Although procurement is a critical function for all companies, few are investing in their talent and technology. With continued supply chain disruptions and pressure from inflation, procurement teams are trying to figure out what their next normal is going to look like.

John Lander joined OMNIA Partners following a 20-year career at Office Depot. His experience includes building a world-class sales culture, sales deployment optimization, sales productivity improvement, merger and acquisition execution and integration, P&L development/ management, and growing new product lines with existing customers.

In this livestream-based episode, John speaks with co-hosts Scott Luton and Greg White about:

– The top priorities of the executive level representatives of members and suppliers he speaks with

– The top three pain points that procurement professionals face in today’s current market

– How access to a diverse portfolio of world-class products and services can help companies meet their unique supply chain needs

Intro/Outro (00:03):

Welcome to Supply Chain. Now the voice of global supply chain Supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues, the challenges and opportunities. Stay tuned to hear from Those Making Global Business happen right here on supply chain now.

Scott Luton (00:33):

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you’re Scott Luton and Greg White, back with you here at Supply Chain. Now, welcome to today’s livestream, Greg. How you doing?

Greg White (00:42):

I’m doing quite well. And back is right, isn’t it? Finally, back in the states,

Scott Luton (00:47):

Back from your, uh, sabbatical and your, uh, uh, your own assignment, right? Your own assignment the whole month, right? On

Greg White (00:54):

Assignment? Yes. And I did my assignment. Well,

Scott Luton (00:57):

<laugh>. Yes, you did whatever it was. All right, <laugh>, some folks have heard some of the highlights and some of your That’s true. Uh, appearances

Greg White (01:03):

Since you Monday. Yep.

Scott Luton (01:04):

Right. Speaking of highlights, big big show here today, backed by popular Demand. We got our friends from Omnia Partners, Greg. We’re gonna be focused on the wonderful world of procurement, and in particular, lots of PS In particular, we’re gonna be offering up expertise and action insights on revolutionizing your purchasing process in this current market. Greg should be a great show, huh?

Greg White (01:28):

Yeah. And, uh, perfect environment to be learning tips like this, right? It’s, uh, volatile, questionable,

Scott Luton (01:37):

Right? Uh, definitely.

Greg White (01:40):

Uh, yesterday we thought we were headed into recession. Today, we realized that the, in the states, anyway, yesterday we, or today we learned that the GDP grew much more than predicted in the previous quarter. So crazy, crazy times.

Scott Luton (01:54):

It is crazy. Vuca, the acronym VUCA comes to mind, v u c A, all that, and a lot more. Uh, but hey, lean on us as we offer up expertise from folks that have been there and done it to help you guide, uh, guide through your challenges, uh, when it comes to your own, uh, global supply chain ecosystem. And today we got John Lander with Omnia Partners, who’s gonna be joining us momentarily. But before we do, I wanna say hello to a few folks. Uh, Greg, we got John Peterson tuned in from Marietta, Georgia. John, welcome back. Enjoy your perspective.

Greg White (02:28):

Hi, John Berger. That’s right. We were talking about this while I was still in Europe.

Scott Luton (02:32):

That’s right. Absolutely. That sounds the world gets smaller.

Greg White (02:35):

Sounds really good too. Yeah.

Scott Luton (02:37):

<laugh> Derek tuned in from Dallas, Texas. We were just talking about Dallas. And appreciate Derek, great to have you here via LinkedIn. Yeah. Ahad from Egypt, uh, via LinkedIn. Great to see you, Ahmad. Uh, welcome, welcome, welcome, everybody. Uh, and, and folks, we wanna hear from you. So we’re gonna work our way through the next hour should be a great conversation on procurement leadership and a lot more. Uh, and we’d love to hear from you as we work our way through the conversation with our guests. Okay, Greg? Yes. Are you ready to bring on the one, only the pride, I’m gonna call it the pride of Pittsburgh, pa, but now of Franklin, Tennessee. If, if I’ve got that right, are you ready to bring on our guests?

Greg White (03:13):

Yes. In both worthy cities. Unquestionably

Scott Luton (03:16):

Outstanding cities. Yeah, that’s right. So Greg, with no further ado on, welcome in John Lander, executive Vice President Sales with Omnia Partners. John, how you doing?

John Lander (03:28):

Good. How are you guys?

Scott Luton (03:29):

Wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful. Great to have you here. Really enjoyed our, our pre-show session. Happy me, Greg. Yeah,

Greg White (03:35):

No question. We talked a little bit of football, and I think it’s looking up for two outta three of us. Scott <laugh>,

John Lander (03:42):

<laugh>.

Scott Luton (03:44):

So let’s demystify that. So John is a big Steelers fan, right? Greg, of course, big Chiefs fan. Uh, and I’m a bandwagon Falcons fan. And hey, we gotta be a better than last year, I’m hoping. So. We’ll see. We shall see. All right. Uh, and by the way, Josh goody tuned in from Seattle. Great to have you back as always, Josh. All right. So John Lander, we’ve already kind of established your Pittsburgh ties, of course, big Steelers fan. We were talking about Ani Brothers in the pre-show. Uh, but I wanna switch gears with this fun warmup question, and I wanna talk technology with you and Greg. So folks, did you know on this day, June 29th, back in 2007, the Apple iPhone goes on sale for the first time. So downplayed by many technology analysts and, and gurus globally, it only sold a million phones in the first 74 days. And as we all know, in many ways, it’s changed the world, right? So, with that as a backdrop, we’re gonna have a little fun with this. So, John, we’ll start with you. What is one modern technology that you now could not live without

John Lander (04:46):

<laugh>? So several come to mind. Okay. Uh, I’m gonna go with, uh, sticking with the iPhone.

Scott Luton (04:56):

Okay.

John Lander (04:57):

And, uh, first thing that comes to my mind, I got four girls

Scott Luton (05:00):

Wow.

John Lander (05:01):

In high school and just starting college. So I can’t live without, we have a little app on our iPhone that tracks Yeah. Where they are, how fast they drive, and where they’re located at all time.

Greg White (05:14):

360 or

John Lander (05:14):

Something like that, that I

Greg White (05:15):

Did not live with. That what? It’s John,

John Lander (05:17):

What’d you say,

Greg White (05:17):

Emily? 360 or something like that.

