Intro/Outro (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.
Scott Luton (00:35):
Hey, good morning everybody. Scott Luton here with you on Supply Chain. Now welcome to today’s show. Hey, today we’re sharing a few thoughts on one of my favorite topics, good news. Hey, some of our listeners may be familiar with my related weekly message on Friday mornings on LinkedIn. And if you’re not connect with or follow me on LinkedIn and hey, join in those weekly conversations, I’d love to hear your thoughts. But here today on our podcast, I’m gonna be touching on, on three recent good news topics that I’ve written about previously in recent weeks up. First, I’m gonna talk about my son Ben, and his baseball adventures and, and just how that might relate to supply chain. Secondly, I’m gonna touch on an anecdote from a political campaign. Yes, political politics. Bear with me. I’m sure we can all appreciate the story and what it might mean for the world of business.
Scott Luton (01:29):
And then finally, the power of music and how we might find some leadership tips in some of our favorite tunes. And if y’all have listened to any podcasts here at Supply Chain, now you know that we love food, we love sports, and we sure do love good music. Alright, so where I’m gonna start at today is with my son Ben. He’s gotten back in baseball. Uh, I’m the proud father of, of the kid out there on the baseball diamond, wearing number 44 as he grins and just loves to play the game of baseball. Now, I shared a couple weeks ago a really neat and accurate perspective from industry week on business lessons. We can learn from one of my favorite games and one of one of the world’s really favorite sports, but really it’s greater than that cuz I believe there are not just business lessons that we can learn from baseball, but life lessons and really universal truths that the game of baseball can teach us if we’re willing to listen and take it to heart.
Scott Luton (02:32):
Now, despite taking a few years off from baseball, my son Ben has really leaned into the game this year and everything he’s had to catch up on when you take a couple of years off from a game like baseball in his first kid pitch season. So yeah, there’s no more coach soft pitch at this level. My son has had to absorb a lot, but I tell ya, he’s been fearless and all boom boom, which is one of my nicknames for Ben. He’s got a lot more athletic jeans in him than his dad, thankfully. And hey, he learns a lot faster too. I’m grateful, really grateful to be able to spend time with Ben at practices and games, you know, playing catch and, and really coaching him up, right? We all need folks to help us get coached up right And above everything else. He and I have l talked a lot about playing a smart game, right?
Scott Luton (03:26):
Learning from every single at bat, learning from every play, from game to game. That’s how we make progress, right? And in my book, you don’t have to be the strongest or the fastest or the hardest thrower as long as you play a smart game hustling and constantly learning. So in one of the last games, o Ben got called out because he didn’t know to run the first base on a third strike that the catcher doesn’t cleanly catch. He was really upset, but we talked through it and he was bound and determined not to make the same mistake again, especially now that he understood it. So a week or so ago, I was absolutely beaming as Ben took off on a third strike that the catcher had missed. And let me tell you this, he was like greased lightning shot out of a cannon, hitting that first base safe by a mile.
Scott Luton (04:21):
Ben was not going to be denied the best catchers as I, as I’ve told his mom and my mom, the best catchers in all of major league baseball would’ve not have been able to throw Ben out in that play. And it takes my brain to this phrase, fail, learn, apply, overcome. That’s exactly what Ben did. Fail, learn, apply, and overcome. And even if it’s really small, like getting on first base, those are building blocks for how in the bigger picture, he becomes a better baseball player. And I believe there’s so much universal truth in this simple process that applies to life far beyond baseball. Yet, as you and I and all of us perhaps know, so many stop so many folks out there stop after that fail phase. Ariana Huffington has been quoted as saying something that I really wholeheartedly agree with. Quote, we need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions that will screw up royally.
Scott Luton (05:24):
Sometimes understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success. Greg White has also challenged many leaders include myself with something that I also wholeheartedly agree with. He likes to say quote, be right a lot end quote. So true. So simple, but so true. Global supply chain leadership was tested greatly over the last few years, and many organizations failed that test. But the good news that should give us all calls for optimism, much like my son Ben, global supply chains and its leadership have learned tremendously from those failures. And many have applied those learnings in powerful ways to find success in ways old and new. And that my friends, is certainly part of the secret sauce where we take these failures and get them working for us, getting ’em to teach us lessons that can move our organizations, our teams, and the industry forward.
Scott Luton (06:31):
And that is good news, at least to me. All right, in our second story here today, we’re gonna move from baseball to politics. And stick with me here. About a month ago, former President Barack Obama celebrated the retirement of a special person that played a big role in his 2008 campaign. Now, as he tells a story, the Obama campaign made a stop in Greenwood, South Carolina back in his initial run for the White House. And as Mr. Obama tells it, as he arrived there in a little town of Greenwood, he was behind in the polls, he was worn out, he was weary, and as he says, he was worried. Enter one, Edith Childs now described as a passionate, colorful, fiery, and energetic public servant. Edith Childs greeted the future president by leading a room full of supporters in a now legendary chant, fired up, ready to go, fired up, ready to go, and the crowd and a candidate where they came alive with a spring.
Scott Luton (07:33):
In their step, in that moment now feeling like they had hurt a turning point, at least when it comes to maybe energy and morale and optimism, Barack Obama and his staff would go on to incorporate either the child’s and her message into various parts of their campaign. Now, about a month ago, Ms. Childs retired after serving 24 years on the Greenwood County Council. Years later, president Obama would say, Edith Childs just goes to show you how one voice can change a room in. So I would say this, to all those singular voices out there fighting in the good fight and trying to change a room and the status quo, hold the faith and keep going. As my friend Charles Walker, who is a great person to connect and follow on LinkedIn, as Charles Walker shared, uh, a few weeks back quote, never underestimate the power of persistence.
