The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast: Recent Episodes

Gartner

In the Gartner Supply Chain Podcast, leading experts Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Chumakov regularly sit down with Gartner’s best thinkers, researchers and innovators to share with you the strategic insights and tactical tips supply chain leaders need to drive organizational success.

This episode explores:

Donato’s view on the core of what drives supply chain’s business value. (1:05)
How Essity’s capabilities deliver on its business performance goals. (4:28)
Supply chain talent’s role at Essity, and the value they deliver. (8:08)
Essity’s support for employee health and well-being. (13:48)
Practical advice for CSCOs driving impact in their own organizations. (20:05)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Donato Giorgio (president of global supply chain at Essity) discuss the fundamental elements of Essity’s definition of supply chain success. They explore Essity’s people-focused, safety-oriented approach to the organization’s manufacturing processes and environments, including how prioritizing safety feeds into the organization’s business goals. Thomas and Donato close the show with advice for CSCOs taking similar actions in their own organizations.

About the Guest

Donato Giorgio is an inspirational executive leader with over 25 years of experience in delivering global transformation and superior results across various supply chain ecosystems within FMCG and B2B sectors, including tissue, personal care, and beauty care. Throughout his career in Essity, and previously in Procter & Gamble, Donato has driven growth, productivity, efficiencies and cultural changes through strategic mindset, financial acumen, operational excellence and strong executional focus.
A recognized leader in diverse cultures, Donato is a passionate advocate for breakthrough innovations in sustainability, ESG, and circular economy projects. He has been the driving force behind disruptive innovations making the tissue industry more affordable for both people and the planet. Among his notable achievements, state-of-the-art transformations in health and safety performance stand out as a testament to his impactful contributions.

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This episode explores:

How Kenvue defines its supply chain’s value proposition. (1:04)
Kenvue’s approach to resilience and digital transformation in the current, highly volatile business environment. (3:52)
Real-world examples of Kenvue’s investments to overcome barriers to supply chain transformation. (10:08)
Actionable recommendations for CSCOs leading digital and talent transformations today. (15:27)

Host Thomas O’Connor and Kenvue COO Meri Stevens explore Kenvue’s use of digital investments to consolidate and target specific failure points that Meri refers to as “flow blockers.” They explore how this objective-driven approach helps focus the organization on big-picture problems and keep pace with today’s rapid pace of change. The pair close the show with recommendations for how CSCOs can effect similar transformations in their own organizations.

About the Guest

As Chief Operations Officer for Kenvue, Meri drives end-to-end transformation, accelerating operational excellence, digitization and automation to fuel growth and unlock value. Her organization spans supply chain, procurement and quality, and is dedicated to ensuring Kenvue’s portfolio of brands are consistently available to customers and consumers worldwide.

Previously, Meri served as Johnson & Johnson Worldwide Vice President, Consumer Health Supply Chain & Deliver, and prior Johnson & Johnson Supply Chain Strategy & Deployment. In these roles, she was instrumental in reinventing the organization to achieve world-class performance, including rising to the top five of the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 pyramid, receiving recognition by the World Economic Forum, developing a breakthrough 3D-printing innovation in medical devices and assuring the flow of critical medicines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meri’s extensive experience spans more than 30 years with senior leadership roles at global corporations, including Chief Supply Chain Officer at Newell Rubbermaid and various operations and procurement leadership roles at Tyco, Bertelsmann, Knoll and General Electric.

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This episode explores:

Maria Pia De Caro’s approach to making her team “agility champions” that can rebuild and reimagine supply chain structures to support business goals. (1:32)
Pernod Ricard’s three pillars of supply chain productivity in today’s evolving trade environment. (4:51)
Balancing talent specialization and generalization across the supply chain. (11:14)
Actionable advice for CSCOs navigating today’s VUCA business environment. (16:38)

Host Thomas O’Connor discusses Pernod Ricard’s approach to supply chain productivity and agility with Maria Pia De Caro, the organization’s EVP of integrated operations and sustainability and responsibility (S&R). They explore adjusting supply chain operations to deliver on business fundamentals like service, cost and cash, as well as how Pernod Ricard drives productivity in today’s VUCA environment. They close the show with recommendations for CSCOs around boardroom communications that make the business stronger, more agile and faster in an environment where speed is crucial.

Gartner clients interested in finding out more about this topic can access the following:

Survive and Grow in This Volatile Tariff-Driven Economy

CSCOs Can Improve Their Influence With C-Suite Stakeholders

About the Guest:

Maria Pia De Caro is a seasoned leader in integrated operations and S&R, boasting over 25 years of global experience in supply chain and operations. Throughout her distinguished career, she has spearheaded multifaceted teams focused on engineering, manufacturing, M&A and supply chain innovation across renowned FMCG enterprises. Maria Pia’s journey includes pivotal roles at Procter & Gamble, Mondelez, Unilever and Nomad Foods in diverse locations such as Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, China and the U.K., before bringing her expertise to Pernod Ricard Group in 2023.

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This episode explores:

An overview of the expectations gap between AI investments and the results chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) are seeing. (1:58)
How CSCOs can set an effective, long-term vision for AI in their organizations. (3:22)
Putting that vision into action to craft better AI investment strategies. (6:30)
Implementing and scaling AI solutions across the supply chain. (10:34)
Actionable advice for CSCOs implementing AI systems into their supply chains. (13:21)

In this episode, host Tess Frenzel speaks with Gartner Senior Principal of Research Benjamin Jury about his research into generative AI’s (GenAI’s) impacts on the supply chain. They explore three critical junctures that supply chains tend to stumble over in their current approach to AI, and what CSCOs can do to resolve issues surrounding each one. Tess and Ben close the show with additional AI-centric recommendations for CSCOs implementing the technology into their supply chains over the coming year.

Gartner clients interested in finding out more about this topic can access the following:

Supply Chain Executive Report: Closing the AI Expectations-Reality Gap

About the Guest

Benjamin Jury is a Gartner senior principal of research, leading research projects that address chief supply chain officers’ key priorities. In addition to his executive report focused on maximizing the impact of AI in the supply chain, he is currently leading a research study on cost management. Before this role, Ben’s research agenda centered on the mission-critical priorities of heads of R&D and their teams.

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This episode explores:

Expanding remits for supply chain leaders and the value they deliver. (1:17)
How organizational structure underpins these new remits, and Ralph Lauren’s philosophy on this structure. (5:08)
Talent opportunities borne from expanded remits for supply chain talent and leadership. (8:35)
Technology’s role in expanding supply chain’s remit. (11:44)
Actionable advice for supply chain leaders of tomorrow. (16:33)

Supply Chain Podcast host Thomas O’Connor discusses the evolving role supply chain leaders play in their businesses with Halide Alagöz, chief product and merchandising officer (including supply chain) for Ralph Lauren. They explore Halide’s unique career path and role at Ralph Lauren offer insight into changing expectations and growth opportunities for supply chain leaders, as well as how Ralph Lauren’s organizational approaches to talent and technology helped uncover them. Thomas and Halide close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders of the future, and how they can use these lesions to evolve.

Gartner clients interested in finding out more about this topic can access the following:

Supply Chain Executive Report: Radically Rethinking Reorganization
Executive FastStart™ for CSCOs: How to Build Relationships and Personal Brand

About the Guest

Halide Alagöz is the Chief Product and Merchandising Officer of Ralph Lauren Corporation. She is responsible for the end-to-end product life cycle as leader of the company’s Polo, RRL and Lauren brand teams and the Brand Image and Purple Label Merchandising teams. Halide additionally drives innovation and execution – from development through sourcing – of all products across the Ralph Lauren portfolio.

Prior to joining Ralph Lauren, Halide was with H&M Corporation for 18 years, most recently in Hong Kong as the Head of Purchasing. During her tenure with H&M, Halide was responsible for various regional and global supply chain operations in Hong Kong, China, Bangladesh, and in her native country, Turkey.

Halide also serves on the board of directors of the American Apparel & Footwear Association since April 2018 and was confirmed as its vice chair for its 2024-2025 term in March 2024. Halide earned both her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and her master’s degree in engineering management from Istanbul Technical University.

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This episode explores:

Henkel’s multiyear journey to merge two of its distinct consumer business units. (1:15)
An overview of the strategic drivers behind Henkel’s business transformation. (2:44)
The critical role supply chain leadership plays in driving supply chain change management. (4:52)
Concrete steps that Henkel took during its transformation journey, including real-world examples. (8:40)
Recommendations for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) driving large-scale change management in their own organizations. (12:26)

Host Thomas O’Connor discusses Henkel Consumer Brands’ business transformation journey with Dr. Dirk Holbach, the organization’s CSCO. The pair explore the drivers that motivated the transformation, such as Henkel’s concept of “volume to value.” They provide insight into four broad steps that Henkel took as part of its transformation, and close the show with recommendations for CSCOs that find themselves driving similar transformations.

Gartner clients interested in finding out more about this topic can access the following:

Reorganize by Integrating and Differentiating Supply Chain Activities

Supply Chain Executive Report: Radically Rethinking Reorganization

About the Guest

Dr. Dirk Holbach has been leading the end-to-end (E2E) supply chain and operations for Henkel's Consumer Brands division since 2022, with net sales around €10.5 billion. He collaborates with approximately 10,000 associates in 36 factories and 88 logistics centers around the world. As one global team, Henkel not only delivers daily on the classic triangle “cost,” “cash” and “service,” but also drives a holistic transformation journey along multiple dimensions creating significant business impact. Henkel’s aim is to continuously increase the value delivery, agility and resilience of its global supply chain with the ultimate goal to drive value growth and serve its consumers and customers at its best.

This goal is supported by three strategic priorities:

People and culture: Henkel puts its people at the center of everything it does. The pandemic has clearly underlined the value of strong individuals collaborating in empowered teams, and Henkel enables strong value creation and business performance via its significant investment into team effectiveness and individual leadership capabilities.
Digitalization: Continuously accelerating digital transformation at Henkel started in 2013, with migration toward a fully connected, real-time and integrated digital ecosystem and toward an autonomous, self-driving and touchless supply chain. This work is supported by highly qualified associates and Henkel is the proud owner of four World Economic Forum (WEF) Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Digital Lighthouses
Sustainability: Part of Dr. Holbach’s personal agenda and part of the DNA at Henkel, the company drives sustainable progress leveraging digitalization (e.g., reducing its CO2 footprint by more than 70% since 2005), with 14 sites becoming fully climate-positive (electrical and thermal energy), making the company’s entire mature region footprint carbon-neutral.

When not at work, Dr. Holbach enjoys spending time with his family, or on a race or mountain bike. He has also been listed several times in the Top 28 Supply Chain Executives in Europe, being No. 1 in 2020.