John Lander (05:20):

Yeah, that’s exactly what, it’s

Greg White (05:22):

Very

John Lander (05:23):

Terrible. <laugh>. Yeah. Try to keep, uh, try to keep an eye on

Scott Luton (05:27):

’em. That’s good. Big brother’s always looking out. Uh, yes. And we’re finding new ways and more effective ways of doing that day in and day out. Greg, that’s gonna be a tough one to top <laugh> your thoughts on, on your modern technology you couldn’t go without here.

Greg White (05:39):

Yeah. I, I would have to say for me, not the most modern, but let’s just call it any mode of independent travel. I just spent a month on maybe one of the best public transportation systems on the planet in Switzerland. And, um, while it is super convenient, fast to everything, and of course, being Swiss runs like a Swiss watch, I mean, on time is on time. <laugh>, I envied a little bit, some of the folks that got to drive the roads to where we were going and stopped to see so many of the sites, the Alps and things like that. So I think it gave me a newfound appreciation for, I’ll just call it independent transportation, whether that’s a car, a bike, or whatever. Right?

John Lander (06:25):

Love

Scott Luton (06:25):

It, man. Uh, the stories keep coming from this grand sabbatical. John, uh, from Greg over here. And hey, there’s a lot of, lot of fans looks like of this, uh, life 360. Paula, great to have you here. She’s a big fan. Uh, Barb, great to see you, Barb. One of our faves, longtime faves. No parents should go without it. Hey, who to thunk and looks like we’ve got 49ers fans, chiefs fans. We got, uh, Justin from Texas in the house, and Nicole, a fellow. See fans. Welcome everybody. Everyone covered? Nicole <laugh>. That’s right. Coast to coast, really around the globe. Uh, all right. So we had a little fun with the technology, uh, conversation. So let’s, let’s get into while we’re all here. Right? And I wanna start, John and Greg. John, I wanna start with, with your, uh, professional journey and, and your expertise and experiences. A lot of folks may not know that prior to joining Omnia Partners, you, you had a successful 20 year career at Office Depot. So if you could, what do, when you, when you reflect back on that, uh, what’s one or two things that were some of your, maybe some of your favorite things, favorite experiences during that, uh, that time spent with Office Depot?

John Lander (07:34):

Yeah, I think if you think about it moved 11 times. So it was unbelievable to start at the customer and move into management and continue to take over different territories. And, and I always spent a lot of time taking over the worst territories that are out in the marketplace. So learning how to retool, rebuild, build culture, kind of all those fun things are some of the best memories. And it’s really what benefits me today. Talking to our current, a lot of times they use me and kind of my past on what should you do and not do. So I think that’s probably the big highlight for me from, from, from off Steve’s standpoint.

Scott Luton (08:08):

I love that. And Greg, one of the things I heard there, if I heard John Wright is, you know, taking on those, uh, underperforming regions, John, is that right? And kind of becoming a turnaround, uh, specialist that we need more of that in, in business leadership, Greg, your thoughts? Yeah,

Greg White (08:22):

And it’s a thankless job, not to John’s scale, but I did that for an auto parts retail chain. And I don’t know if you experienced this challenge, you probably worked for a more sophisticated company, but you would go in and fix a store or a district or a region and leave and go onto the next crappy region just in time for the new manager to get the bonus you had set ’em up for. Mm-hmm. So we had to have a serious compensation, destruction or a discussion when I, when I started doing that. Cause I was like, Hmm, I’m doing all the hard work and they’re making all the money. Uh, well, but yeah, that, I gotta tell you, I guess, uh, that explains why 11 moves, right? Uh, there’s a lot of opportunity in retail to,

John Lander (09:04):

I I was always, I was always the one to say yes. Yep. And, uh, probably my craziest one is I, in Pittsburgh just had twins or four months old. My family’s in Pittsburgh. Never thought I’d leave as a pretty young age and, uh, president of Opdivo Cosby, and says, you know what, Hmm, you, you’re pretty aggressive young kid. Would you move to Boston? I said, yeah, well, I’ll move to Boston. And didn’t realize it Staples and w Mason was in Boston, so it took over the region and, and fought that fight for four years or so. So man, that kind of cata molded my career. Very

Scott Luton (09:36):

Cool. Well, you move to Boston, have green eggs and ham on a train. Uh, it was always <laugh>. Yes, yes, yes. Sign me up. Uh, and speaking, Josh says, going off of what John said, you do the jobs that people don’t want to do, and you will always have a job.

Greg White (09:48):

That’s a good point. That is an excellent point. Yeah.

Scott Luton (09:51):

So, reflecting, again, one final note, uh, John, on what you shared about your career, I bet that comes into, uh, yeah, it’s very handy that all that experience and those results and those outcomes you’re driving and what you do now with Omnia Partners, where you you meet your customers and figure out what their priorities are and where the challenges and help them get to the next level. We’ll touch on that, uh, towards the end of today’s, uh, conversation. All right, great. So John, let’s kind of switch gears here. So, so, uh, as we’ve established, uh, you’re, uh, working with all the rock and roll stars out there, shaking hands, making business happen, making things happen, moving mountains. So as you’re having these conversations with these business leaders out there, what are are a few of the priorities you’re seeing them have right now?

John Lander (10:37):

Yeah, so I, if you think about, you know, omni partners, I spend a lot of time with members, which are the direct customers, and I spend a lot of time with our supplier executives. So as with c e o, this Monday up in New Jersey for one of our suppliers, several, uh, top executives that I spent a lot of my time with, right. And, uh, you know, costs are climbing. Um, we spent a ton of time on, you know, costs are going through the roof. Uh, people are struggling to find talent. So I am, you know, known a lot of people through my career. So I do help a lot of our suppliers and members try to find folks. And I know my team does that really well. We’re rape networkers across different, uh, uh, suppliers and members where you, we deal on the public sector side and in the private sector.

John Lander (11:19):

So I get a lot of questions on, man, all this federal funding in the public sector, should I be shifting my resources in that direction to try to capitalize on some of those funds that are out there? So, and then the other thing you just saw, the acquisition we just made, you know, potentially with Premier, and, you know, a lot of people are going and focusing back on their core competencies, and I’m starting to see that from a lot of our suppliers, that, that the flavor was, Hey, let’s spread out. Let’s get into everything. And, you know, sometimes the beachheads get a little weakened and people start to pull back and really, you know, double down in markets like this on now, what their core competencies are.

Scott Luton (11:57):

Mm-hmm. John, a lot of good, uh, insights there, uh, from what you’re seeing and, and doing. Greg, your thoughts on some of what John just shared?

