In today’s dynamic business environment, successful collaboration with suppliers is essential. However, this is no small feat. According to McKinsey & Company, auto manufacturers, on average, have around 250 tier-one suppliers and up to 18,000 total suppliers across the entire value chain. Aerospace manufacturers have an average of 200 tier-one suppliers and 12,000 across all tiers, and technology companies have an average of 125 tier-one suppliers and more than 7,000 across all tiers. 

How should you approach aligning and collaborating with your suppliers to ensure a resilient supply chain?

In this episode, host Caleb Masters and Joerg Hellwig, an investor and the former Chief Digital Officer at LANXESS, discuss:

His career journey to becoming Chief Digital Officer at LANXESS and his latest ventures as an investor

Why it’s important to align production plans across suppliers and multiple tiers

The importance of including suppliers and customers in the IBP process

How to filter relevant risk signals from suppliers to generate actionable insights

According to McKinsey, 67% of businesses that attempt digital transformations fail to achieve the maximum financial benefits from their original goals. 

Forbes cites a lack of shared vision, accountability, and innovation as key contributors to these failures. Ensuring that large-scale digital transformations deliver the desired long-term impact remains an immense challenge.

How can today’s technology leaders ensure their digital and cultural transformations stick?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Robert Weltevreden, the former head of technology at Novartis, joins host Caleb Masters to discuss:

His career journey to becoming a member of the Novartis Exec Team as Head of Customer & Technology Solutions (responsible for Business Services & Digital Transformation)

The common hurdles to achieving a successful digital transformation and widespread new tech adoption

How design thinking and the “pyramid of change” can enhance the end-user experience and enable successful implementations

The importance of working with partners to ensure a successful implementation

According to a recent study by Gartner, through 2024, more than 80% of digital strategies will fail to deliver value because of a lack of alignment and collaboration between IT and business units. There's a clear leadership opportunity for technology executives to step up and enable their businesses to achieve successful digital transformations.

However, separate research by Gartner reports that 63% of CIOs and CTOs find it challenging to articulate the business value of IT within their organizations.

How can CIOs and CTOs demonstrate their value and transform the perception of their position from order takers into more strategic roles in the eyes of the board?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Rhonda Vetere joins host Caleb Masters to discuss:

Her career journey to becoming one of the most powerful women in technology from CTO at Estée Lauder to CIO of Herbalife, including her critical work as a Global STEM Ambassador and prolific triathlete.

How IT leaders can position themselves as strategic business partners by working with teams cross-functionally to generate top-line revenue.

Building high-performance teams and developing processes prepared for emerging technologies.

According to a recent study conducted by PwC, 41% of consumers stated they are willing to pay additional fees. With consumer expectations further shifting to an always-on virtual e-commerce experience, same day delivery expenditure is expected to reach $15.6 billion by 2025 in the U.S. alone.

Additional research from McKinsey & Company recently reported that mature integrated business planning (IBP) processes increased sales opportunities by as much as 50%, improved service levels up to 20%, and lowered freight costs by 10 to 15%.

How can companies leverage the next generation of IBP technology to win in the marketplace and simultaneously optimize cost and service? 

In this episode, host Caleb Masters is joined by Darrell Edwards, the former COO of La-Z-Boy, to discuss:

Why today’s consumer expectations have increased complexity for supply chains

How next-generation IBP technology is reshaping the way supply chain delivers results

Leading teams through the adoption of new IBP technologies

Building a supply chain workforce equipped for major industry evolutions—or for the innovations emerging seemingly overnight—can be a complex challenge.

Consider generative AI, for instance. We're currently witnessing an AI boom that could potentially reshape the way employees work across various. A recent CNBC survey found that 47% of top technology —including chief information security officers and chief technology officers—state that artificial intelligence is their number one budget priority for the coming year.

Just five years ago, the results produced by generative AI were unimaginable for 2023. Yet, a recent study by Accenture reveals that only 38% of supply chain executives believe their workforce is mostly or completely prepared to adopt the technological tools already available to them. Thus, the demand for tech-savvy, innovative supply chain professionals has never been higher.

How can supply chain leaders anticipate the roles they'll need in five years and start hiring and developing talent today?

In this episode of "Masters of Digital Transformation," Peter Bolstorff, Executive Vice President at the Association for Supply Chain Management, joins the show to discuss

His career journey: from a background in math and psychology education to becoming the Executive Vice President of the Association for Supply Chain Management.

Strategies to attract, hire, and retain the top talent necessary for achieving digital transformation success in today's rapidly evolving supply chains.

The crucial role that upskilling and reskilling will play in shaping and predicting the future of work amidst emerging AI technologies.

According to a PWC survey from 2020, 34 percent of CFO’s indicated that “supply chain issues were among their top three concerns.” Another 30 percent indicated that they were considering making changes to the existing supply chain due to the pandemic. Simultaneously, McKinsey & Company conducted a survey reporting 92% of supply chain executives had successfully made their supply chains more flexible, agile, and resilient. 

Supply chain leaders had the ears of their c-suite and board to achieve operational changes and reshape how businesses work.

How can supply chain leaders leverage to retain their influence in their organization?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Radu Palamariu, the managing director of Alcott Global and the Global Head of the Supply Chain & Logistics Practice, joins the show to discuss:

His career journey to becoming managing director at Alcott Global

The role talent management plays in the ongoing pain points felt by supply chains

How supply chain executives can leverage the unique opportunity they have at the board room table to gain buy-in for their SC transformation initiatives

Critical lessons from supply chain leaders in his book From Source to Sold

The world of today and the years ahead presents a cocktail of unprecedented challenges to business leaders. Sustained delivery of growth and profitability has become more complex considering challenges of climate, inflation, geo-political risks, and the imperative to drive sustainability while building resilience and agility. The good news – this sets the ideal stage for supply chains to rise to the occasion and operate at their full potential as strategic differentiators that impact the triple bottom line.

