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People are always going to be the driving force and they're always going to be where innovation is born. And so making sure that you take care of that and you develop it, you foster it, and you position it accordingly, regardless of what type of business you're in, is critical. Welcome to Supply Chain now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership
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from across the globe, one conversation at a time. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton here with you on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's show folks. I've been looking forward to this show. We've got a terrific guest lined up. A results driven business leader with more than 35 years of retail industry experience, especially from a supply chain operations leadership standpoint. But he's a business leader that's always been focused on giving forward in powerful and meaningful ways and he's still doing it to this day. But today we're going to be discussing a wide variety of topics from how the retail industry has evolved over the last few years and some of the key supply chain principles that has allowed for retail success, including rule based final mile. In the modern era. We're going to be sharing an outcomes focused nonprofit that's doing big things really across Tennessee and probably the broader region. And we're going to be exploring a few common themes as to how business leaders are addressing the proverbial big three people, process and technology. All that and a whole bunch more. So stick around for a great conversation that's going to offer up tons of actionable insights. You know what, by the truckload, maybe the container load today. We'll see. So I want to welcome in our distinguished guest joining me here today. Tony Zuazo is currently the interim CEO of the Community Resource Center, a nonprofit focused on providing basic hygiene essentials to people in need across Middle Tennessee. Now he is a seasoned supply chain executive and community leader in the Nashville, Tennessee area. He previously served as executive vice president of global supply chain for Dollar General Corporation where he oversaw transportation, inventory and broader supply chain functions, rising through leadership roles throughout his tenure. Now, in addition to his corporate career, Tony has been active in local nonprofit work and professional organizations. He was a member of the Latino Corporate Directors association, also known as the lcda, and served on the board of the Community Resource center that I mentioned a minute ago. Zuazo's background reflects a blend of executive business experience and community engagement, making him a notable figure in both the corporate and non profit sectors in Tennessee as well as broader global industry. So I want to welcome in my new friend, Tony Zuazo. Tony, how you doing?
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I'm doing great, Scott. It's great to be here with you today.
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You as well. We've been, we've been working on this for quite some time. It's great to finally make it happen. And again, as I shared in the green room, I really admire not only your industry leadership and experience and expertise, but your, it seems like your constant focus on helping others and giving forward. Tony, we look forward to diving more into that. But first, Tony, I can't wait to learn more about some of the more personal aspect of your passions here. So there's a couple things we talked about in the pre show. Basketball, working on cars, and of course, family. So I got a little lightning round for the fun warm up question. Tony, does that sound good?
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Sounds good.
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All right, so basketball first, because you, you've been coaching basketball and, and helping folks, I think get better at basketball for quite some time. What's one of your favorite seasons coaching basketball?
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We've had some good seasons and this year was a great season. But I do have to go back and you know, when my son's in third grade, you'd say third grade basketball. Wow, that's. Is that real? Yeah, it's, there is, there's some real basketball being played at third grade, although some people are just learning. But the team I had, we had a great season, went undefeated, won the championship and it was a co ed team of boys and girls. So I'm just really proud of that because typically you don't see a lot of the co ed activities, especially in basketball, it usually separates out. And this was a great team. Young boys and girls came together and put it together for the title. Undefeated.
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Love it. And at that age, I'm assuming it's less strategy and more help with securing the fundamentals, or is it both?
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Yeah, I would say a little bit of strategy. You have some players that are a little bit more advanced than others. You just want to point them in the right direction and, and make sure they can, you know, play some good defense. So, you know, it's a lot of fundamental skill work, right. Just to get them to do the, the basics and eventually they'll score. But, but dribbling and playing some defense was key.
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Tony, you have to help me out with my game. I might be a lost cause. I don't know. But. All right, so let's talk about something else. You love working on cars too. What's one of your favorite cars You've ever had the pleasure of working on?
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Yeah, I've. I'm a. What they call a YouTube mechanic, so I'm. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna fix your car, Scott, but I'll work on my own stuff. I would say, you know, my favorite project, and I still have this car. It's a 1983 Porsche 911 SC that I've kind of restored and put a lot of time and energy into it, and it's. Hopefully I'll never sell that car, and I'll have forever and be able to pass that down.
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Oh, Tony, I love it. That's like, an iconic car from the 1980s, right, Tony?
