Supply Chain Now

Episode: Resilience, Strategy, and Orchestration: Supply Chain Leadership Lessons from NFL Champions

Date: September 29, 2025
Hosts: Scott Luton (B), Mike Griswold, VP Analyst at Gartner (A)

Episode Overview

This episode draws connections between the world of supply chain leadership and the championship culture of NFL football. Hosts Scott Luton and Mike Griswold engage in a lively, insightful conversation about current trends in supply chain management, notably focusing on resilience, planning fundamentals, agility, reverse logistics, and analogies from NFL history that illuminate exceptional supply chain practices. They tie current supply chain challenges—like AI integration and returns management—back to leadership lessons from the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Warm-Up: Coffee Culture, Food Waste, and Returns Management (03:11–07:06)

• Coffee & Meetings

  • Mike reveals he’s primarily a tea drinker, sharing a memorable coffee tasting experience at Starbucks’ Seattle HQ.

    “There is definitely, as you would expect, a coffee culture that’s ingrained in Starbucks.” — Mike (04:09)

• Returns Management as Top Priority

  • The episode opens by stressing the significance and magnitude of reverse logistics in retail:

    “For many retailers, the volume of returns, right—the aggregate dollars of returns—if it was a supplier would be a top five supplier for most organizations.” — Mike (00:00; repeated at 11:43)

  • Scott states that the US had $890 billion in retail returns in one year (11:14).

2. Back to School, Back to Basics: Planning and Agility (07:06–16:23)

Fundamental Lessons from the “Back to School” Cycle

• The Power of Planning

  • The back-to-school period reminds supply chain professionals to focus on solid planning foundations (demand forecasting, replenishment, and execution).
  • AI now plays an increasing role in both demand signals and inventory positioning:

    “The skill that’s required now is figuring out where does AI fit within these planning and execution processes.” — Mike (09:01)

• Reverse Logistics and Returns

  • Greater visibility and technology investments are needed, especially around fraud prevention:

    “Fraud, fraud and more fraud… fraud is innovating as much as anything else in supply chain.” — Scott (13:22)

  • There’s a call for professional curriculum development dedicated to reverse logistics.

Agility as a Core Competency

• Embracing Agility
  • Modern supply chains must build processes and infrastructures to respond quickly to demand fluctuations—especially during October–December peaks.
  • Agility is both process-based and physical (inventory, fleet, global sourcing).

    “The more agile a company can make their supply chain… the better we can respond. We need to create some agility within our supply chain.” — Mike (15:13)

3. NFL Leadership Analogies: Supply Chain Lessons from Championship Football (16:23–35:34)

I. The Buffalo Bills: Resilience (18:10–22:52)

• Four consecutive Super Bowl appearances in the 1990s underscore the Bills’ core of resilience.
• Despite repeated losses, the leadership resisted overreacting or destabilizing a strong nucleus.

  “They were able to remain consistent, remain true to who they were and not fall into the trap of… blowing everything up… So to me, it’s a great example of resilience.” — Mike (20:15)

• Supply Chain Parallel: Stick with proven systems; avoid “shiny object syndrome.” Process setbacks and stay focused on the fundamentals.

II. The Baltimore Ravens: Core Competency and Complementary Strengths (23:06–26:21)

• The Ravens’ identity centered on dominant defense, with “good enough” offense leading to championships.

  “The lesson I would leave you with: identify your core competency as a supply chain… and ensure those areas around that are able to support whatever that is going to be.” — Mike (25:39)

• Supply Chain Parallel: Clarify what your operation does best—speed, cost, service, etc.—and build everything else to support that specialty.

III. The New England Patriots: Orchestration and Systematic Excellence (27:37–32:31)

• The Patriots exemplified orchestrated enterprise success—“sum of the parts is greater than the whole.”

• Buy-in, discipline, and clarity of roles transformed diverse talents into a consistent winner:

  “No one person is bigger than the team… My job is to do whatever my job is so that we win games and ultimately win Super Bowls.” — Mike (29:05)

• Patriots minimized self-inflicted errors, drawing an analogy to avoiding bad forecasts or inventory mistakes in supply chain.

