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Hey, hey.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be.

Scott Luton and the one and only Kim order with you here on Supply Chain now.

Welcome to today's Livestream.

Kim, how you doing today?

Good morning.

Doing great.

How are you?

Wonderful, wonderful.

I think you had a great weekend.

You were telling us about some of the early fall festivities and getting outside.

It is a gorgeous time to do that here in our neck of the woods this time of year, huh?

It is.

It's beautiful.

The temperature is just perfect during the day, chilly at night.

Got to enjoy it before winter comes.

That's right.

And the yard work's not the same as opposed to early spring when you got a lot of work to do outside.

So.

Not yet.

Not yet.

That's right.

Folks, we have a great show here today.

Of course, you know, it's the Buzz where every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time, we discuss a variety of news and developments across global supply chain, global business and a whole bunch more.

And we got some great stories to get into and this first one may scare some folks.

That's okay.

You all know we're going to approach it the right way to inform you and educate you and entertain you, hopefully.

So we're going to be talking about the impact of the US Elections all around the world.

You know, a lot of times we get focused on what's going on here, but we're going to learn from our guest some of his observations in terms of how the US Elections are impacting far beyond our shores.

We're talking about how organizations are leaning more and more on logistics in this Vuca environment.

And some key takeaways from the latest McKinsey Global Supply Chain leader survey and a whole bunch more.

So, folks, buckle up and get ready.

Kim, we got a jam packed show.

We may need to add a couple more hours today, huh?

We sure might.

Now, I'm sure you got a full Monday, so we're going to finish on time.

But folks, beyond all that, as I mentioned, we have a wonderful guest joining us in just a few minutes as we're gonna be joined by Dave Food with Prophetic technology.

So stay tuned.

All right, so two quick things before we get going.

You know, we got to issue a challenge on the front end.

First off, much Like Tricia does here.

Hey, share your comments in the chat.

We'd love to hear from you.

We'd love to get your thoughts on the stories and topics we're going to be sharing here today.

And as Trisha says, happy Buzz day for sure.

And secondly, folks, if you enjoy the show, we'd love for you to share it with a friend and or your network.

They'll be glad you did.

All right, so Kim, we've got about four things to tackle before we bring on the day food, so stay tuned.

And the first one, I want to bring up this graphic.

So we dropped with that said over the weekend.

Kim, do you have any idea what edition number that this edition was of what that said?

Just take a guess.

Ooh, I don't know.

Was it the 100?

That was a great guess, Kim.

It was 99.

Yay.

You know, and as I'd like to say, Kim, oftentimes no one cares about episode numbers or podcast numbers except those that create them.

So I think of every of those additions, all this stuff we poured into it.

But yeah, episode 100 next weekend.

But for this one, episode 99, it was powered by our friends at Vector Global Logistics.

Now, you see that tagline, comfort food.

Can we recognize International Chef Day, which was yesterday?

We touched on a number of stories at the intersection of food and global supply chain.

Hey, folks, did you know the global food market is over $9 trillion in size and it's growing almost 7% annually.

Now, we included an interesting article from the World Economic Forum on just how we can make the food supply chain a whole bunch more sustainable.

And did you know one of the problems?

Well, knowledge gaps between all the different tiers and entities across the food ecosystem.

But, you know, that's probably the driver of a lot of problems that yields our global supply chain, global business, for that matter, far beyond sustainability.

We also included one story of a chef in LA that's transforming seafood supply chain.

I'm gonna get Kim to comment on that in just a second.

But as usual, we included news, views, events, resources, tools, you name it.

Now, Kim, Seafood supply chain, you've worked extensively in this area.

Any observations, thoughts?

You name it.

So, you know, sadly a lot of people don't know this, but a large majority of the seafood we consume in the United States is actually imported.

Especially if you're buying bulk seafood from your bulk food.

Costco's, BJ's, Sam's Club, Walmart, Target foods.

Any sort of like frozen bulk seafood likely is coming from another location.

So always check and make sure that you're buying US seafood.

Try to buy from your local providers if you can.

It's always important to try to work with your local fishermen, your fishmongers, your seafood distributors to try to get local seafood if you can.

But you know, an interesting, I work a lot in the oyster business and interesting little story about the oysters.

The oyster used to be a poor man's food, believe it or not, and it was actually distributed for the military.

The military got tons of oysters.

It was prison food.

It was the most abundant food that was available.

And today an oyster at a restaurant, restaurant will cost you upwards of $6 on the half shop.

So it's amazing how this lowly little oyster that went from commodity food basically for anyone and everyone has now become a luxury item.

I love that background.

I gotta get into the oyster business, Kim's prices.

But folks, reach out to Kim, that seafood supply chain.

We hope to have a player in that industry join Kim on a future episode.

So stay tuned for that.

But if that interests you, reach out to Kim.

She's got a lot more stories.

I think it's fascinating the intersection of supply chain with any, anything that affects, you know, everyone else.

Healthcare, food, everything.

That's right.

All right, so folks, we dropped the link to with that said right there.

Jam packed.

It's almost weekly newsletter.

We give ourselves a little wiggle room.

But check it out, let us know what you think.

Okay, let's see where we going next.

Oh, resources, resources, resources.

This is a big one, Kim.

This is a big one.

So folks, it is if you don't know, you're in trouble.

But as most y'all should know, it's still Cybersecurity Awareness Month every October.

But we all know every month is Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Now folks, we had an outstanding webinar session a couple weeks ago and it featured Ara Arslanian from Omnia Partners and this gentleman, Bill Harden from Charles River Associates.

