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- [00:00]
Tato Malloy
You have to be continuously learning in a space where there's new information coming in every single day. You're not going to change anything by using the same mentality, the same thinking and the same knowledge that you had for the past 20 years.
- [00:17]
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.
- [00:29]
Scott Lewton
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton with you here on Supply Chain Now. Welcome to today's show, folks. We got a great episode here today. We're continuing our Supply Chain Leadership Across Africa series which has been a important component of our mission for years now. I got to go back and count the years and we just had some of the best, most intriguing conversations as part of this series. In fact, we had to bring back one of our faves today that's made a couple appearances on this great series. As we get the latest and greatest from this supply chain leader, we're going to be diving into a lot of topics such as several of the top trends impacting African supply chains and really many others. A sneak peek into one of the best supply chain conferences of the year and a keep it real moment on core elements to successful leadership, be it in supply chain or otherwise. All that and a whole bunch more. So stick around with us. So I want to introduce our guest here today. As I mentioned, he's a repeat guest. He's one of our faves. Tato Malloy has spent over 20 years in global supply chain, especially in a variety of leadership roles in the logistics sector. Currently he's serving in a management role in the world of contract logistics. But for several years now, Tado has served as president of sapix, a supply chain management community that is on a mission to elevate, educate and empower professionals and organizations across Africa and beyond. You're going to enjoy Tato's perspective and passion here today. I want to welcome in Tato Malloy. Hey. Hey, Tato. How you doing?
- [02:06]
Tato Malloy
I'm good. Thanks God for having me again. It's always a pleasure to meet up with you. Let's saw you in Cape Town at the conference. So great conversations then. I'm looking forward to the conversation today.
- [02:18]
Scott Lewton
Same. I went back and visited our last sit down. Really enjoyed it. And I'll tell you, you were like the mayor for the conference. I was fortunate to get 30 minutes because you had thousands of folks that wanted to get time with one. Tato Malloy, huh?
- [02:32]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, it's always a busy time, right. And I think for the community it's a time for us to connect and that's why our platform exists and that's why Ceplex exists to bring supply chain professionals together. It's always good seeing colleagues that either worked with in the past or working with currently some of our competitors in the industry just to come together, share ideas and just to connect. It's a home for us supply chain professionals.
- [02:58]
Scott Lewton
It is Africa for business, is open for business rather is one of the, one of your mantras. When we last connected, you also really drove home the point how important it is we got to find new ways of collaborating with where things are. And that probably has only gotten more important since we last sat down. I had someone share with me while when I was in Cape Town at Sapiks last time and she said, I think it was Angelina. She said that forever when you come to Sapiks, the annual conference, you leave a different person. And Tato, that is what I've experienced from attending a couple of the Sapiks annual conferences. Do you see the same thing?
- [03:40]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, 100%. I mean the, you just listening to, to the topics, right? Some of the insights that are being shared by the different speakers. You definitely going to live with one or two things that you can meaningfully implement in your personal career. And I mean those are the, the great things that we walk away with. And secondly, I mean the level of networking that happens there. A lot of people have done some great business, you know, know, met new customers there and have created lifetime partnerships. So there's always something to look forward to, always something that you leave with. I mean, it's not just the Cape Town is not just a great city. You know, I think it, it also elevates the, the conference in itself. And I'm sure you got a chance to look around and see what the country is all about.
- [04:27]
Scott Lewton
Yeah, we sure did. We're going to talk about the safe annual conference here on the second half of today's Sit down with Tato. But first, Tato, start with a fun warmup question. See, we're getting all into the good stuff before I even throw this out to you. So I want to ask you, when you're not moving mountains in global supply chain and leading things and doing things on your evenings or maybe your weekends, what's one of your favorite hobbies or passions in this life?
- [04:57]
Tato Malloy
I must say, having to spend a bit of quality time with my daughter. I think that's probably the most meaningful moments of life. And what you essentially cherish the most. I think she's currently in almost at the end of primary school, about to go to high school. So a big transition for all of us. So it's the last years of her jumping onto becoming a teenager and being told all sorts of stories. So trying to enjoy as much as I can while she's still young.
- [05:34]
Scott Lewton
Oh, I love that. I can relate to that, Tato. Our kids are at that age and a little bit older and I tell you, trying to hang on to each day because they're getting so much older, so faster. And while it's terrific as a parent and fulfilling and, and wonderful to see, it's sad, I'll be honest. It is sad to see them because, you know, we had some so much great times as you know, when they were young and kids and toddlers. But hey, that's how life works, huh?
