One thing we say in life science and healthcare at DHL is zero defects, right? We're not interested in KPIs that say 99.8 or whatever they are. We're interested in zero defects, a hundred percent. That's our goal every day. And that starts at the picker all the way up to me.
-Jim Saponaro, DHL
Episode Summary
From delivering vaccines to propelling new healthcare innovations onto the global scene, DHL Supply Chain President of Life Sciences and Healthcare Jim Saponaro has had a big year—and so has his company. Scott and Greg were lucky enough to grab some time with him to discuss the company’s unprecedented growth, the importance of scale along the cold chain, unique challenges moving forward and more.
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 introduc Stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now.
Scott Luton (00:29):
Hey, good morning, Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on supply chain. Now, welcome to today’s. Big, big, big show, Greg, how you doing?
Greg White (00:38):
I’m doing good. I’m really looking forward to this. There’s some new,
Scott Luton (00:42):
There’s some big news, big time leadership, big time company, and they’re making big time moves and investments. When it comes to the fast growth world of cold storage, we’ll be talking with a big global supply chain leader in that regard. Now, Greg, uh, the cold storage industry in general is a fascinating one, right?
Greg White (01:01):
It is. I mean, is it, if it wasn’t big enough just with food and beverage and all of that before, um, which I’m really familiar with from my past, but something happened a couple years ago that really, really got folks, uh, moving forward in, in terms of cold storage, right? I think there was a vaccine or something like that that,
Scott Luton (01:23):
Well, it certainly led to, uh, uh, quite a mission across the world led by the supply chain industry to, to push all of us firmly into the post pandemic environment. We’re excited about that. The noble mission we’ve been calling it around here. So today as Greg and I are chatting about, we’re gonna be, we’re gonna be talking specifically, uh, with a leader from a company that has really doubled down, uh, owned a cold storage space. So with no further due Greg white, let’s welcome in our featured guest, Jim Saponaro, president of life sciences and healthcare at DHL supply chain north America. Hey, Hey Jim, how you doing? Hey
Greg White (02:08):
Jim,
Jim Saponaro (02:08):
How are you’all?
Scott Luton (02:10):
We’re doing wonderful after a, you know, after all of our technologists came out and helped us out to make this connection, I think we’re doing a lot better and we’re a lot closer to the big story. The big news y’all are making at DHL.
Jim Saponaro (02:23):
Great.
Scott Luton (02:25):
So on that note, before we get to that, Jim, a little birdie told us, uh, that you grew up in one of our favorite cities of Cleveland. So tell us about what it was like growing up in Cleveland and, and, uh, give us some aspects of your upbringing.
Jim Saponaro (02:41):
Yeah, no, Cleveland was a blast. I lived, uh, in the Northeast part of, uh, Cleveland and men are right on the lake can, uh, grew up, uh, like most kids, I wish they would today fishing and building forts and taking wood from the new builds and building forts, which we thought was okay at the time. But it was a lot of fun.
Scott Luton (03:02):
We all built forts and I don’t know about y’all we would, we’d build forts and we’d have dirt bomb wars, right. With third dirt bomb, each other had a blast. We
Greg White (03:12):
Survived those you’re right.
Jim Saponaro (03:16):
We had forts with rooms and you couldn’t catch me crawling through something like that today, but we did back then.
Scott Luton (03:22):
I’m with you, I’m with you. It’s amazing. We didn’t get bit by snakes, but, um, what, uh, what else, what else was uniquely? Uh, I think you, you told us pre-show, uh, Greg, I think, uh, Jim told us that he is, uh, as Cleveland, as it gets, I think was the phrase he used. What else was unique about growing up in Cleveland?
Jim Saponaro (03:41):
I think, you know, I think being on the lake was a lot of fun, right? We, we went to, we had a swimming pool right on the lake and we went to the beach and we swam there. So that was really a lot of fun. It’s a huge sports town obviously. And, uh, you know, I’m a die hard and, uh, live and die and, uh, support all the teams and, um, still waiting for some, some big football wins. But, uh, so it’s been a, it’s been a while and, uh, you know, always anxious for the next season and optimistic. So I’m big Browns fan.
