← Supply Chain Now
Loading summary
Transcript72 lines
- [00:00]
Rodrigo Alponti
From time to time, we are going to have events that are going to affect us somehow. We need to acknowledge that and know that the changing environment is now the normal.
- [00:13]
Supply Chain Now Announcer
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 from across the globe, one conversation at a time.
- [00:26]
Scott Lewton
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton and hall of famer Regine Vallee with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's show. Regine, how are you doing today?
- [00:37]
Regine Vallee
I'm doing great, Scott. How about you? I had my croissant and my coffee and I'm ready to go.
- [00:43]
Scott Lewton
Oh, you always are. And I am doing wonderful because now I get to really spend time and learn from two of my favorite people. An old friend, we've been collaborating for quite some time and a newer friend. And so this is gonna be terrific. And so Regine, let me. Now that I've kind of teased a little bit, I'm gonna kind of shed more light on what we're doing here. We're bringing back an industry dynamo backed by popular demand. We've been featuring incredible supply chain senior leaders via our Never Normal series for months now. And our supply chain now Global Fam has given us a lot of feedback on this project, including how they want to dive deeper with some of the panelists. So to that end, we're, we're bringing back a supply chain leader that wowed us a few months ago, much like Regine has wowed us over the years. And we're going to be diving into topics such as successful supply chain leadership in the pharmaceutical industry, resilience now versus pre pandemic times, practical AI deployment, getting those outcomes we're all after aligning teams in a constantly changing and disruptive environment, all that stuff, and much, much more. And Regine, I again, I'm thrilled that you can join me here today as an official co host. Are you ready for this today?
- [01:57]
Regine Vallee
I think I am. You know, I'm feeling the nerve that I'm shaking it off and I'm ready for that. Are you ready for that?
- [02:04]
Scott Lewton
I think so. Hey, I've had my Wheaties, I've had my cup of coffee. I hadn't had a delicious Parisian croissant this morning. Maybe tomorrow. But I am delighted, you know, really, to have these two forces join us on an episode of Supply Chain now. I'm delighted. And of course, most of our audience has been with us for a while will know that Regine Valle has done Some really big things, industry, especially healthcare. Even serving for quite some time as chief supply chain officer for one of the largest healthcare providers in the country. So I'm really looking forward to her take on the conversation here today. So folks, stick around for a great discussion that's going to offer up tons of actionable insights by the truckload. All right, so Regine, I am going to introduce our wonderful guest joining us today. Backed by popular demand, Rodrigo Alponti serves as senior Vice president, Global Supply Chain for Stata Group. Now Stata is a leading manufacturer of consumer healthcare products, generics and specialty pharma, which is based in Germany but provides its products to markets in over 100 countries. Now Rodrigo brings almost 30 years of leadership experience to the table, especially in large national multinational companies in the consumer goods and pharma segments. Prior to his current role, Rodrigo has held leadership positions with companies such as Sanofi, Euro Pharma and Avon. He has developed quite a track record for not only driving world class results, but also empowering the workforce and keeping those customers, those patients and customers as a Northstar. So please join me in welcoming Rodrigo Alponte, Senior Vice president, Global Supply Chain for Starter Group. Rodrigo, how you doing today?
- [03:43]
Rodrigo Alponti
Oh, thank you very much for the great introduction, Scott. I'm doing great. How about you?
- [03:48]
Scott Lewton
Doing fantastic. Not, not as good as the two of y'.
- [03:51]
Rodrigo Alponti
All.
- [03:51]
Scott Lewton
Because folks, you may not know this, but Rodrigo and Regine both are in Paris right now. And that's got to be just a beautiful time of year to be in Paris. Regine, you can verify that, is that right?
- [04:03]
Regine Vallee
Absolutely. I got to tell you, the weather here is absolutely to die for. It is a balmy, I think almost 60 something degrees here. Beautiful sun, just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous spring weather. Love it.
- [04:20]
Scott Lewton
Well, so that's a perfect segue. See, I told you. Regine is a natural co host. It's a great segue because Rodrigo, one thing we learned when you joined us in January is we like to start with these fun warm up questions. Is a big time movie buff which we might revisit later in the show. But you love being with your family and your kids in the outdoors. And Rodrigo, is that a big part of your weekend plan coming up?
- [04:44]
Rodrigo Alponti
Oh yes, absolutely. Tomorrow morning we are heading all of us to Giveny to see some of the sceneries there and spend some time there. A great city there.
- [04:55]
Scott Lewton
Outstanding. Well, we look forward to learning more, maybe get some pictures. And Regine, on a somewhat related note, I was learning in the green room earlier today that you had a Bucket list item that you were recently able to check off and that is dining up in the restaurant atop the Eiffel Tower, is that right?
- [05:13]
Regine Vallee
That's correct. We went to Jersey for actually it was more of a brunch, but it was like a three and a half, almost four hour brunch. Just absolutely amazing. To die for.
