Jon Davis

At Manifest 2026, Scott Luton caught up with Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive, and Co-Founder and Content Director of the Women in Supply Chain Forum, for a conversation that cut through the tech buzz and landed squarely on what matters most: people. Marina leads two influential digital publications covering the full spectrum of supply chain — from temperature-controlled cold chain logistics to e-commerce and retail — along with four major industry awards programs and the rapidly growing Women in Supply Chain Forum, now entering its fifth year. But amid all the innovation on display in Las Vegas, her message was refreshingly grounded.   Disruption Is the Baseline. Proactivity Is the Shift When asked about dominant themes shaping the industry, Marina didn’t hesitate. One common theme linking 2025 and 2026 is that “disruptions obviously still exist,” she said. From tariffs to trade wars to Mother Nature, the hits keep coming. What’s different in 2026 isn’t the disruption itself; it’s the response. Instead of dwelling on what’s gone wrong, companies are getting proactive. Leaders are “acting on it and being proactive about getting in front of it,” she noted. Since COVID, organizations have learned that…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Bernadine Henderson Ms. Henderson, senior director of procurement at Protolabs, lifts the lid on buying in manufacturing and why relationships are central to it.   Simply put, the job of a buyer is really about buying the right thing at the right time for the right price. It sounds simple, but it really is very complicated because everything that’s going on in the world impacts the timing, the availability, and the price of the product. This means that buying has recently got a lot more complicated. World events have very real consequences on global supply chains. Just one example is the way in which buyers have responded to tariffs in the U.S. by re-routing sourcing locations. It takes a certain amount of agility to be a buyer in 2025, and this quick responsiveness is helped along by one key ingredient, and that is strong relationships with suppliers. Relationships Built on Trust A widely held misconception is that buyers are only interested in getting to the lowest price possible. In fact, the most important thing to a buyer is for suppliers to bring solutions that deliver overall value. In my experience, a really strong supplier…