Scott Luton (04:12):
Well, you know, as well as,
Jim Saponaro (04:13):
As well as,
Greg White (04:16):
You guys had a great start Browns did this season. I really think it was most that were your issues. So
Jim Saponaro (04:24):
I hope,
Greg White (04:24):
I hope I have a good friend who a fan and, uh, we watched the first game together. So, uh, yeah, we started having you guys go down in that very game and it just did not help the season.
Scott Luton (04:38):
We, you know, uh, Jim, we, we can’t have, we can’t talk football and without referencing those legendary teams in the eighties that Bernie Kos, uh, Kevin Mack, Michael Dean Perry, cause I’m we big Clemson, uh, fans around here. Uh, Reggie, is it, was it Reggie Langer horn, Langer hands maybe.
Jim Saponaro (04:56):
Yeah. Langhorn. Yep.
Scott Luton (04:58):
And then the tight end. I can’t remember his name, but he is now hall of Famer and he’s in, I think NFL of leadership. Um, Ozzie knew of course. Yeah,
Greg White (05:06):
Yeah. Right.
Scott Luton (05:07):
All right. So now that we’ve established, we’ve established Jim’s Cleveland credentials, Greg, I guess we’ve gotta get into kind of the story of the day. Right.
Greg White (05:17):
I suppose we have to talk a little business here. So yeah, I mean, Jim OB, you know, obviously you’re in charge of life science and healthcare at DHL. And, um, I’d love for you to tell us a little bit about how you, you all, uh, approach the market in your, in your business.
Jim Saponaro (05:35):
Absolutely. So I just took over, uh, January one, uh, the president’s role, but I’ve been with DHL for 11 years and I headed up operations for the same life science and healthcare sector for DHL supply chain. So I’ve been part of this growth and, and having a lot of fun, uh, watching it grow and, and, and now taking the helm during this, uh, crazy pandemic labor shortage, you know, supply chain crisis time has been a, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s a challenge. It’s been a lot of fun. Um, DHL life science and healthcare sector is the largest three PL in an, in the space by far, we’ve got 35 side, uh, with over serving over 50 global customers. And, um, with a variety of services, uh, obviously the core is warehousing, but secondary packaging, um, reverse logistics, postponement. Um, and we also have transportation offerings manage trans inbound to manufacturing. And at the end, end of the day, it’s a, we have, we offer end to end services for our, for our clients.
Greg White (06:47):
You know, I, um, DHL’s an enormous organization. I don’t think people, at least people in the states recognize just how big it is. But, uh, I was doing business in Singapore with, uh, someone in your organization. And I mentioned a prominent us carrier and said, so how do you, how do you see them in terms of competition? And they said, oh, we don’t see them as competition. We’re much bigger than they’re. And we’re in many, many more countries. And I, I mean that, they said it so matter of factly, right. It was not a at all. It was just so matter of fact, I had to dig into you guys and just see just how big you are. So can you share a little bit about that scale?
Jim Saponaro (07:28):
Yeah, sure. So we are the largest logistics company in the world serving 222 countries. And we’re the largest next day, uh, service company in the world when it comes to express and transportation. I think folks think about when DHL came in here 15, 20 years ago, and that express business didn’t work in the us, but globally we’re by far the biggest, I think the big secret that we’re talking about today, uh, Greg and Scott is DHL supply chain, DHL supply chain services, uh, uh, almost 500 sites now in north America, 500 sites, almost 150 million square feet we service. And then, you know, the life science, uh, and healthcare sector is just one of many, right. We’ve got automotive technology, chem, energy, um, uh, retail, consumer, and e-commerce. So, and if you go to Gardner and look at the top 15 players in any of those, that’s our portfolio for every one of those sectors. So we’ve, we, we’re a pretty well kept secret, but folks don’t think of us understanding that we’ve got 40,000, uh, employees with DHL supply chain right here, um, in the us and north America and in Canada.
