Charu Thomas

Did you catch all the episodes from Supply Chain Now this week? If not, get a quick summary and listen here! We added TWO additional episodes this week starting on Saturday, July 25th. We continued our Logistics with Purpose series, sponsored by Vector Global Logistics, and welcomed Kevin Carvajal with Salesian Missions. Supply Chain Now · “Logistics with Purpose: Kevin Carvajal with Salesian Missions”     On Sunday, we featured our recent webinar, “Stand Up & Sound Off: A Conversation About Race in Industry,” and welcomed panelists Dyci Sfregola and David Burton to Supply Chain Now.   Supply Chain Now · “Stand Up & Sound Off: A Conversation About Race in Industry”     We featured another great episode in This Week in Business History on Monday, where Scott looks back at some of the biggest historical events in business history for the week ahead. This week, he spoke about the past, present, and future of the cannabis industry.   Supply Chain Now · “This Week in Business History for July 27th: The Past, Present, & Future of the Cannabis Industry”     Then on Tuesday, we shared our live-stream with Jeff Cashman of GreyOrange with our podcast audience, as…

At the 2025 Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Fred Baumann, Senior Industry Principal at Kinaxis, one of the world’s most recognized leaders in supply chain planning and orchestration. Kinaxis has spent over four decades shaping the planning landscape and has been named to the Gartner Leaders Quadrant an extraordinary 11 consecutive times—a testament to its execution strength and long-term vision. Baumann’s role at Kinaxis centers on helping chief supply chain officers and senior leaders shape their strategic transformation roadmaps, quantify value, and build the business cases necessary to achieve breakthrough outcomes.   From Episodic Disruptions to Continuous Turbulence When asked about old and new challenges facing supply chain planning teams, Baumann observed a major shift: disruption is no longer episodic—it’s continuous. Historically, companies faced major disruptions every few years. Today, volatility and constraint-related challenges—whether driven by tariffs, sourcing changes, geopolitical shifts, or supply shortages—are unfolding weekly or even daily. This environment demands a new way of working. The speed of global business is accelerating, and uncertainty is at historic highs. As Baumann noted, organizations must now adjust their supply chains “much faster than they had to even last year.” The shift isn’t only…