- [06:03]
Tato Malloy
And you know, you have to embrace the moment and look, I'm hanging on as much as I can. We can't wait to see what high school presents as well.
- [06:13]
Scott Lewton
That's right. Hang on tight, Tato. Hang on tight. That's what I'm doing. Okay, let's refresh. As we kind of get into our topics here today, I want to refresh especially inform our newer audience members of your journey. I shared a little bit about it in intro earlier but from that professional standpoint, tell us about your journey and a little bit about what you do now.
- [06:37]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, thanks Scott. I've spent my entire career within the supply chain world served in various roles across the supply chain world. I've been in distribution as a distribution manager, I've been in the warehousing space. I've been a general manager in contract logistics. I've played in the solutions development space where we're bringing tech people and process together designing solutions for some of our customers. I've worked with a whole range of customers from Nike, Deluvo, Sugar frequent entity worked with Unilever, locally worked with the likes of Defi under the Archlick brand. So various different supply chains recently in the cold store space as well particularly exporting fruit. So wide range of experience within supply chain served as an MD of an organization within the contract logistics space. Currently area head in my space looking after a contract logistics entity Southern Africa and the islands. So I've been in various roles largely, you know, different experiences across the supply chain world.
- [08:01]
Scott Lewton
And tat I gotta ask you, gosh, you've worked with some really companies a lot of folks admire Unilever in particular Cold storage you mentioned and Fruit. What fruit was it that you were involved in?
- [08:13]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, so it's mainly in the export of citrus, grapes, stone fruits. So different categories of fruit that we export to the European market, Middle east, different export destinations. Essentially, you know, typical supply chain fruit comes in warm, we chill it, load into reefer containers for export.
- [08:39]
Scott Lewton
I bet that is a fascinating industry that a lot of folks that enjoy all those fruits had no idea about. And of course cold storage is a rapidly expanding portion market across global supply chain. Did that have you looking at your, at the fruit in the, in the grocery store, the market a little bit differently? Tato?
- [09:01]
Tato Malloy
100%. And I mean the complexity of that supply chain network is quite dynamic and very seasonal because you're so dependent on in South Africa, weather, it rains, you know, if we're having a good season, the quality of the weather, then you also have to deal with supply chain constraints, you know, performance of the port out of Cape Town. Every now and then we get wind bound so we can't load. But I mean, again, you think about the fruit in itself, it needs to move, right? It's a high throughput product, it doesn't sit in your warehousing space. So dealing with all of that complexity, having to hit your destination within a set period of time before, you know, your fruit deteriorates. So there's quite a lot of complexity and a lot of planning that goes into managing each and every single category of food. There's, you know, comply, different compliance aspects that you deal with in going into different channels of the supply chain. You know, exporting to America or exporting to Europe, it's different to exporting to the Middle east, different requirements to access those markets. So these are all some of the aspects of the supply chain that you need to consider in your design. And it's a, I mean, building a cold store in itself, it's a large investment to get on the ground and get ready. And you again have so many dependencies to essentially make it work.
- [10:25]
Scott Lewton
That's right. And of course energy, we're seeing in particular the spike for electricity demand dramatically increasing around the world. And, and, and I was going to ask you one more thing and then we're going to talk about these six trends that I think you and the SAPIE team have identified. Would you agree or disagree that if you can really succeed in the cold storage sector that you can succeed in a lot of places. Would you agree with that? TATO?
- [10:52]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, I think so. I believe so. I think the, just the complexity and you know, the thinking behind designing a Cold chain, let me put it that way. Cold chain design and the level of complexity there, you, you'd be able to translate that into any industry. I believe so, yeah. Specific verticals that I've observed, I think coaching, definitely one of the most complex ones.
- [11:21]
Scott Lewton
I'm with you. I'm with you. And now you've made me starving for a tangerine or apples, which we have in our kitchen. So thank you for that. I gotta, I gotta hold off to lunch. Okay. Tato, it's always a pleasure to reconnect with you. I look forward to doing so in person soon, maybe at Sapik's conference, which we're going to touch on later. But I want to talk about, I think you are publishing, I think SafePix is publishing or has published a press release on six trends that here in 2026 are impacting supply chains, really across Africa. And folks, no matter where you are, you'll probably see how this, these trends are impacting your supply chain organization as well. So I'm going to kind of work through these one by one, Tato. In some we might dive deeper and others we'll just maybe talk about for a minute or two. But I want to start with the first one which is moving into a state of really perma crisis. Your thoughts, Tato?