Now, Kim, as I'll share in pre show, Bill, you know, AR has been with us on a variety of shows.

This is Bill's first time with us.

Bill has been a part of thousands of like ransomware negotiations and all other sorts of cybersecurity incidents and recovery plans.

And he knocked our socks off.

We focused on several critical cyber risks that every organization faces, from ransomware to data extortion, insider threats, dark web negotiations, and a whole bunch more.

And folks, it's available on demand, so check that out and I promise you, you will be shocked at some of the expertise that he shares on also a really important note, if you're looking for ways to help support Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton recovery operations, we invite you to check out our friends at the American Logistics Aid Network.

This is a proven vetted nonprofit.

It's doing big things, has for years to help folks in need.

You can learn more@allenaid.org Kim, I know you're up in Virginia kind of above where a lot of that worst of it all was.

But any friends and family really impacted with the hurricanes?

Fortunately, we have not had a lot of impact.

I haven't had any of my people have not been impacted, have been working with other organizations, try to get support down there and help out as much as can, you know, know Virginia, we don't talk a lot about Virginia was also impacted.

We talk a lot about North Carolina, but the southern western parts of Virginia were also impacted.

So I'm trying to do as much as I can from a computer.

Well, I appreciate that.

And that's right.

I'll tell you, the swath of destruction is so much bigger than what a lot of folks believe.

And you know, the sad thing is the news cycles, you know, even though there's a massive need, massive reconstruction, we've already moved on to the next story.

So folks, we're dropping the link.

There's lots of great vetted nonprofits out there that can help.

But we happen to know the folks at Allen really well.

So check it out.

Kathy Fulton and gang do great, great work and every dollar is spent very, very wisely.

Okay, let's see here.

On a much, much lighter note, Kim, before we bring on our guests here today.

Today, folks, is Back to the Future Day.

That's right, the movie, Marty McFly, the whole game.

That's because October 21st is the date that Marty McFly originally traveled back to in the original film, which was released in 1985.

So I've got two questions for Kim.

First off, I think this is a real DeLorean that's been mocked up a bit.

So and as Dave mentioned, pre show, of course, the DeLoreans back in the 70s and 80s were made right there in Northern Ireland is a fascinating story.

Lots of documentaries on that.

Two questions for you, Kim.

First off, when it comes to supply chain leadership, what is one thing that is just as relevant today as it was in the 1980s?

You know what I'm going to say?

Data.

Yeah.

So back in the day, because I've been in this industry a while, we used to not be able to get data.

Right.

So it Was very hard to get even like ETAs of ships was a job.

Right.

Because somebody had to call every day to make sure where the ship was, what your eta, blah, blah, blah.

So data has always been key in supply chain as it is in a lot of things.

But the biggest change for us today is that data is so much easier for us to get and we have so much more access to real time data.

But yeah, we were running supply chains on data back then.

We're running supply chains on data now.

Love it.

Excellent call out.

I would add communication.

Yes, right.

Kind of similarly.

But the interesting about communication, despite how the world is closer, the galaxy is closer.

But I think it's more challenging to communicate now than it was then because of how fractured we get all the various aspects of the message.

So data and communication.

We'll see what Dave says when he joins.

One more quick shout out Kim, for asking a fun question.

Hey mom.

Leah Luton has tuned in.

It's friends and family edition of the Buzz tuned in from Aiken, South Carolina time of year.

Great to see you.

And folks, I'm opposed this question to all of y'all and I'm positive to Kim first, Kim, when you think about the cool 80s, I am definitely a child of the 80s and I think about all the different devices.

Look at this, look at those old TVs, the rotary phone.

And Aiken, when we wanted to find out the exact time we had to call it in on the phone.

That's right.

That's strange, isn't it?

So VHS tapes, all the cassette tapes, the boomboxes, you name it.

What is one thing out of all of that Kim that you miss about the 80s?

Well, the one thing I miss the most about 80s was not in that picture.

But I will say it.

I miss frizzy hair.

I miss that.

If you have frizzy hair, you were it.

And the frizzier the better.

And now you know, we don't, we can't do that anymore.

So that was my biggest miss from the 80s.

But I think the other thing I do miss sitting there at my boombox with the play and record button waiting for that song to come on.

That's right.

Was just running his mouth and you're like, come on, you better not cut off the getting.

Oh, Casey, case that anxiety.

I was.

Yes, that's right.

Because you know the tape was 20 bucks in the store, which is a lot more money back then.

That's a great call out.

I'm going to add, of course I somewhat miss parachute pants Members only.

Jackets and stuff like that, Trapper Keepers, all that stuff.

But on a more serious note, and especially as a father of three now, I miss being able.

Once folks left school or left the office, that weekend was yours.

There's no way for folks to reach via social or cell phone or whatever.

And that is long gone.

Long gone.

All right.

Square says it's 10pm do you know where your children are?

Definitely.

But some from the 80s.

Good stuff there.

Okay, so Kim, we got a lot of really good stuff to get into here today.

I look forward to hearing your perspective and your expertise.

But I also am looking forward to hearing from our special guest.

I want to welcome in Dave, food strategy director with Prophetic technology.

Hey.

Hey, Dave.

How you doing today?

I'm doing well, thanks, Scott.

From this side of the pond, that is right.

So nice to see you, Kim And Dave enjoyed the pre show conversation as we were comparing, making a few notes.

But we got a great show here today.