But realizing this state requires supply chain leaders to move beyond “a seat at the table.” Instead, they need to lead it.

In this episode, host Caleb Masters is joined by Vineet Khanna, former SVP and Global Head of Supply Chain at Nestlé, to explore:

His career journey, progressing from management trainee to Global Head of Supply Chain at Nestlé.

The pivotal role of supply chain leaders in driving high-performing teams to surmount today's unique business challenges and satisfy customer demand.

The broader societal responsibilities of successful businesses beyond merely meeting demand and securing a profitable bottom line.

How to leverage technology to align culture investments with tangible business outcomes.

According to the EPA,90% of a company’s environmental impact comes from its Supply Chain. Despite a majority of senior Supply Chain executives stating they are putting an increased emphasis on establishing and delivering against net-zero targets, nearly 1 in 5 do not have a net-zero strategy or know where to begin, and half of the executives don’t have an integrated scorecard to measure supply chain sustainability results.

Organizations need to understand, measure and reduce their environmental impact. Unfortunately, most of it occurs in the far corners of their supply chains, spanning suppliers and logistics providers. But the visibility of their extended networks is a must if companies are to make better decisions for the planet.

According to Montse Montaner, the former Chief Sustainability Officer at Novartis, “It is imperative for the business to take action. Businesses need to transform their supply chain and operations to make it sustainable.”

But how do you use visibility to deliver against your sustainability targets while optimizing profitability?

In this episode, Montaner joins Masters of Digital Transformation to share:

Her career journey in sustainability before becoming the CSO of Novartis

The value of leading sustainability initiatives with a focus on people, health and the planet

How to leverage technology to increase visibility and help build more sustainable supply chains

Supply chain organizations are losing talent—fast.

While most departments suffered high levels of attrition during the Great Resignation period of the pandemic, “turnover is 33% higher in supply chain organizations compared to pre-pandemic levels,” according to Gartner,

With nearly half of employees saying they are open to leaving their jobs in a recent Gallup survey, the market for highly qualified talent remains tight.

As supply chain functions struggle to attract, hire and retain the uniquely skilled talent required to operate world-class networks, how should leaders adapt their approach to building the high-performing teams required to drive digital transformation success?

In this episode, we sit down with Tracey Allen, Vice President of IT Procurement at Nokia, to discuss how she’s developed the teams, leadership and talent uniquely suited to drive digital transformations in procurement throughout her career.

Tracey joins host Caleb Masters to cover: 

How she built her IT procurement team and unlocked their potential to deliver results while working remotely during the pandemic.

Why listening and leading with empathy is essential to maximizing your team and department’s performance.

Her approach to leveraging a unique strengths-based approach to coaching individuals within a high-performing team

At the end of 2022, we examined the biggest supply chain pain points we expected to see across the globe and how organizations might address them, from diversifying supply sources to ease the pain from global shortages to leveraging planning technology to make networks more resilient. 

The demand for enterprise planning technology has not slowed down since. A recent Gartner survey reported that 87% of senior business leaders say making digital investments remains a priority this year.

With 2023 now halfway over, it’s the perfect time to step back and do a pulse check on the main digital transformation challenges supply chain leaders are facing.

In this episode, we sit down with Matt Gabriel, Vice President of Supply Chain Global Consulting at Genpact, to discuss the state of supply chain digital transformations in 2023 based on what the global professional services firm has seen amongst their clients. 

Matt joins host Caleb Masters to explore:

Why data is the most critical topic (no one wants to talk about)

“Good decisions based on bad data are just bad decisions waiting to come to light later.”

What the end result of digital transformation should be

"It comes back to the visibility, the agility, adaptability, those items that have obviously become buzzwords over the past few years, but the digital transformations that clients go through; it's really about enabling those things to happen.

How to think differently about change management

“I think your change management as a capability really needs a bit of a rebranding because you're really talking about success insurance.”

Gregory Polcer shares his experience shaping company culture through change management to achieve successful digital transformations.

According to Peter Drucker, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Executing a digital transformation strategy without the correct culture, employee buy-in, and subsequent behavior is impossible. Related, a recent study from Gallup reported that just 23% of employees surveyed strongly agree that they can apply their organization's values to their work every day, and only 27% strongly agree that they believe in their organization's values.

Two questions can help organizations gauge their cultural readiness for digital transformation:

Can your employees clearly articulate the “What it’s in it for me?” of the transformation? Are there changemakers or coaches at every level of the organization who are tapped into employee sentiment and can influence the organization?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Gregory Polcer, former EVP and CSCO at Estée Lauder, weighs in on the critical role of an organization’s culture and overall change management strategy in helping it meet its digital transformation goals.

In this episode, Gregory joins host Caleb Masters to cover:

Why it’s important to gain employee buy-in and for employees to clearly understand the WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) before, during, and even after a digital transformation.

The role early adopters, coaches and changemakers play in shaping the culture and perception of organizational shifts.

How to gauge employee sentiment and educate the workforce about the benefits of the new technology and processes related to your digital transformation. 

By 2026, Statista estimates that spending on digital transformation will reach $3.4 trillion. And yet, according to a recent study by McKinsey, around 70% of these initiatives fail.

And while each initiative may fail for its own reason — resistance to change, lack of a clear vision and strategy, or insufficient executive buy-in — there tends to be commonalities across those that succeed.

One such commonality, according to Gustavo Ghory, former CSCO of Kimberly-Clark, is that the leaders of these programs continually revisit two crucial questions that act as the “heartbeat” of transformation, keeping the whole organization in rhythm and working together toward the same goal:

Is our digital transformation progressing at the right pace?