Greg White (12:04):

Yeah. Well, I mean, it’s been a volatile marketplace for a few years, and no one better than a problem solver, right? Someone who really enjoys, falls in love with the problem, or fixing the problem to be present for such a thing, you know, between the employment environment and the fluctuating, let’s call it fluctuating economics, right? Um, and then so many companies retooling. It’s, it’s a ripe environment for companies both to experience opportunities and challenges. And having, having someone who can help guide them through it, who’s experienced those ups and downs and overcome them is, is really incredibly valuable.

Scott Luton (12:43):

Absolutely. Everyone needs to have a John Lander in their network, right? <laugh>. Yes. Um, so let’s, let’s, uh, switch gears. Let’s talk about the wonderful world of procurement. Uh, so John, procurement is cool these days, kinda like supply chain, that’s a good thing. That’s definitely good news. So what do you see out there in your work and, and, uh, with your customers and, and different markets? What are some common themes in terms of what are procurement professionals? The top three pain points I’ll call it in the current market? Okay. Let’s, let’s start with the first one. What, what would that be?

John Lander (13:15):

Yeah, I think the first one kind of we’ll start out with is, uh, just procurement in general is just under invested. You just don’t see, uh, folks adding a ton of procurement professionals. I think that is, you know, where we kind of step in and where we could help. Yep. Um, so I think that’s probably the first bucket, I would say is, is a big one. There’s a lot that ties into that. Yeah. But,

Scott Luton (13:37):

Um,

John Lander (13:37):

So, but that’s a, that’s a key piece.

Scott Luton (13:38):

So John, that, that’s a great call out. Uh, so Greg coming in there, you know, while procurement critical, uh, and global supply chain has been for years, John’s, that’s a great, uh, call out. Companies haven’t been investing in procurement, talent and technology and wherewithal as much as, uh, maybe they should have, especially coming into the last couple years. Right? Your thoughts, Greg?

Greg White (14:00):

Yeah, I don’t know exactly where to draw the line between supply chain and procurement. I think they’re so yeah. Tightly intertwined. I mean, unless you’re talking about, well, no, even if you’re talking about brooms and mops, but they are so tightly intertwined and both have had that challenge of having the respect that they deserve, deserve for the impact that they have on the company. John just alluded to the challenging employment environment. We were effectively in supply chain and procurement at full employment, or actually we were below full employment. What did we have like 5 million open jobs among 44 million professionals. So we had, uh, over a 10% unemployment or, um, you know what I’m saying, <laugh>,

Greg White (14:45):

We had 10% of the jobs open, and now there are more of jo more of these jobs than ever. And, and yet I think companies started to, during the pandemic, they started to realize the impact. But I think Scott, and I don’t know, John, I’d love to get your thoughts on this. We have seen from the supply chain side for sure, a lot of backsliding where, you know, that you got promoted to the, to the grownups table, and then volatility started to come down. And slowly that, that prioritization of supply chain and procurement from our point of view, companies kind of went back to the old normal, right? Um,

John Lander (15:26):

Yeah. The only the couple things that I see, uh, quite a bit is, and maybe it’s not even less people in procurement, but people reallocating their talent and their resources. So they’re focusing on strategic supply chain initiatives that are in the marketplace. And so maybe they’re pulled a few folks that are really good in procurement and they’re sliding ’em over into supply chain, and they’re looking for our services to try to help backfill and just fill some of those gaps that might be there based off expertise. And so I’m really, I’d say I, I joined Omnia six years ago. Uh, I see a pretty, you know, public sector look, they’re way into this G P O concept and way down that path. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it’s unbelievable. Over the last five years, I’ve seen it for six years, I’ve seen a major shift. Even the private sector, even large Fortune 1000 companies are starting to move in this direction and say, Hey, we’re gonna focus on strategic initiatives for us, indirect procurement, you know, on the, what can you do for me, uh, in the market?

Scott Luton (16:26):

That’s wonderful. That’s just the first one. First of, uh, a couple of the pain pinpoints we’re gonna hit. Procurement is under-resourced, and, and John Echoes. John Peterson echoes y’all’s comments. Procurement supply chain John Peterson says, has always been underrepresented, and the first to see cuts when times get tough. But despite the direct to bottom line impact, Amanda, great to have you with us. Amanda agrees with him, and Richard says, Hey, the old adage, do more with less has never been more true. Great point there, Richard. All right. So the first one that we’re tackling procurement is under-resourced. Uh, secondly, John, when we think of the top three or three of the top pain points when for procurement professionals, what’s number two?

John Lander (17:06):

Yeah, I, you know, thinking about number two, um, I’d say what we’re hearing a ton right now is this inflation deflation situation that we’re in. You know, it’s prices were cruising, they’re going way up. Now, I think some, you hear different categories are coming down, different areas, freights coming down. And I think a lot of procurement folks that we’re dealing with on a daily basis, like, where am I? Like, what, what is the new normal? Or where should I be? And I think there’s a lot of uncertainty in that space, and, and we’re having tons of conversations around,

Scott Luton (17:38):

I bet, uh, it’s like, nail and jello to the wall a little bit. Uh, Greg, what, what about you? You, you were just talking about kind of the fluctuation your thoughts on inflation deflation. Uh,

Greg White (17:48):

It’s a tough environment because I mean, if just look at the base kind of standard compensation model for procurement professionals, it’s get that extra 20% right. And get that bonus or whatever it is. And if you’re having these price fluctuations and you’ve got challenges with fulfillment or new suppliers or suppliers that for at least a short time, were somewhat in the driver’s seat because of, of supply chain issues and that sort of thing. It’s a very, very tough position to be in. And, and, you know, it, that particular perspective, that particular thing that is compensated in, in, uh, supply chain or in procurement, is similar to what’s compensated in supply chain. And that is reduced cost at all cost. Right. And even to, and it, and it has occurred at least in supply chain to the detriment of, of stability, reliability, speed, right. Sustainability, other ethics kind of things that, that have really created instability and fragility in, in supply chain. And I think we have to examine some of those things that make it difficult to operate in, in these kind of environments. Uh, and I think

Greg White (19:03):

I’ve said this before, John, when talking to some of your colleagues, I think the benefit of A G P O is somewhat plausible deniability, right? You don’t have to have that battle because that battle has already been fought and won, and it’s done with a measure of leverage and partnership that a single company can’t, can’t accomplish. Because, you know, at Omnia or really any gpo, you’ve got hundreds, maybe thousands of companies who have the same suppliers. And when you pool that, just like anything else, you get these shared economies of scale. And, uh, that is so percent so incredibly powerful and stabilizing even in an unstable environment.

