Supply Chain Now
Episode 1110

The one thing NOT to do while in Vegas is to gamble a dollar that you're afraid to lose. Have a plan, pick an amount, and when you hit that amount, walk away.

- Greg White

Episode Summary

The Supply Chain Buzz is Supply Chain Now’s regular Monday livestream, held at 12n ET each week. This show focuses on some of the leading stories from global supply chain and global business, always with special guests – the most important of which is the live audience!

This week’s edition of The Buzz featured co-hosts Scott Luton and Greg White. In addition to covering top supply chain news stories from around the world, they shared their thoughts on environmental sustainability based on inspiration from Earth Day 2023.

In this livestream, created in collaboration with a live Supply Chain Now audience, Scott and Greg discussed:

• Why cyber attacks are on the rise, and what companies can do about it by increasing general awareness among employees and ensuring it is covered in supplier contracts

• How Ikea is balancing product accessibility, affordability, and sustainability through investments in omnichannel growth

• The opportunity associated with increasing communications between supply chain and finance, and between the company and sub-tier suppliers

 

 

 

Episode Transcript

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 (00:31):

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

Greg White (00:41):

Good. Very good.

Scott Luton (00:43):

I’m doing good. Wonderful <laugh>,

Greg White (00:45):

Little bit of a late travel day yesterday.

Scott Luton (00:48):

Yes. You were on assignment in Las Vegas, which we’re gonna dive into, right? Second half of the show. Had a great time. I saw some of the pictures, uh, as we were celebrating

Greg White (00:58):

Pictures.

Scott Luton (00:59):

I saw a couple of them.

Greg White (01:00):

Oh, that’s good.

Scott Luton (01:01):

<laugh>. So maybe the world has seen him. I don’t

Greg White (01:03):

Know. The social media manager,

Scott Luton (01:05):

<laugh>, but great to have you back. I’m looking forward to picking your brain. So folks, we’re gonna talk, of course today as a supply chain buzz coming at you every Monday at 12 in Eastern time, as Greg and I and friends walk through some of the biggest global news stories across the world of business, especially a supply chain as you might expect. But we’re gonna pick Greg’s brain and have some fun toward the end of the show, around three things to do in Vegas, and one thing not to do in Vegas. So stay tuned for

Greg White (01:33):

That. I bet there’s some opinions on that

Scott Luton (01:35):

<laugh>. So, hey, we wanna hear from you. Uh, tell us, uh, not only what you’re tracking across global supply chain, global business, but if you’ve been to Vegas, give us your inside tips too. Hmm, Greg, of course, we want to hear from all of our friends, use that chat bar. We enjoy hearing where folks are from getting their take. And folks, if you’re listening to this podcast replay, cause we published the, the, uh, the audio podcast version of the Buzz, usually on Friday mornings. If you’re listening to that, hey, check us out live on LinkedIn, YouTube, or any other social media channel of your choosing on Mondays at 12 noon. We’d love to hear from you, Greg. What else would you, as we, as we make that a warm invitation out to our global supply chain now family, what else would you add to that nice warm invite.

Greg White (02:20):

Golly. Um, well listen up and don’t forget to tell friends about this, right? I mean, you’re gonna get to hear from, not just on this show, but on other shows, you’re gonna get to hear from some of the most prominent practitioners. And we’re interviewing yet another leader of chains, uh, in the next couple days, right? Is That’s

Scott Luton (02:38):

Right. I think it’s every day. Well,

Greg White (02:40):

It is, you’re right. I’m thinking of one in particular City Furniture, right? So,

Scott Luton (02:45):

Oh, that’s right. Andrew Koenig. Right,

Greg White (02:47):

Right, right. Um, and then of course, a lot of solution providers who are out there sharing stories of their customer success and that sort thing, that’s

Scott Luton (02:59):

<laugh> tune in, listen up, and it’s a money back guarantee. Money back satisfaction guarantee. That’s right. Um, hey, little quick heads up. I noticed earlier today, um, LinkedIn was having some, some issues. So if you’re tuned in, uh, via LinkedIn today, that might be interfering with your ability to comment. Just giving you a heads up, you know, that happens from time to time. All right. So Greg, let’s, let’s share some learning opportunities with all of our, our listeners out there. One of our next big shows is this Thursday, as we welcome in Greg Davis with Grant Thornton on our, we’ve got this, um, ongoing featured mini-series. Yeah. Our focus on decoding digital transformation, sponsored by our friends at Next World. And this next installment, Greg, we had such a blast on the first one. This next installment is gonna be focused on what’s next. Greg, should be one heck of a show, huh?

Greg White (03:48):

Yeah. Look, digital transformations big topic anywhere all the time, but there’s, uh, there’s kind of layers to it. Like onions have layers and donkeys out layers, <laugh> layers, layers to digital transformation. So we’re gonna talk about kinda the various, uh, levels and layers that you can approach and attack the enormous project that is digital transformation. Right? And, and Greg may be at the draft when he does it. I wonder if he’s gonna use that as a backdrop, win in for that.

Scott Luton (04:23):

Absolutely. The, and I’m glad you called that out, Greg, because Thursday night is the first round of the N F L draft and no telling. I hope the Falcons get the chiefs pick because the chiefs don’t need any more talent, and the Falcons need a lot more. So can we work out that deal, Greg?

Greg White (04:38):

Uh, yeah. In fact, uh, by the way, Scott in Vegas, there were quite a few, uh, there were quite a few Falcons fans out there,

Scott Luton (04:45):

Ok,

Greg White (04:46):

<laugh>, they were proudly wearing the colors, and I gave them a, I gave them a rise up whenever I saw him,

Scott Luton (04:52):

Right? Right. <laugh>. Well, all a good fun. Looking forward to the draft. Okay. So quick update, uh, and big thanks to course Catherine and Amanda behind the scenes helping make production happen. Looks like we are having an issue with the comments coming in. I see Josh Lamar Nazarene, uh, Leah Luton, mom’s with us, uh, Felix, Tasha all joining us at from different parts of the globe. We’ll see if we can’t get that ironed out, uh, over the next hour. But welcome in everybody. Okay, Greg, we were just talking about, uh, learning opportunities with this live stream conversation this Thursday, again, right? April 27th, 12 noon. So y’all join us, the links in the, in the chat. Also, over the weekend, we published the latest edition of, uh, with that said, that’s our, uh, weekly LinkedIn newsletter. This time focused on since Saturday was Earth Day 2023. It had a lot of Earth Day related Earth Day focus content. And it’s so true. We entitle that there is no Planet B little play on plan B versus plan A. I

Greg White (05:48):

Like that. That was pretty

Scott Luton (05:48):

Good. <laugh>. Well, I, we shamelessly stole it. Uh, right. Uh, like, like most good ideas, right? Folks, <laugh>, we encourage you to not only, um, check out with that said, but more importantly, think about, you know, um, of course, with all of these holidays, we’ve gotta find a way to, to bake it into our mindset year round so we can drive meaningful action. Uh, and that’s what we wanna encourage y’all to do. If you do anything, stop and think and figure out how you can act. Greg, your thoughts around Earth Day and sustainability, E s G, you name it.

Greg White (06:23):

Well, I mean, you know, I, I think there are a lot of people that are accidental environmentalists, including my great grandparents who said, turn off the lights when you leave a room and don’t brush your teeth with the water on and things like that. That’s right. Don’t run the thermostat down. Were you born in a barn, is an act of environmental activism, by the way. So, right. I think what we have acknowledge super political, all this SG stuff, but what’s the taking care of the, I’ve rock climber and, and hiker for a long time. And, and the number one rule is pack out what you pack in. So, um, you know, I think there are just a lot of little things that you can do and then contribute to some of these bigger challenges. And there, and this whole planet B thing, I don’t know about if anyone’s ever thought about it this way, right?

Greg White (07:19):

Everyone’s thinking about Elon Musk going to Mars, and I think Elon Musk happens to be possibly one of the smartest that exists on this planet. But rather than go to Mars and build a dome over Mars, once we’ve destroyed the atmosphere here, why not just build a dome over our planet here, <laugh>, right? But we have a lot of the infrastructure that could help us capitalize on that. I mean, if, if such such thing ever happens, right? Yes. So let, let’s not forget that some of this is very capitalistic and in some cases hyperbolic. Yes.

Scott Luton (07:57):

Well, hey, when we do that, build the dome, Polly Shore will be involved as he was in the famous movie, was it Biosphere for the nineties? Big flop. Do you remember Polly Shore from M T V, Greg?

Greg White (08:09):

I do remember him from mtv, and I remember he had some movies, right? But yeah,

Scott Luton (08:15):

<laugh>, that wasn’t the best part of his career, I guess. Uh, all right, love that. I love that perspective, Greg. It’s so true. Uh, folks, just, just regardless of some of the politics out there, do good, do

Greg White (08:26):

Something. Yeah. There’s no harm. I mean, there’s no harm in being more environmentally conscious. We, that’s what we used to call it back in the eighties, I guess, right?

Scott Luton (08:35):

And as Amanda sharing, biodome was that movie with Paul Shore.

Greg White (08:40):

I do remember the name, <laugh>, unfortunately, I don’t remember the movie.

