Each month, Tony Uphoff, visionary CEO of Thomasnet.com, joins Cloud Wars Live for a recurring segment. “Uphoff on Industry” will explore the innovations, upheavals, and breakthroughs reshaping the the world of manufacturing and industrial markets. Join Tony and me as we discuss disruptive new trends in the digital-industrial world. These include how we design, source and manufacture products. And also the new ways in which industrial companies are getting up to speed on marketing, sales and customer experience.

Episode 8

In this episode, Tony and I begin with his podcasts, which are available at the Thomas Industry Update and on every major platform such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc. Karen Norheim was on Episode 3. She is president and COO of American Crane & Equipment Corporation and Tony said she is doing some really innovative things.

He says tariffs are constantly in the headlines, and you can’t predict the impact – we don’t know what’s going to happen. He suggests that companies are identifying localized supply chains as their backup – if not their primary.

Tony says upwards of 75% of trading relationships are paid via a traditional purchase order or traditional check, rather than e-invoicing or electronic payments – which seems astounding to him.

He goes on to say that, “Boy I outsourced my manufacturing to Vietnam.” If you own the supply chain, he says, you know how long it takes to ship it back – and the loss or breakage along the way.

Tony says companies now have dashboards up in a centralized service area, and they will have a physical camera showing all the different components of their supply chain – so if anything were to happen, they can move in real-time.

Tony says he gets several emails every day saying, “I stumbled across your profile, and I thought we should connect.” He imagines that if you’re an industry tradeshow and you see the CEO of a customer company and walk over and go, “Hey I just happened to stumble upon you.”

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