[00:00:37] Good morning and welcome to a new episode of Supply Chain Now. I am Enrique Alvarez and as always I am pleased. It gives me great pleasure to be here with you in this new interview with a very special guest and with a host that you already know, I have already done several interviews with him. Demóstenes Pérez. Demóstenes Pérez is an expert in logistics. He’s in Panama and well, obviously the person who needs no introduction in the supply chains we see how you are. Good morning.
[00:01:16] Good morning, Enrique. Greetings to all the audience. They don’t speak Spanish. Nice to be with you today.
[00:01:22] It’s a pleasure to be with you again. I know we’ve been going through some difficult months in terms of equipment availability in China. The rates up to the sky-high rates have been like that. Quite an interesting few months for everything, true.
[00:01:39] Complicated, eh? But well, this is the industry of resilience, so we’ve had to invent things, we’ve had to get creative in order to satisfy our customers and make sure that the product gets to the hands of the end consumer, right?
[00:01:54] Absolutely. And well, we have no choice. At the end of the day the world has to keep turning and a lot of that is logistics based, if it’s up to us and the people in our industry to make sure that goods keep getting into the hands of consumers. Today we have an excellent interview with an acquaintance of yours. Tell us, please introduce our guest of honor.
[00:02:18] Look, it is my pleasure to introduce today Professor Felisa Preciado Higgins. Felisa is a passionate supply chain professional. She has already made a transition from industry to academia. Eh? Her. She is Panamanian. I had the honor of meeting her in the United States several years ago, through an organization of which we are both members and active participants. Who always exercised in the Council his very professional bad ones. Eh? So now we’re going to talk a little bit about that. And well, with great pleasure and happiness, let’s invite Paulita to do some.
[00:02:59] Of course it is. Felisa, how are you? Good morning to you. How? How are you doing?
[00:03:03] Very good morning, Enrique. I’m already very well. Thank you.
[00:03:07] It’s a pleasure to have you here with us. It’s a pleasure to interview you and thank you very much. Obviously we’ve been trying to schedule this interview for a couple of weeks now trying to find you. But well, he’s a person with a lot of commitments and it seems to me that everyone wants to talk to you.
[00:03:26] I promise I wasn’t hiding Enrique, but here I am and glad to be here with you this morning.
[00:03:33] It’s a pleasure, it’s a pleasure and thank you very much again for accepting the invitation. And many thanks to demos as always for. For opening up your contacts and getting us to have these talks with such interesting people who are doing so much for supply chains globally. So thanks to you too. Demos Felisa, please, let’s begin. Tell us a little about yourself. Tell us more. Where were you born? Where did you grow up?
[00:04:01] Well, thanks for the question, eh? I was born in the proud Chicano province, uh, in the Republic of Panama, very, very proudly Panamanian, proudly Chicano. E My parents are or were because they are already Panamanians, eh? At that time Ecuadorian immigrants who emigrated to Panama in the 70’s and well in my family we grew up in Chiriqui, where I began my studies at the Technological University under the direction of Dr. Humberto Alvarez to whom I send greetings and is listening to e. Eh. This led me at one point to the opportunity to receive a scholarship to complete my undergraduate studies at University A. It’s called Flora Agricultural Mechanical University in Florida, where I was able to receive my degree in Industrial Engineering and one of the things that my dear daddy and Emma always instilled in me were both my parents instilled in me that what you put in your head no one can take away. Material things come and go, but what you learn stays with you forever and from a very young age. My two precious elders, even though they didn’t have the opportunity to study beyond elementary school, always had a great desire to make education something important. And I managed to continue studying and I also had the opportunity during my studies here in the United States to complete a master’s degree. Hey, hey. I had a time working with the company, I started in Gym Company that makes diesel engines, I was in the area of making fuel systems and very very interesting injectors.
[00:05:53] Yes, an extremely successful career and an even more interesting story. And well, you obviously beat us to it a little bit.
[00:06:00] The sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry part, I went from where I went. Ta, I left,” he said.
[00:06:06] But. But hey. But it’s a very interesting story and again we’d love if you want to behave, if not talk a little bit about the part. What was Panama like? What do you mean? What memories do you have of those first nights, of that first stage of your life? Studying, being the first to study? I imagine with a lot of pride for your whole family. With great pride for all the people who know you, who know you and who knew you. What do you remember? What do you remember? Living in Panama before immigrating to the United States?
[00:06:39] Well, it’s very interesting because growing up in the province of Chiriqui in the 70’s and 80’s and where
[00:06:46] Is there, by the way, Chiriqui? Why did you say it the first time? And not even.
[00:06:52] If you look on a map, the province of Chiriqui borders the Republic of Costa Rica. So we are in the western part of Malaga, further west, as it also says that it goes further west. Are you in Costa Rica? Costa Rica. We are a border province and in the 70s and 80s in the province of Chiriqui, especially in the city of David, where I grew up, there were not many people who looked like me. So, being born in Chiriquí and living this way from David, it was very interesting that many times I had to explain to people from Chiriquí that I didn’t come from anywhere else. They always asked us if I came from another province. I was almost always asked, “Are you from Cordoba? I tell them No, I’m Chicana, come on.
