Why do so many digital transformations fail? On The Supply Chain Buzz for February 21, special guest Kevin L. Jackson joins Scott and Greg to weigh in on where companies are dropping the ball when it comes to planning and executing crucial digital infrastructure investments. Hear from the group on what makes an ERP implementation successful, how companies can prepare the workforce for supply chain automation, why the margins of manufacturing make it a separate use case and more.

Intro/Outro (00:00:03):

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Scott Luton (00:00:30):

Hey, good morning, Scott Luton, Greg White, and Kevin L. Jackson with you here on supply chain. Now welcome to today’s live stream, Greg, Kevin, how we doing?

Greg White (00:00:41):

I’m doing great because Kevin L. Jackson is here.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:00:44):

You know what I’m not doing well at all last week I was in LA. It was 91 degrees right down to San Diego. It was 80, although it rain a it’s

Scott Luton (00:01:03):

20 degrees up in Virginia. How about that, Greg?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:01:05):

I want spring. I want spring.

Scott Luton (00:01:10):

Well, we’re glad to have you back. And this looks like you’re getting your frequent flyer miles in with that is good. Doesn’t surprise us at all. Uh, the movers and shakers here, uh, between Greg white and Kevin L. Jackson and folks is the supply chain buzz digital transformer’s ion. Right? So we’re gonna

Kevin L. Jackson (00:01:28):

Right. Get your transformation on,

Scott Luton (00:01:31):

Get your transformation on, uh, Greg, a couple weeks ago, we got Kim winterized today. We’re getting Kevin L. Jackson, or you ready, Greg?

Greg White (00:01:41):

I like it.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:01:43):

No,

Greg White (00:01:43):

I like that.

Scott Luton (00:01:46):

So it’s all about, uh, we’re gonna be tackling some leading stories, really across global business. Uh, and we want to hear from you. So get your POV ready, your, uh, insights. Ready? Those in the comments in the sky boxes, the cheap seats, uh, we wanna hear from you. Okay, so, so Greg, uh, we got Kevin’s update. He’s been flying around the country, making, making deals happen. Yeah. Greg, what, what have you been doing with the, uh, the Hilton, the global Hilton head shipping index?

Greg White (00:02:16):

Uh, well, I, we talked a little bit that I’ve actually heard of a couple companies that are gonna come out with a, how, how bad are the ports clogged up index? And I’m kinda looking forward to that, but in the meantime, we’ve got, wow, my Hilton head, uh, shipping index, which today was, it was interesting today. It was five, one oil tanker offshore and the rest containerships. But get this guys, um, the char charter yacht eternity, a 213 foot charter yacht that cost $390,000 a week to rent. Wow. Was towed into, uh, the port of Savannah by a tug today. So somebody while spending their $390,000 broke the engine and had to be pulled into port. So it’s interesting. These, the way AIS reports, it reports, um, no maneuverability, meaning the engines or the rudders were out of, you know, were whacked on this thing.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:03:21):

Water. Can you

Greg White (00:03:21):

Imagine being on first of all, can you imagine being on the 213 foot yacht, Kevin, I know you get to do that, but

Kevin L. Jackson (00:03:30):

Yeah. And my last week yacht stuck off the coast of Savannah.

Greg White (00:03:40):

True. I mean, I mean, you could have worse weekends, right? It’s not your boat, so who cares? Right. And you’re still on it and

Kevin L. Jackson (00:03:47):

Right,

Greg White (00:03:48):

Exactly. And I’m sure

Kevin L. Jackson (00:03:49):

The bar long as work, you get a refund, right?

Greg White (00:03:52):

Yeah. And you get a refund double bonus. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:03:56):

Well keep the, uh, index and the observations coming there from the east coast. They’re the, uh, the South Carolina headquarters of supply chain now, uh, they’re in Hilton head, um, really quick. I wanna run through a couple different things before we get down into the heavy lifting of today’s show. I wanna go ahead and say hello to a few folks. Hey, Dr. Rhonda, uh, is back with us, Greg. Yeah. Uh, that at, uh, work life balance, um, fountain of information and, and good stuff, Dr. Ronda from out in Arizona. Right. How warm is it out there? You think she put out

Greg White (00:04:30):

A really good video over the last week? I think in, in the last week, I cannot remember days are kind of running together. We’ve had quite a few visitors, but, um, yeah. Uh, she’s, she’s always doing encouraging things, which is outstanding in these times. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:04:47):

Rhonda, uh, drop your latest. Uh, I saw a couple of, uh, recent chats. You’ve had drop those in the comments with welcome Matt Lamont hard. I

Kevin L. Jackson (00:04:56):

Thinks has its, um, event in Scottdale, Arizona this week. Right.

Scott Luton (00:05:00):

I

Greg White (00:05:01):

Think

Scott Luton (00:05:01):

Is it this week?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:05:03):

Yeah. How

Greg White (00:05:04):

Did we not get an invite? Kevin, are you going or no?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:05:09):

Well, that’s a long story event this year,

Scott Luton (00:05:20):

So, but let’s drop that link. Uh, so Amanda, uh, first off Amanda Chantelle and Catherine, thanks for all that. You do the production team behind the scenes. Uh let’s. Let’s track down that link for the DKA D uh, see diverse manufacturing and supply chain Alliance, right? Kevin? Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:05:37):

Right. Accelerate 2002, 2022, right. Or What year is it?

Scott Luton (00:05:47):

You know, the cool thing, Greg and Kevin. Cause I I’ve been talking with, uh, David, um, uh, David, uh, Brooks, right? Kevin, um,

Greg White (00:05:55):

Burt Burton. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:05:57):

Burton. Oh gosh. David Burton. Sorry. It’s a Monday. I’ve been talk chatting with David Burton. One of the cool things they’re doing is, you know, Greg, if you remember, a couple years ago, they brought in, uh, four or five students, um, uh, that were interested in supply chain. Right? Some of ’em reating through programs. They’re like, um, tripling that if not more, they’re bringing in 15, 20 students mixing with some of the leading manufacturing procurement, the supply chain leaders across the country. So I love what David Burton’s doing. Yeah. Um, okay.

Greg White (00:06:28):

Yeah. And I mean, we, we met with some of those folks after that and they have matriculated on, into great careers. Right.

Scott Luton (00:06:37):

That’s right. That’s right. Morgan state university, where, where those, those, uh, uh, students were from and Kevin, that was one of our earliest collaborations. If you remember. I think, uh, that’s

Kevin L. Jackson (00:06:48):

What we first met. You first interviewed me there.

Scott Luton (00:06:51):

That’s right. We talked about your, your, uh, Naval pilot amongst other things, uh, days.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:06:58):

Well, Scott discovered me well, that’s

Greg White (00:07:01):

The other way around?

Scott Luton (00:07:05):

Well, we had a great time. That’s a great organization. So, uh, uh, thanks for bringing that up. Let’s see. Lamont, Hardy speaking. I think he’s in San Diego Lamont. Great to have you back. Kevin was just talking about mentoring

Greg White (00:07:15):

Down, hear about what the weather’s like, where you are,

Scott Luton (00:07:19):

Make us all jealous.