Scott Luton (08:43):

Oh, man. All right, so y’all check out, uh, with that said, uh, joined 21,000 of your, uh, fellow, uh, practitioners and friends and members of the supply chain now, global fam that have been tuning in and giving us feedback around that. And then finally, speaking of, uh, we were just talking pre-show about how the kids are. All right. I’m not sure where that stems from. I think some song,

Greg White (09:06):

The who, that’s a who

Scott Luton (09:07):

Song. Okay. Thank you, Greg. But the kids are indeed. All right. And the latest example, and you can find plenty if you would, if you go looking. So gotta give Vector Global Logistics. Some, a shout out here. This is my oldest daughter Brantley here in the chair. I took a snippet. It’s tough to tough to catch one when she’s smiling. Um, but en uh, Enrique Alvarez and the great team at Vector Global Logistics basically set up interviews with, uh, Greg, I probably a couple dozen kids, I guess. Hmm. And the kids all answered the question, why should sustainability matter to your company? And then we’ll drop, we’ll drop a link to this, um, this LinkedIn post there. I’ll check out the video and all the responses, but Greg, brilliant, brilliant. Uh, when Enrique reached out to me, uh, it’s been two months ago since they started setting it up.

Scott Luton (09:53):

And then of course, they, on the post-production and, and then publish the final product. These kids we’re in good hands when after we finished messing things up and, and get it into our, the next generation, these, these kids’ hands, I’m telling you, it is amazing how intelligent and how, um, uh, passionate, how, um, uh, how visionary, uh, yeah, you know, these kids are in terms of, of some of the simple steps and some of the most more complex steps of, of actions that we should be taking. Greg, you, you may not have you got a chance to look at this video yet? I

Greg White (10:27):

Haven’t, but I want to. I love, you know, I’ve always believed from the mouths of Right. So much wisdom. But yeah, I, I think I’m really interested to see what they’re all, they’re all thinking about.

Scott Luton (10:39):

I’m too,

Greg White (10:40):

There have to be some new ideas out there. You know, one of the things that jumps out at me is batteries, ev batteries, and all this rare earth mineral stuff. Yep. I’ve actually been over the last month or so just researching what the alternatives are, and there’s some really good studies, for instance Yep. Out there. So if we can get some new insights in just thinking about the, the naivete of children forces them to think about things in a different way, and they don’t, they aren’t necessarily bound by the status quo. Right. And, and that’s where good ideas come

Scott Luton (11:13):

From. So true, Greg. So true. And folks, uh, Greg, we’ve talked about this, uh, countless times here, and you make a, a lot of great points. You know, um, the ev whole industry, as we all know, is blowing up, right? I mean, very few. I mean, if you look at future plans of the, some of the major car companies out there, traditional automobiles are, are, are barely, it’s just a, a fraction. But Greg, you make a great point, because while we should all feel good, I mean, about the notion of using, um, uh, electricity, right? Renew, especially renewable, uh, energy to drive automobiles. The flip side of that, of what all the destruction across the planet, it goes into the, um, the huge demand for batteries and, and then some, Greg, we’ve got a lot more balance than to figure out, uh, so that it can be truly, uh, as sustainable as maybe, uh, you know, some consumers think, huh?

Greg White (12:09):

Yeah. I think that we’re, we’re gonna need to find alternatives. Uh, they’re already looking at, they found some meteorite magnetization, I think it’s called Tate tonight. I’m sorry. Yeah. I was just reading about that today. But that can be simulated and that can take on the magnetic properties required for semiconductors and that sort of thing. And that way we don’t have to destroy the earth’s crust to get all these rare earth minerals to create the magnets that are required for a lot of electrification. Um, and that sort of thing. And of course, we’ve got the, the social challenges with cobalt. So much of that is mined by, by child and slave labor. Right. So, you know, we need to attack those problems. I think we need entirely new technologies for, for batteries. Yep. But it’s good to see that there is some really active awareness in not destroying the environment in a new way to avoid destroying the environment in an old way. And I think that, you know, we didn’t have that foresight before. We didn’t have the knowledge to see what the, what the potential damage was. Yep. Not before, but now we do. And I’m glad we’re taking advantage of that to already consider some more sustainable alternatives for our sustainability initiatives.

Scott Luton (13:22):

Yes. I really appreciate you pointing that out. We all need to go into this ev movement eyes wide open, I’m telling you. Well,

Greg White (13:30):

And it’s fast. I know if you saw what’s going, what happened at the Shanghai Auto Show, but China has about 30% of all new cars are EVs now. Yeah. And whereas the German and, and Japanese brands, and even some American brands were really popular, their sales are plummeted there. So, uh, Hyundai, which of course we know their sales were down 40% last year in China. Wow. Because not only are the Chinese now way ahead on creating, uh, ev cars, but the look is more modern. And the Chinese consumers are falling in love with these cars. And there are some pretty good looking cars over there. There’s one brand called Lee.

Scott Luton (14:18):

Okay.

Greg White (14:18):

Li and, um, and they have an L nine, which is a, a great looking vehicle.

Scott Luton (14:24):

So Yeah. Hey, if it passes the Greg White Automotive test, you’ve really earned a blue ribbon. Yeah.

Greg White (14:31):

<laugh>. Yeah. I, I mean, I, I do think, and this, this isn’t news except, you know, this may not be news, but I do think that we need to start seriously about thinking about the next car purchase and whether that ought to be an ev if only for the fact that EV is hitting that, the exponential of the demand curve. And it’ll start to become a bigger and bigger portion of, of the consumer purchase, which will rapidly make fossil fuel vehicles worth zero IC vehicles Right. In internal combustion engine. Yeah. They could be worth zero in five years. They, they are already, the prices are plummeting for, uh, i c vehicles in China now. Mm-hmm. They have a law that outlaws them. Uh, interesting. July of this year.

Scott Luton (15:20):

Wow. Well, it, I I, I read over the weekend, uh, CNN had an interview with the, um, senior leader of the Ford Mustang, uh, program.

Greg White (15:29):

We call it mock E Oh oh. Is this the actual Mustang?

Scott Luton (15:32):

Or is Yeah. This is the real one. This isn’t a crossover. Yeah. It, it wa <laugh> that crossover version. Uh, in fact, this, um, executive didn’t really wanna talk about the crossover version. Cause you could tell kind of between the lines, it sounded like she didn’t think that was a, you know, a real Mustang, which I think a lot of, lot of listeners may agree with her.

Greg White (15:50):

A lot of, yeah. A lot of Ford fans would agree with that. Same. Right. So I appreciate her, uh, whatever you call it,

Scott Luton (15:55):

<laugh>. But, but check it out. It, it was a great, um, you know, I love when you, when we interview folks that, um, you can tell they love what they do. They’re not just charged with leading this project. Whatever. Sh you know, her grandparents or parents I think all worked at Ford. She, uh, loves the brand, loves the vehicles. And, and when you hear from leadership and supply chain manufacturing leadership for that, you can hear and see that passion. Those are some of the best pieces. So y’all check that out. Yeah. Um, Greg, we are, man, we are, uh, we are going all over the place here on the buzz here today. And folks, we’d love to hear your comments. Uh, we’ll have to maybe celebrate ’em after the show. But, uh, let us know what you think on these stories. Let us know what you think, uh, around the EV movement.

Scott Luton (16:40):

We’d love to hear your perspective. Okay. Greg, we are going to get officially mm-hmm. Into our first story here today. Cause believe it or not, uh, EV and batteries and Mustang, none of that was part of our initial plan here today. But hey, uh, good stuff. Lot, lot of good stuff happening out there. Let’s get into something we’ve been banging the drum on mm-hmm. <affirmative> for years and years and years. I mean, when it comes to cybersecurity, it’s pretty scary out there. So, according to this great read from our friends at Supply chain Dive, Greg, did you know that the number of supply chain cyber attacks in the first two months of 2023 is already, uh, surpassed 40% of last year’s, 2022 total number of attacks. Now that shouldn’t surprise any of our audience numbers, right? Because cuz we’ve been, we’ve been talking about this forever.

Scott Luton (17:30):

But this article encourages you to consider three things. Lemme get Greg’s take after this first map out your tech suppliers, especially so that your procurement team is in the notes since they often are, are making transactions happen, right? Right. Second, add cybersecurity to the supplier contracts, make it a shared responsibility. And then third, train and empower employees across enterprise, not just in procurement, but where everyone has a role to play things they’re looking for protecting the enterprise. Greg, when it comes to cybersecurity, some of the stuff we’re seeing out there from bad actors or somebody’s, somebody’s, uh, both proactive and reactive steps that, that, uh, SMEs are, are suggesting. What are, what are some of your thoughts here?

Greg White (18:15):

Well, I think you have to start, you have to start with the people because that, I mean, frankly, we’re the weakest link. Um, the example that they gave in this article was shocking, where someone not only, um, faked the email of the c e o, but they deep faked a voicemail from the CEO by, by, uh, cutting together statements from public statements and Right. And speaking engagements. And that’s sort of thing to reinforce the, yes, please send this enormous check to this, this vendor’s bank account, new bank account. So, um, they’re very, very sophisticated out there. And of course, the supply chain, you know, why the supply chain hasn’t been as big a target until now, is because here we go, Scott, until the great toilet paper shortage of 2020, nobody knew what the supply chain was or that it existed right now, as it’s come into new prominence and, and, um, bad actors have, have recognized that it’s a laggard in terms of technology and awareness around cybersecurity. They see an easy target. So it is important to, to train the people, but also, I think this is a critical thing. It is another leg of, of, or pillar of supply chain. Just consider cybersecurity up there with, with cost right. And risk. Yep. And, and E s G, just consider it another pillar of the supply chain to make sure that you secure it. So they talked about it’s been 10 years since Target. It doesn’t seem like it,

Scott Luton (20:00):

Right?

