From Warehouse Floor to Global Supply Chain Leader | Scott DeGroot on AI, Resilience & Decision-Making

What separates companies that survive disruption from those that thrive through it?

In this episode of The Momentum Flow, Luis Solana sits down with Scott DeGroot, Managing Director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee and former supply chain executive at Kimberly-Clark.

Scott shares his remarkable journey from hourly warehouse employee to global supply chain leader and discusses how the industry has evolved from focusing on efficiency to prioritizing resilience, adaptability, and strategic decision-making.

They explore:

• Why supply chain resilience matters more than ever
• How AI is transforming planning and decision-making
• The future of integrated business planning (IBP)
• The skills future leaders need to succeed
• Why communication and financial acumen matter as much as technology
• How organizations can build digital ecosystems for competitive advantage
• The role of scenario planning, digital twins, and intelligent control towers

Whether you're a founder, executive, investor, operator, or aspiring leader, this conversation offers valuable lessons on navigating uncertainty and leading through change.

Subscribe to The Momentum Flow for conversations on innovation, leadership, technology, AI, and exponential growth.

#SupplyChain #AI #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #Innovation #Logistics #Planning #DigitalTransformation #TheMomentumFlow

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to the Momento Bob Podcast, where ideas, innovations and experiences are sure to create a continuous stream of inspiration and intellect. Join me, your host, Ritzolande, a supply chain expert and investor, as I uncover how visionary founders, operators, and leaders are spotting opportunities, sparking innovation and scaling profitable growth. From plan to cash, I bring real-world experience and an investor's eye to reveal how clarity, capital, and conviction field sustainable growth. Tune in and let's keep the momentum flow going. Today's conversation is a special one for the supply chain community. Joining me is Scott DeGroot, the managing director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the Halfland College of Business of the University of Tennessee. Scott spent decades leading supply chain transformation in industry, including a remarkable run at Kimberly Clark, where his teams drove major improvements in service, imagery reduction, and logistic network performance. Today, he's shaping the next generation of supply chain leaders, bringing hard-earned operator insights into the classroom and the boardroom. Scott, welcome to the Momentum Flow.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Now, Luis, it's a real pleasure to be here. I love this topic. I love the impact that supply chains make, and I love talking about it. So the extent that you invited me, I'm very happy for this and I'm excited for the conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

So let's have some fun. So obviously, you bring a very unique perspective to the conversation because you have lived supply chain transformation from both sides of the equation. First, you were a senior industry operator, and now you're a leader shaping the next generation of supply chain talent. So probably to begin, could you describe and contrast that extensive experience at Kimberly Clark and then the college, the Global Supply Chain Institute at the at the University of Tennessee? That is really, that's really a nice people, right? From industry to a little bit more on the faculty side. Could you share the insights of your personal journey?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, I'm I'd love to. And of course, we'll I'll start out by saying, you know, there's nothing like being uh in an operation or in operations in terms of being a part of the physical supply chain. And I without boring too many, I started out as an hourly employee working in a warehouse, drying, driving a lift truck, loading trucks and unloading trucks. And uh, you know, that experience I think was foundational to understand the fact that a supply chain is actually improving the lives of people every day. And um, during my experience at Kimberly Clark, uh great company. I was able to um work in all aspects of logistics and in planning and in sourcing and in strategy and in sales and at all levels, you know, and ultimately around the globe, I was very blessed to be a part of an amazing organization with iconic brands. And um, I feel today, I felt then and I feel now that supply chain really does make a difference in the lives of people. And you know, of course, as I completed what I thought was an excellent career that ticked all the boxes, um, as I came to retirement point, I I um I kind of felt like there was a little bit more, you know, more to do, more in terms of giving back, quite honestly. And I know that sounds trite, but what once you do all the things and you travel the world and you you have an amazing time with an amazing team, this idea of giving back, shaping the thinking and supply chain, being engaged with students and practitioners. Global Supply Chain Institute has over 75 partner companies that I get to see and interact with all the time. It's just an amazing, I won't call it second career. It is my second career, but it's an amazing um culmination of what has been a wonderful experience.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

That's a that's a remarkable life story. And you know, I'm sure that being with students keeps you keeps you young, and and that that's great. So so what keeps your momentum personally going all along this time?