John Lander (19:46):

And I’ll, the other thing I’ll throw on is compliance is a piece of that. Yeah. So what we’re seeing from a compliance standpoint point is say you had a contract over the last couple years, deflation comes in. Yeah. Now you’ve got all the guys picking away at all the different locations, and now all of a sudden your contract isn’t compliant. And, you know, we spend a lot of time helping our members drive compliance with inside their, um, you know, their particular contract that they’re focused on. Yeah. You know, because we have a nationwide Salesforce to be able to do that. But, uh, it’s unstable right now, for sure.

Scott Luton (20:20):

Yeah. So, you know, it’s interesting as both of y’all are sharing, and Greg, especially as you were, uh, offering up that theme, both of y’all offering up the theme of strength in numbers, uh, what comes to my mind is one of our favorite guests, Dan Reeve, uh, from our friends at Esker, John, and he likes to say, moving at the speed of a thousand gazelle’s. And it always brings us such a wonderful vision. But that strength in numbers to, to Greg, your point of, of not having to fight that battle, you can lean on that community, that ecosystem, uh, that’s, that’s been there and done it, uh, immense, uh, value there when it comes to especially, uh, inflationary environment that we have been in. So let’s talk about the third one because Yep. I think we’ve saved the best, perhaps the best for last. Uh, especially one where we can do maybe we have the most control over, arguably. So what’s the third pain point we want to touch on, John?

John Lander (21:12):

Yeah. The big one we’re seeing a lot, and we’re, look, we’re investing a ton in this space, is, uh, spend visibility. So you’re looking at all the acquisitions, we’re doing a ton of acquisitions. You got tons of e r p systems that are sitting out there. How do you get that spend? How do you know that you are, you know, really driving, uh, contract compliance? And then when you do that, you have multiple contracts with in the same categories. And, uh, you know, we’re, we’re doing a lot of work, uh, around spend visibility. We’re trying to develop new tools. We have partners like Spend HQ that we partner with, um, that are, yeah, we’re trying to help our members most that we can, trying to get quick wins. Yep. You know, folks are, look, with everything that’s happening now, gimme 10 quick wins and how can your contracts benefit me? So, uh, so we’re just wanna let you know we’re investing a ton in this space. We’re gonna get better and better. We got data scientists that we have there. We got AI coming down the path to that, I think is gonna really generate a lot of help and savings to our members as well. So, so exciting, exciting part. And I think that’s a, a key piece of the puzzle for

Scott Luton (22:17):

The future. It is, it’s a shorter list of things that y’all aren’t doing, uh, right now. John, Greg, as we established, think before John joined us, you know, we’ve had dozens of conversations with John and his colleague, and it’s been really interesting to see the path that Omnia partners, the exciting path that, uh, the company’s been on. But Greg, out of all of that, especially when it comes, I’m gonna tie back to spend visibility. Cause if we can’t see it, what can we do with it? Right? I mean, I hate to be so simple about it, but Greg, your thoughts.

Greg White (22:43):

Yeah. You can only manage what you can measure, right? And that, and that’s hard to do when, you know, when you’ve got internal challenges like compliance between your facilities or even between your buyers or whoever you might have on your internal team. You know, it’s the challenging situation of, of, uh, how, how can you expect to, to sort of tame the wilderness of your, of your vendor environment if your own house is not in order internally. So it’s, um, it’s hard to see so many things when you’re in an environment. I mean, even if you’ve got some level of visibility when things are moving so fast, like we just talked about, right? With the inflationary and deflationary cycles, the apparent slowing and then speeding of, of economics, that changes a ton of dynamics. The, you know, the questions around what other, what external and internal market forces are gonna do to impact that going forward.

Greg White (23:43):

It, I mean, it, even if you have visibility and, you know, this is one of my pet peeves in a lot of cases, you still don’t have answers. Mm-hmm. All you can see in many cases is that everything’s messed up, <laugh>. Uh, and, and, uh, what I think, you know, the kind of benefits that you sh we should be able to expect from not, not just the technologies, John, you’ve talked about there with AI and ML and all, and just technology in general, but also just the power of, of that group, right? Is to be able to be presented with solutions, not just clarity of that you have problems and what they are and where they are. But today we should be able to expect some guidance on what the solution is, how to attack that problem, and how to solve it.

Scott Luton (24:34):

Man, there’s two of y’all just shared so much. I wanna, I wanna talk about, I wish we had three hours with you, John, two quick call outs. I love Greg, that visibility, but not answers. Cause you, you gotta have both. That’s such a great call out. And then John, to your point, I love how you’re looking at quick wins while you’re probably building strategic wins, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you can, you can have both, right?

Greg White (24:55):

You have to have both, really. I mean, you know, a plan, the first thing that changes in a plan is, is the plan, right? <laugh> and the goals are never as easy to attain as they seem when you write the plan. So you really have to almost plan for those quick, we love to say low hanging fruit, right? In business, but those quick wins that, that give people hope that things will get better and help them continue to buy into the longer term solutions and, and more difficult problems to solve in the greater plan going forward.

Scott Luton (25:32):

Well said. All right. So much to talk about. So little time. And I think the other theme that I think folks need to recognize with what John and Greg have been sharing is, Hey, you gotta help yourself before you can help others. It’s like the o oxygen mask theme that we heard so much about in the last two or three years. Uh, and you can do that by leveraging trusted resources like we’ve talked about a lot in these conversations. All right. So John Lander, we’ve talked about the top two, three of the top pain points for procurement professionals in the current market. That is a mouthful. John and Greg, lemme tell you.

Greg White (26:09):

Say that again fast.

Scott Luton (26:10):

And That’s right. And I got my 12 cups of coffee in this morning. I still wasn’t prepared. Lemme do this before we move into. We’re gonna get some good news from John in terms of how we can address those, especially how GPOs can address those. But before I do, lemme just share a couple of these comments here. So Amanda with us via LinkedIn, and I’m gonna drop this so we don’t cut John off, but she says, uh, this is quoting a current member of the Omnia Partners community spend visibility is step one or rather step zero in starting and running a sourcing organization. It’s mandatory cause it’s your playbook without it, it’s like trying to get somewhere without a roadmap. You’re just lost in the dark end quote. What a great, great comment. That brings a lot of visuals. John says, master data management is critical to drive visibility and compliance, single source of truth.