Greg White (20:00):

But it’s been since 10 years since Target lost 110 million people’s data because an H V A c a heating and air conditioning, uh, repair company got hacked. And, and they got into the target network, uh, that way. So,

Scott Luton (20:18):

Unbelievable.

Greg White (20:19):

It, I mean, it, you have to understand the totality of your interactions in your supply chain and procurement areas, and you have to be aware and, and of course, have that compliance element just like you would for showing up on time, you know, delivering a PO or, or, or delivering accurate, um, quotes and, and the other things that you, you concern vendors with.

Scott Luton (20:46):

Yep. Uh, the totality of the risk, again, eyes wide open, um, because it, it, that was 10 years ago, Greg, as you point out, it’s hard to believe that was 2013 with the target thing. And, you know, goodness knows, it is amazing what we’re doing with iot, uh, internet of things these days and all the conveniences and comforts that it offers. But like with anything else, it’s double-edged sword for all the conveniences and comforts and innovation, it opens up some doors for bad actors to do bad things. And, you know, Greg, along those lines, one of our favorite episodes from, gosh, probably 600 episodes ago, uh, Jack Allen was Cisco, right? Uh, we had talked about how, and an, and it wasn’t Cisco, it was, it was a different manufacturing company. It was based on a real story though. Uh, a bunch of employees from a certain manufacturing plant would bowl in a league at a, at a bowling alley down the road.

Scott Luton (21:35):

And they all gave their content information in the, the Bowling League’s website so they could keep up scores, all that stuff. Well, bad actors penetrated that, pieced intel together and, and, uh, uh, some way that they could use that information to crack the credentials of the manufacturing, uh, email. Uh, and then perhaps e r p system, as I recall, eventually it shut down the plant. Yeah. Um, so it really is scary out there. And folks, um, you know, take Greg’s advice, check out this article, uh, considered the expertise that’s in there. And most importantly, hey, get with your team and figure out what the current plan, what the current risk mitigation strategy is for this, uh, highly and fastly emerging threat. That is all things cyber across global supply chain.

Greg White (22:21):

Yeah. These are not geeks in their mom’s basement. These are, uh, highly intellectual and talented, um, driven, economically driven, and sometimes officially supported by various governments. Yep. We all know who they’re China, and so they are well healed as well. Right? They have their own science teams, they have algorithms and AI to, to train their solutions to figure out how to trick you and how to penetrate, um, your systems. So this is, it’s, this is a technology war. Really.

Scott Luton (23:02):

So true. It is so true. All right. So we’re dropping the link to, to these articles in the chat. And as, uh, Catherine and Amanda point out Yeah. LinkedIn’s having a functionality issue here today. So a couple comments here. They’re dropping ’em into private chat for us. So thank y’all very much. Tom Valentine, Hey tv. Great to see you. I’ve seen how busy you’ve been. He says, uh, great points guys. And in the article, there are a lot of soft end points within the four walls that are never considered. Right? He says, uh, heck, my new washing machine in dryer keep asking my phone to connect <laugh>.

Greg White (23:34):

That’s a really good point. And, and you know, they make another good point, Tom. And that is, they say vet those tech suppliers because any tech supplier that, you know, as they talk about companies are growing really fast, tech companies are growing really fast, but any tech supplier that doesn’t have adequate cybersecurity, it’s probably someone you should not do business with. It’s so basic to be cyber secure, security certified, right? SOC X or whatever the number is these days, <laugh> or the other, other types of certifications that don’t take a risk on somebody who is not not certified.

Scott Luton (24:12):

Excellent point. And, uh, Kim Winters here with us today. Kim, great to see you. Uh, he says, well said, Greg, more than 30% Kim says, uh, there’s Australian population has had their personal info stolen through hacking of tier one insurance and telcos or telephone companies.

Greg White (24:28):

Oh my gosh, are you serious? Insurance and telephone?

Scott Luton (24:32):

Unbelievable.

Greg White (24:33):

So they know a lot about what, what wines, what Shira and what, uh, beers <laugh> Australian drink,

Scott Luton (24:39):

Right? Oh, Shira. I love a good Shiraz man. Um, let’s see. Gloria Mar says, uh, and great to have you, Gloria Mar says, as I look at the port of LA I always wonder how it is physically, internally cyber protected in the military. We are, uh, OD’ed <laugh> on cyber training, and we have not been exempt from attacks. So I can only wonder about the vulnerabilities that our supply chain has. Excellent points. And

Greg White (25:04):

If you saw, if you’ve seen the article about, um, the IRS and how much 50 year old technology the IRS has, and 40 and 30 and even 20 year old technology, none of that is cybersecurity. You can bet that in state governments with some of these ancient infrastructures like ports Yep. We know that they’re extreme laggards in terms of technology. So that is a significant risk. Right? Unfortunately, our government is probably not defending us as well as other governments are attacking us.

Scott Luton (25:40):

Yeah. Greg, uh, I hate the pile alone, but you look at the nuclear technology talking about archaic technology that’s susceptible to a wide variety. Uh, they’re, they’re reevaluating, uh, nuclear, uh, policies and security as we speak. Um, and that’s, that’s made it out to public knowledge. It’s interesting. Um, alright. Right. One last point here. And by the way, Don is with us, gene pledgers win this great see of Gino, uh, Kim says, the wines protected guys, the wines protecting. That’s good, Kim. Protect that Shaz. Um, now Donna makes, and, and one last point here from Donna, uh, Donna, great to see you here this morning. She says, all of this begs making media literacy a priority in our schools informed users will be able to spot the fakes. Um, which, you know, we’re, we’ve all have seen all kinds of just completely AI generated content. And, you know, my eye usually catches, you know, there, there’s some still some looks. I’ve seen one commercial that’s been hitting regularly and I could spot that it was AI driven right away. But man, they are really close to being able to fool even the, the sharpest of eyes. That’s a great point, Donna. Yeah. Greg, you’re gonna comment.

Greg White (26:47):

Yeah. It’s, it’s very difficult to tell. I mean, if you’ve ever seen any of these deep fake videos, theyre very realistic. It’s, it’s scary. But, you know, I think, I think we’ll wind up with advanced internal technologies to address the points that Donna and Tom and Kim have, have talked about. Yep. From the inside out or, or across networks to help secure not just individual companies, but between those companies as well.

Scott Luton (27:14):

Yep. Agreed. All right. So smooth, something less scary. <laugh>. So let’s talk about what IKEA is up to. I bet we’ve got tons of Ikea fans. I know. I, uh, Amanda behind the scenes here is a big Ikea fan. I might have some, some of this stuff right behind me, I think.

Greg White (27:30):

Yeah. Sitting at my Ikea desk, right. <laugh>, right. My coor or whatever.

Scott Luton (27:34):

<laugh>. Well check this out. CNBC reports that the popular Swedish home and furniture company is investing some 2.2 billion, billion and it’s omnichannel growth. So, Greg, some of the things that that that <laugh> that, that picks up the tab on new stores and new pickup locations with, with one of the company’s goals being to improve accessibility while keeping products affordable.

Greg White (27:57):

Right.

Scott Luton (27:58):

Uh, it includes nine new, what they’re calling plan and order points where customers can get help on things like really big remodel projects that continues this. Uh, as we’ve heard Gartner and many others report on mass personalization, mass customization, right? At scale, uh, investing. A big part of the, the plan and the path forward is investing in more sustainable operations, uh, with ikea. One goal is the modernization of the 51 existing US stores for energy efficiency. Also building out an all ev delivery fleet. So, Greg, when you hear some of this stuff here at a, at a retailer that Americans have folks everywhere have come, come to, to love and enjoy your thoughts.

Greg White (28:41):

Yeah. My first question was, in these nine delivery point planning and delivery points or planning order points, will they also have Swedish meatballs in case you go to visit? Cause it’s a good and inexpensive meal. Um, so that was my first question, but in all seriousness, I was a little bit stunned that there were only 51 stores around the country. But, um, not as stunned when I have tried to order, um, IKEA goods to be delivered to more remote locations in, in, as you say, Scott South,

Scott Luton (29:18):

Right.

Greg White (29:18):

<laugh>, um, South Carolina. And, um, but I think this is a recognition that they need to do better. Uh, so in three companies in a row, completely, completely outfitted the office with IKEA desk. That’s how you, that’s how you in the office when you’re, you’re new in our, in our companies, right? Right. You, you go in your first day, you do your HR paperwork, and then you assemble your desk and chair and meet all the people who wanna help you know how to do that.