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yeah, I I at first, you know, I like to uh tell students this uh at first it was just this desire to learn, you know, to learn everything you can because you're I always find in a lot of people, Luis. I know you like this, you're constantly wanting to learn more. The more I know, the more I want to learn. I'm urgently curious. And so phase one was just learning about that and to be excited about how you could make a difference. Kind of phase two was this, okay, now I know some things. How can I earn? You know, you're learning, then you're earning, you're earning respect. Of course, you earn money, but you earn accountability, you have authority, you have big things that the organization tasks you to do. Um, so there's that phase of really doing really, really impactful work. And then I get you get to the point, or at least I did, that okay, now how can I return? Um, I've learned, I continue to learn, I'm earning, I continue to earn, but now I want to return and give back to students, give back to the industry, shape the future thinkers. You know, we're gonna talk a little bit about resilience and agility and talk about technology and all of those things, you know, you and I, we have context, and uh that context is vitally important to um the future of the supply chain. So that's what keeps me going. You know, I'm curious, I want to keep learning, and I want to give back.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Now that that sounds wonderful. So before jumping into talent and people, because that's a topic that definitely wants to dwell deep with you and also talk about your planning experience. But first, and you did up nicely, you know, let's talk about supply chains and the resilience about them. So so we both spent decades operating supply chains, right? Uh looking back, when did you realize that the industry was moving from really cost optimization to resiliency and adaptability?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yes, yes. I'd like to tell you that and all the listeners there, that it was some sort of amazing mountaintop epiphany experience that I had. But in reality, it was COVID. And of course, um, you know, COVID happened later in my career, but I was accountable at the time for all planning and logistics across the enterprise at Kimberly Clark. And um, among the other amazing products that Kimberly Clark makes, toilet paper is one of them. And uh uh everyone ran out of toilet paper, and and then it's it is one of those. I don't know if Churchill has attributed to this saying, I know if he said it or not, but you know, you never waste a good crisis. So this idea that, hey, the supply chain as we designed it and and did academic research back in the 70s and the 80s, and this mindset of uh uh MRP kind of demand-driven supply chains that are really focused on efficiency, and then we got into lean and six sigma and reducing, which all that's good. We don't want waste, but we became overly reliant, and in COVID, of course, um everyone, all my high school friends were calling me. They were saying, uh, Scott, I don't have any toilet paper at my store. Can you send some toilet paper? And um, you know, with all of our whys business planning and business contingency planning, we never expected or never ran a scenario that said, uh, well, we were going to have a three to five hundred percent increase in the demand of toilet paper. You don't have that much reserve capacity. Tissue machines cost multi-milli hundreds of millions of dollars, and you run them 95-98% of the time full. Uh, and so this idea that, hey, we are really exposed here, not just because of a great increased demand, but our transportation routes, our inventory policies, they were all built really in a very static environment, Louise. And so um, you know, we spent many many sleepless nights and on telephone calls or video conferences around the globe, nearly 24 hours a day for weeks on end. Of course, we resolved it and we continued to operate safely and give consumers what they wanted. But that was really a wake-up call that said to me, uh not only the Kim McClark supply chain, but broadly speaking, supply chains need to be rethought in terms of resilience and agility, not just for efficiency.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

First of all, I didn't call you to get all the paper, but I did my my fair long line at Costco myself, trying to get some of it. But you know, all dragging aside, moving from obviously, you know, there's big structural changes that companies have to make in order not to operate just for efficiency but for resiliency. What comes to mind operating to by for resiliency rather than just for for productivity or for efficiency?

