“Reverse logistics requires about 20% more space and labor when compared to forward logistics. Companies in the supply chain world need to think about that and plan and identify how they are going to take care of those returns.”

– Kevin L. Jackson, Host of Digital Transformers on Supply Chain Now

The Supply Chain Buzz is Supply Chain Now’s regular Monday livestream, held at 12n ET each week. This show focuses on some of the leading stories from global supply chain and global business, always with special guests – the most important of which is the live audience!

Kevin L. Jackson is a globally recognized Thought Leader and the host of the Digital Transformers series on Supply Chain Now. As the special guest on this episode of The Supply Chain Buzz, he brings his knowledge of all things digital and applies it to the challenges being faced by industries, companies, and decision makers today.

In this episode, Kevin jumps in and discusses the latest supply chain news with Supply Chain Now Co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton and a live audience:

· The critical differences between managing forward and reverse logistics, especially in the eCommerce supply chain

· How farmers are using digital technology to increase their visibility into the distribution of agricultural goods

· The latest ASCE ‘report card’ on U.S. infrastructure, including the key takeaways from their exhaustive research

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now. Hey good,

Scott Luton (00:00:32):

Good afternoon. Scott Luton, Greg white, and Kevin L. Jackson with you here today on supply chain. Now, how are we doing Kevin and Greg? Hey, it’s that Equinox right? It’s spring time, you know, um, yes, March 20th is the day of Vernal Equinox. And I have to say I’m a bit surprised cause I knew Vernell as a kid. I never thought I bet they always got his name wrong in school. And the first day of class too, that’s an old Bartles and Jaymes commercials since hard seltzers are so popular right now. Literally I’ve gotten three pitches for hard seltzers from companies seeking investment in the last week there. So yeah, it, it, it reminds me of wine coolers. Kevin, remember the eighties is that when wine coolers were Paul, what’s that? What is Boone’s farm farm. That’s really classy wine.

Scott Luton (00:01:39):

Whenever I stopped somebody drinking Boone’s farm, I thought they lived at the liquor store sitting outside, drinking it only because you get you all back yet. I’m still trying, man. It is hard on you. It is hard on you. Isn’t it. So gentlemen today, uh, as always Mondays at 12 noon Eastern time are, is the supply chain buzz and we’re Greg and I are joined today with host of, well, I mean the list will be 18 pages long if we really properly introduced I’m in the show. But uh, most related he’s host of our digital transformers series, which has been, uh, is launched out of the Gates he’s author of click, the transform and so much more so great to have Kevin you own the buzz with us here today.

Scott Luton (00:02:32):

We are too. So let’s, let’s, let’s get down to work here real quick. We’re going to say a bunch of folks that have already tuned in here momentarily, but I want to knock out a couple of things. We’ve got to pay the bills a little bit. Uh, so tomorrow finally, it’s here. We’ve been promoting this webinar for quite some time. Hundreds of folks have registered to join us Rumi talking to industry 4.0, not that it’s around the corner. It’s been here for years. Uh, we’re going to be getting them from don’t call it a comeback. That’s right from Mike. And to be us, we’re going to be getting, uh, creative applications of industry 4.0, especially in a manufacturing sector, especially in the automotive sector, which is one of Greg’s favorite things to talk about. So looking forward to that tomorrow an hour early, uh, because we’re, we’re also, we’re catering a little bit to not just North American audience, but also the European audience. So we’re going to go live tomorrow, Greg at 11:00 AM Eastern time.

Greg White (00:03:22):

Glad you reminded me.

Scott Luton (00:03:27):

So you can, you can register for this. We still have room. Here’s the link in the show notes. You can join us there. Uh, let’s see. Today, Kevin speaking to you, some, some programming notes, we dropped a great episode, uh, with, at and T business.

Greg White (00:03:42):

Oh yeah. So we had, um, out of Jones on and uh, you know, uh, he talks about, uh, digital acceleration. He’s a, uh, assistant vice president for omni-channel at, uh, 80 and T business. All of the, uh, small and medium sized businesses, 90 over 99% of all businesses in the United States, uh, meet that category. And he’s talking about how companies mean to actually rebound from that horrible year we had last year. And, um, he’s talking about how technology enables digital acceleration and that’s, and it’s, it’s, it’s a fascinating, I’m thinking. I loved it so much. Thinking about changing the name of the show, Mr. Jones,

Scott Luton (00:04:38):

That’s the song somewhere, right. So Greg, uh, Kevin just mentioned that using technology to accelerate growth and, and accelerating, changing, and, uh, and, and, and to go meet the customers and meet their demands these days, any quick commentary on that?

Greg White (00:04:53):

Well, I mean, I think that’s something that, you know, we’ve been talking about since this seismic societal disruption started and, you know, I think the general theme, we have stated as if you built your house on sand and you have somehow survived the flood of that year, which I noticed Kevin also refuses to name that year. That happened prior to 2021. And you somehow managed to survive that flood. Don’t be foolish enough to do that again. So yeah, I mean, I think companies have to be thinking about this and they clearly are. I can tell you that there are a lot of solution providers out there thinking about it. I hear from literally three a day. And, uh, and there are a lot of companies seeking to solve these problems. As we know, when we talk to so many of the chief supply chain and chief procurement officers out there,

Scott Luton (00:05:43):

Hmm, well said lots of interests. Uh, and it was a pleasure to sit down with Kevin and Alex on this episode and see today in, in the, this week in business history channel part of supply chain programming, we talked about Stuckey’s and their magical peak can log roll. Uh, Stuckey has been around for 80 years and, and the, uh, anniversary this week was, it was a birthday of their founder, Ws Stuckey. Uh, they grew to 350 locations by the seventies and then, uh, had a corporate, they sold out to a corporate company. And unfortunately the company was not one that really, uh, that company was acquired. And then that company was acquired before we knew it. The core of the business that really served these travelers was really had been ignored and they, um, they get crashed a bit. Well now Stephanie Stuckey, the granddaughter of the founder has repurchased the organization and she is as CA uh, Greg, you and Kevin, both notes.