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Yes.
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For sure, man. Okay. Finally, a little more serious note. I know you are very passionate, as most of us are spending time with family. What's been one recent highlight of good family time? Something y' all done together?
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Yeah, I would say, you know, it was a trip we took. So I'm originally from California. My mom still lives in California, specifically the Bay Area. The bay near Oakland. And so we go to visit her regularly. And so we did that, but we got the opportunity to visit her. Plus, we got to go see the Golden State warriors play one night, and then The San Francisco 49ers play the other night in Levi Stadium. So it became a great family trip. Got to visit mom, but also got to see some great professional sports. Two of my favorite teams, and I got to introduce the kids to, you know, my team's live, where they've seen, obviously on tv, but it's. It's different when you go see a live sporting event. So it was a great trip for us.
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Sounds like it. And so just to finish the triple play there, folks watching or listening to us, Tony. He shared two of his favorite teams, the Niners and the Warriors. But to round out the trifecta, he's also, as you might imagine, a big Oakland A's fan. Is that right, Tony?
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That's correct, Scott. And you get the right point. Oakland A. So I'm. I'm loyal to Oakland for the A's. I'm sad to see them in. In Vegas, on the. You know, on their way to Vegas. But I'll always be an Oakland A fan.
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Love it. As I was sharing with somebody not too long ago, me and my cousins and my brother and. And friends would have a. We had to modify a baseball game as kids because we didn't have two full teams like most kids don't have. Right. And we played this game, and me and My one cousin named Derek, you know I always had an eye on Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire, the Bass brothers I think and we, we named ourselves the Crash cousins for related to some of the Homer's home runs we did. So anyway the a good age teams. All right, so let's talk business. Tony, you've had an incredible career that continues to this day. The impact you're making before we get to what you're doing now, I want to talk more about your past a bit. So as executive vice president global supply chain with Dollar General, you led one of the largest, fastest moving retail supply chains, at least in North America. I think I shared with you in the pre show me and my family are in them in our neck of the woods all the time. Feels like every day. When you look at today's environment though, two part question, what is fundamentally different from when you started Dollar General from a retail environment and then secondly, what really hasn't changed all that much? Tony?
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Yeah, so one of the things that drew me to supply chain was the dynamic, evolving and multi dimensional environment. And so you know this, you're in the space Scott But a lot has changed since 2010. But I would key on specifically technology to identify, you know, a few changes there and the first one would be around automation, the material growth that's occurred outside of the E commerce space. We know E commerce drove a lot of automation in supply chain but you saw more recently a lot of activity outside of E commerce and the provider space has grown globally. Now that's the landscape. Costs have come down in turn, the adoption rates have increased and so I think that'll be a continuing trend and I think it's good for the industry and I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about that later too. But I think there's positives there, although some folks will see that as a negative. The second I would say is AI machine learning and the prevalence of it. Now it's part of everyday supply chain lives and becoming more valuable every day. New use cases are being developed and tested on a daily basis and I think that that environment is ever changing. And you know while there's some, some cons identified, I do think overall the pros are there for supply chain and how it can help in the next iteration of what supply chain looks like.
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You know it is, it is fascinating, it is absolutely fascinating this, this era in global supply chain, certainly in retail and, and, and the one thing that I've really enjoyed about retail Tony is you know, as a practitioner and A consumer. I love learning about retail and about retail supply chain just as I interact, you know, from some of my favorite brands. Do you still enjoy that? Is that, is that just me or do you enjoy that too?
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Yeah, absolutely. I think that's, you know, once you're, once you live it for a long period of time, you, you're always, whether you're involved in it day to day or sitting on the outside, you know, I'm still a fan of what gets done in supply chain and folks that are doing interesting and innovative things, you know, I, I'm excited to see that happening.
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B
Same. Same. So speaking of same, you gave us a couple things that have changed quite a bit. What hasn't changed that much at all, you think?
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You know, as I think about what hasn't changed and everything's gone through some level of change. But I do think that the, the focus on uncertainty is still front and center and we're seeing it today on the tariff front. And the global nature of everything that's happening in supply chain has created an environment where there's constant global pressures. And I would say that's unchanged. They're slightly different each time. Whether they're driven by, you know, government agencies or by natural disasters or things like that. There's a constant pressure on supply chains globally and the, the ability to adapt and support that is, is critical to be successful in this space.