Greg White (29:57):

I think, I think this is such a popular company they have in incredible quality goods for the prices. Yep. Um, that it’s, you know, this is just one of their other initiatives. And I see that they’re blending it with their ESG initiative by, by including EV delivery vehicles, which is a big initiative for them. And of course they, they have their own challenges in terms of the validation of, of some of those e ev or, uh, SG initiatives. But Yep. I like that they’re blending the two here. I think there’s a great opportunity for more people to be exposed to these kinda things. One guidance I would give them, like, they really care what I think. But one guidance I would give them is that the, the stores are not necessarily the weak point of the omni omnichannel experience. The website is, I dunno if you’ve ever bought and tried to have delivered goods from an ikea, but it, its, uh, to use the Danish word, which isn’t Danish at all, I’m sure, but something they would name after, doesn’t it?

Scott Luton (31:02):

<laugh>. So it is room for improvement is the one I’m picking up on that, Greg.

Greg White (31:07):

Yeah. I think, I think that’s probably one of the weakest points. But, you know, they’re, they’re still technologically savvy. I have no doubt that they’ll, they’ll pick that up. I mean, I could see them, you know, using 3D imaging and that sort of thing. Right.

Scott Luton (31:21):

Well, you know, uh, speaking of, so I mean, I’ve never ordered from Ikea, but, uh, as Amanda put any comments here, uh, so true Greg. I love Ikea, but ordering from them, Amanda says, online is a nightmare. Hoping this investment means a better e-com experience. Excellent. Amanda. And hey, um, Amanda needs no tips in terms of how to put stuff together. She runs circles around me if we’re being real honest <laugh> and, and keeping it real around here. Um, alright. I also wanted to point out one other thing, uh, you kind of said with a, um, a smirk, uh, south kaki. I wonder where, first time I ever heard that phrase. And I grew up in a, in South Carolina. Uh, mom is, might be there now. Um, first time I ever heard that phrase, I was in the Air Force and Sergeant Staff, Sergeant Vicki Vazquez, uh, the pride of the Bronx, uh, said that. And I, I looked out, I said, what’d you say? And we both just, just died laughing as she was talking about South Kak. And I got the biggest kick out of that. And I wonder what she is now doing big things. I’m sure. So think you’ve

Greg White (32:26):

Asked, you think she invented that

Scott Luton (32:27):

Term? No, I don’t. Uh, no, I don’t think so. But I think she moved here. Uh, that was when we were at Charter Force Base in Sumter, and she’d been from the, you know, big city of New York coming down to rural Sumter, south Cal, South Carolina. I bet she really embraced that term Well. So, uh, Vicki Vasquez, hope this finds you well, wherever you may be. Okay. So Greg, let’s see here. We, we tackled, uh, furniture and Ikea. That’s really cool. Let’s talk about some other upcoming things. Uh, we have got a great webinar. So folks, um, I know, uh, everyone out there where we’re getting our content from a variety of places, and we’re using a lot of terms interchangeably. You know, today, Greg and I, if you’re looking at this live, we’re on a live stream, right? It rides across social. You just gotta venture one of our social channels and jump right in. Our webinar program is a little bit different, right? It’s like a virtual event that you’ve gotta register for. So on May 4th, we’ve got a webinar coming up with our friends at e Evenflow and Infor and Greg. It’s all about data driven, supply chain management and optimization and success and what it means. Evenflow. Greg, this should be one of our recent faves, huh?

Greg White (33:36):

It is an event, right? I mean, this is a, a virtual event, right? So sign up, get, be able to participate. They, a lot of the, um, people that come and join us in these, they bring materials that are very valuable in educational. You get to hear about actual companies using actual technology to seek and gain actual outcomes. And that’s what’s so great about these webinars is being able to, you know, to understand how a company takes technology and process to change their business. Yep. That, that’s, you know, that’s the toughest part, is not just visualizing, but understanding and validating what the potential outcome is. And then how did you get there? But how did you get there and, and what did you go through to get there? That is so incredibly valuable for companies and people to

Scott Luton (34:32):

Learn. Well said Greg. Uh, that’s May 4th, 12 noon Eastern time with our friends, again from e uh, even flow and in for, and come, come to be cool like Greg White or come for all the reasons Greg just laid out there. Cause you will be better off, uh, promise you by the time you leave. And hey, our team has made it easy. Thank you, Catherine and Amanda and all the folks behind the scenes. Uh, the webinar link to register, again, you gotta register for webinars, but it’s free. It also comes with the money back satisfaction guarantee. Right? I’ll check out <laugh> the link right there in the comments. Okay, Greg, uh, let’s see here. That was, uh, the webinar. I think I’ve got one other thing I wanted to hit here. Some listener feedback. And Greg, I don’t know about you, but I love to hear from our listeners, our viewers, all the folks that make up our dear supply chain.

Scott Luton (35:21):

Now, global fam, this, uh, came from Joshua, uh, usda, I bet it is up in New York. He says, quote, I always look forward to listening to the supply chain now podcast is clear. The amount of dedication and work your team so true puts into the, the production of the podcast. I always find the episodes to be a wealth of knowledge. Keep up the great work. Joshua, man, that makes our day. Thank you for taking the time to shoot this over to me. I think via LinkedIn. Greg, what, what comes to your mind when you hear stuff like this?

Greg White (35:51):

Thank you. Mostly, I mean, I, I mean, I’m, I’m glad that that’s the way it’s being received, because that’s the intent, right? I think, I dunno if everybody realizes they probably do. You’re, you’re much more professional at this than Im, but we’re not talking heads, we’re practitioners. We’re just practitioners to share some knowledge, share some talent people and companies are, things happen out there and, um, you know, kinda information we wanna get or would’ve wanted to get when we were, um, practitioners. And, uh, but I’m glad that it’s coming across the way it’s intended,

Scott Luton (36:29):

Uh, Greg, I agree. And, you know, we’re seeing that on the consumption side, uh, the, the, the view, the views and the watches. Uh, folks, man, uh, we, as I think I shared on LinkedIn a day or two ago, uh, as we collected some of our most popular recent YouTube episodes, uh, I think I dropped six or seven shows in the last few weeks. And they’ve averaged, averaged seven over 7,000 views. So that is remarkable and big thanks to all of our global audience out there, uh, being with us on this journey.

Greg White (37:00):

Well, it’s, what’s interesting about that, Scott, is that was actually, even though we’re in the, if you wanna call that, that was, that was news to, and Catherine shared with Catherine, one of our producers shared with about consumption is occurring now on YouTube mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, um, we’ve really ramped up our efforts there. And, um, and yeah, I guess the, the double bonus for folks, Scott, is they don’t just have to listen to us. They can look at us too

Scott Luton (37:32):

<laugh>, and typically they can comment and be part. So again, we got a little functionality link while

Greg White (37:38):

We’re live.

Scott Luton (37:39):

That’s right. We’re live today. Uh, always live on live streams and LinkedIn is having a little issue where a lot of the comments come in from, but hey, we’ll get it fixed. I bet we’re on the horn.

Greg White (37:49):

So join TD on YouTube. That’s have a problem, as we’ve experienced,

Scott Luton (37:59):

Right? That’s right. Just like Katherine here who’s tuned in via YouTube talking about the Ikea, she’s like, yes, I love Ikea, but Katherine says she can’t get very much delivered, two and a half, three hours from a TL from Atlanta. That’s true. So y’all jump over to YouTube if you’d like to comment, we’d welcome your thoughts here as we get into the last, uh, 20 minutes or so of the show. All right. So Greg, uh, we’ve got one more story that we had a lot of. Um, I, I dropped this story I think last week, uh, across social and had some interesting commentary and, and, uh, comments made on the post. So I wanna talk about this interesting article from our friends at C F O, right? C f O Magazine. It talks about something we have focused a ton of conversations around here, cross-functional communication and collaboration, aka a silo bustin, as Greg and I have had a lot of fun talking about over the years.

Scott Luton (38:49):

So recent data from a survey of a thousand supply chain leaders as conducted by S A P and Oxford Economics. Only 47% of these supply chain leaders say they communicate well with the finance team. Now to Greg, that sounds very high and optimistic number to me, I would think single digits still. But, uh, anyway, as the survey says that they’re self-reporting, only 47% of these folks say they communicate well with the finance team, but by folks, these are supply chain leaders. They are surveying from a visibility standpoint. Now, this is interesting cuz this, this goes to Greg. Some of those things we talked about when we’re talking about automotive and ev and some of those issues that are persisting, right? Cause there’s still a lack of visibility. Get this from a visibility standpoint and across the ecosystem, right? Not just tier one, only 32% said they had a highly collaborative relationship with tier two suppliers.

Scott Luton (39:43):

That doesn’t surprise anybody. Only 25% said the same for tier three suppliers. This doesn’t surprise you, but this really illustrates the challenge, right? When, uh, we’re we’re responsible for the whole ecosystem of rooting out modern, you know, modern slavery and rooting out child labor and all those ills we’re responsible for it taking place. But we don’t, we don’t very often sadly have our eyes and ears on what it’s, what is taking place are where it’s taking place and, and how we can do something about it. Greg, your thoughts here around these figures or around some of the challenges that, uh, that continue to persist because of these challenges?

Greg White (40:21):

Well, first off these numbers, I would, I would question the definition of what was it communicating? Well

Scott Luton (40:28):

Yes. Effect. Yeah, that’s right.

