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Supply Chain Now
Survey Results: 2025 Trends and Attitudes Report in Supply Chain and Sustainability
00:48:53
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- [00:00]
A
I think that partnerships and collaboration are the new competitive advantage. If you think about the best supply chains, they're not just built on transactions, they're built on trust and on shared data. That reset of a mindset shift that we need to take back in order to be resilient and responsive to any kind of insert here crisis that we're going to have is going to be these partnerships.
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B
Welcome to Supply Chain now, the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insight, insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe. One conversation at a time. Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton and special guest co host Maria Villa Blanca here with you on Supply Chain Now. Maria, how you doing today?
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A
I'm great. I'm looking forward to this conversation. I mean, I keep hearing about everything that we're going to be talking about. So, you know, to put it all in one conversation, really looking forward to this.
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B
I'm with you and I am so glad you're here. I tell you, we got so much to get into here today, folks. Great show coming up as we peer into the minds of what supply chain managers really across the country is thinking for. So for the second year in a row, Appalachian State University and Spark360 have partnered together to survey hundreds of supply chain managers across the United States. Today we're going to be reviewing the findings of that survey, which is entitled, by the way, the 2025 supply chain trends and Attitudes Report. We're going to be gaining supply chain managers perspectives on priority technology investments and of course, AI sustainability, the regulatory and trade policy shifts, including those pesky tariffs and a whole bunch more. Maria, to your point, this is part of the pulse of what a large segment of the overall global supply chain is talking about and working through. Should be a great show, huh?
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A
Yeah, it should be.
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B
So given your significant track record as a supply chain leader, Maria, I'm really looking forward to your perspective here today along with our esteemed panel. Maria, we got a work cut out for us. I want to welcome in our featured guests here today, starting with Dr. Dinesh Dave, Director and professor of supply chain management in the Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University and Evan Yunker, Chief growth officer at Spark360.
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C
Hey.
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B
Hey, Evan. Welcome back. How you doing?
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D
Hey, good to see you again. Scott. How are you?
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B
You as well. Last time me, you and I were sharing a plate of barbecue here in Georgia. This goes good. It was good. Great to have you back. And Dr. Dave back by popular demand how are you doing?
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C
I'm doing fantastic, thank you.
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B
I bet it's a pretty day in Boone, North Carolina, but it's a pretty day in the southern part of the United Kingdom where Maria is tuned in from as well, huh?
- [02:43]
A
Sun is shining, which is rare. So I'm happy.
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B
Good day. Play the lottery today then. I want to start with a fun warmup question, folks. So y' all know I like the days of the year. I like celebrating. It's World Post Day, which I guess is a celebration of sending an old fashioned letter via the mail. It's National Moldy Cheese Day. I didn't know that was the case. Evidently it's one. But I think a more appealing thing to talk about certainly is it is International Beer and Pizza Day. Certainly a unifying universal celebration. So to that end, I want to ask each of y', all, starting with you, Evan, what's one of your go to places for a really good beer or a really good pizza or maybe even both. Evan.
- [03:26]
D
All right, so True Confessions. I live in Germany now and I've lived here for a few years, so they have really good beer. I'm not that big of a drinker, but I will say that Munich is only two hours east of me. And so I have gone to Oktoberfest a few times and that is the best place to get beer. And the amazing thing about that is the waitresses have these trays and they can carry like, I mean, they stack these massive things of beer on them and carry those around. And it's like you, you couldn't go to a gym and lift more weight than they just carry around like this.
- [03:58]
B
Sounds like a great experience. You know those good old 12 ounce curls. I know I did a lot in college, but that's gonna be tough to beat. Dr. Dave, how about you? What's a go to place for good food, good pizza, good beer, you name it?
- [04:08]
C
Well, there are quite a few great Italian restaurants which I prefer, but One is about 30 miles away from here is Wilkesboro, North Carolina. We just found it a few weeks ago. It's called Mouses, and it's a great Italian food. Their lasagna, their eggplant parmesan. Oh, outstanding. So I don't drink beer, so because I get allergy and I don't drink alcohol because I get allergy, but it's absolutely fantastic food.
- [04:38]
B
Well, you know, if you can't drink good beer, a good eggplant parmesan is a great replacement, I reckon. All right, so Maria, we've got two good Recommendations here. Your thoughts? Good pizza, good beer, where to go?
- [04:50]
A
My house. I invested in a nice pizza oven about a year and a half ago and I have not looked back. Let me tell you, I can't do the spin. I can't do that sort of pizza thing. You know, I'm not going to try. But you know, a good beer and a good pizza homemade in a pizza oven.