Greg White (00:07:20):

Exactly.

Scott Luton (00:07:22):

Uh, Savannah. Great to see you here via LinkedIn. Thanks for joining here today. AOV. Great to have you here via LinkedIn. Let us know. I, I know you’ve joined us before, but let us know where you’re tuned in from. That’d be wonderful. Amad is tuned in, uh, via LinkedIn as well. Malinga from Zambia here with us. Great to have you here at Malinga. Uh, John. Hello from the west coast. Take, take a guess. Let’s see. West coast, uh, Kevin, Greg, where do you think John is dialed in from?

Greg White (00:07:50):

I think, uh, John’s been on with us before, but I think

Kevin L. Jackson (00:07:53):

He didn’t specify a country.

Greg White (00:07:55):

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. The west coast of what I’m since California. Yeah. But uh, I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be even more wrong likely in say San Francisco area. I were. Okay. So

Scott Luton (00:08:08):

Kevin, take a guess. We’ll see. Help

Kevin L. Jackson (00:08:10):

Seattle.

Scott Luton (00:08:12):

That was my guess. So I’m gonna go with, uh, Seattle,

Greg White (00:08:15):

Seattle.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:08:17):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:08:18):

I’m gonna go with that

Kevin L. Jackson (00:08:19):

Is the west coast Is

Scott Luton (00:08:22):

I’m gonna go with, with, uh, Oregon, uh, Portland. What’s the cool town in Oregon.

Greg White (00:08:26):

Portland.

Scott Luton (00:08:27):

Um, Portland

Kevin L. Jackson (00:08:28):

Port Portland.

Scott Luton (00:08:29):

Yep. So we got Portland, Seattle and Greg’s was San Francisco. So we’ll see who is closest and by the way, we dropped in the Denka link there. Wonderful. Thanks so much for, uh, being Johnny on the spot there, production to team. Um, okay. And welcome everybody. Now we couldn’t get everybody. We look forward to your comments throughout today’s, uh, uh, uh, buzz episode as transformers, John San Jose. We are all

Greg White (00:08:53):

Rolling. I’m closest though. San Francisco is maps. Zoom

Scott Luton (00:09:14):

Ends as usual. Kevin, I get used to it around here. Okay. So let’s dive into some programming notes before we get into three big stories, uh, that we’re gonna be tackling here today. I wanna start with Kevin, uh, digital, digital transformers here at supply chain now has been on quite a role it’s been blowing up, uh, of course, powered by our friends, Thomas and, uh, the TNS team, which we’ll talk about in just a second, but in this latest episode, uh, innovation through convergence cloud, AI, machine learning, blockchain, what’d, y’all talk about,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:09:46):

You know, that was a, that was an awesome show. Um, it was, uh, the QAR road show. Okay. Um, working, we’re working with the, um, the middle east and north African cloud Alliance talking about cause cause cloud is really growing big there. In fact, Egypt is, um, uh, sort of a leading regional power when it comes to cloud computing. Uh, just a quick note, uh, digital transformer hit 42 top business show in Egypt last week. Wow. So cause of this, this episode, and we talk about how, uh, cloud is serving as the foundation for artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain and, and how that entire region is accelerating by quickly adopting and, and transforming their businesses, uh, with cloud.

Scott Luton (00:10:46):

So what you’re saying, Kevin is, uh, just like, um, Jerry Lewis is big in France. You said it’s kinda like Kevin L. Jackson Egypt. Is that what you’re saying?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:10:58):

I’m big in Egypt, baby. Yes.

Scott Luton (00:11:01):

I love it.

Scott Luton (00:11:02):

I love it. Well big, thanks to our friends at TNS that sponsor that series. A lot of good stuff. We’ve got some big shows teed up. I know you do Kevin, uh, and folks, you can learn more, uh, at TNS corp.io. And of course you can also check out digital transformers@supplychainnow.com. Okay. Kevin, keep the good stuff coming. Uh, and who knows? We might just entice Greg white, who is, has been on sabbatical. You know, tequila, sunrise was popular everywhere, including Egypt. We might just get him off that sabbatical and meeting one once again with the movers and shakers across, uh, supply chain startup land. Well,

Greg White (00:11:42):

We’re gonna talk about some inspiring topics today in supply chain and digital. So I’m, you might just be right. Scott Luton.

Scott Luton (00:11:52):

Awesome.

Scott Luton (00:11:53):

Love it. Well, Hey folks also wanna keep this on your radar. The 2022 supply chain and procurement awards, nominations are open and Greg and Kevin we’ve had, we’ve had the markets really responded. We’re gonna need more time to process all the information that’s coming our way. We have extended nominations until, uh, keeping ’em open until, uh, April 1st. We’ve got nine different categories. What’s that? Greg? No

Greg White (00:12:19):

Joke,

Scott Luton (00:12:20):

No joke. Right?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:12:21):

Avalanche

Scott Luton (00:12:22):

Avalanche in a good way. Um, some of the companies and individuals out there make it happen. You can learn more at supply chain, procurement awards.com. And again, all nomination fee are being donated to a nonprofit on the move. Hope for justice, which is leading the fight, uh, against modern slavery and human trafficking. So y’all check that out. All right. I wanna say a look to a few more folks, and then we’re gonna get going with a, uh, a quick weekend observation, some data fact toys. We’re gonna be talking digital transformation and supply chain. Why that doesn’t work very often. As you heard from Greg, we’re gonna talk about some really hot and meaty topics that, and wanna get y’all’s take on those here today as well. It’s like the chef boy RD version of the supply chain, bud, Greg and Kevin, uh, Lamont Lamont is in San Diego. That’s gonna be 62 degrees a day. That is, uh, that sounds gorgeous. I can just picture how sunny of a day it is. Uh, salon 62

Kevin L. Jackson (00:13:21):

In San Diego,

Scott Luton (00:13:24):

Always 62.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:13:26):

Greg

Greg White (00:13:26):

It’s Frid bridged. Isn’t it for San Diego. I thought it was always, I thought, I always thought San Diego would be the easiest, um, meteorologist job in the world. Right? Cause the temperature’s always the same except for the Marine inversions in June, which last till noon to keep your temperature down and fog over the bay area.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:13:46):

Yeah. I used to live in there Mason. Oh yeah. Just, uh, I love, I loved it.

Greg White (00:13:51):

Nice play

Scott Luton (00:13:51):

Always 62 and always classy there in San Diego, uh, LAN joining us from, uh, Pakistan. Great to see ya LAN uh, Lela is tuned in via LinkedIn. Great to see ya. Thanks so much for being Jose Montoya. Uh, he is the west coast Myro uh, for logistics and coffee. Great to see ya. Jose look forward to catching back up with you. Soon. SEMA is tuned in from great to see you SEMA. Thanks for joining us. Uh, gene pledger, he’s becoming quite legend around these parts. Gene pledger, hope this finds you well. I love that picture of you and your significant other perhaps. Uh, that’s great. Um, Peter Bole all night and all day, of course we can’t do a buzz episode without your PB. Great to have you here. Uh, John says 62 is cold. It’s always 70 degrees in San Diego.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:14:42):

Oh, oh, I’m sorry.

