Nikki Baird

A Shift in the Narrative for 2026 In a recent conversation, Scott Luton spoke with Mark Gilham, Vice President & Head of Global Advisory at Enable, about what supply chain and commercial leaders should expect from the year ahead. While many annual outlooks attempt to forecast the next major disruption, Gilham offered a different lens: 2026 may become the “year of no excuses.” After years defined by a global pandemic, inflationary shocks, geopolitical instability, supply shortages, and the rapid rise of AI, organizations have already endured extraordinary volatility. Businesses not only survived, but in many cases adapted and grew. According to Gilham, that reality weakens the argument that disruption alone explains underperformance. Disruption is not disappearing, he cautioned, but leaders can only lean on it for so long.   Why a Calmer Year Raises the Bar Gilham argued that if external conditions stabilize even slightly, the pressure on leadership actually increases. A less chaotic environment removes convenient explanations and shines a brighter light on internal shortcomings. Process gaps, misaligned incentives, and execution failures become harder to ignore when the world is not on fire. Rather than waiting for certainty, Gilham believes leaders should act decisively. This does not mean radical…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now. We started our week off by publishing a Digital Transformers episode hosted by Kevin L. Jackson. This week he welcomes special guest Trina Limpert with RizeNext. On This Week in Business History, Scott shares a special story that is near and dear to his heart. This episode highlights Scott’s grandfather Dick Rutland. Scott highlights his grandfather’s experiences with Winn-Dixie and Kimberly Clark. On Tuesday, we released an episode of TEKTOK with hosts Scott Luton and Karin Bursa. These two had the amazing opportunity to interview Matthew Harding SVP of Data Science & Engineering, and Ben Cubitt, SVP of Consulting and Network Services at Transplace. For this episode of Supply Chain Now Scott and Greg had the opportunity to interview two important UPS figures: Daniel Gagnon, Vice President of Global UPS Healthcare Marketing and Strategy, and Tim Fosnough, Senior Director of UPS Global Freight Forwarding. During this conversation, UPS responses to the COVID-19 pandemic were discussed. On Thursday, we also released another episode of the Supply Chain Buzz featuring Aaron Meredith from Verusen. Scott, Greg, and Aaron covered all the…