Are we making incremental progress toward our goals?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Gustavo joins us to share his experiences cutting through the fog of supply chain transformation and his perspective on leadership's role in setting the right pace for change management and decision-making for successful technology adoption.

Gustavo joins host Caleb Masters to cover:

His career journey to becoming CSCO of Kimberly-Clark

Why the pace of decision-making must align with the organization’s long-term digital transformation goals.

The role leadership plays in managing the pace of decision-making to keep the organization’s “heart” rhythm pumping.

Tune in now to get actionable transformation insights from a seasoned supply chain executive.

Maximizing efficiency through strategic technology investments is crucial for supply chain organizations in 2023. In fact, a recent Gartner survey reveals that 61% of respondents view technology as a key competitive advantage.

Join us on Masters of Digital Transformation as we welcome Francesco Tinto, former CIO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, to share his insights from his three-decade-long career journey in enterprise technology. He'll delve into the intricacies of evaluating tech stacks, emphasizing the significance of the technology user experience in ensuring successful adoption and driving stronger business results.

In this episode, host Caleb Masters and Francesco Tinto explore:

Francesco's path to becoming CIO of Walgreens Boots Alliance

The criticality of comprehending the relationship between individual use cases and your tech stack

The necessity of choosing flexible and extensible technology solutions

The impact of UI/UX on technology adoption and usage rates

Discover how to future-proof your technology investments by ensuring they're adaptable, scalable, and ready for growth.

The past four years have sparked a profound shift in how we think about supply chains and business. Geopolitical conflicts, trade wars, macroeconomic uncertainty, and extreme demand and supply volatility have forced companies to take a hard look at the vulnerabilities of their operations, driving the discussion on enterprise planning and decision-making all the way to the boardroom.

Leading this movement is a group of forward-thinking companies challenging the status quo of planning and decision-making and embracing advanced technologies to enable more resilient, agile, and sustainable operations. aim10x global 2023—o9 Solutions’ flagship virtual event—showcases the innovative spirit of these organizations.

What pressing topics and ideas were discussed?

In this special episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, host Caleb Masters takes a look at the major aim10x global 2023 highlights, including:

How Pirelli simulates supply chain scenarios with full visibility into how potential decisions will impact financial KPIs such as EBIT.

What next-generation capability PepsiCo leverages to align all functions, from Supply Chain to Finance, behind one plan for the future.

Why two former CEOs turned sustainability trailblazers believe sustainability and profitability are no longer mutually exclusive.

According to a study conducted by McKinsey & Company, research estimates disruptions lasting a month or longer are occurring every 3.7 years on average, costing consumer goods companies one-third of a year’s earnings every decade. To remain competitive, CPG companies must be more agile than ever in responding to shifting consumer behavior, quickly evolving macroeconomic conditions such as inflation, and supply chain constraints such as global shortages.

Few companies have adapted to the change better than Resideo, a $5+ billion business that puts people in charge of their home comfort, safety, security, and energy efficiency and is a top global distributor of security, fire, and low-voltage products.

Resideo’s Global IBP & Data Analytics Director, Gerard Couderc, says, “the key to success was embracing both top-down and bottom-up approaches to change management at the same time.”

What other lessons can be gleaned from Resideo’s transformation journey?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, we’ll cover:

Register for aim10x global 2023—o9 Solutions’ two-day online event on enterprise planning and decision-making—to learn from Gerard and other business leaders, such as former Unilever CEO and sustainability trailblazer Paul Polman, the SVP and CDO of Pirelli, Pier Paolo Tamma, and the CSTO of Pepsico, Dr. Athina Kanioura today!

According to digital transformation visionary Sanjiv Sidhu “A large percentage of digital transformations fail because people are not clear about what they are trying to do.” Sidhu is the inspirational co-founder of i2 Technologies and o9 Solutions: Two multi-billion dollar companies. Throughout his career, he has consistently aimed to revolutionize the supply chain with technology to help global companies across a variety of industries transform their planning and decision-making capabilities in an age of volatility and complexity.

What are the secrets he’s gleaned from his wealth of experience?

In this episode, Sidhu joins host Caleb Masters to discuss:

Learn more about how o9 Solutions is enabling businesses to build sustainable supply chains by reading the blog, “Sustainability is at the top of the agenda for companies.”

Forecasting is a critical activity enabling companies to predict future demand, mitigate potential risks, and capitalize on emerging opportunities. With today’s leaders having more data than ever at their fingertips, traditional forecasting methods, siloed processes, and legacy technologies without the capabilities to provide insights are holding organizations back. According to data recently reported by Forrester, “46% of data and analytics business and technology decision-makers are seeking out partners to implement AI critical to the business.”

How can emerging next-generation platforms powered by AI/ML help supply chain leaders navigate today’s volatile landscape?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, host Caleb Masters is joined by Knut Alicke, Partner, McKinsey & Company, and Umesh Arasu, Chief Product Officer, o9 Solutions, to discuss:

Learn more about how artificial intelligence helps businesses in practical use cases by reading our blog, “It’s a Toy Story,” covering the use of AI in the retail industry to anticipate demand for the holiday season.

The global supply chain has arguably experienced more challenges in the past five years than it has in the past fifty. Geopolitical conflict, materials sourcing issues, and rising inflation have made supply chain planning and decision-making an even more complex and uncertain task for global enterprises.

At the same time, clients, employees, and governments have been putting more pressure on companies to deliver against their sustainability targets and operationalize their ESG initiatives, with a recent EY study reporting that in 2022, 82% of CEOs see ESG as a critical value driver—a significant increase compared to 2019 (42%).

As 2022 closes, many business leaders are asking themselves what the top supply chain challenges will be in 2023 and how they can leverage data, analytics, and software to proactively address them.