Scott Luton (00:14:46):

All right. So let’s keep driving here. Uh, I want to share this with y’all, uh, uh, Greg and Kevin. So over the weekend, uh, you know, y’all know Amanda and I are routine. We grab our laptops knockout work with usually a documentary or some or something, or a good, good movie kind of playing, uh, in the background. Well, you know, Greg we’ve tackled, um, the 7 37 max, uh, issue for some time, right? It’s been really intriguing. Uh, unfortunately it’s cost, um, the lives of hundreds of folks, right? Well, Netflix released this documentary, which is really led by, um, I can’t remember the gentleman’s name, Peter something or other he’s been covering aviation for the wall street journal for, uh, over 20 years. And they had, they really put a crafted story behind what’s been going on, um, with the 7 37 max and, and we watch over the weekend and it was, it was intriguing.

Scott Luton (00:15:39):

Um, the story focuses a lot, Greg and Kevin on how the leadership and culture of Boeing throughout this process really predating the 7 37 max, how it changed dramatically, especially since Boeing had acquired McDonald Douglas. And then of course we talked about Greg, the headquarters moved to Chicago, right. And one of the reasons that, um, uh, the, uh, the film at least speaks to that, they moved the headquarters. They wanted to separate the financial folks from the engineering and technical folks. Right. They wanted to make, be able to make decisions, um, and not independent. Huh? What’s that Kevin

Kevin L. Jackson (00:16:15):

Independent, that it was the money independent,

Scott Luton (00:16:19):

The

Kevin L. Jackson (00:16:19):

Decisions. Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:16:20):

Right. But unfortunately at the end of the day, this, this documentary suggests that the safety of its passengers via the 7 37 max were compromised by Boeing. Leadership’s focus on the price that’s stock. Um, so I would check this out if you’re interested in aviation, if you’re interested in 7 37, max, all that what’s been going on, including the tragedy. Uh, also it touches a lot on the story of the competition between Boeing and Airbus, which I found to be fascinating. So, uh, if you’re looking for a good documentary downfall, the case against Boeing is a good one. Greg, your quick commentary and Kevin will circle back to you as a, as a pilot.

Greg White (00:16:57):

Interesting. The impact of short term site on your stock price has on the long term price of your stock price, not to mention the loss of life, but how silly and stupid is that right. I, I mean, I, I just think you, you have to take a much, much longer view than that. And especially in this age of transparency, right. There’s no, there’s nowhere to hide folks. So why?

Scott Luton (00:17:26):

Yeah. L well said Greg and, uh, Kevin, a lot of folks may not know, uh, you’re, you’re a pilot, you piloted, uh, aircraft in the Navy. Um, so what’s your take on, on this?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:17:38):

Well, actually I know, uh, go was talking about a long view. I think it’s, it’s, uh, maybe it’s lack of a broad view. I mean, business is about a lot of things and the stock price is just one very narrow aspect of it. Um, I mean, uh, performance, customer service, customer lines, these are very important aspects. And, uh, and it’s up to management to maintain broad view of the business so he can make proper balances. Right. Agreed,

Scott Luton (00:18:14):

Agreed. We said, um, and you know, of course this type of story deserves more than a couple minutes, but, uh, let’s, let’s see what, uh, Peter watched it last night and Peter of course spent close to 30 years in the aviation industry. Right. Um, he said, is that it leaves you angry. And I agree with him there. And he also says that, uh, the reporting, someone that would know being in aviation industry reported was spot on for the documentary, um, agreed, uh, Mohe 7 37 max should be the safest aircraft. Now you would think, uh, you know, there’s one point in the movie where the FAA and Boeing was their calculations on risk. And, uh, as I recall, don’t quote me on this, but their calculations based on before the fix, that they were projecting 15, the loss of 15 aircraft over to lifespan. And of course that’s not that’s that, that, that would make it the most dangerous modern day aircraft.

Scott Luton (00:19:07):

Right. Uh, but y’all, y’all gotta check it out. Uh it’s it’s a fascinating film. And, um, it really, uh, made you, made you stop and think about, um, not just aviation, not just, you know, FAA and, and people’s lives, but, but where leadership and culture plays in the, to all of that. So, um, okay. So, uh, I also wanna touch on one more thing on a much, much lighter note, but a very, very, uh, related note and certainly, uh, something for the, uh, supply chain community here in the states, before we get into the heavy lifting, I wanna talk for a second. This, uh, data fact toward came to us from the wall street journal, the logistics report, Greg Kevin, do y’all get the logistics report.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:19:49):

You not, no, I don’t get that in this. I hollow of stuff I need to read in the right now.

Scott Luton (00:19:56):

It’s good stuff. I’m glad no one needs, No one needs another email, but, uh, uh, as part of being subscribed to this, we get a, a morning email about seven. I think, uh, some of the latest headlines from across global supply chain is really good, but check this out, uh, $4.40, almost $4 and 2 cents just about. So that’s the price per gallon on average for diesel fuel across the us for the week ending February 14th. That is the first time that the diesel average has exceeded four bucks since March. Uh, so since March, 2014, highest price in about eight years, Greg, how about that?

Greg White (00:20:38):

Yeah. And I recall, uh, it getting as high at, at what I recall, is it getting as high as 4 49? Um, back around that time, I don’t know exactly when it was, and that’s when we instituted fuel surcharges, you’ll recall which by the way, never went away and I’m sure are going up as fuel prices go up as well. So a good lesson that in some inflation is permanent, right?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:21:07):

It’s go get your electric car, right. Yeah.

Greg White (00:21:09):

Right. I mean, Well, I mean, you’re not, you’re not wrong, Kevin. I mean, what, you know,

Greg White (00:21:16):

Autonomous is inevitable, first of all, the truck driver shortage is permanent. And just my opinion, um, you know, the generation that really enjoyed and driving is, is still retiring and retired at a much higher rate than expected last year. And nobody really wants to embrace that. Autonomous has the potential to bring significant safety benefits. And of course, a lot of those autonomous vehicles, frankly, all of them really just about have to be electric. So, um, yeah, I think that it’s a great, it’s a great case for that. The truth is we will still use fossil fuels unfortunately, to produce, I think it’s over 60% of the electricity in the states and in many other countries it’s much, much higher, but, but still, um, it’s a step in the right direction. A lot of ways from a broad standpoint, Kevin. Mm.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:22:13):

Yeah.

Scott Luton (00:22:14):

I love that.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:22:15):

I was looking at a show that was talking about a, a new way of, of, uh, capturing carbon, uh, and then reprocesing it to make gasoline. So you, you able to put it in a, uh, a, a carbon loop and, uh, some people are happy because say, Hey, look, you know, you can make more Gasol leaves say, well, that won’t keep it from using fossil fuel. So I guess it’s good things and, and bad things. But, uh, you know, we, we always have to, uh, keep our eyes open for all options. And, uh, uh, electric, uh, electric is a, is a great renewable option.