- [12:19]
Tato Malloy
Yeah. And essentially, Scott, it's all about adoption, right? And how do you build supply chains that are resilient and able to absorb these global shocks? And I think we in a current state where these global shocks, shocks that are essentially affecting our supply chains, are becoming a permanent world that we actually live in. How do you one design supply chain that can effectively respond and have the right level of agility to actually, you know, contain and be able to serve its customers and essentially keep humanity going. What does that mean? And I think that article is essentially highlighting these key elements that we need to consider as a continent. What are the key elements that as supply chain leaders we need to, you know, ensure we embed in our supply chain?
- [13:08]
Scott Lewton
Yes. You know, Tata, I've seen various research from a wide variety of respected parties that points to a couple of things related to this. This first trend, number one, which you identified that the disruptions 100 years ago, right. Came at a certain frequency. But now Fast forward to 2026, they're coming regularly and they're bigger. That's just the facts, folks. And then secondly, what that directly impacts, amongst other things. But one of the things that impacts is the decision making that has to take place everywhere in global business, but especially in supply Chain. I wish I had the Gartner numbers in their research, but basically it said their research pointed to faster decisions, more decisions with more pressure on the decisions. Right. And I don't know about you, Tato, but I feel that in my bones and as I've, I've talked with a variety of folks over the, over the years, oftentimes for me it's not one decision here or one decision there that makes it so difficult in supply chain or business or you name it, it is the totality of constant decisions that you and the team, the teams and professionals have to make. Your thoughts on those comments.
- [14:25]
Tato Malloy
Yeah. And I mean that's a fundamental point, right? What's important is what informs those decisions, right. For you to be able to make quality decisions. It's all about information, it's all about data making data driven decisions on a daily basis. You know, how quickly can you get the information that allows you to make those particular decisions? And this is why we speak about technology as one of the ever trending trends and its evolution and how it's actually supporting and helping us make those, those decisions. You know, we're seeing how technology within our space has evolved in this world that we live in and it's helping us make those quality, quality decisions or making quicker decisions. Information flow is becoming, you know, in a world where we're getting fed a lot of information, how do we quickly make sense of that information? And this is why AI is forever a topic on a daily basis. And how can we quickly adopt these tools in our world to make those quality decisions and help us move from the old manual way of doing things? Because there is no room for it anymore. The way things are moving so quickly. There is no time for human beings to spend a lot of time trying to make sense of information and data in order for us to make decisions.
- [15:43]
Scott Lewton
And quality decisions, especially on the small decisions, in many cases can be successfully automated. And it frees up that time so that humans can apply their unique judgment superpowers on, on some of the bigger decisions that aren't as easily automated and may in some cases may never be automated. I don't know. But one quick. We're going to talk about AI in just a second. You mentioned it, but I was able, Tato the other day to sit in on a conversation about quantum computing. Now Tato, that is way above my pay grade and in many ways I'm surprised they let me sit in on that because I didn't qualify. But it is amazing where we are, where we're headed and how quantum computing is approaching this tipping point. And it's going to take even this golden age of supply chain tech that we're in right now. It's going to multiply that times a thousand. It's going to be amazing. So we'll see. But you mentioned AI and the second trend that you and the team have identified is how AI has moved, continues to move from experimental for so many professionals and organizations out there to really essential. Tell us more, Tato.