Scott Luton (00:06:42):

We’ve had her here, here on the bus there on the comeback trail. And so it was really neat to dive into that story. And Greg and Kevin, there’s two stories of focused on Stuckey’s, but also the second one was what, just, what is the connection between liquid paper, the monkeys and MTV. So tune in this week to learn a lot more. All right. Here’s a little surprise. So we got a snapshot this morning, as a matter of fact, and Peter bowler, I think you’re here with us already. So this was neat. Uh, we were just talking about, uh, cars last week. Greg is our car automotive officiant auto. If I said that word, right. Um, and it will go with it. Peter [inaudible] one of our favorite community members here always chimes in with, with great expertise. He sent us a picture of him and his friends, including his significant other driving in his 2012, 3.7 liter 310 horsepower Ford Mustang convertible. You can just see it on the far end there. And the one in the bottom left-hand corner is not his car, but I Googled based on the specs he shared, just so y’all can get a closer look. Greg can probably, he probably has the engineering specs for this vehicle. I imagine even though his favorite, Greg is a 1967 Ford Mustang. Yes.

Greg White (00:08:09):

Shelby GT 500. So interesting because Peter’s got a little nod to Shelby American with those two stripes on the driver’s side fender, that is a trait of a Shelby American and a couple of their drivers when they drove cobras, Shelly cobras,

Scott Luton (00:08:27):

While racing, I want you to Greg, we need to do automotive focus podcast with the one and only Greg white. It could do that in your sleep, but we’ll save that for another day. But in the meantime, more importantly, Hey, talk to folks as you want from these live streams, we’d love to give us some snapshots of how you’re kind of unplugging and, and, um, you know, stepping back from all the noise and, and do th do it this way, drop it in our LinkedIn group insider’s group, uh, community, or, um, we’re talking about not just yet, we’re talking about maybe creating a Slack channel for our community members that can jump in and, and kind of further their relationships and share information and whatnot. So, but the easy one right now is join our LinkedIn insiders group and share that way. But this is really cool.

Greg White (00:09:13):

Say now, insiders. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:09:15):

Thank you, Peter. And thank you for sharing as well. Okay. So for a second here, before we jump into, we’ve got four stories. I think we’re going to, we’re going to jump into Greg and Kevin before we do want to say hello to a few folks, but give us one, Greg, we’ll start with you. Give us one highlight from the weekend and Greg, you don’t have to share what, what may be folks tune in last Thursday?

Greg White (00:09:43):

Uh, one highlight from the weekend. I got to spend it with, uh, all of my daughters and all of their respective, significant, significant others, including one we hope is on the comeback trail. So our youngest had, well, there may be a, uh, what do you call that reconciliation? Yes. And I can tell you that the other two significant others are, um, they’re feared because he was number one, but before he, before the split, so there’s a threat. And number one right now, now, you know what I’ll tell you. One of the other things is of course, March madness, it was a tragic, tragic end for Wichita state. They were pathetically unprepared and I’ll, um, I mean, there’s no other way to say it and probably overlook this team. Um, but what an incredible weekend, man, some amazing oral Roberts beat two amazing basketball teams this weekend, just basketball, basketball, basketball, basketball.

Scott Luton (00:10:49):

What was that? It was that prayer tower they have on that campus that clearly gave them the edge,

Greg White (00:10:55):

Been there as a matter of fact, which I’ll state plays or Roberts quite a bit because they’re right there in Oklahoma. So, yeah. Awesome.

Scott Luton (00:11:02):

Uh, well Greg wonderful weekend, and I know that just, uh, just scrapes the tip of the iceberg, but come back, Philly’s going to be all right.

Greg White (00:11:09):

I am allowed to announce

Scott Luton (00:11:13):

That’s a Kevin, give us some good news. What was, what was one of your favorite things were the weekend?

Greg White (00:11:17):

So to be honest, over the weekend, the weekend was sort of a binge watch weekend. For me. I feel better knowing that you have, you binge watch everything you’ve got on your plate, sitting in front of a Netflix all weekend. That’s probably a big mistake because like this week, this Thursday, we’re doing a, a national virtual expo with my online B2B business connect, right coast to coast coast, um, online

Kevin L. Jackson (00:11:54):

And go on a webinar on Thursday also about, uh, is your company ready to take Bitcoin? Um, and that’s Bitcoin went up to 60 K wow. One Bitcoin where 60,000. Uh, so I’m pulled back a little bit, but you know, um, business really needs to be ready for this transition to, um, digital. Okay. It’s a big thing.

Scott Luton (00:12:22):

Um, uh, clay and Amanda, if we can drop the link to the event source connect event in the comments, that’d be wonderful. We should grab that ahead of time. It’s my, my bad there. Kevin, I’ve been, we’ve been promoting that a little bit across social, but sounds like a great, great opportunity for folks to get up to speed on

Kevin L. Jackson (00:12:39):

Free registration. It’s about over 2000 people registered already

Scott Luton (00:12:42):

Outstanding, outstanding. So let’s drop that link. Um, and moving right along, let’s say hello to a few folks here. So of course Peter is with us. He is the, the, uh, the owner, the happy owner of that, uh, very fast Mustang we shared a little while ago. And clearly it looks like, um, whether it might be nice up in Montreal, Jeffrey Miller, one of the smartest folks we know Greg and Kevin. Uh, in fact, I think the three of y’all could really, uh, Greg, Kevin and Jeffrey, I think y’all could, uh, solve world hunger and peace in the middle East and everything else. We can get three of y’all together sometime, but hope this finds you well, Jeffrey Simon loved Simon sense of humor. Great to have you here via LinkedIn, Catherine McCleary, talk about a digital transformer and a digital content factory. Council’s got a lot of great stuff over at the owner group, right, Greg?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:13:35):

Yeah. And she’s going to need, she’s going to need some advanced technology to break down the chiefs roster because we are making a ton of roster moves in the off season. So whatever you can do there to help Casey make, make sense of this new roster, I would sure appreciate it.

Scott Luton (00:13:51):

Love it. We’ll break it down. Maybe on the supply chain geeks talk sports episode, Kevin from Kenya Nairobi. Great. Great to have you here via LinkedIn. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. T-square is with us who holds down the Fort on YouTube? We S we actually saw, think the gentlemen behind T squared last week. Uh Seagram’s and Sundance anyone.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:14:14):

Okay.

Scott Luton (00:14:16):

Uh, Dr. Rhonda bomb. Pinza Zimmerman is with us. Great to see you here, Rhonda Sheldon Rose via LinkedIn Gary Smith. Gorav if I said that correctly, who, if I, if I did not apologize, welcome from India. Uh, let’s see. Jeff Talbot is with us, uh, from San Francisco early, uh, kind of early this morning, and finally, a good morning from Wichita state shocker land. And there’s lots of references. There’s lots of references to, uh, all the upsets. Okay. So I could, I know we couldn’t get to everybody. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to this episode of the supply chain butts. So Greg and Kevin, are you all ready to dive in?

Greg White (00:15:01):

Let’s do it.