Greg White (08:42):
Wow. Yeah. And I can tell you that having worked in countries around the world, DHL is the name that comes first to mind. I mean, that, that, honestly, as a, as a young person in logistics early in my days, that was really shocking to me, but it’s a, it’s a big deal and, and it’s the biggest Outside of the states. Right. Um, so I’m curious
Jim Saponaro (09:05):
Everywhere.
Greg White (09:07):
Yeah. Sorry, Greg. Yeah. You’re uh, the far east Africa everywhere. Yeah, really. Um, you know, I’m curious about the investment you’ve made, obviously, you know, we were joking, we talked about the vaccine and, and everything that went along with that. And, and we’ve seen a huge investment in, um, in, uh, frozen and refrigerated and, and, uh, all of that in terms of supporting life sciences and the healthcare industry and vaccine in particular. Uh, so tell us, you guys just made a big investment. So tell us a little bit about that.
Jim Saponaro (09:42):
Yeah. Uh, you know, as, as we mentioned, and we put a press release out there that we just invested 400 million euros, uh, into the life science and healthcare space in north America, we grew our footprint over to 27% and, um, they’re all pharmaceutical and medical device temp controlled and licensed facilities. Uh, that’s gonna result in, uh, six new buildings and add an, uh, that, uh, again, results in another 3 million square feet that we’re adding to, to our footprint. So we’re, we’re pretty excited about that.
Scott Luton (10:22):
Wow. I think two of the, two of the, uh, six new sites are gonna be in the Atlanta area. Uh, Jim, if I read that, right?
Jim Saponaro (10:29):
Yeah, absolutely. Yep. Atlanta Memphis, the, our Northeast campus is exploding. Um, and, and that’s another big thing that’s in important to know about, uh, DHLs and life science and healthcare supply chain is we really separate ourselves and, and Greg, to your point, matter of faculty from, from the rest of the competition, because we have campuses and campuses are huge today. I mean, they’ve been really important in the past with, with, but today with labor shortages and all the challenges that folks have to have a campus and be able to labor share during the, during the pandemic, uh, our Zimmer bowel side, our Denly site, they weren’t able to do elective surgeries, right. We were able to place all those people in sites that were going through the roof, where you like bear and, and J and J healthcare. All, all these companies are really, really busy.
Jim Saponaro (11:24):
And so, uh, you know, that, that means a lot to our clients, right? You, you know, not any other competitor can most to that. And if they do, if it’s like one building where, you know, you can go to the Northeast and we’ve got like 50 billion buildings in a 50 mile radio, it’s pretty powerful. And so scale does matter. And, and a lot of times bigger is better, but I’ve never worked in a nicer group of people. So we’re just, we’re just like you all, you know, at the end of the day. And I think that that makes a difference. Right.
Scott Luton (11:54):
Agreed. Except Jim, Greg’s not real nice. He’s not a nice guy. So
Greg White (12:00):
Anthony,
Jim Saponaro (12:01):
You know, looking guy, I’ll give him,
Greg White (12:05):
That’s,
Jim Saponaro (12:06):
He’s a, so you,
Greg White (12:12):
Him and I don’t see nearly as well as most DHL do, I’m sure.
Scott Luton (12:21):
Uh, exciting times, uh, and congrats on the relatively new, uh, leadership role. I think I heard you say you started in early January of this year. Um, so from what I understand about cold storage, uh, you’ve got overseas markets that where, uh, market share is growing. And I think us pharmaceutical companies are really having to embrace cold storage to protect their products as they, as they take advantage of those, uh, in, in a good way of those business opportunities. In fact, um, as you look at, uh, the overall gold, uh, cold storage market, uh, I think in, in supply chain dive where you are quoted in a recent story related to your press release, I pharma cold chain source book says that global cold chain spending is, is expected to grow some 24% between 20, 20 and 2024 expecting about 20, 24 to reach $21.3 billion. Holy cow. Exactly. Um, yeah. So with those big, big numbers, and I love how you said that scale matters it’s scale certainly matters. Um, yeah. When it comes to the cold storage industry, um, I, I wanna ask you what might surprise some of our listeners, but feel free to comment on some of those big numbers before you even share some of the things that might surprise our folks.