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Tony, let me, let me ask you. So I was just writing about this for the 27th time, I think recently and you're talking about the pressure and I think one of the pressures we feel in global supply chain, really global business, everyday business, is decision making. Right. And I was just talking to somebody the other day because for me, while decision making remains one of the challenges of business, it's not necessarily what a lot of people might think, which is a really big, multi million dollar decisions. Sure, that's challenging. Right. But for me in my career and my journey, it's been more about the tons of small and micro decisions that we've got to make throughout any day. That is, it can be really rewarding and fulfilling. However, it can also be incredibly complex and frankly exhausting at times. React to that, if you would.
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Yeah, you bring up a great point. I don't think this is for a lot of the folks that are not in supply chain. They don't really understand what that means and what you're saying. And I think some of that also comes from the space that if you're in supply chain, especially if you're in a A multi business unit leadership role. You could be having a conversation about a transportation issue right now and 30 minutes later you're talking about a warehouse space issue and then 30 minutes later you're talking about inventory supply constraints and then 30 minutes later you're talking about how we're unable to get product supply from a vendor based on an issue. And so the gamut of issue you're dealing with is continuous when you think about the supply chain, but totally independent and requires different headspace every time. And I think that's part of where the folks that end up doing a really good job in supply chain can pivot quickly and to your point, make a lot of these micro decisions because that's what they're hit with daily and some of the folks outside the space don't understand that. And I think that's where a lot of the supply chain folks have started to get more value and been able to elevate into CEO roles as an example because of that mindset and that ability to shift quickly and pivot into different headspaces.
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B
Tony, well said. You paint quite the picture with your response to that. And also going back to the initial part of what's changed dramatically. Technology is also helping at basically all levels of decision making, I would argue. And of course we have great team members and that will never ever be overstated. So talking about Dollar General. Most folks watching or listening to this conversation are very familiar with Dollar General and know that it operates at a massive scale and often in rural or hard to serve markets. When I ask you what were some of the non negotiables that kept that supply chain performance as disciplined as it needed to be to grow and serve that scale?
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Yeah, when you, when you have a business that is perpetually growing annually, your revenue base is growing, but your store footprint is also growing. You have to plan for the future today because the growth is coming and if you don't plan for it, you're going to exceed your capabilities. And so one of the things that we instituted was a rolling five year plan. And this plan addressed physical logistical needs. So warehouse, warehouse space, transportation, trucking capabilities. It also addressed staffing and what that looked like and then what the technology platform and footprint was going to look like in the forward years depending on what was happening and, and the level of growth we got to. So having that rolling perspective also helped inform the financial plans of which supply chains are huge consumers. And when, I mean a consumer, there's a lot of capital that goes into a supply chain. And so we had to have a clear view of what the capital requirements were going to be for those forward years. So you can ensure that we had that money earmarked and the financial plan for the organization supported it. And that in turn, I think allowed setting the organization up for success and having that, that forward view of what things could look like and what those potential constraints were going to be. And how do we ensure that the supply chain was going to be an enabler, not industry.
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B
Tony, it's fascinating. We could sit here for several hours and, and look more at your time at Dollar General and all that you and the team accomplished. I've heard it said, I want to get you to react to something I was sharing with a buddy the other day that I was about to sit down with you and he, he was familiar with your background a little bit and he told me, folks, look at Waffle House and Dollar General if they want to get a sense of how, of, of how bad things can be, you know, disaster wise, storm wise. If Dollar General and Waffle House are still operating, folks panic less. Tony, react to that a bit.
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Yeah, you're right. I mean, and, and you brought this up earlier, but like in a lot of these small rural America towns, we are the mainstay. We are the, you know, Dollar General was the general store. There wasn't a Kroger, there wasn't a Walmart. You know, it wasn't a Target. So you know, that is the mainstay and that's where people are going to, to get their everyday needs filled. And so likewise with the Waffle House, it's comfort food. And if the Waffle House and DG are closed, you're right, I mean there's going to be some problems in that town.