Greg White (00:22:56):

Agreed. And if somebody could just cap those volcanoes, so they don’t erase a hundred years of, of carbons carbon savings in an instant, that would be awesome too seriously though. I mean, really ought. Think about how we could, how we could capture and process that carbon. Uh, likewise, Kevin, to your point, if we can capture that those carbon emissions, if we could somehow, I mean, that’d be a huge scale, but if we could capture the carbon emissions of a, or even just some of them of a, um, you know, a volcanic eruption that would be hugely impactful,

Scott Luton (00:23:31):

Agreed. Uh, all right. Lot of good stuff to, and we’re just on the front end of, of fascinating things to talk about. I’m, I’m gonna throw one more at y’all, uh, cause did you know that today in history that the first, uh, this day in history back in 1878, the first telephone book is issued in new Haven, Connecticut. Right? So in case you get asked that, uh, at the next bar, you’re at drinking a beer, it listed 21 names and within an hour, all 21 people were so the car warranty for their horse and buggy

Scott Luton (00:24:07):

Fact true fact.

Scott Luton (00:24:09):

Um,

Scott Luton (00:24:12):

Why,

Scott Luton (00:24:12):

So Greg,

Greg White (00:24:13):

That is impressive.

Scott Luton (00:24:16):

That’s right. 1878, uh, new Haven

Kevin L. Jackson (00:24:19):

Where, where robo calling was born. Right.

Scott Luton (00:24:26):

All right. So life shortage of things, life insurance. Yeah. Think about, uh, how that changed lives, uh, way back then. Um, okay. So we are going to, uh, get ready to drop into the news of the day, especially from a digital transformer standpoint. Right. But before we do, I wanna share a couple of things here. Yes. Rhonda, seriously, a telephone book. What the heck is that right? No, our kids, certainly

Greg White (00:24:50):

Somebody said not telephone book. I didn’t hear that.

Scott Luton (00:24:52):

Did you say telephone? Did I say telephone book?

Scott Luton (00:24:56):

I said,

Scott Luton (00:24:59):

Uh, alright. So let’s see here. Uh, Jose was agreeing to what y’all are saying earlier E autonomous, the way to go. Um, let’s see, uh, Ika Mauna. Thanks for, for coming back. I, you, uh, they were with us, um, within the last few weeks. Great to have you back. They watched that interview as well. The documentary on Boeing, um, really good stuff there and CMA. Yes. Leadership and culture play a massive critical role. Completely agree with you. Um, and finally, Michael says the company worked for a number of years ago, had fuel surcharges in place since the mid two thousands. And when all went down at the beginning of the pandemic, the organization dropped below the fuel trigger for the first time, since it was implemented, we lost a couple of million in those first months of the pandemic. Well,

Greg White (00:25:48):

If they were charging fuel surcharges over the prices between the mid two thousands, and now they made many, many more millions than they lost in those couple of months and

Kevin L. Jackson (00:25:57):

They lost

Scott Luton (00:25:58):

Excellent point excellent point. Okay. So, uh, we talked about the news of the day. Let’s talk about digital transformation and why they are failing oftentimes, especially in supply chain, great new article here by our friends at the supply and demand chain executive. And Kevin, I start with you unpack this a bit for us, and then Greg, I’m gonna circle back for your commentary here. So Kevin what’s going on.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:26:23):

Well, you know, the pandemic changes a lot of things and, and wonder things that changes is business and people because everybody had to start working home. Everyone started looking at technology to solve their problems. And in 2020 Gardner did a survey and showed that nearly 70% of companies had accelerated their digital roadmaps. Um, but 68% of them failed. So they failed to report any positive returns on their digital investment. So the question is why, um, and this, especially in the supply chain world, so the, the number one reason was lack of project governance. I mean, they just said, uh, do digital transformation, uh, what’s that right? OK. There was, there was no why they, they had no end state vision of, of where they were going, right. They, there was no unified vision. Nobody knew what they were doing. They were just basically buying anything that had digital attached to it.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:27:32):

The, the, the number two reason was that, although they, everyone was doing digital transformation, they had no talent. They didn’t understand what they were doing right there, opportunities to innovate require, you know, first of all, that vision and then a pilot to see if what you think should happen actually does happen. You need to really flesh out your ideas of what the digital capabilities should deliver. Um, and so there was really a divide between the digital capabilities and the capabilities required to actually scale, uh, a, a, a, a, um, a transformation. And, and finally, they just took the wrong approach. They, they, it was sort of shiny item items, right. Didn’t know what they were doing or why they were doing it. But if, if it was shiny and it was on the shelf, they bought it and then they forced the organization to implement it. Um, so for all those reasons, everyone was saying digital transformation, digital transformation, but they will failing.

Scott Luton (00:28:49):

So Greg that’s, there’s a lot there. What comes to your mind initially,

Greg White (00:28:53):

Every single one of those things goes to the failure of strategic and executive leadership in terms of positioning the company. If, if you don’t have, uh, pro, if you don’t have proper governance or a proper goal, that was one thing that kind of stood out to me as they talked about how to relieve a lot of what Kevin described. They talked about, have a proper goal, start small, get quick wins, and build, uh, comfort and, and recognition within the organiz of not, just, not just that you can be successful with a, uh, a digital transformation, but precisely where and how, and that, that creates ideas for people to go, oh, well, if it’ll work there, it should work here. Let’s try that. And when your people start drawing you through this transformation, then things really change. But if your people aren’t ready for change, whose fault is that leadership?

Greg White (00:29:48):

Mm. Right. If, if you take the wrong approach, whose fault is that leadership? So what, one of the things we have to recognize here, and I mean, look, this is not new because of digital transformation. This is new because of anything. I mean, insert supply chain five, 10 or 15 years ago, and you had exactly these same problems before insert E R P 15, 20, 30 years ago. You had the same problems, failure of leadership to lead, to give clear direction, to enable and prepare people for change, and then to ultimately make sure that it is the right initiative for the time for the company. The, the, the way that these things succeed is when a leader, a C level leader, usually above COO or CIO, or somebody who has perhaps disjointed, um, goals as they talk about in this. And, and in other articles that has to be the CEO, every digital transformation failure, in my opinion, falls squarely at the feet of the CEO of the company.

Scott Luton (00:30:52):

Well said there, I, I don’t wanna bring this in from DC. So DC’s been on the show with us before Greg, you may recall she is back. She’s also

Greg White (00:31:01):

On, cause it looks but Hey, DC.

Scott Luton (00:31:04):

Well, she’s Al she’s back. Um, and she’s also creating some really cool content DC. I’d love for you to drop your link there. And hopefully your husband is doing well. He’s a brilliant, um, musician. Who’s played here, supply chain. Now she says many of this in this space, know why these transformations fail, and yet they continue to fail. Yes, Greg, why leadership and governments? What are the objectives? Why are we even doing this? What are we looking to gain aside from feeling productive? Cause we’re going through the motions of an implementation. Lot of good stuff.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:31:34):

Yeah. Some connect the why. Yeah. Right.

Greg White (00:31:37):

The why they talk about that in this, in that article as well.

Scott Luton (00:31:40):

And she’s waving back at your

Greg White (00:31:44):

Like that.

