Episode Summary
“I started logistics and supply chain consulting as a consultant. I’m moved from consultant to senior consultant, the manager to senior manager to associate partner, to partner, to managing partner. So I did a little bit of everything along the way. I always loved the supply chain. It was to me, supply chain was not boring. I love the challenges and the throughput and being able to use the supply chain as a competitive differentiator for companies. But I will say it was like a good book. I enjoyed each chapter as I moved along, certainly enjoyed in latter years of developing people and watching them grow.”
-Greg Owens, CEO & Founder of iGam
In this episode, we sat down with industry veteran Greg Owens to learn about his impressive career going from an entry -level consultant at Anderson Consulting to various CEO roles. You can easily hear Greg’s internal drive for success and passion for supply chain management, but it all sounds pretty boring. So let’s see if Greg can prove us wrong!
Episode Transcript
Chris Barnes (00:07):
Hey,
Chris Barnes (00:07):
Chris, the supply chain doctor providing you insights and tools to better understand and apply the apex body of knowledge to everyday supply chains. We also strive to provide a history lesson into supply chain management and expose you to some of the industry’s thought leaders and driving forces. In this episode, we sat down with industry veteran, Greg Owens to learn about his impressive career. Going from an entry level consultant at Anderson consulting to various CEO roles. You can easily hear Greg’s internal drive for success and passion for supply chain management. It all sounds pretty boring. So let’s see if Greg can prove me wrong, Greg. Thanks again for investing time with me here to talk about your career and more importantly, learn about your perspective on supply chain management. I worked with you briefly at Anderson consulting, which, which later became Accenture. And at the time I think you were a partner and the primary reason the company had a supply chain practice. So I want to talk a little bit about that, but before we do that, let’s start at the college level. You attended Georgia tech, which is a great industrial engineering school. So can you tell me about that? Why you went there and what you learned?
Greg Owens (01:13):
Georgia tech was the best school in the state of Georgia. I was local resident and went to high school in Georgia and, uh, I really never considered another school. It was Georgia tech was where I was going to get the best education. And I was very interested in getting an education, getting them to the workforce quickly.
Chris Barnes (01:33):
And where you went to high school in Georgia, Atlanta specifically
Greg Owens (01:36):
Went down in Newnan, Georgia, just, yeah, back then. It was really a separate community in today’s world. More than 50% of the people around the Newnan area commute into Atlanta to go to.
Chris Barnes (01:49):
And Georgia tech is a great school and specifically in some areas. So I think industrial management is one of them. The best in the world.
Greg Owens (01:55):
Industrial engineering has been number one and industrial engineering of any school in the United States for something around 25 years. Now
Chris Barnes (02:06):
You did well, I assume we don’t have to talk about grades or anything, but I know it’s, some people say they survived.
Greg Owens (02:13):
I did, I did well enough that now I’m on the board of trustees. So, uh, I guess I did, I made just the passing Mark to, uh, to continue to be associated with, uh, with Georgia tech.
Chris Barnes (02:27):
Okay. The board of trustees. Yeah. And I’m a, just a little, little reference point. I teach at the supply chain logistics Institute with Tim Brown. I’m sure. You know, Tim Brown,
Greg Owens (02:36):
Tim, I hired Tim Anderson consulting as well. Tim was with sister con prior to Jimmy hiring.
Chris Barnes (02:43):
So let’s talk about the Accenture, the, the Anderson consulting role you were there. And as I said, they just don’t hire partners out of college. So, but you were a partner eventually. So tell me what you did there and how you progress. So quick
Greg Owens (02:56):
Anderson consulting had just split from Arthur Anderson in 1989 and 1990 had decided they had to get in other areas other than just it consulting. And one of the areas they wanted to get into was supply chain and back then people referred to it more as logistics. So initially we started what was called the logistics strategy, practice, the LSP, and we hired a number of people that you’ve worked with into initially the LSP, there were four regions in the LSP. There was the Northeast region, the central region, the Western region and the Southern region. And I was brought in to weed the Southern region. And we started growing our practice throughout the United States. And in 1993, soon after I became a partner, I was 33 years old. I got the opportunity to be the leader, to be the managing partner of the logistics strategy practice for North America. And, and soon after, uh, hire a few individuals and in Latin America. And, uh, we started the LSP then, uh, what was for the American.