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So true. Tony. All right, so as a follow up to your perspective you're sharing here today, I've got a broader question to pose to you. So in your experience and from where you sit, two part question. Where do leaders and meaning supply chain or otherwise tend to over engineer things right at the detriment of performance maybe. And then the flip side, where do you see leaders regularly and dangerously oversimplify?
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Yeah, great question. And I feel like there's a theme here, a lot of stuff we're talking about. But, but I'm going to tap into technology specifically when we talk about over engineering and where that occurs. There are a lot of great technology solutions out there. Now to be fair, I've never found the perfect software solution. And so they all have pros and cons. I lean on looking at Process management to account for some of those gaps and then you build your ROI accordingly. That helps you understand what the software solution is going to, is going to do for you. A lot of times over, engineering occurs in me. Let's customize this, let's add extra code and you end up going down the slippery slope. And so I think that's where you have to understand the role of technology and how much it's going to get you. And there are no perfect solutions. So work to get as much as you can out of it, meet your ROIs and try to stay on the base platform as much as you can.
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Tony, I appreciate that, especially in this era of, I think, as you kind of implied, there's a technology solution for everything big and small and all points in between.
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Right.
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And to your point, very infrequently or maybe ever in, in our supply chain journey, do we come across that perfect solution, Especially on the bigger size, right, where you got all the bells and whistles that most teams don't use. I have found that in the category of what's old is new again, selection, then the selection process, it's really important because I spent around since the, you know, caveman days, right, how we select processes or techno or service providers or technology platforms or what you name it with the slew of options. It's really important. We don't mail that in these days. Tony, would you say for sure?
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Yeah, yeah, you're 100% right. And you know, I think your other question around oversimplifying is I would say there's, there's a little bit of overlap here on technology, but, but also kind of independent. And I think a lot of times we oversimplify the need or a change management process and we say, well, we can get by, everything will be okay, people will love it. And it's not necessarily the case. People are adverse to change. And so change management's a real thing. It does require some real money to be allocated to it and a real process and some expertise in that space. So don't oversimplify it. Make the investment. Especially when you're doing large scale initiatives of technology or process change or reorganization or mergers, acquisitions, all those. Don't leave change management behind and don't leave the associated expertise that comes with it. Treat it like it's part of the implementation plan.
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B
Tony, well said. And especially on the front end of what you shared there, Communicate, communicate, communicate. And when in doubt, communicate, communicate again. Right Tony?
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Right. That's it. That's it. You can never, you know, Hurt yourself by over communicating.
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B
That's right. Well said. Okay, so Tony, I, as much as I hate to do it, I'm going to leave that chapter, that really important chapter of your journey because I'm really thankful and grateful and impressed with what you and the team are doing at the community resource center, which is Middle Tennessee's hygiene hub. And there you serve as interim CEO. Tony. So let's do this. How did this nonprofit, and of course it's really noble mission first hit your radar?
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Yeah, so it was late 2022, I was approached by the prior CEO through LinkedIn and she connected with me and so I accepted her connection. She messaged me about the opportunity. They were in the process of embarking on an implementation project to put in a warehouse management system, an inventory management system and a supplier portal system. And they were going from Excel and paper to this solution. And so I thought it was a great opportunity where I can bring my expertise and help the organization. And so that's when I joined the board early in 23.
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B
So Tony, I gotta ask you, I love that how it hits your radar and I love when organizations are taking that big leap right in the step ladder of performance and moving from spreadsheets and manual processes to, to systems and technologies right in the free time, ideally when done well, the free time that it unlocks for teams and hopefully makes their days easier to find the success. Can you share a quick learning about that leap that the non profit made that you maybe encourage other business leaders with?
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A
Yeah, I think, you know, so in this case, because we are a product based organization and not a service, we have products that we need to understand where we are with them, right. How many we have, where are they located, how many days supply do we have? And so all that I would say was not, was not able to be done quickly and effectively in the past. And now we have great information that tells us where we are with each product, what stage it's in from a production to a finished good state, whether it's at which warehouse it's located in. And we can quickly identify shortages and then look to replenish those items that we're short on to make sure that we have supply continuity which, you know, what happens, you either are in feast or famine mode if you, if you don't end up having good data because you're making decisions too early or too late. And so we're able to achieve that better equilibrium on where we are with product supplied because of the tools that have been turned on. And again, not super Complex, but enough to where there's visibility and there's, you know, platform that we can see where our business is.