[00:07:39] By the way, where were we?
[00:07:41] And Rivet, falconer, in the center of the country?
[00:07:45] Yeah, I didn’t know that. I thought you were a capital boy. You saw that when you go out you see everything.
[00:07:52] They didn’t know where it came from either. From the capital.
[00:07:58] Not quite according to David, the others, the Chicanos, we say it’s a city. The people of the capital, this little town, eh? Because if you meet a Panamanian and they tell you the city, they mean the capital, because it’s like there is no other city in Panama.
[00:08:15] No? Well, I come from Mexico City, so I understand. I understand a little of the feeling you have from the other side of the coin. And well, I apologize for all those times you may not have known you lived in a small town, but it’s all relative to your reality and the size of the city you live in.
[00:08:35] If you seriously ask him don Panamanian, where is he from in Panama? If he says I’m from the city, is he from the capital? Because only people from the capital equal from the capital.
[00:08:45] Boss No, that’s not true. I love the angry go-getters of all those who are not from Mexico City,
[00:08:52] But it is a very beautiful rural area. I mean, we also have a reputation, Chicanos, for being very proud. Look, we got it. We have our own red and green flag.
[00:09:05] They even have a passport home for us.
[00:09:09] He hates them a little because Chicanos speak very highly of their province and since we have the best landscapes in Panama, people sometimes tend to be envious. The he would tell them eh, but there’s nothing to it.
[00:09:25] Malo, nothing wrong with being proud of where you were born.
[00:09:29] We don’t have bananas and plantains and coffee and mountains and volcanoes and flowers and all that gasco. I mean, it’s quite an agricultural province, eh? Moreover, that’s part of the tension that exists, because the Chicanos say without the other Panama you don’t eat because it’s an area that has encouraged agriculture and produces. It is a very productive area, but also an area that has generated a lot of tourism, recreational tourism and residential tourism as well, because in the 90’s there was, there was a lot of, uh, a lot of development of what they call areas where people could buy property, foreign people, come and buy property and live in Panama during their vacations, when it gets cold here they go to Panama and many people have emigrated who are expatriates from places like the United States or Europe, they go to live and they like Chiriqui because in the highlands and say the climate is very rich.
[00:10:32] All the people who are listening to us, not only in the logistics industry, but in other parts of the world, if they don’t have a plan to vacation already once the pandemic is over, they already know. Chiriqui right.
[00:10:47] And not only Chiriqui, I’m going to put a let’s go to if we’re going to do a commercial here Panama on the Atlantic coast, white beaches, blue water.
[00:10:55] Panama’s best part was very vulnerable. Everyone knows what it’s all about.
[00:10:59] Ha ha. No way.
[00:11:02] Tell us, tell us a little bit happier because it intrigues me a little bit and it’s extremely interesting to me. Well, you come from a rural agricultural producing region. Why did you like the logistics? In which part? In which part? You lived this from some mentor that you had somebody that you can attribute the fact that you got into the business side of it and that’s what you ended up doing in Florida, I would imagine. But why? Then tell us a little more about yourself. At seventeen, eighteen, when you were just figuring out what you wanted out of your life. And tell us if you always saw yourself emigrating to the United States, always saw yourself ending up in logistics, like how you thought back then.
[00:11:46] Well, there are certain things that I was thinking about at the age of seventeen that I’m going to tell you. And there are other things like please. Because adolescence is a time of searching for oneself
[00:11:56] A family program.
[00:11:57] I was a very good girl, ask my mom, a very good girl, she’s a very good girl. Look, it’s an interesting thing because it’s something that I think you have to grow up in Panama to understand. It doesn’t matter what part of Panama you grew up in. Panamanians have a level of thinking, of awareness, of understanding global logistics at a general level at least at a minimum, due to the fact of the interdependence of the national economy with the Panama Canal, of course. So you can be in first grade and in your social studies textbook lesson, you learn about the importance of your country because of the existence of the Panama Canal. So what I call the Logistics Boggis, the logistics, the disease of the logistics of the blackberry, the logistics. I believe that it is instilled in Panamanians from an early age, because we are taught to be proud of our country’s strategic geographic position and it is very easy to relate to that at different levels. In the province of Chiriqui there is port activity and in many parts here in Panama as well. So they are things that are not, eh? Generally something that would be strange for any Panamanian to think of logistics as an area of interest. However, for me, logistics was not really the entry point. I never studied engineering, all my studies have been engineering, but it was in the last week of the sixth grade at UNO in Balmori high school that a counselor from the Technological University of the Regional Center in Chiriqui came to talk about careers in engineering. And I had up to that point thought that I was going to study microbiology because I said I wanted to cure people. I wanted to study how to learn about diseases and how to study them. I’m going, I’m going to study microbiology I am very
[00:14:05] Practical at this time and
[00:14:07] Peguero talked about engineering as something that could change the world and another way to help people. I say wow! And then Industrial Hygiene was like the one that appealed to me the most because it looked like a little bit more direct. The connection with the part of how the human being interacts with production systems, manufacturing, operations. And that’s what caught my attention, that whether it was civil, electronics or the other engineering, industrial, it seemed to me that it touched more areas in what is the human factor in a more direct way. And I said and from there, well, as I say, I had a conversation very early in the process of exploring the Technological University with Dr. Humberto Alvarez, and he was a person who was central in cementing the idea that industrial engineering was really something worth exploring and from there. I continued, therefore, in the area of Industrial Engineering. T Well, I’ll tell you how I came to Llista Directly. I don’t know if you have any other questions, because I got ahead of myself once. I don’t get ahead of the album.