Scott Luton (00:15:02):

I want to, uh, sort of press the right button. So this was kind of neat. So this is the first store we’re going to tackle briefly here today. We’re talking trade, we’ve got a new us trade representative in Katherine, Catherine, Tom, and a couple of observations. I’ll tell you in the article like this, this was one of the deep dives from supply chain dive and, and, you know, if you want to really go to hard hitting news and analysis, where they really, um, they do a great job getting to the root of the story. You can check out supply chain dye, which is one of probably Greg, but 20 different, uh, aspects of the industry dive.

Greg White (00:15:38):

None of them. Yeah. Um, relevant to our industry are, uh, usually retail dive, uh, supply chain dive, and, um, like grocery dive talks a lot about, or food industry dive or something like that talks a lot about supply chain, obviously, because that’s where the profit is made in the food industry

Scott Luton (00:16:00):

Agreed. And their transportation dive just celebrated their one year anniversary.

Greg White (00:16:04):

Sorry about that pretty well.

Scott Luton (00:16:07):

Um, this is a deep dive article. Basha folly. Kapadia, we’ve covered here before very talented writer, uh, all about this new us trade representative and a couple of observations about trade policy. We might can expect some of these won’t be surprises. Number one, expect more multilateralism. I think we all expect that, uh, they don’t see any expectation of the full removal, the full removal of section three Oh one tariffs in the short term, but exclusions more exclusions is it seems to be a priority. Uh, Catherine Tai has, and then analysts say the Biden administration appears to be much more focused on P on foreign policy in particular, rather than trade policy. So the big difference, uh, between the two recent, uh, white house, uh, occupants. So we’ll see, we’ll see how that goes. I like this quote from the article, uh, we’ve talked about this extensively, but, uh, Shefali really puts it well, quote, the backdrop of COVID-19 puts trade in a different lens for policymakers that pandemic shed light on the United States over reliance on foreign nations for critical goods, such as pharmaceuticals and personal protective equipment. It made clear that trade policy and supply chain risk management are intertwined in quote. So Greg, let’s go with you first, a couple of thoughts on, um, on trade and, and maybe how the new administration is going to tackle this, especially with China.

Greg White (00:17:29):

Well, I think we’re good. I, it would be impossible to be less lenient with China than we are today. I can’t tell you, frankly, I’m not enough of a trade expert to know that whether that is prudent or not, uh, if anything, if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is that to put it mildly, China is not our friend, um, and that they

Kevin L. Jackson (00:17:50):

Will use trade as, as a hammer against us. So, um, hopefully these are, uh, prudent and not, uh, what should I say? Or I wasn’t gonna say rash. I was going to say more like a window dressing, right? Uh, not for optics. We’ve seen a lot of moves in this new administration. Some of which are very prudent, some of which are optics, some of which are, um, uh, re presentation of the prior administrations policies, some of which exists in a recent, the recent executive order on supply chain. So I’m just hopeful that there is substance here and that it’s, as you said, prudent and well thought out.

Scott Luton (00:18:37):

Yeah. Greg, I’m sorry, Kevin.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:18:40):

Well, um, I was looking at a, uh, a show, uh, before I started binge-watching about our way that we’re talking about how trade was being reset and a new administration. And it was, it was really highlighted when the secretary of state Anthony Blinken, uh, met with the Chinese has kind of Chinese counterpart up in Anchorage, Alaska. And it’s kind of interesting. They, they called it quote an undiplomatic war of words between the two representatives where Ben can said that China’s actions would re or could result in far more violent world while a Beijing accused the United States of mistreating black Americans. I mean, I’m sitting right there looking at it. It’s like, wow, this is a, this is, this is how the, uh, the top diplomats to countries that are supposed to be trading partners. Not really diplomatic, no, not at all. So, um, you know, you don’t know how much of it is real, probably very literal or how much of it is probably all. A lot of it was still interesting.

Scott Luton (00:20:02):

Uh, we’re going to build a trade show soon, Greg rant. I know that, uh, Nadia, Theodore, which is one of Canada’s leading trade leaders here in the States, she since moved into private sector would love to have her back. And then there’s a gentleman that I can’t remember his name right this second, but he came and keynoted at the Georgia logistics summit and the guy just, yeah, maybe. So the two of them would be two dynamos off the TFS show. Uh, but really quick, a couple of comments here, as Leah says, I hope that new trade chief speaks Chinese and she does, she speaks Mandarin, uh, Katherine Thai and she come and there was a lot of great compliments about her in the article. Uh, Aaron completely agrees with Greg about China and as Aaliyah, hopefully I’m not cutting you off too bad there. Kevin reading the art of war can help one better understand chain is trade tactics and motives great points there as Aliyah.

Scott Luton (00:20:56):

Okay. So a lot more to come a lot more to come. One last comment about this in the article, it talked about how for better or for worse, and there’s plenty of, of well-respected and educated opinions there, but it talked about how the Trump administration would move so fast Greg, of to your point, and would, would make decisions and policy like overnight and what other administrations would take two years and nuance communication. They kind of put in place. So again, for better or for worse, we’ll see how this works out in this very unique relationship between the us and China.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:21:29):

Well, I think it’s really important to understand your trading partners and honor, and respect are very important in, in all Asian cultures. Um, and we didn’t show any of that. I mean, regardless of, of what you think about, we didn’t show any of that honor or respect or not, I’m sure that hindered the relationships pretty substantially.

Scott Luton (00:21:52):

Yeah. Great point. Okay. Uh, Greg, God, I can’t get y’all’s names right now. I want to combine it.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:21:56):

Yeah. I can see why you’d confuse us binge watching this weekend. Also, Kevin, you had one

Scott Luton (00:22:05):

Minute with an add on Greg’s comment there.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:22:08):

No, it’s my twin. That’s all.

Scott Luton (00:22:13):

All right. Uh, well, let’s get into reverse logistics. One of our favorite topics around here, uh, we’ve got our upcoming reverse logistics series, uh, a week from actually this coming Friday featuring, uh, uh, senior executive in supply chain from best boss or tune in for that this Friday. But Kevin, let’s talk about this story here. Talking about reverse logistics. Hmm.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:22:37):

And last mile, right? Absolutely. You know, um, the online commerce is just huge, right? And, uh, the digital commerce three 60 showed, uh, it, it was a study done and that they said that consumers spent $861 billion online would retail is in 2020. That was up 44% from 2019. Not, you know, not that something unusual happened in 2020. They kept everybody at home on shopping from Amazon. Right. But Amazon hit almost 40% year over year growth. Um, and in the holiday season, uh, overall shopping jumped 45%. So companies are really reevaluating their supply chain operations for delivering these products, you know, understandably right. Um, try to keep pace on arise of demand, but there’s really a flip side of that because it’s, it’s, it’s a lot easier to buy. It’s also a lot easier to return, right? So there’s been a huge increase in e-commerce returns and you may not really understand it, so appreciate this, but a million dollars in return can actually drop profit by over $500,000.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:24:14):

So returns really hurt profit. So many merchandisers, many retailers basically say, don’t return it, just keep it because the cost of returning exceeds the value of the, of the sale, right. But many companies really haven’t thought about the importance of reverse logistics that they don’t have a plan in place, but that’s really becoming critical as online sales, no reverse logistics supply requires about 20% more space and labor when compared to forward logistics. So you really need that, you know, companies in the supply chain world, think about that and plan and identify how to take care of those with those returns.