Scott Luton (26:56):

Uh, and then finally, uh, Josh, one of our favorites here, Greg, everyone has a plan until you get hit in the mouth. I think it’s to, to finish that off. Yeah. Get visibility for realistic goals. The great philosopher Mike Tyson <laugh>. That’s right. And, and we’ll try to get some of these other comments in just a second. But John, I wanna switch over to some good news because with, let’s talk about how with your expertise and what you see, whether if they’re successful organizations or whether, you know, playing on that earlier theme, you know, organizations looking for a turnaround, right? Regardless where you are in your journey, how can, uh, how can organizations approach these pain points leveraging GPOs? So what, let’s start with the first one. Procurement is under-resourced.

John Lander (27:41):

Yeah. So, you know, look, this is where we really fit in. So many folks are, are moving, pushing people. Strategic folks don’t have the budget to hire more, more folks. And, and if you look at on the partners, we got 150 plus contracts on the private sector side. We got 600 plus on the public sector, okay? We leverage, uh, those two sides together. 26 billion of buying power. So, you know, we’re usually most suppliers largest customer. Hmm. So I always like to tell folks, I know you’re dealing with the sales rep out in the field or a regional vice president. Most of the time I’m dealing with the c e O of that particular, um, supplier. And all things don’t fit in the box. Let us help you, let me help you try to figure out whatever your problem is and we’ll try to find a solution for you for that particular problem.

John Lander (28:31):

And the best way that we come in, and we, to your point, we try to hit quick wins right away, show value quick, and then we build a weight plan over the course of next three years. What RFPs do you have coming up? How could we fit into it? It’s not like we’re coming in and saying we’re gonna take everything over. We wanna be very strategic on where we fit into your overall plan. And uh, the best thing of it is, look, I spent a lot of time ran North America for Office Depot, office Max, I was involved with the Staples, uh, merger. Uh, that didn’t happen. And, uh, guess what we had, we had consultants for days. <laugh>,

Scott Luton (29:06):

I bet consultants

John Lander (29:07):

Cost a fortune. And guess what? We guess how much we cost to do all this work for you.

Scott Luton (29:13):

It’s free, zero up and work free. We’re gonna touch on that. And so folks, stay tuned cuz we’re gonna give y’all some resources, including one of our favorites that John just touched on. He said, John, let the cat outta the bag, Greg. He let the cat outta the bag. We’ll go grab it in a minute. But hey Greg, I wanna touch on that 26 billion Greg, 26 billion in purchasing power. Speak to how you can leverage all of that and John and the whole team and the really the community to attack this, uh, lack of investment in procurement. Know-how

Greg White (29:42):

There are less than a fistful of major companies that can attest that amount of, of spend, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So everyone who can’t should be part of the, of, of this group. I mean, it, it’s just so simple to me. You know, I think about the book Good to Great, right? The whole hedgehog story. Do what you’re best at, right? Do one thing, make it what you’re best at and make your living doing it right. Read the book if he hasn’t, haven’t. Jim Collins has written a couple of great business books, must Reads, built to Last and, and Good to Great. Um, he’s always two words on side of, on either side of two <laugh>. So, uh, it’s not true. But those are my two favorites. <laugh>, um, <laugh>. But I think, you know, I think though companies are more and more discovering that they’re great at what they’re great at.

Greg White (30:32):

You know, I’ve long had the philosophy that companies, retailers particularly, and certainly brands should just do what they’re really good at, which is mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you might argue against this, never had a retailer on who could argue this. Whenever I say it, John. So if I’m wrong, don’t feel shy. Tell me. I’ve always felt like retailers are really good at merchandising and selling, right? And they’re lousy generally at supply chain. And so many of them, especially as more and more online, um, retail occurs, so many of them are starting to outsource these things that they’re not great at and do only what they’re great at, right? Be the front end, be the, be the, uh, an analysis of fashion and trend and and need in the marketplace. And then let somebody else figure out how to get it there. Mm. Um, and, and I think this is a great example. I, I think these GPOs and, and in procurement in particular, because you can get massive scale like this. And that’s so powerful. It’s a great example of do it. I mean, I don’t even know why companies still do it themselves.

Scott Luton (31:39):

Mm. So, uh, John, I love starting with that first one, starting with leveraging that the power of 26 billion. And I love how you and your team are escalating those conversations to the CEO’s office, as you mentioned mm-hmm. <affirmative> and, uh, your consultants for days phrase, I think resonate with a lot of folks. Yeah. And you know what, not to beat up on consultants. Cause if it’s not consultants, it could be other resources that folks are paying for. Yep. And they’re not doing anything for ’em. And, and, and so having that trust third party been there, done that voice is so important. Okay. If that’s just the first one, John, I can’t wait to get your take on how to, uh, I wish I’d spent more time studying for economics, macro microeconomics in college. I was horrible. So when it comes

Greg White (32:21):

Inflation, you can, in that sentence, without all those qualifiers for

Scott Luton (32:23):

Me, <laugh>, I sure could wish I

Greg White (32:25):

Spent more time studying.

Scott Luton (32:26):

Oh man. So when it comes to this inflationary deflationary environment, what’s the good news there? How can folks uh, fight back and win?

John Lander (32:36):

Yeah, so I think there’s a couple things there. One is since we, we do not charge anything for our services, whether you want us to do assessments on any particular category or contract that you have, think about that. So if you’re unsure where you are today, call Omni Partners. We will absolutely be able to do as assessment first our contract, which we think we have the leverage, we negotiate pretty aggressively and we think we have a really good program based off of the relationships we have with those suppliers. And what I always tell everyone, Hey, pick 10 and you, we do assessments on 10 different contracts, and if eight of them are great, guess what didn’t cost you? Zing. You go back and say, we kicked butt on those eight different contracts, but these two, oh, we were off or didn’t have the in-house talent or whatever the situation might be.

