TO THE MARKET (TTM) uses technology to help create transparent supply chains for retailers and brands, enabling them to source and manufacture socially and environmentally responsible products at competitive prices, lower minimums, and faster turnaround times. They have built a growing network of more than 100 suppliers in over 20 countries.

Historically, one of the U.S. manufacturing challenges has been that retailers and brands must go through brokers. You provide brokers with the necessary specs, and they come back with options for who can deliver your product and at what price. The markup is significant, and the buyer is essentially sourcing from a black box — there is minimal transparency with this model. The TTM platform works as a broker. It has a vast network of thoroughly vetted suppliers who bid on projects.

Jane Mosbacher Morris, the CEO & Founder of TO THE MARKET (TTM), was named on Fortune's Annual Greatest Leaders list because of her work activating TTM's network of suppliers to source personal protective equipment (PPE) in early March. 

Morris’s organization matches big buyers—like Target and Mastercard—with a global network of nontraditional manufacturers, mostly women-owned and based in vulnerable communities.

In March, dozens of TTM makers retooled their operations to produce masks, gowns, and scrubs. Barely 30 days later, the personal protective equipment (PPE) began rolling in. Morris has orders for over 1.2 million units in the U.S. and hopes to eventually distribute in Kenya, Ghana, and India too.

We discuss the global pandemic and how the team handled pivoting. We also discuss the supply chain of the future and how this will make companies think differently about how they procure/source post-pandemic and technology's role in making it a reality.