Scott Luton (00:25:17):

Well said. All right. So Greg, how far we can’t be too far away from when you signal to a re retailer that you want to return something they’re going to respond by asking you, if you could check with your neighbors to see if they would like it.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:25:35):

Uh, you know, it’s funny because we talked about returns a bit in our household this weekend. Um, and I watched a return process just before we got on the show, when my middle daughter, Delaney was, um, returning something to, I think, Lulu lemon or somebody like that. So I inquired it, you know, how the process worked and all that sort of thing for that particular retail. It was really, really interesting. And it’s funny because we talk about a lot of the solutions that are available right in this day and age. I mean, just to put some perspective, I mean, the percentages are important, but I think it’s important to recognize that retail sales and e-commerce went up from $600 million in 2019. So almost $900 million this year. So, uh, it, uh, 900 billion. I’m sorry, did I say million or 1 billion? So I mean, it, it is a significant leap in dollars, right? And, and what I’m seeing in the investment world so much is this incredible, incredible, um, just addition,

Greg White (00:26:44):

Sorry, Rhonda, Rhonda talked about, she sent me a note on LinkedIn, sorry. I have to, I have to air this for, she sent me a note on LinkedIn and said, you always seem so thoughtful and well-prepared, and, and you measure your words very carefully and I’ve never been able to say a word ever since she sent that to me, I keep thinking about, am I really that measured? There there’s a lot of technology companies, particularly in Europe because they have laws supporting this in the States. We are well behind Europe because of that. But there is the existing reverse logistics space that Kevin talks about. And I was retailer, um, in an industry, the automotive industry, where we had a ton of returns. Some we expected things called cords, where you buy a starter, you turn in your old starter, we haven’t remanufactured. And, and other returns that happened.

Greg White (00:27:34):

And that was when we were selling 100% from stores. And it is incredibly inefficient. There are so many things to consider. Is, is the product still good? Is the product, what you sold them? Or did they just put something else back in the box? Is the box any good? Right? Does the product need to be quality tested or refurbed, rehabbed, liquidated, whatever, all of those things create all those complications that Kevin is talking about. And, but there are companies now who are really addressing this problem, um, before, or as the goods get back. But Scott, even to your point, how to disposition the good, if you intend to return it. Um, some companies are exploring how to put goods that are sold strictly online into small businesses and good Lord don’t. We know that small businesses need a chance these days. Imagine if that, that ridiculous looking Louis Vuitton, sorry, for any Louis Vuitton fans, that ridiculous looking Louis Vuitton bag that you bought.

Greg White (00:28:36):

Imagine if you could just take it to a local store that sells clothes and they could sell it rather than ship it back. Right. And, and all kinds of solutions like that. So, uh, it’s definitely in the forefront of, of companies’ minds of technologists, minds of investors minds, we’re going to see billions flow in, in investment flow, into the reverse logistics market over the next next few years. I agree something that I was surprised with, you know, all everyone is transitioning to online and the big malls, these anchor stores and malls are becoming empty, right? The mall is becoming empty well, full reverse logistics. The, it doesn’t require the same level of functionality and sophistication as traditional distribution centers. So now they’re converting abandoned mall, anchor space into basic warehouse facilities for helping e-commerce returns. So real mall. And now I’m going to be a return center for e-commerce Hey,

Scott Luton (00:29:42):

Uh, whatever it takes to reuse that property. That cause the, as we’ve talked about for Greg, the malls are facing massive. They have been facing. And now on top of the further complicated by pandemics and, and survey after survey that says so many consumers are not going to return to mall. So I love to see that utilize different ways. Um, I want to share a couple of things. And by the way, Greg, as you were talking about stores, well maybe both of we’re talking about stores for returns. I had completely forgotten about back in the eighties when I was growing up a store called bums. And I don’t know if it was local to the Augusta area, uh, Aiken, sack land area, or if it was national, what have you, but they would offer high-end clothing that I couldn’t afford when I was growing up, uh, that had holes or stains or something that lightly used stuff. And, but in person, and I think there’s some different plays with some chains right now, but they don’t, I don’t think they offer maybe stuff as maybe beat up as this place did not do that. I haven’t bought clothes in 12 years, Greg. I wouldn’t, I would not know my friend, um,

Greg White (00:30:50):

You about yourself, the good old fashioned way. That’s right. But Hey, uh,

Scott Luton (00:30:56):

Sure. We got a ton of comments around this, this, um, really the first two topics. And then I want to start by saying this from David, because clearly LinkedIn is having some issues recently.

Greg White (00:31:06):

It is I’m, I’m watching it over here. And I S I notice a lot of people are watching this from YouTube today. So maybe we can drop the links in for some of these other channels. So folks can go to a technology company. That’s got their stuff together,

Scott Luton (00:31:21):

Uh, Dave, and great to see you. And I agree with you. LinkedIn’s got to get it figured out, but going back more to the reverse logistics, Gary says their returns process will be the undoing of many new e-tailers. Uh, Rhonda talking about our compliment to Greg. She really,

Greg White (00:31:36):

I meant that it was like, I knew she meant it as a compliment. You know, how you’re sort of, um, unaware of something. And then you become aware of it. And it’s impossible to do what was the, there was a second baseman for the Yankees who could not throw to first. Steve asked her no book. Nope. Not block Chuck Noblock. Yes, yes.

Scott Luton (00:31:57):

Formerly with the twins, he was with the twins when they, they beat the Braves in 91, I believe, but that’s a great call-out Greg. Very nice, man.

Greg White (00:32:04):

It’s better. Yeah. It’s better to remain unconscious in your competence.