- [16:55]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, and when we talk about the conference later on every year, there's always a buzzword. And I mean a few years back you'd go to every conference. Blockchain was, there was a big word. Some years, you know, demand planning was the buzzword. And I think we got into a world where AI became the topical conversation and a lot of themes. But what's relevant now is how do we practically apply technology in our world. And what we've seen over the past couple of years is the practical application of AI tools in logistics and supply chain. And just to be practical, I mean we've seen quite a large amount of adoption around warehouse automation, just robotics and smart picking, which is creating efficiencies for a lot of the warehouses locally. In some instances you're seeing a lot of entities start to play with augmented reality and AI vision systems and you know, all the clever technology it's there. Whereas a couple of years back all of these were just ideas. But we, there's practical application of this tech in, in our warehouses in Africa. AI driven inventory management. I mean, you spoke about making big decisions. How do we elevate your general workers to make better decisions around where am I going to put this inventory to generate the, you know, the highest efficiency in the, in the warehouse making those decisions on a daily basis. You know, historically all of this was done on a manual spreadsheet. People trying to figure out exactly where to allocate inventory within a warehouse. Even broader way to if you've got multiple warehouses in your supply chain, where am I going to allocate inventory? And which inventory sits where people run these, you know, complex spreadsheets. Or in some instances there's not even a scientific calculation that supports, or a data driven decision that actually supports where we actually going to locate inventory in order to better service our customers. We're seeing, you know, better tools in our spaces that are actually informing and capacitating people to make quality decisions around where inventory should sit. And what you're seeing, particularly in fmcg, I mean the, the big thing now is how do we reduce working capital in inventory? Holding in different areas is essentially seen as, in some instances, waste. But you need it in order to give you the high responsiveness and the agility in your network. So how do we use technology to strike a good balance? And I think now with all the tools that are available to us and that we are applying, you're getting entities that are able to actually know, manage inventory at the optimal level. And I can go on and on. You look at organizations such as checkers with the 6060 app and how they're using route optimization to, you know, be able to deliver an order. From the moment you actually press, you know, pay and secure the order in 60 minutes, it's at your door. I mean, these are things that we're able to enjoy, but these are, you know, this is tech working for us in supply chain. How do you reduce waste in supply chain? We spoke about inventory planning, but how do you reduce in an FMCG or in a retail space where you're doing perishables, how do you reduce waste? And you see it. And again, I'm going to use shoprite as the benchmark because you see in their performance as a retailer, the GP is running at probably the most optimal GP in any organization when run because of the technology they use in order to predict, you know, what the consumer wants and where should they be producing and, you know, holding inventory and what not to produce. And they've reduced. I mean, in some of the articles they talk about 11% reduction in waste, food waste when perishable. I mean, that for me is an amazing use of technology. And you know, for me, one of the things that I'm obsessed with again in supply chain is around people and safety and, you know, the ability to actually use technology in warehouses to protect people, you know, with technology that does, in some instances predicted maintenance on some of the machinery, but also the ability to monitor unsafe working behavior in a facility where you can detect. And you, you know, instead of having trying to have policemen in the warehouse looking, you know, you can only have so many sheik reps in a, in a facility. But, you know, with AI, you got a good tool that's able to predict any unsafe working behaviors and flag it so that we can respond and do something about these things, you look at customer service. Customers are essentially always asking the same question. So chatbots, simple solution, put a question in there, then you get your responses and your ETAs or whatever it is that you need. So there's a whole range of, you know, trends that we are, we are seeing and it's continually evolving and evolving and evolving. And I look at specifically Takenot, which is one of the bigger E commerce platforms locally. And if you look at, I mean any E commerce, especially if they doing the execution or the E4 thing of themselves on a platform business, it's essentially a supply chain organization. Right. And I look at take a lot and I mean they competing loggerheads in South Africa with Amazon. But you look at the level of technology they've been able to introduce on robotics and automation. I mean one of the big implementations they did with GigPlus massively they introduced with sorting robots. I think they talk about the ability to do over 50,000 pesos a day from one of their facilities. So there's real good momentum around technology. And like you said, I mean this is just the start, right? We had to see or we're far away from seeing the ceiling of what technology can actually do for us. And we gotta move away from thinking that technology and responsible automation is here to take away jobs. I think it's, it's actually here to create jobs and we need to, we need to embrace it.
- [23:23]
Scott Lewton
Tata, I think we found something you're pretty passionate about. I'll tell you what, you could have a whole series I think on, on where technology is today, all the different ways it's being utilized, how it's certainly empowering the workforce which we're going to touch on next. But I wanted to add one more quick comment. While AI certainly has moved from experimental to essential, it's really important for us to keep experimenting with all the different ways and new ways that not just AI, but all technologies can help our organizations and especially help our people delight our customers and have more fulfilling and
- [24:00]
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- [24:37]
Scott Lewton
which is where we go next. Number three, workforce evolution. Now you touched on this a minute ago. You touched on the, the evolving roles, a couple of them, a couple examples in global supply chain. Give us some more thoughts on how the workforce will continue to evolve this year.