But Dave, we're going to start maybe on the easiest of questions.

The easiest of questions.

I was just asking Kim and everyone else here, what do you miss about the 80s?

What's one thing that you miss about the 80s, Dave?

I think the fact that we all watched the same TV program the night before.

So you go to work or school or college and you'd have a conversation about.

About who watched what last night.

None of that happens anymore.

No.

Who shot Junior?

Right, who shot Junior.

There you go.

All that stuff.

By the way, the opening theme song for Dallas and really theme songs in general, The A team, MacGyver, of course, Dallas, the Dukes of Hazzard, that some of the best theme songs of all time.

All the 80s.

Okay, Kim and Dave, we got a lot to get into.

We're going to start.

If y'all ever heard the phrase eat your frogs first meaning tackle the biggest, heaviest duty chores up front.

Well, that's what we're doing here today.

And I want to start with this topic of the elections, but not in the sense of our traditional approach, which is let's see what's going on here in the States.

So Dave, as he mentioned across the pond, he's based in that what I'll call the Greater London area.

And Dave, when we got together a few weeks back and we started playing your appearance here today, I was struck by your thoughts about how the rest of the world is impacted by the election coming up in November, just a couple weeks away in the States.

And we all know that at least I'll speak for myself.

You know, Americans and Certainly myself, we can tend to get a little focused on what the impact is here.

So I think you've got four observations in terms of how you see this election impacting the rest of the world.

Let's tackle the first two here.

Dave, your thoughts?

Okay, so the first one would really be, and remember, I'm talking my politics from the BBC point of view of the world.

So.

But when we think about major manufacturers in Europe and potentially in Asia, we're looking at saying, well, where are you getting your components, your subcomponents, your materials from?

Because if something's coming from the States, maybe you need to look at alternative source.

And so there's quite a bit of consideration.

Automotive would be a good example where the automotive, European automotive suppliers are relooking at the Far east as an alternative supply just because of concerns about protectionism, possibly from Donald Trump if he gets in.

And I'm not making any assumptions either way at the moment.

I'm just looking at the tea leaves, as it were, and trying to interpret how people are responding to this.

So one of the ways they're responding is to say, okay, let's review our supply just in the same way as they reviewed the supply of bringing materials in from Asia because of challenges around Houthis and the Red Sea issue that happened earlier on in the year and last year.

Right.

Well, so, Kim, that supplier diversification, we're looking at alternatives and contingencies as the whole world, not just the States, but as the whole world gains more certainty in.

I hope it's a couple weeks, I hope it's not a couple months.

Goodness gracious.

But Kim, your thoughts on Dave's first point there.

So a really interesting perspective.

So like we said, we never talk about this.

Right.

So all of our conversations have been around like, how is this impacting importers?

How is this impacting importers?

How is this impacting importers and how will it drive up the cost of goods in the United States?

But here's the thing about trade, and I don't think any politician really understands it, regardless of what color they are.

Trade is that there are two people in trade and you have something I want and you have something I want and we trade it.

When you make this thing more expensive, I maybe don't want it anymore.

So as we're talking about now, we are exporters are losing business, are at the risk of losing business in the United States.

It doesn't just impact the import.

The United States exports a lot of food ourselves.

Grain, pork are some of our biggest Exports.

Every time we upset one of our trade partners, they stop buying products from us.

So it's excellent that we're looking at the other side of what's happening here.

Well said, Kim.

Well said.

And all the repricing that has to go on as each new tariff schedule comes out, that's a ton of work for our supply chain teams, really, around the world.

So, Dave, I think your second point on inventory.

Any additional thoughts there, Dave?

Well, yeah, from an inventory point of view, particularly where we talk about raw materials, the pharmaceutical industry is really concerned some of the active ingredients that come out of North America into the European supply chain.

They're saying, okay, we do not know what will happen in the short term.

We don't know how quickly some protectionism might kick in, some tariffs, some new policies maybe.

And so there's been a review saying, okay, let's look at our stocking policies both inbound and outbound about active ingredients into North America, but also out of North America into the European supply chain.

That's certainly driving some additional costs to the pharmaceutical industry as an example.

Well said.

You know, I think when we talk about tariffs and protectionism, that's probably more closely associated with former President Trump.

Right.

However, I would argue that a lot of the bluster we're hearing from him today as he talks about what he plans on doing, I would argue that is a big part of his negotiating ploy.

I don't see all of that if he were to be elected, I don't see all of that coming to a fruition 100%.

I think that's part of his approach at using that in a practical way at the negotiating table.

I could be wrong.

I could be wrong.

Any reaction there, Kim or Dave, on that?

Well, the one thing I would jump in is we got to think about the response.

When anybody says, mine's bigger than yours, then people at least go, well, I'm going to come back with something else to challenge you with.

So it just creates provocation rather than collaboration.

And one of the things is the end to end supply chain we talk about in the world is globalized and collaboration is key.

You talked about data earlier on, Kim.

Data is the oil that's making it all working.

As soon as we start barriers in place, costs will go up.

Yeah, excellent point.

Collaboration certainly is what fuels global supply chain.

Right.

And so many different levels.

All right, Kim, you want to respond as well?

Yeah.

So when we talk about inventory, that that was the kind of topic, if we are, where there's two sides of this so one we're seeing, importers are starting to hoard inventory.

Right.

They're starting to say, I'm not sure what's going to happen in January, February.

Okay.

So the other thing just to back up look at, Nothing's happening November.

Right.