- [05:08]
B
Oh Maria, that is outstanding. I'm at the benchmark some what you did there. So I love that. Three great answers. I'm going to add one more. So folks, I'm going to go off the well beaten path here with the pizza recommendation. I'm going to go with Minsky's in Kansas City. So I went out to a Kansas City Chiefs game not too long ago, a year or two ago and this was a recommendation we got. And folks, Minsky's was founded by the one of the founders of Godfather's Pizza. And I know Chicago, New York's got great pizza, but in Kansas City this was delicious and we waited an hour to get it and it was worth every minute. So folks, if you're Kansas City, check out Minsky's. It is delicious. So we got a lot to get into here today. Evan, Dr. Dave and Maria, let's start with some level setting. Dr. Dave, it's great to have you back. You were here with us about a year ago with Evan when we covered the first edition of this great survey. Let's refresh our current and our new audience members about your background as well as the supply chain management program at Appalachian State University.
- [06:09]
C
Thank you Scott. We have a very strong supply chain management program. I serve as the director of the supply chain management program here in Appalachian State University in College of Business. We have close to 300 students in the program and our placement rate for our undergrad students who graduate is about 92%. That means 92% of the students get job within six months of the graduation. Some of them pursue higher education or some of them join their family business. We have in Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Applied Data analytics and supply chain is a very popular concentration. Our students pursue internship summertime mainly and they gain pragmatic experience as well as they open the door for employment opportunity. We have very active supply chain advisory board and we also have supply chain student club.
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B
Outstanding. I got to go back. Maria, one of the first things he said, 92% of their students get a job within six months. Man, that is terrific. Maria, your quick response there.
- [07:24]
A
Well, you know the way that the Economy is right now. We all need that. So I think the higher the placement, the better. And that's why we're, we're studying to get into the job market. So I think it's great result.
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B
I am with you. I am with you. Sounds like it is a great program. It's great to have you back, Dr. Dave. Now, Evan, it's great to have you back. You've been with us a few times over the last year to always enjoy learning from you, my friend. Tell us briefly about Spark360 as well as a little bit about your background.
- [07:50]
D
My background is basically my career has been helping leaders address challenges. And whether it's growth and expansion or dealing with risk and complex market shifts, that's kind of what my specialty is doing. And that's why I really like working at Spark360 because that's what Spark360 does. It helps supply chain leaders address those things, whether it's cost, quality and service challenges in their supply chain or dealing with sustainability requirements that are either regulatory or customer driven. Spark360 was built to help companies address those challenges. I think I told you this one before, but somebody once called us the get their hands dirty consultants. And I think I and most people with me were greatly offended by that. And it's not because the get your hands dirty part, but that consultant's word. And that's one thing Spark 360 is not. Spark 360 is not made of consultants. It's made of warehouse operators and supply chain managers and people that have spent their entire careers in the supply chain world.
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B
I love that. And Maria, if we need more of anything is folks that have been there that done that. They're not operating off headlines or the soup of the month, so to speak, is folks that are there for the long haul and they know what to apply to work through all the challenges and complexities we see in global supply chain today. Huh?
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A
100%. Buzzwords kill. That's my new motto.
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B
Oh, I like that, Maria. Buzzwords kill, man.
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C
All right.
- [09:19]
B
I'll give you a tip of that every time I use that, Maria. But it is so true. It's so true. Maria, Evan and Dr. Dava, we got so much to get into here today. So our main focus today, sharing key insights and observations related to this great research work done by Appalachian State University and Spark 360. The 2025 supply chain trends and attitudes reports now in its second year and it was well received in its first year. As we discussed earlier, the name always Reminds me though, Maria, Dr. Davi and Evan of the great Jimmy Buffett song Changes in Latitudes, Changes in attitudes. That might just be me, I don't know. The survey focused on supply chain management professionals and their perspective on a variety of topics to include some things we're going to talk about today. AI technology, investment, sustainability, tariffs and a whole bunch more. So stay tuned for data and our interpretation of it. But first, Evan, tell us about the survey. We're Talking about over 300 supply chain managers tuned in, huh?