In this episode, Maria P. Villablanca, Co-Founder and CEO of Future Insights Network,and Tanguy Calliet, SVP of Global Industry Solutions at o9 Solutions, join host Caleb Masters to discuss their top supply chain challenges to watch in 2023, including:

Read the o9 blog, Overcoming ESG data challenges at a critical time, to learn more.

It’s clear that S&OP matters to businesses, but it’s not always clear who should be in charge of this process. According to Richard Markoff, supply chain researcher, lecturer, and co-author of The Digital Supply Chain Challenge: Breaking Through, companies with a robust S&OP process “won” the pandemic. But while many companies' S&OP processes carried them through the pandemic, many organizations’ S&OP governance is murky at best, leading to unnecessary tension, failure to achieve alignment across key functions, and value leakage in the form of poorer customer service, higher inventory, longer lead times, and less stable production rates.

How can business leaders ensure their S&OP processes set every function up for overall success?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Richardjoins Patrick Lemoine, VP of Industry Solutions at o9 Solutions, and host Caleb Masters to explore which function(s) should own the S&OP process, as well as:

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn how to break through S&OP challenges at your organization.

Learn more by checking out the o9 Solutions sales and operations planning landing page.

__________________________________________________________

Timestamps:

(1:33) Why S&OP is an area of opportunity for businesses.

(5:08)What key areas should business leaders focus on related to S&OP for the long run?

(8:18)The owner of the demand plan has to be general management.

(12:07)The importance of having an end-to-end view of your business.

(16:35) What is the underlying tension in S&OP governance?

(21:21) What is a linear supply chain, and why is it important?

(26:24)The logic of the matrix organization.

(29:45) How can supply chain leaders take these findings to their general managers and get them to take the next steps?

Whether a leader is guiding an organization through a digital transformation or keeping a team of Blue Angel pilots in a precise formation for a 53-minute flight, one necessary leadership skill can make all the difference both in a military or corporate scenario: building trust is paramount to a team’s success.

In fact, organizations that build high-trust levels are more productive, outperforming low-trust organizations by 186%, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

So what can leaders do to set a strong foundation to build high-performing, cohesive teams?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, host Caleb Masters is joined by David Koss, Leadership and Values Coach at o9 Solutions, to discuss:

Learn more by reading the o9 Blog, Choose the Right Demand Planning Resources.

McKinsey projects that “worldwide demand for electric vehicles (EVs) will grow sixfold from 2021 through 2030, with annual unit sales going from 6.5 million to roughly 40 million over that period.”

This level of growth calls for a massive amount of innovation and investment in the automotive industry. With new regulations, emerging technologies, and shifting consumer preferences, industry leaders must be ready for what is to come. From the rupture of the past two years, supply chain crisis after supply chain crisis, and the stubborn semiconductor issue, what can the automotive industry learn from the recent past to find success in the future?

In this episode, host Caleb Masters is joined by Beda Bolzenius, former President and CEO of Marelli, and they discuss:

To learn more about this topic, read the o9 Blog, “Key capabilities automotive OEMs and suppliers will need.”

Over the past 15 years, consumer technology has advanced incredibly fast and also has changed our expectations of how technology can enhance our lives. With a few taps on our smartphones, we can access apps where we can place an order that arrives within days or hours, re-route us past a traffic jam on our commute home, or listen to a highly personalized music playlist.

On the enterprise side, software innovation hasn't been as fast. Legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms have been the standard technology for four decades, but emerging technologies are now beginning to innovate and evolve the enterprise planning landscape.

So, how are today’s emerging technologies transforming enterprise planning?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, host Caleb Masters is joined by Rafael Calderon, Principal at Deloitte Consulting, and Patrick Lemoine, Vice President of Industry Solutions at o9 Solutions, to discuss:

Learn more by reading our white paper, Mitigating supply chain complexity with next-gen platforms.

In this final episode of Season 2, Tony Saldanha reflects on the past two seasons of Masters of Digital Transformation before doing his final sign-off as host. Tony has kept his finger on the pulse of digital transformation trends, interviewed incredible guests with keen business insights, and helped listeners navigate a business environment that has experienced significant turbulence while always reminding us to find opportunities to grow and transform our businesses. In this episode, Tony shares his favorite insights from hosting the podcast.

Key Takeaways

In times of rapid change, take a big-picture view

As a society, we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution. Unlike the previous transitions that were driven by innovations in steam power and inventions like electricity, our current revolution is driven by digital technology. It may feel like we’ve been living in an uncertain world for the past few years, but this period has forced businesses (and individuals) to view challenges from a different approach, pivot their plans, and find ways to win over the long term.

Digital literacy has accelerated

The pandemic has forced so many of us to learn and become more comfortable with digital tools and technologies. From office workers who abruptly had to adjust to connecting with their team remotely, to grandparents who had to learn digital technologies to keep in touch with their grandchildren, multiple generations have become comfortable using digital technologies in all aspects of their daily lives. This opens the door for digital technologies to continue to develop and evolve exponentially.

Disrupt your business (or someone else will do it for you)

In today’s business environment, focusing on continuous 10% improvement is playing things too small. Instead, business leaders should find ways to actively disrupt their strategy through an approach that champions organizational change and communicates the need for innovative thinking. Leaders don’t necessarily need to understand all of the complexities behind digital technologies, they just need to figure out how the use cases benefit their organization.

In this episode, Tony hosts Angela Qu, Senior Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at Lufthansa Group. Angela’s more than 25 years of experience have focused on organizational transformation, people development, supply chain management, procurement, and management consulting.

Angela was recently named one of the most powerful women working in supply chain by SupplyChainDigital.com and was featured on the Procurement Power List for 2021 by the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. As CPO of Lufthansa Group, her vision is to transform the procurement function to further enable the company’s success and create value for the customers, employees, and society as a whole.