So I had to have this conversation a little.

Yeah, we got a couple months.

Okay.

So we're.

We're going to be able to prepare.

It does not go into effect in November, so we've got maybe until February.

So people are starting to board inventory.

I want.

Let's get it in before this happens.

And a lot of times we focus on just consumer inventory.

Right.

But raw materials, like Dave said.

So aluminum, steel, things that we need, parts, fasteners, things that we need here to manufacture here that we don't produce ourselves.

So, yeah, again, we're starting to see the impacts.

And when you start hoarding inventory, we drive up freight rates needlessly.

Right.

Warehousing cost goes up, transportation cost goes up.

Now we have inventory sitting inventory.

It's a trickle effect.

It goes all the way down, Right?

Yes.

You made me think, Kim, two hours.

Number one, the extensive ripple effect directly, indirectly, sometimes you don't even realize it because of the nuances and complexity of global supply chains and global business.

You don't realize what the butterfly effect is until several months later.

And then you got a plan to get around it.

And then secondly is reciprocity.

And you and Dave may have both have touched on this, but, you know, I was reading no matter what candidate gets in, right.

Both have been talking about new trade policies.

And David, you're going to talk about policies a minute, but, you know, other countries will definitely reciprocate.

China, already, I was reading the other day, is studying automotive tariffs, you know, because a lot of American and other companies love to sell automobiles in that massive Chinese market.

Well, there will definitely be some reciprocal actions based on what happens here.

All right, so, Dave, we were talking about diversification, suppliers and inventory on your kind of your first two observations.

Let's talk about logistics and policy on your next two.

Yeah, so from a logistical point of view, we've been a lot of challenges around ports over the last six, nine months, but just the whole logistics of cost of transportation moving more towards an E supply chain and more electronic vehicles.

One of the concerns here is just to say, okay, we want to move stuff less.

And when we look at the policies that are different here, you see Kamala Harris, from that point of view, having elements that are much more collaborative and driving, maybe a better approach towards sustainability.

And so this not just logistics as in the physical transportation piece, East Coast, west coast, but also thinking about port capability, you think about challenges around the Panama Canal.

Right.

That certainly influenced, you know, how material gets into North America and gets out.

And the trade balance is something I can't ignore.

I'll tie this into the kind of policy point of view as we're seeing India come up as a powerhouse.

From a manufacturing point of view, you know, the trade balance is changing.

And so there are empty vehicles and empty containers traveling back to China because they're not so much leaving China as used to be.

So there's some real balance and trade issues that will be impacted by policy.

And some of those policies will be driven by things.

I haven't talked about sustainability.

I'm parking that because I assume that's the same whichever, whether we're red or blue here.

But the policy that I would really like to encourage and think about is just saying, where is the center of the world?

We're not talking baseball here.

This is not World Series baseball.

It's.

There's global trade going on here.

How can we look after our planet with some better policies?

That means countries collaborate together rather than become isolationist.

Excellent point, Dave.

We gotta find more the purple common ground here in the States, globally as well.

And then secondly, just touched on sustainability really quick.

This would be a six hour conversation.

And Kim, I'm coming to you next, but you know, I would think perhaps that if the former President Trump does win the White House, one of the biggest differences that we may see is regulation as it relates to sustainability.

So we'll see how all that plays out.

Kim, your thoughts?

He talked about logistics, of course, the trade imbalance and policies again, finding that common ground so we can solve more of the challenges facing industry today.

Your thoughts, Kim?

Yeah.

Collaboration, the global supply chain.

The world is flat.

Like I keep coming back to that saying because it applies.

And logistics.

No one person owns everything almost in no big company, right?

Maybe if you're a niche manufacturing, you have your own sheep and you make your own wool and you make your own sweaters like you own your own supply chain.

But it is very rare to find a Fortune 500 that owns their entire supply chain that is not relying on another country, another manufacturer, another source for something.

So every time we twist the dial here, it changes something over here.

And that's what we keep forgetting about trade.

And if I'm going to increase, you know, one of the simplest examples, as we had this years ago, you know, was Harley Davidson.

Right.

We saved Harley Davidson with tariffs.

Harley Davidson was getting killed by Kawasaki.

They were getting killed by all the foreign motorcycle manufacturers.

And Harley Davidson was headed towards the skids.

And the Reagan administration stop that.

Because they put tariffs on the imported motorcycles.

So that is a really quick example of how we have used the power of tariffs to drive industry.

Right.

Because we saved an industry by doing that.

Hey, don't forget the Marlboro Man.

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, I think as a movie from the 80s, if I'm not mistaken.

But a serious point, I think it's important.

Look, we've got the smartest audience in all of global supply chain.

So when I say this, I'm not surprised.

Anybody but Dave and Kim, the.

Via protectionism, via tariffs.

When you look at the trade imbalances and you look at the potential for the US to have a manufacturing renaissance, we still have certain constraints because of how far the genie has gotten out of the bottle.

I mean, even our US Military relies on lots and lots of components from overseas.

So that is always an interesting.

You know, there's not a person in any country probably that doesn't want a strong manufacturing market in their own country because of how that's tied so much to economic well being and jobs and good jobs.

But each country also faces a variety of different constraints that's been long term, but also due to the newer dynamics, due to the shifting sands over the last couple decades.

Few decades, Four or five decades.

Okay, Dave, last point.

I appreciate you bringing this topic to us.

I find it challenging to talk about elections these days, especially, you know, live in front of whoever wants to tune in because there's just so much vitriol.