- [10:15]
D
Yeah. And it's, it's the, the second year we've done that. As you said, you know, we started out and I think we have some, you know, Dr. Dave and I have some mutual connections and friends and you know, at Spark 360 we're trying to find a way to get a very good read on not just where things are, but where things are going right. And you know, we serve companies all over the world and we get little bits and pieces here and there, but figuring out, you know, where are both supply chain managers driving to and where they're being told by the boards of directors and whatnot they need to drive to. And so we wanted to find a way to get that information to see what they're looking at, not just now, but in three to five years in the future. And after some great conversations, I guess about a year and a half or two years ago, it's just been an honor because Spark360 and App State came together. We have really complementary cultures. We both have strong bases in North Carolina and that's the origin of this survey project.
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B
Love that. Next time we're getting North Carolina barbecue when we get together.
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D
Okay, Evan, There we go.
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B
Dr. Dave, Evan shared some good background on the survey. What else would you add?
- [11:26]
C
Yeah, we launched the survey and we designed the survey questions methodologically and also have done thorough research and we included the questions related to technologies like AI robotics, predictive analytics, supply chain visibility platform, et cetera. And also the question related to renewal energy, green technology, circular economy and remote workplace and decarbonization. We ask individuals what company will be spending their resources on those questions. And also we ask related questions saying that how much they should be spending. And also we ask what their familiarity and we ask them demographic questions. So the survey results are so interesting. 310 completed survey by the managers of supply chain area and they are different levels etc. And also if we talk about the validity, intern validity using some statistical is pretty high like 0.93 of the crumbback Alpha, for example.
- [12:34]
B
Okay, that sounds really high, Dr. Dave. I wish I was smart enough to understand and break it down, but that's why you're here. That's why you, Evan and Maria are here. And Maria, both of them spoke to something, a really important thing. We've got to decipher the current state, undoubtedly. Right. But where we're going, it's really important to keep at least one half eyeball on that as well. Your thoughts, Maria?
- [12:58]
A
I think there's so much stuff happening all at once. You know, supply chain has always had crisis. Right. But I think we're having so many things happen at once and a lot of uncertainties and unknown. So what's difficult is trying to prioritize. Right. How do you action something practical, but at the same time keep an eye on the future. What I like about the survey is that it, it shows us, straight from the horse's mouth, from 300 people in the deep end of supply chain what they think. And I think that's extremely valuable.
- [13:26]
B
Well said, Maria. And you've got your finger on the pulse like few in the industry I know of. Okay, now that we've set the table, I think I want to get into some of the key findings. And folks, we're going to start with AI, right? It's amazing, really, both ends of the spectrum. It's amazing on one hand, all the really cool consequential work and outcomes we're producing with AI on the other end of bookend, other bookend, rather. There's a lot of frustration, right, because we've got lack of business cases, lack of return on energy and investment on some AI initiatives. But let's start with what the data from the research here tells us. So, Evan, what did you glean on AI priorities from the survey?
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D
Well, and this is one that last year, if you may recall, and for those that weren't with us, AI was at the top both in terms of the expected spend and at the top in terms of the should be spending. So both the, you know, we plan on spending and we should be spending this in our industry were very high. And that remained the same this year. If we peel it back a little bit, you see adjacent technologies like visibility platforms is also very high now. And so you have some combination of things because, you know, AI means different things to different people. But you have these technologies that are related in the AI space that are increasing in familiarity, which we'll get to shortly, that are top priorities in terms of spending and that people believe should be top priorities in terms of spending. I will add one, one thing to that though. You know, one thing we're seeing in the field is people feel the pressure to do this perhaps before they should. And we were talking to somebody about three weeks ago and their company had spent. I'm not sure if it's the high tens of thousands or the low six figures on some AI technology in the form of digital twins. I can talk a lot about digital twins. We're doing a lot of work in that space right now. It's very popular because it integrates some of the visibility and the AI and things of that nature. But when people just feel they need to do this, but they don't necessarily plan it out, it ends up backfiring. So I would say that I'm excited to see where it's coming. I'm excited to see the development in the field and I'm excited that people are still prioritizing. Is a little bit scary that people are prioritizing spending rather than thinking about spending we need to keep an eye on.
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B
Excellent point, Evan. And part of your response made me think of Abraham Maslow's famous quote, I'm a paraphrase here. Yes, hierarchy needs guru. He said, if you use a hammer in every situation as the solution, everything looks like a nail and everything is not a nail. Right. So judicious application of the right tool at the right time with the right problem and a problem well defined. Dr. Dave, what would you add in terms of what you gleaned from the AI priorities from the survey?