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Right, right. Well, certainly before we get into that exactly, there's always gonna be a place for operational excellence and efficiency. And so I I don't think any company, in fact, I'm talking to a big company earlier today, that is stepping away from this idea of continuous improvement, efficiency, productivity, code words for cost savings, three, four, five percent a year. That's that's always gonna be there. But I think what's happening now, of course, is as you know, um, companies have to be uh resilient, which comes from understanding all the possible um disruptions that can occur, all the competitive pressures that can occur, and then mapping out ahead of time what actions will be taken if this event occurs. And and in the past, you know, you you and I will remember the days where you would build a network design, you would model and the network, and that would take weeks or months of time to gather all this data, to sort it, to segregate it, and then to run scenarios, and those scenarios would take weeks. But now you and I both know that technology allows that to happen in days, in hours in some cases. And it's really then this idea of do I have the right decision structures? Am I having the right conversations to take advantage of these very fast scenario planning-based models? And in many cases, companies are not investing in the way that they can to operationalize their contingency plans. If I lose this transportation route, if my supplier goes out of business, if the costs or tariff policies cause my costs go up by 30, 40%, can I execute my contingency plans in a reasonable time? I think that's really one of the one of the obstacles we have to overcome, Luis, in this business is operationalizing and investing in, you know, our our um contingency plans.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

So you say you interact through through the institute with 75 or so number of companies, right? Through through through students and and and you know, corporate corporate sponsorships and that. So that's that's a very interesting vantage point. So what supply chain capability are companies most urgently trying to build today?

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Well, I think a lot of people are building um out what you know you might call a digital ecosystem that ultimately is on multiple layers. And uh before I describe that, I you know, I always ask this question about why are we building out a digital ecosystem for operational execution with you know agent, AI agents and um um scenario planning and advanced planning systems for um sort of running the business and strategic decision making. They're building out all these things because they feel like um they can make better decisions. And ultimately, you know, as we talk about supply chain, supply chain should be driving better outcomes in terms of either revenue growth, top-line sales, margin improvement, of course, and cash flow, productivity and cash flow. These are all things that companies want, and they are excited about sort of the shiny objects in the room. I'm gonna build out, I'm gonna have some AI agents, I'm gonna have an advanced planning system, I'm gonna build in place, you know, and put APIs to make all my data latency go away. But what they're not doing in many cases is changing uh the talent that they need to run these things, the decision-making cycle. And if we're not driving decisions and outcomes, then the supply chain is, you know, some of that money, Luis, is really probably not well spent. They're leaving, we're leaving money on the table when we don't activate the right governance structure around this um much more advanced, much more capable digital ecosystem.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Yeah, that that that's definitely true. You know, at the same time, you know, resiliency ultimately depends on not just systems, right? It depends on people who know really how to run those systems. So maybe this is a perfect moment to just pivot into the talent side. So there's because there's a lot of excitement around AI and supply chain, right? You know it, I know it. So, but from what you're seeing with companies and with students, you know, is the real constraint the technology or the talent that knows how to use that technology? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

No, it's the perfect question. And of course, I I um I see companies that are 12, 24, 36 months more advanced than they're thinking. And um, so there's a real dichotomy in some companies that just can't figure out how to get started on the technology side. But those companies that are more advanced on the technology side are also becoming more advanced on how do I bring my people up to snuff? And in terms of their capability to understand business context, to make the right connections between problems and solutions, to understand the kind of trade-off decisions that need to be pushed forward, to build the technology that's serving the operational improvements that need to happen, not simply building technology for technology's sake. And, you know, some of the capabilities, you know, we're talking to students and we're doing research in this area with a number of companies. Some of the capabilities that are not where we need them to be to take full of one, you know, compelling communication. They might we might have people who understand the technical aspects of the demand algorithm or the right prompt engineering to put in place, but they aren't they don't know how to communicate decisions in a way that that drives ownership. Number two, they don't really are not really comfortable with um ambiguity. No decision can be perfectly timed out and understand all the demand variables and supply variables. So there are always some level of ambiguity, yet you need to make decisions. And and a third thing is financial acumen. And you and I know you know this from your experience, but uh ultimately businesses are about profit and loss and cash flow and cash-to-cash conversion cycles. And if the supply chain people are not able to speak into that language, well then how can they win the day when it comes to investment or return or growth in the company? And these are all things that I think from a talent perspective, we, you and I, and those people listening have an obligation to upskill our teams and to make sure the talent is capable for the tools that we're giving them.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