John Lander (33:25):

And, you know, adopt those two contracts from us. And I think very few folks offer that type of, uh, transparency to say, we’re, if, if we did all that work for you and you picked zero, no harm, no foul, we’re, we’re here, you know, next two months when you have the next 10 or 20 or 30 contracts that you wanna look at. Mm. And I think that is a, I think that’s the most unique thing that I think people think G P O and they think, oh, I’m gonna be tied into that contract and I’m stuck and all these different things. Uh, we’re super flexible, willing to work. We wanna be stand side by side with your teams, uh, to, to help Mm uh, whatever that help might be. And so I think it’s that simple. And, and the only other thing too is I want you, uh, drive compliance into this piece is we got a hundred folks out in the field that will help you drive compliance at each of those locations too. What I talked about earlier. Cuz that’s another thing that you don’t see. So you might have a great contract, great pricing, but if it’s not driving that out in the field or out into your different locations, then um, we’re here to help in that regard too, which a lot of our members don’t realize that we, we kind of offer that, those those services as well,

Scott Luton (34:35):

Man. Okay. So Greg, one of the things I’m hearing John share there is, uh, Omnia Partners is not your great-grandmother’s g p o, they do business much differently. So <laugh>, so Greg, your thoughts on what, uh, John just shared there?

Greg White (34:50):

Not your grandfather’s Buick, right? Um, <laugh>. Yeah. I, I think it, I think it’s even more than that. You know, I hate to keep harping on this, but it’s leverage. You can never get it’s access control negotiation. It’s resource resourcing you can never get to, literally can never get to in your company. And finally, it’s free <laugh>. So why would you not at least give it a try?

John Lander (35:20):

And, and I’ll tack one thing else on. So if you’re on a contract with us, we have 345 Fortune 1000 customers. The beauty is you got all of those procurement teams watching the pricing, watching the movement increases on that particular contract. So it’s not just you in house, you got the, you’re sharing that amongst all these other partners or members that are out in the marketplace too. So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s tough to

Greg White (35:47):

Meet and not to mention all the ideas that you get. I mean, I think companies, they die for a private club or whatever you wanna call it, a club of companies that, that they could share ideas with because, you know, somebody’s business might be completely different than yours, but the value that they can bring to you could be very, very applicable as a consultant, former performed consultant, um, and technology implementer. I saw that literally thousands of times where mm-hmm. You could take a, a tidbit of knowledge from one industry and apply it to a completely unrelated industry and and really create value. And if you’ve got thousands of companies and some very big ones, you know, with the capability of do that to do that, you’re leveraging that knowledge and expertise and everything when, you know, when you wouldn’t otherwise have, have the ability to get there.

Greg White (36:35):

You’re, you’re operating at a level of sophistication that would just be impossible without the group. Right. So I’m not pitching this thing by the way. It’s just, I mean, there are just so some things that make so much sense, right? That we, we do procurement at supply chain now, right? And, um, we’ve seen the struggles of selecting the right vendor of, you know, not falling for the sales pitch of getting the best deal of getting them to perform after you’ve, you’ve signed up with them and, you know, and, and a hoard of other, of other things that I know lots of companies are struggling with out there. And it’s just, it’s just such a great opportunity to have, uh, an incredible amount of resources to assure the, the cost effective success and growth of, you know, of your practice. So, I, I don’t know, it’s just, it’s kinda like buying QuickBooks don’t, right? <laugh>, you know, don’t do your accounting on your spreadsheet at home at night, right?

Scott Luton (37:38):

Yes. That’s one thing I’m glad no one lets me do is accounting. But John and Greg and, and Greg to your point too, you know, we’ve, we’ve been fortunate to rub elbows and, and really, um, pop the hood and really see how Omnia Partners does business and, and the, and the outcomes they drive for a couple years now. And, and so it’s really cool to see, to meet new folks, uh, new to us, least with John and, and hear his take and, and his journey. Because I love how they, they have different folks that specialize in different areas and of course come from different walks of life. We all benefit from that for sure. All right, lemme go back here cause we got some, we got some neat comments here cause we’re about to get into how to tackle this spend visibility, pain point we’ve, we’ve addressed.

Scott Luton (38:17):

So Richard says, spend visibility can help a business gain control and leverage with suppliers and thus drive savings or minimize increases in today’s world through consolidation and right sizing and more. Uh, Ron says, spend visibility is the key. You cannot manage and leverage your spend with your suppliers if you don’t know how and where you’re spending your resources. Excellent point there, Ron. Great to have you here. So John, I throw it back to you when we’re talking about the good news and how there’s a better way so we can tackle, spend visibility. What say you?

John Lander (38:51):

Yeah, so I think, you know, we talked a lot, you know this earlier, but, uh, look, it’s the main focus for us. I mean, this is our, our first meeting with a member or public agency. We’re saying, we ask ’em questions. How good is your spend visibility? Because, you know, we need to be accountable to at Omnia Partners. And so we want to be able to know what that spend is and how do we make an impact? What is our savings? How are we driving that? And I think two folks there two ways either, look, we got our spend, we got it dialed in and folks are really confident. And uh, so we approach those type of members one way. And there’s another group that, that we speak with quite often. They’re like, look, we don’t have it. Um, we have multiple e r P systems, you know, do you have any solutions?

John Lander (39:38):

What do you have? And we teamed up with SpendHQ as a solution. So if they have good spend visibility, we kind of jump right in with our team and wave planning and we, we, uh, look for quick wins. We start, you know, working down that process. Or if they don’t, we take a step back. We introduce a partner of ours, uh, that comes in and starts, you know, piping in all the AP fees. And, and we work through that process that really shows value, uh, for our particular members. And then that’s where we start the benchmarking and a bunch of different areas that we go in cost savings, what’s your targets and goals? And, and then I love it because that puts those targets and goals on my team and holds us accountable, uh, to make sure that we’re, we’re driving value. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause that’s our ultimate goal, um, for our members. Greg,

Scott Luton (40:24):

Your thoughts there?

Greg White (40:26):

Uh, I’m sorry it was a little bit distracted. What I was <laugh> what I was distracted by was, John, is there a minimum amount of spend that makes it make sense, at least for you and the resources that you deploy for a company to join? Uh, you know, your gpo,

John Lander (40:42):

We haven’t crossed that bridge. We, we, we focus mainly in the private sector, on the enterprise space and, you know, we’re in the top echelon in, in the public sector space that we’re, we’re talking to from our field outside sales resources. Yep. So I would say $500 million in spend or more, you know, look, we could, we can go lower than that too, but that’s mainly where my team is and that’s where the conversations are starting. But, but I don’t like to turn anything down. We’ll help anyone if, if, if there there’s help to be needed,

Scott Luton (41:10):

You know? And the cool thing is it’s free for any, anyone, any business of any size to join. We’re going, we’re gonna tell y’all how to do that in just a minute. And to, to discover what is to be gained and and to really have the conversation without the conversation. You, you, what do you gain? Nothing. What, what’s your chance of gaining anything? Nothing. <laugh>,

Greg White (41:29):

We’re not quite there yet, John, but we’re working on it.