- [24:53]
Tato Malloy
Again, education is actually one of my passions and tech people development and we're looking at, you know, which causes in the local institutions are getting the high hit rate or where are the new or the students gravitating towards. And supply chain is actually at the top of the list. So we have this big or huge quantum of supply chain graduates that are coming out of our local institutions. And if I go back a few years back, supply chain as a formal qualification locally was actually non existent. A lot of people that ended up in supply chain were coming from different disciplines in academia. Engineers, your engineers, you, I mean finance people coming in and essentially bunch of people that end up in supply chain without a formal qualification in supply chain. So we, we're getting a lot of trained supply chain qualified individuals coming into the industry at a junior level where I think we need to close the gap is curating a growth path for these graduates that are coming into our workspace. What does a typical career for a supply chain professional coming out of our local institutions look like? How do we curate that journey for them and what does good look like? It's easy. For professions like someone who's a chartered accountant, that journey is pretty much curated. You know, they understand these are the, you know, roles. This is where I'm going to go if I need to uplift myself. This is, you know, some of the add ons that I can do. So supply chain is still evolving and trying to actually professionalize ourselves. And I think in Medsphere we're still organizing, we trying to professionalize what a professional supply chain individual actually looks like in this field. So still a bit of a gap there that we need to, we need to work on. And that's why organizations such as CEPIX exist because part of our journey and our roadmap is to actually curate that journey and try to, you know, professionalize and uplift the supply chain community in itself. So that's one of the big things. But we spoke about, you know, how automation is also changing our space. I think we definitely in some key technical aspects of supply chain, we still find that our space is still lacking some of the key key skill sets, not enough operational engineers in our space. So it's essentially a fight for key resources and key skills to keep. And now we competing in the global economy where jobs in Europe, in the US are accessible and available to everyone. And as technology keeps on evolving in a space, you need more, you know, tech oriented skills in the business and unfortunately you start competing with the banks. So now you're competing for scarce resources across multiple industries and verticals. Now if you want a good WMS developer, you essentially fighting for a couple of, you know, scarce local resources that are available. And then how do you then compete in the global economy for quality resources around tech, around warehouse design, the more technical aspect. And I think that's where we, you know, we need to close the gap. We need to train more people in that particular space. Yep.
- [28:35]
Scott Lewton
And we will. Sapix serves a wonderful role in closing that gap to your earlier comments. So. And hey, let's face it, we got gaps and opportunities everywhere around the world, some of the same, some of the different. But to admire what you are doing there, I'm gonna, for the sake of time, I'm gonna share the fourth and fifth trend and just get your reaction to both of these. And we know we're gonna touch on the sixth one. So the fourth trend, geopolitics, regionalization and anywhere but China. And the fifth trend, climate circularity and cost precision. Now, Tato, it's not fair to put all six of those big themes in front of you and get you to comment, but what are you most out of all trend number four and five? What's the first thing that comes to your mind?
- [29:21]
Tato Malloy
Tato Scott it's about supply chain resilience. That comment was particularly around supply chain resilience and not, I think the analogy or in there around China is actually much broader than that because it's about how do you move from identifying a key dependency, you know, and unlocking constraints within your supply chain. And that's what it's essentially about. We used to speak about whites and black swans. It actually doesn't matter. You need to be ready to respond to any shock that's actually coming your way. And what we saw, you know, post Covid that shocked everyone was everybody started thinking around, okay, if this gets disrupt, if that gets disrupt, how are we going to survive? Can we keep going if we don't have energy for a month? I remember having to work on BCPs around what happens when you don't have energy for two months? Will you be able to continue executing what happens when you then have water for water supply is disrupted? Will you be able to continue shipping product to your customers? And how long can you actually last? So your BCP plans became so much broader. And one of my favorite quotes and one of the professors that taught me used to speak about one of the famous generals, Dwight Eisenhower, and he speaks about in preparing for battle, he found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. It took me a while to actually understand it because at that point was just the code. But there's so much power in that because planning actually in itself or the plan that you produce at the end, like preparing a budget, it's actually useless. But it's what you learn in the process of actually planning. And that's what this is about. It's about actually planning at a strategic level and bringing it through the different layers. Have you thought widely and broadly enough around your customers, around all the factors that may impact your supply chain network and how have you incorporated all those elements into your supply chain design to be more agile and be able to respond to any shocks? Right. And it's about diversifying your supply chain network and expanding it. We spoke earlier on around the cold chain industry and the reality is in South Africa there's going to be weather disruptions. What happens when it rains for, you know, a couple of weeks or we get, you know, heavy, heavy winds, you can't ship out of Cape Town. And it's about, have you thought about, okay, can we divert? Where do we go? If do I have the right capacity to divert into a different supply chain? Because for you to try and make the decision once the event has actually happened and you don't have the plan already and you haven't assessed if you can do it, then you've got the capacity, whether it be drugs or people, to actually execute it, then you've got an entire season that's lost. And I mean that's catch of traffic if you, if you're a farmer. Right. But it's about thinking about, well, if this shuts down, maybe I divert to pe, but have I set up that network? Do I have the suppliers in that region? Do I have a coastal that I can access out of pe or can I, you know, drive the trucks that can actually support that lane? That's essentially what it's all about. People are decentralizing their models right after understanding that, well, you know, in some social disruptions or political disruptions, if your inventory is locked into one province, you may not be able to execute in different markets because roads are closed or there's people writing, etc. Well, maybe you need to have a supply chain that's know, built with some sort of agility in it. Now I've got multiple warehouses, maybe smaller. May create a situation where you're holding far more inventory. But guess what? You've got the technology to better predict and tell you what size of inventory do you need to hold in those different locations. So it's about having those plans. You've seen now a lot of Organizations are more comfortable with outsourcing the, the supply chain. Right. Because some realize that actually we compete on marketing, not necessarily supply chain. We're comfortable to share the network with our competitors from an execution point of view. So people are moving into multi principal facilities, right. And being serviced by One3PL but you got two brands that compete in the same warehouse being picked by the same pickers or the same under the same processes executing or moving in the same tracks etc. So those are the, the decisions. And when I talk about resilience, have you thought about these different elements?