[00:15:16] You can’t get ahead of yourself as many times as you want at the end of the day. You are the guest of honor and you can do whatever you want in this interview, but I wasn’t going to ask you any figure besides the doctor and your parents, any figure or any moment in your life. In that first stage that marked you, that made you mature or that taught you something that you remember until now.
[00:15:43] My teachers and I think that sometimes, and this is a message to all friends across Latin America, to the United States, wherever they’re listening to high school teachers, that they don’t get credit for the way they transform the lives of young minds. But I can say that my my high school teachers, from the Spanish teacher to the I had a Spanish teacher and my my my my history teacher. They are people who challenged me to think and to understand and to explain and to look deeper into things and many of those lessons I learned early still at the old age when I’m full of gray hair.
[00:16:29] Jajaja escuelitas
[00:16:31] That I’ve been followed and well I think that from that, from that curiosity and desire to learn that was not only instilled at home by my parents, but also my high school teachers. Some of them are no longer in this world, they are gone. There are others who are still old. Sometimes I see them by whatsapp from homines uido my math teacher who taught me to take derivatives, see he is already a hundred years old, he just turned one hundred years old
[00:17:06] Literally tensional,
[00:17:07] Literally. We used to say to him on the iPhone Ay señor! Y. That is, person that different times have influenced and. And his knowledge, his advice. It is still on my mind and in my heart.
[00:17:25] Well, it’s very, very important what you’re doing. And you’re right. High school teachers are not given the recognition and value they deserve for all that they have changed. Not to people at a very important point in their life and their development does that. To all teachers of any grade and in particular those of secondary school, we send you a strong, strong hug and a sincere thank you for the people you have managed to make and happy making one of the good examples. Let’s see if you want to talk about his professional career and how he went from high school to Florida and then to Penn State.
[00:18:20] Well, realistic. Correct me if I’m wrong. You made the mistake of putting your Florida filter and recommending him to go back to Panama, right?
[00:18:29] Yes, uh, there was a day all the time, where after I was in Comenz, I went to Perdu to do my doctorate in Industrial Engineering. After I finished my PhD in Perdu. I did not pursue an academic career. I went to work for the company Kimberly Clark Latin America. Afterwards. So I moved first from where I was in Indiana to Georgia, where I spent a year and a half, almost two years working with Kim in Latin America and from there I was transferred to the office in Panama, where I continued to work for all of Latin America, Peru located in Panama. And actually the el. The connection with the Supply Chain was through that company and that is one of those turning points that also changed the trajectory, eh? I was invited to participate in that company, in the field of Supply Chain and obviously that has to do with everything, from Men himself to Manafort’s filming, but more than anything else. That was the critical point of exposure to the issues of everything to do with it. Since when is the product manufactured? How do you get the materials, how do you process them in the plants, how do you get them to the distribution centers and how do you distribute them throughout the region, huh? With eighteen more countries. So, obviously that was the pivotal moment where logistics started to take shape as something that not only interested me, but I had a clearer focus on where the specific effects were and how that was handled in the issue of. Political issues, economic issues of different countries. A lot of things happened in Latin America. In those days. And it was very interesting.
[00:20:32] In Latin America the changes in regulations in the countries, not being a homogeneous region through as a large market vital United States are the daily challenge eh? For the rich audience too, right? E It is important to understand that, that is, the complexity of a market with so many countries, some countries with such a small population, let’s say, but the challenges are so high. In other words, it makes the supply chain professional in this region have to have a versatile mentality, because you have to be adapting all day long to these changes that are not expected. Let’s say not the change of a president or a minister of state changes and comes to a new policy and there goes that, no? I mean, here juggling
[00:21:19] We’re talking about at least in those times, when President Chavez was still in Venezuela and there were times when he said something or decided something that closed the border between Colombia and Venezuela. Now, the way you carry product, it’s true. That is, the thing is like this or is because we are talking about times where you could still see and certain situations in countries like Colombia, where you had to limit traffic at certain times in certain areas because of the political management that existed in Colombia at that time and. I mean, these are things that. That one perhaps in another sphere does not think. But the logistics where you have to have not only the right information about the possible demand and all that, but also a plan and contingency plans, especially when you produce certain products in certain countries to supply the region in whole regions. And how that moves and. And the cost when there are interruptions for any number of reasons Asian disasters, political disasters or natural disasters.
[00:22:31] World Cups of happy agreements. Maybe I’ll see Kimberly Clark as an example. I imagine it was basically a school for Latino, a company. Large. Respectable. Complex, with a lot of things. Mobile with many agreement variables. Maybe an example or two that you could share with us from Kimberly Clark’s logistics and supply chain at the time. And what is that. What did you learn about it?
