“Sustainability can’t be a bolt-on strategy where you do business and then you do sustainability. Customers want to see how sustainability is integrated into your business strategy. What they want to see is if you are developing a sustainable business strategy, not just a sustainability strategy.”

– Ellis Jones, Global VP EHS&S, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

When Goodyear’s customers call for supply chain sustainability, they want the company to prioritize sustainable materials, zero emissions, and processes that emphasize circularity. But they also want Goodyear to demonstrate stewardship of more than what happens inside their own four walls. They want the company to be able to trace products, not just from tier-one suppliers, but all the way through the supply chain, to tier 2, 3, and 4 suppliers. The challenge may be substantial, but if the team is willing there is nothing they cannot achieve. In this episode, Hosts Scott Luton and Billy Taylor, AME Board Member and CEO, and President of LinkedXL, are Joined by special guest Ellis Jones, Global VP EHS&S at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. With Supply Chain Now Host Scott Luton representing the voice of a live audience, Ellis and Billy share stories and experiences from their time working together at Goodyear, including:

– How companies can balance the benefits of management systems with the need employees have to feel secure in their positions

– Why it is important for everyone on the team, from the bottom to the top, to buy into a unique and common definition of ‘winning’

– The critical importance of having both visibility and traceability if a supply chain is to become more sustainable

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.

Scott Luton (00:00:33):

Hey, Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Scott Luton and Billy Taylor with here right here on supply chain. Now, Billy, how are we doing today?

Billy Taylor (00:00:42):

Hey Scott. How about yourself? It’s a happy Friday.

Scott Luton (00:00:45):

Absolutely. It’s been a great week and we get to cap off this week of programming, reconnecting with the one and only Billy Taylor, who we talked about in pre show. You’ve got a growing fan club and all of our team members are a big part of it. We’ve really enjoyed our collaboration with you on this manufacturing leadership series, which of course we conduct in partnership with our friends at the association for manufacturing excellence too. Great to have you back, Billy.

Billy Taylor (00:01:09):

Oh, it was great to be here. God, I get excited just to know that the show’s coming and, uh, just the, the interaction with the audience, uh, behind the scenes. So I really enjoy you having me here and fill out the beer with the deep

Scott Luton (00:01:24):

Outstanding. So from your earlier appearances, I think I’ve written 127 page book thus far on leadership, best practices and manufacturing best practices, but you know what, there’s more just wait. There’s more because we’ve got a big guest here today. We’re going to be welcome welcoming in Ellis Jones with the Goodyear tire and rubber company momentarily. But excited about that. Excited to have you back. And we’re talking manufacturing, one of our favorite topics here today. Now for some, for all three of you that may not know Billy, just yet, you know, he’s a member of the board of directors with, with AME. He also leads his own consulting practice. So, and he also spent a big chunk of his career working with Goodyear, where he led as our call, Billy manufacturing for all of north America. Uh, and I believe you served as chief diversity and inclusion officer as well during your time.

Scott Luton (00:02:11):

There is that right? That is correct. Right. So been there done that. Uh, and you’re going to also hear from Billy and I bet Ellis too great sense of humor, which has been important to maintain throughout these challenging times. So great to have you back. Okay. So Billy, before we get into the heavy lifting, let’s make a few announcements real quick, and then we’ll also welcome everybody that’s joined into the sky boxes as we call it. Sound good. Sounds great. All right. So got to pay the bills a little bit here. So I want to invite all of you all to join us for one of our upcoming webinars slated for August 18th, 12 noon Eastern time, where you’re going to hear from a company about their digital first direct to consumer brand. Their omni-channel evolution. Quip is the name of the company and, and Billy I’m new to Quip, but my wife, Amanda, who of course Amanda and Jayden Claire behind the scenes making it happen from a production standpoint, Amanda’s a big fan of Quip. Have you heard of Quip? Really?

Billy Taylor (00:03:08):

No, I haven’t. This is news to me as well. You know?

Scott Luton (00:03:12):

Well, it is, uh, evidently they have been on quite the move and they have been creating very passionate fans of a variety of their products, but especially modern day toothbrushes and dental health care products. So learn from those that I think it’s always neat to benchmark companies that do create raving fans and we can all learn how to, how to do some of that on our own, right.

Billy Taylor (00:03:35):

That’s right. I’m gonna have to look them up. That sounds interesting for myself as well with you

Scott Luton (00:03:40):

And with a, whatever it takes to get our kids, to brush your teeth. You know, once, once we can find some products that guarantee that, Hey, that’s the next big business idea, but Hey, join us August 18th at 12 noon for a great webinar there. And then also, you know, some of the big questions we get here at supply chain now regularly is, Hey, how can I advance in my career? Or how can I find a job? So one of the ways we wanted to start answering those questions more effectively is assemble a panel of experts that can really speak to those questions and help. And so on July 29th, just a couple of weeks around the corner, we’ve assembled this great panel, Maria crystal, mark, Rodney, and Peter is going to be spending about three hours with registrants for this free session, focused on career advancement and finding a job and a professional development. You name it. So join us for that. Billy, you may know Mark Preston there. I believe y’all two are on the board, right?

Billy Taylor (00:04:34):

Absolutely. There’s a couple of names that are familiar on that list there. So that should be a very exciting session and it’s a need for what’s happening in our business communities today for young business professionals and also experience. So, uh, that, that too looks exciting to be a part of

Scott Luton (00:04:50):

Greed. I tell you, this is a great look forward to, to take lots of notes in this, this group here. Okay. I think blink for both those first webinars are in the show notes. Y’all check that out. Of course, we also are pleased to serve as the exclusive virtual host for the digital version of the supply chain insights global forum, our global summit, rather in September, September 7th to tonight, uh, the in-person versions can be there in Franklin, Tennessee, uh, where Larysa, Siri’s going to be holding court with some of the movers and shakers across supply chain and join us for the virtual version. It requires registration. You can learn more at supply chain insights, global summit.com. And then one last thing we’ll touch on and we’ll touch on this at the end of today’s live stream as well. Billy is, Hey, the AME everywhere international conference, 2021, which I know is circled on your calendar as coming up in October.

Billy Taylor (00:05:41):

Yes, that is. And it’s actually building to be a very, very educational and practical experience. So I’m actually now in the process of putting a employee resource group operating system workshop for the event. So we were working that. So it’s going to be an exciting event. I’ve been looking at some of the speakers and the content it’s going to be a really, really good international conference. Love

Scott Luton (00:06:05):

It. Look forward to that. Uh, you can learn more. Anyone can learn more@ame.org, uh, networking training, hearing from some of the movers and shakers, especially across manufacturing, including Billy Taylor. It sounds, uh, learn more@amy.org and we’ll touch on this at the end of today’s live stream as well. Okay. So Billy, one of my, one of our favorite parts beyond making his nap Smiths and paying the bills a bit is engaging with the folks that joined us right here on this live stream, right? I’ve I’ve as much as I’ve learned from you and, and our guests. And I learn a lot from the folks that show up and dropping what, what they’re thinking in the comments, right?