Chris Barnes (04:13):
And did you work with, I’m just going to throw up some names there, bill co Pacino, was he part of that supply chain or
Greg Owens (04:20):
[inaudible] was initially part of the logistics strategy practice? He was the, uh, the leader in the day when I was first hired. And then he very shortly thereafter moved to, uh, the strategy part of, uh, the business, which is another area that this would compete with Bain and BCG and McKinsey. So bill moved over to that. Uh, I worked with, uh, the leader then became Joe, Martha. Uh, Joe’s now deceased as well as bill. And, um, I became, uh, the third person to lead that would just extract you practice. And, and the last, because it was then morphed in 1996, it was morphed into the supply chain line of business. And at that time I was tapped to be the global banjo partner of the supply chain line of business.
Chris Barnes (05:10):
Okay. Yeah. I recall the, what did we have downtown Greg, the, uh, supply chain ideas exchange? Did you know that? Yes,
Greg Owens (05:17):
But with just the logistics 2020 center. Yes. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barnes (05:22):
That was powerful. We brought a lot of companies in and teams to talk about the future of supply chain.
Greg Owens (05:28):
That was very powerful. Um, I was glad the firm, uh, w was putting the resources behind that, no wild, uh, budget for us to really make that a powerful statement. And, and I think that’s part of the reason that interesting consulting and waiter Accenture then wed in the supply chain. Uh, we were able to bring our clients through there, show them everything all the way through the supply chain, from procurement manufacturing, into all the distribution inventory management. It was a, it was a very powerful selling tool for us.
Chris Barnes (06:03):
So what’d you enjoy? Did you enjoy the consulting side of it? You know, delivering projects or managing sounds like you did everything as a partner there, but you had to start somewhere.
Greg Owens (06:12):
Well, I, I I’ve started in, uh, logistics and supply chain consulting as a consultant. I’m moved from consultant to senior consultant, the manager to senior manager to associate partner, to partner, to managing partner. So I did a little bit of everything along the way, always loved the supply chain. It was to me, supply chain was not boring. I love the challenges and the throughput and being able to use the supply chain as a competitive differentiator for companies. But I will say it was like a good book. I enjoyed each chapter as I moved along, certainly enjoyed in latter years of developing people and watching them grow. And I made numerous partners within our group, you know, that people had come under that I had mentored and helped develop and they became parkers. And that was, that was very satisfying as well. And I’ll say I enjoyed the sales process. I liked going into companies and talking to them about the improvements that we could make, if they would follow our ideas and our concepts and procedures in, uh, and you know, many of our clients were extremely appreciative of making them better companies by, by what we did for them.
Chris Barnes (07:27):
Yeah. It’s about giving solutions, giving value. Good points. Right. So while you were there, were you, were you in the technology at all planning or because you eventually were going to get to Manugistics, but
Greg Owens (07:38):
So w clearly I was it, I had projects where the planning was an aspect of that, and, uh, you started to see the development of bigger companies and that the need for more complex software for them to be able to manage their businesses more effectively.
Chris Barnes (07:57):
And then it was the big players were Manugistics. And I too, I think was a big one as well.
Greg Owens (08:02):
That’s right. We were, we were the two, uh, actually I do is one of the reasons that that led me to Manugistics. So, uh, I’m, uh, I’m somewhat grateful that, that they were strong player in the market.
