When you hear the bad news, there’s going to be, there’s going to be challenges to come, but the good news is the greater story here.

Scott Luton (00:16:16):

And something that that should make you sleep well at night is as we’ve all pointed out and especially Mary, Kate, just as unique collaborations taking place across industry. So a lot of good news there. Okay. Is it safe? I appreciate it by weighing in. I know, I know, again, huge story. It’s tough to do it justice in 10 minutes, but I think we called out some of the most critical things to attract. All right. So moving right along, I want to say hello to a few folks. We’ve got a lot of comments here from John is tuned in. Appreciate those comments, John, via LinkedIn. Great to have you here with us, Pat. Hello, Pat. Great to see you, Erin. Peterson’s got some great news. He’s making a choice on his first internship. Soon three, three great companies he’s choosing from a, that is awesome news, Aaron, all the best. Please let us know what your choice is. And once you’re done, you’re gonna have to join us and tell us some of your key learnings from the experience.

Greg White (00:17:11):

Yeah, no doubt. In fact, Latiya Thomas just graduated. Uh, recently, I don’t know if you saw her picks Scott,

Scott Luton (00:17:19):

Uh, Morgan state university has got a, a blossoming the supply chain program there, uh, and meet Aaron. And Latiya

Paul Noble (00:17:28):

The Morgan state crew we met out in, uh, Arizona, my last trip. And now they’re glad to see them joining the workforce and changing the game.

Scott Luton (00:17:41):

Agreed, agreed. Great. Great. Call out, Paul. All right, says hello, Steven. David. Hey, you can’t have a live stream without David and David. Also a great point, uh, follow up to Kay’s point about things calm, moving, slow. He said it was not unique just to us government and, and David Hill’s from Canada. So I think all governments, uh, moot can move slow at times he squared who, uh, holds down the Fort for us on YouTube is here with us, uh, ready for supply chain management nourishment, Greg man, we’ve gotta deliver so on stoke man. Hello to everybody. And we’re going to circle back to some of the folks we couldn’t get to, but let’s move on to this next story here. And this is all about Mary Kate packaging sustainability and how these two, maybe arch enemies are working together. Right?

Mary Kate Love (00:18:33):

Absolutely. And I think, um, as I’ve gotten more into the operations at Georgia Pacific, I think there’s maybe some misunderstanding about how sustainable packaging and paper really is and really, um, is striving to be. So I’m really excited to talk about this a little bit.

Scott Luton (00:18:51):

Well, let’s dive right in. Tell us more.

Mary Kate Love (00:18:53):

Okay. So let me read you this one step. So I don’t get it wrong, but this one kind of, I love stats like this. I think you guys too, but they, um, there’s a stat that says the first six months of this year, consumers spent 347 billion online in the United States and that’s up 30% from last year, 266 billion. So that is pretty insane to think about up 30%. Um, I’m probably part of that 30% because like many others I’ve been shopping online, exclusively. And for everything, I mean, I never was an online grocery shopper, but now I’m starting to do that because I can pick it up. I don’t forget things when I’m in the store. Um, I’m doing pretty much everything online and that’s not different from what we’re seeing. So while that’s really exciting and it’s kind of changing the way the retail space looks, um, Georgia Pacific in particular is working on our sustainable packaging.

Mary Kate Love (00:19:49):

And so, um, we’re really seeing this as an opportunity for retailers and brands to not only tell their story on packaging and brands, but also, um, kind of find new ways to be sustainable. So if you all are familiar, I think a lot of us have received packages that are kind of that white material and they’re padded under it. Amazon sends a lot of those packages. So Georgia Pacific just opened up a new mill where we’re just making padded paper mail, mailers, that can be completely recyclable. So this is going to have huge impact when you think about this online space and we’re all getting our packages either in boxes, those white nailers are now you’re seeing some of these Brown recyclable mailers. And, you know, Ladd are predicting that this online kind of trend is not going to go away because of the convenience. Like I just said, you know, I’m probably not going to stop shopping for groceries online, even though I never did that before. So we’re looking at that and we’re finding out that the more and more we’d work with this, uh, we realized that our consumers are also paying attention. So a lot of our customers at GP are working with us to make sure that they’re sustainable and not only because it’s a good thing for the earth, but they know that their consumers are paying attention, which is just a really cool trend to see

Scott Luton (00:21:06):

Great point there and absolutely more and more by the day when consumers are demanding a more sustainable, more action and bottom line results being made in sustainability initiatives. A great point there in K Paul, you can let him weigh in here. What what’s some of the, um, what’s some of the, the conversations you’re hearing out in industry as it relates to packaging or sustainability.

Paul Noble (00:21:28):

Yeah. We have a handful of customers that we work with in the packaging industry. Um, in addition to Georgia Pacific, I think it’s, you know, to Mary Kate’s point, not only all of us that were kind of trending that way anyway, but this huge, additional demographic of people you, that wouldn’t have gotten into it unless forced to, uh, through a pandemic is opened up a lot of opportunities for innovation in packaging. Uh, I think I just saw it over the, over the weekend, my first, my first few Amazon packages with advertising on them. Um, so there’s going to be, I think a lot more of that, you know, wherever there’s packages on front steps, there’s going to be eyeballs and, uh, opportunities to build awareness. So, uh, uh, that’s really exciting and, and think that it’s, you know, not going to slow down anytime soon.