Billy Taylor (00:06:40):

Absolutely. Actually, that’s where I start taking notes, Scott, the feedback and some of the one-liners we get, I mean, they’re phenomenal. So I look forward to this part of the show as well. Agreed.

Scott Luton (00:06:53):

I’m with you. And I want to start, I’m gonna scroll down a little bit here cause uh, DC is where this, uh, today in DC has been on the show. A couple of times love her perspective and she’s a big fan of Quip. How about that? One of the raving fans, and as she says, their love, their commitment to digital, and they’re gonna be touching a lot more on that, on the webinars. So DC hope this finds you well out in the Western us in, in gorgeous, either New Mexico, Arizona, I can’t remember right off, but hope this finds you and your family. Well, all right. So scrolling back up, we got [inaudible] nevus back with us. I’ll tell you. He has been, uh, Amanda, we’re going to [inaudible] like three or four badges. He’s on all his live streams. So welcome back. Sri nevus. Look forward to your POV here today. Hope this finds your family. Well, I, YouTube is tuned in via LinkedIn from Morocco. Welcome. Look forward to your comments here today. I’ll see a sign is tuned in via Saudi Arabia. Assan welcome via LinkedIn. Uh, thanks so much for joining us here today. Claudia Freed, Billy, you haven’t met Claudia yet. I

Scott Luton (00:07:51):

Don’t think I’ll tell you.

Scott Luton (00:07:53):

We get the two of y’all together and we can, we could boil the ocean. Claudia is good people. She just joined us for an episode of supply chain now in a spaniel and probably her second or third appearance with us. But Claudia hope this finds you well and great to have you here today. So she’ll is with us via LinkedIn. Let us know where you’re tuned in from. So she’ll welcome. Welcome an India. And if I got that wrong, I apologize. Please let me know Andy, as he says, thank you for that, Andy. Great to have you here via LinkedIn. Thanks for joining us. I believe it was yesterday or one of the early last rooms this week and always great to have our, have your back salmon fingers crossed it’s coming home. Hey, how about that Simon hope, hopefully the, um, I guess it’s not a new role anymore.

Scott Luton (00:08:39):

Uh, Simon, Billy has started a new career opportunity, uh, probably a few months back. Uh, but Billy, as much as we enjoy your sense of humor, Simon might can match it over to we’ll see. Now, Peter, you’re not supposed to be here. Peter is supposed to be, uh, on some appointments and maybe some afternoon golf matches, but he says good afternoon made it on time. All major organs have been checked out, which is great. Now fully understand what ladies go through when that cold jelly hits you for an ultrasound, Peter. And we’ll have to get you to elaborate that maybe maybe much later, much later in the afternoon, but most importantly, great to hear that you got a two thumbs up from a health standpoint. That’s great to hear. All right, so we’ll get to, we’ll try to get everyone on in, on the comments throughout the live stream here today.

Scott Luton (00:09:32):

Keep your comments, come in your POV. Common, you know, as much as Billy in our guests, Ellis is the stars of the show. Uh, the third star of the show is certainly the folks that show up in the comments and we look forward to featuring your perspective here today as well. But Billy, it is time to, uh, I’m looking forward, uh, our guests today, uh, Ellis Jones, uh, not only did we enjoy the pre-show conversation, but I understand from our previous prep calls that you and him may go back a little bit and there might be some stories that we can share and maybe a few that we can’t share.

Billy Taylor (00:10:07):

Absolutely. I always say it. You hear the saying what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. What happened with bill Ellison? Billy didn’t happen. It didn’t happen, but not all Susan. We actually grew up together and grew Goodyear. Uh, when you talk in our career paths, uh, Ellis is one of the most well-rounded executives I’ve ever met. He he’ll tell you a little about his background and, and how he’s come through the ranks, uh, leading executive at Goodyear, uh, just a solid person, uh, and really understands leadership. Alright, that’s servant leadership where when you, when you listen to Ellis and one of his sayings is all encounters matter and he’s been, um, uh, we, we, we went through being on the same team. Uh, he’ll say that, uh, at one point he was a plant manager, one AME award after he left and you, and that’s around sustainability, he’s like a guru in that space. Not only building systems of excellence, but sustaining them after the leader leaves. Uh, so Ellis was just a well-rounded person, a family man, uh, just a, a ground level leader that, that, that you respect

Scott Luton (00:11:20):

All encounters matter one of our first t-shirt isms here today. So with that foreshadowing, Billy, I want to welcome in Ellis Jones, vice president global H S and S and business continuity with the Goodyear tire and rubber company. Oh, Hey, how’s everyone. Very good. Have you hear Ellis? Hey, it’s Friday too for our automation engine here today. So it’s, and it’s been a long week evidently, but Hey, we’ve really enjoyed our pre-show conversation as, as Billy and I, a good time talking about, we had to go through, uh, an army of agents to get your own

Scott Luton (00:11:57):

Ellis, uh, and

Scott Luton (00:11:59):

Great to have you here. Look forward to diving into some topics, but Billy, where are we starting though?

Billy Taylor (00:12:05):

I’m going to let Ellis, uh, first of all, thank you for joining us today. As Scott said, we had to, it was almost like getting LeBron James or someone on the show today,

Ellis Jones (00:12:17):

But you made it good, man.

Billy Taylor (00:12:22):

So let’s start with, why don’t you tell us about yourself and a little bit about your background?

Ellis Jones (00:12:27):

Sure, sure. Hey, so I am from originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I’m 55 originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uh, went to school in Hampton at Hampton university in Hampton, Virginia, and later received my MBA and a master’s in operational excellence from the Ohio state university thought I would never go. I promised myself I would never go to an Ohio state school, but I ended up at Ohio state. It was great experience, great university, and really enjoyed it. Um, so been with Goodyear for about 32 years. I have a different background getting to where I’m at today. I started off in finance and accounting. So I have a degree in accounting and spent more than half of my career in finance and accounting. And that’s what Billy and I ran into each other. I actually spent 10 years in manufacturing and finance and accounting and it as a coop controller, assistant plant controller and so on. So I spent a lot of years in finance and accounting, finance director of different businesses than finance director for manufacturing purchasing supply chain in our north America operations. And then I went to the dark side. I became plant manager of our race tire facility in Akron, Ohio. And I’ll tell you, it was probably probably the best experience I ever had in my career. It was unbelievable. And that’s where I say the first time Billy really worked for me.

Ellis Jones (00:13:55):

Billy was actually my leader. So I actually reported the belly and look, we were very close friends that I never get. My wife said, how are you going to end up at work? How do you work for Billy? That’s going to be difficult. And I say, you don’t understand. I just gained the best employee ever have. Wow, Billy Taylor, that’s the type of leader he is. And I really felt that going into this position, that Billy would be the best advocate and work for me, um, as, as a leader. So I did that for five years and then I took over environmental health, safety, sustainability, and later received business continuity. So that’s how I ended up where I am today.