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This episode explores:

An overview of this year’s Power of the Profession award categories and the connecting themes that its submissions shared. (1:43)
Notable differences in the content of this year’s submissions. (4:09)
Winners in each of the four categories. (5:15)
Advice for innovating in organizations that are “just trying to keep the lights on.” (11:50)

Host Lindsay Azim and Gartner VP analyst Maria Nieradka discuss this year’s Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards, including its winners, standout entrants and prevailing themes. They explore the supply chain industry’s greater focus on people-centric investments this year, smaller organizations driving innovation and how manufacturing prevailed across topics and categories. Lindsay and Maria close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders using innovation as a means to meet enterprise goals.

About the Guest

Maria Nieradka is a vice president, analyst in Gartner’s supply chain practice, providing research insights, advice and thought leadership to life sciences clients. Her research coverage includes supply chain strategy, environmental, social and governance (ESG), risk management, mergers and acquisitions and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Based on previous experience as a chief supply chain officer, she provides expertise in end-to-end supply chain practices with deep knowledge in planning, procurement, manufacturing and distribution. Maria leads Gartner’s Power of the Profession program. She served on Gartner Supply Chain’s Executive Advisory Board through 2021.

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This episode explores:

Updates surrounding U.S. tariffs since February. (1:18)
Four reasons the U.S. administration is leveraging tariffs and their implications for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs). (2:11)
Key announcements that CSCOs should understand leading up to 1 April. (9:22)
Other supply chain challenges on the horizon. (11:56)
How supply chain organizations can best prepare for tariff volatility leading up to and after 1 April. (15:59)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim discusses updates and new information around tariff implementation and supply chain uncertainty with Gartner Senior Director Analysts Brian Whitlock and Cori Masters. The three of them explore tariff volatility, what is to come for implementations and the changes to how supply chains can respond, as well as other items that will impact supply chain operations (like the SHIPS for America Act). Lindsay, Brian and Cori close the show with recommendations for how CSCOs can prepare their organization for potential disruption.

About the Guests

Brian Whitlock is a senior director research analyst in Gartner’s logistics and fulfillment team. He is responsible for advising logistics leaders and the C-suite in strategy design and execution, and for building capabilities that improve the performance of their logistics function. Brian is also the key initiative leader responsible for the research plan for logistics and fulfillment. Brian joined Gartner in 2020. He has over 30 years of experience leading global logistics, transportation and trade management organizations with expertise in strategy, operations, finance, procurement and supplier development and trade management.

Cori Masters is a senior director and high-tech analyst in Gartner's supply chain practice, providing research insights, advice and thought leadership to high-tech, electronics, telecom and public procurement clients. With over 25 years of experience, she provides expert coverage, including supply chain strategy, sustainability, risk management/resiliency and vendor management. Based on previous experience as a senior commodity manager across multiple markets, she provides expertise in end-to-end supply chain practices with deep knowledge in vendor management, end-to-end supply chain strategy, manufacturing technology development and ramp and manufacturing sustainability.

("For more on the new U.S. administration's federal policy changes, visit Gartner's Guide to New U.S. Federal Policies.")

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This episode explores:

Lenovo’s strategic investments in future-proofing its supply chain operations. (1:26)
How Lenovo delivers its supply chain strategy centered on “global reach with local excellence.” (2:47)
Challenges that Lenovo faces in executing its supply chain strategy. (6:46)
The role of digital transformation and AI in future-proofing Lenovo’s supply chain. (13:09)
Recommendations for CSCOs planning to future-proof their own supply chains. (15:19)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor discusses Lenovo’s attempts to future-proof its operations with Che Min (Jammi) Tu, senior vice president and group operations officer at Lenovo. The pair explore the benefits and challenges associated with Lenovo’s “global-local” approach to managing its supply chain’s global footprint: They dive into how this strategy enables Lenovo to future-proof its operations, as well as how the organization’s long-standing use of AI and other digital transformation tools contributes to this effort. Thomas and Jammi close the show with actionable advice for CSCOs embarking on similar efforts to future-proof their supply chains.

Che Min (Jammi) Tu is Senior Vice President and Group Operations Officer of Lenovo, which consists of teams spanning Global Supply Chain, Digital Transformation, Total Experience, Sales Operations, and Strategic Alliances. This diverse organization serves a global group of internal and external stakeholders with the mission of driving Lenovo’s operational excellence, the companywide digital transformation and harmonizing end-to-end business processes and tools across all Lenovo operations to deliver the best end-to-end customer experience. He is also a member of Lenovo’s Executive Committee. Jammi joined Lenovo in 2012 as chief financial officer for the EMEA region. Most recently, he led the finance team as the CFO for the Personal Computing & Smart Devices (PCSD) Group, e-commerce, and Global Accounts organizations and was the chief operating officer of Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group (IDG), playing a crucial role in leading that organization to record performance.

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This episode explores:

How Gartner’s Supply Chain Predicts functions as a framework for evaluating and addressing short-, medium- and long-term market implications. (1:06)
An overview of the chief supply chain officer’s (CSCO’s) evolving role in driving profitable growth in the short term. (6:33)
Potential workforce evolutions that AI investments could drive in the midterm. (9:45)
Factors influencing enterprises’ ability to meet their interim goals for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the long term. (13:32)
Recommendations on how CSCOs can use Gartner’s Supply Chain Predicts as a foundation for future-proofing their supply chains. (17:24)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim and Gartner VP Analyst Simon Bailey discuss Gartner’s 2025 Predicts for Supply Chain Strategy. They use the research as a foundation to explore expectations that CSCOs will drive profitable growth in the short term, AI’s evolving role in supply chain talent management in the medium term and enterprise progress on GHG emissions in the long term. Lindsay and Simon close the show with recommendations for how CSCOs can use the Predicts 2025 research as a baseline for future-proofing their supply chains.

About the Guest

Simon Bailey is a VP analyst in Gartner’s CSCO enablement team, supporting CSCO’s strategy development in areas, including customer centricity and ecosystem orchestration. He is also the lead author for Predicts 2025: Supply Chain Strategy — Growth, People and AI, and Commitments, Focus Supply Chain on Reducing Customer Effort to Boost Profitable Growth and Supply Chain Top 25: 2025 Methodology Changes and Invitation for Input for 2026.

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This episode explores:

Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J’s) approach to growing geopolitical complexity. (1:11)
Key capabilities that enable J&J to work through these compounding challenges. (3:54)
Real-world examples of programs and capabilities J&J pursues to increase supply chain resilience. (7:23)
J&J’s responses to global shifts in the regulatory and legal environment surrounding supply chains. (11:34)
Recommendations for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) leading in this turbulent geopolitical environment. (16:02)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor discusses risk management and resilience with Kathy Wengel, executive vice president, chief technical operations and risk officer for Johnson & Johnson. Thomas and Kathy explore J&J’s pursuit of resilience in the face of today’s turbulent geopolitical climate, including some of its specific strategies and real-world examples of its evolving capabilities. The pair close the show with actionable guidance for CSCOs.

About the Guest

Kathryn E. Wengel (Kathy) is executive vice president, chief technical operations and risk officer for Johnson & Johnson, as well as a member of its Executive Committee. She has significant healthcare, operations and global business expertise – with more than three decades of experience in leadership positions at Johnson & Johnson. In her current role, Kathy leads key technical operations functions like engineering and property services, the office of sustainability and cross-sector supply chain teams, and critical risk functions like quality and compliance and healthcare compliance. Kathy also plays an important role with external stakeholders to advance critical risk management, resilience and technical operations priorities on behalf of Johnson & Johnson and the healthcare industry.

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This episode explores:

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and supply chain leaders’ initial reactions to new U.S. tariffs and the uncertainty surrounding them. (1:54)
Direct or indirect implications of the executive orders that supply chain leaders must account for. (3:22)
Differences and similarities in trade volatility between the prior Trump administration and the current Trump administration. (6:14)
How supply chains can respond to these tariffs, and what some organizations are already doing. (8:13)
Some of the factors influencing current approaches to scenario planning for the Trump administration tariffs. (12:30)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor speaks with Gartner analysts Brian Whitlock and Suzie Petrusic about how the new U.S. administration’s tariffs stand to affect supply chain operations. In the show’s first half, Brian explores some of these tariffs’ particular details and their effects on potential mitigations. In the second half, Suzie expands on these mitigation strategies across the short and long term, as well as the influences behind them.

If you wish to learn more about Gartner supply chain's research tied to the topic of tariff volatility Gartner clients can access "Use Tariff Volatility to Drive Competitive Advantage" while non-Gartner clients can access "Navigating Tariff Uncertainty: Pathways for CSCOs".

About the Guests

Brian Whitlock is a senior director research analyst in Gartner’s Logistics and Fulfillment team. He is responsible for advising logistics leaders and the C-suite in strategy design and execution, and for building capabilities that improve the performance of their logistics function. Brian is also the key initiative leader responsible for the research plan for Logistics and Fulfillment. Brian joined Gartner in 2020. He has over 30 years of experience leading global logistics, transportation and trade management organizations with expertise in strategy, operations, finance, procurement and supplier development and trade management.

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, supply chain constraints and inflation and recession. Suzie also leads Gartner’s research agenda for chief supply chain officers.

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This episode explores:

Drivers that made this year’s Future of Supply Chain Report different. (1:04)
Capabilities CSCOs are pursuing to prepare for the future. (3:24)
The multiple pathways to success that organizations can take. (7:07)
How CSCOs can choose the best pathway for their organization. (15:16)
Advice for CSCOs preparing their supply chains for the future. (16:31)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim sits down with Pierfrancesco (Pier) Manenti, Gartner research vice president for supply chain strategy, to discuss Gartner’s yearly Future of Supply Chain Executive Report. As lead author of the report, Pier discusses how this year’s report — Supply Chain Executive Report: Future of Supply Chain 2025 — focuses on the capabilities chief supply chain officers can pursue to meet the future it outlines. Lindsay and Pier explore the various pathways organizations can take to build these capabilities before closing the show with recommendations for CSCOs pursuing those pathways.

About the Guest

Pierfrancesco (Pier) Manenti is research vice president for the Gartner supply chain strategy team. Pier provides insights and advisory support to chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and heads of strategy of global manufacturing and retail corporations, especially with regards to future trends and key challenges affecting end-to-end supply chain strategy. He focuses on strategic transformation, digitalization, agility and design for profitability.

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This episode explores:

Kraft Heinz’s use of operational excellence programs to perfect their manual processes before adding digital tools. (1:06)
How Kraft Heinz executives engage in servant leadership to remove roadblocks on digital project roadmaps. (5:00)
Kraft Heinz’s future goals for a self-driving, end-to-end supply chain. (7:13)
Standout use cases for generative AI at Kraft Heinz. (10:25)
Recommendations for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) driving digital transformations in their own organizations. (14:06).

In this episode of Gartner’s Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor speaks with Senior Vice President and Head of North America Operations at the Kraft Heinz Company, Helen Davis, about the digital transformation efforts Kraft Heinz is undertaking for its supply chain. They discuss Kraft Heinz’s commitment to creating strong foundations in manual processes, including the tools it uses to capture and maintain employee and executive buy-in. Thomas and Helen then explore Kraft Heinz’s vision for an autonomous supply chain, and then close the show with recommendations for CSCOs that want to undertake similar journeys.