Scott Luton (00:32:09):

AA says reverse logistics is going to reshape the industry 4.0, quite significantly. T squared, great CT square for logistics. Shouldn’t be on the pedestal for show. I agree. Uh, we’re going to try to fit this one in this might be a little bit, well, I’m, I’m a paraphrase this a bit, so it won’t cut off Kevin there Serana was listening to Rick roll podcast this weekend. He’s not in the supply chain world. And he referenced e-commerce trends in the fitness and wellness world, which Ron is very active. Uh, if you follow her on social ton of hiking and stuff, uh, and about how that’s changed shopping habits. So Rhonda was thinking about all the ways you’ve talked about this here at supply chain. Now he was concerned, Rick, well, Rick roll try. Say that five times fast. He was concerned about waste and how the industry is addressing this. Also something you all do an amazing job talking about and the need to address this issue. Rhonda, I didn’t realize I was a big old compliment there, but, um, thank you for sharing, you know, reverse logistics and waste and returns, huge opportunities that we’re all speaking to one that to really continue to serve the e-commerce, uh, demand, no end in sight. Uh, we’re going to have to get much, much better about as practitioners and organizations and leaders.

Greg White (00:33:24):

Yeah. I was just going to say, Scott, I can’t tell you how much guilt. I feel every time I put out the trash on sand on Sunday night with all of the cardboard boxes that we have, because of all the e-comm shopping that we’re doing, we have a, we have a big, uh, been the same size as our trapping for, um, for recycling. Right. But, you know, for some reason, I don’t know that I know, I don’t feel like I know that that stuff is getting recycled or recycled properly. And, and at the same time, I think isn’t there a better way. And I was reading an article. See, I think forward logistics should be on the pedestal in, in this way, in regard to, um, returns, we need to think more about preventing returns or preventing waste, right. Or preventing, I mean there’s two months at the packaging. It’s yes. Yeah. That’s exactly what I was thinking. Right. The box is too big. So it’s full of other stuff that gets thrown away as well. Right. But I saw someone who was talking about the automation of packaging last week, and imagine a scenario where your Bo your shipment gets a box built for it. That is precisely the size of that order, right. With just enough packaging to make it safe and secure. And, and then the box shipped. That’s a possibility. We’re not that far from that.

Scott Luton (00:34:50):

Imagine a scenario, Greg. All right. Ton of comments here. We can’t get to all of them. I want to share. Um, let’s see. I’m sure this is from Gary. Cause he breaks out something we can all relate to. They get old JC penny catalog. So, uh, he says true. When I was at JC penny catalog in the early eighties, we knew items would come back and had a pretty good returns policy. New e-tailers miss this entirely to their detriment.

Greg White (00:35:19):

There are technologies addressing that. Gary have faith. They just need to be a bit more, um, universally adopted, right? Because Amazon doesn’t really care that much about that for their sellers. Right.

Scott Luton (00:35:33):

Uh, one final common here. Uh, and we’re gonna move to Kevin. You got another story about farmer from, from returns to farm.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:35:40):

Yeah. Paula

Scott Luton (00:35:43):

Policy finds you well in the Midwest central part of the country. We sold refurb devices to our supplier, but sometimes they failed cosmetic or functional testing and needed to be returned for reimbursement, reverse logistics,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:36:00):

The circular it’s coming back. All right.

Scott Luton (00:36:05):

A lot of good stuff here. Uh, Kevin, I appreciate you sharing the Forbes article that, uh, chock full of, of, uh, POV and, and statistics and always reverse logistics and returns always gets the conversation going. So are we ready? Kevin final word before we move on to, to, uh,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:36:22):

Gonna go to farmers. All right. So tell us about what’s going on with farmer connect. It looks

Scott Luton (00:36:30):

Like the dude’s good things and lands into funding.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:36:33):

Well, yeah, absolutely. So farmer connect, it really is focused on helping technology improve the distribution and visibility of distribution of agricultural goods. Um, but one of the, one of the biggest components of the farmer connect, um, motto is actually a good old coffee. And they’ve actually to cure like non million dollars in series a investment, uh, because their vision is the quote humanize consumption through technology, which is kind of weird, right. You know, but what they’re really focused on is enabling traceable, sustainable and efficient agricultural supply chains. So they want to directly connect the farmers to the consumers and everyone in between. So that they’re really doing what they’re, what their name says. And, um, the small holders of, and farmers really want to connect digitally to the agricultural supply chain. And they’re leveraging blockchain technology to do that in order to ensure traceability and validation.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:37:58):

And the reason this is important with respect to the money is because there is a huge demand for traceability when it comes to what’s called ESG, which is environmental, social, and corporate governance investing as well as SDG investing. And that stands for sustainable development goals. So they are actually getting these huge amounts of investment in money because they are enabling this traceability. They’re reducing the carbon footprint tracking and they are automating tasks, reducing, reducing the cost. So this is, this is critical. We we’re just talking about, you know, returns. Well, this is really reducing the environmental impact of us eating out food every day. So I think this is important and they also have this, uh, thank mind farmer app where you, the consumer can trace the origin of the cereal in the morning or their burger that they’re eating and trace the origins and the quality of the commodity. And they can even financially support the farmer by giving, uh, you know, a donation and who to the farmer who actually grew the raw goods. So that visibility and seeing what you eat,

Scott Luton (00:39:35):

That any, any, um, any plans for, uh, tie ins to farmers only.com any word on that yet? Kevin?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:39:43):

Yeah. Every time I seen him,

Scott Luton (00:39:52):

Greg I’m with you, man. Hey, so Greg weigh in here. I mean, you’re, you’re our investment guru. I mean, how do you, how does your brain,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:40:00):

Kevin Sharon? Well, I mean, I see companies like this every day and Scott, what I think is really interesting is how this ties into some of the companies we talk about on logistics with purpose, right? Thrive farmers, where they’re trying to do right by the farmers, particularly in the coffee industry, as you both know where they are extraordinarily disadvantaged and extraordinarily taking advantage of, um, they’re making sure that the farmers get their fair share. This is another application that allows you to verify whether it’s fish or meat or vegetables or whatever who caught it, cut it or, or, or grew it and, and the conditions under which it was grown and shipped and, and, you know, placed in a grocery and all those sorts of things and connecting all of that. So there’s some accountability. I think this has the strong possibility to address a ton of things. Obviously, sustainability, fair trade, right? You know, you guys know how I feel about fair trade and human rights. Let’s call it what it is, slavery and things like that. So, uh, you know, the ability to, for the consumer to hold their, their suppliers, their brands accountable is a really powerful, and it, it will allow us to finally do what we say we will do and rarely do. What is it? 40% of consumers say, they’ll choose suppliers based on their ESG and only

Scott Luton (00:41:34):

10% actually do. So this will allow us some visibility to do those sorts of things. And also, I mean, it will help farmers reach the market more efficiently at which, you know, things keep going the way they are. The only farmer we’re going to have in America is bill Gates. Who’s buying up the most of the farm land in America. So I’m sure this will help bill somehow. And gosh, who needs it more than either. Let’s share a couple of comments here from our audience and community members. Erin is awesome. Anything to help our farmers is great. Kind of echoes some of the things that Kevin has, Greg has shared. Ron agrees pretty cool, Gary, by the way, Gary, uh, Greg has his palette is not, it’s not been lost, not been removed it’s right over his shoulder pallet, check-in Jerry Smith. So Gary says, hopefully this will also reduce food waste in the supply chain, which is as high as 30 to 40% great call out there, Gary food place.