I totally agree. Those three capabilities that you mentioned communication, managing ambiguity, financial acumen, and are definitely part of you know what the next generation of supply chain leaders might need to have. But let me let me dwell deeper. What about advanced analytics or cross-functional influence or digital decision making? Do you see them playing out at the same level? Yes, no?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Yes, yes, I will. I do. Um, let's talk about analytics and comfort with data. I mean, I can tell you for now two years and um coming on three years, students graduating not only from the University of Tennessee, but I'm sure from all the top supply chain universities are very, very comfortable with analytics and with data and and insights. And um, I mean, they're coding in Python and R, and they're building LP models, you know, on the weekends very quickly. They're very comfortable with perplexity and quad code. So I I don't know that any younger people, younger than me, are lacking the ability to be comfortable with data and driving, but I do think that they lack um contextual understanding. You know, not only is the data hallucinating, do I have the right guardrails? Am I really asking the right kind of questions of my models? Um, do I understand the outcomes of the models in a way that I can explain it to someone who is not? Like, okay, I have I created this black box, I did this coding with Cloud Code over the weekend, I did some vibe coding, it's really cool. It tells us we should move these demand streams here. Okay, can you explain that to someone who doesn't understand any of those first things? You know, it's that sort of language I think that um that you talk about is it needs to be improved. And um I I do think that this idea of decision making, what's the purpose of SNOP and IBP is to drive contextual decision making that improves business outcomes, right? So I I think a lot of people um don't have the skills that they need or we need them to have to be really bold with that kind of capability.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

I I I I think that's uh I I couldn't agree more. I think probably the biggest thing you can have all the tools, you can have all the analytics, you can have all the technology, but context would always be important any decision making tool, especially the one that is uh evolving towards highly automated to really you know prevent hallucinations or out-of-contact responses or decision making. So fully echo that. So uh now at least from my perspective, uh uh as an operator or former operator, uh I don't think AI replaced supply and demand planners in organizations. On the contrary, I think it's elevating planning to really a strategic role. So, question to you uh you think we're entering an era where supply chain planners, demand planners become really the enterprise decision leaders?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Well, I I think that we are, but I think that lies in front of us, Luis. I think we are on the precipice of of being able to achieve that, but it's important, but there are some threats to that in my mind. Um, number one, there is a certain aspect of, let's just think about planning in totality. As I like, yeah, I know you you've said this too. Think about it as the central nervous system of the body. You need the heart, and you need you need a whole part of the body. But the central nervous system is planning and it operates at multiple levels. We have this sort of executional um weekly daily level, and we have this um run the business of the next three months level. This this executional aspect of planning, uh, we do need to make sure that we can automate these transactional work. The the inputting of rates of operation, the massaging of demand forecast inputs, the communication back and forth between one system to the next, these things need to be eliminated. You know, let the robots and let the automation do that. If we do that, then we can reposition planning correctly, I think, as the drivers of the decision. I mean, this planning's not just about forecasting. It shouldn't be, right? It should be about driving decisions for the business in a range of scenarios. Like we're gonna have a range of demand, a range of supply, a range of weather, a range of risks, and within that range, we need to drive several very important decisions. And when planning acts in that more strategic way, then it can cement itself as the conductor of the orchestra to use another analogy. Um, but uh planning is really a decision system, or it should be, not just a forecasting exercise, I think.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

I fully agree. And I I I I definitely like that analogy, right? The planning as the central nervous system of the body and or the operating system. So so it's a so in but in many organizations planning now sits between commercial demand, production capability, logistics execution, right? And the and do you really see supply chain becoming the true decision nerve of that enterprise? I'm not letting you scape without telling me that.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