About the Guest

Helen Davis has over 27 years of global supply chain experience, successfully transforming supply chains in several countries and in a variety of different industries. She is currently Senior Vice President and Head of North America Operations at the Kraft Heinz Company. Helen has also held senior supply chain roles at Unilever, Estée Lauder, Reckitt Benckiser and Coca-Cola, where she led the transformation to the “Factory of the Future” and spearheaded the “Touchless Supply Chain” concept through use of decision intelligence. 

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This episode explores:

“Decision shapers,” supply chain planning leaders that leverage three personas to guide supply chain planning leaders’ decision making through informed, data-driven recommendations. (1:22)
The skills decision shapers leverage as part of the “codebreaker” persona to analyze and capitalize on key data points. (4:25)
How the “alchemist” persona, a combination of business acumen, adaptability and AI readiness that decision shapers use to turn data into intelligent insights. (7:56)
Ways the “storyteller” persona packages data and insights to meet audiences where they’re at with language that resonates with them. (13:42)
Essential recommendations for supply chain leaders that want to become decision shapers in their own organizations. (19:35)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim discusses the impact “decision shapers” have on supply chain planning (SCP) with guest Noha Samara, a Gartner senior director analyst. The pair explore their shared research into the current state of SCP, and how SCP leaders can evolve their approach to it through data analysis, intelligent insights and robust communication. They close the show with recommendations for SCP leaders that want to affect similar changes in their own org.

About the Guest:

Gartner Senior Director Analyst Noha Samara covers several areas of supply chain planning. She has authored and coauthored numerous research on supply chain planning processes’ evolution, supply chain planning organization design and talent, and supply chain planning transformations. She joined Gartner in 2020 after a long career at several multinational organizations such as Procter & Gamble and Microsoft where she was leading different supply chain teams. Noha has been leading the supply chain planning track agenda at Gartner Symposium for the past couple of years and currently chairs the upcoming Supply Chain Planning Summits in 2025 and 2026.

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This episode explores:

Supply chain’s role in navigating volatility associated with digital technology, changing customer needs and sustainability. (1:12)
How Unilever redesigned its supply chain by fusing it with IT and enterprise services to drive change and address volatility. (5:10)
Three real-world Unilever programs that leverage this fusion to build competitive advantage and business growth. (9:14)
Practical recommendations for CSCOs who want to undertake similar redesigns in their own supply chains. (15:34)

Host Thomas O’Connor explores the ins and outs of Unilever’s supply chain redesign with Reginaldo Ecclissato, Unilever’s Chief Business Operations and Supply Chain Officer. Reggie’s dual title speaks to Unilever’s new approach to its supply chain: transforming supply chain operations into a source of competitive advantage and business growth by combining it with IT and global business services.

Thomas and Reggie discuss the key tenets at this redesign’s heart, including an accelerated digitalization effort and a talent-first outlook. The pair close the show with recommendations for CSCOs who want to pursue similar redesigns in their own supply chains.

Editorial note: Since the recording of this podcast, Reginaldo Ecclissato has been appointed to the role of president for One Unilever Markets.

About the Guest:

Reginaldo Ecclissato has been appointed to the role of president for One Unilever Markets. At the time of recording for the December 2024 Supply Chain Podcast, Reginaldo’s role was Chief Business Operations and Supply Chain Officer. He became a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive in January 2022. Reginaldo has a rich history at Unilever spanning more than 30 years with extensive supply chain experience in both developed and emerging markets.

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This episode explores:

The critical role that transparent, collaboration-focused culture plays in supply chain success at Zoetis. (1:04)
How Zoetis empowers supply chain talent to trust in and engage with this culture. (4:08)
Qualitative and quantitative business impacts that empowered supply chain talent has made at Zoetis. (8:34)
Why providing their staff with access to good data enabled a cultural shift. (15:12)
Recommendations for CSCOs seeking to drive business impacts through their supply chain’s culture. (19:18)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor discusses how culture can drive supply chain value with Nick Ashton, Executive Vice President and President, Global Manufacturing and Supply at Zoetis. The pair explore how Zoetis shifted its culture by providing greater access to data and empowering employees with greater decision making. As the organization shifted towards greater transparency and collaboration, measurable business impacts followed. Thomas and Nick close the show with recommendations for CSCOs who want to effect similar transformations in their own organizations.

About the Guest

Nick Ashton is Executive Vice President and President, Global Manufacturing and Supply at Zoetis, the world’s leading animal health company and a member of the Fortune 500. In this role, he oversees the company’s network of approximately 29 Zoetis manufacturing sites and 200 third-party manufacturers around the world. Nick joined Zoetis in 2020 as head of Global External Supply, where he led all aspects of the company’s global external manufacturing network, overseeing 140 contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) to keep pace with customer demand.

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This episode explores:

Generative AI’s expected impacts on headcount when GenAI exploded into mainstream news in 2022 (1:32).
How GenAI’s impacts on productivity and time savings vary between desk-based and frontline employees (4:54).
Measuring whether GenAI “lived up to the hype” in light of research results (11:31).
What leaders are doing to resolve GenAI’s “productivity paradox” (12:38).
Recommendations for CSCOs driving GenAI projects (15:24).

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Tess Frenzel and guest Sam Berndt, a Gartner senior director of research, discuss generative AI’s (GenAI’s) variable impacts on supply chain employee productivity in both desk-based and frontline roles.

Tess and Sam frame the discussion with findings from Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Report: The GenAI Productivity Paradox to provide details on key differentiators like individual- and team-based time savings, work quality improvements and employee comfort levels.

About the Guest

Sam Berndt is a Gartner Senior Research Director leading long-form studies on chief supply chain officers and their key priorities. He has led studies on risk and supplier due diligence, talent and skill gap myths, last-mile delivery customer preferences, and the impact of generative AI on supply chain employee productivity. Before Gartner, Sam studied the economic impacts of large regulations.

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This episode explores:

The CSCO Community Outlook Survey’s focus on community sentiment, and how that sentiment manifested in 2024. (1:17)
Trends that may have contributed to the survey’s findings. (3:41)
CSCOs’ short-term, midterm, and long-term focuses in 2025. (5:01)
Survey reports on generative AI’s potential outlook in 2025. (8:06)
Recommendations for CSCOs in the coming year. (11:45)

On this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Tess Frenzel discusses CSCO priorities for 2025 with Wade McDaniel, a Vice President Distinguished Advisor at Gartner. They draw insights from Gartner’s 2024 CSCO Community Outlook Poll to discuss how CSCOs are feeling as they move into 2025, including their specific goals in the short term, midterm and long term, and the outlook on generative AI.

Tess and Wade explore the nuances of these findings, including the trends that may have shaped them, then close the show with actionable recommendations for CSCOs in 2025.

About the Guest

Wade McDaniel is a Gartner Vice President Distinguished Advisor supporting the global CSCO community through events and curated research insights. He brings more than 30 years of supply chain experience to the role.

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This episode explores:

Strategic misalignment and the impact on the efficacy of traditional supply chain tools. (2:58)
The status quo contributes to strategic misalignment for the majority of surveyed supply chain organizations. (4:56)
How CSCOs can address the short-term issues at the root of strategic misalignment. (6:59)
The counterintuitive organizational design that helps CSCOs create strategic alignment. (11:31)
Recommendations for CSCOs to maintain their newly secured strategic alignment. (15:14)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim sits down with Gartner Senior Director Analyst Suzie Petrusic to discuss the myriad impacts strategic misalignment has on supply chains. They explore the damage strategic misalignment inflicts on profit margins and supply chain capacity, as well as how CSCOs can approach the issue through counterintuitive organizational design.

About the Guest

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. Suzie also leads Gartner’s research agenda for chief supply chain officers.

Learn more about Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2024, the premier destination for supply chain planning leaders.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

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This episode explores:

The reason why 90% of supply chain professionals are currently in the midst of reorganization or are planning one in the near future. (1:16)
How to design your supply chain for balance. (6:49)
How to organize for strength. (10:06)
How to design for speed. (13:19)
Whether it is realistic to aim for designing for all three: balance, strength and speed. (15:39)

Host Lindsay Azim sits down with guest Alan O’Keeffe of Gartner to discuss his latest Supply Chain Executive Report, which examines how supply chain leaders can radically rethink reorganizing their operations. With 90% of supply chain professionals currently in the midst of reorganization, or planning one in the near future, it’s important that they follow the right approach. Put another way, supply chain leaders should reorganize to achieve balance, speed and strength.

About the Guest:

Alan O’Keeffe is a Senior Research Director in Gartner’s Organizational Development team whose research covers global supply chain organization design, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and organizational solutions, such as shared services and centers of excellence. Using in-depth cross-industry research and insight into trends, he provides advice to supply chain leaders on how best to engage people and organizations to address the growing complexity of 21st century supply chains. Alan has more than 20 years of supply chain experience, with six years in head-of-function roles in logistics, customs and physical supply chain, and four years in supply chain consultancy specializing in strategic network optimization. These roles have covered a range of sectors, including technology, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and mining, at global, regional and national scopes.

Learn more about Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2024, the premier destination for supply chain planning leaders.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

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This episode explores:

What it takes to lead a supply chain organization in 2024, and how Dow CSCO Nestor de Mattos’s background helps him do so. (1:08)
How CSCOs can help their teams adapt to changing realities around risk and driving business value. (5:08)
The impact that evolving talent profiles have on hiring net-new supply chain employees. (7:40)
Potential opportunities for CSCOs to hire from new talent pools in the wake of a slowing economy and a softening job market. (10:04)
Recommendations for CSCOs to effectively lead their organizations in the face of challenging economic conditions. (12:02)

Supply Chain Podcast Host Thomas O’Connor sits down with guest Nestor de Mattos, Corporate Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer of Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) for Dow. The pair leverage Nestor’s non-traditional career background as a lens to discuss best practices for CSCOs leading organizations through challenging times. Topics include leveraging new or unexpected talent pools and profiles, driving upskilling throughout the supply chain and the opportunities that challenging economic conditions can provide.

Nestor de Mattos is Corporate Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer of Integrated Supply Chain (ISC) for Dow. He oversees the global end-to-end supply chain, including (but not limited to): planning and scheduling, international trade, sustainability, systems solutions and innovation to advance Dow’s strategic growth. He also co-chairs a team of executive leaders responsible for setting the strategic direction and implementing digital and end-to-end transformation for Dow. In his role, Nestor is responsible for driving an integrated end-to-end customer fulfillment experience across more than 150 countries to more than 35,000 delivery locations, all in coordination with more than 1,800 logistics service providers. Integrated Supply Chain supports Dow’s market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of advanced materials, industrial intermediates and plastics businesses. Together, these functions deliver a broad range of differentiated technology-based products and solutions for customers in high-growth markets that include packaging, infrastructure, and consumer care.