Scott Luton (00:14:33):

So Billy so much to kind of peel away and dive into, but, but you got his words there on part of what he’s shared. It’s gotta make you feel good.

Billy Taylor (00:14:42):

Well, it really does because you know, sometimes personal relationships can get in the way of business relationships. Now what he will say that I never compromise on the, and I wasn’t an easy person, right? It wasn’t. But as a leader, some of the stories that I can tell you about Ella step plant it wasn’t a new plant. Correct? Tell me a little plant.

Ellis Jones (00:15:06):

Yeah. There’s one of our oldest facilities. Uh, it was so to say it was local too. So steel workers local too. So it was their second local organized today that tells you how old the facility facility is. Hmm.

Billy Taylor (00:15:20):

Yeah. And what, what was one of the things that the first person that your day in nowhere out of the expectations?

Ellis Jones (00:15:26):

Yeah, so, you know, so I went and when I went to introduce myself to the team, so I came in as an it finance person. So everyone thought I was going to shut the plant down old facility and in our performance in that facility, wasn’t that great. So the rumor was, I was coming in and shut the plant down. Why would they bring in an accountant into the organization to run the organization? So the union president told me, Hey, Alice, there, the word is, you’re here to shut us down. So the first time I met with the associates, I did an all associate meeting and I introduced myself, told mom, you know, all these great things about me. And there was one person sitting in the front row and I knew that was trouble. He was sitting in the front row all by himself. And when I open it up for questions, he raised his hand and he said, Ellis, don’t take this personally, but we have no expectation of you whatsoever.

Ellis Jones (00:16:13):

He said, uh, you are here to shut this plant down. You don’t understand us. You don’t understand this operation. You don’t have to make tires. You don’t care about our safety and oh, by the way, your team sitting behind you, they don’t care about us either. So don’t take this personally, but we have no expectation of you whatsoever. That was the opening salvo of my experience in this, in this plant. And that was that set the tone very early for what I needed to do in this organization. And that was learned and just, you know, really, you know, get the respect of the organization, but earn their respect as a leader. And I felt I had to do that from day one.

Scott Luton (00:17:00):

I love that. You know, we’ve got a dear friend of the show feel over at art, a procurement likes to say feedback is a blessing. And if that’s the case, Ellis boy, you had a bounty that day. But you know, it’s probably in a weird way rather than folks thinking what that, that, um, team member said to you, for them to share that with you and to give you the opportunity to respond. That was probably a really good thing.

Ellis Jones (00:17:24):

Yes, yes it was. And I tell you, we became good friends. He is a good friend today. When we see each other, I go back to the planet. It’s a planet here in Akron. We talk. Uh, but what I, what I learned that day was, and as I walked around a facility and learned more about the facility, the environment was critical and they just didn’t feel respected because of the environment. And then safety was another area that was top of mine. So my focus going in and what, what he taught me was again, earn their respect and, and part of that. And the major part of that was safety, both physical and psychological and really developing that type of environment was top of mind for me.

Scott Luton (00:18:06):

All right. So I want to share a couple of comments and then Billy, uh, before I moved to sustainability and I want to get your, you know, one of your key thoughts, so what Ellis just shared there, but, uh, let’s say hello. So Denise is tuned in via LinkedIn from Norway. Welcome Denise. Great to have you here today. Let’s see here, Claudia really agreed with your earlier comments, Billy, about how sustainability is far more than operations shoddily. Welcome. It’s your first time here. I believe you’re tuned in from Tunisia and we appreciate the feedback. Hey, feedback truly is a blessing. So look forward to, uh, your comments here today. Also a play on, um, all encounters matter. Ellis is we’ve gotten her fired hello in a fraud tire. Tread. I love that. Uh, finally, uh, Enrique and Ricky Alvarez. Great to see Billy Taylor again and congratulations for having such a great guest. Hey, Billy makes us all look great. And to bring on Ellis as well and have us learn from both of these, uh, leaders, what a treat here on this Friday. One of the things

Billy Taylor (00:19:11):

Scott, you brought up is just summarizing what Ella said, right? It it’s. Why did I really think Ellis would be a great guest and it starts with trust. And so when Ellis talks about the union person or leaders going in to lead others or change or transformation, I look at Ellis earning the right to change and see that’s what most people miss. And when people go into companies or Lee companies, you get the technical, right? You’ve got the title, you got capital investments, you’ve got work instructions, but earning the right to change is around culture. And so Ellis that’s what I saw you do is earn the right to change. It had nothing to do with accounting,

Ellis Jones (00:19:49):

Right? That’s exactly right. Bill and village, right. You know, again, they knew I was an accountant and I had to change the way I worked every single day. And I’ll tell you, you know, I, I had one cost me. I had a very good controller. He was a previous director of mine. I had a strong team. I love my team. And they enabled me to, to, to really be successful there. We were successful as a team, but I decided, you know what, I need to step away from the finance side of it and really move them away from that and really focus on them. So I had one cost meeting very early on and I told my team no more cost me. We, we can, I, I can manage my controller, command costs, no more costs meetings. And we focus on that environment and that’s what Billy.

Ellis Jones (00:20:34):

So we focused on safety. We cleaned up the environment, we’ve invested money and just cleaning up the entire environment. And it was funny early on, which I didn’t realize this. Um, they came from an organization when the environment was cleaned up, the plant was sold. So then people said, oh, here we go. He’s cleaning up the environment. There must be getting it ready for sale. So I had to work through that, but after we get past that with the team, the team really embraced it. And then the safety part of it who can deny focusing on safety. And we really focus again, focused on those two things, the physical environment, clean it up and making people and helping people feel respected and valued. And then safety. Everything we did was around those two very early on in the process.

Scott Luton (00:21:25):

I love that. You know, guys, we’re gonna need a couple of initial hours here today. I feel like there’s so many, so many stories and, and lessons learned that we could have both of you expound on, but I want to share just to close the loop here at Enrique also is a leader of our logistics with purpose, uh, and supply chain now in a spaniel series here. So great to have you tune in, in Rica T squared. We were talking about to just yesterday T squared. He holds down the Fort for us on YouTube. He says, uh, hashtag HBC, you made, this is great to see, uh, as an HBC you’ve made man twice and finance man bitten by the supply chain management bug. This is good reflection. You can’t be what you don’t see. Thank you for sharing that. T’s great and great to have you back. And Simon enjoys this. Billy makes us all look great. Well, it’s true. Isn’t it? I mean, listen, look and listen, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. And then finally Peter says he loves their performance dashboard charts behind Billy Ray Taylor. I agree with you or he’s demonstrating how empty hid.