You know, I was talking to someone overseas last Friday and they're visiting the states here in the next few weeks, actually next week.

And they were worried about getting stuck here due to violence and other things.

And that just reminded me just how far we have come as a society or as Americans.

I don't know.

But that can't be the case.

That cannot be the case, Dave.

I'll get a final word from both of y'all.

Dave, you first.

Yeah.

I think one of the challenges here is that we don't get into a deeper conversation.

Right.

We are so polarized by algorithms and by social media and by the headlines that we don't get beyond the headlines.

And actually there's a much more nuanced, much more important conversation to be had around how do we make our supply chains work better?

We've got so Much more that we can learn and do to help to drive business and the economies of our countries around the world, to help countries that are struggling because there's still plenty of challenges in the world that we're still nowhere near sorting out.

That's right.

Good stuff, Dave, Kim, your final word.

I'm going to point to our recent strike that we had on the east Coast.

Right.

And the major point of that strike was advancement of technology and the resistance to that and not wanting to automate the ports, not wanting to reduce human jobs.

And we can't do that.

We are falling behind in our poor technologies in the United States.

Canada is working better than we are.

Mexico is catching up very quickly.

We cannot continue to resist evolution in supply chain.

And the more and more we do that, the more and more we stick by that and say, no, we gotta keep doing it the way we do it, the more and more we are going to continue to fall behind.

Well said, Ken.

We gotta say that louder.

Sing it, sister.

As you said last week on the webinar, we are losing ground and we can't allow our political differences to empower us to lose ground faster.

Right.

It's a global economy and it will always be a global economy.

And we've got to really be more practical, I think here in the States as we approach these massive challenges.

Okay, Dave and Kim, good stuff.

I really appreciate both of Yalls approach there.

I want to add in Korah's comment here.

So Korah, first off, congratulations on your new advisory firm.

Awesome.

Korah says.

Well, economically if we let it play out, research says tariffs hurt economies if used as leverage in driving negotiations to level set competition and state interjection into the economy.

It opens negotiations for a determined period.

It's not either or as politics want to portray it as always is the case.

Korai.

It's never exactly like politicians say that it is, unfortunately.

All right, we gotta move on.

And we should probably add, and I bet Dave and Kim agree with me, here is no matter your take, no matter your passions and positions, get out and vote folks.

Get out and vote.

Okay, exercise that.

Right.

Moving right along to maybe a less exciting topic.

I don't know, we're going to be talking about logistics here.

I thought this is a pretty neat article from our friends@pymnts.com it's probably payments.com but just in case.

All right, so get this.

I'm going to kind of offer some highlights and then I'm looking forward to getting Dave and Kim's take.

So this article focuses on the growing pressure on logistics given everything else that's been taking place across this VUCA world.

One of my favorite acronyms volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

So a couple highlights here.

First, starting with Alphabet's on demand drone delivery service, which is called wing, just announced a couple weeks ago that it was partnering with Serve Robotics to expand autonomous last mile food delivery.

Get my chicken wings and give them to me today.

Give them to me right now for lunch.

It's going to be multimodal, which is going to include some robot to drone deliveries.

Some say that the move simply illustrates how firms are looking hard for a better way to meet continually rising consumer expectations.

The big omnichannel shift, fueled of course by direct customer shipping amongst other things in the last decade or so has transformed logistics providers management responsibilities.

Not just large scale ocean freight and the like, but last mile delivery, reverse logistics and returns and a whole bunch more, while being expected to provide real time visibility across the entire lifetime of the process.

Where's my stuff?

I want to know ten times a day.

All of this has certainly created a heightened need for carrier diversification because most organizations can't rely on just a couple of logistics providers anymore.

This creates other challenges.

Kim and Dave, get this.

We'll be releasing this 2024 transportation management technology report in a couple weeks, but our research there shows that 39% of survey participants said it takes a month or longer to onboard new carriers.

A month or more.

So get ready folks.

Again, we're going to drop this in a couple of weeks.

You're going to find some other perhaps surprising nuggets of information as we partner with Rate Links on this market research initiative.

One last thought and I'm going to get Kim and Dave to weigh in here.

This surprise no.

1.

It's not overnight breaking news, but big players like Walmart and Maersk, which the article points to, are investing big time into various technology integration initiatives to be able to fight more effectively for market share, amongst other things.

So Kim, when I was reading this article I thought it was right up your alley.

Organizations turn to you for E commerce, supply chain leadership, all that more.

Kim, what do you think here?

So what I say today is the last mile is now an origin problem because it is.

We have to start thinking about last mile delivery when we are picking up stuff at origin now from the manufacturer, whether they be China, Europe, Southeast Asia, wherever that is.

And we have dramatically changed supply chain.

E Commerce has permanently changed supply chain.

It is the biggest innovation since containerization and it has completely blown apart how we Think about everything in supply chain.

So we talk about a lot of the keys to being successful in that E commerce supply chain.

We touched on them today with Dave.

You know, diversification, manage your inventory, data, data, data.

But the whole world is completely different.

And the last mile experience continues to evolve daily.

It's fascinating.

I love your comparison to E commerce, to containerization.

Malcolm McLean somewhere is smiling down at us.

What's the next containerization?

That'd be interesting.

Yeah, I mean, it was the tipping point for trade.

Yeah.

All right, so Dave, thanks for that, Kim.

Dave, your thoughts on this?

Great read from our friends at Pymnts.

Yeah, I think one of the big issues is interoperability.