Scott Luton (00:31:46):

Um, alright. Memory says, Hey, stuck in traffic with you guys to keep me from losing my cool memory. Hang in there. I can’t

Greg White (00:31:52):

Forget about, can’t see memory,

Greg White (00:31:54):

Forget about traffic. Just pretend you’re in an ocean ship. You’re in a container ship, right? You, you got time,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:32:01):

You know, three, three 90,000

Greg White (00:32:07):

Prepare you it’s in your end, the eternity, a three $90,000 yacht. Someone is towing around right now.

Scott Luton (00:32:14):

And I’m sorry, I just can’t see memory losing or cool. And, and by the way, I love new headshot there. Memory love that. Um, let’s see here. SEMA is, is weighing in as well. Digital spent lack of project governments, correct? A hundred percent, no talent, no vision, uh, no digital capabilities finally took the wrong approach. All of that. I think she’s agreeing on adding a, a couple cents there, uh, Mohe. I think it’s going back to an earlier part of the conversation, the Mohe there in Wichita, Kansas hope this finds you well at home of the, the shockers Wichita state university. Electric is a great option. He says, if the electricity used to charge automobile is generated by renewable energy plants. Otherwise it’s just to feel good yet. It’s the same carbon emission happening elsewhere into our skies.

Greg White (00:32:59):

Hmm. We’re working on it. I mean, we are working on it. There’s

Kevin L. Jackson (00:33:02):

An electric plane that, uh, electric plane that’s um, I, I, I saw on online the other day, really. They expect to be commercialized next, next year.

Scott Luton (00:33:11):

Very cool. Um, and we’re getting update here. So DC says that, uh, Joseph, uh, Spago, I get that close for. Sorry. It’s okay. Um, it’s not

Greg White (00:33:23):

His name in the world. I think he told us it was even mispronounced in Italy.

Scott Luton (00:33:28):

Wow. So Joseph has transitioned to film and TV composing. He’s working on his IMDB profile. We’re gonna have to back up with Joseph. That is awesome. Yeah. Um, let’s see here. And

Greg White (00:33:41):

Josh discovered him too. Kevin LJ.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:33:44):

Oh yeah. OK.

Scott Luton (00:33:46):

Uh, good people

Greg White (00:33:47):

Get on his limit for us, man.

Scott Luton (00:33:49):

Sky’s the limit. Josh is talking. What? So three games in hand with two north Dundon Derby’s left wild three months left. Is he talking soccer? Great. What’s he

Greg White (00:33:58):

Talking? He is talking soccer. If I recall correctly, he’s an arsenal fan and he may be digging me a little bit. Uh,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:34:05):

North

Greg White (00:34:06):

Wind Darby is toting him and arsenal, so he’s a gunner.

Scott Luton (00:34:12):

Gotcha. Well, Hey, Josh. Great to have you here and thanks for, uh, don’t poke the beer too, too, too tough, too much with Greg, but, uh, thanks for not, uh, keeping it fun. Um, and DC dropped in the link. Uh, let’s see every second Friday of the month, so you can sign up for reminders there. So love what you’re doing, DC. Thanks for you’re. Thanks for stopping by

Kevin L. Jackson (00:34:32):

I’m

Scott Luton (00:34:32):

Okay. So, uh, I’m gonna, Kevin, I’m gonna give you the last word on this first story here today. We were talking about why digital transformations in supply chain fail your last word, Kevin.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:34:44):

It’s the CEO’s fault. Hey,

Scott Luton (00:34:48):

I’ll Rob with that, for sure. For sure.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:34:51):

We’ll

Scott Luton (00:34:51):

Tell you what

Greg White (00:34:53):

Kevin L. Jackson is a CEO and his digital transformations. Don’t don’t fail. So enough said

Scott Luton (00:35:01):

So let’s

Kevin L. Jackson (00:35:04):

Work,

Greg White (00:35:05):

Right? Yeah, no doubt.

Scott Luton (00:35:06):

We’re gonna, so we’re gonna have to leave the top. We’re gonna keep talking digital transformation a little bit more here and, um, let’s see here if I can get my notes, right. So to do it right as Sanji Sahu with Ingram micro says, now only does it take a lot more than technology, which we of course, has been a drum beat here in our conversations, but he says, you’ve gotta focus on execution. And it really takes a quote operational spirit, uh, as it reported in this article here from CD net and, and they got these quotes from, I think, a recent show featuring our dear friend, uh, Ray Wong, Kevin. So tell us what’s going on here. Yeah. And then we’ll get Greg’s hot taken a second.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:35:50):

Well, first of all, shot out to Ray Ray, Ray won is CEO and founder of constellation research. And we had him on the show earlier this year and he interviewed, uh, thank you. And, and one of the things that’s really important, uh, the why when you’re doing digital transformation has to be related to the business goals, right? Why are you in business? What are the measures that actually indicate success for your organization? So we have, when you, when you are doing digital transformation, you have to focus on your digital operations and have a passion for continuous value creation and that continuous

Scott Luton (00:36:35):

Value creation.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:36:36):

Yeah. And it has to relate to a metric within your organization. That’s important to you and your shareholders. This ensures that the entire company is also performing while they transforming. It’s not like, Hey, wait a second. We have to stop the company while we transform. Right? You gotta keep, you gotta change the, uh, wheels while you’re still going down the highway. You gotta replace the wings while you’re still flying. Right? So design and focus on the customer engagement model and take a very inclusive, structured and empathetic, you know, empathetic, creative approach to how you support and deliver value to your customers and monitor your customer journey, analyze it, using those metrics that everyone agrees on. Uh, and the metric has to relate to not just your business operations, but the end to end processes people and the technology that you need to use. And, and finally your organization has to be designed to operate in a digital way. Okay. So that you can accelerate value, uh, San you’ve called it Digi ops, right. Where you need to digitally create value and measure the results. Okay. This is really goes back to the first article. If you don’t have the why you can’t be successful.

Scott Luton (00:38:17):

Right. Okay. So Greg, I’m looking forward to get your continued take here and what Kevin said and, and what this conversation from CD net was all about your take.

Greg White (00:38:27):

Well, I mean, I think he’s nailed it really look the, the problems in digital transformation. They don’t vary based on the story that we cover, right. They vary based on what is foundationally, a approach or principle or, or foundation, frankly, with how people approach projects of all kinds and the real key to success. Other than this executive oversight and executive buying in, in executive guidance is winning the hearts and minds of the people whose jobs are impacted every day. And sometimes you have to recognize that that is not broadly company serving. Sometimes you can serve the company by serving someone’s workplace. Self-interest if they feel like they’re wasting time, or they feel like they’re not making progress, or they feel like they’re not making an impact, then sometimes you have to take that as the victory. And that builds morale that can build momentum, that can build projects that can build success.

Greg White (00:39:29):

And I think, um, you know, if more companies approach this, the way that that Kevin and, and Sanji and Ray have talked about, then I think we wouldn’t be having this conversation now at all, this, these are problems that should have been solved, solved over half a century ago when people started implementing technology into their companies. And, um, all we need to do is change the way leadership views and, and, and executes these kind of projects. And it will all change rapidly. And we need that change rapidly, particularly as regards digital transformation with supply chain

Scott Luton (00:40:07):

Agreed, agreed. It’s the only way we’re gonna be able to keep up with what Kus, that’s

Greg White (00:40:11):

A great point. And Kevin, you, we all noted in, in reviewing these articles, they talk about competitive a it’s not even about competitive advantage anymore. It’s about survival. You have to do these digital transformations, you have to do them well, and you have to do them to create positive outcomes within your company or you’re dead. End of discussion.