- [05:25]
Scott Lewton
Okay, I'm jealous. We'll have to compare notes after, after today's show. But regardless, great to have both y' all here and. And again, Rodrigo, I want to give a shout out to Mario and Mike who joined you on that incredible panel back in January. Y' all are fantastic and it's great to follow up here today with you and Regine. So let's do this. Let's level set a bit, Rodrigo, because we might have some new audience members tuning in here today that missed that panel. So let's level set on some of your professional background. Would you start by sharing a couple of key roles that really shaped your worldview prior to your current role?
- [06:01]
Rodrigo Alponti
Absolutely. Thank you very much, Scott, for the opportunity. So I would divide my career in two parts. First part, in FMCG companies. So as you well said, Avon, but Also I work 12 years in PNG, so I went through almost all the disciplines in supply chain. But the role that I wanted to call the attention is more on the integration of Gillette. I have been the leader of the integration of Gillette in Brazil and this gave me the opportunity to hope to see the whole company from a different perspective. This helped me to look at the different aspects of the company and how the decisions are made from the CEO standpoint. This, I think is one important point on Avon as well. Then I led the supply chain of Brazil. We used to deliver to 1 million representatives each 19 days. And, and I had under my responsibility 8,000 people in supply chain community. And in that, that moment, what I would call the attention more and it was my big focus was to manage people, so, so how to manage people and how to ensure that people are working their peak. So this is the second role that I had I think very, very important in my, in my information. And the third one was and I, when I arrived in Europe in Sanofi and how to deal with the different cultural aspects. When I, I led the supply chain Europe, it was different because for the first time I had to work with different countries in a very, very integrated region. And this helped me to understand this, this whole diversity. And so if I put these three rows as, as a good representation of the way I am today, it's a. I learned how to look at the company from a more holistic way in the first place. Second, looking at how to manage a big group of people. And third one is to how. How to manage and. And integrate the different aspects of the different countries. This, these are the three main roles.
- [08:09]
Scott Lewton
Rodrigo, that speaks volumes to me regime when you think about kind of how he learned the systems view, holistic view of the company in one of those earlier positions and then optimizing the performance of the people. Right. And really learning how to really tweak his approach there. And then that last, that third item, supply chain is a. Is the most beautiful team sport as I've heard it said here today, global team sport at that. And being able to really better understand as a leader of making sure we include all customs and countries and people and be able as supply chains, you know, go through so many different countries, how to optimize our approach there. But what'd you hear there?
- [08:50]
Regine Vallee
Regine really stood out to me is what Rodrigo shared in the ability to read with a truly holistic lens, not just understanding the different functions of the business, but how those decisions came across like finance operations and ultimately impact outcomes. And then layered on top of that of cultural complexity. I can't even imagine leading across regions that operate very differently, different time zones, different cultural approaches. That requires to me a level of intentionality that goes beyond process. So it really becomes about how you align people's perspectives. I really appreciated hearing what was being
- [09:37]
Scott Lewton
Regina, that was a marvelous response. And in particular I like that call out of the degree of intentionality that leaders have to have to do these, you know, very complex feats. As you said, it's not just that cross functional bridges. It's. It's then further complicated by the cross cultural bridges we've got to build. So very well said. Okay, so Rodrigo, I want to touch base a little bit or levels a little bit more on a couple other things here. Tell us, if you would, about your current role as an executive with STADA Group and what the company does.
- [10:13]
Rodrigo Alponti
We are, as you said, a pharma industry and we produce medicines to the whole world. We are now very much focused, in fact in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Right. So we have a very small business with America's. So we are more concentrated, 99.9% of our business in the right side of the map, if I may say like this. Yeah. And we are focused on three major business segments. Consumer healthcare, generics and specialty. And why is this important? Because the needs of each part of the business is different. We go our go to market in the different. In the different markets is different depending on the business segment. So in specialties, for instance, we are more focused on tenders, more on hospitals and with the governments, consumer health care is more concentrated on pharmacies and generics is a mix of pharmacies with hospitals and so on. And this brings us an important challenge to ensure that we build the supply chain in a way that we serve well. The go to market the different markets. Right. And knowing as well that there are differences among the different markets that we have. This is what we do today in stada. And then talking about more specifically my role, I lead the global supply chain and we do have today four different disciplines, if I may say like this one is distribution. So global distribution to our customers. Customer service as the second discipline, planning and demand and supply planning. The fourth one is the excellence. So we also see excellence as one of the work streams. I don't see today we surviving without excellence helping us throughout the journey. Right. So we have three more operational disciplines and another one in helping the three, the other three to reach the best that they can reach. And then in all of these we are Talking about approximately 1,000 employees in this supply chain community. Important to mention as well, Sorry, it's from an end to end standard point we touched since our suppliers towards our customers.