Paul Noble (00:22:24):

Um, so they, you know, uh, a heightened awareness and then kind of tales over from our, um, COVID 19 vaccine discussion, you know, front row seat, but also this elevated awareness and urgency on supply chain innovation. You know, we see it every day as we talk about it and live it right. Um, but I think everyone’s exposure to that is pretty exciting and, and where that’s going to continue to go and supply chain entering in the Renaissance. We talked about, I think eight, eight months ago, right? Uh, it’s gonna, it’s not gonna slow down vaccine aside, you know, online shopping aside just, uh, it’s going to be a really fun time over the next few years here.

Scott Luton (00:23:08):

Excellent, great. One, a couple of quick comments here. Marie says consumers want sustainability, but they usually don’t want to pay for it themselves. Great comment there from read where it says P and G is 2020 sustainability initiative may be under scrutiny, given us reduction goals on packaging and paper usage being not

Greg White (00:23:28):

Aggressive enough, I think is right there.

Scott Luton (00:23:31):

And quick comment, I think packaging has got such a, it’s such a complex business because as we all know, packaging sales products, right? And it’s designed to get that on and get you to pick it up off the shelf and put it in the, in the cart on the flip side, as we look to streamline all of that and use less material or use material that, that, um, is, has recycling options and better end of usage options, you’ve got some constraints there. So it’s a, it’s a terribly complex, uh, part of the business. Greg, what are you? Um, what’s, what’s a quick takeaway here for you.

Greg White (00:24:06):

I echo what Maria says, you know, and until we’re willing to pay for it, these companies can do whatever they want. Uh, but, but as I said before, everything come back comes back to economics, right? We want to do good as consumers. Every one of us does. Every one of us every single day makes a decision that supports a lack of sustainability, conflict, minerals, slavery. We do that all the time. We don’t even know it. I mean, that’s part of the problem. So, you know, we have to create an awareness there and frankly, we have to make it economically sensible because the truth is people don’t, they don’t spend their disposable income on saving the planet or other people unless they do it as part of a specific like philanthropic initiative. So when you’re buying product, you don’t want to have to think about that. Right? So that’s a challenge that has been in the industry forever. Right? Claudia addresses that in this discussion here. And, you know, that’s, that’s part of the issue is we don’t see the environmental damage in our pocketbook if we did, that would change things, right. If there was an actual cost.

Mary Kate Love (00:25:16):

Yeah. I love that. Just to quickly add a note to that. I love that call out about the economics of it. And, you know, for GP, luckily we’re working in a space with mostly renewable resources and we, um, we have this really cool initiative where we’ll only source trees from forests in places that are replenishing. So we, with competency, we can, for every tree that we take in which I can’t even express you, how many truckloads are coming in each day, um, if you’ve ever been to a GP mill, you just see them go and pass you. But for every tree that we buy or purchase, we know that we’re planning one to three more. Um, and so we’re only purchasing trees from forests that are sustainable and making sure that they’re keeping up with their sustainability efforts that we grade them on. So I really liked that call-out on the economics piece, cause I think that’s just the reality of it.

Scott Luton (00:26:07):

Love that probably managed really quick for our, for our listeners that may be catching this on the audio replay. Let me just share the, the point, uh, that Greg and Mary Kay are alluding to Claudia. Freid says consumers are already paying for sustainable innovations, whether they see the cost breakdown or not, if not in the pocket book, in the environmental damage. So might as well give a price a great point there, Claudia, Greg, you’re going to make one.

Greg White (00:26:32):

Well, I, I can, I can vouch for that. If you’ve ever driven through South Georgia, they’re almost all Georgia Pacific forests down there and you can watch little kids try to figure out as you’re driving by where the rows, how the rows line up to the road, right? Yeah. Those forests are continually replenished and actively. So, and, and the truth is a lot of that ground was not forest before. So it’s actually a net contribution to,

Mary Kate Love (00:27:00):

They have this really cool study where the volume of trees in the Southeast is actually 50% fuller now than it was in the 1970s. So it’s, it’s, I think there’s this misconception of how much work has been put into this for so long that it’s, uh, it’s uh, I mean there’s always room for improvement, I’m sure, but it’s a really, um, I think in some ways a well-oiled machine, right?

Greg White (00:27:23):

Robert oily beans, everyone stopped eating soy. Soy is the largest contributor to deforestation on the planet. Wow. We’re going to have to dive in deeper on that, on that topic, Greg, Hey, really quick from the audience. AA is back with us from the air capital of the world, Wichita, Kansas. He says Marie Harris. That’s why innovation became so important. Also it gives marketing a competitive edge to innovators. Good point there Wayne Donnelley says sustainable packaging is great, but we need to close the loop on the availability of recycling programs. Hey man, that’s huge. Yeah. I was thinking

Paul Noble (00:27:59):

Exact same thing. It was a comment I was going to interject with is making, you know, again, municipalities and consumers and enterprises coming together to make sure, I mean, my recycling bin is overflowing every week, you know, halfway through the week now. And it’s, it’s more and more difficult to get all of the recyclable and sustainable packaging yeah. Back, you know, back in the circular economy there. So I think it’s going to be a, a challenge to your point, Greg, this challenge of, you know, we can do both, right. We can be sustainable without it, you know, grossly affecting the cost of things and you know, everyone coming together and getting on board there, you would like to think that, uh, off the backs of what we’re doing with the COVID-19 vaccine that we can achieve both of those things. Right. So,

Greg White (00:28:55):

And everyone is that is at least an accidental environmentalist. Think back to your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who said turn off the light when you leave the house. Right?