Scott Luton (00:42:34):

It’s such a huge challenge. Um, that’s a whole nother level of the supply chain that we need to address. And we’ve talked to some companies who are doing that as well. Also a great cause. Yes. Uh, don’t, don’t be good. Be gooder as Greg’s line there. Um, Gladstone, welcome to the live stream. I think this is the first time you’ve joined us here. Uh, he says the establishment of the visibility into the distribution of farm products through traceability and sustainability of the commodities to improve quality is the way to go. Great point there. Gladstone Simon says we need standardized cross-industry measures of ethical, sustainable, moral supply chain, uh, being ACE to F being fail, a being ACE being fair. I got ya. Sorry, Simon. It’s Monday. My brain’s moving slope. Watch your lips.

Speaker 5 (00:43:30):

Bodily

Scott Luton (00:43:31):

1. I wonder can the blockchain Tracey ingredient the burger or hot dog? If so, how has this traceability affect sales?

Speaker 5 (00:43:41):

Really

Scott Luton (00:43:42):

Good point. If people knew what went into hotdogs and baloney, they would never eat them again. Sausage. What about that? Impossible meat Eating that stuff. I mean, it feels like it’s mostly salt. I swell up like a balloon when I eat that stuff. A couple more comments here. Big show Bob Bova is with us. He’s got a friend in the cardboard box business. The cost of cardboard has skyrocketed and own allocation. So please keep recycling Sylvia. Sylvia in Charleston agreed more quality, less returns. I just bought a Redland cotton duvet, Devin. Okay. Sorry.

Speaker 5 (00:44:27):

In other words, that’s how I was saying Georgia. Right?

Scott Luton (00:44:37):

Uh, Sylvia, you can use big words with me.

Speaker 5 (00:44:39):

Come on. Now,

Scott Luton (00:44:44):

A hundred percent cotton made in Alabama came in a letter size envelope with no wasted packaging. I love those kinds of stories. We waste so much on packaging. Uh, and then Gary says, uh, two things you never want to see made sausage and legislation.

Speaker 5 (00:45:04):

Right? Absolutely.

Scott Luton (00:45:06):

We, um, so, so great story here. A lot, a lot of great, um, uh, love, reverse logistics, Kevin, and of course farming. So two great stories. Appreciate your bringing it to the buzz here today. We are going to move on our final story if it’s okay. Here. Any final comment, Kevin, before we move forward on the farmers, keep your eye on that industry. So I work with a, I work with a, um, an incubator in Wichita, Kansas called Groover labs, and obviously ag tech is big in the Midwest. Uh, see a lot of companies coming through, uh, you know, organizations like that. We’ve got the perfect spokesperson. His first name is Bo Greg. Again, we have the line him up for Groover labs.

Speaker 5 (00:45:55):

It’d be a home run. That’s

Scott Luton (00:45:58):

Right. All right. So let’s move to our final story here today. This is, this is neat. So, um, Chris Barnes and I were out in we’re up in Chicago a couple years back, and we were at a, a trade show with the APX organization, which is now ASC, M what next door to that gathering where we, where we did a remote remote broadcast, by the way, one of our first ones was the association. Let me get this right. It was the association for, uh, American society, sorry, American society of civil engineers. And they had a big gathering and they had focused a gathering. One of the things they focused on was this infrastructure report. They come out with every three or four years, and that’s when it first hit my radar. I think we had a D minus was our infrastructure grade back then three or four years ago.

Scott Luton (00:46:48):

Well, it’s report card time again. And yes, your parents are going to have to sign this world and the sign. This was not pretty for us infrastructure, but a little bit good news here. So again, the a S C E has released its latest report card on our infrastructure. Uh, and C Monas is this year is great. So, so we’ve gotten a little bit better. In fact, it’s the first time in 20 years, that has not been in the D range, either Dina, D minus D D or D plus. So here’s three key trends. There’s a ton of information. It’s very exhaustive research off, have to go to, uh, ASC E’s website to get the whole thing. I looked at the, uh, reviewed the executive summary this morning. And three key. I really want to highlight from all the research. Number one, maintenance backlogs are still a huge issue, but asset management best practices are helping to prioritize those maintenance activities.

Scott Luton (00:47:41):

That’s a great thing, you know, cause if, if you’ve got limited resources, limited funding and limited help and experts to, to, to fix stuff you want to, you want to prioritize it, those resources for sure, state and local governments. Number two, have made progress, get this at least 25 major cities and States now have chief resilience officers see our new, new, new version of CRS. Federal funding in particular has been increased for ports, drinking water and inland waterways, but finally, the three big key, um, one of the final, big takeaways from the research, there’s still a huge data gap for various aspects of our national infrastructure, especially school facilities and levies. There’s some 10,000 miles of levees where there’s little to no data in terms of, of their wellbeing and, and soundness. So real interesting. Uh, they take a very holistic approach and evaluate the infrastructure. Y’all can check that out. Maybe we can, we can drop the link in the comments for everybody to consume as a ton of information, but, um, let’s start with you, Greg, and any, any, uh, we’ve talked about infrastructure quite a bit here today. Backbone of, of supply chains, how stuff moves, uh, in initial thoughts on your end strangely,

Greg White (00:49:00):

I saw a report on the Detroit dam, which is strangely in Oregon, just above Salem. And the army Corps of engineers is lowering the water level in the Lake from now until April, because, um, they’ve determined that if the Gates are such that if an earthquake were to hit a certain magnitude, that the Gates would crumble and down comes the whole dam and, and Barry Salem, Oregon, which is the capital city of Oregon in case you didn’t know that I had forgotten it. Um, and, and then, you know, um, I constantly think about interest or AACE is the American society of civil engineers. So these folks should know they are the ones responsible for maintaining this infrastructure. And this is a way that they can hold governments accountable, frankly, without losing their jobs. Because sometimes infrastructure issues are ignored by government entities while they spend money on other things it’s not visible, but all those cracking concrete underneath the bridge that you’re robbing or the top you can’t see. Well, when I moved, when I moved to Atlanta in 1995, uh, should have said just over two decades ago, um, Atlanta was being five, five, $12