Chris Barnes (08:16):
So why did you make the move to Manugistics? How did that transpire
Greg Owens (08:20):
Joe? That was, um, I started getting recruited at the end of 1998 when I was the global managing Parker. They’re there interesting consulting and maybe just ex was looking for professional CEO to come in behind the founder. And I was getting recruited along with several others. I had put in place a partnership at Anderson consulting with ITU technology. So I knew those guys very well, also knew Manugistics reasonably well, but I would say there were two things that really led me there. One is I had the chance to become a public company CEO with a 39 years old. That was appealing. I had always wanted to, to run a company and the chance to, to move to Maryland and to become the CEO of Manugistics, which was very appealing to me, I would say the second thing. And it was second was that, but I too had a $2 billion market cap at the time. I felt that they were companies somewhat equal stature men. You just had a very dominant position in consumer products and retail. I too had much more of a dominant position in electronics and industrial applications. So I felt like if I too had a $2 billion market cap, then we can work at men just X and develop something similar. And that was a challenge I wanted to undertake
Chris Barnes (09:49):
Now for people that may not have the history, what, what were you, what was Manugistics night to all about supply chain planning? And
Greg Owens (09:55):
We, we ran the gamut of the supply chain. It was all about supply chain planning. So both Manugistics and I too were very heavily algorithm, intensive planning tools that allowed you to look at demand, demand planning was actually our largest product, but to look at demand and then to be able to forecast what was needed for just from a supply standpoint, to be able to fulfill the supply chain. So if you look at supply chain and you’re always looking at cost efficiency, but you’re also looking at fulfillment rates, and, you know, you don’t want to go into a store. Manufacturer, certainly wants to have a high fulfillment rate. Otherwise the, uh, the retailer is going to look at the manufacturer and say, look, you’re really not fulfilling my demand or my, my national demand or my global demand that I need. I’m going to have to look at other suppliers. So this planning software, that many just it’s made, enabled these companies to be able to plan and forecast more effectively than they had in the past.
Chris Barnes (10:57):
Where are you guys doing any transportation modeling as well at that time, or
Greg Owens (11:01):
Yes. Now, good question. We did transportation optimization was a huge product of ours as well. It made you just States and that application is still out in the market today. Every once in a while, I’ll hear about, somebody’s still using the transportation optimization package that we had, but you’re always trying to optimize, not only getting products out, whoever your supply chain was, but also being able to reduce whatever transportation costs that you could so that you were operating at an efficient level.
Chris Barnes (11:33):
Yeah. That was a big model, big for a while, understanding where your distribution centers should be located, who they’re servicing all those things. Now, there was some other companies that came out of Georgia tech around the operations management side, right? I mean, Don Ratliffe and those types of people were starting companies.
Greg Owens (11:49):
That’s, that’s exactly right. I mean, you, you go back to taps logistics. If you remember that name, Manhattan associates is out there today. Most all of them have a, uh, a very high concentration of, uh, Georgia tech people. And many of them, the, the founders were at Georgia tech
Chris Barnes (12:08):
On Manhattan associates while they’re a warehousing execution system. I recall Alan, DeBerry saying once I asked him why he started the company, he said it was either a supply chain planning company or a warehousing company. And they just, I guess I don’t want to say flipped a coin or whatever, but ended up being a, one of the best WMS as around. So,
Greg Owens (12:26):
Yep. And Allen started, uh, we had similar backgrounds, Alan started in, in, uh, consulting as well. He was with Kurt Saulman and associates, and he also saw, and I think that was one of the things that really led me to, uh, to me, just sticks. We started to see that package software was becoming a way of the future. So it interested in consulting, uh, or center. It was all about development. Uh, if you needed it solutions, it would, they were custom. And you were development pet when packaged software started coming around. Obviously it was implemented much faster than, uh, something that you would develop. So it was clear that this was going to be a, a way of the future and that, and that, that led me into the package software.
Chris Barnes (13:16):
Ironically, you know, a lot of the companies we’ve talked about are no longer around, but the, uh, Manhattan is still a, still a great Atlanta based company. So they’ve done something right.