- [12:36]
Scott Lewton
I tell you what, that is so helpful to better understand the perspective you're going to be sharing. And I'm going to get Regina to comment on that in just a second. Especially that fourth pillar being excellence. I love that. But really quick before we do that, Rodrigo, when you think about global supply chains, of course few are as consequential as healthcare. Right. So how does that reality shape the way you lead supply chain in particular at stada?
- [12:59]
Rodrigo Alponti
Well, it's a very good question as well, Scott. So how do we do right is that we put our patients and customers at the center of all our decisions. So this is the first and most basic principle that we use in all our processes. So this means that it may have times that we may make decisions that are not going to be the ideal ones from the cost standpoint, but we need to make sure that our patients are well served and our customers as well. Also reminding that part of our business is generics and even the consumer healthcare. So they are not standalone brands. This means that if we are not at the point of sale or we are not reaching the patient, someone else will. Summarizing. Right. So first and our purpose to serve our patients but second one is if we don't, if we are not there, our competition will be there.
- [13:57]
Scott Lewton
All right, so Regine, whether it goes back to how he was describing the organization, I think that's really interesting, especially again, with the excellence being a pillar. But also on the healthcare industry, which, of course, you are a supply chain hall of famer. None of this is new to you. I'd love to get your thoughts on that.
- [14:15]
Regine Vallee
One of the things I want to call out, what really stood out to me is the level of complexity behind what might seem like a single supply chain. Again, when we say supply chain, we tend to think about it as a linear thing. Even the idea of a chain. You think about the chain links, but you're not just managing the flow. You're really orchestrating, demonstrating multiple business models. And that's why Rodrigo articulated very well, each with different customer expectations and regulatory environment and delivery requirements. And I think that's where leadership becomes critical, because it's not just about the efficiency. It's about making that intentional choice around how you're prioritizing and serving every need differently within one system and the next. And so that really stood out to me as I was listening to him.
- [15:10]
Rodrigo Alponti
You are absolutely right when you said that. And just to illustrate a little bit these complexities, all the things that you said, the needs from customers, regulatory aspects and so on, we've 26,000 SKUs. Each one of them are very important because again, we are affecting or we are improving the health of our patients. Right.
- [15:31]
Scott Lewton
So Rodrigo and Regine, I think what I'm going to do, because this is really good stuff, especially the vibe between the two of y'. All, I'm going to get my Diet Coke and get me a box of popcorn and I'm going to sit back and listen. Really, y', all, there's a reason why we. We kind of. We want a regime to be a special co host for this session with Rodrigo because we knew there was a lot of kindred spirits and expertise. So I think we're seeing that already. Let's shift gears over to the current landscape. And. And gosh, we'd be here. We could be here for hours. It's a really challenging current landscape. But you know what, with that said, it also comes with territory. Right. Supply chain is not for the faint of heart. So, Rodrigo, how would you describe the current state of global pharmaceutical supply chains in, say, maybe your top two or three observations there?
- [16:19]
Rodrigo Alponti
Okay, this question is very pertinent for how we are managing supply chain today. Right. So let me first call the attention to the first aspect, which is the size of our supply chain, right? We do have in many cases a very complex supply chain, depending on the molecule, depending on the product we bring, depending as well on the company. But we bring between 40, 50% of our APIs from China or from India because they have very good quality products and with an affordable price, with a good price. So it starts with that which has important lead times. We bring the API, we produce the bulk, then the bulk in some cases is packaged in a different country, then it goes to another country to be released from the quality standpoint. So our supply chains, depending on the molecule, depending on the way we manage, they are very complex as well. So remember I said that we have 26,000 SKUs in many of them. The supply chains are very complex in that way and each molecule has their unique supply chain. So the first aspect of today's environment is the size of our supply chains, right? And the complexity of that. The second aspect that I wanted to call attention is exactly what we were discussing before. The regulations, right? Regulations are there and they are there for a good reason because we want the patients to be safe and secure, that everything that we do is well done and they are going to have good quality and their products are going to get to them and give them the effect that they are expecting, right? So regulation is important and is needed. Having said that, we need to apply and ensure that regulations from different countries are obeyed. So it's not a simple task. We need to ensure that this is also framing the operation in a way that we don't break any part of the regulation. What I said is complex supply chain and long supply chain. Second, regulations, the third one, and I would say maybe the last one, is the geopolitical situation. Let me say this because from time to time we have different facts that happen and we need to deal with them, right? So as you well said, with the head pandemic at the beginning of the 20s, we had the conflict, the start of the conflict in Ukraine, now we have this conflict in Iran. We had one year ago or or so the tariffs as well. That started to affect as well some dynamics in the market. So. So I think this is a reality now, right? How do we see that? Is, is that from time to time we are going to have events that are going to affect us sometime, somehow we need to acknowledge that and know that the changing environment is now the normal. I don't like this word, to be honest, which is transformation. And let me tell you why, right? Because transformation Predicts that we go from a point A to point B. But guess what? When you arrive to point B, it's time to go to the point C. So. So transformation now does not apply in my view anymore. It's changing. Is, is a permanent state of supply chain. Right. So these are the three aspects that I would call the attention now on how we see, how I see the current environment in these three aspects that I manage supply chain with the supply chain leadership team.