Scott Luton (00:40:34):

Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:40:34):

So I actually actually wrote an article. Um, that’s going to be coming out this this week for, for Ericson digital. And it was talking about, um, the fact that, uh, they, they interviewed, uh, consumers and consumers really don’t use email anymore. They’ve transitioned to, to text. And it was talking about how companies haven’t recognized that they’re still trying to connect with people with email, so they haven’t changed their outreach processes and the tools, uh, to really follow where the customers are going. Yeah, it’s not about, uh, differentiation. It’s about doing what your customers want.

Scott Luton (00:41:27):

Agreed and survival as Greg puts it as excellent point. Okay. I gotta get, get some of the comments in

Greg White (00:41:34):

From the good ones.

Scott Luton (00:41:36):

They’re really good. So Lily go gunner. Uh, she threw that in, uh, Dr. Ron is still talking. Um, uh, so, so much think about when it comes to renewable energy pros and then some unexpected cons we can mitigate with a deeper understanding of how intervention impacts our environment. Excellent point SEMA goes back to another earlier point digital transformation. It’s a CEO’s fault. I completely agree. She says, yes. Uh, I’m gonna circle back to RO heat’s question in a second. Rohit. We’ll get to that question before we wrap today. So, uh, stay tuned on that. Uh, memory says if the leaders laugh, commitment technology, they couldn’t save their strategy if they tried or, or I’m sorry, I put the wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable. There leaders lack, commitment, commitment technology. Couldn’t save their strategy if they tried

Greg White (00:42:27):

To. That is well, well said right there.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:42:31):

Gotta teach that.

Scott Luton (00:42:32):

Yeah, no kidding. Uh, Peter Bole, it’s all about the five Ys, which I love. It’s one of the best, most simple tools to get to the heart of just about any matter. So love that, uh, comment there. Um, let’s see here T squared is with us. He holds down the Fort for on YouTube. Great to see here T squared having no clarity of vision and well armed talent will always you to failure as the Chinese or as the Japanese say, if you don’t know your direction, you’ll end up where you’re headed. Sounds like a, um, that sounds almost like a Yogi bear. Uh, Greg and

Greg White (00:43:07):

Kevin. Yeah, it is. And it’s, and, and it’s genius and it’s simplicity, right? It’s it’s, uh, it reminds me of when I first started racing cars, one of my racing instructors, as I was crashing through the cones said, if you don’t, if you’re not going the direction you want to go, why is your foot still on the accelerator?

Scott Luton (00:43:25):

Right. That’s right. I love that one. I’ve heard that time too. One of my favorite great white isms, uh, DC says, I hope people are listening, taking notes. Kevin L J acts breaking it down very simply and succinctly. And oftentimes you don’t get all that, uh, in the same conversation I found. Thank

Kevin L. Jackson (00:43:43):

You guys. Thank

Scott Luton (00:43:44):

You. DC Lamont says driving home, the strategic roadmap, foundational pillars and success factors driving all those home are also important when implementing digital technology, clarity, focus, execution, and closure from our project managers perspective and Lamont. If y’all notice all those certifications, he knows what he is talking about when it comes to managing leading projects. Right. Um, all right. And then I’m gonna share this from Dr. Ronda reminds me on the need for a complete, uh, process evaluation and ongoing training and development. Keeping our team updated on the importance of why. And, uh, continued development is essential for performance, uh, as changes continue, it’s important to communicate in a thoughtful, mindful way, so that folks still feel included in the process long ramble. She says, but you’re, you’re dead on. Uh, Dr. Rhonda dead on change is

Kevin L. Jackson (00:44:38):

Constant.

Scott Luton (00:44:39):

Right? Change is constant, whether we like it or not. Okay. Um, so I wanna go back for a second. Uh, Greg, I wanna ask you this question from, well, he, and of course, Kevin, I’d welcome you to weigh in. Well, this is a great question before we get to the next story, uh, Rohit says, uh, and great to have you with us, uh, here, uh, Rohit Greg, how can the world learn from the experiences of similar transformations from the past? Like you mentioned, uh, how messed up it was during the transformation, uh, to transition maybe to E R P. So Greg would love for you to weigh in on that.

Greg White (00:45:13):

Yeah, well, there, I mean, there are studies and books written on some of these, these things, and there are tons of project management principles, books. I, I would explore both the, the books that purport to define a new methodology or a better methodology for, or for projects and transformational change within a company. But also look back at the big fail failures. Hershey’s Nestle, sorry, don’t wanna pick the wrong chocolate company. Nestle’s implementation of SAP. If it is not the subject of a book should be because it was a very costly and very poorly run project universally by the consultants, by the technology provider and by the implementing company. So, um, and there, you know, there ha there have to be writeups on those kind of things. So I would encourage people to seek out those projects that have both been successful. And those that have been, let’s just say, now let’s not, let’s not candy, cut it. Those that have failed miserably and right. Um, and they are, you know, there are many of both, um, and then see what went wrong, but I gotta tell you it’s, it’s no more difficult than keeping your eye on the why. And that’s that’s as, as simple as I can put it. And that’s where most projects go around, uh, not rhyme move, tried not, I’m trying to find a word that didn’t rhyme. I,

Scott Luton (00:46:42):

I saw that I saw you, Paul, when that realization you had was about to rhyme, I saw you Paul’s, but Hey, all good, all good

Kevin L. Jackson (00:46:50):

Tune for the best seller by Greg

Greg White (00:46:54):

That’s. Right. And I bet Kevin, I mean, we could probably contribute to a Warren piece volume of, of both failed and successful projects, because I have been through some that still, I am scarred by today. Right. And, um, and I feel like so much could have been done and I’m sure you’ve all, you’ve all had those experience is I’m sure everyone out there has had an experience like that. And a key is not necessarily to focus on the failure, but to focus on what went wrong and, um, and make sure that you, you know, what to avoid, you know, the signals of being distracted or misdirected and, and, uh, and also how to correct that.

Scott Luton (00:47:37):

Yep. Right. Kevin, whether it’s E R P or whether it’s just general technology transformations, what else would you add to, uh, to, to Rohit’s question

Kevin L. Jackson (00:47:46):

It’s the CEO’s fault?