Key Takeaways

Be a humble empathetic leader

According to Angela, workforce transformations related to innovation in ESG and sustainability always start with the people. In her over two decades working at Siemens, ABB, and Lufthansa Group, Angela has remained focused on leading with empathy and empowering her teams by hiring people who are sharper and more skilled in key areas and by serving those talented experts. To achieve success, she worked to create an honest, transparent, and fair team culture, which allowed her teams to perform at the highest levels through empathy.

Make an impact from a people perspective

While Angela’s achievements are extensive, she’s proudest of not only leading the highest performing units but also having the happiest people working in her organization. She attributes this success to raising leaders who care for their teams by fostering diverse and inclusive cultures that inspire and motivate employees to go the extra mile. Early in Angela’s career at ABB, she started a women’s development program within her function before it was rolled out globally. This program now serves as the framework for their entire DE&I program.

Build long-lasting trustful relationships with suppliers

Angela led her team with a strong focus to build trustworthy relationships with suppliers through fairness and respect. That does not exclude having high expectations towards suppliers. She encourages organizations to drive end-to-end solutions with ecosystem partners in the area of efficiency, innovation, and sustainability.

In this special episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, we are celebrating International Women’s Day. Guest host o9’s Vice President of Product Management, Stacie Immesberger is highlighting the experiences of three women, Rachael Clark, Meiling Chen, and Nina Anttila, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Network, who share what brought them into supply chain, what they see as the biggest challenges in the future of supply chain, and what they hope to achieve in their respective careers.

This is an inspiring episode where women in supply chain—each at different stages in their career—reflect on their journeys in the industry, discuss their perspectives on the future of supply chain, and share insights on the career moments that continue to resonate with them.

Key Takeaways

The “aha” moment

While pursuing their respective degrees, Rachael, Meiling, and Nina each had that “aha” moment where they understood the power and potential that supply chains have in connecting the dots between technology and innovation. This opened a world of possibility, and each woman pivoted their initial career paths to further explore and pursue their growing interest in supply chain.

The future is about resilience, sustainability, and data

All three women also share their insights on some of the biggest supply chain challenges that the industry faces in the years to come. Topics that were top-of-mind included continuing to build resilient supply chains that are designed to respond to disruption or market changes, creating a sustainable, circular economy that helps manufacturers close the supply chain loop, and continuing to invest in data-driven systems that will propel the capabilities of business planning.

Staying curious on the path forward

A common thread throughout the conversation was how each woman cultivated a sense of curiosity and tenacity throughout their careers by exploring hard problems and finding potential solutions, seeking ways to elevate the supply chain function within corporations, and helping teams embrace digital transformation, all while guiding and inspiring others along the way.

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Tony hosts Chris Tyas OBE, former Senior VP of Supply Chain at Nestle, SA, and acting Food Supply Director for DEFRA, and Stanton Thomas, Senior VP of Sustainability Solutions at o9 Solutions. Both Chris and Stanton have championed sustainability throughout their respective careers and share their perspectives on issues like traceability, transparency, and how supply chain planning plays a significant role in developing supply chains that are truly sustainable.

Key Takeaways

Accountability is Imperative

Today’s consumers expect transparency in how products are produced or grown and aren’t afraid to call out greenwashing when they see it. Corporations that embrace transparency not only within their own organization but throughout each node of their supply chain will be able to show exactly how their products are produced and create a stronger sense of accountability among each tier of suppliers and work towards building a truly sustainable supply chain.

Mapping the Supply Chain

AI technology is creating opportunities for companies to gain more visibility into their end-to-end supply chain. For example, AI web crawlers can aggregate data to identify risk factors within a business’s supply chain infrastructure. However, mapping out a supply chain is an intensive process that requires major investment and doesn’t easily link to data upstream and downstream to trading partners. To ensure a stronger ROI on supply chain mapping, businesses will have to act collectively at the sector level and leverage a data repository to ensure supplier data is accessible across the end-to-end supply chain.

The Digital Twin’s Role in Sustainability

Digital twin technology will become a fundamental aspect of building a sustainable supply chain. When an organization incorporates a digital twin into its business and supply chain planning strategies, the digital twin can incorporate ESG data that will help inform how an organization can achieve initiatives like reaching NetZero or reduce/eliminate environmental risk factors within a supply chain.

From witnessing corporate mergers and acquisitions after the fall of the Berlin Wall to hedging business constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic, Philippe Lambotte brings unique experience to the digital transformation process.

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Philippe, former VP Planning at Johnson & Johnson, speaks about his experience in facilitating transformation across multiple organizations including Kraft Heinz, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Mattel, and Tonal Systems.

Philippe offers great insights in facilitating transformation across a variety of industries, explains how globalization trends have come full circle, and shares why making transformation relevant at the employee level is a necessary component of change leadership.

Key Takeaways

From Global Back to Local
In the 1990s and 2000s, many companies globally outsourced their manufacturing processes to reduce costs. But in recent years, supply chain disruptions fueled by climate change (e.g., extreme weather, etc.) are causing companies to return to local manufacturing processes to help improve product lead times and ease supply chain constraints.

Transformational Common Standards
Throughout the COVID crisis, QR Codes (derived from UCC AI standards) have become a pandemic MVP by allowing individuals across the globe to show digital proof of vaccination while traveling or dining in a restaurant. Philippe points out that this technology might not even exist if it wasn’t for industry leaders, retailers, and manufacturers developing the UCC standards. He believes that future innovations rely on continued industry stakeholder collaborations to develop common standards to be used by organizations across industries.