Mary Kate Love (00:29:05):

Absolutely.

Greg White (00:29:07):

And why did they say that? Not because they necessarily love the environment though. Migrate grandparents were huge outdoors people, but because they paid for the electricity that it took to, to fire those lights. So wait, I spent three hours every day. It feels like just turning the lights off, but Hey, we’ve got one person for Greg Greg White’s feature blockbuster on the soy industry. We’ve got a backer right here already in T squared from, uh, via YouTube Greg. So w we’re gonna have to act on that and make that happen. Sure. Um, all right, so let’s move right along. Cause we’ve got a big topic here for,

Scott Luton (00:29:42):

Uh, the next article we’re going to dive into. And that’s really for, from some research that Leddy and Paul and the Verisign team have been leading here in recent months. And let’s talk a lot more about this. So Paul for started, before we dive into the state of supply chain inventory management study for 2020 in a real small nutshell, what does Verisign do? And then let’s talk about some of the key findings.

Paul Noble (00:30:05):

Well, how much time have you got now? So yeah, we are a supply chain intelligence company. We’re based here in Atlanta. We help large organizations. It’s less, really a lot of manufacturing energy, uh, understand the materials that they’re using to run their operations and produce their products. So, um, we help, uh, understand data that lives in, uh, various systems of record across an organization and can help fuel a lot of the things that we’re talking about today. You know, uh, being able to trust that they have inventory without grocery overstocking and disposing of a lot of excess and waste, reducing that fueling sustainability goals, uh, you know, across the organization. But while being profitable is again it’s, you can do both, right. But when, when presented with the right information in a scalable way, so we, we help organizations like Georgia Pacific, like ABM, you know, across various verticals, um, achieve those goals and, and do it quickly, uh, laying a foundation that they can, uh, scale across their entire supply chain.

Scott Luton (00:31:15):

Before we leave here today, I want to talk about the material truth. I love this, this messaging makes me think of like a heavyweight fight, right. And Gerald truth in this corner, we’ve got bad data, but it’s more about, Hey, what can I say? We were just talking about Mike Tyson last week, right?

Paul Noble (00:31:35):

Bad. Data’s just talking. He’s like Ivan, Drago, just pain, pain.

Scott Luton (00:31:45):

And Paul, this has been some exhaustive research. And I know that there’s a slew of key takeaways, but there’s a, there’s a couple we want to focus on here today. Is that right? We hadn’t heard from you here lately. Let let’s, let’s go with you first here. What, what’s one of the key takeaways from this research.

Lettie Barrett (00:32:00):

Yeah. So just a little bit of quick background. This survey was really targeted to an audience of individuals that were involved in inventory and materials management. So just have that in mind as we, uh, share some of these key highlights. But I think one of my favorite stats that we pulled from that surveys, uh, that a majority of the respondents actually 55% of the respondents rated their supply chain maturity levels as high or highest. But when we asked them about their preparedness for the Corona virus and its impact, only 10% of them said they felt prepared or even remotely were prepared. And so I found that, uh, extremely insightful to just learn that with feeling that your supply chain was mature, no one was really prepared for the impact and the challenges experienced because of the COVID pandemic.

Scott Luton (00:32:49):

Yeah. Well stated there Letty, um, Paul, from where you sit, uh, what’s been a key takeaway or two from, from all of this data.

Paul Noble (00:32:57):

I think if we’re continuously trying to get out to business leaders across operations, supply chain procurement, you know, really trying to understand what, uh, what immediate actions they’re looking to take. And also trying to drive that paradigm shift of what’s possible now, um, outside of, you know, traditional, uh, challenges. So, you know, a big part of what we’re doing is around material truth, changing the way supply chains work and doing it in a much different way, um, that that can show that things are possible, you know, to get better while, while being sustainable while driving, you know, driving down costs and driving out costs. Um, and really I’ve been inspired by the response of executives, uh, throughout this year, you know, both from a heightened awareness of having to react, but also, um, combining that with the desire to react and, and be proactive to take the approaches that they need to get, where they want to get, where they’re, uh, heading

Scott Luton (00:34:06):

Nepal as I was digesting Paul and Lenny, as I was digesting this report, I came across one key takeaway that probably won’t surprise any of us. And that is Excel spreadsheet, the Hill dominate global supply chains, right to that a little bit. Oh, go ahead.