Greg White (40:30):

Yeah. Or else this, these were very, because it’s an SAP survey, they may be very, very large companies that have very sophisticated supply chain organizations. Cause I would argue that probably 32% of companies overall don’t even know who their tier two suppliers. Those are their tier one suppliers. Suppliers. And if, and if they know 5% of companies know, even know who their tier three suppliers are, I would be absolutely stunned. So I think what we have to recognize is that this is not a survey of the broad supply chain. This is most likely a survey. And I didn’t look, Scott, I didn’t look at the details of if they went into who they surveyed what size companies, but because they’re SAP companies, they have to be multi-billion dollar companies. Yeah.

Scott Luton (41:19):

So that was my assumption as well. Yep.

Greg White (41:21):

These are the numbers of the most sophisticated of the supply chain practitioners out there. And I would still argue that this is overstated. So let’s just just say these numbers are accurate. It means that less than half of companies are coordinating com. Even communicating well with their finance team and coordinating is really integrating, um, right. Um, with their, with their finance team is what’s really, really critical because there is so much, uh, back and forth data and information and, and guidance that can be provided between those two entities. So I think there’s a long, long way to go here across the broad supply chain. And even so in the, um, you know, among the most sophisticated companies.

Scott Luton (42:14):

Yep. Well said Greg. Uh, there’s a long way just to do business better and even a lot longer way to get to some of those ills we were talking about in terms of slavery and child labor, right? That sadly, uh, global industry’s taken advantage of to, to fill, uh, this, this exploding demand. Um, so, and and supply chains are gonna have to, there’s gonna be a reckoning.

Greg White (42:37):

Well, there, there is cause the, the compliance or, or the, the regulations in various countries. Germany just passed yet another law where, uh, much like we have in the US where if you cannot verify, if you cannot affirm that anything made in Jin John Province where they typically use weed or slaves for production, um, if you cannot affirm that your product was, your product built in Jin province was not built by slave labor, then the, uh, customs and border patrol in the US assumes that it was so you’re guilty, uh, rather than you’re presumed guilty rather than presumed innocent. And now they’re doing that in Germany and other countries across Europe. So now it’s not just emissions, right, the e of e sg, the environmental concerns, but now they’re focusing on social as well. So the, the playing field is getting more and more complex. E every, every time there’s a new regulation pass.

Scott Luton (43:45):

Mm-hmm. Um, alright, so y’all check out this, uh, this read here again from the folks over at C F O Magazine listening, what you think about that. Um, Greg, we’ve got a little more time on our hands than I thought we’d have here today. It’s probably cause we, we can’t bring everybody’s chats in cause there’s been a lot of comments we can’t get to here today. But Greg, I wanna, I wanna do this. Uh, you came Mecca, you had a big travel schedule here recently, right?

Greg White (44:10):

Well, last week. Yeah, last week I was in LA on Monday. Tuesday back to the East coast on Wednesday and then and Thursday and then left Friday to go back to, to Las Vegas. It was Vicky’s birthday. So she wanted go to Vegas, baby, baby.

Scott Luton (44:27):

Happy birthday Vicky. Happy birthday. Seventh

Greg White (44:31):

Birthday,

Scott Luton (44:32):

<laugh>. Um, alright, so I wanna offer up to folks, you know, Vegas hosts all kinds of conventions, all kinds of meetings and, and uh, uh, trade shows, you name it. A lot of our, a lot of our fellow, um, uh, global supply chain practitioners have probably a lot of ’em have been to Vegas for, for something along those lines. Maybe some of ’em are, are getting, getting ready to go, right? Because in-person events are back, thankfully. So Greg, what would be, and let’s, we don’t have to be too serious to this. We can have a little fun with it. What would be three things that you would suggest to people that they do in Vegas? And one thing that you would suggest to folks don’t do in Vegas?

Greg White (45:11):

Yeah, uh, uh, there’s a, there’s so many things. One is do, um, do go to the Cosmopolitan and um, see the chandeliers that they have hanging all over that place. You don’t even have to like chandeliers, <laugh>. It’s just, it’s just the, that they went to all the effort to do all this really cool stuff with lighting in that place. Um, I would say that’s a big do. Uh, this is a, a surprising due do drive 55 minutes outside of Vegas to Mount Charleston where there it is still completely snow covered. It is fascinating to go into Vegas and look to the west of the mountains and see Mount Charleston that is completely snow covered. Ok. It’s a five minute drive. It’s super cool. Um, view, um, boy, um, you know, do take in a show, but only the best shows. There are a lot of really, really mediocre show shows. Basically anything that is cir is sole. You have to see O is incredible. Mye is incredible. Um, love, which is the Beatles one. It’s good. It’s okay. We loved it cause Right. We like the music, Scott, but it’s not somehow not quite up to o I would say. Um, so those are the three that I would, the three things that I would suggest you do is go see a show, go to the Cosmo and go to Mount Charleston. Uh, most people probably won’t go to Mount Charleston. I should probably have edited

Scott Luton (46:47):

<laugh>. Lemme add a quick comment about the shows, Greg. Yeah. Cause we took in, uh, Amanda’s always wanted to see David Copperfield and you know, say everyone can say out there what they’re gonna say about David Copperfield. But lemme say this, I I wanna say he’s in his seventies and I’m gonna tell you his level of performance and the physical nature of his performance and the showmanship. It is no wonder why he has been so successful. We saw him in person there and he’s out amongst the audience and the comment and the uh, um, you know, all, all the attendees. It is remarkable. It is remarkable. So yeah, I echo Greg’s get out in nature. There’s a lot of cool things around Vegas, but take in a show for sure. Um, Greg, now you’re going to add one thing not to do in Vegas.

Greg White (47:33):

There are a lot of things not not to do in Vegas. Um, and, and I think a lot of people go to Vegas do frankly not to do. Um, look, this is, this is just my personal philosophy. The one thing not to do is to gamble one single dollar that you are, that you’re afraid to lose. Mm. Right. Go with the plan, go with an amount, and when you hit that amount, walk away. Yeah. Um, cause I see so, so many people super high. Watch the guy win $40,000 on a roulette table. And somehow how he did it, first of all, how he had the guts to do it was so very impressive. Um, and then he picked up his chips and he walked away. So, man, um, and he was, he was on a hot street when he walked away. That’s how they get you. Right? Um, my middle daughter went with Vicky and I Delaney, who has been on the show a few times. Yep. She went with us and sh she declared once I, once I down, once I sense, you know, she, she basically was like, as I’m cutting off and she walked away with, with, you know, good money relative to what she was betting. So

Scott Luton (48:54):

Nice.

Greg White (48:55):

That that is my number one guidance is don’t risk a single dollar. You cannot, you cannot, um, afford or tolerate. It’s really not whether you can afford it. Cause some people could afford a lot obviously to lose a lot, but if you can’t tolerate it, don’t risk it. Cause you’ll lose it. <laugh> money.

Scott Luton (49:20):

Yes. They’re gonna get you the other, uh, that’s great advice. We

Greg White (49:23):

Walked cumulatively the of us. We walked away even and I, that was effectively free entertainment.

Scott Luton (49:31):

Wow. Right. Lot of goodness there folks. A lot of goodness. Uh, and on that roulette table, hey, do a do a double check on red 19 red 19, I’m <laugh>. So that, that’s, that’s bit me a couple times. We’ll see those stories for later.

Greg White (49:45):

Red 19. Huh?

Scott Luton (49:46):

Red 19.

Greg White (49:48):

This is a fun thing that I love to see people do. So I had not really played roulette except one time before, but Vicky really loves it and somehow she’s really good at it. Um, I don’t know how you’re good at a game that is so random, right? It’s a game skill’s game. Chance. They put all statistics up there, not necessarily, right? Um, but I love the people. The fun thing about the table is every single time you’re standing at a table, if you stand there for any amount of time or somebody walks up and just throws hundred on black and, and or red. And if they win, they pick it up and walk away and it’s just, and sometimes if they lose, they just walk away

Scott Luton (50:36):

<laugh>. Right?

Greg White (50:38):

But you, you, you get to learn. It’s, it’s kinda fun to just watch that happen.

Scott Luton (50:43):

Oh man. The psychology of just, to your point, the people and the camaraderie and, and just, it, it, the, the action will just kind of, uh, uh, it’s, it’s magnetic. But as Greg mentioned, hey, know your limits. Know your limits and take it for entertainment. Don’t look at it.

Greg White (50:59):

Yeah. And mostly it’s not what you can afford to lose. It’s really what you can emotionally tolerate. Right? Cause I don’t bet big in Vegas cause I’m a cheap scape. So <laugh>, I think of, you know, I think of the, um, car or accessories, not whole car, but like car accessories or parts or whatever modifications that I could be doing to a car, which is what I really enjoy. Instead of losing this money in Vegas. Right. I just can’t, can’t help it. So I keep the, the losses pretty low.

Scott Luton (51:31):

Well, uh, lastly, the food. The food is in incredible, uh, as, uh, I think Amanda has shared, uh, out, out on chat, go to Hell’s Kitchen. Yeah, that’s, that’s a, um, uh, some folks may hear Hell’s Kitchen and, and be kind of like one of those cop out places. We had delicious meal there. Of course, we’re big fans of, um, who’s that? The chef Gordon Ramsey. Yeah. Gordon Ramsey. Man, I, I love watching them on tv, but check out Hell’s Kitchen. Greg, you went someplace, uh, last weekend that you speak very highly.