Scott Luton (00:22:30):

All right. So a lot of fun here. Thanks for everybody’s showing up. So continuing down this path here, w w you talked about the environment a couple of times, of course, you talked about safety. I love that, but let’s talk about one of the other, I guess, successes. These days used to be 5s S now success. I believe mine might be seven S around the corner. Sustainability. Yes. So tell us, uh, Ellis, what are some of your thoughts here and what are some of the priorities for sustainability at Goodyear?

Ellis Jones (00:22:52):

Yeah. I’ll tell you what a, what a challenging, challenging environment, but an opportunity to create an environment rich with opportunities. So when you think about sustainability and it is more than an operations, that when you, the scope of sustainability is so great. But if you think about one of the critical areas is sustainability and supply chain. Um, so, so what we’re seeing in, in, in, you know, you see all the companies announcing net zero net, zero targets, and our greenhouse gas emissions. Well, what happens behind the scenes and what’s happening in us is as companies make those announcements, they look in their supply chain because you can’t do it without your supply chain. You have what you focus on, or which you can control, which is scope one, scope two within your operations. But then you have to move to the scope three emissions, which are those emissions within your supply chain, right?

Ellis Jones (00:23:40):

So, so what we’re seeing from, from our customers, they want net zero products. So they want us to deliver net zero products. They also want sustainable materials, so more, you know, more sustainable materials, those materials that are much more friendly to the environment and contribute the circularity. So you can rework those materials back into the product. I’d say the other bit, I think the third one would be traceability within the supply chain. So being able to trace your products, not just the tier one suppliers, but all the way through your supply chain, to those tier 2, 3, 4 level suppliers, it’s a challenging environment. It’s rich with opportunity, but those are the demands we’re seeing today. Billing

Billy Taylor (00:24:29):

Things. Yeah. That’s how I remember. Right. Working, uh, in going through the sustainability meetings, when you didn’t retain right from the customer. Now, just in summary, the customer wants to know the sustainability around how you win, how you work and where are you focused.

Ellis Jones (00:24:43):

Yeah, that’s right. That’s exactly correct. That’s exactly right. And you’re right, Billy. So what, what you have to do is, and this is our customers and our investors want to know, how are you integrating sustainability into your business model? It can’t be a bolt-on strategy where you do your business and then you do sustainability, right? They want to know because the accountability is starting to, to ramp up as well in terms of, okay, we know what you said, but give us the proof. So, so now they want to see how sustainability is integrated into your business strategy and what you do, and what they want to see is are you developing a sustainable business strategy, not a sustainability strategy, but a sustainable business strategy.

Scott Luton (00:25:27):

Yeah. Well said, Claudia really appreciates the circular economy mentioned. I think you mentioned also circularity LS, which is yes. Love to hear leadership focus more on practical application. And you know, the results that you just mentioned a second ago, T squared says, speak the language of the business, not so much to function. I love that. And then Peter talks about how back when he was in procurement. I think over at, uh, uh, air Canada, I think I got it right. Peter Paul, you’re going to kill me if I didn’t, but he led procurement projects on aircraft tires, uh, back in early 2000. So, but there’s some stories there. Simon says, uh, the U S and the UK are United and yet divided by language. I don’t think that statement about Billy making us look good means quite the same thing on this side of the time. Tell me I’m gonna have to, I’m gonna have to learn more about that. We’ll see. And then finally Columbia says sustainability quote, quoting Ellis cannot be a bolt on strategy and other t-shirt ism here today. Okay. So I’m, we’ll connect, uh, offline. I got to figure out how I put my foot in my mouth this time. All right. So let’s keep driving. Let’s talk about, let’s move from sustainability to robotics or as Billy and I were talking, pre-show cobots. Right? So, so Ellis, what are some of the things you’re seeing there,

Ellis Jones (00:26:41):

You know, with what Vermont, you know, like you said, you, you you’ve seen and we’ve seen, you know, robotics come in and replace people. And that’s something, when you think about sustainability, you know, you, you don’t really want to see that you want to protect people. You want to make sure, you know, you don’t create this divide so that you are seeing, you still see that, you know, look, there’s a, there’s a place for robotics. There’s a place for robots to do more technology, do the job, but you’re also looking for robotics to, to, to help people and enhance, uh, everyone’s ability. Uh, one we’re seeing safety. My, you know, personally, what we’re working with is how do we bring in robotics that help people do their jobs safely, uh, wearables. That’s another thing that we’re seeing. We’re seeing more rare wearables opportunities for vest, watches rings to help people, uh, stay safe. Uh, the other area that, you know, digital and technology is coming into play. And I talked about traceability, which is very, very complex. It’s the digital application and tracing your products through your supply chain. So, so a lot of different areas we’re focused on and other companies are focused on, but as Billy said, I think it’s going to continue to emerge and continue, you know, not, not replace people, but how do you help and enhance, you know, how people can do their work.

Billy Taylor (00:28:03):

Have you seen, uh, in industry, you thinking cobots, whereas people were right, the psychological safety around robotics, are they being involved up front, like doing robotics or development of robotics with the team, instead of doing it to the team. So people having input on what they specifically need to be more effective, to be safer, uh, in the development of robot, uh, robotics.

Ellis Jones (00:28:26):

Yeah. And that is critical. So how do you involve people and really involving people upfront, as you, as you develop new manufacturing systems, how do you bring those people in that are going to do the work? And he bought away if, if their work is going to change, so you help them understand how their work will change with the addition of the robotics and the plant, or a coal box in the plant, they may do something different. That’s, you know, it’s building their capability to be able to do a different job. So you’re upskilling them. So they’re helping you bring the robots in place, and then they’re being upscaled to be able to do something different within the facility.

Scott Luton (00:29:08):

Mm well said, you know, going back, you mentioned traceability, talk about things in demand. You know, that traceability, consumers want to know where things are, where the components are sourced and where things are grown, you name it. And I love the movement, right? Knowledge is certainly power. And that’s a big part of this huge, massive push globally, for more visibility, more visibility for supply chain leaders, manufacturing leaders, business leaders, but also more visibility for consumers. And it sounds like that’s part of, part of the game plan there at Goodyear. So we want to move more into management assistance, uh, Billy and Ellis, um, regardless you can have the world-class automation, right? Maybe automation is so good that not only do robots and cobots, uh, get what was that phrase, Billy, a round

Billy Taylor (00:29:59):

Or black and half the bag,

Scott Luton (00:30:05):

Lots of production tires, a good tires, but you could have the best robots that do all that. And maybe even make you a permitted cheese sandwich at lunch, right. World-class automation, but you still have to have management systems. Right. And we’re talking about this notion Ellis before we went live about how companies are culturizing management systems effectively these days. Any thoughts here? Ellis?