I know it's a long word, but just the fact that we're still sourcing elements from far away and it's delivered in full containers and then break bulk, but it's the same product all the way through.

But here's the thing.

The systems that are moving it, whether it be drones, whether it be automated AI and decisions that are being made, the connectivity between these systems is still one of the biggest challenges.

Yes, it's funny, me and Kim both said hallelujah at the same time because interoperability, it is a tough word to say, but it's only going to get more critical, especially just from getting stuff done.

Perspective is tough.

But then you think of the bad actors that look at those connections points and that's their entryway to doing lots of damage and getting paid, unfortunately.

All right, Kim, I'll give you a quick comment here because you said yes at the same time I did.

Your thoughts here on Dave's comments.

I agree with what he's saying and that and how things are evolving.

I think the biggest thing that I was reacting to was that, you know, Walmart and Maersk are jumping into this space.

They are directly trying to take on Amazon.

I think that we're going to see Amazon ships here soon.

I don't know exactly when, but everybody is trying to get into this omnichannel space and control as much of it as they can from end to end.

Yep, good stuff there.

And folks, don't take our word for it.

We're dropping a link to the article right here in the chat and we welcome your comments throughout today's very live session.

Speaking of Amazon boats, politics aside, folks, Politics aside, but SpaceX and that launching pad catching that rocket, did y'all see the footage of that?

I did.

What an age we live in.

It is amazing.

Okay, let's see.

Hey, Greg, great to have you back.

It's been a long time, my friend.

Speaking of Harley Davidson, Greg is in Milwaukee, I think still Greg says with regards to the port strike workers just show everyone has to be mobile to change and be ready for change.

Excellent point.

And yes, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, home still, I think to Harley Davidson.

Good stuff there.

All right, so we're going to move right along and we're going to talk.

This is a, I like this headline.

So we're going to be Talking about the McKinsey, the latest McKinsey global supply chain Leader survey.

Now check out this article here.

Supply chains still vulnerable.

Water's still wet, snow is still cold, and you still can't run with scissors either.

And Christmas is coming.

Christmas is coming.

That's right.

All the holidays.

All right.

So folks, I'm going to unpack a few key takeaways and get Dave and Kim to respond and react.

So 88 leaders completed this in depth survey back between April and June 2024.

And a little sidebar, if you have forgotten how tough it is to get folks to fill out surveys, that's a feat to get 88 C suite leaders to fill out.

Yeah, more than a couple questions.

So get this, almost half the respondents were in consumer retail or life sciences.

That's almost 50%.

And a couple of key findings that I thought were interesting, unsurprising in many cases, surprising in others.

So 60% of respondents said they had comprehensive visibility of their tier one suppliers.

For the second year in a row, that figure jumped by 10% versus the previous year.

However, that gain has arguably come at the cost of losing visibility into the deeper tiers, which decreased for several years now in a row.

Still, that 60% seems a bit low.

But anyway, less companies are relying on carrying tons of inventory to overcome disruptions.

Only 34% are still doing that.

That's down from 59% in 2023, which was still lingering around because of the pandemic just in case approach that many companies took investment in supply chain digitization, I can never say that word is starting to level off after big time growth between 2020 and 2023.

And that's largely the case.

Also with dual sourcing, regionalization, nearshoring, which might surprise some folks and other some folks may call supply chain resilience plays, two big concerns emerged.

One won't surprise you.

The second one may surprise you.

One is talent.

90% of those polled showed big, especially technological talent, concerns about their ability based on the workforce they have, their ability to meet digitization needs.

And then the Second 1 Only 30% of respondents said their leadership boards have a deep understanding of supply chain risks.

Now that surprised me a bit, especially what we've been through in the last five years.

But Dave, enough about my thoughts here.

What were your thoughts based on the findings of this McKinsey survey?

Well, I'll start with our second point first, executives understanding supply chain risk.

I'd even shorten that question and say executives understanding supply chain because there's plenty who are just doing their role and getting on and say, well, that's the supply chain job.

But a couple of points I would make is I think firstly that risk is something that changes over time and you typically have contingency plans in place to protect against it.

And those contingency plans should work at some point in time, whether it's insurance, whether it's a zero hours contract, whether it's safety stock, those things should work and be being used.

And then the other element that I would then also talk about is just how do you model risk?

How do we talk about risk?

It's a big challenge.

I think we need to increase our vocabulary both internally within the business, but also extended within the supply chain to talk about uncertainty and how we plan to manage it.

I love that those conversations got to change and we got to bring more voices into them to first understand right before we start figuring out what to do about it.

Excellent stuff there, Dave.

Kim, your thoughts?

So, you know, this is one of my soapboxes, executive leadership and supply chain.

Because there is not enough even like the CSO sometimes doesn't even want to be in a supply chain meeting our coo, right?

They're like, somebody else will deal with supply chain.

But and I am also seeing it.

I work in the supply chain space.

I advise in the supply chain space.

I keynote on the supply chain space.

And I am already seeing it like I started seeing it last year.

The executives starting to lean back.

Oh, supply chain is fine, everything's flowing, we're good, we don't need to worry.

Well, three or four months ago when we started to see the freight rate hikes again, started to see roll bookings again, all of a sudden the supply chain leaders are back or the executive suites back, going, hey, what's going on with supply chain?

Supply chain is an ongoing problem.

It's an ongoing challenge.

It just doesn't happen during the holidays.

It just doesn't happen during a pandemic.

This seems to be the only time we ever really pay attention to it.