- [16:19]
C
This is very interesting. When we did the statistical analysis and compare 2024 data with 2025 data, it shows a significant difference between the two years where supply chain managers have viewed about AI and they are more familiar in 2025. So that's very encouraging. AI is going to be on rise, especially in supply chain and global supply chain area because they would like to enhance the consistency and reduce the error, et cetera. So AI is going to be very helpful.
- [16:54]
B
Yes, Maria? AI, I think it's federally mandated. It's mentioned seven times every supply chain conversation. It's everywhere. Right. So are a lot of results, but so is a lot of frustration. Your thoughts, Maria?
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A
I think there's a, you know, we've lost the fear of AI certainly is. And that's what the survey is showing us with familiarity. But I think it's difficult to measure or companies are struggling to measure the value of AI. I do a little survey whenever I speak at an event. I tell everybody, raise your hands. I ask everybody, raise Your hands, if you're using AI successfully within your organization. Not a lot of hands. I mean, it's not scientific. And then I say, okay, put your hands up if you're using it in your personal life and everybody's hands go up. And so eventually, you know, what we use in our personal lives will bleed into our business life. So this is what's coming. But I think we still have to bridge that gap between understanding and utilizing technology and actually explaining the value of it or finding the value of it.
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B
Yes, Maria, I love that, if I.
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D
Can add one thing to that, because I think that's a fantastic point.
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C
Point.
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D
One of the things we're seeing a lot of is people do feel like they have to do something, and you're right. Like they can't see the payback. They just do it. They don't take the time to get the people in the room that need to be in the room to really have a strategy behind it. And what we're seeing is when people do that, when people get the ownership from not just the people that want the results, your chief financial officer, your frontline workers that are going to be using it, and the people that own that segment, when you get the right people in the room and you have a strategy and you can map out the implementation, you're going to have a lot more success. And that's where we're seeing people be successful. But the hysteria behind AI and they just run and do it. Maria, you have an excellent point. Like, that's not going to get us anywhere. And we're not going to be able to measure results with that approach.
- [18:39]
B
Excellent points. I had a great friend of mine, chief supply officer, named Brian, that once told me that he measured a lot of things in return on energy. You know, the return of their. Of his team's energy. And you know, that can be a negative return very often if leadership doesn't craft the right direction. And the answer, the why, the answer, what's in it for me? And the answer, the outcomes we're going to be getting from the initiative. So good stuff here. Let's go broader a little bit. And I'm going to share one of the visuals from the survey here, folks. We're going to be talking about broader technology investments and priorities there. And you'll see if you sign up for the research, you'll see lots and lots of data and grant charts like this, but you'll see this chart is focused on where they're spending and where they should be spending on technologies over the next three to five years. Again from the voices of over 300 supply chain managers. You'll see from artificial intelligence on there all the way to the left to robotics and automation, predictive analytics, supply chain platforms, visibility, which continues, I would argue to be more and more table stakes. Are we there yet? A hundred percent no. But gosh, if we're not seeing deeper in our supply chain ecosystems in full visibility, we got bigger challenges than we were five years ago. But let's see here, Dr. Dave, some of your key observations from the survey data in terms of those broader technology investments and priorities.
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C
Yes, interestingly this is only the last year's data and this year's data collection had less than one year period. And you can see that there are some changes and positive changes that people are more familiar, they would like to spend more money, more resources on technology as well as the sustainability aspects. So we see that may not have shown statistical difference, but it has absolute values are more different. And that is very encouraging to see. So I see that a great opportunity for companies where they would like to spend more in that area. And we, we did the statistical analysis of the difference between what they are spending and what they should be spending and most of the cases we found as negative. That means they would like to see more to be spent on those areas. So this is very encouraging.
- [20:53]
B
Excellent point, Dr. Dave and I should have mentioned that with this chart you'll see there to Dr. Dave's points, there should be spending average scores and it will be spending average scores. So look for that in the full blown survey. Evan, what else would you add in terms of broader technology investments and priorities?
- [21:08]
D
I think that what I, I call it the ambition action gap. Okay. The ambition is what we think we should be spending and the action is what we think we will be spending. And I think what we're seeing is that the ambition action gap is greater on the green related technologies. I don't think that's a big surprise for survey based in the United States right now, but that does remain. The gap between those blue lines and the green bars is higher than on the pure efficiency or AI based technologies. I don't think that's necessarily going to change, but I think that's something worth noting. The other thing I think comes to the familiarity part and there was a notable increase this year. I think Dr. Dave alluded to it earlier in terms of familiarity among supply chain leaders in AI there was a notable decrease statistically relevant, correct me If I'm wrong Dr. Dave, but a statistically decrease in familiarity on Renewable energies. So we can see how certain shifts perhaps in politics and regulatory frameworks and where people are deprioritizing that as something they need to stay up to speed on. So I think that's kind of reflective. But as Dr. Dave pointed out, nothing's going away. The ambition remains very high on all accounts.