Greg White (52:00):

Yeah. A win, which by the way is Greg Hotel. Uh, we didn’t stay there, we stayed Bella. But, um, in the is restaurant called Zumi, and it’s maybe, it’s certainly the best sushi restaurant west of the west of the Rockies. Um, and it’s fair, unbelievably good. But in that case, bring your wallet <laugh>. Um, we sat at a table with the lady who worked for the Bank of Singapore, Singapore Bank, the guy who makes all polo and Michael’s shoes on a license. Uh, great guy, uh, and incredible knowledge of wines. And then another couple who didn’t quite, we didn’t quite get to understand what they did, but we were the poor, um, <laugh> poor people at the table tell.

Scott Luton (52:54):

Well, great trip. I look forward to seeing a lot more pictures, hearing a lot more stories. Greg, thanks for sharing some tips with our global audience, maybe traveling into Vegas. And hey folks, if you, if you’ve been to Vegas a thousand times, give us get, I’d love to get y’all’s, uh, tips for while you’re there, Greg, before we sign off. One

Greg White (53:10):

Final tip. Yeah, yeah. One final tip there, Scott. Sorry. Three days max. I mean, um, I, you Scott, but first, um, but then you just get up that much earlier, um, and start, start earlier the next day. But the pace at which you go three days, two nights, three days is, is about right for me. How about you?

Scott Luton (53:37):

Yeah, that sounds like a great trip in out. You see, you can see a lot in three days in Vegas. Yeah. And, um, and it’s good to get out before you feel like you’ve been there too long. Um, hey Greg, uh, one last thing before we call today, here today. And, and again, thanks everybody for working through, you know, sometimes social platforms from time to time will we’ll have a little issue. So that happens, we’ll be back next Monday. Some more

Greg White (54:00):

Than others.

Scott Luton (54:01):

Yeah. Some more than others. <laugh>, right? Um, but hey folks, today, we’ve talked about this before. We are releasing, uh, our interview with, uh, Jennifer McKen with Walmart, one of their senior executives. I think she’s responsible, as I recall correctly, for end-to-end delivery. Uh, basically as she mentioned it, Greg, if Walmart moves it, uh, it’s her and her team that, uh, that manage it. So, great podcast discussion. Yeah, check it out. Maybe we can drop a link to that, um, here in the chat, before we call it today,

Greg White (54:33):

Part of our series. She’s an incredible, incredible leader, right?

Scott Luton (54:38):

Yep. Agreed. Agreed. Uh, and, uh, you can find that on YouTube. You can find that wherever you get your podcast audio version, you name it. But, uh, enjoy that chat. Okay, Greg, what a wide ranging supply chain buzz episode here today. Uh, really enjoyed it. As always, folks, stay tuned. We got some really good stuff coming out in the next few weeks. Uh, it’s some big news coming out in the next few weeks. It is a glorious time to be, uh, in global supply chain. And for all of you out there that are listening, while you do, listening, while you move, while you manage, while you lead, while you pack, while you do whatever, thank you for what you do. Thank you for what you do, Greg. You’re your final thought here today. Yeah,

Greg White (55:25):

I, I do really enjoy, uh, you know, the folks that, that tune in, uh, you know, it’s funny that we don’t hear from all of them. And so you don’t realize how many are out there. Um, like just recently with Joshua and some people who, um, are still out there listening, but they don’t sound off every, every single show. It’s great to have everybody out there learning. Hey, you know what, if you’ve got an idea, if there’s something in particular you’d like to talk about is exciting you or you, or interesting to you, let let us know because this is our show. We can do whatever we want. Here’s true something you’d like to learn. Either do some research or find some, some news on it, or we’ll, we’ll find a practitioner that can, that can help us all learn

Scott Luton (56:13):

Together. That’s right. Great call out. Greg. Always a pleasure. Uh, big thanks to, uh, Greg and Amanda and Catherine. Big thanks to all of y’all that tuned in. Uh, we’ll be back next Monday at 12 Eastern Time Live, and I bet we’ll have the comments. I bet LinkedIn will have the comments thing fixed so we can see from everybody. But, uh, hey, whatever y’all do, uh, take something this goodness that y’all, you heard over the last hour, put it into action, right? Deeds, not words, Greg. And is that right? I think so. That I’ve heard you say that once, twice before. Yeah. It’s all about the action folks. Uh, hey, on behalf of our entire team here, Scott Luton challenging, do good to give forward and to be the change that’s needed. And we’ll see You next time. Right back here at Supply Chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (56:58):

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.

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Demo Perez

Host, Supply Chain Now en Espanol

Demo Perez started his career in 1997 in the industry by chance when a relative asked him for help for two just weeks putting together an operation for FedEx Express at the Colon Free Zone, an area where he was never been but accepted the challenge. Worked in all roles possible from a truck driver to currier to a sales representative, helped the brand introduction, market share growth and recognition in the Colon Free Zone, at the end of 1999 had the chance to meet and have a chat with Fred Smith ( FedEx CEO), joined another company in 2018 who took over the FedEx operations as Operations and sales manager, in 2004 accepted the challenge from his company to leave the FedEx operations and business to take over the operation and business of DHL Express, his major competitor and rival so couldn’t say no, by changing completely its operation model in the Free Zone. In 2005 started his first entrepreneurial journey by quitting his job and joining two friends to start a Freight Forwarding company. After 8 months was recruited back by his company LSP with the General Manager role with the challenge of growing the company and make it fully capable warehousing 3PL. By 2009 joined CSCMP and WERC and started his journey of learning and growing his international network and high-level learning. In 2012 for the first time joined a local association ( the Panama Maritime Chamber) and worked in the country’s first Logistics Strategy plan, joined and lead other associations ending as president of the Panama Logistics Council in 2017. By finishing his professional mission at LSP with a company that was 8 times the size it was when accepted the role as GM with so many jobs generated and several young professionals coached, having great financial results, took the decision to move forward and start his own business from scratch by the end of 2019. with a friend and colleague co-founded IPL Group a company that started as a boutique 3PL and now is gearing up for the post-Covid era by moving to the big leagues.

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Mary Kate Love

VP, Marketing

Mary Kate Love is currently the VP of marketing at Supply Chain Now focused on brand strategy and audience + revenue growth. Mary Kate’s career is a testament to her versatility and innovative spirit: she has experience in start-ups, venture capital, and building innovation initiatives from the ground up: she previously helped lead the build-out of the Supply Chain Innovation Center at Georgia-Pacific and before that, MxD (Manufacturing times Digital): the Department of Defense’s digital manufacturing innovation center. Mary Kate has a passion for taking complicated ideas and turning them into reality: she was one of the first team members at MxD and the first team member at the Supply Chain Innovation Center at Georgia-Pacific.

Mary Kate dedicates her extra time to education and mentorship: she was one of the founding Board Members for Women Influence Chicago and led an initiative for a city-wide job shadow day for young women across Chicago tech companies and was previously on the Board of Directors at St. Laurence High School in Chicago, Young Irish Fellowship Board and the UN Committee for Women. Mary Kate is the founder of National Supply Chain Day and enjoys co-hosting podcasts at Supply Chain Now. Mary Kate is from the south side of Chicago, a mom of two baby boys, and an avid 16-inch softball player. She holds a BS in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Joshua Miranda

Marketing Specialist

Joshua is a student from Institute of Technology and Higher Education of Monterrey Campus Guadalajara in Communication and Digital Media. His experience ranges from Plug and Play México, DearDoc, and Nissan México creating unique social media marketing campaigns and graphics design. Joshua helps to amplify the voice of supply chain here at Supply Chain Now by assisting in graphic design, content creation, asset logistics, and more.  In his free time he likes to read and write short stories as well as watch movies and television series.

Donna Krache

Director of Communications and Executive Producer

Donna Krache is a former CNN executive producer who has won several awards in journalism and communication, including three Peabodys.  She has 30 years’ experience in broadcast and digital journalism. She led the first production team at CNN to convert its show to a digital platform. She has authored many articles for CNN and other media outlets. She taught digital journalism at Georgia State University and Arizona State University. Krache holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of New Orleans. She is a serious sports fan who loves the Braves. She is president of the Dave Krache Foundation. Named in honor of her late husband, this non-profit pays fees for kids who want to play sports but whose parents are facing economic challenges.

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Vicki White

Controller

Vicki has a long history of rising to challenges and keeping things up and running. First, she supported her family’s multi-million dollar business as controller for 12 years, beginning at the age of 17. Then, she worked as an office manager and controller for a wholesale food broker. But her biggest feat? Serving as the chief executive officer of her household, while her entrepreneur husband travelled the world extensively. She fed, nurtured, chaperoned, and chauffeured three daughters all while running a newsletter publishing business and remaining active in her community as a Stephen’s Minister, Sunday school teacher, school volunteer, licensed realtor and POA Board president (a title she holds to this day). A force to be reckoned with in the office, you might think twice before you meet Vicki on the tennis court! When she’s not keeping the books balanced at Supply Chain Now or playing tennis matches, you can find Vicki spending time with her husband Greg, her 4 fur babies, gardening, cleaning (yes, she loves to clean!) and learning new things.