Understand How Change is Perceived
Gaining buy-in for change requires a strong vision and end goal, but employees also need to see the incremental phases to maintain morale. For employees that are in the day-to-day work of an organization’s transformation, are they seeing beneficial changes or, as Philippe says, “are they seeing a long, painful journey where you have to double the number of hours to build the future?”

In this special edition of Masters of Digital Transformation, we invite supply chain enthusiasts from o9, Alison Crawford and Patrick van Hull, to look into the future of digital transformation and predict what’s coming up in 2022.

Sitting in for host Tony Saldanha, Caleb Masters will drive the discussion on the top digital transformation trends of 2022. We gathered the thoughts and predictions of nine cross-industry experts across o9 Solutions. 

Join us today to learn about 2022 trends including:

Want to learn more from industry leaders or your peers? Join the aim10x movement.

In this episode, Tony hosts Katherine Ross, former President of Health Care Services and SVP of Worldwide Customer and Logistics Services at Johnson & Johnson. Katherine’s 35-year career in supply chain and operations leadership spans all supply chain functions in the healthcare and CPG industries and includes time at Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, and McKinsey.

Her varied roles and leadership experience have given her a unique perspective on connecting the dots across the supply chain as well as building diverse global teams.

Key takeaways:

There is always ROI in building a resilient supply chain

Allocating investment towards developing a resilient supply chain creates significant long term value. It may be tempting to make tradeoffs that prioritize boosting cost performance over building a robust, responsive supply chain, but when a crisis happens this decision could put a company at a competitive disadvantage. Being proactive about building stronger customer and supplier relationships, as well as investing in technology, infrastructure, and targeted inventory will help a company better handle demand and supply shocks because they have an extended network that can be leveraged to navigate through volatility.

Focus on developing leaders who can connect the dots

Today’s leadership needs to develop a digital mindset that spans the enterprise, rather than focusing on just their individual function. Digitization can help uncover the gaps between silos and leaders need to connect the dots across those silos to optimize strategy, planning and processes across the organization. Equally important are communications, development, and reward systems that help create future leaders that understand how their responsibilities impact the success of the overall enterprise.

Take on stretch roles

Katherine has had opportunities to lead global teams in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. She considers it a career highlight to build and lead diverse, global teams with different skill sets and find successful ways to work together to achieve results. She advises new managers to focus on their ability to learn, because it allows leaders to move into new situations, rapidly assess and create potential for successful results.

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Glean perspective from a world-renowned digital transformation leader.

In this episode, Tony is joined by guest Dr. Carsten Linz, who probably needs no introduction. He is a board member, co-author of the best-selling book Radical Business Model Transformation, a member of the World Economic Forum Expert Network on Digital Economy and New Leadership, and serves as an advisor to boards and CxOs around the world. In nearly 20 years in leadership roles focused on software, data, and digital growth, he has built multiple 100 million euro businesses and led enterprise-wide transformation programs impacting more than 60,000 employees. His most recent roles include Group Digital Officer at BASF, Business Development Officer at SAP and Global Head of the Centre for Digital Leadership. Dr. Linz teaches in executive programs at the European School of Management & Technology Berlin, Mannheim Business School, University of St. Gallen and Stanford Graduate School.

In this “Masters of Digital Transformation” episode, Carsten shares insights from more than 20+ years leading companies through the digital transformation journey.

Key Takeaways

Leading at the Intersection of Business Model and Digital Transformation

When embarking on a digital transformation, improvements that only scratch the surface of what’s possible isn’t enough. For real change to take shape, companies must develop a radically different value proposition and embrace new ways of creating, delivering, and capturing value. In this regard, business model transformation helps leaders to "orchestrate" their digital transformation initiatives, make their transformation sticky, and gain a competitive edge for the organization.

Shifting to an Entrepreneurial and Transformational Leadership

During a digital transformation, leaders may have to refocus their priorities. If a leader is primarily geared towards efficiency gains and automation wins, that does not move the needle in a transformation context. New technologies inherently enable new types of innovation and creativity in a domain, rather than simply enhancing traditional methods. In the intelligent age, leadership is about co-creating the future and leaders should put more focus also on business model and operating model transformation, changes that are more substantial, more sticky, and more entrepreneurial in nature…

Scaling-out Digital Business Impact

In contrast to the prevailing "separate-then-integrate" model in consumer-facing companies, digital transformation in industrial companies in particular rather follows an "embed and then scale up" approach. New digital technologies were already embedded within a division, and the process of scaling them up often involved working from the customer/user backwards, giving them greater autonomy to facilitate their growth, and securing robust sponsorship and backing from the top.

From a daily wage worker to now running the show… In this episode Helen Davis, Head of Supply Chain North America for Beauty & Personal Care and Home Care at Unilever, speaks about her career in supply chain. Helen has worked in the US, Middle East, India, China, and Germany, driving digital transformation in some of the biggest CPG companies in the world. She is an inspirational mentor and a powerful voice for women in the industry.

Helen breaks down the dos and don’ts of digital transformation, the ‘pulling the string’ method and why you’ve got to show your customer value early and act fast to build trust in the project.

Key takeaways:

Pulling the String

If a customer pulls too much inventory, there will be a domino effect across the supply chain. In the 1990s it was all about demand-driven supply chains whereas today, planners throw their forecast out the window as they realise it will never be right. There is too much volatility. Agile supply chains backed up with data and AI/ML are now the go-to.

Change Management

Change management is where 90% of major digital transformations fail. Learning the language, walking the factory floor and engaging with the people are vital when attempting to take steps in new directions. SAP, Oracle, Microsoft etc. are based on an approach from the 1950/60s - MRP II, Oliver Wight’s stage by stage. You optimize one thing at a time, the plan, then the demand forecast, and then manufacturing and then logistics. This is all done in sequence. Modern technology and solutions instead give you the power to optimize and centralise using algorithms end-to-end.

