Supply Chain Now — "Key Elements to Optimizing Supply Chain Leadership for 2026 and Beyond"
Date: October 22, 2025
Host: Scott Luton
Guests: Paul Brooks (Founder, Go Further Consulting), Dave Food (Chief Strategy Officer, Prophetic Technology)
Episode Overview
This engaging episode explores how supply chain leadership is evolving to meet the challenges of 2026 and beyond. Host Scott Luton is joined by industry veterans Paul Brooks and Dave Food, who share practical wisdom, explore the importance of T-shaped talent, address the increased visibility and complexity of global supply chains, and offer actionable insights for current and aspiring leaders in the field.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. The Emergence and Visibility of Supply Chain Leadership (00:00–05:40)
- Supply Chain in the Spotlight: Paul Brooks opens by noting how COVID made supply chain a visible, critical business function, highlighting its centrality to keeping customers satisfied.
- “Supply chain as a visible function...came about with COVID because everybody started to realize...gosh, we need to supply this stuff and we understand actually without that shops are empty. Supply chain leadership is about ensuring that that supply continues to keep the customer happy.” —Paul Brooks [00:00]
- Positive Mindsets & Core Mantras: Both guests discuss the importance of attitude and leadership philosophy.
- Dave shares his daily mantra: “Every day is full, full of opportunity, full of potential and full of choices.” —Dave Food [04:29]
- Paul emphasizes positivity: “Impossibility is something that I just don’t agree with...There is always a way to achieve your goals.” —Paul Brooks [05:40]
2. Career Journeys: From Accidental Entrants to Veteran Leaders (07:47–11:36)
- Diverse Backgrounds: Both guests have non-linear journeys into supply chain. Dave came from teaching, while Paul’s path began in retail marketing.
- Embracing Sales and Development: Scott highlights that business development and sales roles are vital, rewarding paths in supply chain.
- “There are tremendous opportunities in global supply chain—sales is not a bad word.” —Scott Luton [10:47]
3. Timeless & Emerging Leadership Challenges (12:20–17:56)
- Consistency in Core Challenges: Integrating, collaborating, and ensuring profitability remain perennial issues, but the pace and complexity are accelerating due to data and customer expectations.
- “Responsibilities...have gotten greater. The good news is the resources and our access to data and expertise has also grown.” —Scott Luton [13:39]
- Servant Leadership & Analytical Rigor: Paul underscores servant leadership and the importance of leaders understanding both strategic and tactical aspects, supported by strong analytics and communication.
- “Leaders can serve and support their organizations as well as creating headroom for them to drive forward.” —Paul Brooks [14:00]
- Media & the Need for Depth: Concerns over superficial analysis ("the 7-second goldfish attention span") and the risk of oversimplification.
- “We’re not getting trained well...in the news media and that the headline, the clicks...there's a lot of danger and risk.” —Scott Luton [15:35]
4. Fundamentals for Effective Supply Chain Leadership
a. The Bigger Picture (18:40–21:46)
- End-to-End Value Delivery: Supply chain is now about far more than products and prices; overall experience, service, and innovation define competitiveness.
- “Martin Christopher...said...companies will compete on supply chains and services rather than products and prices.” —Dave Food [18:40]
- COVID made supply chain leadership highly visible and indispensable.
b. The Bigger Process & Managing Complexity (22:05–26:56)
- Orchestration & Profit Realization: Leaders need holistic process understanding, balancing flexibility and profitability while adapting to technological advances (e.g., AI-enabled demand sensing).
- “If you don’t look at this as an overall process, you’ll either be delivering fantastic products and you won’t be making a profit or you’ll be making the profit but the customers don’t want it anymore.” —Dave Food [22:05]
- Creativity under Cost Pressures: Innovation is a necessity to meet aggressive cost targets and customer expectations.
- “You had to be creative and innovative...not just what you did, you have to rethink your perspective and place yourself in a new way of thinking.” —Paul Brooks [25:48]
c. The Wider Team and Boardroom Dynamics (27:09–31:25)
- Cross-functional Integration: Leaders must align supply chain, finance, HR, and other functions, facilitating collaboration, and supporting aligned KPIs.
- “We got to create aligned metrics too so that we’re not incentivizing folks to create disalignment.” —Scott Luton [29:13]
- Boardroom Presence: Supply chain is now central at the board level, driving efficiency and innovation. Effective leadership involves engaging suppliers and even customers in collaborative partnerships.