Scott Luton (41:31):

We’re wor

John Lander (41:32):

<laugh> give

Greg White (41:33):

Us a year.

Scott Luton (41:35):

That’s right Greg. That is right. We’re coming just like the, those, uh, thou the, we’re moving at the speed of a thousand Gazelle’s, uh, dear friend Dan. Yes. Okay. John says, uh, John probably points out what a lot of us are thinking maybe interesting and cool model buying groups or cooperatives have historically required a financial buy-in mm-hmm. <affirmative> from the members. And I, I love when there’s conversations going on within the chat cuz Amanda responds directly, you’re correct. John Omnia partner is fully transparent about our model. There are no fees or order obligations ever. How about that?

Greg White (42:06):

So, you know that man, I mean that creates an inherent alignment with the membership, right? Because there is no motivation to pump membership, to your point, John, to pump membership to get more membership dollars. All of the value is, has to be accrued to the members by, by creating efficiencies in the procurement process. So that, uh, that’s a perfectly sensible, it’s per, I would think maybe the best model out there, right? Yeah.

John Lander (42:34):

Mm-hmm. And all and all the tools that we’re driving, whether it’s to spend visibility tools or data and analytics and, and pricing, all that sort of stuff. You know, Todd ad our CEO is passionate about, we are not charged in members anything because trust me, he gets approached all the time saying, well why don’t you do it? You know? And, uh, it’s not who we’re, that’s why we’re Yeah.

Greg White (42:56):

Yeah.

John Lander (42:57):

<laugh> never

Scott Luton (42:58):

Love it. Okay. And I know we can’t get to some folks, uh, questions and comments I bet. And we’re gonna make sure y’all know how to connect with Omnia Partners and John Lander and the whole team, but I bet they welcome those post livestream conversations, don’t you John?

John Lander (43:12):

Yes. 100%. Looking forward to it.

Greg White (43:14):

We probably ought to do a webinar where we just talk about, you know, this is, this is what Omnia Partners does, could do for you and just field and answer all those questions. Cuz I know there have to be dozens of them out there. What, we have 400 registrants for this thing. So

Scott Luton (43:30):

Yes. We should do an ask Me anything with John Lander. Greg, that

John Lander (43:35):

Would be great. <laugh>,

Greg White (43:35):

Maybe not anything cuz I would spend the whole time talking about the Steelers. Is he really as good as he seems?

Scott Luton (43:42):

Uh, well, hey, <laugh>, so you folks who have to stick with us will have, uh, supply chain nerds talk sports coming to a screen near you soon. But John, so I think folks, you know, we have, we have one of the smartest audiences in the globe, and I bet they’ve already kind of pieced together what Omni Partners does, but for anyone that might be slow out there, kinda like me, right? I’m, I’m slow to kind of piece it all together. What does Omnia Partners do in a nutshell, John?

John Lander (44:09):

Yeah, I think if you look at us, what we’re trying to do, both in public and private, two different contract vehicles broken down by verticals. We have enterprise, we have our corporate space, we have our private equity team, and we have our real estate, which is multifamily housing. Uh, we have experts in each of those different, uh, categories. And then we have SMEs around our, on the private sector, 150 contracts. So we have experts that can help and work alongside of you from, from that standpoint. Public sector, same thing, broken down different verticals on that side, 600 plus contracts. And the beauty would I always say is there’s no reason to at least give us a try because there’s no, uh, no fees, there doesn’t cost anything. We’ll do assessments, pricing comparisons. We got tons of, uh, data and technology for you guys to utilize at, at your need. And we will, you know, we could take over whole procurement side where we can do two contracts. There is no issue from us from that standpoint. And so that’s the beauty of it. We, we fit into whatever your business model is or whatever your business plan is, uh, we could work right alongside you. So it’s, uh, and plus our culture’s great. We have great people. Like that’s half the battle. We’re fun. Like, let, let’s have some fun together, let’s solve problems and, and try to figure it out.

Scott Luton (45:27):

Yes, I’m with you. And you know, the other thing that we, uh, you know, Greg, is you and I have witnessed, uh, for the last couple years, man, Omni Partners is evolving, they’re evolving, they’re growing dramatically. The the ecosystem’s getting bigger and bigger. And I love again, uh, how based on your need, your sector, your, your challenge, they leverage different experts with different journeys, uh, uh, bring ’em to the table to help solve the problem. So, um, let’s do this. So Greg, as we have already, let the cat outta the bag, uh, in the first part. Thank you, John. Um, it is free to join. It’s free to join. And, and so that’s one of three resources that John and the team have brought. And I wanna make sure we drop this link. You can find this link in the chat. So you click this link and you’ll see right there, you’re taken to a landing page where they, they talk about how easy it is to join John. It is just that easy, huh?

John Lander (46:21):

Yep, absolutely. It is that simple.

Scott Luton (46:23):

Okay. All

John Lander (46:24):

Right. So you join there, there’s a membership click through, and basically what that membership is is just a quick nda, uh, that we’re not gonna share any of your information. So, um, but it’s simple, quick sign up and, uh, and then depending on, you know, what vertical you’re in or you know, what expertise you’re looking for, what contracts you’re interested in, you know, I have a hundred folks on my team that will, will direct in your direction. A

Scott Luton (46:48):

Hundred folks, man. They got an army. Greg, an army ready to go. Huh? Is that a whole army or is that just a, at least a couple? Well, from an Air Force standpoint, it’s at least, uh, about five or six flights I think. I don’t know. There, there you go. Okay. <laugh>. It’s a lot of people. Nonetheless. It’s a lot of folks. Yep. All right. So that’s one of the three goodies. We we’re building a little goodie bag here. So free membership, we’ve got the link. So y’all check that out. Secondly, they’ve brought this new playbook. That’s another great resource. It’s entitled, it’s like one of our main themes. Everybody’s talking about, spend visibility, clear the chaos, and unlock potential. I love that, how that’s been worded. It just brings serenity to my brain. And then finally, John, wait, there’s more Greg and John. Uh, we’ve got an upcoming speaking of Greg. Hey, did you, was this a trick? Did you know this was coming? We have got a webinar coming up on July 13th with Reg, right? Rel Holden. Yeah. Reg Holden, yes. Uh, and our, our old friend Ara Arslanian,

Greg White (47:50):

Don’t negotiate with Ara. That’s all I’m gonna say.