- [34:15]
Scott Lewton
You know, and I hope you have folks, that's a rhetorical question Tato is putting out there. I want to go back to the Eisenhower quote, it's such a good one. And I'll tell you, few plans are accurate, many are not even remotely accurate. Right. But to the quote and to the point you're making too, the process, it's one of those, it's one of those unique things in business where the process of going through planning oftentimes is more valuable than the outcome itself. And it's really interesting to think about. So that's a great quote to add to today's conversation. Tato. Okay, finally we're about to get into the conference here in a second but I want to, don't want to overlook the sixth trend which I think is a, is a wonderful trend to share and that is a defining year for African supply chains. Tato, your quick comment sir.
- [35:06]
Tato Malloy
What about growth? All about innovation, again, the keyword collaboration. How do we leverage the platform and the base that we strong base that we've built over these years to essentially drive growth. And that's what we're referring to. And if you look at where we are in our position and the evolution over time, I think yet again we find ourselves in a position where the opportunity for that growth and for transformation to happen across the continent, it's big, it's immense. I mean people talk about the size of the population and what it means in the future and whether the growth is going to come from. I mean if all organizations across the globe recognize the potential that Africa possesses long term. Right now the question is building the infrastructure which is on the back of supply chain decisions that actually is going to ultimately carry that growth. And essentially that's what we're talking about,
- [36:18]
Scott Lewton
all about growth, innovation, a bright new future, bright new current state I'd argue and a brighter, even a brighter new future. And it takes real leadership. And I appreciate what you and the say picks, organization, the board, the Community is doing in that regard. Speaking of the Sapiece Annual Conference, I've been fortunate to go to a couple of times, but I've captured some wonderful interviews. We've got all those on our YouTube channel, folks. You can go find them. We got playlists set up. This year in 2026, it's the 48th annual conference, but this is the 60th anniversary of SAPIKS. Man, time flies when you're having fun, as they say. This year's theme, Tato legacy to leadership. Why was this one chosen for the conference?
- [37:04]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, first got to recognize, you know, the years that have gone into building this platform. And I talk about it today as a platform, vast community, business, government, the supply chain professionals, all coming together under one umbrella with a common cause. It's about recognizing how we, we got here and the evolution of supply chain in itself. But, you know, evolution of supply chain in the context of South Africa and Africa. I think it's about celebrating that, celebrating the people that have come before, celebrating the many presidents that have come before me, the board members that have come before me, and essentially also celebrating the supply chain professionals and me saying, look, you know, we've done so much to get to where, where we are. And now we at a stage where we need to actually take what we have and what the people that have gotten us to where we are and move it forward and grow it beyond what we've seen over the many years that got us to where we are. So it's a celebration of supply chain professionals and our global partners and all the people that have walked the journey with us. And we went with the theme because we also inviting and opening it up because every year we try to keep a specific theme which sometimes, you know, locks in a specific vertical. And every year, you know, we get a lot of feedback from our members, we get a lot of feedbacks from, you know, sponsors and everyone just say, but, you know, this year we were so focused on this particular topic and supply chain is so broad, right? It's so broad that it is difficult to actually cover every single component and topic within supply chain and do it justice in, in the few days that we have when we, when we connect. And I think this year was the year where we wanted to actually open it up and say, hey, let's bring everybody back together and let's, you know, have a conversation around supply chain as a whole with all of our people.