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B
Good stuff. Evan Maria, your thoughts on these broader technology investments and priorities?
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A
I think from my perspective, we need to take a step back and look at this as a transformational change. Whatever we're doing, whether it's an AI investment or investment in sustainability initiatives or looking at technology, we need to prioritize what's important to our customers. We can't forget that. And I think that's what a lot of people get wrong is looking at what is the customer looking for, how can we improve their lives and then the same for our employees and our shareholders. Right. So there's also another element that I wanted to bring up which is I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding about AI or a mindset issue on AI and technological implementation. We're so busy chasing the tech, the shiny tech, that we haven't really evaluated the value chain. What is it that we're trying to build, how are we going to improve it and how is that going to survive whatever issue we have in the world, whether it's tariffs or climate change or geopolitical issue. So it's a lot to absorb, but I think we need to take that step back and look at the business issue from our customer backwards.
- [23:27]
B
Well said, well said. We do it. It's really important to your point, Maria, to call timeout. Let's not get caught up in the ever increasing velocity of the day or those buzzwords that kill and take a step back and gain perspective and, and priorities there. Excellent points. Okay, you mentioned sustainability, Maria. That's where we're going next.
- [23:46]
D
Scott, can I, can I mention one thing common about the security of data? Because there's some really cool technologies that are becoming available now that we're actually using with some of our clients. There are some tools that actually kind of do this data mesh thing where they, they pull the data from the secure sources, are able to manipulate it, produce the output without actually storing it. And so we're able to securely, and we're seeing this a lot with defense related clients and things of that nature where you have to do certain things you're not allowed to store that you're not allowed to do, manipulate things in a way that would actually be a security violation for certain policies. But there are really cool tools out there that allow you to do a lot of this data transformation, convert things into information while maintaining data security of the original source.
- [24:35]
B
Excellent point, Evan, excellent point. Let's talk about sustainability. It's been an interesting time for sustainability initiatives and the narrative that is applied to them. I would say I think that's almost inarguable. And we're going to talk about some gleams here, but check out this information here. Just these quotes in terms of various drivers of sustainability from government regulations, as you might expect to improve reputation in brand environmental action, improved evaluation, financially demand of customers, which of course Maria pointed out is the North Star, of course, recruitment of young talent. That's a great one to include when it comes to what is driving our sustainability initiative. So let's talk about it. Evan, what are survey respondents thinking when it comes to sustainability and how have those political and regulatory shifts impacted their positions and actions?
- [25:24]
D
Well, and this is one of the things that kind of surprised me. I had expected a taper off this year. In fact, I think the only major difference is a few of those went from like extremely important as the top one to highly important as the top vote getter. So really the only change was whether it was extremely or highly important. So some of them switched places. But all of those drivers still ranked, you know, between extremely and highly important is the top two vote getters. So these drivers are here to stay. They're not going anywhere. And you can see that if you look at the greens and the purples on there, if you add those together across almost all factors, those are in fact, I think across all factors, those are over half of the respondents right there. And of course, demand of customers in the United States, we don't have a regulatory framework that's strong in terms of sustainability. If you recall, it wasn't that long ago we were talking about the SEC issuing guidelines and things of that nature. I think that's kind of a thing of the past right now. But demand of customers is big. And whether you, you're a manufacturer that's dealing with a B2C product where you have consumer demand, or if your customers are overseas and operating in Europe or Asia or Australia or any of the other places that have sustainability regimes, you have to still do your reporting, you still have to report to them or they're not going to use you. So these are the realities we live in and it's not going away.
- [26:49]
B
Good stuff, evan. Appreciate that. Dr. Dave, your thoughts on sustainability.
- [26:53]
C
This is very, very interesting because we used the factor analysis and clustering processes of statistics and we found out very interesting results and we validated some of the differences using discriminant analysis. So what I'm trying to say is the interpretations of the results are so fascinating. For example, when we did the factor of the investment, how much whether companies should be investing in sustainability or area, we got two distinct factors. When I followed up with clustering process, that means 60% or 63% of the respondents said that they highly value compared to 37% of the group they gave in the about neutral response. So this is these are very encouraging results. And you know, implementing that and interpreting what Evans is talking about is very, very, very interesting.