Lettie Barrett (00:34:25):

I was just gonna say, I know I was going to try to squeeze that in there before we change subjects, because it feels so redundant to say, I mean, I can’t even believe it’s 2020 and are rounding out 2020, and we’re still talking about Excel spreadsheets. It’s just crazy to see. So many of global companies are just so handcuffed to these expel Excel spreadsheets, and they’re just these mundane, repetitive tasks that, um, that, that we are far more advanced and as a software, uh, solution provider. It, it definitely pains me to read that that’s that in that, uh, highlight from the Thursday, there’s hope there’s hope

Paul Noble (00:35:04):

With Excel. People feel they have more control and being able to manipulate data and put their opinion on things. Um, we even part developed our user interface to help give again, you can have it both ways. You can have a voice and have control and transparency on things without having to consistently analyze things outside of a system of record. So as that transition goes, you know, I think that, uh, and generational shifts I think will also help love with

Scott Luton (00:35:35):

That. Agreed. So to our audience, we can, you can download this report to be the link we’ve got in the show notes, it’s chock full of great information, great agnostic information about what executives are, are thinking about and what they’re doing in inventory management obviously has been a huge pain point here in 2020. So y’all check that out. Uh, and we’ve already had a few folks that have, uh, Gary Smith says he just downloaded a report. He’s looking forward to reading it. Ali. Um, you’re asking about the link. The link is in the show notes. So if you’re on LinkedIn, if you go to the, uh, notes we’ve got just below the video viewer, you’ll be able to click on that, submit your information and get it in. And by the way, Ali, great to have you here with us and going back to Bavan, uh, David says that the, uh, the material true data data, right? Well, put it on paper view. Uh, so Hey, for practitioners that might sell some tickets, I don’t know, um, peer says Excel, like having a carpenter limited to just a hammer. That’s great. Let’s move, Greg. I want to get you to weigh in on some, what you hear before we move on to the next story. What, you know, we’re hearing, this is like a refrain with some of what we hear, but what what’d you read in this recent?

Greg White (00:36:49):

Well, I think, you know, one of the things we have to recognize is that Paul and his team at Verisign, they deal with manufacturers and all due respect to GP, Mary Kay manufacturers are pretty sloppy in their supply chain management management, because they make such huge margins. So we haven’t had to be tremendously, tremendously precise like distributors and retailers have. And, and they’re also highly acquisitive. So, you know, when you look at the data from a company, if we’re talking about paint, right, this company calls it a bucket, this company calls it a pale, and this company calls it a can. And it’s, it’s, it’s exactly the same product, but we triplicated the inventory because we don’t know that they are essentially the same product. And that creates a tremendous amount of waste in the supply chain. And that waste of course, impacts sustainability. So that’s something we’ve got to be very, very aware of and, and that impact, I mean, and we’ve seen it at verus and the impact that, um, they can have is dramatic and immediate. And, um, and companies are, are making big, big changes, you know, at blue Ridge, we did a similar thing in the distribution and retail, not with the data, but with the optimizing the inventories. So I’m familiar with the impact that this can have, and if there’s that much waste at retail and distribution, and they are much less acquisitive and particularly this equivalence inquisitive strategy leads to that duplication and triplication of inventory. And that is huge, a huge impact on the bottom line of these companies and on sustainability.

Paul Noble (00:38:28):

Yeah. We were having conversations with a Gartner analyst and, you know, the shift, this was 12 months ago, but the shift from these things being projects and things that you look at occasionally yeah. Right. Expectations of the consumer. Yeah. Everything is, uh, compounding here. Uh, you know, all of us are going to go well, if they can distribute this vaccine so quickly, why can’t I get things in one day instead of two? So it’s going to be, there’s going to be all these expectations. And, you know, they think this big transition that we’ve seen in supply chain is the move away from projects to, you know, to technologies and systems that, um, create a living, breathing, um, solution around data and what we call the byproducts of data. And, uh, it’s exciting to work and, and see, see the results happen so quick,

Scott Luton (00:39:24):

Fast moving conversation for sure. So David says back to Excel as a problem with it, right? You’re able to manipulate too much. You got to get the fingers out of the pies. I love that comment.

Greg White (00:39:33):

Paul said, you know, generationally that will start to go away, that I have to own this. Um, dynamic is, is rapidly now evaporating in supply chain that if the tech can do it for me, it should, that is a much, much more healthy, uh, point of view.

Scott Luton (00:39:54):

Excellent point Claudia says, uh, COVID killed inertia in 2020 leaders can not sit and wait to see what happens or keep doing what they used to be doing up until now. Great point there, Claudia. Uh, let’s see here. Gary says, unfortunately, because of severe budget restrictions, we in government are stuck with resorting to Excel and software that is at least a generation old. That’s a great point, Gary. That’s an excellent point.

Greg White (00:40:22):

Can change that. I think the cloud and software as a service can, can change that even for governments. One, it’s not a capital line item technically. So if you’re a good manager of your budget, then it doesn’t require a capital expenditure effort. And two, the cost is much, much lower democratization works for democracies as well.

Scott Luton (00:40:46):

Excellent point says, I wonder if the respondents mentioned if they increase their buffer inventory now, and if so, is it going to be temporary or more strategic? Leddy Paul? You want to add any commentary there?