Scott Luton (08:39):
Hey, I love that. And I think we all could be more like e the Childs and, and maybe even Charles Walker in the world would be a better place. All right, we’re gonna wrap here today on music, as I mentioned on the front end. Hey, we love music here at Supply Chain. Now our global fam loves music and I’m gonna touch on ways that music, even our, some of our favorite tunes, Mike can teach us some, some business lessons learned. You never know where you’re gonna learn something, right? And I wanna start with this quote, which is not, no one knows who to attribute it to. It’s one of those unknown quotes. And it’s quote, those who wish to sing, always find a song end quote. I love that quote as it speaks to both a positive, optimistic mindset, but it also alludes to what I’m talking about, the power of music these days.
Scott Luton (09:31):
I probably listen to more music via YouTube than the radio you might be saying, yep, digital transformation. But did you know this? In 2022, just last year, vinyl albums outsold compact discs for the first time since 1987. What is old is new again, I guess. But of all the references that crop up on supply chain now, programming, you know, I’ve touched on sports and food and television, movies, books, whatever musical references probably appear the most in our podcast, our webinars, our live streams and the like. In fact, we conducted a great show a month or two ago where we chose musical themes with Mike Griswold from Gartner that we can tie back to issues and trends taking place in global supply chain. So along those lines, I wanna share, and in the spirit of good news, I wanna share a few tunes that are on my YouTube playlist that I believe speak to leadership themes.
Scott Luton (10:35):
Okay? And I’d love for you to share yours. So I’m gonna start with one of my favorites, bill Withers. Lean on me. You’ve heard it, I bet. Now, of course, this tune has a ton of universal application from most importantly, let’s take care of our team members, especially when the going gets tough to things like, hey, being a good supplier, a good customer, a good partner. Cause it’s easy to do right when things are good. But your real character comes out when things get tough on those toughest, toughest of days, right? From Motown to the eighties Journeys, don’t stop believing, man. I think it’s a regulatory thing that we have to include. Don’t stop believing in any favorite music list in conversation these days. It’s had a resurgence in the last decade or two. But the genesis of this song of Don’t Stop Believing by the Band Journey is where I think all of us can be inspired as the story goes.
Scott Luton (11:39):
Jonathan Cain Journey’s, eventual keyboardist was a struggling musician in Los Angeles in the 1970s as he had left his family back home in his hometown of Chicago to chase his dreams in la. Now, Kane would later say, quote, my dog got hit by a car and I was in Hollywood and I had to pay the Vet Bill. I called my dad for some money for yet another loan, and I hated calling my dad for a loan. I said, dad, should I just give up on this thing and come home? No, no, don’t come home. His dad would respond, stick to your guns, don’t stop believing. And Jonathan Kane would follow his dad’s advice. He’d stick it out, but he would write that message from his father in his little notebook, that phrase, don’t stop believing. And he would go back to that and be inspired and it’d pick him up on his worst of days.
Scott Luton (12:35):
And a couple of years later, journey’s lead singer Steve Perry was flipping through his keyboardist notebook of ideas, John Jonathan Kane’s notebook of ideas. And Steve Perry would see that phrase, don’t stop believing emblazoned on one of the pages. And that, of course, prompted Kane to tell the story about his father’s encouraging message. Well, the rest, as they say, is history. So if you’re hearing all of this and you’re struggling and fighting through your own set of, of challenging circumstances, trying to make your dreams happen, or make change happen, or trying to make ends meet, or whatever it is you’re striving for, hey, our team encourages you to keep to faith, hang in there, keep grinding, keep fighting in the trenches, and never, ever stop believing man again, the power of music. But hey, wait, there’s more, uh, the Greatest Showman. If you’ve had not seen The Greatest Showman, it’s a musical, uh, and also a movie, A Blockbuster.
Scott Luton (13:39):
What a great, mark it down. See it this weekend, Amanda and I love it, man. We love the so soundtrack, love the story. Well, one of the tunes is from now on. So this tune to me speaks to the powerful truth that it truly is never too late if you aren’t the leader or the person you want to be. Well, good news, you get to start today. You can start today. And if you aren’t happy with the performance of an aspect of your organization, guess what? You can do something about it today. How about the Gap Band? You dropped a bomb on me. This could be my kid’s most surprising, throwback, favorite tune. And hey, I’m not sure of another song that could speak to the surprises we all get as business leaders here in recent years. But hey, you gotta keep calm and carry on, right?
Scott Luton (14:32):
And then finally, queen and David Bowie sang this tune called Under Pressure. Folks, as we all know, burnout across global supply chain. Hey, it is real. One of the major themes that we’ve spoken with business leaders about time and time again on supply chain now programming is how imperative it is that organizations leverage technology to help their team members make their jobs easier, help their team members feel better about the job they do, help their team members become more successful. We gotta enable and empower and equip them with all they need to make better decisions, better decisions, but also faster decisions that are made with more confidence. So again, they can be more successful. This has further reaching consequences and implications than you might be thinking of, because if they’re more successful at work, right? The more successful, the healthier, the better they’ll be in general and the better they’ll feel when they aren’t at work.
Scott Luton (15:36):
And that is even much, much more important. Hey, let me know what, what tunes speak business, speak leadership, speak life to you. I, I’m really curious to know. All right folks, that’s where I’m gonna wrap our good news now episode today. Hey, thanks so much for joining me here today and for tuning in to our supply chain now programming, whether it’s our podcast, which we publish every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, our live streams, you can check out the supply chain Buzz every Monday at 12 New Eastern Time, and of course, our webinar programming as well. On behalf of the entire team, hey, this is Scott Luton challenging you. Hey, do good, give forward and be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (16:26):
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