[00:22:59] Well, uh. I can speak on general topics because I think what traditions if the expert on the general topic. Eh? There are several things that come into it. In the way we think about strategies. No, because people, especially in North America, sometimes think very monolithically about Latin America, like all countries are the same as Latinos, the same thing Lou. And at least in Latin America, one of the things that differs a lot from perhaps what you see in countries like the United States, is the percentage of the sale of mass consumption products that still occurs in the so-called traditional sector. The traditional sector, not the hypermarket supermarket sector, but the traditional, the little shop on the corner. And then that varies greatly depending on what country you’re in. There are countries where 60 percent of mass consumption sales still take place in the corner store. If the cumulative sales at the national level e to that which requires a different way of thinking on the issue of distribution, because it is not the same distribute to a mega distribute center of a hypermarket and hypermarket or to stated distribution plan perhaps through distributors or through loaders sprayers or through other types of methodologies.
[00:24:24] Or you have countries like Brazil where you are trying to supply. At least we are talking about products that go to the commercial area, office products, products for schools, hospitals, restaurants. A city like São Paulo, which is one of the biggest cities in the world, where you can have 20,000, eh, eh, eh, eh. Different places we call sites or places where you deliver e and you have to manage in incredible traffic and still have the opportunity to implement accurate e delivery models at certain times, in particular, when you don’t have traffic control, you have to have the ability to disperse distribution in such a densely populated area which are things that maybe don’t happen in rural areas. In other countries it is also the issue of prices. I mean, when you look at purchasing power across Latin America it changes a lot. I give you an example Panama. It tends to be a country that by comparison we are still talking about. I’m thinking about it. The high 90’s, beginning of the 21st century, is still giving for more in a country where the purchasing power of the Panamanian. Compared to other countries in the region relatively high. But there are or were other regions in Latin America where the greatest competition from the. To tell you about the toilet paper, they were little pieces. People cutting up bits of newspaper and selling it in taxis.
[00:26:02] In other words, we are talking about I am total. One thing that when you think about what kind of strategy? Not just for the fact of the net gross profit, whatever it is, but also how you organize your supply chain so that the product is accessible, so that people or young girls in a rural area can have access to appropriate feminine care products at a cost that moms and dads who want to put disposable diapers on because it’s a practical thing to do can afford. But diapers can only be had at a price point that may be a little unaffordable for people of lower income. So what kind of practice can you have? And many times the packaging sell products in a package of one instead of trying to sell a package of 48 units. All of this has logistical implications, but it also has human implications. Because we have to make an effort so that people of all levels can have access to a product that will help them to be healthier. So that’s the challenge. On one side you are a business, you have to make a profit, but on the other side you have to understand that what you do impacts how people live and the quality of people’s lives.
[00:27:22] The world knows that example you just gave was Lisa. I love it because sometimes it’s a little difficult to explain the impact we have on society. People who are in this industry and obviously now with COBIT and all that and we are very exposed. You finally hear about supply chain publicly on the news and so on. However, it is still difficult to separate the concept that Supply Chain is ships and airplanes. It is much more than that. So, this example you just gave I love because it illustrates in some ways everything that was behind what most people don’t see, that goes into the planning. I was in one of the most complex processes. In the logistical execution, no?
[00:28:12] Yes, eh? And that’s the point. All of this happens where the average person doesn’t see it clearly. In other words. And I believe that, as you say. What the pandemic has achieved is to create a different level of awareness. Because people are asking but why? Because there’s no toilet paper. But why? And imagine. Today I was reading the news that the largest fast food forgiveness chain in Korea E is going to start serving you. Instead of potato chips, customers will be served fried cheese sticks. Because no, the potatoes do not arrive because of customs problems, because of problems of lack of transport containers at ship level. So no, they still haven’t received the amount of volume that they need to be able to serve potato chips, because a lot of those potatoes come from outside, they don’t grow them in Korea. Then they’re going to give him cheese sticks. Hey, hey, hey, hey, stop it instead of chips. I mean, these are things that then that’s the moment when the consumer says but I want potatoes, where are the potatoes? I don’t have potatoes, do I? And the explanation is when A enters B. Well, it’s because the potatoes come from there and the potatoes have to be shipped in containers and have to be registered through the customs controller in Korea, Ibarrola and so on. So I think the general public is learning, whether they want to or not, the basic fundamentals of the impact of the supply chain on their lives, because the pandemic has forced them to have to look at it directly in the face.
[00:30:10] I totally agree. And well, it’s a great example as we see. And well, this Korea thing even more so and it’s pretty graphic for everyone.
[00:30:18] And I get chips. I don’t want cheese sticks anymore.
[00:30:20] Maybe cheese sticks are a better option. But hey, you’re absolutely right. The consumer, the consumer is realizing what is happening and realizing that it is not as easy to transport the things that we use on a daily basis as we might have imagined before the pandemic.
[00:30:37] No, I would love to know how to perform. I mean, after going through this experience of planning and getting into the complexity of Latin American markets, how do you make this change, how do you revive that little bug that you said they taught you in high school to go back to academia. What happened there? How was the change?