Jim Saponaro (13:36):
Yeah. So the, you know, it’s no surprise that there’s that growth, right? I mean, that little thing called the pandemic. Um, O obviously those are coal chain products. And, uh, we participated as a global company in a major way, uh, in the us, our managed transportation for Pfizer delivered many, many doses of the Pfizer vaccine that we’re pretty excited about. You know, when they talk about coal change storage, we’re, we’re different in that we’re, we’re not a storage, right? We’re a life science and healthcare company, right. We’re fully licensed and we’ve got compliance and regulatory and standards that are, are, are industry leading, right? So you go into any of our buildings, you’ll see the same things, the same processes. And that means a lot to a customer that allows us to move our people around without missing a beat. But when it comes to cold chain, to your point, um, we’ve invested 80,000 in our, uh, 80,000 square feet in one of our Northeast facility. These cause we saw this coming because even before the pandemic, you’ve got individualized medicines that you guys probably heard of that are coming out, right. That may only have 60,000 patients in the us. Um, you’ve got biosimilars that are huge. Right. Of course, oncology has always been a big player in cold chain. And so we participate in all those patients. We’ve done vaccines for years for companies like GSK. And, um, we, uh, we, we think one, we’re one of the leaders. Right. But, uh, um, there’s, there’s no out it’s gonna continue to grow.
Scott Luton (15:13):
Uh, that’s fascinating. I think I used cold storage instead of cold chain earlier. So my apologies don’t wanna confuse anyone, cold chain, cold chain. Um, so Jim, yep. Out of all of that, um, what might operating in the cold chain industry, what might surprise some of the folks, uh, any unique aspects about that?
Jim Saponaro (15:35):
I think I, I think just in, in life sciences overall, uh, in a life science and healthcare company for DHL, um, safety comes first. I think that’s really important. I think people, um, are coming out and working in sites and they want to know that they’re gonna be taken care of and quality and compliance are the other minimum requirements. Right. And then after that, um, it’s, we have a culture of respect and results. And I think that makes a huge difference with our employees and working in that environment. There’s, uh, standard operating procedures, not to bore you, but you know, we make sure they’ve got gloves and they, and they’ve got good, the DHL coats and we take care of ’em and, uh, we celebrate their success. But, you know, I wanted to talk for a second about innovation and our accelerated digitalization agenda. But before I get there at the end of the day, with all the stuff going on with technology, it’s still a people business, right?
Jim Saponaro (16:30):
They’re the secret sauce, but I would tell you that we’re, we’re leading the way with technology with, with our accelerated published, accelerated digitalization agenda. And again, I’ll come back, Greg and Scott to the fact that size doesn’t matter. So we can work with these tiny little companies that have these really neat inventions, but have no scale to manufacture and have, and we’ve become this big testing round, right? We, we, you know, 500 sites, you got a lot of buildings you can test. I’ll give you a great example. Locus bot a bear was a small company out of Boston. Seven years ago. We started with them at Zimer BioMAT. We now deploy over 1600 locus spots and we needed 15,000 people for the end of season, right. Seasonality in our businesses, not just not life sciences per se, but we were able to use only hire 12,000 people cause of our, our use of technology. And then we’ve helped these players mature these technologies like autonomous, uh, uh, vehicles, right? Autonomous operated vehicles
Scott Luton (17:38):
Really quick. Greg, I want, I want to get your commentary on what you just heard Jim say. Uh, and also wanna back up to one of your favorite words that we talk about here, provenance, cause that he, he dressed out on the front end of his answer, but, uh, sticking with the last part there. I love how, um, how his view on people. Cause it, it, it where kindred spirits there, people make global supply chain happen. And I love his last point there about how all this massive investment in technology has created, not just a bunch of jobs, but a bunch of jobs working with robotics and automation, which should give all of those workers some great experience that they can leverage up in the market. But Greg, speak to that a bit.