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B
Tony, been there and done it. It's tough to gather up all the post it notes with the tick marks on it in the moment when you're trying to make the decisions. Right. I love that. When it comes to the nonprofit itself, again we're talking about folks, the community Resource center, the crc. Tell us more about core elements of its noble mission and how it goes about. The CRC delivers on the commitments in its mission.
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Yeah, so the, the at the crc we're all about hygiene and security and period poverty. So we're equipping other nonprofits and schools with core hygiene resources, which is products, to continue their mission in the field. So they're providing support to constituents in the field and that way they can do the work they need to do and not have to source those products. So that's where the hub part comes in. We work with 75 plus partners, which turns into 420 plus locations throughout Middle Tennessee. Like I mentioned, school schools and school districts, vetted nonprofits and actually the library system within Nashville is another key partner for us. We're here for the community in seasons of ongoing need and especially in times of disaster like we recently had with Winter Storm Fern here in Nashville. And so that's what we do every day here and helping the community.
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B
Tony, I love that, love the mission. And I know that there's so much more to what you just described. We'll have to have you come back on and dive deep. But a couple observations. Number one, I'm not sure when we started naming winter storms, but I'm so glad we did because it's easier to understand exactly what chapter and we can all relate to Winter storm fern. Number two, I love the force multiplier component to your mission. 75 partners serving 420 locations. I believe so many communities that are being better served, especially those families in need, thanks to how you support all those partners. That's. That is incredible. Let me ask you this. We were talking just a second ago about how the, the non profit initially hit your radar. Right. With its leap from a lot of manual and spreadsheet stuff to that next level, that next step up. As a current interim CEO, what is one aspect of the organization that you want to continue trying to make a, an impact on as you continue serving in this capacity? Yeah.
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And you know, part of the role of an interim is a bridge right from, from the prior to the new. So that is my role is to be a bridge for the organization. But I'm always kind of moving and part of my, you know, always moving kind of motto, I'm learning how to be a development person. And development in the nonprofit space means raising money. So that's my goal, to continue to raise money for the organization and make it, continue to be sustainable. So when the permanent CEO is here, they can hit the ground running and they can continue to do the great things and keep it going forward.
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B
Outstanding. And that search is on. Is continuing in terms of the search for the new permanent CEO, is that right?
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That is correct, yeah. So anybody out there that's, that's interested in leaving the for profit potentially or moving into the space or already in the space and looking for something different? The posting is out on LinkedIn and you can find it there.
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B
Outstanding.
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Okay.
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B
All right, so this is the question I'm really thrilled to ask you. And we want to put this out there amongst all of our watching and listening audience. Tony, how can folks jump in and help support the CRC's mission?
- [26:48]
A
Yeah, thank you for that. Direct donations, whether it's monetary, product or supplies. Since this is kind of geared towards a lot of the supply chain folks, you understand that what it takes to run an operation and there's, there's not only the product, but there's also supplies that go into it, shrink wrap, gaylords, packaging. So anything that can help in those along those lines is great. And we're always in need of it. Product focus. Today we end up having to buy about 60% of the product that we donate. And so the more product we can receive from organizations, then that can help our business model and help us grow and meet more of the unmet need that's out there. And that could be anything from imperfect product, imperfect packaging, nearly expired goods, discontinued merchandise, oversupply. So I know a lot of those organizations out there have these situations. And we're, we're an avid recipient of all that we are built for repackaging and redistribution. So we do a lot of transformation. We'll take a shipper, a displayer of tampons, and we'll transform them into a package that we can redistribute to our partners. So we're very comfortable in that space. We do it every day. And we're also able to collect goods from anywhere in the US and we also do that every day. We have a great transportation partner that helps us with that. But we're constantly searching for goods. And you think about kind of the operation Being in middle Tennessee, but we're going to Wisconsin, we're going to Florida, we're going to Ohio, we're going to California to go collect goods that we can redistribute. So any of those opportunities on the corporate side, we do a lot of events and one of the events we do is a hygiene drive. So it's a physical donation or we've also now moved to a virtual donation that we run through Amazon. We can do team building events for packing parties. So they help us package goods that will in turn go to, to nonprofits and then in turn go to constituents. And then we're doing volunteer work at our facility on a regular basis. So every week we have a contingent of volunteers that comes in and helps us do that redistribution, repackaging and staging orders for our partners to come and receive. So a lot of opportunities to work with us.
