Ken Ackerman

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…

Special Guest Blog Post written by Karin Bursa, Supply Chain Industry Advisor and Supply Chain Now Host   Here is a diagnostic question I use with supply chain leaders: when disruption hits, do your teams spend most of their time debating the data, debating the scenarios, debating the plan, or debating the decision? Or all of the above? Seriously though, in 2026, that distinction matters. Network shifts driven by tariffs, geopolitics, cost pressure, and sustainability are accelerating. Gartner’s 2025 U.S. Trade and Immigration Policy Survey indicate 77% of respondents selected network changes among their top actions in response to tariff impacts. [2] If the physical network is moving, the digital planning platform must move even faster. The environment is forcing decisions to be made faster, more frequently, and with more variables than ever before. Gartner says supply chain decisions are becoming 71% more complex, happening 52% more frequently, and need to be made 57% faster. That triple constraint cannot be accomplished with cadence-based batch planning cycles as a default operating model. This is why I am focused on a single, practical outcome for supply chain teams: accelerating decision velocity. The ability to move from data to insights to actions faster…