Eduardo Mendoza

At the 2025 Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton caught up with Justin Siefert, a familiar face in the supply chain community and a leader at John Galt Solutions, a global provider of end-to-end supply chain planning software. From demand and supply planning to inventory and S&OP, John Galt supports organizations across industries with the holistic capabilities needed to thrive in an increasingly unpredictable landscape.   A Company Investing in the Next Generation Before diving into industry trends, Siefert shared an update on one of the programs that sets John Galt apart: its supply chain scholarship program, which awards $10,000 to students pursuing supply chain degrees. This year’s cycle brought in a record number of nominations, with new winners set to be announced in January. It’s an initiative Siefert is proud of—and one that reflects John Galt’s belief in cultivating tomorrow’s leaders.   Old Problems, New Pressures: Planning in a World of Uncertainty When asked about the biggest challenges facing planners today, Siefert didn’t hesitate: uncertainty. While the forms of disruption change—pandemics, geopolitical shifts, demand shocks, evolving portfolios—the underlying challenge remains the same. Planners must anticipate what’s next and respond quickly, often in real time. “No day…

Supply Chain Now is the voice of the supply chain industry, and our hosts are experts in the field. Podcast listeners and webinar viewers tune in to hear the sage advice of host Jake Barr, heralded as an architect of global supply chain strategy and creator of “profit powerhouses.” Earning His Spot on Stage Barr today is the CEO of BlueWorld Supply Chain Consulting, which provides support to such Fortune 500 companies as Cargill, Caterpillar, 3M, PepsiCo, and Pfizer and helps them bring products to market. “We place a premium on accelerating speed to market by leveraging supply chain transformation,” he says. “The result is better operating margin performance and the opportunity to drive faster growth in revenue.” During his more than 33 years with Procter & Gamble, Barr served as the global director of supply network operations and led the end-to-end planning transformation project, which created control towers that now manage the daily business globally and earned him recognition as the architect for the company’s demand-driven supply chain strategy. He served on the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics advisory council for its Supply Chain 2020 Project, was named to the League of Leaders for retail and consumer goods…