So yeah, yeah. You know, I I think I think number one, we get oftentimes um, and I understand the reasons why, but we get caught up on where does the where are the lines in the organizational chart put planning? You know, demand planning should be maybe some people think demand planning should be in sales or on commercial side, supply planning should be on the supply side, and and we're gonna keep those separate and Distinct forever because of all the motivations and the reward systems of all these different people. But I like to make, I'd like to think about and shake up that model a bit, Luis, by saying really planning should be agnostic, right? Should to um the the motivations of either people on the commercial side where there's never enough inventory. Like uh more inventory is better because I can set supply side, like we want consistency and efficiency. Planning does need to find a way to be um agnostic to both of those uh pressure points and really be driving the fact that, hey, based on the facts and the data, we have this reasonable range of demand and this reasonable range of supply. The decisions will have this kind of impact on our revenue and our share and our inventory conversion costs and our operational costs. And then driving those decisions, I oftentimes think that the best advocate, the best partner for planners, if the job is done right, is the financial organization, who also should be agnostic to the motivations of people's individual KPIs and driving what is the best decision for the organization. And um so the sometimes the organizational chart gets in the way, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 23:23

I fully agree. I honestly, and it shouldn't. I echo that. At the end, you know, uh you know that I'm a strong proponent of integrated business planning, right? I've seen it at the work when it's really implemented correctly, it becomes truly the backbone of the organization, can enable growth, not just savings or or cost avoidance. So uh it's uh it's permanent in enterprises. That's why, you know, if we keep in that line of thought on planning, being at the center, what technologies are most exciting right now in planning, from your perspective? What have you seen?

SPEAKER_00 23:57

Yeah, yeah. Well, I I, you know, and I'm a bit of a planning nerd, so I get excited about a lot of things. I'm excited about um the speed and efficiency of what are now advanced planning systems, especially when it comes to scenario planning in the zero to 12 month time horizon, this idea of making the right operational trade-offs to actually run the business. And in fact, I, you know, sitting in meetings and I sat in with one of our partner companies a couple months ago when um the PL leader, the business unit president, and the sales and the supply chain people were in the room and were running through running through scenarios in real time, making real-time trade-offs on what our operating excellence performance, what's what's the impact of the decision on cash flow in the moment, like in the next hour, we're gonna make this decision. I mean, it's amazing. You know, years ago, that would have taken a month. So the speed of our IBP cycle is so fast. So I'm super excited about that. I'm super excited about um also, and I know this sometimes the promise of this people roll their eyes, but um, you know, intelligent control towers and this idea of having uh you know digital twins that are really representative of how our supply chain is operating. Um, these network models now are so fast that they can actually operate at multiple levels, not just deciding where the next factory goes or where I put my next line, but how I'm running the business, how I can pressure test different um excursions and then see how I can respond and what it would cost to respond. So I really love the fact that um you know our digital twins and our our um intelligent control towers can make the business um so much more agile if we'll just use them. And the last thing I will say, I know I'm going a bit long, but um, I don't think it's take I'm excited about those things, but I'm concerned about the fact that our our IBP process, our decision-making process of SNOP and IBP is not fast as fast as the technology. And in that gap, we we lose out on a lot of opportunities. And I see the best companies fill in that gap with much, much more shortened IBP and SNOP business cycles because they can and their custom and their comp competitors can't.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