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Katherine Hintz

Creative Director, Producer, Host

Katherine Hintz, MBA is a marketing professional who strives to unite her love of people with a passion for positive experiences. Having a diverse background, which includes nonprofit work with digital marketing and start-ups, she serves as a leader who helps people live their most creative lives by cultivating community, order, collaboration, and respect. With equal parts creativity and analytics, she brings a unique skill set which fosters refining, problem solving, and connecting organizations with their true vision. In her free time, you can usually find her looking for her cup of coffee, playing with her puppy Charlie, and dreaming of her next road trip.

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Kim Reuter

Host, The Freight Insider

From humble beginnings working the import docks, representing Fortune 500 giants, Ford, Michelin Tire, and Black & Decker; to Amazon technology patent holder and Nordstrom Change Leader, Kimberly Reuter has designed, implemented, and optimized best-in-class, highly scalable global logistics and retail operations all over the world. Kimberly’s ability to set strategic vision supported by bomb-proof processes, built on decades of hands-on experience, has elevated her to legendary status. Sought after by her peers and executives for her intellectual capital and keen insights, Kimberly is a thought leader in the retail logistics industry.

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Kristi Porter

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Kristi Porter is VP of Sales and Marketing at Vector Global Logistics, a company that is changing the world through supply chain. In her role, she oversees all marketing efforts and supports the sales team in doing what they do best. In addition to this role, she is the Chief Do-Gooder at Signify, which assists nonprofits and social impact companies through copywriting and marketing strategy consulting. She has almost 20 years of professional experience, and loves every opportunity to help people do more good.

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Sofia Rivas Herrera

Host, Supply Chain Now en Espanol

Sofia Rivas Herrera is a Mexican Industrial Engineer from Tecnologico de Monterrey class 2019. Upon graduation, she earned a scholarship to study MIT’s Graduate Certificate in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and graduated as one of the Top 3 performers of her class in 2020. She also has a multicultural background due to her international academic experiences at Singapore Management University and Kühne Logistics University in Hamburg. Sofia self-identifies as a Supply Chain enthusiast & ambassador sharing her passion for the field in her daily life.

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Katherine Hintz

Sales and Marketing Coordinator

Katherine is a marketing professional and MBA candidate who strives to unite her love of people with a passion for positive experiences. Having a diverse background, which includes nonprofit work with digital marketing and start-ups, she serves as a leader who helps people live their most creative lives by cultivating community, order, collaboration, and respect. With equal parts creativity and analytics, she brings a unique skill set which fosters refining, problem solving, and connecting organizations with their true vision. In her free time, you can usually find her looking for her cup of coffee, playing with her puppy Charlie, and dreaming of her next road trip.

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Kim Winter

Host, Supply Chain Now

The founder of Logistics Executive Group, Kim Winter delivers 40 years of executive leadership experience spanning Executive Search & Recruitment, Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Corporate Advisory, Motivational Speaking, Trade Facilitation and across the Supply Chain, Logistics, 3PL, E-commerce, Life Science, Cold Chain, FMCG, Retail, Maritime, Defence, Aviation, Resources, and Industrial sectors. Operating from the company’s global offices, he is a regular contributor of thought leadership to industry and media, is a professional Master of Ceremonies, and is frequently invited to chair international events.

He is a Board member of over a dozen companies throughout APAC, India, and the Middle East, a New Zealand citizen, he holds formal resident status in Australia and the UAE, and is the Australia & New Zealand representative for the UAE Government-owned Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), the Middle East’s largest Economic Free Zone.

A triathlete and ex-professional rugby player, Kim is a qualified (IECL Sydney) executive coach and the Founder / Chairman of the successful not for profit humanitarian organization, Oasis Africa (www. oasisafrica.org.au), which has provided freedom from poverty through education to over 8000 mainly orphaned children in East Africa’s slums. Kim holds an MBA and BA from Massey & Victoria Universities (NZ).

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Adrian Purtill

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Adrian Purtill serves as Business Development Manager at Vector Global Logistics, where he consults with importers and exporters in various industries to match their specific shipping requirements with the most effective supply chain solutions. Vector Global Logistics is an asset-free, multi-modal logistics company that provides exceptional sea freight, air freight, truck, rail, general logistic services and consulting for our clients. Our highly trained and professional team is committed to providing creative and effective solutions, always exceeding our customer’s expectations and fostering long-term relationships. With more than 20+ years of experience in both strategy consulting and logistics, Vector Global Logistics is your best choice to proactively minimize costs while having an exceptional service level.

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Kevin Brown

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Kevin Brown is the Director of Business Development for Vector Global Logistics.  He has a dedicated interest in Major Account Management, Enterprise Sales, and Corporate Leadership. He offers 25 years of exceptional experience and superior performance in the sales of Logistics, Supply Chain, and Transportation Management. Kevin is a dynamic, high-impact, sales executive and corporate leader who has consistently exceeded corporate goals. He effectively coordinates multiple resources to solution sell large complex opportunities while focusing on corporate level contacts across the enterprise. His specialties include targeting and securing key accounts by analyzing customer’s current business processes and developing solutions to meet their corporate goals. Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn.

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Jose Miguel Irarrazaval

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Jose Manuel Irarrazaval es parte del equipo de Vector Global Logistics Chile. José Manuel es un gerente experimentado con experiencia en finanzas corporativas, fusiones y adquisiciones, financiamiento y reestructuración, inversión directa y financiera, tanto en Chile como en el exterior. José Manuel tiene su MBA de la Universidad de Pennsylvania- The Wharton School. Conéctese con Jose Manuel en LinkedIn.

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Nick Roemer

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Nick Roemer has had a very diverse and extensive career within design and sales over the last 15 years stretching from China, Dubai, Germany, Holland, UK, and the USA. In the last 5 years, Nick has developed a hawk's eye for sustainable tech and the human-centric marketing and sales procedures that come with it. With his far-reaching and strong network within the logistics industry, Nick has been able to open new avenues and routes to market within major industries in the USA and the UAE. Nick lives by the ethos, “Give more than you take." His professional mission is to make the logistics industry leaner, cleaner and greener.

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Allison Giddens

Host, Logistics with Purpose

Allison Krache Giddens has been with Win-Tech, a veteran-owned small business and aerospace precision machine shop, for 15 years, recently buying the company from her mentor and Win-Tech’s Founder, Dennis Winslow. She and her business partner, John Hudson now serve as Co-Presidents, leading the 33-year old company through the pandemic.

She holds undergraduate degrees in psychology and criminal justice from the University of Georgia, a Masters in Conflict Management from Kennesaw State University, a Masters in Manufacturing from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Certificate of Finance from the University of Georgia. She also holds certificates in Google Analytics, event planning, and Cybersecurity Risk Management from Harvard online. Allison founded the Georgia Chapter of Women in Manufacturing and currently serves as Treasurer. She serves on the Chattahoochee Technical College Foundation Board as its Secretary, the liveSAFE Resources Board of Directors as Resource Development Co-Chair, and on the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association Board as Membership Chair and is also a member of Cobb Executive Women. She is on the Board for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Northwest Area Councils. Allison runs The Dave Krache Foundation, a non-profit that helps pay sports fees for local kids in need.

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Billy Taylor

Host of Dial P for Procurement

Billy Taylor is a Proven Business Excellence Practitioner and Leadership Guru with over 25 years leading operations for a Fortune 500 company, Goodyear. He is also the CEO of LinkedXL (Excellence), a Business Operating Systems Architecting Firm dedicated to implementing sustainable operating systems that drive sustainable results. Taylor’s achievements in the industry have made him a Next Generational Lean pacesetter with significant contributions.

An American business executive, Taylor has made a name for himself as an innovative and energetic industry professional with an indispensable passion for his craft of operational excellence. His journey started many years ago and has worked with renowned corporations such as The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) leading multi-site operations. With over 3 decades of service leading North America operations, he is experienced in a deeply rooted process driven approach in customer service, process integrity for sustainability.

A disciple of continuous improvement, Taylor’s love for people inspires commitment to helping others achieve their full potential. He is a dynamic speaker and hosts "The Winning Link," a popular podcast centered on business and leadership excellence with the #1 rated Supply Chain Now Network. As a leadership guru, Taylor has earned several invitations to universities, international conferences, global publications, and the U.S. Army to demonstrate how to achieve and sustain effective results through cultural acceptance and employee ownership. Leveraging the wisdom of his business acumen, strong influence as a speaker and podcaster Taylor is set to release "The Winning Link" book under McGraw Hill publishing in 2022. The book is a how-to manual to help readers understand the management of business interactions while teaching them how to Deine, Align, and Execute Winning in Business.

A servant leader, Taylor, was named by The National Diversity Council as one of the Top 100 Diversity Officers in the country in 2021. He features among Oklahoma's Most Admired CEOs and maintains key leadership roles with the Executive Advisory Board for The Shingo Institute "The Nobel Prize of Operations" and The Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME); two world-leading organizations for operational excellence, business development, and cultural learning.  He is also an Independent Director for the M-D Building Products Board, a proud American manufacturer of quality products since 1920.

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Lori Sofian

Marketing Coordinator

Lori is currently completing a degree in marketing with an emphasis in digital marketing at the University of Georgia. When she’s not supporting the marketing efforts at Supply Chain Now, you can find her at music festivals – or working toward her dream goal of a fashion career. Lori is involved in many extracurricular activities and appreciates all the learning experiences UGA has brought her.

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Chantel King

Social Media Manager

My name is Chantel King and I am the Social Media Specialist at Supply Chain Now. My job is to make sure our audience is engaged and educated on the abundant amount of information the supply chain industry has to offer.