Greg White (18:20):
Yeah. Well, I, I think there’s a couple things that, uh, in addition to that, that stood out to me one. Yes, obviously, uh, because people are not breaking down the doors to get, has some of these supply chain roles. I think robotics and autonomous and automation are inevitable and we’ve talked a lot about that on various shows, but, um, that we, that they were able to in a time when, when labor was exceedingly short provide capability for companies that otherwise would have run short, that’s incredible. The other thing that jumps out at me that I think is particularly interesting is the ability for someone who is an innovation company, whose focus is, you know, building the next medicine or building the next device or, or, you know, their job is life saving for them to be able to focus solely on that. And then to have a backbone, like what DHL offers to say, okay, we’re ready to try and bring this to market.
Greg White (19:16):
We’re ready to, you know, to scale this. As, as Jim said out to the world, look, that is the direction. As you know, that is what I think the future of supply chain ought to be is companies are good at making or merchandise or selling stuff they’re lousy for the most part at logistics, and to have an organization that is so focused to take someone, take a company and allow them to do what they are really, really best at, and then deploy at scale with such rapidity and with such a complete offering compliant. And, um, you know, actually as, as Jim, you said an actual healthcare company, right? That’s incredible. And think about the pace that that adds and the, the sureity that, that adds to the healthcare supply chain. When we can go, ah, Eureka, we found the cure for the common cold, if only, um, right, and now we can, now we can get it out to the market. And all we gotta do is make a phone call and Jim and his team make it happen. So love that. Obviously we’re simplifying it. Jim,
Jim Saponaro (20:23):
I need folks love working with technology. You know, they love it. You know, we do, uh, vision pick with the smart glasses. They enjoy that so much. And at first everybody was a little skeptical. They love, they fight for it. They fight for those jobs where they get to use technology. And it’s kind of cool and it does expand their, their expertise. We now have technicians that only work with the autonomous, uh, operated vehicles and we have videos and the pride that these guys have that they, they used to run the forklift truck. Now they’re working with this technology and it, and they’re just kind of beaming about it and it’s creating new roles. And, um, it’s neat to see
Scott Luton (21:06):
Of that.
Greg White (21:07):
Jim, do we give names? Did we give these autonomous devices? Oh
Jim Saponaro (21:11):
Really? Yeah. Yeah. I had, I had a, I had a locus spot in the early days named after me. I won’t tell you what they call it,
Scott Luton (21:17):
But well, uh, I bet we, I bet you’ll have a lot of fun with those names. Uh, you we’ll have to interview the bot that named Rick flair maybe in a later episode. Uh, but, but also maybe, uh, out of those hundreds, if not thousands of bots you are using, who knows maybe the Browns, the Cleveland Browns could borrow a few and improve make enhancements to their offensive or defensive lines. Jim,
Jim Saponaro (21:41):
We’re not gonna need ’em Scott we’re we’re ready. I think Greg, Greg, Greg hit it on the head. They’ve got some injuries they’re gonna heal up to make some nice off season acquisitions. They’ve got a good front office gonna make some great draft picks that are gonna make a contribution. And, uh, we’re gonna go for it all next year.
Scott Luton (21:59):
Greg, I don’t know if you heard that, but I think Jim’s got a second career as maybe a, a PR person for a sports team or something. I love that Rosie picture. He just paint.
Greg White (22:09):
Um, well I feel like I feel like a, you know, a advocate for the Browns chiefs fan. So we shared a coach, the great Marty shotten Heimer. We have had much the same history decades between, between champions. Um, we opened the Right. I mean, there, there is a lot of empathy between Browns and chiefs fans and, um, we’re pulling for ’em right up until they play us
Jim Saponaro (22:37):
That’s right. But we I’m not, or any of that Greg, two years, we would’ve, I’m not gonna, that would just be, you know, let’s, we’re, we’re getting along. Great. So let’s just leave it at that.