• Leadership Delegation

  • Comparing ownership styles: Bob Kraft (Patriots) empowers leaders, vs. Jerry Jones (Cowboys) who micromanages, leading to divergent results.

    “The results speak for themselves over the last, you know, 12 to 15 years.” — Mike (33:46)

4. Gartner Planning Summit, AI, and Talent (36:16–43:33)

Upcoming Gartner Planning Summits

• Summits focus on real, tactical content for planners, with new tracks on talent and practical workshops (37:11–39:13).

  “70% of our stuff is for planners… real, hands-on activities.” — Mike (37:38)

AI in Supply Chain Planning

• AI is augmenting, rather than replacing, human planners; it assists but doesn't fully automate judgment-heavy processes.

  “We’ve seen many more instances of AI augmenting processes with people than we see AI replacing people, particularly in the planning environment.” — Mike (39:35)

• Anticipated challenges: big leaps in AI adoption and the risks of over-reliance (loss of critical thinking, need for AI certifications).

Talent Risks and AI

• Paradox of AI in the workforce:

  “Number one concern: employees not adapting or learning quickly enough… number two: career stagnation and skills loss from over reliance on AI. Isn’t that two interesting bookends?” — Scott (41:32)

  • New requirement for AI certification (42:17).
  • Concerns about loss of “soft skills” due to dependence on AI (42:58).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Resilience and Consistency

  “The operation was very sound. The fundamentals were very sound. They were able to avoid things like... the shiny object syndrome.” — Mike, on the Buffalo Bills (19:17)

• On Returns and Reverse Logistics

  “This is another component of our supply chain. We’re dedicating more resources, more horsepower, more brain power to figure out how do we do this effectively because… it’s not going to go away.” — Mike (12:34)

• On Orchestration and Team Buy-In

  “In order for us to be successful… we all have to play our part… Do your job.” — Mike, on the Patriots model (29:10)

• On AI’s True Role

  “Planning is not… one of those instances that we see [AI] replacing people… It’s a heavily augmented space.” — Mike (39:40)

• On Leadership Culture: Kraft vs. Jones

  “Kraft... was smart enough to delegate what needed to be delegated... You contrast that with Jerry Jones.” — Mike (32:46)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – Reverse logistics, preview of major topics
• 03:11 – Coffee, food waste, and the value of returns management
• 08:05 – Back to basics: the critical role of planning and AI
• 11:14 – Returns: technology, fraud, and investment in reverse logistics talent
• 14:26 – Agility explained in modern supply chain
• 18:10 – Buffalo Bills: resilience through adversity
• 23:06 – Baltimore Ravens: core competencies in supply chain
• 27:37 – New England Patriots: orchestration and systematic excellence
• 32:31 – Leadership comparison: delegation vs. micromanagement
• 36:16 – Gartner Planning Summits, talent pipeline focus
• 39:13 – The real impact of AI: augmentation vs. automation
• 41:44 – Talent risks of AI: adapting vs. stagnating
• 42:17 – AI certification and soft skill degradation
• 44:25 – How to connect with Mike Griswold and what’s next from Gartner

Conclusion

Scott and Mike deliver a lively, idea-packed session connecting the strategic dynamics of football dynasties to actionable supply chain leadership.
Their advice:

• Build resilience and don’t throw away what's working after a setback.
• Establish and reinforce core competencies but don’t operate in silos.
• Orchestrate teams for collective success, prioritize agility, and embrace AI as an augmentation tool—not a wholesale replacement.
• Stay tuned for more from Gartner’s events, and watch out for emerging trends in AI talent and holistic supply chain management.

Connect with Mike Griswold:

• LinkedIn
• Email: Mike.Griswold@gartner.com

For more episodes and information:
Visit www.supplychainnow.com
Listen, watch, and subscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite podcast platform.