Paul Noble (00:41:00):

Yeah, I think that, um, you’re going to see a lot of that on the retail, you know, finished goods side of things so that you can fulfill service levels. Right. And then it’s going to, there will be a bit of that based on what we’ve we refer to as this, uh, subjective reliability. Right. Um, I feel like I have enough, even though the data is not, not really driving that. So I think there will be just to feel reliable, feel that, you know, service and Sigma levels can be hit, whether it’s indirect materials, materials, or finished goods, but that, uh, you know, hopefully is everyone gets over this over the hump and it can begin planning and becoming more predictive, prescriptive. And even if you miss a target that you’re learning from it to, you know, improve the next, uh, recommendation, I think that we’ll, we’ll see it go back to, you know, not grossly overstocking

Scott Luton (00:41:58):

So that, that research clearly generated a lot of discussion. Again, folks, you can download that report via the link in the show notes and we’d encourage you to do so. A lot of great learnings there. All right, moving right along story, number four, we’re talking, you know, there’s not been, I guess there’s been a few retail winners, but there’s been a lot more retail losers, but best buy is one of the folks that’s done really well in the pandemic. And there’s a great story that came out about shrinking sales floor space, a strategy that best buy is using more and more. So let, let’s start with you. Tell us a lot more about this.

Lettie Barrett (00:42:31):

Yeah. So this is super interesting. I think best buy has been, I feel like more of a proactive, um, company over the years. I mean, even if you think about six, seven years ago, they were really ahead of the rise of showrooming and you see that proactiveness again, here they are trialing kind of a shrunken, uh, uh, sales floor. I think they trailed it up in Minneapolis and they cut their sales floor in half to make room for a fulfillment center. And so they decided to really just keep the fast moving skews on the floor so that they could really have that additional space to fill those online orders, the ship from store orders, the customer pickup orders. And so this has been really interesting because like you said, not a lot of people have explored this space, but as they’re going, they’re really trying different models.

Lettie Barrett (00:43:20):

I think I read something about how one trial, one model had more room for the geek squad and then one had a bigger, uh, more square footage for the electronic section. So they’re really trying to try a lot of, a lot of different layouts and models to see really where the access lies. And I also read that they’re trying kind of a similar concept with, with malls. I mean, uh, I’ve heard a lot, especially over this year, how malls are really dead. As we know them, it’s really 2020s brought the death of, of the, the traditional mall. And so I know a lot of real estate companies are really trying out different models to, um, put last mile delivery, um, in order fulfillment centers, uh, in, in the brick and mortar stores that aren’t able to keep their leases this year,

Scott Luton (00:44:01):

Let a great point. And you know what, even moving forward, I saw, I saw a study in the last week or two, where it was surveying thousands of traditional mall consumers and asking them, you know, after, even after the pandemic, are they willing to return to shopping in malls and the percentage of folks that said they weren’t going back and shopping that way was, was much higher than you might expect. So malls certainly have their work cut out for Greg. I know you’re, you’re itching to weigh in. I’ll get you an MBK to weigh on the, the amazing shrinking disappearing, uh, Salesforce space,

Greg White (00:44:36):

Two words, service merchandise. Most of the people listening and probably participating in this panel don’t even know what service merchandise is, but that was their model was fulfillment from the store with just a showroom in the front of the store where you tried and selected your bicycle or whatever the product was. And then you purchased it and it either came out on a conveyor or was shipped to you later to your home. So that is the first thing. If you’re, if you’re attempting this, then I would look back at the, at that model and evaluate the success and failures of that model. The model itself was not the failure of the management of service. Merchandise was a failure. The other thing is, and this is such a throwback Leddy because I never ever, this is, this is the thing I want to say. Start with never, ever count best buy out.

Greg White (00:45:28):

Because when I started doing business with best buy in 1996, they were coming out of bankruptcy. They had opened precisely two stores the previous year, and they planned to open 256. The year that, that, that we started working with them. We created $40 billion in inventory reduction for that and CA and capital, not inventory reduction, but in capital for that company, to the extent that we had a lawsuit with their consulting firm at the time over, who actually created the value because the consulting firm had a, we get a portion of whatever we help, we contribute to. So, but, but then showrooming hit them, right? I mean, and that, and a lot happened in the meantime, but then, um, big box stores kind of fell out of favor. Some big box in other industries went away, then shomer showrooming hit them. As people started buying electronics online, they adapted to that, as you said, Letty, and now they’re adapting again, this is a super resilient organization. So, um, you know, I’m not, uh, not the hugest best buy fan. In fact, the story I tell about how I started solving the e-commerce puzzle for retailers, um, is about how my wife was in a best buy store, buying a product for me online in the store when best buy did not have the product in stock at the time, it’s clear that they’ve gotten that message and they’re, they’re rebounding theirs.

Scott Luton (00:46:53):

Greg. I hope, I bet you are a tough person to buy gifts for. Yeah,

Greg White (00:47:01):

I want every year and I guarantee you, my wife and my children can tell you precisely what that is.

Scott Luton (00:47:07):

Well, we’re, we’re happy to have them on. Uh, all right. So for the sake of moving, I’m gonna move right along. We’ll read a couple of comments here and in Canada, you’re going to lead off with our antifragile supply chain. So hang on one second here. I want to add, so BKC is, is tuned in via YouTube, uh, and they say very proactive and successful here in ATL, in, in Atlanta. Her best boss shares leasing with all the, I didn’t know that in store fulfillment sounds like a great value prop agreed, agreed. Uh, Gary mentioned what goes around, comes around the return of service merchandise and Elman’s models. That’s new one for me.

Greg White (00:47:42):

Yeah. Best products too. I believe was another one that did a similar model.