[00:31:00] It was something very interesting, it was an opportunity. There was an opportunity one day to work on a partnership between Kimberly Clark and Penn State. And we’re doing a project in which we were trying to look at a lot of the aspects that were related to how we did the strategic planning between marketing and supply chain to ensure obviously the goal of having the product in available to consumers throughout Latin America in a more efficient way. And through that project there were many opportunities to not only interact with Penn State professors, but also to visit the university for meetings and discuss the topic. And this was all with the faculty, with the Industrial Engineering Department, not with Supli Chain. But on one of those visits I had the opportunity to get to know about the Sentence Business School which is called at the Universal Park campus, because there are business programs in Pentathlon at all of the campuses, but at the University and University Park campus. There was a program at Smell College of Bishops and I was interested because they were looking for people with a profile that had advanced knowledge or had a PhD at doctoral level and had research experience doing research, who had teaching experience as well. And I had the experience of being an instructor and as a PhD student in perdu and they were looking for someone who had industry experience as well. And then I started to look at the list and I said, “Stop it. Industrial experience chat e plazuelas, chueca, all peachy, chat e but also.
[00:33:07] It wasn’t either that or out of nowhere. I think the desire to somehow have an impact on the way my teachers, my professors inspired me, taught me. I think that in Elbert that opportunity awakened something that was already there. It wasn’t something that just popped into my head that I was going to be a teacher. I think the desire to find some way, to have an impact on future generations of professionals in the field, was something that was there because I experienced it in different ways. While I was in chemo I clicked with my collaborators, with the interns who came to do internships and everything. I decided to throw my hat in the ring and see if Tenté University saw me as someone who could contribute at that level and I received an offer to be what they call a clinical professor. I have been a clinical, assistant and hobby teacher for the past 14 years, so I have been able to reach the level of what they call full professorship of clinical teacher and I have had the opportunity to participate in the education of a little more than 9000 students and I count all the courses I have taught. In the fourteen years that I have been here I have. Y. Y. Well, it was something incredible. I mean, the transition from industry to the classroom really helped me to be able to. To guide and give the young people both a theoretical and practical perspective on the concepts I was teaching them.
[00:34:58] There is something you miss about the industry if you could have gone totally into the corporate world and I imagine you had many opportunities and options to pursue that branch in your life as well. But what do you miss about it? And what other things don’t you miss?
[00:35:17] I tell people that I don’t. I didn’t leave Kimberley Clark, I left happens. I’m telling you, it doesn’t stop. I left it here, Molecule. I went away to think. I describe it that way because I actually had a fantastic experience in that company. I could have stayed 10, twenty thousand years longer because, I mean, it was something quite satisfying and quite fulfilling and quite satisfying. I don’t know. Eh? I’m looking for the word by ful cilmente feeling. It was something that brought me a lot of personal satisfaction. Fr. But what is obviously strange is the speed with which decisions are made in the industry. Today I miss him because the academic world
[00:36:07] It’s a bit slower, then
[00:36:09] A lot of times you have to pontificate and talk and theorize and Braudel and it takes, it takes months and months and months to make a change in the industry. If you convince the boss that without this change we will go in this direction and not in this direction. The way we think, come on, let’s go. Let’s go to the attic. And I miss this very much. A block. Which is not good. Obviously, one of the things I like most about academic life is that especially as a teacher, the academic cycles are in semesters, which allows for more time. During the summer, what is summer, I don’t have to have a little more time with the family. One of the downsides of the industry is that it never, ever stops, ever stops, eh. It was an excellent life, professionally, but personally it was challenging at times. Especially me. They had e. My girls were quite young and I was traveling and missed seeing my babies a lot. So on that side it did get better because I had more opportunity to. To have time time.
[00:37:22] How many children do you have? Felisa.
[00:37:25] I have three girls and I have three daughters. Oh, then
[00:37:30] Perfect, balanced. So the three and three thing
[00:37:34] Between my husband and I, we have 6, 6, 6, 6 children. Thanks to certain days that will be with ailments I predicted. Hahaha hahaha they’re all teenagers. Alas, alas, alas! Pick up time. Whose turn is it to do the dishes? No, but it’s a blessing. Children are a blessing.
[00:37:58] Hey, your change was not only from the industry to the academy, but I imagine you were already back in Panama and now you’re back in the United States.
[00:38:07] Yeah, eh. Yes, it was a very interesting transition. Especially I think for my daughters, because I have a daughter who was born in Atlanta. And the other two were born at the National Hospital, in California, in Panama, uh. But they spent their first few years in Panama and when they arrived here, it was quite an interesting change for them. Now he’s changed, eh? Well it’s not so noticeable, because now it seems that ingi inglis entering and spanish forgetting. So I’m forcing them.
[00:38:47] There are several of us, several of us. I have children and the age of the lawsuit every day is in Spanish in SFE.