Scott Luton (47:53):

<laugh>. That’s right. So join us on July 13th, 12 and Eastern time for the power of spend visibility, a roadmap for success. And man, raise your hand. We, we could all use more roadmaps, especially proven roadmaps for getting through this VUCA environment that we’re all in. All right, so Greg, I wanna get your, cus we just rolled out three resources there and we’re gonna make sure folks know how to connect with John in just a second. But how, you know, of those three resources, uh, what comes to mind? What, what’s maybe one of your favorite things you’ve heard here today from John Lander and the Omnia Partners team?

Greg White (48:31):

Well, I think it’s not only the visibility, but how they tie that visibility into action, into the leverage of being part of, of the G P O and of getting results out of it. I think so many companies struggle with visibility. I mean, if you think about it, I don’t have to think about it. I literally listen to pitches about it all the time. If you’re talking to a technology company, guess what? They’re pitching visibility, right? So visibility isn’t even, I mean, in, in many instances it’s not even unique anymore. It’s what you do with that visibility that makes it different. I mean, if, if you are struggling with visibility, certainly get it. But quickly on the heels of that, you’re gonna realize that you need solutions based on that visibility. You need some guidance in order to capitalize on the visibility on the knowledge that you’ve just gained.

Greg White (49:19):

Um, so if you are just getting to visibility, at least have that in the back of your mind. If you’ve already got visibility, you know, you know you’re struggling with it. I see companies all the time who have, have, you know, bought or developed or vested in, uh, visibility solutions who are going now what, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the now what is, what John was just talking about during this, this entire discussion is there is so much you can utilize that visibility to do, to improve your business and just expect it and get it. And this is a great way to get it. It’s just my thought.

Scott Luton (49:58):

I’m with you. Uh, I agree with you and, you know, uh, I love, again, I go back to, and you kind of alluded to it there again, visibility and answers. What’s that, Greg? You say the power of the, and what’s that phrase that I love so much

Greg White (50:11):

About? Yeah, don’t be a slave to the or when you can have the freedom of the and

Scott Luton (50:16):

Oh, John, isn’t that good? Isn’t that good? John might steal that one. Uh, please do, please do <laugh> visibility and answers. That’s, that’s where you know, you find the most trusted and powerful and outcome driven allies, whether it’s in your procurement journey or in, in your, uh, general business journey. So John, for folks, we rolled out resources there. Of course those links will live in the comments. Y’all check that out. How can folks John connect with you and Omnia Partners directly?

John Lander (50:45):

Yeah, simple. You connect with me on, uh, on LinkedIn. I’m John Lander at Omnia Partners and, and you could also go omnia partners.com. Simple. All of our contracts are up there today. Again, we talked about, uh, full visibility that, uh, we have all of our public sector contracts, private sector contracts, suppliers. So very easy connect with us. We make it simple. And as soon as you connect, there’s a, you need even fill something out online, we’ll connect with you within 24 hours, someone from my team, uh, to make sure that we’re, uh, making sure you see all the, all the power Omni partners has. That

Scott Luton (51:19):

Is wonderful. And I know we’ve got some great questions in the chat that I’m sure Amanda and John and the whole team will, will get to later. Yeah.

Greg White (51:26):

If your question didn’t get answered, make John pay for giving you his LinkedIn.

John Lander (51:30):

Yeah, exactly. <laugh>,

Scott Luton (51:32):

Well, what a great conversation, John. Really, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you and the, in the pre-show, uh, getting an update on all the, the latest cool things that Omnia Partners is up to. John, uh, Greg, the hits keep on coming for John and the team, huh?

Greg White (51:47):

Yeah, you know, I’m a hard sell, uh, but I’m a hundred percent sold out on this GPO concept. I just think it’s such an area of specialty. It’s an incredible area of power. It is so well refined. I think particularly the way Omnia does it, where the members don’t pay and that really aligns their, their in investment in the partnership. And I, I just think there’s so much you can gain, you can gain from it that you just can’t do by standing on your own. And those are rare instances, right? I call them shared, uh, scale economies shared, right? Like Costco mm-hmm. <affirmative> and even Costco makes you pay to be a member. I mean, you get great discounts at Costco, but you know, and, and there are all kinds of other things that are, that are these scale economies, shared model. And this one is so effective that it’s compelling, you know? Mm-hmm. And it is such a difficult area to manage for so many companies. I just think it’s so logical.

Scott Luton (52:44):

Yep. Agreed. Uh, I’m with you, Greg. I’m with you. And we’re also big fans of Costco, by the way. We’ve uncovered that. We’ll, we’ll

Greg White (52:51):

Save that. We’ll see a lot of similarities here, right?

Scott Luton (52:53):

I do. That’s a good point. Uh, we’ll have to save that analysis for another episode. I hadn’t thought about it that way, but big thanks. Big thanks to our new friend, uh, John Lander, executive Vice President, sales with our old friend, Omnia Partners, who, John, as we’re finding out, uh, your ally in the purchasing process. Right, John?

John Lander (53:13):

That’s it. Mr. New tagline. Thanks to marketing team. And, you know, we’re expanding in all areas, so that’s, we wanna be your ally, so we want, we’re here to help.

Scott Luton (53:21):

Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us here today. Really appreciate that, John. Thanks guys. Greg, a pleasure to have you as always. Uh, hey, thanks for all the folks that showed up and, uh, brought the comments and the questions. I know we couldn’t get to all of them. Thank you for being here. Big thanks to our entire team behind the scenes, helping to make production happen, as always. But folks, hey, there’s, uh, this last hour is chalk fill with ideas that you can act on today. Become a member, it’s free. Join the webinar on July 13th. Check out that playbook free, connect with John <laugh>, all, all that. That’s right. Connect with John. Grab that cup of coffee with him, maybe an adult beverage, uh, with him and his army, and find a better way forward. Deed’s, not words, you gotta take action. And with that said, on behalf of our entire team here at Scott Luton, challenging you to do good, to give forward, and to be the change. We’ll see you next time, right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Scott Luton (54:15):

Thanks

Intro/Outro (54:15):

For being a part of our supply chain now, community. Check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain now, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on Supply Chain Now.