- [29:05]
B
You beat me to it. There's a lot, lot of opportunities to find ways to support the crc. And folks, we're going to show this again towards the end of the session here, but you can learn more at the website. And that's crc M I D T n dot org and this makes sense. It's a community resource center, Middle Tennessee. That's what, that's why that acronym comes from. So crcmidtn.org and Tony, my hunch is if folks are kind of on the fence and they're not sure if they're able to help or not, I bet you welcome those creative ideation conversations, huh?
- [29:46]
A
Absolutely. We had two corporate groups in today just to come see the facility, see what we do. And a lot of our engagements with, especially in the corporate space are very specific and how, you know, we'll kind of meet you where you want to be met when it comes to that. So we're open to a lot of different things that we can do together to help the cause.
- [30:06]
B
Outstanding, Tony. Again, appreciate the great work that the CRC and you and the whole team are doing. All the families in need that you're helping. Okay, so earlier in our conversation you referenced how some themes were emerging. So I'm gonna circle back to now because I know you've got a, you've got an outstanding network, CSCOs and senior supply chain leaders and a lot more. And when you, when you, when you engage with those folks here today, here in 2026 and, and beyond some of the things you've shared here today, what are some common themes that emerge from their work and their priorities and what they're doing, especially in terms of how they're solving or empowering what I call the big three right people, process and technology. I always love a good framework. What's some of those common themes you've picked up on?
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A
Yeah, I love the big three framework. I think it's a macro playbook for how you need to run your business and you even have it in the right order of priority and importance. So I appreciate that because some people don't always put it in the right order or what I think is the right order, which is some people may want to debate. But I would say, you know, based on that, the, the organizations and the leaders that are putting people at the center of what they are doing are winning and will continue to win. There's the importance that they drive in. The organization is critical. Now, it doesn't mean that technology is not important. And we talked about automation and AI and, and those will change the way we work. I mean, that is, that is going to happen. But people are always going to be the driving force and they're always going to be where innovation is born. And so making sure that you take care of that and you develop it and you foster it and you position it accordingly, regardless of what type of business you're in, is critical. I'm a process guy and I've always been, I've always placed tremendous focus and value on being process driven. So I would say don't underestimate the value of process engineering projects that don't necessarily have a technology, but just how you're going to do things differently. Don't forget to be hard on the process and easy on the people, at least to start. Then you can work through how people do things, but make sure you put a lot of emphasis there. And lastly, I think we talked about technology and how it has a role. You have to treat technology as an enabler. And there is no silver bullet solutions like we talked about. So I don't care who's selling it and what they're selling, their solutions are going to help you run your business, but they're not going to solve your business. And so make sure you treat that, treat the technology as the enabler that it is.
- [32:42]
B
Tony, man, goodness, that's a whole podcast series. That one response right there. And I want to pick something out because as a fellow process guy, as you put it, I'm going to see if something resonates with you. As I've learned over the course of my career, you know, standardization is not a dirty word. And even if when it comes to the Most creative and artistic aspects of business. I mean, we look at what we're doing now at supply chain now, you know, content creation. I'm very passionate about the genuine aspect of that. However, being a big process individual, I apply standardization regularly, which helps support artistic forces for. Not to be too dramatic, but I think you know what I'm saying. You know, I bet there's folks out there that when they hear standardization, they're like, oh, the big system taking choice and taking art, you know, artistic choice and design. But that's not the aim, at least from where I sit. Tony, speak to that, if you would, for a second.
- [33:37]
A
Yeah, I think you're right. And again, you don't have to go left or right in one complete direction. Right. There could be certain things that you're going to standardize and other things you're going to give choice to. Right. And I think that's part of what I think about. When you talk about re. Engineering a project, that's what you're looking at. You're not looking at just saying, hey, we're going to do it this one way. Maybe for these five steps, it is one way, and that's going to get those five steps done the most efficient way. But these other five, they are going to have a couple of paths and there is a decision matrix. And so that's going to allow that person to be the decider. Possibly, maybe at some point it's an AI decision. Um, but regardless, there is some flexibility that you're drawing into the process. And I think, you know, having that happy medium of, of, you know, the debate and the conversation, but being open to. There is some standardization and then there's some flexibility. And I think the two of them can get you what you need. And, you know, I think also helps in the change management process.