- [19:55]
Scott Lewton
Rodrigo, we could have a whole podcast series, I think on your response. Regine, I want to go back all the way something you shared there, because how many supply chains do we hear their leader is talking about? It depends on the molecule. I mean, that really speaks to the complexity, I think, in many ways. But size, regulation, complexity, geopolitical transformation, whether we like the word or not, are some of the big themes there. Regine, what'd you hear about the current state of global pharmaceutical supply chains?
- [20:24]
Regine Vallee
Wow. You know what, I agree with you. So I'll tell you what stood out to me and what he shared. The last piece is very powerful. That we're no longer operating in a world of transformation as a phase, but really it's a state of continuous change. And then when you layer on the complexity of global supply chains as we so nicely articulated regulatory requirements, geopolitical dynamics, it becomes clear that adaptability is no longer a case capability. Right. It's a core leadership discipline. I think it's how we think, how we decide and how we lead through constant movement.
- [21:13]
Rodrigo Alponti
Going a little bit further on that. Right. So we are going to talk about resilience, but to me, the resilience is very well connected with adaptability. I prefer to use the, the word adaptability than the word of resilience because if we are adaptable, we are going to be resilient. Right. Adaptability comes before the resilience.
- [21:34]
Scott Lewton
That state of continuous change that Regine mentioned earlier, maybe we need to start using that instead of the word transformation. We'll see. All right, so let's do this. Rodrigo, you've spoken to some of the regulatory components, right? In terms of how that bakes in, that's factored into your supply chain decision making, leadership approach and probably how you think about risk. But when you think about patient safety decisions, how does that help impact how you and the team view risk?
- [22:04]
Rodrigo Alponti
Safety of the patient is the most basic thing that we, we manage. Right, Scott? And we need to be very responsible in all the decisions that we make. I don't do anything that quality is not together with Me and, and say that what we are doing is safe. So even if I'm going to change the transportation carrier, quality is reversed to make sure that if we are going to change the carrier, the new carrier, it fulfills all the needs, all the requirements from the quality standpoint, just to give you a very simple example. So absolutely no decision is made if we are not one quality check. Second, we are in accordance with the regulations and the regulatory is also with us. The point here is that differently from some aspects of the FMCG companies where we have more freedom to make all the decisions from the supply chain standpoint in, in pharma, we need to make sure that all those aspects are taken into consideration. No decision is made if quality is not reversed and, and regulatory. Right.
- [23:12]
Scott Lewton
So Regine, I know from all of our conversations, patient safety, patient outcomes, that has been the North Star in many ways. Your response, what we heard there from Rodrigo.
- [23:23]
Regine Vallee
Well, patient safety, patients just generally they're at the middle of everything that we do. We cannot operate in the worlds that we operate, pharmaceutical health care per se, without putting the patient in the middle of everything that we do. Again, when I think about what he said, you know, again what stands out is the level of discipline behind the decision making in healthcare. Risk isn't something that you manage after the fact, especially when you think about people's lives being involved in that. It's something that's built into how the decisions are made on the very, very beginning. And that's why anytime you see anything about healthcare, there's always a framing or a diagram that shows the patient and safety at the core of everything that because what Odrivo described is a model where quality, regulatory and operational considerations are fully integrated, ensuring that patient safety is never ever, ever, ever compromised.
- [24:29]
Scott Lewton
Regina, I really appreciate your response, especially how you said you can't manage risk after the fact when it comes to patient safety. So very true. And that's a kind of a one of the big unique elements when it comes to pharma and healthcare and the differences in how supply chain has to take that into account. Operations, supply chain and more. Let me ask you this, Rodrigo. You touched on this earlier and I don't mean to be glib or I take this very seriously. Right. Whether we call it resilience or anti fragility or whatever your favorite phrase is, when you think about pre pandemic and then you think about all that we learned painfully and otherwise during the pandemic and how we've responded and how some of that response has stuck with Us some of that response, unfortunately, we've forgotten about until then. The next really big challenging thing. How do you put it, Rodrigo, in terms of organizational resilience today versus pre pandemic, have we made progress?