- [39:14]
Scott Lewton
I like it. Quite a legacy. Tons of leadership. I look forward to the conference. So tell me this, Tato, if You had to pick a couple of things because there's lots, lots to do, lots to engage in at the SAPIEK Annual conference. But what's a couple things you're looking forward to here in 2020 that for the 2026 version of this event?
- [39:38]
Tato Malloy
Well, there's a lot. I'm actually, I was actually looking at the speaker list and I don't know if I'm going to get into trouble by mentioning or talking about before it gets published, but there's a lot of interesting topics on the list, I must say. Quality international speakers, quality local South African speakers. A good blend. We've got three broad topics that we've kind of sectioned. We've got Stream A where we're talking about strategy, resilience and leadership. We've got Stream B where it's AI, digital and technology. We've got Stream C where it's operations, visibility and optimization. So I think the speaker selection committee and the committee that worked on this program did an amazing job in trying to synthesize the topics that everybody wants to hear and to try capture where we are globally and put it into, you know, or curate a program that speaks to everybody within the profession. So what am I more excited about? I think the network and the connection with people that some I haven't seen in a, in a while. I think it's always a great time to meet some of the sharpest minds in Supply chain to know. Pick one or two brains when I'm there for free. Free consulting, you know, over a drink or two is also great. So it's going to be a, an amazing, amazing, amazing conference.
- [41:05]
Scott Lewton
Outstanding. Don't let them send you an invoice, Tato. Don't let him send you an invoice. And the, you know, and dozens of countries will be represented. I think when I attended last, last year, I think there was over 50 countries represented. That is outstanding. Okay, so TATO folks can learn more@sapicks.com folks. S A P I C S.com go check it out. Learn more about all the programming that TATO and the board and the community offer year round. Okay, so we're coming down the home stretch. Tato. I really enjoyed the conversation as always. I think this is your third or fourth appearance here on supply chain. Now let's. We got to double that. We got to double at tato. All right, so here's a keep it real moment that I promised in the intro. So when it comes Tato to the critical elements of global supply chain leadership, those elements that really fuel organizational excellence and real performance. What are two or three essentials there?
- [42:03]
Tato Malloy
Firstly, you will never reach a point where you can, cannot learn or be saturated with supply chain knowledge, the world that we live in. And for you to lead, you have to be continuously learning in a space where there's new information coming in every single day. You're not going to change anything by using the same mentality, the same thinking and the same knowledge that you've had for the past 20 years. We live in a world where we need to evolve and it comes with keeping in touch, educating yourself. Do you understand the latest and greatest trends? Are you watching what the brains and supply chain people are talking about or doing? The latest trends, Are you keeping up with those, with those trends? Are you watching, you know, what's happening globally? Are you benchmarking, consistently benchmarking in terms of what are the, what's the greatest and newest, whether it be from a technology point of view, whether it be from a people management point of view. Because how you lead in this day and age is also different to how people were led, you know, years ago. We've got a new, newer generation of colleagues that are coming into the, into the industry and how they consume and see the world is completely different to some of us that joined the profession years ago. So how do you stay relatable and relevant with those trends and those people? And for you to be able to lead them, you actually have to understand them. We're living in the digital world now. We all connected. As a leader, it's your responsibility to actually understand these things. So for me is you have to stay educating yourself continuously. You have to learn from others as well. Some, obviously that came before you, so you don't make the same mistakes. I think key element, some of the lessons that we learn in professional space, some people have learned them ages ago. So always good to, you know, stay in touch and have the ability to reflect on one's self. How you lead, how you go about doing your work, what you understand of the environment that you, that you're in. So these are some of the key things. I think it's not even a supply chain conversation. I think this is a general conversation. In any work environment, any workspace, you have to understand the broader context and the environment in which you operate in. And it can only come with you reinventing and re educating yourself continuously. I mean, 10 years ago, would we be doing this podcast interview with, you know, I'm sitting all the way in South Africa. You, you're in the U.S. probably not, but this is, this is the new world and we have to embrace it. But it also comes with, you know, being responsible around educating yourself and fully appreciating and understand these things. So education is at the forefront. You can never get to a point where you know everything.
- [45:00]
Scott Lewton
You can never get enough education. Learn something new every day, folks. Learn something new every day. It's like that old adage, an apple a day keeps a doctor away. Tato, going back to the fruit earlier. Okay, so Tato, I got two questions for you. One's an easy one because we're going to make sure folks know how to connect with you. But one is a more intriguing one because when we sat down in Cape Town about seven months or so ago, eight months ago, as we started to wrap that interview, you were speaking passionately about a couple things and I got some quotes here I want to reread to you and get your comments on. So you talked about how important it was to, quote, fight the traditional views of Africa. You talked about, quote, we aren't as far behind as people think we are. And then you also mentioned, which I love, one of your mantras, quote, africa is ready for business, which I heard I bet 12 times during my last visit to Cape Town, which is wonderful and beautiful and what I found to be true. So when you think about those things and the mission you're on related to those, those statements, what comes to mind are you, have you been making some progress? What are your thoughts?
