Javier Díaz de León

To compete in today’s supply chain landscape, you need the best talent. We can’t overstate this enough. The talent competition is fierce and has increased due to the rapid onset of machine learning and artificial intelligence. If you don’t have a talent management partner who can accelerate your leadership placements, you run the risk of missing out on the best candidates and making a bad hire. It’s better to trust professionals who can commit a full-time approach to helping you find the supply chain leaders you need, rather than disrupt your own operations, hoping you have the right access and relationships to land the best talent. Here are 5 leading supply chain recruiting and executive search organizations: SCM Talent Group The key differentiator for SCM Talent Group and other supply chain recruiters is their decades of relationships, coupled with thought leadership. Founder and Managing Partner Rodney Apple helped to build out Home Depot and Coca-Cola’s supply chains more than 20 years ago. These decades of experience allow SCM Talent Group to better identify leaders who can help to transform supply chains into competitive advantages. Apple’s deep relationships in this niche industry have allowed his team to access hard-to-find talent pools…

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Caglar Ozdag, a supply chain leader at ZS. Known for its deep analytics and technology expertise across industries such as life sciences, airlines, consumer goods, and agriculture, ZS has become a trusted partner for organizations looking to elevate their planning and manufacturing performance. Ozdag leads the firm’s supply chain practice with a focus on planning from detailed forecasting through detailed scheduling. As a former practitioner himself—having led planning operations at large global enterprises—he brings a grounded, real-world perspective to the challenges facing today’s supply chain leaders.   Old Problems Persist—and New Ones Are Emerging When asked about classic and emerging challenges in planning, Ozdag didn’t hesitate: firefighting isn’t going away. From supply planning disruptions to last-minute schedule changes, firefighting remains a daily reality. “Life happens,” Ozdag noted. Plans rarely match reality, and organizations must constantly adjust. But today, a new layer has been added: AI uncertainty. Everywhere he goes, leaders are asking the same questions: “Is AI the right investment?” “Will the ROI materialize?” “Are we adopting the right tools, or just chasing hype?” This blend of enduring complexity and emerging skepticism has become a defining…