Fast Rollout

Value unlocks have to be presented early to quell the tide of doubt that can foster during a transformation. A three year implementation would make people lose interest in the process, particularly without any early positive results. See the transformation less as a marathon but more as a six-month sprint. Enough time to make a difference while maintaining support, from the C-Suite to the factory line.

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In this episode, Tony hosts Yemi Adefulu, General Manager Global Supply Chain at Shell. Yemi's 14 year career journey at Shell allowed him to not only acquire a broad experience across new business development, acquisitions, divestitures, and supply chain management, but also develop a love of driving change and generating solutions to complex problems. In this episode, Yemi shares the factors that drive successful change and insights about creating a more intelligent inbound supply chain.

Key takeaways:

Accept Change: Companies need to embrace the challenges involved in driving transformational change within their organizations. Yemi says that in order for change to gain momentum, those responsible for driving change need to have the tenacity to sustain the process through all phases and accept the successes and failures along a company’s transformation journey.

Find The Secret Sauce: Understand how top supply chain companies are operating and find ways to incorporate this “secret sauce” into a company’s processes and culture. Yemi says to think beyond your organization’s operations and pull inspiration from successful supply chain examples across industries including CPG, automotive, energy, or airlines to determine what might work within your company.

Create Transparency: A key element of effectively driving change within an organization is creating a transparent process that allows employees to contribute to the process, share experience, and to provide a feedback loop to show employees what contributions were incorporated or not, and why. This allows a good cross-section of employees to have a voice in change, feel that they are valued stakeholders and embrace the efficient co-creation.

Efficient co-creation is necessary: The employees involved in and impacted by a transformation journey matter. They need the space and time to fully contribute, but within a timeframe that allows for agile execution.

Advice on the role of the leader:

When embarking on a transformation journey, set the bar high for benchmarks, include stretch goals, and stay curious about what factors lead to effective change.

Understand your customers, the reasons behind change, and ask the kinds of questions that will bring out the essence of needs to be achieved.

Empower your employees with a change process framework that they are able to successfully execute.

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Some leaders innately understand how to inspire transformation, both in organizations and in people. In this episode, Tony hosts Chris Gaffney, former VP Global Strategic Supply Chain at Coca-Cola Company and current Principal at ECG. Chris built a strong career focused on distribution, logistics, and supply chain, as well as mentorship, and shares his knowledge of digital transformation, with an emphasis on planning.

Key takeaways:

Seek outside perspectives to inspire your digital transformation

It can be a challenge for established companies to embrace change--especially digital advancements. To help facilitate and accelerate digital transformation within Coca-Cola, Chris looked to his industry peers and leaders to see how their organizations’ were implementing digital strategies. Another challenge companies may face in implementing digital transformation is gaining buy-in from executives and key stakeholders. Coca-Cola’s executives were encouraged to meet with their peers at companies that were leaders in change to help digital transformation concepts transition from “hype” to actionable initiatives.

Align transformation with business initiatives

Another key way to gain buy-in at the top levels within an organization is to ensure that digital transformation initiatives are aligned with the organization’s enterprise strategy. A successful transformation can also take off throughout an organization by selecting “lighthouse” geographies to provide resources and test out concepts that could be applied to the larger organization.

Set a foundation to build a legacy

Throughout each phase in his career--from logistics to supply chain--operations and planning played a pivotal role. As his career grew, planning processes and strategies (operations planning, infrastructure planning, and supply chain planning strategy) continued to advance. Along the way, he developed tremendous technical, operational, and leadership experience that he continues to pay forward to colleagues and up-and-coming professionals. In doing so, the knowledge that built his career can set the foundation for many careers to come.

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Few career paths lead from toys to cannabis… In this episode, Tony hosts Cheri Mara, former Chief Commercial Officer at Ontario Cannabis Store. Cheri shares her retail career journey from Canadian Tire, to Walmart, to Ontario Cannabis Store, and highlights the omnichannel lessons learned along the way. Cheri discusses her thoughts on the importance of knowing customers’ buying behaviors, becoming an early adopter and finding like-minded peers, learning from other business models and not being afraid to venture into an emerging industry.

Key takeaways:

Understand what motivates your customer:

Customer sales can be driven by many factors, and it’s not always price. Cheri stresses the importance of understanding why and how the customer chooses to buy, especially during the holiday season when product availability often matters more than price (especially in the toy segment). Digging into customer behavior and seeing that they were interacting seamlessly between in-store and online, built a strong case for creating an effective omnichannel model that aligned with demand and customer purchasing patterns.

Embrace what’s next:

Omnichannel and digital transformation are regular conversations in today’s business world. But that wasn’t the case 10 years ago when key stakeholders weren’t as enthusiastic about building an omnichannel model. In Cheri’s case, it was pinpointing the processes, resources and people who could support omnichannel that led to her division piloting a global omnichannel integration that ultimately set their brand apart from the competition.

There’s data to glean--even in emerging industries:

When an industry is relatively new, setting up strong data practices is a foundational step, but may be overlooked in the drive to build the business and become profitable. Transactional data can be a great place to start about the data connections between category, product and consumer, to gain a better understanding of what products will resonate with customers.

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In this episode, Tony hosts Vikram Agarwal, former Avon CSCO with over 32 years of international experience in FTSE 100 companies. Vikram shares his learnings in driving growth and giving businesses a competitive edge through purpose-driven supply chains and digital transformations. Besides, he talks about managing cross-culturally after working 15 years as an international executive for Unilever. Before leaving Unilever to become Avon’s CSCO, Vikram led its business leadership team in Africa, responsible for an end-to-end supply chain across 15 countries with 25,000 employees.