Ellis Jones (00:30:27):

Yeah. I’ll tell you what this is. Hey, this is a great learning from Billy. And as I look, I made mistakes with management systems just as everyone else, a lot of people did and thinking you can just put in this really nice system and people will gravitate towards the system and operate within the system. I use a, Billy knows what I’m about to say here. It’s I have a, a structure that, that I use it’s it’s structure environment, uh, the capability. And, and when I think about management systems, you know, management system, as part of the structure, so you need strong management systems, you need governance. Those were that’s where those digital systems come into play, but probably the most, most important is the environment that you create for your team to be able to operate with this management system. We often forget that and, and you really do have to make it safe for your organization to operate with this management system.

Ellis Jones (00:31:26):

It can look great. It can give you all this great data, but if the team doesn’t feel safe, cause a management system is going to point out your gaps and it’s going to expose your gaps. You’re going to be very transparent with those gaps. But man, if it’s not safe in that culture to be transparent, the team will not operate well with that management system. So we often forget how do you make it safe for your team to be able to operate within a structured management system. And then that’s about building their capability. So, so as a leader, how do you assess your team and say, okay, are we capable to operate within this management system? Very important that we often for you. So as you say, as Scott, it can be the beautiful system, but if you don’t really build the environment and the culture to be able to operate within the system, it’s probably not going to work. It’s not going to be sustainable. Right. It’s kind of like getting

Scott Luton (00:32:22):

The keys to a brand new Ferrari. If you don’t know how to drive, it’s just a brand new Ferrari. So Billy, you’re going to say something. Yeah.

Billy Taylor (00:32:30):

One of the things that I’ve seen, even as a consultant working with fortune 500 companies, uh, in the management system is rare that the is the reason the management system fails. It’s the management team that creates the system to fall apart. And one of the things I’ve seen is that leadership, courage or leadership standards, I always say what you accept, you cannot change. So what’s the standard, right? You’ve heard me say that before advice. I even tell my daughter, look in relationships, what you accept, you cannot change. And what you accept becomes a standard. And I just have a couple of stories in what else? Uh, I was, uh, Ellis was running north America and Ellis’ right. He’s getting his masters. And he calls me one day and he says, Hey, Billy, I like to shut the plant down for a month. Now we’re going to use a NASCAR tires.

Billy Taylor (00:33:23):

And I’m really looking at my phone. He lost his mind. I’m like, I’m like, that’s unheard of and Goodyear’s culture. And he said, I said, what would you like to do? I’m listening. I never said, no. He says, I want to train my people from the janitor all the way up. I want them to know the roles and responsibilities. Really. I want them to know what they own and you know what, Billy, they don’t understand this operational excellence stuff and I’m listening. I’m like, you want to do what I’m doing? And I’m really, and I’ll let him talk about it. You’re out of your mind. Right. But we did it so Ellis. You want to share them? Yeah.

Ellis Jones (00:34:03):

I remember that day. Look first, remember I’m a finance person. So I did the math. So I made sure I did the math cause I knew Billy would ask, but, but I knew it was something that it hadn’t been done before. And as Billy said, in our culture, you don’t shut down a factory, but we looked at it. And you remember, I talked about building the environment and understanding the capability of your team, why I knew my team, they, they still didn’t have the capability and I was learning as well. And, and I knew the environment wasn’t there yet for us to be successful, but we had to build this environment. So I sat down, we did the numbers, we looked at it and I felt I could recover if I, if I really get the team aligned. And I really started building their capability, I knew we had operations or we had opportunity, uh, within our supply chain to recover.

Ellis Jones (00:34:53):

So that’s what I called Billy and said, look, I need to go through the strategy deployment process. And I need everybody to understand, you know, what winning is. So what’s what is winning for our organization. I need to cascade that all the way through the plant. So we really did. We spent that month of December and it was never done in our facilities. And we spent that whole month just learning together, building our strategic plan, aligning the strategy, aligning the action. So at the end of it, everyone had an action plan. Uh, everyone had a development plan. We aligned our KPIs, including me. I had, I started with my action plan, my KPIs and how we’re going to hold ourselves accountable. And again, including me throughout the year. And that was the start of really our team kind of really building the confidence to be able to operate within the management system. And that’s where we built the culture started building the culture,

Billy Taylor (00:35:54):

They, that investments side. So after that, when you started up one, he never missed the order too. He was working six days a week to get product. In five days, he went to a five day workweek and gave people back their quality of life. Right? And then the plant was probably one of the best performing plants as far as year over year improvement, uh, even with the shed down, uh, and went on to win the AME award and thinking sustainability, the process lived beyond Ellis. So when you’re talking a real good daily management system, it lives beyond the leader.

Ellis Jones (00:36:28):

Yeah. And I’ll tell you Scott, a couple of stories with belly here. I just, just, just again, his, his leadership and how he fit into this, to this culture. One, you’ve heard the term catch catchall. So one of the things we did, it was what safety am. I? I had a, I had a goal from Billy from the region on safety and I gave it to my safety leader and he came back and said, I can’t hit this goal. I said, well, we need to talk about this. He said, Ellis, I can’t hit the goal. We’re not capable. So during this strategy deployment session, he starts playing catch ball with me. And this was the first test, I think, for the elite, for the team to see this leader, you know, be able to play catch ball with me. And he had his data, he came in and he said, and I said, I believe you.

Ellis Jones (00:37:09):

So then I had to bring billing it. And in front of the entire team, that’s the ability we can hit the safety. And Billy said, Alice, I need to understand that because the safety goal went all the way up to the company and we play catch ball. And the team watched me play catch ball with Billy. And at the end, Billy says, I get it. You guys aren’t capable of hitting that goal. And we agreed on a goal. And then Billy took it. That was, I think the leadership that built that cycle helped build that psychological safety. You know, they saw someone playing catch ball with me and then me playing catch ball with Billy. And we ended up with a goal that we could all align to. And then Billy could hold me accountable and I could hold that leader accountable. And we expected that

Scott Luton (00:37:55):

And you and the team can make that commitment. And even though it was a, a stretch is what I’m hearing. I’m still, it was, it was one that was not unreasonable. And one push the organization to, to reach more and perform better. So, um, I gotta share some comments here. There’s so much that you and Billy are sharing. That’s, that’s triggering a lot of thoughts here. I want to go all the way back upstream a bit. Chadley says it’s time to make vertical integration between different supply chain layers to create a better solid and efficient supply chain network in result. There will be multiple optimizations in economical, social and environmental aspects. Hard part is building trust between different firms, I think is what cellie says. Billy, you want to comment on that first and I’ll go to Ellis.

Billy Taylor (00:38:45):

I agree with it when we call it managing the intersections. Right? And you look at as it’s also a vertical and a horizontal intersection. Right? Right. And you, you, you’ve got to marry those up. It’s like a highway or right. Us traveling, there are intersections and what keeps traffic flowing, right. Those standards and those relationships. And it’s important. But those have to be clear. Ellis talked about strategy deployment. What’s the strategy to get everyone in the room because when people don’t know what they own, they blame. Right. Right. And you hear me say often in the abs of ownership comes blank. How do you solve that? Getting those people in the room, those players in the room, those vertical and horizontal players, and make sure they know what they own and then hold them accountable to the strategy. But not only the strategy, most companies only focus on the KPI.