Social Media and Communications has been my niche ever since I graduated from college at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco. No, I am not a West Coast girl. I was born and raised in New Jersey, but my travel experience goes way beyond the garden state. My true passion is in creating editorial and graphic content that influences others to be great in whatever industry they are in. I’ve done this by working with lifestyle, financial, and editorial companies by providing resources to enhance their businesses.

Another passion of mine is trying new things. Whether it’s food, an activity, or a sport. I would like to say that I am an adventurous Taurus that never shies away from a new quest or challenge.

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Trisha Cordes

Administrative Assistant

Trisha is new to the supply chain industry – but not to podcasting. She’s an experienced podcast manager and virtual assistant who also happens to have 20 years of experience as an elementary school teacher. It’s safe to say, she’s passionate about helping people, and she lives out that passion every day with the Supply Chain Now team, contributing to scheduling and podcast production.

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Clay Phillips

Business Development Manager

Clay is passionate about two things: supply chain and the marketing that goes into it. Recently graduated with a degree in marketing at the University of Georgia, Clay got his start as a journalism major and inaugural member of the Owl’s football team at Kennesaw State University – but quickly saw tremendous opportunity in the Terry College of Business. He’s already putting his education to great use at Supply Chain Now, assisting with everything from sales and brand strategy to media production. Clay has contributed to initiatives such as our leap into video production, the guest blog series, and boosting social media presence, and after nearly two years in Supply Chain Now’s Marketing Department, Clay now heads up partnership and sales initiatives with the help of the rest of the Supply Chain Now sales team.

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Amanda Luton

Vice President, Production

Amanda is a production and marketing veteran and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience across a variety of industries and organizations including Von Maur, Anthropologie, AmericasMart Atlanta, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Amanda currently manages, produces, and develops modern digital content for Supply Chain Now and their clients. Amanda has previously served as the VP of Information Systems and Webmaster on the Board of Directors for APICS Savannah, and founded and managed her own successful digital marketing firm, Magnolia Marketing Group. When she’s not leading the Supply Chain Now production team, you can find Amanda in the kitchen, reading, listening to podcasts, or enjoying time with family.

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Constantine Limberakis

Host

Constantine Limberakis is a thought leader in the area of procurement and supply management. He has over 20 years of international experience, playing strategic roles in a wide spectrum of organizations related to analyst advisory, consulting, product marketing, product development, and market research.Throughout his career, he's been passionate about engaging global business leaders and the broader analyst and technology community with strategic content, speaking engagements, podcasts, research, webinars, and industry articles.Constantine holds a BA in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA in Finance & Marketing / Masters in Public & International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Mary Kate Soliva

Host, Veteran Voices

Mary Kate Soliva is a veteran of the US Army and cofounder of the Guam Human Rights Initiative. She is currently in the Doctor of Criminal Justice program at Saint Leo University. She is passionate about combating human trafficking and has spent the last decade conducting training for military personnel and the local community.

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Kelly Barner

Host of Dial P for Procurement

Kelly is the Owner and Managing Director of Buyers Meeting Point and MyPurchasingCenter. She has been in procurement since 2003, starting as a practitioner and then as the Associate Director of Consulting at Emptoris. She has covered procurement news, events, publications, solutions, trends, and relevant economics at Buyers Meeting Point since 2009. Kelly is also the General Manager at Art of Procurement and Business Survey Chair for the ISM-New York Report on Business. Kelly has her MBA from Babson College as well as an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College and she has co-authored three books: ‘Supply Market Intelligence for Procurement Professionals’, ‘Procurement at a Crossroads’, and ‘Finance Unleashed’.

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Enrique Alvarez

Host of Logistics with Purpose and Supply Chain Now en Español

Enrique serves as Managing Director at Vector Global Logistics and believes we all have a personal responsibility to change the world. He is hard working, relationship minded and pro-active. Enrique trusts that the key to logistics is having a good and responsible team that truly partners with the clients and does whatever is necessary to see them succeed. He is a proud sponsor of Vector’s unique results-based work environment and before venturing into logistics he worked for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). During his time at BCG, he worked in different industries such as Telecommunications, Energy, Industrial Goods, Building Materials, and Private Banking. His main focus was always on the operations, sales, and supply chain processes, with case focus on, logistics, growth strategy, and cost reduction. Prior to joining BCG, Enrique worked for Grupo Vitro, a Mexican glass manufacturer, for five years holding different positions from sales and logistics manager to supply chain project leader in charge of five warehouses in Colombia.

He has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business and a BS, in Mechanical Engineer from the Technologico de Monterrey in Mexico. Enrique’s passions are soccer and the ocean, and he also enjoys traveling, getting to know new people, and spending time with his wife and two kids, Emma and Enrique.

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Kevin L. Jackson

Host of Digital Transformers

Kevin L. Jackson is a globally recognized Thought Leader, Industry Influencer and Founder/Author of the award winning “Cloud Musings” blog.  He has also been recognized as a “Top 5G Influencer” (Onalytica 2019, Radar 2020), a “Top 50 Global Digital Transformation Thought Leader” (Thinkers 360 2019) and provides strategic consulting and integrated social media services to AT&T, Intel, Broadcom, Ericsson and other leading companies. Mr. Jackson’s commercial experience includes Vice President J.P. Morgan Chase, Worldwide Sales Executive for IBM and SAIC (Engility) Director Cloud Solutions. He has served on teams that have supported digital transformation projects for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US Intelligence Community.  Kevin’s formal education includes a MS Computer Engineering from Naval Postgraduate School; MA National Security & Strategic Studies from Naval War College; and a BS Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy. Internationally recognizable firms that have sponsored articles authored by him include CiscoMicrosoft, Citrix and IBM.  Books include “Click to Transform” (Leaders Press, 2020), “Architecting Cloud Computing Solutions” (Packt, 2018), and “Practical Cloud Security: A Cross Industry View” (Taylor & Francis, 2016). He also delivers online training through Tulane UniversityO’Reilly MediaLinkedIn Learning, and Pluralsight.  Mr. Jackson retired from the U.S. Navy in 1994, earning specialties in Space Systems EngineeringCarrier Onboard Delivery Logistics and carrier-based Airborne Early Warning and Control. While active, he also served with the National Reconnaissance Office, Operational Support Office, providing tactical support to Navy and Marine Corps forces worldwide.

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Tyler Ward

Director of Sales

Tyler Ward serves as Supply Chain Now's Director of Sales. Born and raised in Mid-Atlantic, Tyler is a proud graduate of Shippensburg University where he earned his degree in Communications. After college, he made his way to the beautiful state of Oregon, where he now lives with his wife and daughter.

With over a decade of experience in sales, Tyler has a proven track record of exceeding targets and leading high-performing teams. He credits his success to his ability to communicate effectively with customers and team members alike, as well as his strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

When he's not closing deals, you can find Tyler on the links or cheering on his favorite football and basketball teams. He also enjoys spending time with his family, playing pick-up basketball, and traveling back to Ocean City, Maryland, his favorite place!

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Chris Barnes

Principal, Supply Chain Now
Host of Supply Chain is Boring

Talk about world-class: Chris is one of the few professionals in the world to hold CPIM-F, CLTD-F and CSCP-F designations from ASCM/APICS. He’s also the APICS coach – and our resident Supply Chain Doctor. When he’s not hosting programs with Supply Chain Now, he’s sharing supply chain knowledge on the APICS Coach Youtube channel or serving as a professional education instructor for the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistic Institute’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) program and University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Center for Professional Education courses.

Chris earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from Bradley University, an MBA with emphasis in Industrial Psychology from the University of West Florida, and is a Doctoral in Supply Chain Management candidate.

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Greg White

Principal & CMO, Supply Chain Now
Host of Supply Chain Now and TECHquila Sunrise

When rapid-growth technology companies, venture capital and private equity firms are looking for advisory, they call Greg – a founder, board director, advisor and catalyst of disruptive B2B technology and supply chain. An insightful visionary, Greg guides founders, investors and leadership teams in creating breakthroughs to gain market exposure and momentum – increasing overall company esteem and valuation.

Greg is a founder himself, creating Blue Ridge Solutions, a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader in cloud-native supply chain applications, and bringing to market Curo, a field service management solution. He has also held leadership roles with Servigistics (PTC) and E3 Corporation (JDA/Blue Yonder). As a principal and host at Supply Chain Now, Greg helps guide the company’s strategic direction, hosts industry leader discussions, community livestreams, and all in addition to executive producing and hosting his original YouTube channel and podcast, TEChquila Sunrise.

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Scott W. Luton

Founder, CEO, & Host

As the founder and CEO of Supply Chain Now, you might say Scott is the voice of supply chain – but he’s too much of a team player to ever claim such a title. One thing’s for sure: he’s a tried and true supply chain expert. With over 15 years of experience in the end-to-end supply chain, Scott’s insights have appeared in major publications including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and CNN. He has also been named a top industry influencer by Thinkers360, ISCEA and more.

From 2009-2011, Scott was president of APICS Atlanta, and he continues to lead initiatives that support both the local business community and global industry. A United States Air Force Veteran, Scott has also regularly led efforts to give back to his fellow veteran community since his departure from active duty in 2002.

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