But yes, we are seeing advisory boards, boards of directors, executive Suite just kind of like giving an eh to the supply chain.

And they're not investing, they're not buying software, they're not trying to digitize, they're not trying to modernize again.

During the pandemic, everybody panicked.

Everyone knew about supply chain.

My mom knew about supply chain and your mom knew about supply chain.

People were talking about supply chain in the grocery store.

Before that, nobody knew.

Right.

So now the rates leveled out.

Earlier this year, lots of supply.

Everybody was happy.

And then around June, July, we started to feel it again.

So it's never going to stop.

It's an ongoing illness.

We must manage it consistently, completely with.

What you said there, you know, reminds me a couple thoughts.

Dave and Kim, I was just talking about how Sandra McQuelin, who we lost way too soon, shared with us one of our last appearances.

Don't let any leadership call supply chain a cost bucket.

That's right, because it's old fashioned.

We can't do that.

And that's when I'm hearing you describe some of that Kim is, I'm hearing that old stayed incorrect mindset.

And then I think the second thing is that man is fixed.

You know, folks, if that's the bucket you're in, ignore supply chain and supply chain risk at your own peril.

It should be an ongoing dialogue.

And again, I think today going back to what Dave said, the conversations got to change, but also they got to keep being had.

Right.

With emphasis and investment and discipline and priority.

Okay, Dave and Kim, a lot of good stuff there, folks.

Check out.

We're just skimming the surface as y'all might expect.

This was, there was a lot of moving pieces here, but you can check out the McKinsey Global Supply Chain Leadership Survey via that link and let us know what you think.

As Greg says, Greg's on fire here.

Top management has got to be on board for all changes, be it mother nature, political and everything in between.

Excellent point there, Greg.

Okay, we've got time for one more.

I've got a little curveball here, Dave and Kim, but I look forward to getting both of yalls take here.

Okay, I grabbed this picture and I'm going to share it anyway.

Although you ever think about, you know, when you see a picture on your phone, it's just small, especially if yourself is in it.

And then every so often and you blow yourself up like this, goodness gracious, I ruined the shot here.

But this is, this is me out in Phoenix last week.

Now I got a little story I want to share with both y'all and get your take.

So when I landed, I was starving, but I didn't want to go to a chain place.

I wanted to find something local, right?

So I found Ms.

White's golden rule Cafe.

Now, folks, the food was as delicious as this story, and vice versa.

I had a chicken fried steak and green beans and cornbread, and it was right up Mali.

Amanda made fun of me a little bit because I went to Arizona and had Southern food.

But that's okay.

That's okay.

So get this.

Ms.

Elizabeth J.

White was a single mother of four that moved from Texas to Phoenix back in 1964, and she opened her now iconic restaurant where they specialize in all sorts of delicious Southern food.

Now, she just turned.

Ms.

White just turned 100 years old, I think, last year, right?

And her family's still involved, making it happen.

It was awesome.

Now, as I was looking around, as I was enjoying my food, I was checking out the walls.

They had a lot of articles and all this stuff.

And then my eyes hit the Golden Rule, which sat there right in the middle of the restaurant.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

Now, just my take here, Kim and Dave.

I submit to you that the Golden Rule is as relevant as it has ever been.

Right?

And from my experience, having been in on the supply chain teams, those manufacturing teams, on the good days and the bad days, I have found that the best organizations and leaders that I've ever been around, I've ever worked for, I've ever supplied, have ever supplied me, you name it, they lead with this mindset.

And I think we have a tremendous opportunity, especially in this day and age of vitriolic conversations, and we're so partisan, and it's like we've forgotten our ability to disagree.

But in a practical and respectful way, we got to gain some of that back.

I'm not here to speak for all Americans, but I think we've got a big opportunity across the States, but I would say we've got a big opportunity globally.

And a lot of that begins, in my view, with the Golden Rule.

So, didn't mean to get all on the soapbox and all today, but this experience really lingered and had some ripple effects.

So, Dave, your thoughts on the Golden Rule and its relevance here today?

I think it's often worth paying attention to how the CEO or the chief exec, when they come into the company, greets the receptionist.

I think it's always an interesting test as to do they know their first name.

I love the story that talks about a CEO who's talking to the janitor, who he seed on the following day after the Christmas party saying, did you enjoy the party yesterday?

And the janitor said, what party?

And the CEO realized he hadn't even been invited.

He changed everything after that.

But I just think it's not just about the way you treat people.

It's also structurally the way you relate to one another.

What you talk about giving time to people, I think those are some of the real drivers that we need to pay attention to.

We're often far too busy to have the conversations that matter.

Excellent point.

Dave and I would also argue along those lines.

Modern technology going back, Ken, we're talking about communication.

How it's changed so much since the 80s.

We've been trained to respond right away.

That's usually especially in a problematic scenario or a challenging scenario.

That's probably one of the worst things you could do, right?

Instead of calling time out and thinking through your response.

But Kim, the Golden Rule, your thoughts, especially as it relates to leadership out there.

Big, big supporter of the Golden Rule.

I use it a lot.

And I think in leadership, where we see this showing up is, you know, leaders have a tendency to forget about what's going on outside of their meetings and their executive function.

A good friend of mine on LinkedIn recently made a post about this, Thorsten Rung, and he talked about walking the floor.

And as a leader, getting out and walking the floor, whether or not that be your engineering floor, your shop floor, your warehouse floor, whatever it is, but staying connected to the thing that we manage.