- [25:28]
Rodrigo Alponti
I think we have made big progress since then, right? And to be honest, if I think about the timings, right, the, the pandemic started in 2020, right? And we, and we are starting 2026 now in six years. The, the speed that we came through is, is in my view, phenomenal, right? We, we. I mean the whole industry, right? The, the whole world. In fact, if I think about how in the pharma industry we evolved since then, I would call attention to a couple of points, right? The first one is that we are much more integrated in the communication, right? In 24 hours, we are able to reach anybody in any part of the world. In one hour we can do this, right? I can give you an example, right? When the conflict in Iran started in one hour, we established the committee and we evaluated the shipments to the countries involved and we already talked about the actions that we would put in place. So the integration is one and it comes already together with the agility, right? So I just gave you an example of connection and agility. So very quickly we were able to understand the situation and design the possible solution. This was the first action plan because the situation continues to evolve. And this is the next important point, which is the tracking and the follow up. Because we cannot just establish the first action plan and just say, okay, our job is done, which is not true because the situation continues to evolve and we need to continue monitor. And he builded the plan over and over to make sure that things are going to the right direction, right? So right now, in this example, we have only one port working well in the region, which is Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. All the other ports are closed. So we now need to understand pragmatic problem that I show you this morning, which is how to reach Kuwait from Saudi Arabia from Jeddah. So this gives us as well this, I would say this challenge also help us to find different ways of doing things. And this is just an example we have. I can give you many other examples on that. So I said integration, agility and follow up through the process, right?
- [27:48]
Scott Lewton
And I love that example. Less than 60 minutes, you're got the team gathered, got the SWAT team gathered to figure out a better path mitigating the risk. Regine your thoughts on his response and the question resilience prior to the pandemic to where we are today.
- [28:05]
Regine Vallee
You Know what resonated with me is that in pharma, you know, the risk is not episodic. When I hear that, and it's so true because I go back and by the way, I get like, you know, it's almost like trauma when I hear a pandemic, when I hear, you know, all the things that we've had to go through. But that risk is inherent to every decision that we have to make in our world. And the discipline that we described where quality, regulatory, fully integrated decision making, what enabled organizations to move with both speed and confidence, and the fact that you now have an ecosystem that is able to react a lot more quickly to some of the risks that we're seeing in the world. When you layer that with the integration and Jordyn mentioned clear that resilience today is much more dynamic than it was pre pandemic. I still think that we have work to do, but I think that it's a lot more dynamic.
- [29:16]
Rodrigo Alponti
Absolutely correct. I couldn't agree more with what you said. Regime to me resonates on the resilience is the consequence of all of this. Right. So at the end all of these will improve their resilience to ensure that we continue to serve the business without disruption or with the minimum disruption possible.
- [29:35]
Scott Lewton
At least we've made progress, but we got a lot more work to do. I think it's one of the big common themes here.
- [29:42]
Rodrigo Alponti
Absolutely.
- [29:43]
Hytrol Announcer
In a fast moving industry, your material handling systems can't fall behind. Hytrol designs and manufacturers conveyor systems built to keep operations running at full strength, increasing throughput, reducing downtime, supporting growth at every stage. With more than 75 years of proven performance and a reputation for reliability, Hytrol continues to set the standard in material handling. If you're ready to move smarter, visit hytrol.com and see why industry leaders choose Hytrol.
- [30:19]
Scott Lewton
Rodrigo, when you think of AI and here in the golden age of supply chain tech, at least it seems that way, where are you seeing healthcare really make a big practical outcomes producing impact in healthcare supply chains or pharma, you name it.
- [30:35]
Rodrigo Alponti
Yeah, good question as well, Scott. And I know that this is a little bit polemic, but many people have different ideas and where can we go and so on. I would say that I, I don't like to go so, so beyond the vision that I heard and I read sometimes that to say, oh, we are going to be replaced by AI and everything, AI will do everything. I don't think we are there. We are not even close to that vision yet. Maybe Someday we are going to get there, right? But now I like to think about AI as a tool to solve some problems that we have, right? And so far I like to think as important to. So let me explain. We have some projects in course. One is to improve our demand forecast, another one is to improve our supply planning. And we have another one we've training the people so people now in southern supply chain can just type the topic that they want to learn. Our chatbot powered by AI tells him everything that we have in terms of documentation, so on and where to find and what to do based on our documentation. These are the three main topics that we are driving in supply chain. Specifically starter is doing much, much more things with AI. But specifically supply chain, these are the three topics that we are betting our our efforts now, right? But to give you one example and to be more concrete on what I'm saying, today we have between 350 and 400 SKUs per planner in supply planning. So what I want with AI is to AI to help my planners with the correct information and to give them recommendations for them to be able to make the right decisions and be able to increase their productivity to between 500, 550 SKUs. So the final decision, at least today it needs still needs to stay with the planners, with the people. And that's why in January when we talked about this, my opinion continues to be the same, which is I need highly educated people to be able to make the right decisions. Even AI, this need is even higher because I need to make sure that we are making the right decisions and they are much more productive than they were before because imagine that we've good information coming and good recommendation coming. Their decisions are going to be better. We are going to generate more efficient, the operations going to be more efficient and we will be able to reduce inventory and provide a better service. So this is to give you the example of one of the applications that we are using. And this is the same way I see demand planning and even the training part. This is my view for AI. Now it doesn't mean that it will be like this forever. I understand that going to evolve and, and eventually we're going to the point that AI is going to do everything, maybe, maybe right.