Kevin L. Jackson (00:50:28):

A day for dumping untreated waste into the Chattahoochee river. Wow. Um, hundred millions, hundreds of thousands, a lot of gallons a day. Um, and I presume that they have feared that because on the way to our studio, which I haven’t driven to in a while, but on the way to our studio, I have to cross the bridge over the Chattahoochee where that plant exists. And let’s just say, the water looks a little bit clearer. So, um, you know, the, these are things where cities and municipalities and counties and States have to be held accountable because the, you know, a lot of the work is not the federal governments, the federal government might provide the fundings for interstate highways for instance, but the municipality is responsible for repairs and upgrades in side their limits. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:51:24):

Yeah. And, and in all of these different levels, you’ve got different dynamics and politics and unfortunately waste. Um, but at least we’ve got a little good news in terms of how that third party, the ASC looks at it. Kevin. Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:51:36):

That grade is up. So, you know, I feel a little bit like Tommy boy, they don’t like to give a lot of C minuses, but Kevin, any, any thoughts on your end? Well, you know, infrastructure, uh, has really been crumbling across the entire United States, uh, bridges, um, cuddles. And there has been no money around locally. And then, uh, previous administrations had really, you know, right state and local when it comes to budget, uh, and it’s just gotten worse. And then, uh, you know, last year that will remain named, it took a lot of money with respect to protecting us all from Novaris. So, uh, I’m afraid infrastructure investment in infrastructures is may actually get worse before it gets before it gets better. So that’s really scary. Um, but, uh, it’s necessary. It’s necessary.

Scott Luton (00:52:47):

Agreed. You got to keep stuff moving. Got it. And, and, and, you know, that’s just one aspect of infrastructure this really looks at, as I mentioned, schools and, uh, waterways and, and what are the pipe system for water and you name it? Uh, so y’all check that out. I think we’ve already dropped the link in the show notes and let us know what your key takeaways are. Ton of information, thanks to our friends over at H S C E for making the investment.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:53:12):

Okay. Interested to understand what folks around the world perceive their infrastructure to look like because in certain areas of the world, Germany is a great example. Theirs is stellar and they continue to maintain it. So,

Greg White (00:53:26):

Uh, it can be done, right? Yes.

Scott Luton (00:53:30):

Um, any, uh, Hey with famous Greg white ism with Tom with enough time and money, you can move now.

Greg White (00:53:40):

All right.

Scott Luton (00:53:41):

So let’s look at a couple of comments there. Chris Barnes and ATL still has three of the top 10, most congested interstate interchanges in the U S a John Perry, who also said Steve sacks had throwing issues much like shut Noblock Greg, which I’m still impressed with Greg. That was a nice pool. The one good thing to come from COVID is improvements to infrastructure has John Paris says, yeah, as, as in that year will not be named as

Greg White (00:54:10):

Kevin this year. Aaron

Scott Luton (00:54:12):

Asked a great question. I’m not sure of our, the army Corps of engineers not involved with levies. Well, there, certainly as we know,

Greg White (00:54:20):

Yeah, definitely they’re involved. Well, it depends too. It depends on for instance, where most of the levies are in Louisiana. Uh, they maintain a lot of control over those levies. And I don’t know if anybody knows anything about politics in Louisiana, but they make a banana Republic look like a stellar democracy. So, um, it, you know, a lot of the control goes back to this goes back to the local governments.

Scott Luton (00:54:55):

Well, Kevin, you know who we need, we needed some air force engineers taking care of these levees.

Greg White (00:55:01):

Right. But the army, I forgot. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. I didn’t realize where you guys were going there.

Scott Luton (00:55:17):

Well, it just sidebar, uh, Kevin is our formal, amongst other things, former Naval aviator. I was just a lowly data analyst in our air force, but a little bit of inner service rivalry. And Greg is our retired. He does not admit it will not remit it. CIA, CIA undercover world global secret agent officer. Uh, but anyway, double secret.

Greg White (00:55:41):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:55:45):

And, and, uh, thanks for this today. It says wonderful session today. Supply chain management should be well synchronized with international trade policy. Shannon, excellent point. And, you know, kind of pointing back to that supply chain, dive article, clearly that’s one key takeaway from the year that will not be named folks really had an awakening in terms of how policy can really showcase their resilience or fragile fragility. Um, let’s see here. Uh, Aaron says it certainly seems that Pennsylvania’s infrastructure getting better since we’re all here.

Greg White (00:56:18):

Grab that one, always seen orange. Hey,

Scott Luton (00:56:24):

Oh gosh. Now, uh,

Greg White (00:56:29):

Productive in that traffic jam.

Scott Luton (00:56:31):

Oh gosh, plenty here. Um, Rhonda says, had a train track here in Tempe. Arizona go down about six months ago, impacts the supply chain. Obviously this track had reportedly had issues before it took a major accident happen. And now just now they’re redoing the entire railway in that location, you know, unfortunately, uh, gosh, what were we watching? Um, it might’ve been world war II in color, which is a really neat series on Netflix. And we were revisiting the Pearl Harbor and all the warnings that were ignored until the disaster laid before, uh, the military. Well, unfortunately all too often, you know, until it really bites you, you know, leadership can ignore all the warning signs. It sounds like that may have been in play there in Tempe, Arizona. Okay. Well, as much fun as I’m having with Greg and Kevin, Greg, you and I always have a wonderful time covering the news and interacting and hearing from all of our folks and their comments. Kevin has been a little spice of life inserted. Yeah.

Greg White (00:57:32):

I love it. When we get to Kevin, we get to, we get to hear from you all the time, but the audience does not. So I really appreciate you joining us, but you’re always turning the volume down. So I was wondering,

Scott Luton (00:57:49):

Well, uh, before we wrap, I want to share with everybody by now, whether it’s a tequila, sunrise, or digital transformers or connecting just with our hosts and in our, all of our programming, you can go to supply chain now.com. We’re working really hard to serve as a voice of global supply chain. So now that we’ve done all the heavy lifting, I want to, I want to put the, uh, Greg and Kevin get y’all both to weigh in here briefly as we wrap, uh, Greg, what is next for tequila? Sunrise?