That's interesting, and I'm gonna go off script here. But on IBP, how many? So, what are you seeing right now? Because traditionally companies try to run on monthly cycles, right? Or, you know, that that's traditionally.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Have you seen, are you seeing now bi-monthly cycles, weekly cycles on the full Yeah, yeah, I I am, and of course, during COVID, you know, we talked, I'll just mention COVID again. We we were forced to, and many companies were forced to shorten their SNOP or IBP cycles to like we just need to stay alive. So we're gonna make these kind of assortment decisions and demand and supply decisions weekly, which is amazing. But then we got lazy again. But now I do see great companies who do have a very solid digital foundation, not perfect, but very solid. Um, clear trade-off handoffs between the executional zero to 10 days, um, the monthly, making decision cycles, you know, every two weeks. So um, I can understand demand and run scenarios against it in real time. I have a pretty good understanding of the true cost to serve or the operating profit of my major lines of business. I can make these trade-off decisions, but they're also learning very quickly. This worked, this did not, let's run it again, let's meet together in two weeks and make new decisions. And and I think that's super exciting. I also know some people get really nervous by that, right? Like, no, I want stability, I don't want nervousness in my supply chain. Well, let's freeze the demand plan and we'll just run for the next three weeks, three weeks this schedule. And um so a lot of people have to change their mindset.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah, you know, it's uh uh I can see that, you know, it's uh it's it's different. Really, it it depends on how quick the demand is changing, right? But but you're absolutely right. It's that those times of running JOS on uh perennially into the same length of cycles, probably they have to be dynamic cycles. Sometimes you can run more more monthly, but sometimes you need to have the adaptability to run weekly when needed. So so yeah, we we went a little deeper in planning, so I'm gonna skip a couple a couple of the thoughts. I was gonna go into logistic era with you, but I think with you, with your world of experience in planning, I thought it would be a lot more interesting as we were talking talk on planning. I'm also a little bit of a logistic, of a planning nerd as well, once in a while. So I like that. So but they but before we we're converging towards the end of our time, but before we wrap up, you know, I would like to uh you know have a fast-paced lighting round, some Q ⁇ A just to get your your first impression what you get what you what you get. So uh let's say one supply chain capability every CEO should understand and why.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Well, if they should understand the true cost to serve or true cross-to-profit. I mean, I think most CEOs and many business leaders don't really understand what activities and what products and what part of their supply chain is actually making a profit and which one is losing. And so I think that's that's it. That if you don't understand your true cost to serve, or even better, your true cross of profitability, then you really don't understand your business and you really don't understand the trade-offs that you're being you're asking your team to make.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Cost of serve. I love it. So so one technology that will reshape supply chains in the next decade. You can only pick one.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Well, I I do I you know, just off the top of my head, I do have to go with um, you know, very high-speed scenario planning. And and I not only does that allow um rapid decompression of the SNOP and IBP cycle, but it also allows you to do um resiliency planning and um business continuity planning. So I'll I'll stay with that one.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

What is the biggest mistake you're seeing uh when companies try to apply AI in supply chain?

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Well, they apply it without a specific problem to solve, right? They they are just um doing it because it might be the re the expectation of the CEO, or because their competitors are doing it, or because they have a technology chief technology officer who wants to do it. But what they really should be focusing on is let's solve, let's we have a big list of problems, let's apply AI and a gentic and technology in ways that are solving those problems in a triaged, constructive, intentional way. Um, and so that that's I see a lot of people. Um I know a company right now that has spent many millions of dollars to put robotics in DC. Oh, that's great. Did they have a labor cost problem in their DC? They did not, right? That was not anywhere near the top 10 because but it was cool because they saw someone else doing it. So, like, you know, you have to be intentional.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Yeah, I fully agree. I fully agree. Um one leadership trait of great supply chain operators.

SPEAKER_00 31:19

Well, you they have to be they have to be resilient, you know. Ultimately, supply chain is a game where, in my opinion, in my experience, and uh I would hope that you would agree, it's never over. You never achieve perfection, perfect flow, perfect momentum, the perfect um order all the time. No, so you we have to have this resilience of we're gonna keep going and we're gonna keep learning, we're gonna keep pushing the envelope, we're gonna be self-aware and know, hey, this didn't work. I'm gonna put my ego aside and figure out what I learned and then do the next thing that makes it better. But I really think that's that's the key to supply chain, this idea that um we're gonna keep at it, you know, 24-7, 365, and we're gonna keep learning. And um, that's what I think the best supply chain um skill is.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