Learn more about Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2024, the premier destination for supply chain planning leaders.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

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This episode explores:

The growing demand for CSCOs to take a proactive approach to risk management. (1:47)
Why there’s no perfect answer to how much resilience organizations “really need.” (2:22)
How (and why) investments in capabilities like resilience, visibility and agility are failing to provide better proactive mitigation. (6:47)
What CSCOs can do to address misalignment and siloing in their risk management activities. (8:08)
Key takeaways for CSCOs to apply these practices in their own organizations. (15:45)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim and guest Suzie Petrusic, Gartner Senior Director Analyst, discuss the significant misalignment between supply chain’s risk mitigation activities and investments with the ROI they should drive. Suzie’s recent research into the topic revealed how factors like siloed capabilities and general disagreement on mitigation priorities are resulting in wasted time and resources — in some cases creating pure overhead instead of ROI. Lindsay and Suzie explore these challenges’ root causes and impacts, as well as how CSCOs can address them in their own organizations.

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.

Learn more about Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit 2024, the premier destination for supply chain planning leaders.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

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This episode explores:

Generative AI’s (genAI’s) impacts from Google’s viewpoint. (1:12)
How Google’s products and services, especially its supply chain operations, are evolving with genAI’s influence. (4:46)
Key aspects of a strong supply chain organization foundation for genAI. (8:44)
Supply chain talent management and upskilling for genAI. (11:10)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders to better leverage gen AI in their organizations. (15:07)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ana Corrales, COO of Google’s Devices & Services business, discuss Google’s approach to generative AI (genAI) implementation across their various products and services. The discussion also explores how supply chain leaders can develop foundational capabilities like sourcing clean data and upskilling supply chain talent.

Ana Corrales is the Chief Operating Officer for Google’s Devices & Services business. As COO, Ana leads the development process for Google hardware products — Pixel phones with Google’s custom silicon, Google Tensor, Pixel Buds, Nest thermostats, speakers, displays and cameras, Fitbit smartwatches and trackers and more — and manages getting those products into the hands of customers. Ana also drives the end-to-end IT efforts and customer experience work across the Google Devices and Services business. Ana previously led Google Devices and Services’ first party channel growth with the Google Store e-commerce site and the first-ever retail store. Ana holds several leadership positions across Google. She is a member of the Women@Google board and is an executive sponsor for HOLA, Google’s Latinx Employee Resource Group. She also sits on Google’s Advanced Technology Review Council (ATRC) for AI Principles-related topics, and on the Trust & Compliance Steering Committee.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

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This episode explores:

How the Top 25 and the supply chains it ranks have evolved over the past two decades. (1:10)
The common themes and context among organizations that stood out this year. (3:38)
Surprises and standouts among company rankings. (7:50)
How the Top 25 leaders are incorporating environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) into their operations. (12:50)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders based on practices from the Top 25 organizations. (14:07)

In this episode of the Gartner Supply Chain Podcast, hosts Thomas O’Connor and Lindsay Azim speak with Simon Bailey, Gartner VP Analyst and Top 25 Program Lead Author, on how both the program and supply chains have evolved in the last 20 years. Simon provides insight into this year’s rankings, macro trends, and specific examples of how organizations emerge as leaders across talent, sustainability, digitalization and risk and resilience. Simon also provides several recommendations for supply chain leaders seeking to drive value using transferable lessons from this year’s masters and supply chain leaders.

Simon Bailey is a VP analyst in Gartner’s CSCO enablement team, supporting CSCO’s strategy development in areas including customer centricity, ecosystem orchestration and sustainability. He is also the lead author for Gartner’s Top 25 program and recent published work includes The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024: Insights on Leaders, The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024: Methodology and The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024: Rankings. He has also lead the Supply Chain Strategy Predicts process for several years and recently published Predicts 2024: Reshape Supply Chain Strategy to Outpace Disruption, and Use Ecosystem Partnerships to Achieve Sustainability Goals and collaborated on A Three-Step Approach for Driving Growth via the Supply Chain.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

This episode explores:

How, despite geopolitical instability, CSCOs can meet growing performance expectations by increasing their supply chain’s flexibility in key areas. (1:20)
Definitions and applications of terminology associated with this process, such as “trust boundaries” and “supply chain elasticity.” (5:10)
Concerns of increased complexity associated with supply chain elasticity. (8:30)
Methods to assess geopolitical risks’ potential impacts on a supply chain. (13:18)
Recommendations for CSCOs seeking to increase their supply chain’s elasticity. (16:35)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim and guest Pierfrancesco (Pier) Manenti, research vice president for the Gartner supply chain strategy team, discuss findings from Supply Chain Executive Report: Empowering Growth Through Geopolitically Elastic Supply Chains.

As countries cloister their markets in response to various geopolitical tensions, accessing a global marketplace is becoming harder for CSCOs. Lindsay and Pier explore how “supply chain elasticity,” a concept explored in the Executive Report, can help CSCOs alleviate these market access issues while driving growth. The discussion includes key definitions and actions, success stories from organizations already applying these principles and recommendations for CSCOs to improve elasticity within their own supply chains.

Pierfrancesco (Pier) Manenti is research vice president for the Gartner supply chain strategy team. Pier provides insights and advisory support to chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and heads of strategy of global manufacturing and retail corporations, especially with regards to future trends and key challenges affecting end-to-end supply chain strategy. He focuses on strategic transformation, digitalization, agility and design for profitability.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

Episode highlights:

What’s different about today’s volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) environment? (1:16)
Geopolitical and climate change concerns for CSCOs. (3:04)
The intersection of genAI and supply chains. (6:30)
Sustainability, energy, and the impact on supply chains. (10:45)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor sits down with new co-host Tess Frenzel and guest Stan Aronow, a Gartner Vice President Distinguished Advisor. The three of them dive into the volatile and uncertain factors affecting CSCOs, such as generative AI and sustainability concerns, with Stan providing direct insights on these topics from topics from across the Gartner Global Chief Supply Chain Officer community.

Read Stan Aronow’s latest Beyond Supply Chain Blog post: Uncertainty-Proofing Your Supply Chain

Stan Aronow is a Gartner Vice President Distinguished Advisor supporting the global COO/CSCO community through events and curated research insights. He also chairs Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Advisory Board. Before this role, Stan managed Gartner’s global Supply Chain Top 25 leadership research portfolio for several years.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

This episode explores:

Results and methodology of the 2024 Gartner CEO Survey. (1:03)
Surprises from this year’s study, including changing trends. (3:47)
How CSCOs should adjust their strategies to align with changing CEO priorities. (6:42)
A deep dive into technology adoption rates, including real-world examples. (10:04)
Three recommendations CSCOs can implement to work alongside their CEOs better. (16:44)

In this episode of the Gartner Supply Chain Podcast, new host Lindsay Azim and guest Ken Chadwick, Gartner Distinguished Vice President Analyst, discuss results for the 2024 Gartner CEO Survey and how they impact CSCOs building out their strategic roadmaps. Ken dives into how these impacts manifest in tensions between current and future strategic priorities, economic conditions, energy supply, artificial intelligence, talent and much more. Lindsay and Ken close the show with several recommendations for how CSCOs can better work with CEOs and align to their top priorities.

Ken Chadwick is a Gartner research distinguished vice president covering global supply chain organization design, governance, talent development, change management and organization behavior. Using in-depth cross-industry research and insight into trends, Ken provides advice to supply chain leaders on how best to engage people and organizations to address the growing complexity of 21st century supply chains.

Visit Gartner.com to learn more about Gartner for Supply Chain.

This episode explores:

The fundamentals of strategic decision making for AstraZeneca. (1:16)
How AstraZeneca adapts its supply chain to drive both cost optimization and business growth. (4:20)
Timing investments in new assets and their associated capabilities. (11:09)
Methods to encourage talent to join change management journeys. (13:50)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders working to understand their organization’s unique underpinnings for decision making. (16:30)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Matt Winterman, AstraZeneca’s senior vice president of global supply chain and strategy, discuss AstraZeneca’s approach to strategic decision making in regards to resilience. They explore AstraZeneca’s focus on supply chain design as a vehicle for growth and cost optimization, as well as the trigger points that underpin their decision-making processes. They close the show with three recommendations for supply chain leaders to apply similar principles to their own organizations.

Matthew Winterman joined AstraZeneca in 2023 and is the senior vice president of global supply chain and strategy, with overall responsibility for the development and execution of the end-to-end supply chain platform and product supply strategies. In addition, he is responsible for ensuring the strategic development of network designs and supply chain capabilities supporting AstraZeneca’s global operational network. He reports into the EVP of operations and IT and chief sustainability officer and serves as a member of the global operations senior leadership team.

This episode explores:

The new reality of constant change and disruption for supply chain organizations, alongside its four main drivers. (1:44)
Geopolitical disruption and its implications for supply chain organizations. (3:23)
Climate change’s evolving influence on supply chain operations. (5:52)
Technology’s rapid advancement, and how supply chain organizations can keep pace. (8:36)
Generational shifts in employee attitudes towards their workplace and employers. (11:29)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Sami Naffakh, CSCO at Reckitt, explore the myriad forms supply chain disruption takes in today’s highly volatile landscape. They broadly discuss the four main drivers behind this volatility, as well as individualized responses supply chain leaders can employ. Thomas and Sami close the show with Sami’s personal recommendations for supply chain leaders who are combating disruption.

This episode explores:

The wide array of constraints currently impacting supply chain organizations. (1:17)
Securing a long-term mandate for investment by resolving short-term issues for the wider organization. (4:18)
Next steps for CSCOs who have secured their mandate for investment. (7:38)
Internal challenges to combating constraints, such as skepticism and gaps in capability or knowledge. (10:16)
Recommendations for CSCOs to overcome constraints. (15:06)

Supply Chain Podcast host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner senior director analyst Laura Rainier discuss how supply chain leaders can combat increasing constraints to resources through the lens of Laura’s Supply Chain Executive Report: Thrive in a Resource-Constrained World. They explore how CSCOs can resolve short-term issues to secure investments and confidence in long-term initiatives for overcoming increasing constraints.

This episode explores:

The digital elements driving General Mills’ supply chain transformation (2:39)
General Mills’ technology solutions that link master, operational and transactional data (7:28)
Human aspects of General Mills’ transformation: DEI, and initiatives to grow employee skill sets and community (13:47)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders driving their own supply chain transformation (16:52)

Host Thomas O’Connor and General Mills Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) Paul Gallagher discuss the digital, functional and human elements of General Mills’ supply chain transformation. They explore the areas in which the complexity of General Mills’ supply chain breeds opportunity for growth in resilience, cost optimization and more. Thomas and Paul close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders driving their own transformation initiatives.