Greg Owens (13:25):
They they’ve done very well.
Chris Barnes (13:27):
So Manugistics, what were you doing there? You were running the show, but what were some of the things you did to make it successful?
Greg Owens (13:34):
Well, one of the first things that I would say what Manugistics, uh, strength was at the time was their development organization and very strong software strongest in the industry. In my opinion, when I joined what they lacked was more the go to market structure. I developed a, a supply chain diagnostic tool, if you will. So we would go in and do any customer. And for very modest price would look over their operations and benchmark them against our other customers, and then show them which areas that they were operating very well in and which areas that they were deficient. And that was a big part of, of what we were doing and helping them get more efficient or more cost effective in, in certain areas. So that was, that was one area, either areas. We hadn’t developed our sales strategy, not by territory, but by expertise within the industry. So we needed more focus on retail, people on electronics and high tech people on oil and gas people in. And so when I got there, it was, uh, it was set up as a territory, like a geographical territory in bringing in expertise in certain industries where they could speak the language. And they knew the solution spatter that those, that industry needed to be more cost effective or, or more efficient was very important. And we were of the size where we really needed that industry expertise and not operate by geography.
Chris Barnes (15:16):
Makes sense. Yeah. People want to typically think that the salespeople understand their business. I think that’s what you were saying.
Greg Owens (15:22):
Exactly. And that, that was not the case when I first got there. And then we just had to market more effectively, it’s got to get the name out. And so that everybody knows who you are, and you’re going to have the greatest products. We’ve all heard this so many times, but you don’t have the greatest products in the world, but if you don’t have the name out there and people don’t recognize it, then, uh, it’s very difficult to,
Chris Barnes (15:47):
So you were successful in man. Manugistics I think I saw some numbers somewhere.
Greg Owens (15:51):
My five year period, we went from 150 million in revenue to 325 million in revenue. So more than doubled the company in that period of time.
Chris Barnes (16:00):
Yeah. That that’s a benchmark of success, I would say by most measures, I guess you enjoyed that. Obviously that’s a, that’s a key factor, but what was your reason for wanting to leave Manugistics?
Greg Owens (16:10):
That was where we were winning the battle, but we were going to lose the war. So I remember going to a consumer products company and I thought it’s just to close the deal. It was, it was kind of one of those epiphany moments that you have, but I’m meet with the, uh, CEO of the company and just he and I, and were discussing us, putting the software, mainly just putting the software in. And, and, uh, he, uh, he started questioning around all these, uh, consumer companies use SAP as their ERP system, their backbone. And, um, he said, how much money are you putting in product development? And that’s what we’re doing. 15% of revenue in product development. He said, that’s, uh, that’s impressive. So somewhere around $50 million. And I said, yes. And he said, SAP is doing a billion dollars worth of product development. And they have this product that they have coming out APS.
Greg Owens (17:04):
And I said, well, okay. I agree with you that they’re putting a lot of money in development, but they’re not putting that billion dollars in APS. He said, how long before they kept you three years, four years, five years. And I said, I said, that’s a fair question. I’m saying, let me ask you one before I answer that I’ve said, do you have a right now problem? Or do you have a problem three or four years from now in your spot yet? And he laughed and he said, Nope, I’ve got it right now, problem. And we’re going to be installing Manugistics software, but he really got me thinking we were, we were winning a lot of battles, but, you know, ultimately we were just not big enough as a software company, 325 million. I too was a similar size. Uh, and we, you know, we just, weren’t going to be that the dominant player in the future. And that, that led to the consolidation. Uh, Larry Ellison was already young, uh, a, a consolidation streak of acquiring any software company that he felt like fit into the Oracle mold. And, and, uh, I could really just see the handwriting on the wall.
Chris Barnes (18:15):
Now, what happened to Manugistics? They were acquired by Oracle.