Scott Luton (00:47:47):

Pierre says with best buy, reducing the size of the retail floor. We will see floor inventory go away. Yes. Service merchandise, uh, Pristiq. Great to have you here at one, say a low. Thanks for tuning in via LinkedIn. Jeff says planogrammed inventory on the sales floor does not always merchandising strategy, make best buy, prove this point. Great point there. Jeff AA loves the zooming in feature. Hey, that’s around production AA. Uh, thanks for noticing. I really appreciate that. Um, and then let’s see here. I’ve got one more comment. Uh, one to read here. We’ve got one LinkedIn user that I’m not sure who that is. So CLA uh, Amanda or clay, if you could let me know. They’ve got some great comments here. Uh, and then finally Amanda says, I remember shopping for Christmas gifts for my mom, with my dad at service merchandise, and who would have thunk. I thought you just went through

Greg White (00:48:38):

Catalog and then walked in the store to order and pick it up. I didn’t know. Oh, by the way, catalogs are what they had before the internet, before they were catalogs.

Scott Luton (00:48:51):

So clearly a service merchandise had a ton of fans. Every time we bring that analogy up, Greg, there’s a bunch of comments.

Greg White (00:48:56):

How many people remember it? I mean, we were just kids when it went belly up, but man, if you ever went in the store, I mean, you re you remember it. I remember because I got a bicycle there. One,

Scott Luton (00:49:07):

Uh, let’s move right along, uh, clearly best is turning a lot of heads with that strategy. We’ll have to bring them back home. Maybe even get someone from best buy to talk more about what they’re seeing, but here in store, number five, we’re talking about this notion of creating anti-fragile supply chains. I love that after hearing the word resilient a million times sometimes with nothing behind it, this, this term antifragile supply chains love that. Let’s flip the script here, Mary Kay. I’d love for you to weigh in when you hear that word, what comes to mind? And then Paul Paul and Mary Kay, uh, Paul Luddy. We’ll, we’ll dive in with you, but in K, what are you, what are you here?

Mary Kate Love (00:49:44):

Love this article too. And, um, I, the word that stuck out to me when I was reading this was evolving. And so a lot of times I think we use resilient and it just means get up and go back and do it the same way and just work harder, which is the appropriate response sometimes. But when you think about antifragile, you think about how you’re going to evolve and change what you do, which is really, um, kind of inspiring and aligns a lot with what we call at Coke, which, um, GPS owned by Coke. So we call that principle entrepreneurship. So a few weeks ago, this article also made me think about Coke was named, um, the largest privately held company in the United States, which is really exciting, but my background has been mostly in startups. And so, you know, I thought about how that can be a little bit scary too, but making sure that we have this principled entrepreneurship mindset and we continue to evolve is super important. And then the second piece that I think stuck out to me, and that is also super important to a company like GP and Coke, is that we need to have partnerships with companies like Verisign that, um, do evolve and make us think differently and work differently. So if we can keep the mindset of principle of entrepreneurship and then work with companies that are constantly evolving, like Verisign, I think we’ll be on a good path.

Scott Luton (00:51:04):

That’s an excellent point. Uh, Mary Kay and, and you know, whether it was an earlier episode with you or Paul, or maybe even Daryl, Lou, Greg, we were talking about how a lot of the larger companies are getting more comfortable and, and they’re finding more successful ways of working with more startups, early stage companies. And that’s been a wonderful thing to see here, yours. All right. So Paul and Leddy and Paul, Paul, we’ll start with you, tell us more about this and creating antifragile supply chains and what maybe in particular stood out in this article in your mind.

Paul Noble (00:51:38):

Yeah, it’s something we see all the time. I think you were, you had posted something about it Greg last week and one of your tequila, sunrise, uh, promos with this, uh, aspect of, you know, preparing your supply chain to be agile enough that you don’t open yourself up to fragility. You know, you’re that you’re, you’re not right. You’re prepared enough with a foundation that you can be agile sometimes miss, but learn quickly and adjust quickly is better than being perfectly predictive because that’s, again like trying as our CRM, Jeff Wilson would say is like trying to achieve real peace. So yeah, that’s the biggest thing that sticks out is preparing yourself through technology and looking at problems differently. That’s the key point, you know, this is kind of mind shift a little bit that doesn’t take a project that’s going to last two to three years to achieve it. Cause that’s way, way too slow with how quickly the target moves. Even outside of pandemic from a business.

Scott Luton (00:52:45):

Excellent point, Greg, one thing you’ve touched on a thousand times about folks don’t have the time for that traditional two three-year project when it comes, especially technology transformation and implementation, right?

Paul Noble (00:52:58):

Yeah, that’s right. I mean, first of all, that those even the biggest of players recognize that the, the two to seven to 10 year implementation is going the way of the one we heard about it at Sapphire, right. SAP even is trying to create much, much more concise, uh, implementation models. Yep. And to Paul’s point, I mean, John’s a card, right? He calls it this insane obsession with accuracy to the, of

Greg White (00:53:26):

Agility and responsiveness in the supply chain. And instead of acknowledging and trying to, and trying to adapt when something does go wrong and is unpredictable, we try to predict the unpredictable. And that’s essentially what he’s saying there. And, and I think that is important. It’s important for us to recognize that agility and responsiveness is a key part of the supply chain. Great. Doesn’t mean we’ll always be a disruption. As you know, we’ve heard 10,000 times this year,

Scott Luton (00:53:56):

According to Accenture, once one major disrupt major disruption like the pandemic every 3.7 years, according to some recent research. Okay.