Billy Taylor (00:39:34):

It’s credible that you link the KPAs with the KPIs, the key performance actions with the key performance indicators. Right. And then I didn’t say a leading indicator. I said an action, right? If I want to lose weight, you’ve heard me say this, say this, I can’t stand on the scale and wonder what the heck is happening. Right. I was two 50 yesterday. I’m 2 52 today. What did I eat? Three chocolate bars. When I said I was the only one. Right. Did I have that four slice of pizza? Right. And so I need to look at the KPAs around all of those systems when you’re talking to integration and hold people accountable to the actions as well.

Scott Luton (00:40:13):

Excellent, good point.

Ellis Jones (00:40:15):

No, it’s, it’s a great point. I mean, you really linking everyone and transparency. When you think about sustainability, transparency is, is like, it’s a foundational kind of, you know, ex expectation for, for sustainability. And what we’re finding is, and people, you know, it’s a change for many organizations and many, many different industries to be more transparent and open up your organization, but what you find and how you’re able to link the different organizations, different suppliers is transparency is saying, Hey, you know what? I’m going to open this book. And it allows you to look in, and it’s not to look in, to criticize. It’s a look in to say, where do you need help? How can we help you? How can we partner? So as different, you know, as different suppliers, different, you know, elements of the supply chain open and up to say, okay, here, here I am.

Ellis Jones (00:41:12):

Here are my challenges. Here’s where I don’t have transparency. Here’s where I do have transparent or here’s where I have traceability. Here’s where I don’t have it. Hey, human rights, right? Another critical element of the supply chain. What’s your due diligence process around human rights. Hey, why don’t have one? You know what? Here’s a, here’s a due diligence process and here’s how we can help. So transparency is a critical element of creating that link with those different layers. And again, it’s not about criticizing the different elements. It’s about saying, okay, we see you. Here’s where we can help you. And that’s going to be so important as we move forward.

Scott Luton (00:41:48):

I love that. You know, our dear friend, Mark Preston, Billy always is known for saying, don’t fool yourself, right? Don’t fool yourself. You’ve got to keep it real right on this topic of, of, uh, humans rights and, and human trafficking and slavery, even, uh, Amanda, I’d love for you to drop the comments are the Lincoln for hope for justice. So we’ve got our big December event coming up to celebrate supply chain and procurement achievements and whatnot. Reporting with this nonprofit called hope for justice. That’s keeping it real and shining a big spotlight across the globe of, of, uh, some of the atrocities that still goes on. So, and then fortunately new global supply chain leaders got their work cut out for us because, you know, thankfully a bigger spotlight is being put upstream and downstream in, in some of these very disconcerting areas of global business.

Scott Luton (00:42:37):

Uh, and it’s important. We don’t shy away from, from the tough topics. Uh, so anyway, hope for justice. If you could drop that in the comments we want to help make their noble mission more visible. All right. I want also want to share, uh, gosh, this is a, this is a wonderful, this is like a mini masterclass with Billy and Ellis man. I’m going to get a certification leaving. Once we close up this live stream, Claudia says, uh, there’s a poor, that’s a Pearl of wisdom. Safety is not only physical. It’s also emotional only then teams can thrive. I think both of you are kind of speaking to that Ellis. You did in a very pointed matter. Peter talks about, we mentioned Ferrari, which I’ll never know in my entire lifetime, what those feel to drive maybe, but Peter did drive one for its 50th birthday. He drove one around the racetrack from a it’s a gift from his daughter. Gregory says, tracking and tracing are inextricably intertwined as the former provides location of assets, equipment, commodities in real time. And tracing provides a historical view of such with visibility, transparency, accountability for those operating in supply chains, value chains, logistics, frameworks, very crucial towards enhancing sustainability, Gregory. You have a new nickname. You’re the William Shakespeare of supply chain, man, any comment? And I’ll just stop there for a second. Any comments there? Uh, Elyssa stick with you.

Ellis Jones (00:43:59):

Yeah, no, I look at that, you know, I can’t say too much and this is very it’s. So it’s a challenge for all industries. Some have, you know, kind of met this challenge. We’re still working on it. You know, when you think about natural rubber and we think natural rubber is a sustainable product, it’s natural. It comes from trees, right? But there are still sustainability challenges with natural rubber. You talk about the forestation, you talk, well, like you said, just talk about human rights. Uh, so we, we need to make sure that we’re, we’re purchasing our natural rubber from, and well as our competitors, that there’s no DF deforestation associated with it, right there, there are no, you know, there’s no child labor associated with it, you know, so we’re doing a lot of work around, you know, being able to trace that natural rubber all the way back to its origin.

Ellis Jones (00:44:46):

Here’s the challenge. There are millions and millions of small farmers, you know, are supplying this big network. And there are so many different layers, uh, within, within our natural rubber supply chain. So that’s the challenge in it, but that’s the, that’s the, you know, kind of what we’re dealing with. You want to eliminate deforestation. You want to eliminate, you know, human rights issues, uh, trafficking or, or child labor. So that’s why it’s so critical to be able to trace it through the supply chain. And we’re all working towards that and we’d get NGLs helping us with that. Uh, in this, if we all do it, we all went, I think society wins that we can do it right.

Scott Luton (00:45:25):

Well, what I can, I really appreciate Ellis and Billy, I’m sure you can too, is, is the scope of this, right? I mean, millions and millions of farmers and, and sourcing partners, you name them. And this is despite our best efforts and, and real, not lip service, but real intention and investment and all the partnering that you’re speaking of Ellis, that folks are helping you identify and improve and rectify and whatnot. This is the, this is the kind of the challenge of our, of this time, right? Um, and, and each challenge presents a wonderful opportunity, right. To move forward collectively and together. But I admire that trance, you know, just because it’s the right thing to do, doesn’t make it easy and doesn’t make it easy just from a sheer, get it done standpoint. And I appreciate those comments there. Ellis Billy. I know you’re what, what are some of the things that this brings to your mind?