Greg Owens (18:18):
No, I too. And JDA have all combined together and are owned by private equity firm. So you took three similarly sized companies and put them all together.
Chris Barnes (18:34):
Let me just go back a little bit. APO that’s advanced planning and optimization. Is that what that stood for? And that’s, and that was SAP his approach to, uh, adapting supply chain planning, really trying to get rid of the competition there. So, yeah, I remember that we used to talk about that a little bit. So man, you and I two they’re, they’re still around in some shape or form, but just as a different organization. So after Manugistics you retired became successful or what I mean after all that, what happened?
Greg Owens (19:02):
Yeah, they, uh, I took a lot of time off after Manugistics and, uh, that was good. Can recharge the batteries and wasn’t sure I wanted to go run something globally, given all the travel and all associated with that. But, uh, I did a, um, about a year and a half stint in Washington, DC rubbing a, uh, about a $400 million private equity firm called red zone capital. And that put me on the other side of the fence, we were, um, we were buying companies and, uh, negotiating, um, bank terms on terms of leverage. And, and I would say that that was the first time that I ever really looked at companies and, and really thought about the exit strategy as you were initially buying the company. So, uh, thinking, uh, you know, what do you do with this company? Is that a company that you will take public? Is it one that is going to be better off being sold to a strategic acquirer is one that private equity will end up picking up longer term and combining with another company. And it, it, uh, it really started got me thinking more about the financial aspects of the company, as opposed to everything else in my lifetime had just been going to something, grow it very big and operate it and enjoy what you’re doing.
Chris Barnes (20:22):
So a little bit in the PE world as an investor,
Greg Owens (20:25):
What I’ve found in the PE world is I’m an operator. My favorite days were board meetings, board meetings of our portfolio companies. I wanted to get back in the game and I was interviewing around and got a call one day from Kleiner Perkins, the venture capitalist. And they invited me to San Francisco to look at three companies. They had that they needed CEOs for. And one of them was a company called iron planet. And iron planet was an internet marketplace, very small at the time. This was 2007, but clearly the internet was becoming the way of the future. And, uh, in 2007, there weren’t that many internet marketplaces that were of the substantial size other than eBay. But this one happened to sell heavy construction equipment. And I had bought several cars off the internet site on scene, uh, just looking at pictures and inspection reports and, and, uh, really like this concept of the internet marketplace. So I agreed to, uh, to run IronPlanet and, um, it was in Pleasanton, California and went out nine years later. We grew it to, uh, just over a billion dollars in, uh, in gross sales. And we were within about two weeks of going public. We were acquired by a strategic company for a, for a nice acquisition price. And, uh, and so I, I turned iron planted over them and, and, um, transitioned into my life now.
Chris Barnes (22:04):
No, a part of that was something that maybe you only realize if you’re, if you’ve been in South Atlanta, Ritchie brothers, is that, was that part of iron planet or I did a little bit of research.
Greg Owens (22:13):
Yeah. Yeah. So Richard brothers was the acquirer, uh, IronPlanet is public, but, uh, Richie’s a public company and the acquisition we, uh, we sold IronPlanet for, uh, 700 $5,800.
Chris Barnes (22:29):
Okay. No, I didn’t realize that. I thought it was the other way around. I just, I know Ritchie brothers as a big lot that I drive past going down 85 when every once in a while they’ve got tractor, sometimes it’s empty. Sometimes they have tractors.
Greg Owens (22:42):
Well, they have, they have about 25 of those blocks scattered around the world. So that’s just part of them.
Chris Barnes (22:48):
I didn’t see the other 24. So that explains a lot there. Yeah. So you’ve retired again. So you went into your second retirement or? Yeah.