And what happens as leaders is we get disconnected from the thing that we manage, right?

The thing that we're involved with, the thing that we're responsible for.

Because we get so focused on strategic vision and executive function and all this over here, we get disconnected from the person who's doing the work.

And that is where the magic happens, right?

Is where the work is done.

And so that as leaders and that do unto you, as you and done unto me is part of that, right?

Do I want to be ignored on the shop floor?

If I have great ideas to make a business better, do I have a venue to tell people about that?

Provide that, because these are the guys who are doing it every single day.

You, as a leader are sitting in meetings, spinning coffees, going to lunches and happy hours.

So you need to walk the floor.

Okay, yes.

Thousand percent, Thousand percent.

That is a golden connection that leaders have with the folks on the floor where they're creating the value in any organization.

And it's one that we can Never ever take for granted.

And by not getting out there like you're suggesting.

I would suggest that we're taking it for granted.

We don't go out and have the conversations and find out what's going on not just at work but in their life.

Right.

There's a book that I could recommend in this space.

I don't know whether you guys already by Stephen B.

Semple out of so Cal.

Contrarian's Guide to Leadership.

It's fantastic book challenges a lot of thinking in this space.

Contrarian's Guide to Leadership.

We're going to look that up.

Maybe Amanda and Tricia can drop the link.

I appreciate that suggestion.

I'm going to add it.

I'm going to read it and then add it to my bookshelf.

I'm gonna read it hopefully covered up cover.

That can be challenging these days.

My goldfish attention span.

Dave and Kim, I've got one more question for you both but I want to add in a couple of quick comments here.

T squared says more voices and talent or sorely needed.

Completely agree T squared.

We've got to take a very inclusive approach to talking about good days and bad days and also massive opportunities.

And Alan says great.

See Alan, being a manufacturing guy, I would never do to sales organizations as they have done to me over the years.

Sales and ops, that's biblical.

That fight like that goes back to like Roman times.

There is like that will never be resolved ever.

No.

It's like the Coyote and the Road Runner, right?

Yes.

Wild E.

Coyote and the Red Runner and oh, ask and you shall receive.

Hey Dave, we got the Contrarians guide, the leadership link right there.

Y'all can check it out.

It's got Dave's recommendation and that's high praise.

So y'all check that out.

Okay.

One last question as we wrap here.

What a great addition of the buzz.

I was excited about this.

I was a bit as I was honest.

I'll keep it real.

Any election and political talk.

That's one of the few things that gets me nervous and hurry because of just how much heat and unfortunately that brings into rooms and conversations when folks have those chats.

But I really apprec Dave and Kim Yalls approach as I knew you would and what a great addition to the buzz.

So I want to ask you both so you're both continue to move mountains out in industry.

I really enjoyed the perspective, the blogs, the keynotes, the events, the consulting work you are doing, the advisory work, what have you and I want to make sure folks can plug into your Ecosystem.

Let's start with you, Dave.

How can folks get in touch with you and prophetic technology?

Well, as you know Scott, I'm absolutely ardent around LinkedIn, so come and find me on LinkedIn.

I was born with this unusual name so my wife, wife blames me because she married me.

But at the end of the day, Dave Food is a pretty unusual name and I have a blog that I blog there every week.

In fact, I blogged on a similar topic to this today.

So I talked about reviewing your supply sourcing policy as topic number one we discussed today.

Love it.

And yeah, you gotta follow Dave, connect with Dave, follow Dave, you name it on LinkedIn.

Lots of thoughts that will make you think and act different and have different conversations.

We've talked about earlier the value of him.

We were just talking last week about your keynote that I've heard great things about at the WCA World.

I think that's the right organization in Bangkok.

How can folks connect with you and all the great stuff you're doing?

Wonderful, wonderful.

I appreciate that.

Always a pleasure to co host shows with you, Ken.

We've had some great ones here lately, including Amanda from Apex International Logistics last week.

I love your shout out sister.

Sing it.

She was making several points there.

That's right.

Great show folks.

Check out.

You know we do a lot of live streams and webinar conversations.

Maybe Amanda and Tricia can drop the link to how folks can make sure they don't miss a show because we offer all of them on demand.

You can check it out.

It's such a pleasure.

I want to thank both Kim Reuters once more and Dave Food once more.

Thanks to you both.

I want to thank everyone that showed up here today.

I mentioned that link.

You can find, subscribe, supply channel, wherever you get your podcast.

You can also check out different aspects of our programming and our global community.

Right there, One link, one click away.

Check it out.

Thanks to all the great folks who showed up here today.

Allen T Squared, Greg, many others.

Big thanks to Amanda and Trisha behind the scenes making it happen when it comes to production.

And folks, I'm just going to leave you with this.

You know we always give you homework at the end of these and you know I always use a phrase that is really important to me but I'm going to add a quick addendum to that.

Folks, let's lean into being polite and being able to disagree and not hate each other.

These elections have grown to a point where they do.

They have a bad impact on us.

And that's not what it was meant to be.

So before you respond and react to something that the other party has said, call timeout, take a deep breath, don't hate on them, and then respond in just a civil fashion.

A civil fashion.

So with all that said, folks, on behalf of the entire team here at Supply Chain Now, Scott Luton, challenging you.

Do good, get forward, be the change that's needed, and we'll see you next time right back here at Supply Chain Now.

Thanks, everybody.

Thanks for being a part of our Supply Chain now community.

Check out all of our programming at supply chain supply chainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to Supply Chain now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us.

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