- [34:36]
B
Yes, it does. And we all get better from having that spirited but friendly and professional debate you referenced. Because you know what, what's. What works on Monday may not work the following Monday. In fact, sometimes it may not work the next day on Tuesday. Especially this environment. Goodness, Tony, really enjoy your perspective. And gosh, you're just cool, calm, your demeanor. You get that feedback a lot. Tony, just. Do you have a mellowing influence in those heated supply chain days? Do you have a reputation for that?
- [35:09]
A
Yeah, I mean, I, I can, I can get pretty passionate about. About things. But somebody once referenced me as like, you're, you're calm, cool, but you're like the. You're like the duck. Your feet are going like 100 miles an hour under the water. And so like I like that analogy. But yeah, you know, sometimes there, there is some passion that comes out.
- [35:28]
B
Love it, Tony. I love it. I can see it. Okay, so Tony, I know we're just scratching the surface. You're doing a lot of great work out there. Continue to do a lot of big things out there and again I love in particular you're giving forward and to do good aspect, very, very consequential and outcomes producing for so many families out there. How can folks connect with you, Tony and of course the organization.
- [35:54]
A
Sure, yeah. So you can Find me on LinkedIn. Happy to connect with you all there. That's my, that's my media platform for the community resource Center. Scott gave you our, our web address. We're on Facebook. We're also on Instagram. You can hit us up there and follow us, stay on top of everything that we're doing and then once you go to the website there's opportunities to, to connect with us. Whether you want to donate financially or other ways to get a hold of us, to be a part of some of the other things that we have available to do with partners and corporate or individuals.
- [36:29]
B
Tony, I love it. And folks, we encourage you if you're on the fence and you're not sure if something will help or if it's not the right type of help, reach out to Tony, have that conversation. And you know what, I'm going to raise the bar. We're going to see who's listening or watching. So let me put the website out there first. CRC mid tn.org Again it stands for Community Resource Center Middle Tennessee. So CRCmid tn.org if you are able and in position to support the community Resource Center. Right. And we'll probably need to come up with a threshold. But hey, I appreciate any, any gift forward gift, make the donation, give the assistance and then reach out to us. Let us know what you did and I promise you I'm find a way to celebrate that giving forward. Maybe we'll have Tony and maybe your CEO own or, or you know, you name it, the person that made it happen and we'll dive into your mission and of course we'll explore the great work that you're helping to support at the crc. Tony, does that sound like a good deal?
- [37:31]
A
I'm excited. I can't wait for the follow up meeting. Like I know it's going to happen so like let's do it, let's make it happen.
- [37:37]
B
All right, so Tony Zuazo, the interim CEO with the Community Resource Center. I really appreciate your time, your perspective and all that you do. Tony, great to have you here today.
- [37:52]
A
Awesome. Thank you folks.
- [37:55]
B
What a great conversation. The cool, calm, collected demeanor of someone that is fast and furiously moving 100 miles an hour to help so many others. Love that dichotomy and and love what it produces. So big thanks to our wonderful guests here today. Tony Zuazo, the again the interim CEO, the Community Resource Center. Learn more at crcmidtn.org to our supply chain Now Global Fam. Hope you enjoyed the conversation. Hey, take me up on that challenge. We're gonna see who's listening and watching. We want to celebrate all the great organizations that support the CRC and and similar non profits and y' all keep the support and the feedback coming. Feedback is a blessing, Tony. That's what I've learned in my career. Even on those days where you, you're kind of feedbacked out but still. Keep it coming, folks. But most importantly, take one thing you heard here today from Tony and and all that they're doing and put it into practice. Do something with it. Deeds, not words, right? That's how we're gonna keep transforming global supply chain and leaving no one behind. So with all that said, Scott Luton, challenging all of our listeners and our our viewers, our SC and global Fam. Do good, give forward, be the change that's needed. Be like Tony. Because the world be a much, much better place. And on that note, we'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.
- [39:21]
A
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- [39:22]
B
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- [39:25]
A
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- [39:28]
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- [39:30]
A
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- [39:32]
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- [39:40]
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