Greg Owens (22:56):
And so it took some time off I’m on a Mount, a number of boards putting some internet in B to C supply chain type companies, but most recently have started another company and it’s another internet marketplace in manufacturing and robotics equipment. And we’re doing that. We have both the marketplace and we’re engineering automation. So we’re making robotic cells that will do virtually any tasks that you needed, any kind of repetitive motion. That’s going very well. We started that company last year and I’m very pleased with the growth and the take up we’re getting in that company now.
Chris Barnes (23:35):
And that was again, back to my research is an IgM or high GAM.
Greg Owens (23:39):
Yes, I GAM I GAM is M stands for global asset. And then they’re the sister website with that is NRTC national robotics, a technology company. So we have two websites one’s on our automation division, the other one’s on our, our marketplace.
Chris Barnes (23:58):
Okay. And that looks to be a, I won’t say a South Atlanta based company, but close enough to Atlanta, I’ll say it’s an Atlanta based company. Is that correct?
Greg Owens (24:06):
Yeah. Well, I live South of Atlanta, so my offices tend to, to get located there,
Chris Barnes (24:12):
Close to where you are. So you have an enjoyable commute. Exactly. Well, that’s great. Well, anything else that you want to mention or talk about before I kind of ramp it down? Well, I know you’re on the, you had mentioned being on the board at Georgia tech, one of the great organizations, what do you do with them?
Greg Owens (24:27):
Yeah, so I’m, I’m on the board of trustees of the foundation, which, uh, we oversee the endowment of Georgia tech. I’ve been an officer on that for a number of years and very committed to education. I feel that education changes more people’s lives than, uh, than anything out there. And, uh, I just, I feel strongly that if kids can go get educated and get a good job and they’ll change their wives forever, you know, I think Georgia tech certainly did meet well. And, and so like anything I can do to promote education or give back to the community, um, uh, I enjoy being involved with that.
Chris Barnes (25:11):
So one thing I like to conclude on is getting guests perspective on the future of careers in supply chain management. And, you know, whether it’s, uh, somebody going to college trying to pick a career or going to be graduating from college, you know, what should they be looking for in terms of jobs or even there’s a third one, Greg experienced employees that want to make a transition into supply chain management. So either, either one of those perspectives, what advice would you have? I mean, I guess what would you do if you were, if you had it to do over again, would you get into supply chain management? What would you be doing today?
Greg Owens (25:42):
There’s no question I would get in the supply chain management. I’m going to give you a several reasons that I think that, uh, it is a great place to be from a career standpoint right now, first of all. And I think because of this global pandemic that we’re seeing with COVID-19, we’re going to see the repatriation of supply chains. So in, in my world, in my time, we were looking at more international supply chains. We went from companies that were more US-based, where they were developing international supply chains and everything associated with that. I think you’re going to see the opposite now where there’s more control over the supply chain. And I think you’re going to see a number of companies pull that back into the United States. So that would be my first breeds into that. This is going to be a great career path, the second way, the whole omni-channel, so that the whole B to C experience that you’re now where most, everybody in our day used to go to a store and they would, they would buy, you might, you might go to a catalog.
Greg Owens (26:52):
You might have a catalog come in the mail and you’d pick items out, usually Albert an 800 number back in the early days and you’d order a single item. But now clearly e-commerce, we are seeing a very heavy B to C component. And I think that’s here forever. People are using the internet. And the whole reason I went into internet marketplaces, uh, with IronPlanet now with, uh, with our GAM, that’s going to be another exciting area for, uh, people’s career. And then the third thing I would say is the, the same day delivery that you’re seeing in e-commerce. This is going to really change some of these supply chains. So, and, and, and change through automation in my opinion. So you’re no longer, you can’t have same day the web and do it the same old fashioned way that you were doing with somebody out there picking every individual piece and packing every pizza.