5. Talent for the Future: Specialists, Generalists, and T-Shaped People (33:22–40:54)
- The Need for Generalists: Generalists are increasingly necessary at the leadership level, with an analogy to sports teams where specialists work together under generalist coaches.
- “Generalists move mountains because oftentimes they figure out which specialists to bring in…” —Scott Luton [33:22]
- Definition & Value of T-Shaped People:
- Definition: Broad overview across functions, deep expertise in one area.
- “The T-shaped person has got a great overview of where they fit in the process, but a deep, deep knowledge of expertise…” —Paul Brooks [36:20]
- Importance: They understand the impact of their actions across the organization, drive innovation safely (via sandboxes), and foster resilience.
- “Practice without being live...ensure their teams can train without risk. Failure is a way to fail forward fast.” —Paul Brooks [38:20]
- “Empowering your people to make mistakes...these things matter.” —Dave Food [40:18]
- Definition: Broad overview across functions, deep expertise in one area.
6. What Not To Do: Leadership Pitfalls (42:53–44:41)
- Avoid Control & Fear-Based Leadership: Suppressing ideas and controlling behaviors demoralizes teams and stifles innovation.
- “Anything in that area [controlling how and what people think] is poor behavior and the great organizations don’t have that.” —Paul Brooks [43:48]
- Don’t Overextend or Overconstrain: Limiting innovation or being overly prescriptive can drive talent away.
- “Don’t so constrain people that no innovation happens...they go somewhere else.” —Dave Food [43:59]
7. The Future: 2026 and Beyond (45:55–48:31)
- Personalized & AI-Driven Supply Chains: The guests foresee individualized delivery, on-demand production, and deep AI/machine-learning usage for speed and flexibility.
- “We’ll have configurable products...configurable capability and programmability at the point of delivery...some use of AI and machine learning to help to drive supply chains that are truly flexible.” —Dave Food [45:55]
- Human Skills Remain Essential: Even as technology transforms the industry, communication, leadership, and values will be critical.
- “We still need the people understanding how their teams work, how their businesses work, how the strategy works and where the values are set.” —Paul Brooks [47:38]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- "Every day is full, full of opportunity, full of potential and full of choices." —Dave Food [04:29]
- “Impossibility is something that I just don’t agree with. There is always a way to achieve your goals.” —Paul Brooks [05:40]
- “We’re not getting trained well...trained to be that 7C goldfish attention span...” —Scott Luton [15:35]
- “Supply chain leadership is about ensuring that that supply continues to keep the customer happy.” —Paul Brooks [00:00]
- “If you keep your employees happy, they will keep your customers happy.” —Paul Brooks citing Richard Branson [17:17]
- “Generalists are becoming the way ahead in terms of leadership… look at sports teams—specialists working together to achieve a common goal.” —Paul Brooks [33:22]
- “The most important thing…is inspiring people to get the best out of themselves and achieve more than they thought was possible.” —Paul Brooks [42:53]
Timestamps for Key Segments
| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------| | 00:00 | Supply chain visibility post-COVID, leadership’s role | | 04:29 | Core mantras and positive leadership philosophies | | 07:47 | Guest career journeys | | 12:20 | Timeless and emerging supply chain leadership challenges | | 18:40 | The bigger picture: Service experience and innovation | | 22:05 | Managing complexity: Process visibility, profit, AI | | 27:09 | The wider team: Cross-functional and supplier engagement | | 33:22 | Specialists vs. generalists; teamwork analogies | | 36:20 | T-shaped people: Definition and importance | | 42:53 | What not to do: Pitfalls in leadership | | 45:55 | The next 5 years: AI, personalized supply chains | | 49:05 | Guests’ projects: books, blogs, and resources |
Resources & How to Connect
- Paul Brooks
- Books and articles: wordstoinspire.co.uk
- Consulting: paul.brooks@gofurtherconsulting.co.uk
- Dave Food
- Weekly “Planning Food for Thought” blog: Connect on LinkedIn (search “Dave Food”)
- Email: dave@prophetic-technology.com
Closing Takeaway
Scott Luton encourages listeners to adopt at least one actionable insight from the episode and to “do good, give forward, be the change that’s needed”—the show’s guiding imperative for transformative, values-based leadership in supply chains and beyond.
This summary captures the essence and practical insights shared in the episode, along with the conversational tone and hallmark humor of the Supply Chain Now team. For more, connect with the guests, check out their publications, and subscribe to future episodes.