This episode explores:

The increasing scale of disruptions, and how an ecosystem approach is critical to ensuring continuity. (2:39)
Intel’s top focus areas for ecosystem value. (6:58)
Intel’s strategy for enabling and building relationships to drive ecosystem value. (12:26)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders to drive value from their own ecosystems. (17:08)

In this episode of the Gartner Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Jackie Sturm, corporate vice president of global supply chain operations at Intel, discuss Intel’s approach driving resilience through supply chain ecosystems. Jackie provides insight into Intel’s ecosystem priorities, and how Intel partners with its ecosystem members to achieve them. Thomas and Jackie close the show with several recommendations for supply chain leaders seeking to drive value within their own ecosystem, regardless of their size or place in it.

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ryan Polk, a Gartner senior research director, explore the concept of demystifying supply chain transformations through “designed simplicity.” They outline the benefits of removing layers of complexity and ambiguity from transformation processes to help staff better cope with today’s unparalleled rate of change, and highlight successful examples from Cargill and Bayer. The pair close the show with actionable recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to implement this approach in their own organizations, and the benefits for doing so.

This episode explores:

Definitions for “designed simplicity.” (1:08)
How the increased rate of change pushes organizations toward this approach. (3:36)
Where to begin implementing designed simplicity. (5:31)
Tangible, real-world examples from Bayer and Cargill. (9:05)
Actionable guidance for supply chain leaders pursuing designed simplicity in their own organizations. (14:01)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ryan Polk, a Gartner senior research director, explore the concept of demystifying supply chain transformations through “designed simplicity.” They outline the benefits of removing layers of complexity and ambiguity from transformation processes to help staff better cope with today’s unparalleled rate of change, and highlight successful examples from Cargill and Bayer. The pair close the show with actionable recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to implement this approach in their own organizations, and the benefits for doing so.

This episode explores:

The current state of innovation in supply chain (1:08)
Examples from leaders in the 2024 Power of the Profession Awards (3:46)
Hype around generative AI shifting toward reality (6:34)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders driving business value through their innovation efforts (11:54)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Maria Nieradka, a Gartner vice president analyst for supply chain, discuss this year’s growing innovations in supply chain through the lens of Gartner’s 2024 Power of the Profession awards. They dive into the thriving world of innovation within supply chain through standout submissions from Dell, Danone and General Mills. They also touch on generative AI’s heavy impact on the year’s innovations across all spaces, not just technology.

Thomas and Maria close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to drive business value through their innovation efforts.

This episode explores:

How an organization of L’Oréal’s scale stays sufficiently agile to meet customer needs. (2:52)
L’Oréal’s view on e-commerce operations and their evolution. (6:23)
Handling volatility across plan, source, make and deliver capabilities and the wider ecosystem. (10:59)
Building products as “experiences” through additional services. (14:51)
Recommendations to help supply chain leaders keep pace with and adapt to customer needs. (18:42)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Damien Decouvelaere, global CSCO at L’Oréal, explore L’Oréal’s approach to profitably adapting to customer expectations despite significant volatility. Damien walks listeners through the five major trends impacting L’Oréal’s supply chain, most of which stem from evolving customer preferences. Thomas and Damien also discuss L’Oréal’s strategy for diversifying customer experience across distinct markets, especially through customization and e-commerce tools. The pair close the show with three recommendations for supply chain leaders to adapt their operations to customer expectations.

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.

Download the Future of Supply Chain eBook

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.

| Dwight Klappich has been with Gartner for 21 years and has over 40 years of experience in supply chain management applications and technologies, having served in various commercial and leadership roles at technology vendors in this market. Dwight focuses on warehousing and fulfillment technologies plus logistics automation processes, best practices, applications and emerging technologies, such as robotics. |

| 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.

An overview of Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25 ranking — what it measures and what the leading companies are doing differently than others:

New opportunities and how supply chain can respond to risk and drive commercial innovation and growth for its organization. (3:16)
Stories of innovation from organizations in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 (5:51)
The idea of collective progress and how supply chains in the Top 25 are driving it (09:37)
How leading supply chains are transforming how they work to cope with challenges, such as employee burnout, high turnover and lower employee engagement (13:12)
Recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to embody best practices of the Top 25 (18:24)

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner VP analyst Simon Bailey discuss lessons and best practices from Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25.

They explore how companies featured within the Top 25 drive growth and mitigate risks by seizing innovative opportunities, transforming their organizations and engaging in collaborative action across the supply chain landscape. This exploration includes specific examples from the pharmaceutical, retail and automotive industries.

Caroline and Simon also recommend actions for supply chain leaders seeking to integrate these top companies’ practices into their own organizations, including how supply chain can drive business transformation and drive growth.

This episode explores:

Insight into Haleon’s transformation from three supply chains to one big supply chain (0:44)
The role of agility and resilience in Haleon’s supply chain transformation (5:33)
Avoiding change burnout during transformation and disruption (9:28)
Key advice on preventing change burnout for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) (13:56)

Host Thomas O’Connor and Haleon CSCO Bart Derde discuss how Haleon managed its transformation from three distinct consumer pharmaceutical supply chains into one. Bart discusses the transformation’s consumer insight, agility and resilience goals.

Bart shares direct insight into gaining employee buy-in for these transformation initiatives by building agility and resilience into their corporate culture. Thomas and Bart also share recommendations that help supply chain leaders avoid change burnout by connecting interpersonal employee goals with organizational goals.

A tale of two companies — “build-in” vs. “bolt-on” sustainability. What is the difference and what works? (1:27)
How can CSCOs effectively manage the enterprise’s approach to sustainability and risk management? (4:52)
How to build a strong offense for sustainability. (9:28)
How can CSCOs better build sustainability into supply chain capabilities? (11:22)
How can CSCOs make sustainability a part of everyone’s job in supply chain? (14:35)
Key recommendations for CSCOs who are keen to keep sustainability a top enterprise priority. (17:02)

In this Supply Chain Podcast, host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner Research Director Sabu Mathai outline findings from Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Report: Balancing Sustainability and Resilience for Our Climate Future.

They discuss the two types of company responses to sustainability and resilience: “build-in” companies who integrate sustainability as a core tenet of supply chain planning and operations, and “bolt-on” companies who retrofit sustainability onto existing businesses where it is most convenient.

Caroline and Sabu walk through the sustainability benefits and best practices “build-in” companies enjoy, and how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can acquire the necessary attention, accountability and cooperation from their business partners to strengthen their organization’s sustainability efforts.

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Marie Robinson, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer at Sysco, explore recommendations and strategic insights for long-range planning (LRP).

Marie discusses Sysco’s integrated approach to using LRP analytics and data to serve daily operations. This creates organizationwide utility and trust in the LRP process, and it allows Marie and her teams to iterate on LRP models as needed.

Thomas and Marie close the show with recommendations for cleaning and maintaining data inputs that allow supply chain leaders to build more robust LRP plans.

This episode of the Supply Chain Podcast explores:

Overcoming the challenge of improving productivity and what’s at the center of it (01:23)
Defining individual potential in supply chain organizations (03:54)
Unlocking community potential in supply chain organizations (07:08)
Technology’s role in unlocking the collective potential of supply chains (10:16)
Actionable advice for unlocking the individual, community and technological potential of supply chains (15:00)

Host Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Chumakov discuss the keynote for Gartner’s 2023 Supply Chain Symposium: Unlocking the Collective Potential of Supply Chain. They explore the highly complex operating environment CSCOs find themselves in, and the thorny challenge at its heart: the lowest labor-force productivity in decades.

Caroline defines the productivity problem and explains how CSCOs contribute to it with an overt focus on technology over people. Caroline then delivers recommendations for how CSCOs can adapt their organizations to unlock greater collective and holistic productivity from both their people and technology.

Supply Chain Podcast host Thomas O’Connor and Danone COO Vikram Agarwal discuss how Danone is transforming its supply chain to align to customer demands rather than bend to industry drivers. Vikram explains Danone’s key transformational drivers and goals, including improved resiliency and greater manufacturing agility and flexibility. Vikram delivers several strategic recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to implement these same principles, and delves into how digital tools can help these leaders achieve their transformation goals.

With 35 years’ experience in supply chains around the globe, Danone Chief Operations Officer Vikram Agarwal has worked at leading companies, such as Unilever, Avon, Dole Packaged Foods, and at private equity funds. Besides being well-versed with most disciplines within the supply chain, Vikram possesses a successful track record in supply chain turnaround, digitalization of operations, route to market expansion, procurement strategies, new business development, and M&A projects. He is also an avid advocate of sustainability in operations.

This episode explores:

An overview of the scale and scope of Danone’s global supply chain operations. (00:43)
The need for supply chain transformation at Danone. (2:51)
Danone’s major pillars of supply chain transformation. (05:36)
Supply chain transformation’s impact on the financial model at Danone. (09:31)
Sustainability’s role in supply chain transformation at Danone. (12:00)
The key enablers driving Danone’s supply chain transformation. (17:50)

What is a digital twin of the customer? What does it look like and why do we need it? (1:11)
Success stories from organizations investing in a digital twin of the customer. (4:40)
Recommendations for listeners interested in developing a digital twin of the customer. (14:30)

Digital twin of the customer (DToC) remains a nascent technology, and current research is only beginning to uncover its possible use cases, but it has significant potential to change how businesses go to market. In this Supply Chain Podcast, host Caroline Chumakov and guest Beth Coppinger discuss the benefits of employing DToC and how this emerging technology can transform your supply chain by driving growth, improving demand forecasting and enhancing customer experience. This technology can simulate customer behavior and reactions, which will allow supply chain leaders to better sense customer demands and predict the scenarios of how the supply chain should respond to those demands.

Why is British American Tobacco (BAT) trying to act quickly in response to Scope 3 emissions? (1:56)

How do we get internal support to drive change and impact on Scope 3 emissions? (03:00)
What’s changed in the business environment that has allowed this response/change? (4:52)
Examples of what BAT is doing to reduce Scope 3 emissions. (08:20)
The role of data in driving Scope 3 emissions across the different ecosystems. (10:15)
Advice to supply chain leaders looking to reduce Scope 3 emissions. (13:00)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest John O’Reilly, Group Head of Procurement, Strategy and Sustainability at British American Tobacco (BAT), discuss how supply chain leaders can drive mutually beneficial Scope 3 initiatives in collaboration with suppliers. John offers first-hand guidance from BAT’s experiences with Scope 3 initiatives, including earning stakeholder buy-in, leveraging procurement to evaluate supplier priorities and gaps, and identifying win-win opportunities through data. Thomas and John also discuss recommendations that supply chain leaders can use to build connected Scope 3 agendas and awareness for both their organization and their suppliers.

John O’Reilly joined British American Tobacco (BAT) in 2008. As Group Head of Procurement, Strategy and Sustainability, John integrates sustainability across BAT procurement, driving step changes within its global supplier base. This ensures BAT’s suppliers are aligned in achieving BAT’s corporate ESG goals, including climate, human rights, biodiversity and waste. During his tenure, John has contributed to maintaining operational delivery, cost management and security of supply.

Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner VP Analyst Simon Bailey share insights from the Supply Chain Executive Report: Realizing the True Potential of Ecosystem Partnerships. Specifically, they explore how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can capitalize on the various, interconnected value opportunities supply chain ecosystems present.