Greg Owens (27:49):
So you’re going to see more and more automation and robots and automated equipment that are pulling these orders and getting those out from transportation. Uh, however, the mode of transportation, whether it be drones in the future or semi-automated, uh, vehicles are, or what we’re going to see technology play award’s role in, in supply chain delivery, uh, in the future. So those three reasons repatriation supply chain and the omnichannel, and that the automation, I think, are great reasons for people to get into the supply chain and build their careers there. And we all know that the importance of the supply chain to companies and it is a competitive differentiator. So I think it’s a great place. It was a, it was a great career Mark for me when I was graduating from school or not. I still think it’s just as exciting now is that, uh, it was back then
Chris Barnes (28:47):
Some of the, the theory of my podcast, Greg, is a supply chain is boring. So I think, yeah,
Greg Owens (28:53):
Prove me wrong. I hope I did well.
Chris Barnes (28:57):
That’s great. Again, Greg, thanks again for investing time.
Greg Owens (29:00):
Alright, glad to participate, Chris,
Chris Barnes (29:02):
If you’re interested in CSEP or other apex credentials, there is a YouTube video where you can learn more about bootcamp style workshops at Georgia tech search on eight pigs bootcamp courses, informational webinars. If you’re in the North Georgia, North Alabama Chattanooga area, check out the traditional class formats offered by the university of Tennessee Chattanooga center for professional education supply chain Academy, optionally. We can bring supply chain certification workshops to your company. Just send a note to chris@apexcoach.com, supply chain boring as part of the supply chain. Now network, we try to highlight historical events, companies and people in supply chain management and create a picture of where the industry is headed. Interested in learning more about supply chain, technology, startups, mergers acquisitions, and how companies evolve. Take a listen to tequila, sunrise crafted by Greg white, or check out this week in business history with supply chain news own Scott Luton, to learn more about everyday things you may take for granted and pick up short stories you can use as general conversation starters. The logistics with the purpose series puts a spotlight on neat and interesting organizations who are working toward a greater cause. And finally, if you’re interested in logistics, freight and transportation, take a listen to the new series, Jaman logistics and transportation experience with the adapt and thrive mindset Sherpa Jaman Alvidrez. If interested in sponsoring this show or others on supply chain. Now send a note to Chris at supply chain. Now radio.com and remember supply chain is boring.
Greg Owens (30:38):
[inaudible] right before the name change. So I went to Manugistics in 1999, so right before I always worked for Anderson consulting.
Chris Barnes (30:47):
Okay. That’s good. That’s what, so I use the names interchangeably, but that’s kind of what I want to do. The people that, so my, my theory is supply chain is boring. That’s the name of the podcast, but what I’m realizing is a lot of people just like to hear the history, you know, people that have gone on to be successful. Maybe I’ll inquire a little bit about your personnel, not personality, but how you were able to become a partner at such a young age. I think that’s pretty, pretty impressive. You know, those types of things. And if there’s anything that’s off, you know, you want to leave off, just tell me we don’t, we can edit it out, but really just like to learn. And then I’m realizing a lot of people listen to this, they’re young, maybe they’re getting into their careers and they want to understand how to move up or what they should be doing. So that’s kind of the, kind of the audience that we see you’re comfortable with starting at starting out at the Georgia tech level.
Greg Owens (31:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, I did my fair share of public speaking in the day, so I’m fine.
Chris Barnes (31:41):
And you live in Georgia now. I thought you were in D C for some reason,
Greg Owens (31:45):
I’ve been in DC before. So, uh, mainly just sticks with state saved. My weight is one iron point. It was in Pleasanton, California. So, uh, I’m kinda been around.
Chris Barnes (31:57):
I just talked to, I’ll give you an example. I talked to Greg Krohn and I don’t know if you know Greg Cronin. Yeah, I know Greg. Yeah. I chatted with him. So I’m just trying to get, those are the people that I know. So I’m just trying to capture all these ideas and these stories and experiences. So if anyone in your network comes to mind share
Greg Owens (32:15):
Chris, do you remember John White that worked with us at Anderson consulting?