Scott Luton (00:47:51):

You know, speaking of the CEO, uh, you diagnosed, what many CEOs have earlier in the show to quote Kevin L. Jackson, Shawn item it, you know, we gotta speak to that for a second, because so all too often, you know, whether it’s digital transformation or lots of things, it’s a, it’s a, me too. I, I wanna grab that. Let let’s do that. Let’s do that. And it’s just Don over defense without that, um, intentional communication that both of y’all have spoken to that Dr. Ron was speaking to. So Kevin, um, your commentary. So,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:48:24):

Um, one of the biggest issues when, uh, companies were, you know, trying the cloud computing, why did companies decide to go to cloud is because they were on a plane, they looked in the magazine and the magazine said everybody was going to cloud. It was the newest thing. So the CEO gets off the plane, picks up the phone and calls the, uh, you know, all the C-suite and says we’re going to cloud. And everybody says, what’s that? I don’t know, I don’t care. We’re going to cloud cause everyone is going to cloud. And then everyone marches towards cloud. The, uh, uh, CTO, you know, goes down to, uh, signs are us and, and gets a sign that says cloud center and puts it up on the data center. Right. And they said, OK, we now have a private cloud. I mean, sounds

Greg White (00:49:18):

Like Oracle a few years ago,

Kevin L. Jackson (00:49:22):

But you know, so you, you, you have to, you, you really have to understand what you’re doing. You have to understand the why you have to link that, why to operational metrics

Scott Luton (00:49:33):

Agreed. And, and there’s gotta be a clear cut business case as, as, as you’re alluding to. Right? Yes. It can’t just be that shiny item. It that Kevin, uh, mentioned earlier. Okay. Uh, I wanna add Ji’s comment and we’re gonna move to the next story. Moheb says, uh, P and P and ACP, which I think those are certification by the project management Institute. Big shout out to Mary Kate saliva. Who’s doing great work for our military veterans, uh, helping them get equipped with P PMI stuff. Uh, Mohe says that those two, uh, are big now on agile methodology and servant leadership CEO, and next level leaders could start following that for greater project success. Thanks for adding that Mohe. Um, okay. So, uh, let’s move on to the future of work if that works for both of y’all right. The future of work. Yeah. Especially in supply chain. So, uh, Kevin, um, let’s talk, your thoughts here when it comes to future, future work is getting all the, uh, a lot of juice in industry. A lot of juice in conversations. Everyone is fascinated. I think the pandemic perhaps, and, um, and, and how that’s impacted so much, uh, work. So many workforce issues. I think that’s just elevated these discussions about the future work. So, Kevin, what are your thoughts first?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:50:52):

Well, you know, we’ve talked a, a lot about the CEO. I’ve said it’s always the CEO’s fault, right. But it it’s really about the people. It’s not just the CEO. It’s about all of the human resources that you have a lost the organization. And yes, the CEO is important for setting the vision for holding people to task. But I mean, the roles are changing when it comes to digital transformation companies really need to take a close look at redesigning their supply chain roles and the skills that are needed in order to match the new reality. In fact, a, uh, McKenzie, uh, global Institute survey showed that 87% of leaders thought that their companies were not ready to address the digital skill. Think about the pandemic when everybody had to work from home, and everybody was trying to figure out what to do, what they needed to buy.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:51:58):

And a lot of the software had been sitting on the shelf for years, not used because people said, oh, it’s too hard to do it that way. All right. So, but McKenzie is saying that about 50% of the current activities that companies are doing, especially around supply chain will be automated by 2030. Think about that. Right. Um, and in eight short years, this will fundamentally change the entire nature of supply chain jobs. So if your company’s not ready by understanding the change and the skillset and what training needs to be put in place, guess what, it’s the CEO’s fault, right? To really work towards the new reality of have integrated digital supply chains, some of the new roles that are gonna come up predictive demand management, where you have to, uh, look at the demand signals and how that affects the rest of the supply chain and up to my, your algorithm for your forecasting software.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:53:15):

How about end to end supply planning and execution, right? You have to understand the model for your production planning, get this one, no touch order management. All right, you’re gonna have a need a team that actually designs manages the fully automated order to delivery process in your organization and, and your operational logistics team. They’re gonna have to design, operate and improve the automated warehouses. You know, what are the robots going to do today? All right. Um, and your network configuration. Okay. You need to have more strategic task things like deciding on your production footprints for your new products or optimizing the network for tariffs exchange rates fluctuations. And how about digital currency? Okay. How does your supply chain operate when you are using Bitcoin? And finally the data mastery unit? I love that, right. Okay. These are the dedicated resources to support data analytics, as well as master data management. Cause it’s all about the data, the articles, all

Scott Luton (00:54:44):

About

Kevin L. Jackson (00:54:44):

The, to many more details. You know, I think that should pique your interest.

Scott Luton (00:54:49):

There’s a lot there. And two quick points, um, maybe just one Greg, cause the other one left my mind just as quick, as

Greg White (00:54:57):

Soon as you said,

Scott Luton (00:54:58):

But you know, right. So eight years as Greg started our, uh, as Kevin started, uh, his response there eight years, all this automat, I would argue that eight years is a long, it’s like an attorney 10 years ago. It’s like even even longer attorney that, you know, this year in, in where we are today with digital transformation and, and so much happening. So, you know, the change is happening so much faster, but what’s, uh, Greg, your take when it comes to the future of work and supply chain.

Greg White (00:55:27):

Well, my initial thought was future of work is another one of those, um, areas, future of work generally is a technology category of, of, of products. And it’s something that we, that I invest in and, and work with investment companies to evaluate. So that’s the next type of project to get screwed up by lack of

Greg White (00:55:50):

Lack of, uh, management involvement and, and oversight. Um, but it, what I, what was, I was astounded by in reading this article is that every one of these things that they’re talking about exists today, what they’re really talking about. I, I mean, what they really hopefully mean is that they will come more and more automated because I had a job in 1992 where the order placed the order, uh, management process was automated. No human ever touched that that was 30 years ago here. Here’s where I think we need to be, uh, distinct in descri in defining supply chain because universally, especially to those at the highest level, which McKenzie operates at and, and, uh, academics who are the other contributors to this article, they think of the supply chain as the manufacturing supply chain, which is dreadful behind in terms of advancement. But if you think about retail and distribution levels of supply chain, they’ve mastered so many of these things decades ago.

Greg White (00:56:53):

And what they need to be doing is looking at the models that have worked for those Le layers of the supply chain and, and start to adapt those towards manufacturing. The opposite has often been the true, the truth because all the money, all the margin is made in manufacturing, in supply chain to give you an example, many manufacturers make double digit net profits after tax, not a single distributor makes double digits, double digit net margins after tax. Some of them have to do manipulative forward buying tech techniques in their inventory to even make a profit at all. If they’re in the food industry, for instance, and retailers typically make on, on the range of two and a half to 5% net margin after tax. So all of the opinions around supply chain come from manufac. Why, because that’s where the money is. And that’s what McKenzie and educators work for is money. So we have to recognize that this is perhaps too broad Kevin to go, to bring our little discussion full circle, right? Perhaps too broad of a statement around supply chain. When in fact it should be focused on manufacturing, supply chain and the ability to apply techniques that have already been in use for decades at other layers to manufacturing. So that’s the greatest takeaway from my standpoint?

Kevin L. Jackson (00:58:20):

Well, they’ve been squeezing, uh, retail for years is now time to squeeze manufacturing.

Greg White (00:58:26):

Absolutely. Right. I mean, when, when you say gross margin at, at manufacturing, it’s gross in all capital letters and gross in every other way, you can imagine.

Scott Luton (00:58:40):

So, all right, I’ll take a quick couple quick comments here. Uh, I’m gonna start going back since one of the constant theme of today’s show is all about how it’s the CEO’s fault, right? Have to add that about a dozen times.

