This episode explores:

• The “intangible” items supply chain leaders must manage, and why it’s been difficult to extract value from them. (3:08)
• Human economics, and what elements of “people productivity” supply chain leaders should focus on. (7:24)
• What’s missing from investments in digital economic value. (11:55)
• How supply chain leaders can enhance output from their resources. (14:54)
• Which of the three economic elements supply chain leaders should focus on first. (18:30)

Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner research vice president Ken Chadwick explore how supply chain leaders can extract value from “intangible”, off-book items like data and human knowledge. As presented in Executive Report: The Future of Supply Chain 2024, Ken broadly categorizes these intangibles into three “economics”: human, digital and resource. 

Caroline and Ken discuss what supply chain leaders should do to improve output and productivity from these three economics, including which one should be prioritized first.

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Host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner VP Analyst Dwight Klappich dive into Dwight’s Predicts 2024: Supply Chain Technology, a set of five predictions for growth and change in supply chain technology between 2026 and 2028. 

Thomas and Dwight explore the value these predictions hold, the research that drives them and the broad challenges they address, particularly in regards to workforce and talent management. They take close looks at two key predictions surrounding smart robots and employee engagement tools, respectively, then close the show with a review of past predictions in supply chain technology.

This episode explores:

• The value of Predicts 2024: Supply Chain Technology. (1:13)
• How Predicts 2024: Supply Chain Technology addresses broad challenges like geopolitical uncertainty, talent strain and improved customer outcomes. (2:39)
• A deep dive into the prediction that smart robots will outnumber frontline workers in manufacturing, retail and logistics by 2028. (9:04)
• Why 40% of large warehouse operations will deploy employee engagement tools by 2028. (13:09)
• A review of both accurate and inaccurate past predictions. (19:23)

his episode explores:

• Why organization design has become so important to chief supply chain officers (CSCOs). (1:15)
• Reasons for the recommended shift away from centralization and decentralization. (2:35)
• Examples of integration in real supply chains. (4:29)
• An overview of the six supply chain “archetypes” — that is, distinct ways supply chains organize themselves through integration and differentiation. (7:53)
• Recommendations for redesigning supply chain organizations. (15:28)

Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner Senior Research Director Alan O’Keeffe dive into supply chain organization redesign through the lens of integration and differentiation. They discuss six supply chain “archetypes,” frameworks that supply chain leaders can use to cleanly evaluate their enterprise’s reporting lines, leadership, scope of work and more, as they design fit-for-purpose supply chains. 

Caroline and Alan also explore pitfalls prevalent in traditional “centralization versus decentralization” supply chain organization design, specifically its polarized, all-or-nothing approach. Finally, they close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders pursuing supply chain organization design by offering the six archetypes as a starting point. 

In this episode, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ewan Andrew, President & Chief Sustainability Officer at Diageo, explore Diageo’s approach to sustainability initiatives and the related strategies and trade-offs. They explore Diageo’s simultaneous commitments to stakeholder expectations and driving business growth through real-world examples of successful circular supply chain initiatives, as well as strategic pivots when difficulties arise.

Thomas and Ewan close the show with recommendations to help supply chain leaders drive relevant productivity increases that support sustainability initiatives aligned to their organization’s wider goals.

• Drivers for Diageo’s sustainability initiatives. (2:09)
• Diageo’s approach to strategic investments that balance sustainability trade-offs. (5:35)
• Real-world examples of Diageo’s sustainability strategies in action. (8:45)
• Real-world examples of Diageo’s strategic pivots when plans didn’t go as expected. (18:44)
• Recommendations for supply chain leaders tackling sustainability through their supply chains. (21:02)

Ewan Andrew’s career with Diageo spans over 25 years, but he has been President of its Global Supply Chain & Procurement since September 2019. Within this role, he leads a team that ensures Diageo’s complex and modern supply chain operations work to the highest standards delivering a range of premium drinks for consumers. 

 

Ewan also is Chief Sustainability Officer. Diageo has ambitious commitments through its 10-year environmental, social and governance (ESG) action plan, which will help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. An integral part of this plan is pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability focused on three areas: preserving water for life, accelerating to a low-carbon world and becoming sustainable by design.

This episode explores: 

• Why aren’t supply chain leaders seeing the value they expect from digital trade-off analysis technology? (4:45)
• Creating returns on digital trade-off analysis investments by closing the “digital to reality gap” through localized, cross-functional decision makers. (07:03) 
• Who are localized, cross-functional decision makers? What roles do they hold? (10:06)
• How does decision making change going forward? How do chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) know what choices to send down to localized decision makers? (11:34)
• Three steps toward reaping the decision-making benefits localized leaders can provide. (20:40)Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner Research Director Suzie Petrusic discuss how digital trade-off analysis technology is not providing the expected benefits, and how supply chain leaders should respond. 

As discussed in Suzie’s research Leverage Human Visibility and Digital Analytics for Better Decision Making, global, end-to-end (E2E) decision makers rely on digital technology and data-derived models to make better decisions. However, poor process adherence and incomplete process digitization mean these technologies and data models provide crystal-clear insight that is fundamentally flawed and inaccurate. 

Therefore, Suzie and her research recommend leveraging the human visibility from localized, cross-functional leaders to improve decision making. Caroline and Suzie discuss the reasoning and data behind these findings, as well as recommendations for supply chain leaders looking to employ them.

Suzie Petrusic, Ph.D., is the Gartner Senior Director Analyst serving chief supply chain officers in all the areas of supply chain related to strategy leadership and execution. She has authored and co-authored research and case studies on topics such as risk, supply chain maturity, the future of the supply chain, customer enablement, inflation and recession, and supply chain constraints. She also leads Gartner’s research agenda for chief supply chain officers. Upcoming research topics from her team include supply chain sustainability and digital technology.