[00:38:56] Yeah, so I’m forcing them. I’m going to confess, I’m going to take Spanish classes so that they have the grammar in a more correct way and can read well. And not only speak, but also read and write in Spanish. But yes, professionally, it was an interesting transition, because, as I said, I went. From completing a PhD to industry. I had to learn to turn up the revs. How soon I had to make a decision. Because when you’re doing research you have all the time in the world. And my boss is updated Galicia, Galicia, we’re going to do nearby fields, to do something, maybe from the early years. And then there was the later reverse floor thing. I go from industry to academia and here are people who pass it on. Hey, there wasn’t much. Fix that for me, it can’t be fixed anymore. A committee needs to be formed first. Then it was. It’s been an interesting change. I saw the revolution. Bring down the revolution.
[00:40:00] There’s an interesting thing that I think is one of the reasons why you, you, you continue to be successful. Frits is you ever so disconnected from the industry. You’re still very connected and that’s something I admire about you and most of the teachers that are involved, especially in associations and so on that work hand in hand with the industry. In Latin America we have a bit of an absence of that. The academic, unfortunately it looks like they put an academic cycle and the industry is its century of industry and we have to promote a little more that interaction between academia and industry to make our logistics models and our business models in Latin America evolve, perhaps at the speed that evolve in more developed countries that for my taste. One of the reasons why they develop so fast is just that, because you do research, but if research is implemented, you execute the result and take it to execution. Here in Latin America there is a lot of research, but usually the pages are kept in a library and nobody touches them. So tell us a little bit about what is your perception or what is your point of view about that reality.
[00:41:23] Thank you for making that comment, something I would like to see, encouraged, see more encouraged in. Not only in my country which is Panama, but in all of Latin America it is what you say. Well, I know that there are several countries in Latin America that I think have advanced a little bit more in that, maybe more than we have done in Panama, but to give you an example, at the University of Perfe we have a center called the Supply Chain Research Center and a fundamental part of what they do is this dialogue with the industry and they form different types of partnership collaborations with different companies and what that entails is planning discussions, forums, and projects. Every summer we send those companies that have ideas for questions, problems or areas that they want someone to put some thought into, and then the companies send the lists. These are the kinds of things we’re giving ourselves in our brains that we don’t know what to do. And what the center does is that depending on the level of research required, it can be a project where a professor can supervise a group of students, either undergraduate or graduate students, or maybe it’s something more in-depth.
[00:43:01] So, at the level of a professor, a researcher who formulates a research plan in collaboration with the company and that has really helped a lot because it has helped companies to find solutions to problems that they generally do not have, either the capacity in terms of the staff they already have within their company, because they are doing the day to day thinking about it. In this question of innovation or problems that are unsolved. So it gives the opportunity for students to learn about practical problems and for professors to understand what are the real questions that if they invest their, their academic capital in researching, they can have a real impact on what’s going on out there. So I think building has to be a little more intentional in creating those opportunities and universities have the opportunity to do that. And hopefully there are ways to find a way to solve those things through financial resources, whether it’s through the. In government entities that offer opportunities to receive funding or perhaps private sector companies also invest, at least in the case of the United States, private enterprise has an interest in these types of interactions.
[00:44:34] Why do you think there are none in Latin America? Maybe that interest as I can, because from the point of view of the business needs and sometimes losses generated by not having this kind of analysis or not? Or companies don’t have a trained staff or people at that level for doing research, let’s say, of the business itself. They don’t achieve certain goals, but they also didn’t turn, let’s say, to the academy of that academy. Please help me. That maybe that need that you were saying that you get to this center with the list of headaches. We don’t see that very often. As you say, there are some countries or are seen, but no, this is the normal, say, uh, in the United States is common and in other countries in Europe not to mention.
[00:45:20] No, I think there are many factors. I wish I were. Here it is. And if you solve this, all of this takes, it’s going, it’s going to take place. I think that there are certain situations that culturally would have to evolve. For example, I give you an example, eh? The legal system in the United States, for better or worse, offers a lot of protection and contracts when you are for less. In the case of a company that is collaborating with a university, that the confidentiality of the contract is respected and that the person who is up there keeps you safe, so if you violate any of the terms of that contract, because here at MAN, here people even sue you for looking at you from the middle, I sue you. So there is a lot of legal protection, maybe sometimes they even go to the extreme, but there is a lot of legal protection. So there is a level of openness to share data, to share company information, confidential information that is not shared just like that, because there is a lot of trust in the system that protects all that confidentiality, eh? I in my experience and I’m speaking my experience legally, I don’t know how different countries in Latin America offer intellectual property protection, but I know that in my interactions with some, in some of the projects that I worked on in Latin America, companies don’t trust and I, I, I, I got to have interactions where in order to find a way to solve a problem or investigate a problem, you had to ask for data, sales data, inventory data, inventory management data, data on how many orders were shipped? Where did they go? That is, to be able to make a quantitative critical analysis.
[00:47:21] Sometimes you have to share information about who your suppliers are, the volumes you buy from certain suppliers and things like that. And I think there has to be a climate where all participants can trust that the other member(s) of the collaboration will respect confidentiality. And I think so. That’s a factor. And I think there should be a little more development in that area. In. In what I have seen I am talking about the limited experience of what I have seen. I think it could use some improvement. And also, well, obviously, creating awareness that value is given to that kind of that people understand the value, because the other thing. People do what they think, it will bring you value. And if neither the universities nor the companies are doing it. Because perhaps there hasn’t been a serious dialogue about how value is created through these collaborations.