Greg White (00:54:05):

Yeah. I don’t believe that, but we’ll see a lot of that quick. I mean, we’ll never, we will never see this ever again because it wasn’t natural. Right. It was, it was the, even the pandemic didn’t cause this disruption, we caused it to ourselves, right?

Lettie Barrett (00:54:23):

No, no, no. I know. Well we know the link on the pony express, just delivering letters. So that’s

Scott Luton (00:54:33):

To weigh in here, but really quick, a couple of comments, uh, Jeffrey Miller says durable, hardened supply chains. John Perez says build strategic flexibility into your supply chain.

Greg White (00:54:44):

That is a great term, right there. Agreed flexibility, strategic agility. I like that.

Scott Luton (00:54:49):

Antonio says these things all go back to assurance of supply planning and having redundancies to make sure you do not have disruptions to your organization. Great point there. All right. So let me, we’re talking about this article four strategy shifts toward building an antifragile supply chain from, that came to us from supply chain brain. What’s one of your key takeaways.

Lettie Barrett (00:55:11):

Well, I just, I love this anti-fragility concepts to harp on it a little bit more. Um, I really loved what it talked about, um, as far as really not just resisting the disruption or avoiding it, but really to benefit from it. I think that’s really the game changer, um, that that can differentiate yourself in the market. And, uh, I love what it mentioned about, uh, Albert Einstein saying you can’t solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it. And in order to achieve those anti-fragile supply chains, you really have to think about your supply chain differently. And you have to think about the ways that you want to make your supply chain work. And, um, it’s really getting that diversity of perspective and partnering with different suppliers and having those valuable partnerships that really, um, bring that diversity of perspective to think about things differently, um, to help you achieve that

Scott Luton (00:56:02):

Well said so goodness. And what you just shared there Leddy um, really quick, I’ve gotten a couple of texts. Leddy folks are wanting to know what is behind you out your window,

Lettie Barrett (00:56:12):

Where are you at? It’s not even though it kind of looks like, Oh, it doesn’t look like snow. Yeah, no, uh, I’m just in good old Atlanta tech square Midtown where a happening place. Good stuff.

Scott Luton (00:56:24):

All right. So, so much good stuff here. Uh, David says, shoot that messenger.

Greg White (00:56:30):

Yeah. That wasn’t intended for you.

Scott Luton (00:56:34):

I’m only messing with you. [inaudible] maybe I might mispronounce that and sorry if I am agility and responsibility. What about the fact in supply chain and T-square makes a similar comment and I won’t try to weigh in on this if you’d like too much focus on accuracy and or analysis will lead to stagnation and eventually paralysis even as a student that this bears out. So, uh, Greg, I think you were just talking about that sheer that the, the, uh, incredible attention paid to accuracy. I can’t believe, I can’t remember exactly how you put it

Greg White (00:57:06):

Session with accuracy. There we go. Yes. To Scott and he was adamant about that.

Scott Luton (00:57:14):

So we’ll speak to T squared’s point a little bit. What, what point can you pursued that while balancing that, that cliche paralysis by analysis? What’s your quick take there?

Greg White (00:57:25):

W it’s very foundational for me. You have to acknowledge outliers. Really what you can predict is what’s predictable. And I know that sounds, um, that sounds very Mike Tomlin. I want people to do the essential things essentially. Um, but, um, you really, what you can predict is predictable. That’s why you have to prepare with agility for that, which is not predictable or that, which is what we traditionally call in forecasting an outlier, right? If it is unlikely to happen, or it’s an outlier in terms of statistical probability, then you can try to capture that in the forecast, but you also have to provision for that in terms of agility and responsiveness. That’s what successful solutions have always done. Paul,

Scott Luton (00:58:09):

Any, any additional commentary there? No, that’s it

Intro/Outro (00:58:12):

Just the material true. Solid about, love it.

Scott Luton (00:58:17):

Some boxing gloves, the hang in, in the studio with material.

Intro/Outro (00:58:22):

So I was thinking more like cage match. Well, all right, sir, maker Hogan,

Scott Luton (00:58:32):

You too. So we are a couple minutes over our allotted time, but there’s been so much, we’ve been tackling here today and we’ve had so many great comments as well from our audience that always brings it. And by the way, hello, Samson from Nigeria via LinkedIn. Great to have you here with us. Uh, Scott says, I remember doing automated manifests from service merchandises sales spreadsheet orders in Excel.

Greg White (00:58:56):

Okay. So let’s think about how long ago service merchandise went out of business. I think it was the eighties. Was that give you an idea they were using spreadsheets back then. I think it’s time people

Intro/Outro (00:59:09):

Well,

Scott Luton (00:59:10):

So much good stuff. Uh, and by the way, we gotta give a shout out to Fred Tolbert. Who is the, um, Greg, what did you deem? Fred? Fred is a doc of supply

Greg White (00:59:22):

Chain

Scott Luton (00:59:23):

If you want to hot take. And if you will know what is a hooey and supply chain, a reach out to Fred, he’s amazing.

Greg White (00:59:31):

I mean, amazing Southern accent. I love it. It is like watching doc holiday talk, supply chain.