This episode explores:

• How supply chain operations in Asia/Pacific (APAC) countries have evolved in recent years. (1:16) 
• How organizations are reoptimizing their supply chain networks in Asia/Pacific regions. (3:27)
• How supply chain leaders are responding to the challenge of upskilling the talent needed for moving into new markets in Asia/Pacific. (6:14)
• The key logistics challenges businesses need to tackle as supply chains shift toward deglobalization. (9:37) 
• Guidance for supply chain leaders with operations in Asia/Pacific regions over the next three to five years. (12:07)

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Teh Leng Tan, a Gartner analyst focusing on Asia/Pacific supply chain trends, discuss how supply chain operations in that region are rapidly evolving as businesses explore new manufacturing and distribution network strategies. At the same time, supply chain organizations are also tackling talent and logistics challenges in that part of the world.

As disruptions in APAC have increased and tensions between the United States and China have intensified over the last five years, supply chain operations have been exploring such strategies as regionalization, localization and deglobalization. Prior to this time, China was viewed as a low-cost, fast-paced manufacturing hub. But more recently, those geopolitical tensions, along with a declining population in China coupled with increasing wages, have forced companies to think outside the box. For example, some organizations are looking toward expanding operations in markets such as India or Vietnam, and are rethinking talent acquisition and logistics strategies. Tan offers his observations and advice to supply chain leaders on how to advance and enhance their operations in the region.

This episode of the Supply Chain Podcast explores:

• Why supply chain leaders need to start viewing employee turnover as an opportunity rather than a challenge. (1:11) 
• What do supply chain leaders need to do to start embracing turnover. (4:40) 
• The changes required for the process of backfilling a role after an employee leaves. (8:53) 
• How supply chain leaders can improve employee productivity. (12:43)
• Tackling the challenge of onboarding other senior stakeholders for the cultural change of embracing employee turnover. (17:32)

Caroline Chumakov is a director analyst in Gartner’s Talent and Sustainability team. She covers supply chain talent strategies, change management, communications, culture and centers of excellence. Caroline assists in elevating the supply chain profession to attract and retain top talent and speaks to what talent strategies and specialty organizational structures may address the gaps in supply chain capabilities. 

Caroline also advises clients on how to improve the diversity of their supply chain workforce and create inclusive work environments for all. She specializes in guiding clients through the development and deployment of supply chain centers of excellence. She discusses best practices for leading changes, whether focused on broad transformation or small-scale initiatives, and she advises on relationship-management communication strategies.

This episode explores:

• Defining GenAI: a capability at the peak of its hype and plenty of use cases (2:20)
• Reasons for CSCOs to take action on GenAI now rather than later (5:02)
• Real-world GenAI use cases in supply chain (7:04)
• Recommendations for supply chain leaders implementing GenAI in their own organizations (13:03)

Host Thomas O’Connor explores generative AI (GenAI) with guest Cliff Henson, corporate vice president of cloud supply chain at Microsoft. They discuss approaches and opportunities in this emerging space, including use cases for GenAI in space planning and order fulfillment. 

Though early in the GenAI journey, Cliff discusses the transformative potential of the technology and how it has enabled the connection of disparate systems and provided the ability to obtain data-driven insights in minutes, rather than weeks or months. Then, Thomas and Cliff close the show with four discrete recommendations for supply chain leaders seeking to implement GenAI in their own organizations. 

This episode explores:

• The concept of antifragile supply chains and thriving due to uncertainty. (00:44)
• Supply chains are on a spectrum of coping with uncertainty from a state of fragile to resilient to antifragile. (3:12)
• How supply chains respond to uncertainty depending on where they are on the spectrum of fragile to resilient to antifragile. (5:48)
• Insight from organizations already on the path to supply chain antifragility. (11:39)
• Advice for listeners on how to get started on their journey to supply chain antifragility.  (17:56)

Host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner research vice president Tim Payne discuss findings from the Executive Report: The Antifragile Supply Chain - Thriving Under Uncertainty, a report that proposes a paradigm shift towards managing uncertainty in supply chain organizations. 

Tim, author of the report, dives deep into how the majority of supply chains’ approach to uncertainty is fragile, and ultimately rooted in preventing major losses from uncertainty. These organizations are protective of stability, and build their supply chains for redundancy and efficiency. However, shifting towards an “antifragile” mindset allows supply chain organizations to convert uncertainty into business growth and competitive advantage. 

Thomas and Tim close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders interested in pursuing this antifragile mindset, including how and where to begin the process.

This episode explores:

• An overview of Gartner’s Maverick program. (1:04)
• The concept of biomimicry and how honeybees can inspire supply chains. (2:20)
• What supply chains and CSCOs can learn about the role of autonomy from honeybees. (4:45)
• The role of swarm intelligence and how it can influence supply chains to operate like a hive. (11:19)
• Key actionable advice supply chain leaders can take away from honeybees and biomimicry. (16:40)

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner senior director Claudia Clemens dive deep into Claudia’s Maverick Research: Biomimicry: How Honeybees Can Inspire Future Supply Chain Design. They explore how the humble honeybee hive’s individual worker autonomy, nonlinear task structure and swarm intelligence can inform real-world supply chain practices like decentralized governance of autonomous workers and collective actions toward sustainable growth.

Thomas and Claudia close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders, including empowering both human and machine supply chain elements through clearly defining purpose and leveraging autonomy, flexibility and democratized data to create true diversity of thought.