[00:48:24] Wow! Very, very interesting, realistic, because I think I think you hit on point one, it feels like you think the same way I do, but. But now the exact point, that is, the certainty, let’s say, of the protection or the fulfillment of those contracts. Perhaps our countries in the Latin American region are very flexible. Let’s do it that way. Not on that subject, eh? And I wish we could have that certainty for Dad, so that we could be more open. Obviously there are companies and there are countries where it may be different, but I think it is the general trend. Well, uh. On the street that, that, that zeal, let’s do it that way, of sharing information, which in the end is what doesn’t hurt the industry.
[00:49:12] If we are not taking advantage of a source of knowledge and creativity and the capacity of norme that are the universities, that are the students, that are the young people who are working and wanting to progress professionally, then yes, I think that as, as Felisa says, I think it is something that has to be learned in Latin America, it is something that we have to do better because we are really, we are not giving them the value that the organizations, the universities, the students, the teachers, all the people who are doing all the research deserve to have them. It’s that very, very, very, very relevant information. And well, many companies in Europe, the United States and other parts of the world are knowing how to exploit with a positive meaning, obviously the connotation of that word, but exploit, really exploit the capacity they have in their students and teachers.
[00:50:15] And I think that sorry, I must
[00:50:18] To say that above all the fact that the one who comes from outside thinks differently, thinks outside the famous box.
[00:50:26] And I think that. At some point. How to claim the place we can have as? Contributors to knowledge in the field of logistics or any other field. Like. As Latin American entities or universities, because I think that obviously and institutions in countries like the United States of Europe have taken a hegemonic place and have taken a leadership in many areas and all the good, the inverse, the research, the innovation comes from there. I mean, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are also capable. We are not only capable, but we bring a perspective that is different and also more applicable to the realities of our countries. Because one of the things that I see the textbooks. That. That are used to teach e. The foundation of supply chain fundamentals. At least for students in the United States. What I saw. Because I’ve seen lots of those books. Most examples when they speak. Whether it is either from operations of. From Procurator of. Buying and selling, distribution of whatever. Very very very very focused on how that is done in the United States. Very focused. Focused on distribution. Very focused. Focused on selling in and channels that are more dominant here.
[00:52:04] And I’m thinking there today. A lot of areas and I know that in other countries that are developing and developing there has been research and but you still don’t see what? That we also take a place where, where it is said that our country or our region is going to be a center of innovation. In other words, there are innovation centers, but many of them are connected to North American universities, so there is no problem. But I say like taking on a role, to say you know we’re going to try to produce world class invest. Laughter. E And start building what is needed, because it’s not just saying I’m going to do it and start taking inventory. What do I need to do so that the Technological University of Panama, the University of whether it is in Ecuador, Peru or whatever, becomes a center of innovation where people from other countries come to see what they are doing in Panama. And kind of assumed that we too can create models and innovate and create and how to come out with impactful ideas as well and take pride that we can do that. But not just pride, you have to do the work first,
[00:53:21] It doesn’t tar gay people. I totally agree. And well, you talk like this and and above all your life and your experience, your professional achievements, happy and well we also owe them are. These are very clear examples to me that this is happening, aren’t they? Maybe we need it to be faster, we need people in Latin America to believe that role that they have and to be proud of it. And because there are very valuable people all over the world we have America, it is not the exception, we have the capacity, it has been demonstrated, there is a lot of creativity, there are many very successful companies in all Latin America and it is also a matter of doing the work. Then thank you so much for what you are doing. I believe that your example has already inspired many people to change, especially many women, many young people who are studying in Panama and in other parts of Latin America, to try to reach what you have reached. And well, trying to close our interview we could talk for another two, three hours calmly and I think it’s worth inviting you again in the future to talk to us a little bit more, but closing the subject with you. Happy with anything in particular you want to tell us about Strait? Some of what you are currently doing? Tell us a little bit about what you are doing now and what you are focusing on and what is your short term and long term goal.
[00:54:52] Well, for the past four years she has also served as a professor of Supply Chain. I have also served as associate dean of the undergraduate program. Then I have a double. Two responsibilities in one is to advance and sustain the undergraduate program at the Puente University School of Business at University Park and also, obviously, to continue. Preparing professionals in the field of Subrayen, one of the things I’ve been a little bit more focused on today is the food supply chain. EM Mostly because I like to eat, you did not take Nott to the bonfire, eh? Actually we are. We are passing. We are entering a very difficult time in many areas. Hey, hey. For climate change, the pandemic itself, eh? Created and significant disruptions in the food supply chain. Not so much, not only in what was the production issue, but also in an issue of access and and the. In the United States what happened was that the rigidity of how the cané. Distribution channels work. Everything that was the channel directed to the commercial sector, hotels and restaurants and other cafeterias was interrupted because everything was closed during the quarantine period. And there was on one side there was a lot of food that was going to waste because there was no way to move it, there was nowhere to move it and there was no way. There was no alternative plan to move it to the mass consumption channel.