- [46:15]
Tato Malloy
Yeah, I think I actually need to update the ready for business because we are in business. I mean, I shared with you some of that when I was speaking about technology earlier on. I wasn't talking about an ideal state. I was talking about in today's current terms what we able to do and what we're able to deliver. So we are at that level, we are competing at a global context and in some instances we're actually winning in terms of how we be executing and going about purely from a supply chain point of view. So in some instances, the world could also learn from some of the activities and what we're doing in Africa as well. So a bit of an update on that statement. I think we progressing and we're progressing at a very rapid rate. If I look at the supply chains five years back in comparison to where we are today, there's a big shift. It's continuously evolving. The adoption of technology, whether it be just purely warehouse management systems, we've evolved quite a long way. The level of quality of implementation, the quality of the individuals in the supply chain industry. And I'm sure, Scott, you got to meet quite a few people when you weren't here. I think high caliber individuals in the industry across the board. So yeah, I'm still very energized, still very passionate, very optimistic in terms of where we're going and sounds a bit strange. I feel optimistic today considering what's happening globally. But we have to stay optimistic. We have to believe that in the global context we will as a human race, get it right.
- [48:03]
Scott Lewton
Yes, I'm with you. Practical optimism, action driven optimism. And you know the great thing about global supply chain and that wonderful army of professionals globally that makes it happen is they empower trade right at the heart of it. They make trade happen. And someone famous once said that if trade doesn't cross borders, that soldiers will. And so that when I think about the noble mission that, that the global supply chain community has of really preventing conflict and we could always do better as a world, we could always do better. But that is, that's a great way of looking at the noble mission and maybe a little different context. And this one that I admire so many practitioners out there such as yourself that, that go to work every day making it happen. So we'll see. I'm, I'm optimistic too. I'm practically optimistic. And we got a lot of stuff to get to work on to get better. Okay. So Tato, really have enjoyed your perspective. I knew I would. I love sitting down and chatting with you and learning your point of view and what you see and what you're doing and of course what the Sapix organization is doing. If folks want to connect with you on anything you shared, whether say pics or whether they want you to come in and give a keynote somewhere or do business with you or whatever. They want to be part of the Tato Malloy fan club like I am. How can folks connect with you?
- [49:28]
Tato Malloy
The best way to stay in touch with me is definitely via LinkedIn. Tato Malloy on LinkedIn should be easy to find. You can just drop me a message there and I'll be sure to respond.
- [49:42]
Scott Lewton
It's just that, man, I wish most things in life were that easy, especially most things in supply chain. But alas, that's not where we are. Tato really enjoyed reconnecting with you, my friend. Really admire the leadership, all that you're investing into the good of industry and the good of our global craft that is the supply chain community. And I look forward to reconnecting with you again soon. Hopefully. Who knows, maybe, maybe this conference this year, and if not this year, next year. I look forward to being back in Cape Town. Thank you, Tato.
- [50:15]
Tato Malloy
Thank you so much. God, we can, you know, obviously can't wait to see you. Hopefully you can join us and we can connect and maybe we can go on that fun ride together this time around. But.
- [50:26]
Scott Lewton
Yeah, that's right. That's right. I don't have any. I wish I had some really smart consulting to and free consulting to give you, but who knows? After a couple adult beverages. All right, folks, want to thank Tato Malloy, president of sa. Please, if Sapiks isn't on your radar, and if their annual conference isn't on your radar, Google it, join it. Come out and engage. Get involved. That is a wonderful, wonderful conference and I really appreciate what Tato and the Sapex team is doing. But hey, y' all know, folks, your homework here today. Number one, I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Tato Malloy as much as I have. But take one thing, he shared so much and so much of it was actionable. Take one thing he shared. Do something with it. Share it with a team. Share it with a friend. Share it with your mom, but do something with it. Deeds, not words. That's how we're going to continue transforming global supply chain and leave no one behind. And with all that said, on behalf of the Supply Chain now team Scott Lewton challenge you do good. Give forward. Be the change that's needed. We'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks, everybody.
- [51:33]
Supply Chain Now Announcer
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