This is fun. Let me keep going. A couple of short, uh more short questions, two more, probably. Um advice that you will give to the next generation of supply chain professionals and leaders, and you you're among a lot of them on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

So well, I think the the first one is um, you know, they can't get frustrated to the point that we were just talking about um their solutions aren't gonna be perfect, they're not gonna work the first time or even the third time. This idea that um you're gonna thicken up your skin, you're gonna keep at it, you're gonna be urgently curious. I guess that's the second one, you know, this idea that if I'm always interested in learning as the most important thing and improving myself and my team's performance, then I am not gonna be proud. I'm gonna be humble and I'm gonna be urgently curious. And I think that's um I see a lot of students, especially with the dawn of um um advanced learning models like perplexity and Claude and whatever, whichever one you want to call out, that they can go and type in some prompts and really get really, really good answers. But are those answers right? And do they work, you know, in the in the real world? And can they survive all the pushes and pulls of late trucks and labor that doesn't show up in wars, you know, in canal zones? No, right? So they have to have this resiliency, and um, if they're curious, they'll they'll keep trying.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Let me one last short question, and I really want to hear your answer on this one. So, why should supply chain be exciting for aspiring college students? I'm sure you have a I love it.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

And this is what I'll say like in the first day of class is that uh, you know, in all seriousness, now everything that we are wearing and that we're eating and drinking, and that we're using, like right now, we're using these things to do our job, every everything, our whole lives, our whole social and economic infrastructures are built on the supply chain, planning, sourcing, making, delivering, returning with this idea of there's a consumer somewhere who's gonna pay, who's gonna spend their money to do this thing, and you want them to do your thing, to buy your product and to work on your service. And and then because of that, and because of all the way back until human beings started forming communities together and sharing things, supply chain has been there, and that supply chain will always be there. And yes, we will have more robotics, and yes, we will have AI, and yes, we'll become more efficient. But um, this idea that our economies are built on highly performing supply chains, I think, should lend some level of a positive feeling, like these things will continue, and you should be excited to be a part of part of this journey.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

As a lifelong supply chain professional, I couldn't I couldn't echo that more. So I I love your answer. So now, uh as you know, this podcast is called the momentum flow. And so when you look at the innovation happening across the industry, new technologies, new ways of thinking, new talent, what gives you the most confidence that the momentum in supply chain innovation will keep building on?

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah, I I think it um I'm confident because um the society needs us. They need us to be successful, and they need our companies to be successful, they need our our products and our innovation and our thinking. You know, ultimately society continues. Sometimes we go backwards, but most of the time we're going forward, we're building on what um our our parents before us built. We're building on this idea of all this work that's done in the past, and the innovation cycles are getting faster, as you know. You know, just from the the dawn of the internet till now, we've just shortened. So it's incumbent upon us to make the future better and not to have these dystopian outcomes, but instead to deliver value to people who who um are going to part with their hard-earned money, you know, to select us. And you know, that's what gives me great hope for the future.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

That's that's that's really nice to hear. So, Scott, you know, your transformation work at Kimberly to shape the next generation leaders at the Global Supply Chain Institute, you're really helping the industry to move forward. And thank you for joining us at the Momentum Flow. I want to give you the last word, if any comments that you want to do to wrap up the session.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Well, Luis, um let me just say it's a real pleasure to um speak with you. I love uh these conversations that we have, and and I love that we're both pointed in a direction of making the world a better place and doing what we can in the supply chain to make sure that um the lives of our children are better than the lives that we had together. And so um I'm excited to talk to you about this and um you know thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

Well, thanks for joining us. It really what stands out to me is that the future of supply chains won't be defined by technology alone. They will be defined by talent, planning, intelligence, discipline, execution. Thank you for joining us. To our listeners, if you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share with your fellow operators, innovators, and leaders across the supply chain ecosystem. I'm Luis Alana, and this is the momentum flow, where clarity, capital, and conviction keep supply chains and leaders moving forward. Until next time, stay curious, stay connected, and keep the momentum flow going. Thank you.