Simon discusses the benefits of interconnectedness for both individual enterprises and the full ecosystem, such as greater access to innovation and resources as risk is shared among several enterprises. Caroline and Simon also explore recommendations for CSCOs interested in defining and leveraging an ecosystem of their own.

Simon Bailey is a VP analyst in Gartner’s CSCO enablement team, supporting CSCOs’ strategy development in areas including ecosystem strategies, customer centricity and sustainability. His published work includes the Leadership Vision for CSCOs and Gartner’s Supply Chain Strategy Predicts. His recent research focuses on the circular economy, the barriers to ecosystem partnerships and the enablement of new operating outcomes, such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

Host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner Vice President Sarah Watt discuss how the current energy crisis is affecting sustainability initiatives such as net zero for supply chain leaders.

Sarah delves into how supply chain leaders are continuing to advance their sustainability goals by leveraging them to drive business outcomes. She imparts recommendations on how other supply chain leaders can follow suit, and she explores the interlinked future of supply chain and global sustainability initiatives.

This episode explores:

What supply chain leaders are doing in the space of energy and sustainability to drive business impact (01:05)
Three actions everyone can borrow from supply chain leaders (03:11)
Emerging issues for supply chain leaders to be aware of (07:49)
Why climate change adaptation is needed (13:59)
What gives hope for the future ahead of Earth Day 2023 (17:23)

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Jim Cafone, Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain for Pfizer, discuss how supply chain leaders can take ideas for supply chain innovation from their nascent, early stages into large-scale execution.

Jim shares his wealth of innovation experience with Pfizer, including how the organization affects change within its supply chain and the benefits of a “horizontal mindset” for supply chain leaders. He also provides specific examples of these principles in practice, such as Pfizer’s approach to its “An Accord for a Healthier World” initiative.

Innovation: Building from ideas to execution at scale. (1:56)
Driving innovation at Pfizer through the “An Accord for a Healthier World” initiative. (3:55)
What does innovation-related change look like for supply chain operations? (7:43)
The importance of sharing successful and valuable innovation across the world of supply chain. (13:48)
Advice for supply chain leaders looking to drive more value from innovation programs in their organizations. (17:10)

Jim Cafone has been with Pfizer since 2010. In his current role as Senior Vice President of Global Supply Chain, he oversees Pfizer’s global demand forecasting, demand and supply planning, worldwide logistics, and inventory management. In his previous role with Pfizer as Vice President of Network Design and Performance, Jim was responsible for business development, supply chain network design, Pfizer’s lean production system, all performance reporting and analytics, innovation, and recognition programs.

This episode explores:

Reasons behind the emphasis on frontline workers right now (1:00)
How chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can juggle frontline work challenges and approach redesigning the frontline workforce at their organizations (2:18)
How CSCOs design their frontline workforces depending on their appetite for change, and whether they view their workforce as a tool or a cornerstone (5:45)
The different futures of the frontline workforce, with insight from real-world examples (7:30)
Recommendations for CSCOs on the future of frontline work (20:05)

Host Caroline Chumakov and guest Emily Rose McRae discuss the call to action for redesigning frontline work and what the human-technology interface should look like for frontline employees going forward.

Many CSCOs recognize the need to augment their frontline workforces and to deal with the frontline talent shortage but are unsure of the right approach to take when redesigning frontline work. Emily Rose walks through four potential futures of frontline work and shares examples of the human-technology relationship in each.

Emily Rose McRae leads the Future of Work and Talent Analytics research teams in Gartner’s HR practice. While Emily Rose works across all issues that can lead to the future of work, her core areas of focus include emerging technologies and their impact on work and the workforce, new employment models, market and demographic shifts, and workforce planning to anticipate and prepare for these changes. Prior to joining Gartner, Emily Rose worked in management consulting and international development, providing data science support to U.S. government loan programs and microfinance projects in Fiji and Tonga.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Eric O’Daffer explore the current state of innovations in supply chain-driven organizations through the lens of Gartner’s 2023 Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards.

They discuss the Power of the Profession winners and highlight the major themes in supply chain innovations, but also focus intently on how small and mid-cap organizations can drive business value from their innovation efforts. Eric advises supply chain leaders on where to begin their innovation journeys, and how to systematize innovation.

Eric O’Daffer is a VP Analyst in the Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain group. His concentration is on the end-to-end healthcare supply chain, starting at the point of patient care and looking back. He focuses most of his time with providers, examining how they best manage all the components of their supply chains. This involves both their internal processes, as well as best practices for partnering with their suppliers to optimize patient outcomes at the best-delivered cost possible.

99% Perspiration — Eyewitness to Supply Chain Innovation by Eric O’Daffer

Blog is front of paywall and accessible to clients/non-clients.

Amid an ongoing labor shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and massive manufacturing demand for appliances and other consumer goods, GE Appliances, a Haier company, needed to find new ways to attract and retain frontline supply chain workers.

Bill Good, GE Appliances’ vice president of supply chain, talks to host Thomas O’Connor about how the business reevaluated and innovated upon their employee value proposition, as well as its successful hiring initiatives in underserved employee populations, such as with refugees and working parents.

Bill Good is vice president of supply chain at GE Appliances, a Haier company. With 34 years of experience in manufacturing, he places a high value on employee engagement, building relationships, and leading transformational change. Currently, Bill and his team are focusing on expanding plant capacity, increasing automation in the supply chain, and implementing new digital tools to create a “zero distance” approach with consumers. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt, with expertise in Theory of Constraints, Hoshin Planning, and the Toyota Production System.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov and guest Simon Bailey discuss how Gartner’s 2023 Leadership Vision for chief supply chain officers can help CSCOs balance and effectively respond to the upcoming trends, challenges and demands in the new year.

Caroline and Simon specifically explore the “triple squeeze” of inflation and recession’s economic pressures, global constraints on affordable energy, and attracting and retaining supply chain talent, as well as increased boardroom demand for supply chain to both free up cash and enable company growth.

Simon recommends CSCOs avoid short-term solutions and take a balanced, holistic view of these demands as part of long-term planning, and dives into the details of what to prioritize and which tactics to use.

Simon Bailey is a VP Analyst in Gartner’s CSCO Enablement team, supporting chief supply chain officers’ strategy development in areas including ecosystem strategies, customer centricity and sustainability. His published work includes this Leadership Vision for CSCOs and Gartner’s Supply Chain Strategy Predicts. Recent research focuses on circular economy, and the barriers to ecosystem partnerships, and the enablement of new operating outcomes such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Dwight Klappich dive deep into the reasoning behind two of the five predictions in Gartner’s Predicts 2023: Supply Chain Technology. Dwight presents the survey data, key drivers and justification behind both.

They define how composable, microservice-oriented approaches to supply chain management technology will allow organizations to easily mix and match technological capabilities to meet their needs. Then, they discuss how many companies will leverage a singular, interconnected technological platform to manage intralogistics.

Finally, Thomas and Dwight close on a brief overview of the remaining predictions within Predicts 2023 for Supply Chain Technology.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor discusses Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Report: The Future of Supply Chain 2023 with its lead author and podcast guest Jennifer Loveland. They explore how most C-suites have returned to viewing supply chain as a cost center rather than a strategic partner.

Jennifer and Thomas dive deep into how supply chain leaders can combat this view by generating near-term and long-term competitive advantage through commercial innovation that enables customers to get their own jobs done outlining specific examples from Schneider Electric such as “factory-as-a-service”.

They introduce a reinvention strategy covering four key areas- commercial innovation, achieving sustainability outcomes, real-time decision execution and human-centric work design. Each reinvention provides a vision for where to innovate over the next five years to support growth, compete for scarce talent and meet speed and sustainability expectations. Excelling in these areas can help make you an equal strategic partner within the C-suite by pulling ahead of your peers.

In this podcast, guest Pia Orup Lund joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss Gartner’s Maverick Research: The Digital Era — The End Of S&OP? They explore why sales and operations planning’s (S&OP’s) traditional reliance on predefined time horizons and its strict division of responsibility are too simplistic, and how dynamic, impact-focused decision making processes will replace it.

They also describe what these looming changes mean for operational, tactical and strategic stakeholders, and why implementing advanced technologies with AI and advanced analytics helps supply chain leaders monitor and resolve disruptions to their planning efforts.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by guests Lauren Wheatley and Sarah Watt in discussing the ongoing European energy crisis, its impacts upon global supply chains and how supply chain leaders should respond.

They anticipate the ripples of the crisis to continue for at least the next three years, so they explore reports about business viability concerns and rising raw material costs in Europe from affected supply chain leaders. In response, they offer proactive, long-term solutions designed to help you weather the crisis, such investing in on-site renewable energy and managing uncertainty through dynamic scenario planning.

Lauren Wheatley is a research director within Gartner’s Energy and Utilities Industries team. Lauren’s primary focus is advising clients within the energy services and renewable energy domains. Her research interests include renewable energy development and asset management, and how strategic decisions about energy can influence sustainability goals. Through a focus on low-carbon energy strategies, Lauren helps Gartner clients find effective ways to address energy risks within their organizations.

Prior to joining Gartner, Lauren worked within the renewable energy sector. She has a successful, executive track record in strategic planning and implementation, business and team development, and international business growth.

Sarah Watt is research director with Gartner’s Supply Chain Group. Sarah’s research interests include sustainable supply chain, climate change, circular economy, biodiversity loss and responsible sourcing. She helps Gartner clients find more effective ways to apply sustainability principles within the supply chain while balancing multiple organizational priorities. Her work aims to show how embracing sustainability can be profitable for the business while also being good for the planet. She also works with supply chain leaders to link their business strategy to their talent management requirements.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Dana Stiffler discuss how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can attract, retain and engage frontline employees by allowing workers more autonomy and flexibility.

Stiffler provides a real-world example from GE Appliance’s pilot of these practices, and data from Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Report: Supply Chain Success Depends on the Frontline Employee Experience.

In this podcast, guest Noha Tohamy joins host Caroline Chumakov to discuss how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can use Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Supply Chain Strategy, 2022 to make purposeful, informed investment decisions.

We look into our recommended approach to choosing the right key capabilities to invest in, which is to balance risk and upside against the organization’s long-term goals and desired outcomes. Per Gartner’s Hype Cycle research, business capabilities follow a left-to-right progression based on their marketplace maturity: new and relatively unproven capabilities promise large potential benefits but rarely live up to the sky-high expectations. Known but underutilized capabilities may have untapped potential, or may simply fade into obscurity. Proven capabilities typically merit expanded scaling and adoption.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Suzie Petrusic to examine how supply chain performance can drive customer loyalty in a disruptive environment.

Supply chain leaders have traditionally focused on providing customer satisfaction. They rightly presume that customers want high-quality products delivered on time in a convenient way. When problems do arise customers want the supply chain to correct them thoroughly. But there is another, more effective, way of ensuring customer loyalty: through supply chain-driven customer enablement. When customers reported that they took fewer steps to be able to use the products and services they purchased, and when they reported that the packaging, delivery and customization made their jobs much easier, they were more willing to repurchase from that same organization.