Greg White (22:53):
You, you know, with my, you know, with my friends that I’ve already heard a lot about that
Jim Saponaro (22:59):
You might have. Yeah. Yeah. I I’m letting it go personally. I’m
Greg White (23:03):
Good. Thanks. We’re
Scott Luton (23:06):
There’s a phrase that says, let go or be dragged. So it’s good to let that stuff go there. Jim and Greg, right. Um, so a minute ago, Greg mentioned the word Eureka, right? It is Eureka moments, uh, as clearly with all the innovation going on VHL, the team sounds like you’re having, uh, Eureka moments very regularly, uh, with rapidity, I think as a, as a phrase, uh, a word that Greg used on have to look that up. Um, anyway, so Jim Eureka moments these last couple years, man, they’d be tough, right? The industry, uh, thankfully global supply chain is really despite, you know, wart and all it’s, it’s been amazing to see it, keep moving, keep moving, keep
Jim Saponaro (23:47):
Moving forward. I think what we’ve seen, uh, when it comes to kinda aha moments, if you will, uh, Scott and Greg is the fact that at DHL supply chain in all of our sectors, but in our life science and healthcare sector, you know, those companies, pharma medical device, and so on, they’ve been some of the last ones to outsource, right? They’ve held on that. And they’re, I think Greg made a point earlier. They’re figuring out that that’s not their core competency. We love eating sleep and drinking. Right. And we’ve got scale and we’re committed to people and talent. And so we’re seeing more folks for, uh, become what we call first time outsources. Right? So that’s, that’s one, that’s a big deal. I also think that what we’ve gone through with the pandemic has, has spokes looking in the United States and north America at their manufacturing space and saying, we shouldn’t be storing any product here.
Jim Saponaro (24:40):
Right. We’ve gotta increase our manufacturing capabilities. And that’s great for us. And we stand ready to serve all the industries with that. And then finally, I would say that when people look to automation like, uh, automated storage and retrieval units, you like, like a company like auto store that we use a lot. Um, they’re not always looking for a return on investment, like they used to because they know if that, if that big, huge, uh, building, if you will, inside building full of robots can take up to 16 to 30 people away. That’s a big deal because they know probably the labor shortage is here to stay. So it was always like, oh, it’s too expensive. You know, we can’t pay for that. And the other thing that’s happening is customers are not treating like a commodity as they never should have in the first place. Right. So we’re seeing more tenure agreements than we ever have. And that’s part of it is cause when you invest in that kind of technology, which expensive, you, you need to stay with that player. But you know, in our case, we’ve got many 30 and 40 year clients. And, and I think that says a lot with big names that, you know, you’d be proud to put on the screen.
Scott Luton (25:51):
Mm, okay. So Greg, I wanna get your take on, on a lot of what Jim just wrapped there as we head down the home stretch, uh, talking with Jim SAP Panero with DHL supply chain, north America, Greg, what’d you hear there?
Greg White (26:04):
Oh, uh, I mean, I think those are, those are four Eureka moments in, um, all of them I think really impactful and some we’ve seen reflected, not all, but, but all of those, I think, speak to how supply chain has changed and frankly, why it has changed to Jim’s point, these incoming generations. They don’t want to do the, the, what is it. We call it the three DS, dark, dirty and dangerous that people perceive a lot of supply chain jobs as being, and we already had a 2 million person shortage of supply chain talent even before the pandemic started. And it’s only gotten worse as volumes have grown as, uh, you know, as Jim, as you said, that as companies have leaned more and more on, on third parties to, to run their logistics operations or frankly, even if they run ’em internally. Um, so recognizing that and recognizing that the world has changed prop probably for good from, uh, a labor standpoint, which he also exemplified by saying, you know, they’re, they’re engaging people to work with technology, which is what gen Z and millennials wanna do. They wanna work with technology. We don’t have to apologize for technology taking anyone’s job anymore because the jobs that tech technology is taking no one, literally in many cases once.
Scott Luton (27:28):
Yeah. So Jim, I’ll give you a chance to respond to that and I’m gonna share one other, uh, aspect of, of, uh, one your Eureka moments.
Jim Saponaro (27:37):
No, I, I, I, I, I think your comments are spot on, right? Uh, folks want to be a part of change. They want to be a part of growth and then want to be a part of a, of a company that cares for, ’em not just have a, you know, what D D D job or blue collar job. We don’t think about that. I mean, you know, warehousing and distribution is one of the last BAS that you can start in a forklift truck or picking product, and we’re on that building. We still have people that do that. That’s pretty amazing. We’ll put ’em through college by the way, but we have people in major leadership roles that work their way up from the floor, you know, including our CEO, which is pretty darn cool. And, and, and so when you talk to people about a career, I think it makes a big difference. And then, you know, we kind of, we don’t take the front to three field, but we’ve really become an extension of the man factors, right. We’re, we’re really part of their supply chain in a big way. And we’re, and we’re, we’re busting through, into their planning, you know, into their manufacturing to say, if you let us, you know, be a part of that, then, you know, we can streamline the cost of supply chain and, and really help you. They’re starting to take us up on that.