Billy Taylor (00:46:16):

Well, we look at tracking and traceability, right? It goes back to creating that safe space. So peaking people can come forward and put the dead fish on the table. Right. If there are repercussion for that, right. You an airport, you hear, if you see something, say something, right, right. And, and those are those, those systems when you don’t create that environment where people can come forward with real data, real constraints, right. Real issues, you know, as a diversity inclusion, uh, leader, my thing was creating those allies, right. Because that’s a sensitive subject and you’re talking diversity and inclusion. It can be very intimidating to some, right. Especially the white male. Sure. And right. And it was like, no, let’s have that safe conversation. Let me talk to you about this. Right. And it wasn’t a, sometimes unconscionable, unconscious bias. It was afraid bias. I don’t, I’m afraid that if they had the wrong thing, I’m afraid ignorance. Right. Right. I mean, I know,

Scott Luton (00:47:19):

All right. I want to agree. I want to just, it can be very challenging. Especially a white Southern male know, growing up in a where I grew up, sometimes my, of saying the wrong thing can prevent the conversations that need to happen to happen. And those tough conversations, you’re speaking to the built the ability to put that dead fish on the table. That’s how we tackle and move on and move forward. But it can be some of that head trash. It resides between the ears, you know, based on maybe where you’re from or how you grew up or whatever. So I appreciate you. I’m gonna steal. I’m gonna completely and blatantly still that dead fish analogy, Billy and Ellis.

Billy Taylor (00:47:56):

That’s what I see. I was working with a, uh, the CEO of a company and we had, I applaud to sleep. I’m not going to put his name out there, but one that humility, that vulnerability to have that conversation openly in front of his team, it was, uh, what he took away from that conversation was more valuable. Right. Right. Because now the understanding that they have the ability to have that conversation openly and then go down in your organization and find out what that organization needs. And therefore when issues come forward, they’re bringing solutions with the problem, right. It’s not a blame game.

Ellis Jones (00:48:38):

And, and Scott, you know, Billy talks about this and I’m sure everyone is, you know, Bernay brown. She talks about this in terms of, you know, you know what, you know, when I think about courage, you know, she talks about, you know, making, you know, look, you have to be vulnerable. And, and it is so true as a leader. If you can’t stand in front of your team and be vulnerable, I just think your team and you were, you’re leaving something on the table and you’re leaving a lot on the table in terms of creating that safe space. It is so important that, that you can step in front of your team and be vulnerable and talk about the things that you may not know where you need help and where are you going to and challenges. And that’s something that I, you know, I had developed over the years and I felt very comfortable with that.

Ellis Jones (00:49:21):

People think being vulnerable is, is not courageous, right? It takes courage to be vulnerable. I mean, that is the essence of courage to stand up, but that that’s, that’s what it takes. And it’s so important as leaders to do that. And, and, uh, you know, Billy mentioned it and I had to have to say it cause it’s so critical. If you want to move forward to be vulnerable. And again, sustainability transparency, you’re opening yourself up. You’re vulnerable as an organization, but it’s courage to do it. And it’s a huge step. And I think your, your team members realize that your suppliers realize it. And then I think you ended up in a better place.

Scott Luton (00:50:03):

I’m with you. I got to share a couple of comments here from what, uh, both y’all were just sharing Charles heaters and hello, Charles. Great to have you loved that style leadership. Thanks for sharing Peter. Boulay leading and vulnerability go hand in hand to your point. Ellis. Hey, Dr. Rhonda, how are you doing? She says fear very true from so many different perspectives. You know, fear can kind of shut down the ability, honest, compassionate communication, excellent point. And then as lay, going back, a little ways in the conversation says great to have you here. Once again, with us as Leah, we have been crippled as a society for so long by these same cyclical issues, labor rights, slavery, et cetera, mostly because they have been hidden overlooked, labeled not important, only expose issues can become solved issues. I loved that. I was late. Great to have you here. Okay. So, um,

Billy Taylor (00:50:55):

Can I jump in on as a list, say, hello,

Scott Luton (00:50:58):

Janet, great to have you here with us.

Billy Taylor (00:51:01):

Go ahead. I love your statement because one of my famous quotes in business in anything is you can’t manage a secret. Tell us more. It’s impossible. You can’t manage a secret. And so everything that LS and I, and Scott, and talked to him about this, not only how you expose those secrets, but now how you manage those secrets. I just wanted that. I didn’t want to miss that opportunity, Scott. Yeah,

Scott Luton (00:51:26):

Well said, and, and I’m adding that. That’s going to be my 140 seventh page here today in this, in this manufacturing leadership series. But really both of y’all is it’s tough to tackle everything we wanted to in an hour. We’ll have to have you back Ellis. I want to share this one, one more comment before we make sure folks can connect with you both. This is [inaudible] and if sometimes the LinkedIn profile doesn’t show, but, uh, our friend from Gartner, he says, if you don’t take risks that you can manage through courage and smarts and only hide you won’t succeed. And that is an excellent point. It’s all about taking those risks. There’s calculated risks, but getting out of your, getting out of your comfort zone as well. Yeah. Okay. So much we’ll have to save for next time, but, but Ellis really appreciate you taking time out as busy as both of y’all are here today, but let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you after today, but you’ll have some folks that want to kind of compare notes and learn more from you.

Ellis Jones (00:52:24):

Yeah, no, no. It looks, Scott has been a pleasure, uh, source, you know, connecting with you today and always a pleasure, uh, with my friend, Billy, my good friend, Billy here. So this is, this has been great. And I’ll come back anytime you guys let me know, and we can tackle these topics and we’ll be more topics, but you can, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Uh, you can go to the URL and Ellis Alan Jones, uh, is where you’ll find me on LinkedIn. And please connect with me, uh, send me messages. Let’s um, let’s start a dialogue if you, if you’d like to do that,

Scott Luton (00:52:53):

Love that LS. I love that. You’re I bet your LinkedIn inbox is going to be overflowing. Like the feedback you got earlier as you joined that, that plant leadership team. It was so good. So good to hear that. And, and have you here and meet you and hear your, your POV and expertise firsthand. So big, thanks to Billy, Billy. Let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you and all the, all the things you’re up to, including I think this is public knowledge, this book you’re writing, which will be released. Uh, I want to say last time you shared maybe in the,

Scott Luton (00:53:25):

Or early next year, is that right? Yeah. Early

Billy Taylor (00:53:27):

Next year. Uh, connect with me is, is Lee. LinkedIn has LSI. I always respond to my own. I don’t have no social media manager. So that’s what I do. Love building relationships. Uh, go to my website, LinkedIn linked X l.com. That’s the name of the company for linked excellence. And, um, the book actually right before I didn’t open the email Scott, before we started, McGraw-Hill just sent me what the title of the book is going to be. So we just found that out right before the, the show today, I didn’t open it because I didn’t want to get too excited. And, uh, but the book is coming out and it centers around next generation link. Right? What’s next what’s beyond Toyota, embracing everything from Toyota, that cultural piece where leaders go in with airport lean, right? They, they, they pick the book up in the airport, they read it and they land and say, we need more six Sigma black belts. So we’re going to be lean. It focuses on how to incorporate the tools. So that’s, what’s going on with myself. Again, always loved being on the show. You have a great audience and a great team behind the scenes as well.