Key takeaways:

Intercultural management and authentic leadership: Throughout his time in India, Singapore, UK, Africa, and then back in the UK, Vikram developed a global perspective in managing people from various backgrounds, gaining a deep understanding of what moves, incentivizes, and motivates people. Authentic Leadership is the one that cuts across this cultural diversity- purposeful, values-driven and building personal relationships. The business landscape differs in each region, and understanding that has to start from understanding the cultural diversity of the people we work with.

Purpose-driven supply chains: Supply chains need to take a 360-degree approach to sustainability. Having witnessed multiple activities that deeply impacted the eco-socio order, Vikram realized that it’s not only about sustainable sourcing that enterprises should focus on, but it’s also about fair wages, living conditions, cutting out waste, carbon footprint reduction for the environment, and health and wellness for communities and consumers.

Value creation through supply chain transformations:

Advice to leaders:

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In this episode, Tony hosts Filippo Catalano, former Global CIO at Nestlé, and upcoming EVP/Chief Information and Digitisation Officer at RB—Reckitt Benckiser. During his time as head of digital and later global CIO of Nestlé, Filippo oversaw the global digital and tech transformation of the world’s largest Food, Beverages, and Nutrition company. Filippo shares his affinity and thoughts on data utilization, its transformative impact, the F.A.I.R. data concept, ethics principles in data and AI, and advice on leaders' role in driving their organizational data strategy forward.

Key takeaways:

Be always on the side of curiosity about tech so that you can drive the organization forward.
Do not take shortcuts, always lay a strong foundation, go slower at the beginning to go faster later.
Help the organization demystify fears and misconceptions about data and AI.

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In this episode, Tony sits down with Ivanka Janssen, CSCO of Royal Phillips, while she shares the learning curve her organization is going through while working to make her forecasting 80% AI-driven and completely touchless. From making diversity a top priority to setting up to Python workshops open to all employees, Ivanka’s organization is working to prepare employees for the future of automation, robotization, and digitalization.

Key takeaways:

· Diversity: Diversifying talent and blending teams of experienced professionals with more traditional views on supply chain with younger employees is crucial to success.

· COVID Learnings:COVID has taught us many valuable lessons to be carried with us into the “new normal”.  For Ivanka, this is investing in data platforms that can help ensure correct lead times, collaboration along the supply chain, and making decisions based on real-time data.

· Humans vs Robots:Ivanka explains that robotization is not about the replacement of humans, but rather the re-skilling and redefining of traditional jobs to be more data management-focused and allowing for operations to be more agile and create a steadier output.

· Sustainability: Supply chains can be more sustainable and Ivanka is passionate about designing e-commerce packaging to have minimal air, reduced plastics, and have the ability to be managed by automation or a robot. From 2020 onwards, all of Philips’ sites will be powered by 100% renewable electricity sources.

· Advice:Ivanka’s advice to individual success: Be yourself, continuously develop yourself, and always ask for feedback.

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In this episode, Tony sits down with Pat Murzyn, former Director of Global Supply Excellence at Caterpillar, and Raghav Ranganathan, SVP at o9 Solutions. They discuss what it takes to make a digital transformation journey successful, including change management, executive buy-in, and the concept of a “value network.”

Here's what you will learn in this episode:

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In this episode, Tony sits down with Dirk Holbach, SVP Global Supply Chain of the Laundry and Homecare Division at Henkel, to give a behind-the-scenes look into what it takes to digitally transform a supply chain of over 30 factories, 50 warehouses, and moving 12 million pallets each year.

They'll also be diving into sustainability and eco-efficiency; the trigger for Dirk's digital transformation journey back in 2011 was to reduce his division's overall energy consumption.

Listen to the episode to learn how, since then, he and his team quickly began to leverage these digital technologies and connect applications systematically to drive value to the organization.

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From retailers to consumer brands, industrial manufacturers to suppliers, global companies with traditional operating models are under pressure to accelerate their digital transformation.

In this episode, Tony sits down with Chakri Gottemukkala, CEO and co-founder of o9 Solutions, to discuss a) what he's hearing as digital transformation priorities from CXOs of global companies b) how the o9 platform is transforming Integrated Business Planning (IBP) capabilities  into the "digital brain" of the enterprise c) advice for transformation-minded executives on how to make it happen faster.

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In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Tony sits down with Bob Masching, EVP Global Supply Chain at Trident Seafoods, and Fred Baumann, VP Industry Strategy at o9 Solutions. They discuss the stages of disruption organizations face due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how advanced technologies are being used to manage them.  Bob draws from his experiences working in the CPG industry to explain how to effectively align commercial and supply chain planning with sensing and mitigating risks, become more agile, and embrace good complexity.

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Tony sits down with Chris Tyas, former Head of Global Supply Chain at Nestlé, and Stephan de Barse, EVP at o9 Solutions. They discuss how to create a best in class Integrated Business Planning process and address key opportunities such as: How to use real-time market data to spot demand risks and opportunities faster? How to create more accurate forecasts and make better decisions based on prescriptive analytics? How to do gap closure and real-time scenario planning in a smarter way?

In this episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, Tony sits down with Dr. Das Dasgupta, Chief Data Officer of ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, to discuss how data is made to mimic reality and create the digital twin that allows for the most efficient and value-driving enterprise planning models.

To kick off the first episode of Masters of Digital Transformation, we take a peek inside the mind of Sanjiv Sidhu, Co-Founder and Chairman of o9 Solutions.  In this episode, Sanjiv discusses how he has spent his career optimizing planning processes for some of the world’s largest companies by shifting away from traditional supply chain management to a hands-free, and fully integrated business planning (IBP) model.

Curious about what you will learn from this podcast? Listen to the trailer and subscribe to Masters of Digital Transformation.