Scott Luton (28:46):
I love that. Uh, and then one other thing you touched on was it was these long standing partnerships, right? I think you mentioned 30 and 40 years. And I, I think, you know, I bet there’s been some rough days in those 30 or 40 days, but you know what that’s, that’s where the partnership begins, right? When, when, when they bring their problems and you work through it. Right. So, uh, you know, if anything’s taught us, what’s that phrase, you said, you said, Greg, um, you can’t make friends in the middle of a, how do you say it, Greg? Well,
Greg White (29:14):
I think, I think we, we co-opted that from somebody early in the pandemic, it’s too late to make friends now. Right? If you’ve treated your vendors, your suppliers, your business partners, horribly, and, and once crisis hits, it’s too late to make friends. And, um, truthfully those relationships are, as you said, Scott, they’re strengthened through adversity, right? That’s, I’ve seen it over and over, over again.
Scott Luton (29:39):
So Jim
Jim Saponaro (29:41):
Differently, Greg, I always tell my people that a crisis is, is an opportunity to get closer to your customer. Right. And you know, you come in there out in hand, if it’s on your side or, you know, you’re there to help ’em if it’s on their side, but there’s no finger pointing, it’s, it’s get joined at the shoulders and let’s get this thing figured out. Once we get through that crisis, then let’s do the lessons learned and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Right. And, uh, you know, cuz one thing we say in life science and healthcare at DHL is zero defects, right? We’re not interested in KPIs that say 99.8 or whatever they are. We’re interested in zero defects, a hundred percent in the that’s our goal every day. And that starts at the, at, at, you know, at the picker all the way up to me. So I’m, I’m not doing as well as that, but I’m, I’m fine.
Scott Luton (30:31):
Well, so Greg tell you it’s
Greg White (30:33):
A lot saving industry. I mean you have to be precise, right? Yeah.
Jim Saponaro (30:37):
Yeah.
Scott Luton (30:37):
Agreed. Yep. So Jim strikes me as a great individual to work for. So, uh, I’d love to maybe down the road we hear from your team members and I bet there’s some great stories in a book or two to be published in those long, you know, decades, long relationships. We’ll save that for another time too. Um, Jim, I really appreciate you taking time out and spending some, uh, uh, some time with us here at supply chain. Now on this big news, uh, related to coal chain, how can folks connect with you and uh, DHL supply chain in north America to learn more?
Jim Saponaro (31:10):
Yeah. Great. Thanks for asking that question. Scott we’re we’re in the podcast business too. We’ve got DHL, all business, no boundaries. And so if you go to dhl.com/all business, no boundaries, you can check us out and, and, and you can get a lot of information if you just go to dhl.com. So we’re, uh, it’s just
Scott Luton (31:30):
That easy from center. I think
Greg White (31:33):
You should interview us next, Jim turn great.
Jim Saponaro (31:36):
I love to. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Luton (31:39):
Well, Hey, it is such a pleasure. We love the Cleveland talk of the, the Cleveland Browns talk. Uh, I love the, um, I love your view, no finger important and standing shoulder to shoulder and making things happen. And I’ll tell you if, if the last two years taught us anything, we know that we, we we’ve gotta have partners like that. Right. And then, uh, we learn from, you know, we learn from, uh, what takes place. Uh, so we’ll be stronger go around. So Jim, thank you so much for your time here today.
Jim Saponaro (32:09):
Sure. Enjoy talking to you, Scott, and to you, Greg, it’s been a pleasure and hopefully we can, uh, break bread one of these days.
