Greg Buzek

Special Guest Blog Post written by Dyci Sfregola   Why planning, procurement, and leadership must move beyond coordination theater Collaboration is one of the most overused (and misunderstood) words in both modern supply chain and construction management. Everyone claims to value it. Few organizations design their operating models to make it work. In a recent conversation, Scott Luton sat down with Dyci Sfregola, author of Next Level Construction Management, to unpack what real collaboration looks like in practice; and why so many well-intentioned efforts fail to deliver measurable results.   What “True” Collaborative Planning Really Means According to Sfregola, real collaboration isn’t about more meetings or more dashboards. It’s about working together to create one plan, one set of assumptions, and real tradeoff analysis – – all owned collectively across functions. That includes finance, commercial, marketing, manufacturing, planning, and procurement all working from the same reality. Capacity, labor, cash flow, and constraints are visible. Decisions are documented. Actions actually change what happens next. The most common failure? Confusing information sharing with alignment. Teams often circulate data and emails and call it alignment, but no one in the room has clear decision rights – – or the authority to commit resources…

From Uber to Foundational Industries At Manifest 2026, Scott Luton sat down with Rachel Holt, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Construct Capital, to explore how venture capital is fueling the next era of supply chain innovation. Construct Capital, now six years old, was founded in early 2020 with a bold thesis: transform foundational industries that represent nearly half of GDP: supply chain, logistics, manufacturing, mobility, infrastructure, and defense. When the fund launched, Holt recalls many skeptics asking whether supply chain and logistics were truly venture-scale opportunities. It echoed what she heard when she joined Uber in 2011, when transportation was considered slow moving and heavily regulated. Yet Uber went on to redefine personal logistics. Her final years at Uber brought a pivotal lesson. While the rides business operated with second-by-second visibility, the company’s e-bike and scooter supply chain operated in near darkness. Products shipped from China would disappear for weeks at sea, briefly reappear at ports, then stall again in customs. “We had no visibility, we had no ability to reroute,” Holt shared, as this Eureka moment would go on to help shape her investment focus.   The Visibility Gap at the Seams Supply chain, Holt emphasized, is not monolithic.…