Scott Luton (00:59:37):

He will be your huckleberry, all right around the panel here and make sure folks can connect with Mary Kate and Leddy and Paul, um, such a, I wish we had a couple more hours to dive deeper in some of these things we’ve talked about here today, but Paul, I’ll start with you. How can folks connect with you? Embarrass them.

Paul Noble (00:59:55):

Yeah, so, uh, verisign.com, uh, at Verisign underscore AI and all this, uh, social channels. And then, uh, reach me on email paul.Noble@verisign.com. Look forward to hearing from you all and Letty about you.

Lettie Barrett (01:00:12):

It’s a lady Barrett on LinkedIn. I’m pretty active on there. Uh, and then yeah, like Paul said, all of our social channels for Verisign.

Scott Luton (01:00:21):

Well then I’m might let, y’all get away just that easily because you’ve got a webinar this week. And I think we’ve got Amanda, you may have the link, if you could drop in the comments really quick in a very small acorn nutshell. Leddy Paul, what’s the webinar about?

Lettie Barrett (01:00:36):

Yeah. So we’ll be having a webinar this Wednesday at two o’clock. We would love to see you guys there. We’re going to get, go into just a quick overview about Verisign and what we do with our customers. And we’ll go into a product demo, uh, and really give you guys a hands-on experience about what it feels like to be a customer of hearsay.

Scott Luton (01:00:53):

Outstanding. Really appreciate that buddy,

Paul Noble (01:00:56):

These monthly. So if you can make it, you can always get the recording and, uh, or join us next month. Perfect knowledge in those.

Scott Luton (01:01:04):

Agreed. All right. So Mary, Kate, uh, first off, I’ll get your autograph because, uh, founder of national supply chain day is a title that, uh, is a feat that not many can pull off. So great to have you back is it feels like it’s been forever, but I’d love to catch up with you and hear all the great things you’re doing out in industry. How can folks connect with you?

Lettie Barrett (01:01:24):

Yeah. So, uh, MK love to on Twitter or Mary Kate, that loves fell just like you think it is@gapac.com is my email right

Scott Luton (01:01:34):

Temporarily at LinkedIn. That’s right. Connect on LinkedIn. I think we’ve got, uh, your LinkedIn profile on the show notes along with Letty and Paul, Greg, what a great conversation we’ve had with w we knew what we were in store for today. Um, but standing conversation, huh?

Greg White (01:01:50):

Yeah. I mean, first of all, what great topics, what a great day to be discussing these topics, right? We are rolling with the vaccine and, and to examine what that means for the supply chain, I think is really, really important. And of course, all of this, this is the thing that people need to recognize about supply chain. And that is that even though this huge news happened, and this is probably all, most of the world has their eyes on right now, we still in supply chain, have our eyes on sustainability and packaging and all, all resiliency and antifragility and all of these things, and the changes that continue to evolve in supply chain, regardless of what else is going on.

Scott Luton (01:02:34):

That’s a great call out. Uh, Greg, Ed’s a great call out because, uh, global supply chain don’t stop just because there is a new noble mission and, um, in a massive vaccine that the world is demanding. Everything else has got to keep going. Everything else. I mean, Mary Kate mentioned groceries. I mean, folks are getting groceries via e-commerce or, or just traditional, you know, the Sheldon’s still gotta stay full. It’s a Navy thing. Just, I mean, despite the challenges or as someone famous put up the warts and all right, there’s plenty of opportunity for improvement. The supply chain, the sheer resilience that using that buzzword, the sheer, the sheer resilience that has already baked into global supply chain. In fact, we’ve got stuff at our fingertips around the corner at your, your grocery store. Wow. Uh, supply chains are tackling the vaccine, uh, distribution. Uh, it’s really nothing short of amazing. So, and by the way, Mary Kate send that parking ticket over to supply. And now we’re going to pick that thing up, not a problem, your pier,

Greg White (01:03:33):

But always a pleasure. You’ve expensed that to somebody by now. I will have to tell you about how many tickets I got Letty knows in a various point. It becomes your fault. Yeah, it, it, it was, uh,

Scott Luton (01:03:50):

Greg Bob Bova was tuned in with us here at Beech mobile. Great to have you here. Absolutely. All right. Big show, Bob. That’s right. Nickname. So big. Thanks to Paul Noble, founder and CEO at Verisign Leddy Barrett senior business analyst also with Verisign. A great job love to see, uh, uh, Verisign is on the move and really love to see what you are doing to transform industry. And of course, our dear friend, Mary Kate Leb operations business integration lead from Georgia Pacific and founder of national supply chain day as you’re to have all three of you with us here today, Greg, we’re going to sign off. The swoosh machine is broken this week. We’re going to, we got to put it in the shop. So we’re going to walk one off at once. That’s right, everybody at once,

Greg White (01:04:35):

We didn’t do, we didn’t do our, um, we didn’t do our, uh, survey on the video wave. You’re all in favor of the wave here. Are we not? We can do the wave instead of the swoosh,

Scott Luton (01:04:52):

Just before we’re going to bring that poll back on Thursdays, uh, live stream, uh, really pulse to audience to get our research going like the Verisign team. Uh, but before we sign off, Hey, we’re going to challenge our audience. Like we challenge our team every single day, do good, give forward and be the change that’s needed. And on that note, see you next time

Intro/Outro (01:05:11):

Go Browns.