Customers who were satisfied said they were 30% to 40% more likely to repurchase from the same organization. But customers who felt enabled said they were 62% for B2B and 80% for B2C more likely to buy again from that organization.

Suzie Petrusic, Ph.D., is the Research Director 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.

Help shape Gartner’s research: Take part in the 2022 Gartner Future of Supply Chain Survey to get a first look at this year’s key trends and we’ll send you a high-level summary of the key findings as soon as it is available. The survey will be open until October 15th.

In this podcast, guest Liz O’Neill, the Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of apparel leader Levi Strauss & Co. joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss the current disrupted supply chain operating environment.

The podcast explores three key areas:

Why during periods of rapid change supply chain leaders need to prioritize hiring head office staff based on personality profile, not just subject matter expertise.
How progress is often slow and nonlinear, and why this makes communication of wins and progress so critical to the success of change management initiatives.
The reality that there is often a tug of war between the needs of innovation and governance within organizations broadly and supply chains specifically.

As executive vice president and chief operations officer for Levi Strauss & Co., Liz O’Neill is responsible for all supply chain operations, including sourcing, end-to-end planning, distribution, logistics and sustainability. Liz also leads companywide innovation, managing LS&Co.’s internal startup capabilities and off-site design lab while simultaneously working closely with the company’s vendor partners to execute its latest product creations. Liz reports to the president and CEO, Chip Bergh, and is a member of the company’s executive leadership team, which guides the strategic direction for LS&Co.

Prior to joining LS&Co., Liz spent 13 years at Gap, where she held leadership roles with the Gap brand and Old Navy and oversaw sourcing and production management for Gap’s global brands. Liz was named one of the “Most Creative People in Business” by Fast Company in 2019 and currently serves on the board of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. Originally from West Point, N.Y., she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Tulane.

Help shape Gartner’s research: Take part in the 2022 Gartner Future of Supply Chain Survey to get a first look at this year’s key trends and we’ll send you a high-level summary of the key findings as soon as it is available. The survey will be open until October 15th.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guest Mark Atwood to discuss the cybersecurity risks faced by supply chains and what CSCOs can do to protect both their enterprise and their ecosystems from such attacks.

Supply chain leaders and CSCOs need to be at the forefront of protecting their supply chains from the increasing threat of cyberattack. Why? Because they are typically in charge of the assets, systems, networks, partners and products that make up the supply chain and therefore the ultimate responsibility for its protection rests with them.

Currently, some organizations have successfully protected their supply chains through the use of audits and assessments across the ecosystem. But there is an effort to bring more automation and tools to bear on the issue as CSCOs strive to get more verification and visibility into both their systems and partners. In the future, there will be high demand to secure employees from a small pool of talent who intimately understand both supply chains and cybersecurity.

In this podcast, guest Alexander Bant joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss how CFOs are responding to three key factors impacting their organizations and what this means for supply chain leaders.

The podcast explores how gaining approval for new investments has recently become more challenging, the latest costs that companies are cutting, and where businesses are continuing to invest despite the challenging conditions.

The episode then drills into nine specific actions related to resource allocation, securing talent and driving digital acceleration that supply chain leaders can take today as they position their organization for success during and after the current market headwinds.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by Joel Knox and Brian Whitlock to discuss the current state of labor, logistics and materials conditions for supply chain leaders around the world.

Looking at the broad trends over the last two years through the lens of the Monthly Supply Chain Alert: July 2022, the metrics show that — simply put — it’s been a rough time for supply chains. For supply chains to thrive, materials, logistics and labor have to come together and move in the right direction. Not only was that not happening, but the metrics show that the polar opposite was occurring. Materials, logistics, and labor were all moving in the wrong direction in terms of availability and price across all major manufacturing regions. Conditions in key commodities began to slowly improve in 1Q22 until the Russian invasion of Ukraine and lockdowns in China because of COVID-19 reversed those nascent trends.

These metrics are also beginning to show the barest hints of an overall improvement in logistics, labor and materials, but far from a return to pre-COVID-19 conditions.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Mike Griswold to discuss trends and insights that have emerged from this year’s Top 25. They include the four following macro trends from the world’s leading supply chain organizations:

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) have begun to evolve into executives who have to navigate and orchestrate across ecosystems.
Organizations are recognizing that supply chains must become more self-stabilizing and able to deal with disruption.
Substantial progress is being made on broader sustainability agendas.
As supply chains engage in digital transformation, human-centric digital automation has started to become more prevalent. Organizations are beginning to consider the convergence of people and technology.

Mike Griswold is a research vice president and team manager covering supply chain talent and sustainability. He and his team are responsible for assisting supply chain leaders in understanding and implementing demand-driven supply chain principles that improve the performance of their supply chain.

In this podcast, guest Pierfrancesco (Pier) Manenti joins host Thomas O’Connor to explore why chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) should care about accelerating demand from intelligent machines, algorithms and bots. This acceleration can be seen in our 2020 Gartner CEO and Senior Executive Survey, which found 61% of CEOs believe that by 2030, demand from machine customers will be significant in their industry, driving a mean of 21% of revenue.

This is the topic for the June Supply Chain Executive Report: Designing a Digital Supply Chain to Respond to Autonomous Machine Customers.

Key ingredients for CSCO success in preparation for accelerating demand from intelligent machines are integrating the partner ecosystem, leveraging data through the end-to-end supply chain, and automating processes and decisions.

In this podcast, guest Ken Chadwick joins host Caroline Chumakov to discuss two highlights from the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium keynote address, which was presented 6 June 2022 in Orlando, Florida.

The key theme: using an offset strategy to manage disruption. An offset strategy involves a three-step process: sense, shift and steer. Supply chain leaders must sense the issue or opportunity, shift their thinking to get ahead, then steer resources to the biggest priorities.

The podcast touches on two offset areas.

Cognitive overload: Employees feel the need to do too many things. Use automation to reduce cognitive burden and focus employee energy on decisions that matter most. Use decision modeling to clarify what good decisions look like.

Energy instability: The demand for energy is growing, but energy resources and power grids are becoming less dependable, leaving supply chains vulnerable. Evaluate energy vulnerabilities within your supply chain ecosystem, and seek to diversify your energy portfolio with renewable energy.

Ken Chadwick is a research vice president covering global supply chain organization design, governance, talent development, change management and organization behavior. Using in-depth cross-industry research and insight into trends, he provides advice to supply chain leaders on how best to engage people and organizations to address the growing complexity of 21st century supply chains.

In this podcast, guest Christian Titze joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss The 2022 Strategic Supply Chain Technology Themes, with a focus on digital supply chain twin, analytics everywhere and sustainability tools.

Awareness of these themes is critical, as chief supply chain officers and other supply chain leaders continue to face gridlock brought about by disruptions. As leaders build understanding of these key themes, they can crystalize a clear digital supply chain vision, strategy and plan.

Supply chain leaders undertaking this work need a clear, defined roadmap to be able to separate hype from reality. For example, they can use Gartner Hype Cycles to look at maturity and adoption rates, along with the speed of evolution and use cases. Leaders can then build their roadmap to their desired level of digitalization and transformation.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by Tim Payne and Frank Buytendijk to discuss Gartner Maverick research that defies prevailing wisdom by showing that a reliance on demand-driven forecasting can be not just dangerous — but deadly — to your supply chain.

A fixation with the demand-driven principle and a myopic focus on the accuracy of forecasts lead to rigid and fragile supply chain plans that are unexecutable amid the uncertainty and volatility of the modern business environment. Instead, supply chain leaders should concentrate on plans driven by that very uncertainty and volatility so they can achieve the resilience they need to succeed within today’s disruptive landscape.

In the podcast, Payne suggests supply chain professionals should not be obsessed with forecast accuracy. Rather, they should examine the best-case, likely-case and worst-case scenarios and apply the principles of “probabilistic” forecasting to take the uncertainty into account.

In this podcast, guest Heather Wheatley joins host Caroline Chumakov to discuss Supply Chain Adaptation Responses to a Changing Climate. As climate change shifts the rules of the game, supply chains are having to adapt to increasingly numerous and unfamiliar disruptions.

Gartner is exploring the concept of supply chain adaptation by examining how chief supply chain officers are thinking about climate change and how they can respond to the risks as their severity and probability escalate. This podcast delves into the importance of using risk assessment and scenario planning activities hand in hand to make decisions on future planning.

Heather Wheatley is a senior director for the Gartner Supply Chain Enablement Team. Heather provides insights and advisory support to chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and heads of strategy on risk management and sustainability challenges affecting end-to-end supply chains. Her work aims to show how proactive supply chain risk management can increase stakeholder value, enhance agility and help deliver organizational goals.

In this podcast, guest Sarah Watt joins host Thomas O’Connor to discuss sustainability trends as we celebrate Earth Day.

Some of the biggest environmental impacts are within the value chain, including in the sourcing of raw materials. CSCOs, as custodians of environmental impact, also face external pressures. For example, investors are paying much closer attention to environmental, social and governance performance. Climate change risks are also an important topic to employees, who expect companies to take action on sustainability.

This conversation touches on three key trends — changing greenhouse gas emissions, long-term resource preservation, and the use of technology to drive sustainability.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Eric O’Daffer to discuss the winners of Gartner’s eighth annual Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards. The awards honor inspiring innovations at organizations around the globe in the areas of process, technology, customer and patient care, human breakthroughs, and social impact.

From the 84 submissions in four categories, this year’s four winners are:

Pfizer, for Customer or Patient Innovation of the Year, as well as Supply Chain Breakthrough of the Year
Schneider Electric, for Process or Technology Innovation of the Year
Shell, for People Breakthrough of the Year
Microsoft, for Social Impact of the Year

The stories of these winners — each of which has built an internal process to foster innovation — should inspire CSCOs to learn more about the Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards. It should also interest them in examining where innovation is coming from at their own organizations.

In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov is joined by Dana Stiffler to discuss the current state of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in supply chain, and what chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can do to further their DEI ambitions in the context of the war on talent.

This episode will explore findings that reinforce the necessity of DEI objectives and goal-setting and how crucial those can be in attracting, retaining, and engaging the largest possible pools of talent. It will unpack what actions CSCOs can take to create inclusive supply chain leaders.

The discussion will also cover what initiatives CSCOs should implement to make diversity, equity and inclusion easier to achieve on a leadership level and in talent processes.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guests Meghan O’Doherty and Thomas Pocock to discuss what chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can do to avoid accepting the skill gap myth as fact. The guests discuss how the expectations that supply chain leaders now have of their staff members have grown exponentially during the years to include strategic skills that these workers may not have previously displayed. If your team isn’t consistently displaying the strategic skills you need, don’t subscribe to the skill gap myth, as it might be that there is something about your functional climate that doesn’t allow your team to apply those skills.