Kevin L. Jackson (00:58:52):

That’s the name? That’s the, that’s the title of this episode,

Scott Luton (00:58:56):

Right? That is a title. Um, so DC is laughing because that’s totally what happens. Uh, as a CEO, she says, I’m totally the person that reads, sees something interested and sends it to someone on my team to, to, to further investigate her to act. They probably roll their eyes every time she says, luckily I have really smart folks on the team and they tell me, I love that DC. Right. And memory is talking about the value of getting to root the problem. There’s five whys that, that Peter, um, Bole mentioned earlier, Dr. Ron is always a pleasure to have you with us. I’m sure you’ve got I’m. I bet your, your calendar is, uh, is jam packed full, but great. That you could spend, um, you know, 45 minutes with us here to day. So thanks for joining us now. Uh, Magdi ask, uh, a great question, uh, via LinkedIn. Is it really possible to automate everything in supply chain quick, quick? Oh gosh. We’re at the top of that quick response to that. That’s an easy answer. That’s right. Uh, no. Okay, great. Go ahead.

Kevin L. Jackson (01:00:02):

Uh, Dito, no

Scott Luton (01:00:04):

Dito. OK. We’ll we’ll all agree on there. Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (01:00:08):

Things change all the time, man.

Scott Luton (01:00:10):

Normally I keep a, uh, uh, a very sharp eye on control its one O’. I think we did lose so much

Kevin L. Jackson (01:00:19):

Control over the clock.

Scott Luton (01:00:20):

Uh, I must have, um, really quick, uh, uh, you know, we wanted to break out the BC BM, big crystal ball moment and wrap with that discussion. I want a very, uh, another succinct answer and the question, uh, completely unrelated to digital transformation to some degree, although they’re looking at robotic umpire call God, which would be interesting seriously. Um, rest in peace, Eric, Greg, but man, you ruined my 90. Uh, let’s see. That was a 97 Braves, I believe. Um, okay, so really quick. Is there gonna be a baseball season in 2022, Kevin, your quick take?

Kevin L. Jackson (01:00:57):

Uh, yes, because if it doesn’t we’ll have riots on the street

Scott Luton (01:01:01):

That’s right. Okay.

Greg White (01:01:03):

Yes, but it will be shortened is my prediction. Yeah, it’s too late, late already. In my opinion,

Scott Luton (01:01:09):

Opinion. I agree with

Greg White (01:01:09):

You having lived in Arizona and Rhonda lives in Arizona. Now the greatest month in the entire year in Arizona is February because of spring training. And if the players are locked out, no spring training is too dangerous. They’re too valuable of assets to put on the field outta shape. Um, you know, they, aren’t all Carlton fi who could drink beer all summer long or, uh, and still somehow play baseball, right. Or babe Games and still manage to play. It’s a different game than that.

Scott Luton (01:01:43):

It’s a different game. Carl Martin fi of course the hall of Famer catcher for the, both the red Sox and the white Sox. Uh, probably in addition to some other stops from his career, SEMA says, yes, there will be baseball. I love that. Um, you know, uh, I agree with both of y’all I think there will be baseball. There’s too much money, uh, involved. There’s too many people that, that are depending on that as a departure. Um, but it will be short and seasoned undoubtedly, because it’s almost to your point, Greg, it’s almost already too late and Kevin, yes, it’ll be right in the street. If we do not see our, our beloved world champion, Atlanta Braves,

Greg White (01:02:19):

Washington nationals.

Scott Luton (01:02:21):

That’s right. Kevin’s a Washington nationals fan. We gotta put in there for him for sure. Um, okay. Let’s make sure as we wrap here, let’s make sure folks know how to connect with both of y’all. I I’ve really enjoyed, uh, I love when we get, um, both of, both of y’all together. Uh, there’s so much, um, highfalutin. I appreciate y’all bringing it down for everybody’s altitude, right? Uh, Kevin,

Kevin L. Jackson (01:02:44):

Well, I dunno, Mo here, uh, is a complaining, right he says that we talk too fast. I’m gonna say, Hey, this is this, we this to supply chain now.com and play it slowly.

Greg White (01:03:04):

That is right. Slow down.

Scott Luton (01:03:06):

Cause there will be a quiz. There will, there will be a quiz. The market will definitely quiz you on the things we talked about here today. And the stakes will be a lot more than a score on a pop quiz. Okay. Kevin, how can folks connect with you

Kevin L. Jackson (01:03:20):

On, uh, LinkedIn, Kevin Jackson on Kevin underscore Jackson on Twitter, but of course digital, we can go to digital transformers and digital transacts on Twitter and on, uh, we, we got a Pedro LinkedIn now. Woo Woohoo. So, uh, come find us.

Scott Luton (01:03:41):

You want, you definitely wanna get Jackson. I promise you, uh, you learn a lot from, uh, Kevin was thinking And

Greg White (01:03:47):

It’s almost like

Greg White (01:03:48):

Vaccinated.

Scott Luton (01:03:51):

I like that, man. Yeah.

Kevin L. Jackson (01:03:58):

Come on.

Greg White (01:04:01):

Fails. Digital transformation.

Greg White (01:04:03):

Get vaccinated.

Scott Luton (01:04:04):

Love it. Love it. All right. So Greg, how can folks connect with Gregory S. White?

Greg White (01:04:09):

Yeah. LinkedIn of course, Greg white on LinkedIn, uh, with supply chain now, uh, and Gregory S. White on Twitter and Instagram. And I promise I will get more active on the of

Scott Luton (01:04:22):

Yes and folks. Uh, oh,

Kevin L. Jackson (01:04:23):

We have a new Instagram for digital transformers. Right?

Scott Luton (01:04:29):

Well, big thanks to Chantel for making that happen again. Big, thanks to Chantel and Catherine and Amanda and clay and everyone else behind the scenes help makes, uh, production happen. Uh, we should add, uh, really quick, Greg that mentioned it. Folks connect, follow Greg on LinkedIn. Uh, the two or three times a week, he drops, uh, some supply chain hot takes into, uh, the LinkedIn ecosystem. And you’re not gonna wanna miss it. He tells it like it is, and it generates a lot of buzz. And by the way, speaking of LinkedIn, uh, Kevin O Jackson’s got a, a wonderful newsletter that comes that what once or twice a month? Kevin?

Kevin L. Jackson (01:05:04):

Well, actually twice a week, actually. Twice a week. Yeah.

Scott Luton (01:05:10):

Uh, I’m convinced

Kevin L. Jackson (01:05:10):

Digital. It’s called digital business on in

Scott Luton (01:05:13):

Business. Check that out. Connect with, uh, Kevin Jackson here too. Okay. Folks, hopefully you enjoyed this rapid fire hour in five minutes. As much as I have, uh, on behalf of our entire team, I wanna challenge you. That’s gonna be a lot to act on everything you heard here today, but it’s real easy to act on one thing. And that is to do good to give forward and to be the change that’s needed folks with. See you next time, right back here on supply chain now. Thanks your bye.

Intro/Outro (01:05:39):

Thanks 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.