- [33:40]
Scott Lewton
Regine what I heard as Rodrigo was sharing his thoughts there one thought came to my mind, especially as he spoke about one of the many aspects of where AI can bring a lot of benefit to organizations is helping more planners take on more of the SKUs. Right? And really kind of brought a conundrum I may not be using that word right, but it brought a thought to my mind that people are making AI more successful. However, AI is making people more valuable and more successful as well when implemented in a very targeted, meaningful, outcomes focused way. And that is a beautiful thing. And who knows, the billion dollar question is just how far will AI continue to disrupt the human element of global supply chains? Lots of different thoughts there. But Regine, what'd you hear there? And his thoughts on AI in healthcare and pharma?
- [34:31]
Regine Vallee
Well, if I have to translate what Rodrigo said, where I really appreciate it is that he described that AI is basically scaling capabilities but not replacing the accountability. Because when I heard the example of still having to go through the planners to make sure that they validate some of the informational output of AI, that's the accountability that people tend to think is going to go away with the use of AI. But I think it's about scaling that capability but really paying that accountability. And in healthcare supply chains or pharma supply chains, where decisions directly impact patients, that human judgment still remains essential until such time that as you said, that somehow we're not going to need that anymore. But we're not yet at that point. So I think the real opportunity is how we elevate and encourage our people to make better, faster, more informed decisions with AI, not instead of Regine.
- [35:39]
Scott Lewton
Love it, Love it. All right, so I hate to leave this topic. We're also going to kind of come down home stretch of this great interview and we'll have to have you again back with us. Rodrigo, stick with the human factor, the beautiful human factor for a moment, right? We've all been talking about a variety of challenges, right? From geopolitical to those that are more unique to healthcare and pharma to general supply chain challenges. It can be very disruptive. It also speaks to the state of continuous change, as Regine said earlier. Right. It can be really challenging for leaders to find an approach that works to, to keep or to instill and then protect that alignment that teams have and all these wonderful talented humans can have. What have you found in your almost 30 years of supply chain leadership? What's a couple of core elements to your approach to protecting that alignment during disruptive times?
- [36:34]
Rodrigo Alponti
Great point. And I think this is, I would say maybe one of the core works in supply chain, right? Because it's all about people, right? So people make the decisions, as we just said, if they are well educated, if they know what are the objectives, they will make the right decisions, right? So to be really pragmatic here. Let me tell you a couple of processes that we have, right? So we built our north, our strategic roadmap two years and a half ago. Each year we review that and we look at the action plan for the next one to two years and we do some adjustments sometimes, sometimes we don't do any adjustment. This depends on the, the dynamic of the market, how things are going each six months. I'd say we do some kind of review and usually once a year we do some adjustments, right? So the first important thing is to know where we are going and what is our strategic framework. This is the first important point. The second important point is how to execute that, right? How to execute that and how to link the strategic framework with the day to day work. Because if we don't relate one to another, nothing will happen, right? It's very beautiful to have a fantastic and beautiful strategic framework there. But if you don't bring this to reality and to the day to day, forget it. This will never be implemented. So, so in the execution phase, if I may say, like this, we link this to the SNOP and to our monthly business reviews. So we always track the initiatives, actions, what we are putting in place and we are linking this with the results of the company. Because if this is not linked, it will not happen. Right? Last but not least, again, I'm going to repeat what I said before, which is to me absolutely fundamental, which is education of our people. Strategic framework needs to get into all the levels of the company in supply chain and I need to make sure that our people, they have all the, the tools, intellectual tools, right? So, so if I need to provide trainings, if I need to send them to another country for them to be equipped with the right knowledge to do the things they need to do, I will do it. Right? So, so this is another important aspect now coming back to the framework and the division. It needs to be simple and straightforward. These needs to reach all the levels of supply chain. I cannot, and I saw this in my past, sometimes people doing fantastic, beautiful things with the most sophisticated wording and so on. And then when this gets to the lower levels of the organization, nobody understood that single word. So, so it needs to be understood by, by and understood and internalized by everybody. Everybody need to leave this. If they leave this, if they believe this, this will happen, right? They need to believe you.
- [39:40]
Scott Lewton
And if they don't, they're not going to be bought in and they're not bought in. Ain't nothing happening.
- [39:45]
Rodrigo Alponti
Nothing will happen. Nothing will happen.