Scott Luton (00:54:34):

I’m with you. Uh, and sometimes in front of the scenes, it’s great to have Jayda. In fact, we’re going to get Jay to own an upcoming lab stream. One of our newest team members and love her perspective, but right conversation, Billy and Ellison and bill, if you hold back for a second, I’m going to bid Ellis ado. Thanks so much for your time here today. We’ve been talking with Ellis Jones, vice president global, E H S, and S, and business continuity with the Goodyear tire and rubber company. We hope to see you again soon. Ellis.

Ellis Jones (00:55:02):

Thank you, sir. Okay,

Scott Luton (00:55:04):

Excellent. I’ll tell you, Billy man, you don’t disappoint what a, I mean, that’s one of those conversations that, you know, sometimes you feel the hour and other times you blink and it’s time to wrap up and, and you could have just easily and smoothly moved into the follow-up hour, but we’ll I got a feeling we’ll have Ellis back again, Billy.

Billy Taylor (00:55:25):

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think he enjoyed it just as much as we enjoyed having him a wealth of knowledge.

Scott Luton (00:55:31):

Well, I think the two of y’all I mentioned early on the front end, I think would get you and Claudia together and we can solve the world’s ills. But man, I wish I was a fly on the wall for some of the conversations and some of the things you, you and him, he did working as a team at Goodyear. So we’ll have to dive in deeper to that next time. So before we wrap up here today, we want to make sure folks have the opportunity, especially folks that may have joined in late to know about the upcoming AME everywhere international conference, 2021 coming up October 18th through the 21st slew of great speakers. You can learn more@ame.org, but, um, Billy, you mentioned earlier, you’re prepping for one of the sessions you’re going to be leading. You know, w we’ve seen some of the keynotes, I’ve been a part of this event on several occasions. You know, the networking is top notch. The, I believe Amy’s making a lot, the training available, uh, far beyond the end of the event, so that teams and organizations can take advantage of it. What else, what am I missing that folks need to know about this event coming up in October?

Billy Taylor (00:56:34):

It’s uh, it’s where I actually cut my teeth, right? It’s it’s, it’s getting, getting familiar with the practical processes and you know, it’s not a cost, it’s an investment. I look at what I get from this conference is if I brought in a consultant or someone, I wouldn’t get that type of hands-on one-on-one and this buffet of operational excellence. Right, right. And it’s something there for, for everybody based on what you need. And so that’s why I’ve already always attended. I recommended this year and you know, the team at AME, they’re constantly, constantly looking for what the, what the business community need instead of forcing tools out there. So yeah, it’s going to be a great conference

Scott Luton (00:57:14):

Greed. Well, Hey, if we can hear from more leaders like you and Ellis and our friend Mark Preston, who’s in the sky box today, he says, Scott, I see more coffee in your future. Mark, admit, I need more coffee today. It’s been a long week. I’ll only have 17 cups I’m used to about 27, Billy, but mark great is great to see you. Your ears may have been burning from earlier, earlier conversation, mark Billy outstanding, uh, discussion. And as Alayah, it is an a versus a virtual event this year. Uh, initially it was going to be Atlanta, but, uh, as every other organization, you know, they’re kind of keeping a finger on the pulse of everything that’s going on as we fight to get into everywhere, post pandemic environment. So this is gonna be virtual and you can learn more@aimee.org. Okay. And I got even more shout out Kim winter is with us.

Scott Luton (00:58:01):

Hey Kim, great to have you here. Uh, your ears may have been burned as well. We were talking about our friend. Uh, let’s see here, mark. Mark ormrod, uh, which is Billy. He is, uh, mark is a former role, Royal Marines commando. Also a triple amputee that is overcome all of that to now be a, a big inspiring motivational speaker, entrepreneur TV, movie, star pot projects coming up. I mean the guys just knocking it out of the park. We’re interviewing him on an upcoming veteran voices session. So Kim, great to have you here and thanks for making that conversation happen. Okay. So Billy folks know how to connect with you. You’ve got the title. I don’t think you released, you probably can’t share that title of your book Kenya. No, I haven’t even

Billy Taylor (00:58:48):

Read it yet. I just saw it pop up in the side email. We have the title and I thought that’s exciting. Totally excited. That is

Scott Luton (00:58:55):

Exciting. Well, Hey, what’s um, this weekend we got, we got Friday afternoon, any big plans, what’s the one thing you’re looking forward to this weekend.

Billy Taylor (00:59:03):

I, I speak to a lot of youths around, right. That value proposition. How do you show up? And so I have a couple of classes with the city of Akron where young leaders, future leaders that I’m going to be speaking to just around their brand, you know? And so that’s, what’s going to happen this weekend and, uh, just a little bit re relaxation. I love

Scott Luton (00:59:25):

It, man. He keep on, keep on, keeping on. I love it. And one final question then we’ll wrap, you know, Ella shared a ton of really good stuff here today and you know, in a manner and it was my first time meeting and talking with Ellis, you know, some folks when they talk, you know, it’s lip service. Now the folks, when they talk and share, man, it comes from a really authentic space and genuine space. And you get that with Ellis. But what was your favorite thing that, that, uh, Ella shared here today?

Billy Taylor (00:59:53):

Well, I think for me, it goes back to his transparency and the ability as a leader to have those difficult conversations around being servant. One of the things with LSE is very, when I started my company, I remember meeting him at Starbucks to tell him about my strategy and he squirrly looked me in the eye. It was almost embarrassing. You hurt my feelings. To be honest with you, he says, this is horrible. You don’t know what you want to do. You think you’re good at a lot, but what’s that one thing you’re offering. That’s what I want from Billy Taylor. He goes, I don’t see that here. And in, in, you know, that’s what I wanted from a real leader, a real friend. And it, it, it actually caused me to focus, but what if he didn’t have this conversation with me? How many options was leaders? Do leaders do that? And so leadership in sustainability is, is around that transparency, that leadership courage from, with Melisse,

Scott Luton (01:00:45):

That’s a wonderful way to wrap today’s conversation. Me and a dear friend have always have pointed to this punch in those conversation. We had 20 years ago, which is, it’s just that moment of Frank. This is what you need to know, and you’re not gonna like to hear, but it really, it, it takes relationships to a whole different level. And oftentimes if you don’t give that feedback, you’re doing it folks at this service, right? So I love, love hearing that. What a great key takeaway from what Ellis share today. So much more from what you and you and Ella shared here today, but big, thanks. Big. Thanks to, uh, again, Billy Taylor board member with AME also make sure you check them out at linked X, l.com. Is that right? That is correct. Stay tuned for this upcoming book that would be released early next year, title forthcoming and make sure you join a Billy Taylor fan club, which we’re proud to lead the Atlanta section these days. But Hey, most importantly, folks, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for all the great comments, man, to go back and read some of these. We’ve got a book of comments, wishing you a wonderful weekend wherever you are, but most importantly, Hey, do good. Give forward. Be the change that’s needed. Give someone that Frank advice that you need be just like Billy and Ellis. And on that note, we’ll see you next time right here at supply chain. Now, thanks for buddy.

Intro/Outro (01:02:01):

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