Podcast based on Procurement’s Skill Gap Myth: Addressing Strategic Deficiencies Through Functional Climate

In this special podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guest, Koray Kose, to discuss the possible impacts that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could have on global supply chains.

Organizations should expect to face significant supply chain issues — including key material shortages, material cost increases, production capacity impacts, demand volatility, capacity constraints and cybersecurity breaches. To mitigate these issues, organizations can immediately start creating first-tier visibility into existing supply networks. They can continue to commit and secure product supply volumes for the most fragile supply chains and increase resilience by deploying strategic redundancies.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor is joined by guests Suzie Petrusic and Joanne Joliet to discuss what chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can do to combat supply chain gridlock.

The discussion centers on how a series of constraints, policies and high-impact disruptions have led to a case of worldwide bottlenecks. This amounts to much more than mere traffic jams, port congestion and container shortages. Disruptions caused by climate change, health issues, natural disasters, trade policies and tariffs have led to a situation in which events that cause the supply chain to grind to a halt in one area have stalled supply chain activities in a host of other areas.

We explore actions CSCOs can take in this environment — for example, prioritizing sourcing, taking fresh looks at planning approaches and innovating manufacturing processes. CSCOs must drive collaboration and empower their teams to make the right decisions during this challenging time.

In this podcast, guest Dwight Klappich joins co-hosts Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Chumakov to discuss Predicts 2022: Supply Chain Technology. With things changing so quickly, Gartner is exploring the medium-term future in order to help CSCOs make calculated risks based on our research. Specifically, two predictions are explored during the podcast:

By 2026, more than 75% of commercial supply chain management applications vendors will deliver embedded advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and data science.
Through 2025, 25% of supply chain decisions will be made across intelligent edge ecosystems.

Organizations are focused on investing in digital transformation and decision making, evaluating technology that can help them become more agile, adaptive and flexible. This decision making involves embedded intelligence and data science. Those with greater risk tolerance and resources are the earlier adopters. To make the transition from early adopter to mainstream, more packaged solutions need to be available — and vendors are responding.

We discuss how enhanced decision making is a top funding priority for supply chains because quality, speedy decisions are increasingly important. Supply chains are getting more complex and the number of disruptive events is increasing. Supply chains have to be more responsive, which is causing companies to rethink their IT architectures. More decision making is being pushed to the edge, which requires the ability to make rapid decisions in near real time, as close to the point of need as possible. More investment will be needed to build this.

In this podcast, guest Simon Bailey joins co-hosts Thomas O’Connor and Caroline Chumakov to discuss Predicts 2022: Supply Chain Strategy. With things changing so quickly, Gartner is exploring the medium-term future in order to help CSCOs make calculated risks based on our research.

A key topic discussed is how, when it comes to driving transformation and business impact, CSCOs are recognizing the critical role of collaborative digital ecosystems. How, to achieve competitive success, organizations are bringing together competitors, governments, non-governmental organizations, academia and startups such that they can compete as an ecosystem rather than discrete, individual firms.

We also explore the “Say-Do Gap.” Many organizations have made public commitments in areas including sustainability and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). However, some have yet to put solid plans in place to deliver these goals. Those organizations that are reporting progress toward their objectives and actively driving to close gaps with action are the ones that are seeing the benefits. This is a key driver behind two of our predictions: that by 2024, 70% of global organizations will report supply chain performance against corporate DEI objectives, and that by 2025, 90% of public sustainable packaging commitments won’t be met due to reliance on plastics and single-use packaging.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Suzie Petrusic explore the future of supply chain. This conversation draws on analysis of our Future of Supply Chain Survey of nearly 1,000 supply chain leaders. The ultimate determination: CSCOs must reinvent the supply chain in four substantial ways. These reinventions must focus on human-centric design, dynamic execution of real-time decisions, authentic achievement of sustainability and commercial innovation-driven growth.

The conversation highlights how a shift from a location-centric to a human-centric work design will address advances in technology, changes that come with different generations of workers and the global supply chain talent shortage expected over the next three to five years. The discussion offers a real-world example of how Siemens has leveraged citizen developers to accelerate automation.

Next the discussion explores how supply chains need to shift from operational excellence to driving commercial innovation and concludes by recommending what supply chain leaders should think about heading into the new year.

In short, this is an opportunity for the supply chain not just to respond to the reinventions demanded of it, but an opportunity to drive the world to that reinvented future.

See Supply Chain Executive Report: The Future of Supply Chain 2022 for deeper and additional insights into the topics discussed during this podcast.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Noha Tohamy explore improving decision quality with reciprocal human-machine augmentation. A confluence of forces is eroding supply chain domain knowledge while increasing the reliance on advanced analytics in making supply chain decisions. CSCOs and heads of strategy can adopt innovative approaches to harness the combined intelligence of humans and machines for better decision quality such as:

Crowdsourcing: Extend crowdsourcing principles to include humans and machines as equal contributors. Humans can bring their insights and predictions based on domain knowledge, while machines and algorithms can contribute data and analytics-based insights. Use this combination to improve decision quality.
Data Literacy: Develop staff to understand and speak data and analytics. This will allow humans to better augment machines. By understanding data, humans can augment their decisions with analytics insights and recommendations.

The discussion provides two real-world examples of leveraging these strategies from Cisco and Western Digital.

See Supply Chain Executive Report: Improve Decision Quality With Reciprocal Human-Machine Augmentation for deeper and additional insights into the topics discussed during this podcast.

Explore Gartner’s playbook for a Three-Step Plan for Supply Chain Digital Transformation: https://gtnr.it/3ox1qDt

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Jennifer Loveland explore the continual growth of supply chain complexity. CSCOs must apply a life cycle management approach to the supply chain operating model as an antidote to this complexity.

The conversation provides real-world examples from Schneider Electric and Siemens, then finishes up by providing five actions that life cycle owners can take to address issues across the five phases within the Supply Chain Architecture Life Cycle (SCALe), which are summarized here:

Retire — Gain value by actually eliminating complexity, not by simply saying that you will focus on doing so.
Align — The best check on complexity is to avoid adding it. When required, prioritize complexity that improves competitive position.
Create — Building operating model composability helps structure complexity, making changes to meet needs easier, faster and cheaper.
Execute — Leverage ecosystem partners and technology in new ways to capitalize on composability investments.
Sustain — Use voice-of-the-user insights to regularly assess existing complexity and identify areas to reinvent processes using composability principles.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Pier Manenti explore the concept of partner ecosystems, which nearly every organization today engages with in some way or another. Supply chain’s role in enabling the ecosystem is critical. Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) have the opportunity to integrate partners by going beyond linear interactions and extending the ecosystem to a broader network of entities.

The conversation showcases real-world insights from Colgate-Palmolive and Kimberly-Clark, and concludes by offering actions that supply chain leaders can take to engage their trading partners in a digital supply chain ecosystem, briefly summarized here as:

Increase the understanding within your organization.
Blaze a clear strategy and roadmap.
Create a true ecosystem of partners.
Prioritize investments in digitalization.
Grow and scale the business value of the ecosystem.

Episode HighlightsBeth Coppinger explores:

The definition of customer experience (CX). (02:01)

Utilizing the practice of customer experience management to develop and deploy strategic plans that enable the business to come together cross-functionally to create a customer-centric culture which enhances customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. (02:40)

Real-world example from Lenovo on how to use the customer voice to shift organization mindset and culture. (06:56)

Real-world example from Dow on correlating operational metrics, with customer experience metrics and business metrics to prove out the ROI of CX investments. (10:04)

What will become more relevant to understanding customer wants and needs over the next three years. (13:48)

Key actions leading supply chains can take to become a more customer-centric organization. (16:26)

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Caroline Chumakov explore the challenges of generational workforce change as Millenials solidify their roles in our businesses while those from the Gen Z cohort increasingly enter the workforce.

The conversation explores key topics such as why supply chains need to rethink their employment value proposition and provides real-world examples from companies such as winemaker E&J Gallo as well as medical device, pharmaceutical and consumer products manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. It then finishes up by investigating four key actions that CSCOs can take as they look to attract and retain Gen Z and millennial talent.

See Supply Chain Executive Report: Revolutionize Talent By Winning With Gen Z and Millennials for deeper and additional insights into the topics discussed during this podcast.

Subscribe to The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Run Time: 23:18 minutes

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Sarah Watt explore purpose-driven enterprises. Purpose-driven organizations create value not only for shareholders, but also for stakeholder groups — including customers, suppliers, local communities and employees.

Creating a purpose-driven enterprise is relatively new. Listen to a discussion about how CSCOs can take action to move on the continuum from being profit-centric to purpose-driven. The conversation provides real-world examples from Solvay and General Mills, then finishes up by providing five actions that supply chain leaders can take as they look to make their organizations more purpose-driven:

Executive commitment: Integrate purpose into the supply chain strategy, decision-making processes and metrics.
Portfolio management: Review the pipeline for unintended consequences and advise stakeholders on raw materials selection.
Partner ecosystems: Identify opportunities for innovation and collaboration.
Employee engagement: Provide employees with decision-making frameworks and build a culture in alignment with enterprise purpose.

Governance: Diversify metrics to go beyond financial performance and include other stakeholder groups.

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guests Suzie Petrusic and Sarah Watt investigate the increasingly complex risk environment supply chains are operating within. They explore how most supply chain leaders are focusing on increased agility, resilience and visibility, while leaders are complementing these efforts with an approach that focuses on reducing the supply chain surface area. This concept translates to having less movement within the supply chain combined with a smaller overall footprint.

The discussion provides real-world examples from Stanley Black & Decker as well as First Solar, before closing out by looking at the two key actions supply chain leaders need to take as they look to shape supply chain disruption in their organizations:

Developing a disruption-shaping strategy and obtaining enterprise support for it
Designing and maintaining a disruption-shaping supply chain

See Supply Chain Executive Report: Shaping Supply Chain Disruption in a New Era of Risk for deeper and additional insights into the topics discussed during this podcast.

Subscribe to The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Run Time: 20:46 minutes

In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Tom Enright ask the question: Are we navigating a less global world? They explore, using real world examples, how the definition and concept of globalization is being rewritten while the formation of trading blocs and country alliances are forcing change within global supply chains. Reforming them into more purposeful, directional and geographically specific models. The discussion closes out by identifying four key actions that supply chain leaders need to take as they look to lead their organizations through a world that will continue to feel less global in how it trades, while achieving the goals of global growth.

Gartner clients can access the research report associated with this podcast at: https://www.gartner.com/document/4001081

In this podcast Thomas O’Connor and Ken Chadwick introduce the concept of the social supply chain, investigating how supply chain leadership architects and leads the supply chain community. They explore, using real world examples, why leaders need to be engaged with and enable their diverse community to work in more dynamic, collaborative ways such that they can drive rapid responses in an increasingly complex, ever-changing world. The discussion closes out by recommending five key actions supply chain leaders need to be taking as they look to break down silos and enable a more integrated and social supply chain organization.