- [39:47]
Scott Lewton
That's Probably a little bit simplistic. But Regine, I want to go back to a couple things he shared there. You know, that linkages, as he called it, between the strategy and the day to day. That probably sounds very common, sensical to so many people watching or listening to us. However that is can be in my experience least so challenging to create. And then if you don't create it, you've got the, even if you had the brilliant trillion dollar strategy, but it's not connected to what drives behaviors every day. What do you got? But that was one thing. And of course secondly, amongst many of the things he shared, education. I believe those organizations that invest in their people, invest in new skills, tools, opportunities and a lot more or the places you'll go. But Regine, what'd you hear there from Rodrigo in terms of protecting that and delivering that powerful alignment that helps execution and success?
- [40:46]
Regine Vallee
This is something that truly, truly very nice. This is what it gets very real for me. We can talk about, you know, the strategic imperatives, we can talk about the metrics, can talk about all of the execution, but then really wants to start talking about the people and the core fundamental organization principle of being human centered leaders. That alignment is not static. Right. It's something that leaders have to continuously design and reinforce. You know, yeah, it starts with a clear strategic direction, but it only becomes real when it's embedded in how people operate every day. I think you just said it. They have to be bought into it in order to be able to move towards those strategic directions. And ultimately it's the investment in the people, their understanding, their capability, their ownership that's going to sustain that alignment over time. You cannot have it.
- [41:50]
Scott Lewton
Well said. And yes, I do know this is one of your passions, given all of our conversations over the years. And, and you know, this is a conversation and an aspect of discussion. Just, it won't stop. There's so much more we can talk about is so critical and it's. There's no magic wand. All right, so let's do this. I've got a quote here. As we start to wrap, folks, I want to explore the empowerment of the human workforce. One of my last questions here then we're going to make sure folks know how to connect with Rodrigo. We're going to get Regime's patented key takeaway and then we're going to also make sure folks don't connect with Regine. All before we leave here. But as I'd mentioned, Rodrigo joined us last January where I took 18 pages of notes, I think, and when it comes to that beautiful human element. Yesada. Rodrigo's organization seems to be very well known for being an organization that has a culture that celebrates and empowers its workforce. Big themes here today. Rodrigo has a personal track record for doing just that. So get this, I'm going to quote you here, Rodrigo, you shared this in January, quote. As companies scale and skew complexity explodes, the real competitive advantage in 2026 won't just come from better systems or AI driven planning. It will come from empowered, highly skilled planners who can forecast risk, make faster decisions, and prevent the supply chain from becoming a bottleneck to growth. End quote. So really, I hate to be redundant, but this is one of my favorite things to talk about. Empowering the talented human element remains a top priority. Not just as a personal leader, but for those organizations that want to do big things, this is a top priority.
- [43:32]
Rodrigo Alponti
Your thoughts, Rodrigo Scott? I think the culture in startup drives a lot of. The culture has some elements that I, I already told you and, and which I love it. Right. First is simple to understand. Second, it goes to all the levels of the organization. So I can tell you easily what are the elements of our culture. Right? So entrepreneurship one start approach, which is collaboration agility that we just said, right? Entrepreneurship agility. Excellence, integrity and integrity. Integrity, yeah, the four of them, right? So you see, all of them are in the minds of everybody. We talk about them every day and we leave them. This is the most important thing. All the decisions are made based on our values. And these together with a simple and clear vision, together with the elements that we will help them to make the right decisions. Right? So from the educational standpoint, from the system standpoint, these all complete the set of tools for all the employees to make the right decisions. Because as we discussed over this past hour, the complexity that we have, if we don't have each one ready to make the right decision and, and moving forward, we won't be able to succeed.
- [44:52]
Scott Lewton
I agree, Rodrigo, I agree. Regine, we're going to come to you for your key takeaway in just a second. But just really quick respond to what we heard there from Rodrigo.
- [45:02]
Regine Vallee
When I hear what Rodrigo is talking about in terms of the people, supply chains not transform, people do. And so as the complexity continues to grow and whether it's through scale or AI or global disruption, I just love how he has packaged this whole information and provided it back in a way that is powerful. And by the way, that quote, I want to copy and I quote, his outward mic drop.
- [45:36]
Scott Lewton
Regine, beyond getting those mic drop quotes from Rodrigo, which he's got. He's clearly got a superpower to do the passion from which you speak. This the second, maybe the third conversation I've had with your Rodrigo, the passion. You talked about the importance of believability earlier in the conversation. Well, I don't know about you, Regime, but I'm believing everything Rodrigo is dropping here. Do I take it to the bank? Would you do the same thing, Regine?
- [46:02]
Regine Vallee
Yes.
- [46:03]
Scott Lewton
Yeah, yeah. No doubt. You love what you do. Both of y' all love what you do, and you can tell so much in your responses. So let's do this. Rodrigo, love this second conversation we've had with you here, our second show we've had with you here. How can folks reach out if they want you to keynote that they want to compare notes on something you've done here today, something you've shared here today. How can folks connect with you, Rodrigo?