Chris Barnes (32:19):
Yeah, the younger young John White
Greg Owens (32:21):
Young guns, white, so young gun went on to run Fortner and grew it to 300 million in revenue and then sold to a private equity firm. And I think, uh, you know, somebody like that, that grew fortnight to that business would be the great, the grandfather of supply chain was Dave Anderson. Dave worked with us at Anderson consulting as well. He’s up in Boston somewhere. Hit pick him up on LinkedIn.
Chris Barnes (32:51):
Okay. Do you know Jeff Miller?
Greg Owens (32:54):
Yeah. Yeah. I remember Jeff.
Chris Barnes (32:56):
Yeah. So, um, I network with him around Atlanta. So he’s, he mentioned Dave Anderson as well, so yeah, that’s neat. Yeah. I like to talk to people. One of the, one of the people I interviewed at lean, you know, the lean concepts, the lean manufacturing. And so that’s what I started out in my career early. I’m an industrial engineer as well. I started out doing lean manufacturing and I read all these books from these Japanese engineers. And I wanted to interview the Japanese engineers and I realized they were all deceased. So, but it is, I found one man from Oregon, he published all those books. He went to Japan, found these, these thought leaders and published their books in English and he brought them back. So I ended up interviewing him what was the three part series, but that’s, you know, that’s the kind of stuff that’s really, I think is interesting.
Greg Owens (33:43):
The older guys aren’t around so much anymore. You might, you might be able to get in touch with Alan DeBerry and talk about Manhattan stuff.
Chris Barnes (33:51):
He is, he is no offense to you, but he is number one on my list. Uh, well maybe it is now. I can say you are number one. He moved up. Uh, I’ve been trying to get him for a long time. He, we were actually neighbors. His house is near mine. There’s his original houses near mine, I should say. But he’s hard man. To track down.
Greg Owens (34:08):
Yeah. Yeah. He’s I think he’s spending his time in Washington. D C now, too.
Chris Barnes (34:13):
Oh yeah. I heard he was on it. I heard he was living on a boat.
Greg Owens (34:16):
He was he’s he’s back in DC.
Chris Barnes (34:19):
Okay. With his, with his new startups. Okay. I will persist until I succeed on that one. That would be a great one.
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Featured Guests
Greg Owens is the CEO and a founder of iGAM. Greg also serves as the Executive Chairman of the Board at PRGX Global, Inc. In his most recent position, he served as the Group President of New Sectors & Ventures at Ritchie Bros. and as CEO of IronPlanet, Inc. since 2007. Prior to this, he served as Managing Director at Red Zone Capital, a Washington, D.C. private equity firm focused on strong revenue growth opportunities. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Manugistics Group, Inc. where he doubled annual revenues to $300 million for the supply chain management software company. Greg also served as Global Managing Partner, Supply Chain Management at Accenture where he was a founding member of the company’s supply chain group. In addition, he serves on several outside boards including 3VR, Guardian Analytics, S1 Corporation, Secure Works, and Serena Software. Greg holds a B.S. in Industrial Management from Georgia Institute of Technology where he currently serves on the President’s Advisory Board as well as the College of Management Board.
Chris Barnes is a supply chain guru, the APICS Coach, and the host of Supply Chain is Boring on Supply Chain Now. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering and Economics Minor, from Bradley University, an MBA in Industrial Psychology with Honors from the University of West Florida. He holds CPIM-F, CLTD-F and CSCP-F designations from ASCM/APICS, one of the few in the world. Barnes is a professional education instructor for the Georgia Tech Supply Chain & Logistics Institute’s Supply Chain Management (SCM) and University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Center for Professional Education certificate courses. Barnes is a supply chain advocate, visionary, and frequent podcaster and blogger at www.APICS.Coach.com. Barnes has over 27 years of experience developing and managing multiple client, engineering consulting, strategic planning and operational improvement projects in supply chain management. Connect with Chris on LinkedIn and reach out to him via email at: chris@apicscoach.com.
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