Scott Luton (32:17):
Let’s
Greg White (32:17):
Do it. That
Scott Luton (32:17):
Sounds good, mark. Appreciate it. We’re writing that down. We’re writing that down, Jim. We’re gonna hold you to it. Okay.
Greg White (32:24):
Thanks Jim. All right. Awesome.
Scott Luton (32:25):
All right. We
Jim Saponaro (32:26):
Chat guys. See you,
Scott Luton (32:27):
You bet. Jim SAP Panero, president of life sciences and healthcare at DHL supply chain north America. Big thanks. Uh, Jim for joining us, Greg man. Uh, I think Jim really meant that I think he, he is willing to break bread with me and you and talk football and supply chain, other things, huh?
Greg White (32:48):
Yeah. You meet somebody from the Midwest. Cleveland is a very blue collar city, kinda like Kansas city is, and that’s standing shoulder to shoulder and leaning in. That’s a very real thing. And it it’s often it’s it’s by necessity. I mean, you know, the Midwest and, and a lot of those, um, land grant, state communities went through some tough times and I think it just becomes a part of who you are. And it’s interesting too, uh, that, that it’s a part of, of the DHL culture, uh, as well. I mean, I had the opportunity to work with DHL, uh, with a company in, with their division, one of their divisions, uh, and a retailer in Singapore and around Southeast Asia. And, um, you know, a lot of what they’re talking about, they have been doing for years, making technology, not, not just physical technology and not just inside the four walls of the warehouse or transportation technology, but also the planning technology that Jim talked about.
Greg White (33:47):
We were in conjunction with them offering planning technology to some of the biggest grocery retailers in Singapore and Hong Kong and, and the rest of Southeast Asia. So it’s, uh, impressive how far ahead of the curve they’ve been and how relevant they have remained and how much more they can continue to invest. I mean, you just, at the scale that we know them, not just maybe even some people just from this conversation, you realize that they are way, way ahead of the curve for, uh, compared to many their competitors and to, and to many of the companies that they service. So it’s, it’s an impressive organization as you’d expect from the German post office. Could anyone be more precise than the German post office?
Scott Luton (34:35):
Well, we must, what I’m gathering,
Scott Luton (34:39):
What I’m gathering is it, it, their culture must be few by deeds, not words. Right. Uh, and you’ve got firsthand experience working with them. That’s wonderful. Um, okay. So we’re gonna keep our finger on the pulse of, uh, cold chain, this massive cold chain investment, uh, that’s gonna, uh, fuel, uh, their growth and fuel the ability to serve globally and amongst the head, but big, thanks to Jim and the team over at deed else, supply chain, north America. All right. So Greg, always a pleasure to have these conversations with you. We look forward to the next batch. We’ll have Jim back on soon, maybe we’ll break bread and talk more football. And amongst other things, listeners hopefully enjoyed this episode as much as Greg and I did. Right? A little bit of football, a little bit of supply chain, a little bit of noble mission, little bit of, uh, cold you name it. Um, folks find us Cleveland, lots of Cleveland. That’s right. Uh, make sure you find more, uh, supply chain now, wherever you get your podcast, more conversations, just like this check out DHL’s podcast. That sounds like a good one. I think it was front and center was the name of it. But most importantly, most importantly folks, Hey, take a page outta Jim’s book and challenging you to do good and give forward and to be the changes needed. And with that said, we see next time, right back here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.
Intro/Outro (35:58):
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.
Would you rather watch the show in action?
Featured Guests
Jim Saponaro is the President, Life Sciences & Healthcare DHL Supply Chain North America. Saponaro joined DHL Supply Chain in 2011 and over the last decade, his leadership responsibilities have grown alongside the LSHC sector’s growth. His initial focus on operational performance in North America’s Life Sciences operations has enabled the business to strengthen customer relationships and drive further growth. He is an accomplished Senior Operations and Business Development Executive with a proven record of managing multi-million dollar domestic and international businesses for Fortune 500 and privately held companies. His expertise is in general management, sales, marketing, supply chain economics, logistics, startup/turnaround initiatives, and partnership management. Connect with Jim on LinkedIn.
Hosts
Additional Links & Resources
Check Out Our Sponsors