Greg White (00:58:17):

Yeah. Next we’re going to release an episode with where I’m going to make some connections between companies and generation Z. So you’re going to get six, six, six. I need, I wish I could do that. On one hand, you’re going to get six tips, three from me and three from an actual member of gen Z, my middle daughter, Delaney, Sue white. And, um, talk about what her job experience has been. And it’s really been stellar, the company she works for, which I will not, um, announce here, but you’ll get to see it, um, has done a great job of creating mentorship and higher purpose and all those sorts of things. Anyway, I’ve given away two of the six already, but, uh, listen up because it’s a great discussion. And we did it in person Scott Luton, because she’s here with us. We did an actual video episode in person sitting in two of our favorite chairs in, uh, in the house here. It, and I didn’t

Scott Luton (00:59:22):

Know until you just let the cat out of the bag. Delaney, Sue, Sue’s her middle name? Is that right? Yeah,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:59:27):

She’s named after my grand, my grandmother’s nickname. So my grandmother’s name was [inaudible]. So we called her Sue. It’s hard to say. And in English it sounds awful Frita, IMO, gene. So,

Scott Luton (00:59:46):

But easier for you to say for sure, but that sounds like there should be a song written for Delaney soon. Maybe already has been, but

Kevin L. Jackson (00:59:55):

Interview, I thought it was called, uh, a man named sir

Speaker 5 (01:00:02):

Jimmy Buffett.

Scott Luton (01:00:05):

Um, so thank you for that. Looking forward to that. Um, tequila, sunrise, uh, Kevin, what is next for digital transformers?

Kevin L. Jackson (01:00:12):

So I know you said earlier today that, um, we’re just released a episode with Alex Jones from at and T I’m your channel, but in April, we’re going to have a trust your supplier, um, on, on the show. And if you haven’t heard about trust your supplier, it really is revolutionizing the onboarding process for suppliers to some of the world’s largest corporations companies like IBM, Vodafone, Nokia, Lenovo, uh, jet blues, Cisco Aramco, GlaxoSmithKline. They are really have, uh, information and life cycle management of information to increase their ability to be deadlines and goals. And they’re leveraging blockchain to really transform the buyer, supplier relationships and improving insights. So, uh, we got, that’s going to be huge, I believe.

Scott Luton (01:01:15):

Yeah. Looking forward to that. And that’s talk about list of no names there. I’ve never heard small companies, ASIN conversation, and look forward to that and sharing that with our community. Uh, we’re going to wrap just with a couple of quick comments and then we’re going to sign off a great one here, a serious one from big show, Bob Boba. If we don’t mentor the youth of today, we’ve got no right to complain about them. Excellent. Excellent point, Bob. And I’ll tell you, Greg and Kevin, as you both know, we’re mentored all the time by folks in earlier generations, we’ve learned so much from a bunch of talented people, people that are on this lab stream, right this second behind the scenes and Amanda, Natalie, and clay. So, um, that’s a great point. Great call out there. Uh, on a very serious note, Paula says, Greg, I had a cat that had six toes on each foot, the things you learn, and we’ve got a new, new, new host, uh, girl. So I forward,

Kevin L. Jackson (01:02:10):

I have made that mistake myself. I have actually misspelled my own name before spellchecking allows

Greg White (01:02:20):

That I was thinking about and one final welcome.

Scott Luton (01:02:24):

And hopefully we got the most of the, the first time or so to speak. But Steven Haney, which clearly has got a ton of professional certifications, uh, welcome to today’s live stream. Look forward to you participating in future conversations. Okay. Too much fun today, Greg and Kevin, always a pleasure.

Greg White (01:02:45):

What’s that over again? Just to be clear, I’m already late for a partner meeting for Kibera, but I let I’ve let biology know that I was going to be late. I have a feeling he’s watching just to prove that I’m not just using it as a, as an excuse to be late to the meeting. Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:03:08):

That we should make sure. Hey, check out. Kibera venture capital, our friends at biology, who who’s going to be on the upcoming, take your shot, laugh tequila, sunrise. So April,

Greg White (01:03:21):

Right, we’re doing it April 28th. And then we’re going to be doing that every month. Three companies get their shot at our judges and our judges get to shoot back.

Scott Luton (01:03:33):

So if you’re a fan of shark tank, this is a, this is a supply chain tech tech version of shark tank. And you know, Greg, Kevin, I know is a big fan cause I follow him on Twitter. And I see him every Friday night. In fact, Kevin needs to be on shark tank. I can see him sitting in the chairs, you and Greg both sit in the chairs, evaluating these pitches, but Hey, it’s a fun time. You learn a ton and you see both sides of the coin. So check that out on April 28th, a big thanks to Kevin L. Jackson host of our digital transformers. You can also check us out, check out one of his books at click the transform, get that where’d you get your books from?

Greg White (01:04:11):

No, no. We just released a new book called quick list. So, uh, you guys need to check that out. We’re talking more about that later,

Scott Luton (01:04:19):

Man. Kevin, you never, I’m convinced you don’t sleep at night

Greg White (01:04:24):

And you’ve already written another book. I’m sorry, but it’s about the power of persistence in business in life. I just wrote a, uh, I did see that, uh, yeah, I just wrote a chapter in it and uh, I, I collaborated with, um, a good friend of mine out of Italy, Rakowski. She’s a CEO of leadership press and she actually found a, there was like 30 different leaders in business that talked about how they became successful. So it’s a, it’s a, uh, it’s a, it’s a great book. Excellent. Well, you know, we’ve already put out or known. It’s only a chapter. How about you Scott? Right?

Scott Luton (01:05:13):

Pick a couple of paragraphs, but our team has already put the link in the comments, a wonderful, great job there. And congrats on new, your latest one of your lives projects. And by the way, Steven Haney. Yeah. He’s going to fit right in. He says, thanks for the shout out, Scott Lurgio S he’s gonna fit right in. Thank you for that to Steven. Well, Hey, everybody’s spent a ton of fun on what it looks like to be a gorgeous day here in the Metro Atlanta area. Big thanks to, uh, again, the folks behind the scenes, Amanda and Natalie and clay big, thanks all the comments and the perspective and the serious stuff is not so serious stuff, but it’s important to maintain that sense of humor during challenging times. Like we’re getting through big, thanks to my cohost. Kevin L. Jackson and Greg S white, the only two, one, only’s both a pleasure to do all this with you. Both Kevin look forward to having you back. Uh, and on that note, hope everybody has a home run week well there and have the most productive week you’ve ever had. Uh, and we’ll see you next time here on supply chain. Now do good. Give forward, be the change that’s needed and we’ll see you soon.

Intro/Outro (01:06:17):

Thanks buddy. Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now, community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.