[00:56:52] So millions and millions and millions and millions of units of foodstuffs were lost, such as potatoes, onions, milk. I’ve had cattle, there were cattle that had to be killed and slaughtered not for sale, but to kill them, because they had nowhere to sell the meat, where the producers didn’t have it. Market and it is not a product, they are products that you can not stop production, like when you stop, you press the button and you do not make more, more phones, not with the cattle, the cattle continues to give birth, continues to grow. So chickens were killed, pigs were killed, millions were killed. Horrible the amount of food that was voted and on the other hand the food banks for the people, for the people who had no work, who had no food at home, etc. Miles-long lines of people, that was one thing. It was for me. It was a nightmare to see pictures of food running out on one side and on the other side starving people, without work, without money, lined up, waiting to be given a bag of food. There are figures cited by different entities of the number of people who continue to suffer from hunger and not only in the United States. That has been a reality. Globally, because of quarantine issues, issues of people who have not been able to work. People who lost their jobs. People who lost their business. So now, uh, there’s a lot. I’m focused a little bit on studying resilience. Resilience. That word
[00:58:37] It’s like the phrase difficult to translate
[00:58:40] Does not include restyling resilience. Resiliencia is resilience in the Spanish chain. Yes in the chain. In the chain of the food chain and on the one hand, in the investigative part, it investigates investigative forgiveness research. In another research investigation collaborating with colleagues in the College of Agriculture here at Penn State. But also locally I am. My daughters and I are volunteers at the huian. Yes, where food distributions are made and hands are needed. So this is not theory at all. That’s grabbing the apron, cajeta and open, open the hood of the car and throw the food in there. Let people come in, come in, come in. But there is still a lot of hunger, a lot of hunger. It breaks my heart because those of us who have been fortunate, who have not stopped eating hard during the pandemic or before, don’t know the pain of having children at home who can’t eat. So I’m thinking a lot about what we can do from the point of view of academics, the industry, what has to change in order to make sure that in the future, God forbid, something like this happens again? Don’t give the huge waste, because it was a huge waste of food.
[01:00:09] In fact you don’t have, you don’t know a company called Gutter here in Atlanta, in fact G or R of Yasmin Group. But as she said in one of her Planchet Now interviews, the problem of famine is not a problem of lack of food, but a problem of logistics. If this is the way it is, what did you say? That is, food and nothing else that is not in the place where hunger exists, then?
[01:00:34] Nope, no, there was no connection.
[01:00:35] That’s just it. That’s frustrating and sad, as you say, because you’re seeing so much waste and especially what’s generated in the United States, which is tons and tons of waste. And then there are so many news reports of people starving in other parts of the world and even in the same country. Then it’s something. Something that the supply chain must pay particular attention to, because the impact is huge. The impact can be saving lives, saving hungry children from having better nutrition.
[01:01:06] As we owe it to humanity.
[01:01:08] If part of humanity part of and if we don’t see it we will charge it to us. That is, this is not free if it is nature and the world. I personally feel that if we don’t do it, if we don’t do it right, these excesses and this lack of. Of intelligence, I think in general of the human being, could then come to be reflected in many of the things that we are living, no more changes, temperature changes, more viruses, and so on.
[01:01:40] We have to have the full intention of solving that problem.
[01:01:44] Totally, totally. And well, today is a house in a very good house, so again happy. Thank you very much for being here with us today. I believe that your life example and what you have shared with us today will be very interesting for many people. You are going to inspire many people who are already in supply chains and hopefully also many young people who want to study and at some point be part of supply chains and this logistics industry that we are so passionate about and that has so much potential to change the world. Do we see anything else you’d like to add before Felisa dismisses our show today?
[01:02:24] No, for me it is always a pleasure to listen to Felisa. She is an example of life, an example of professional self-improvement. She is a person that I esteem very much and well, that’s why I love to have her whenever I can, because I think she has a lot to share about all those young people who today are still without a fixed direction. It’s not, uh, for me she’s a great example and I admire her a lot. Thank you Julissa for this time apart from your vacation and I appreciate it very much.
[01:02:58] Thank you. Thank you, Enrique, thank you. The pleasure has been all mine and I want to continue to motivate you to have, to continue to bring to the audiences this kind of topics that are so interesting and important. And I’m sorry, I’m very humbled to have the honor of being invited and I hope it was of interest to those who listened. Thank you.
[01:03:24] No, the honor is all ours and it was definitely very interesting and we’re going to talk to you again. Let’s wish you the best of success this I imagine that you are one of the best teachers that has pendejita now and that envy if you are. If any of your students are listening to us now, please appreciate what Felisa said. They don’t appreciate that teachers are very important and thank all the teachers they have had in their lives. Felisa Thank you so much again. Thank you very much to all the audience of Supli Chain Now in Spanish if you are interested and attracted to talks like the one we had today with Felisa Higgins. Please feel free to subscribe to their Onix page in English or join us for all the other programs that have their Play Chain Now. You can visit us at our website www. Puntó Supply Chain or dotcom. Again Enrique Alvarez demos happy to thousand thanks for being with us and see you in the next episode of Supply Chain in Spanish to the lake I alluded. Thank you, greetings and good luck.