- [46:25]
Rodrigo Alponti
The easiest way is to go through LinkedIn. I'm, I'm there, so it's easy to find me there. Or you can reach me through my mail as well. So, Rodrigo, alponti.com and I'll be ready to. To connect.
- [46:41]
Scott Lewton
You will definitely be ready. You're always ready. You and Regime both definitely going to be ready. So, Regine, two final questions here before we thank everybody and wrap. First off, this is a. This might be the toughest question the whole day. Regine, what's one of your favorite. What's your patent key takeaway from Rodrigo's brilliance here today, by the way?
- [47:03]
Regine Vallee
I was trying to keep up and trying to write some notes, and this is where shorthand would have probably been very helpful. Some of those moments, those sound bites were coming in so quickly and so beautifully. But for sure, I know there are a couple of things that resonated with me. So if I have to capture it in one, if you're forcing it to take one takeaway, I can say that we are no longer operating in a world of transformation. We're operating in a world in a state of continuous change. And what Rodrigo articulated so well is that in that kind of environment, success is not just about systems of strategy. It's about the people. People who are aligned, who are equipped, who are empowered to make decisions with both the confidence and the ability as well. So technology enables, but people are the competitive advantage.
- [48:10]
Scott Lewton
Regine. Beautiful. Love it. And as you suggest, there's lots of takeaways here today. We all got to kind of settle on one of our favorite ones. But I would just, you know, we've mentioned Simplicity a couple of times or keeping things simple a couple of times. That does not mean if you can communicate in simple, straightforward terms does not mean it's loads and loads of simplicity. It can be a very complex strategy. But you've got to find a way, as Rodrigo and Regina spoken to today, to be able to communicate clearly and in simple terms so that folks can understand what we're doing, where we're going and why. And if you can't do that, the most brilliant strategy may not be worth all that much. So what a great conversation here today, Regina. I'd be remiss. I know you're, you're in Paris for a few more weeks here you'll hopefully be back stateside. We gotta break bread together. But how can folks track you down? I know you're doing lots of cool things in the industry still. How can folks track you down?
- [49:10]
Regine Vallee
Regine, I am very findable on LinkedIn. Hopefully you can share that information as well as you are, you know, sending information about the podcast. I believe my linked name is Eugene Honor and certainly through Reveal, my new advisory and leadership platform that I've created. I be lots of information Albert on LinkedIn as well and folks who can reach me directly via email as well. Very simply, regine, that's r e g I n eal.com and re heal in this case is R e h v a l.com so regenera.com or on LinkedIn.
- [49:54]
Scott Lewton
Outstanding. And folks, you, you also, beyond all of that, you'll be able to find Regine on regular supply chain out programming in the months to come. Outstanding. All right. What a great conversation. I knew it. I knew we were getting two of the super friends together and the superpowers would manifest itself. But you know what, all that aside, I'm big fans of both of these folks, but there's lots of authenticity in this conversation, right? There's no, I'm telling you, they speak from having done it and continuing to do it. And I think there's lots and lots of actionable perspective here over the last hour. So hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I have. I want to thank everybody. First, Rodrigo Alponte, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain for Starter Group. Rodrigo, well done my friend. Look forward to having you back soon.
- [50:40]
Rodrigo Alponti
Thank you very much and I will be more than glad to be back whenever you you invite me.
- [50:45]
Scott Lewton
I will be in touch with your agent soon, Rodrigo, I promise. Big thanks to my esteemed co host, Regine Belay. Always a pleasure to connect with you. I look forward to Hearing more about your leadership and culinary adventures and more in the weeks ahead.
- [51:01]
Regine Vallee
Regine, thank you so much, Scott. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank you for trusting me to co host with you because you know, you're doing some beautiful and amazing things in the industry. You are a force to be reckoned with yourself. And so that you trusted me to sit alongside me to do this is really, really important. Thank you.
- [51:27]
Scott Lewton
That makes my day. Makes my day. Regine. Look forward to what? What's to come to our Supply Chain now global fam. Again, I hope you enjoyed this conversation, but, you know, you've got homework. But you know what? Rodrigo and Regine have really worked hard to make this easy for you because they've offered a ton of really good actual stuff and perspective that hopefully makes it easy for you to take one thing and share it with your team, share it with your manager, share it with your colleagues, do something with it. Right? Deeds, not words. Beyond all the other good stuff you heard here today from Rodrigo and Regine. So with all that said, Scott Lewton, challenging all of our listeners, our viewers or our global fan, do good, give forward, be the change that's needed. And we'll see you next time right back here on Sapache now. Thanks, everybody.
- [52:15]
Supply Chain Now Announcer
Join the Supply Chain now community. For more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out supply chain now.com subscribe to Supply Chain now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain now wherever you get your podcasts.