- [27:49]
B
I agree. Dr. Davi, I think you're referring to what Evan called that ambition action gap. What we want to do, what we are doing. I've got one of those in my household, big gaps between ambitions and actions. But Maria, kidding aside, sustainability, your thoughts, what the data and what the market's telling us.
- [28:05]
A
Look, sustainability isn't going to go away. Whether it's driven by regulatory compliance or driven by the need to hire younger talent or even customers and what they demand, the reality is that it's not going away. So companies do have that inaction issue because they don't know how to measure the ROI of certain sustainability initiatives. And so I think this is a wider conversation, but one that is just not going to go away. Sometimes you are going to have capital intensive initiatives to launch some sustainability initiatives, but you are going to have to measure and weigh the risk of not implementing them. But this is where also technology can come in to help.
- [28:41]
B
That's right. Excellent points, Maria. And you know Evan, one last time you joined us, we talked about how more sustainable action, more progress on sustainability initiatives can actually create great revenues and good smart business. Right. And as Maria, as actually I think all three of y' all said it's not going away. Folks like most issues ebbs and flows, but it's not going away. Let's talk about one of my least favorite topics, but one that we've got to talk about and that is tariffs, right? Or any other recent geopolitical shifts. I want to start with the tariffs because you all asked specifically in the survey the perceived impact of tariffs and Evan reminded the time period first so we have the right context here.
- [29:20]
D
Dr. Dava, you probably have the exact dates this survey was produced, but it was in late September. It was after all the tariffs went into effect. This was not during the back and forth. This was not during any major shifts this was after all the tariffs were in effect.
- [29:33]
B
So with that in mind, folks, look at the again from 300 plus supply chain managers in the US that perceived impact of tariffs. And I am not a statistician, but I think the, the negative side probably outweighs the positive side, which doesn't surprise me at all. Probably none of you either. Dr. Dave, what impacts again, tell us what the data and what their survey, what the voice of the survey respondents said about tariffs or other geopolitical shifts.
- [30:01]
C
That's very, very interesting question because when we saw tariff and we thought that there will be, there'll be a lot more respondents who will say negative and my hypothesis was it could be negative impact. But when we look at that across the size of organization, some of the organizations said we have positive impact and it could be because their competitors cannot manage that tariff very well or they are working in partnership or whatever the interpretation is. It's very interesting. It's, there is no specific, I saw that one particular when I divided the data, one specific size of the company or type of company, et cetera, is across all over. So this was very encouraging in terms of looking at this data.
- [30:48]
D
Yep.
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B
I would argue probably inarguably that beer and pizza is a lot more universally positive than tariffs is. My hunch is my hunch. Evan, weigh in. What else would you add in terms of what the respondents said about the tariffs?
- [31:03]
D
Yeah, I think we all have a little bit of tariff fatigue. It's real. But I think Dr. Dave is right. There's this slightly negative tilt in terms of the impact. I didn't see any major shifts based on size or segment as well. I think one thing that's coming out of the discussion over the last year or two is this race for cheap and fast and all things just in time is giving way. And we're going from that just in time to just in case ERA and geopolitics is not going to magically stabilize. So in my mind I understand where people say, oh, it could have positive, it could have negative, but in reality it's going to have an impact. The idea that magically tariffs will have no impact, that I don't think is going to be the reality. The reality is it's going to be a little more dynamic than we're used to. Some of those AI technologies, some of those digital twins, some of those tools that are going to allow you to quickly assess what you need to do and how you need to adjust are going to be really important. Buckle up. It's, it's the new reality.
- [32:05]
B
Buckle up, hang on to your socks and you cap. All right. So Maria, your thoughts on the trade that ever shifting trade landscape?
- [32:13]
A
I think it's sort of like a fill in the blank. It's insert here. It could be tariffs, geopolitical issues, economic crises. We're in a time of complete poly crisis and volatility. So it's really about supply chains being able to respond. So I want to move away from the conversation as well about resilience. It's how do we respond to whatever is insert here coming next. And I think that's really what the order of the day is. And the more visibility you can get, the more you can lean on technology, lean on digital twins, on collaboration, which we're going to talk about all of these things. The more you can lean on them, the more, the more you can adapt and perhaps maybe even thrive through these poly crisis.
- [32:54]
B
Maria, that is excellent comment. And it goes back to what you said a little while earlier about taking a step back, looking at the big picture. Right. Because in the grand scheme, if you looked at it a thousand years, it might be tariffs here. There's going to be something else here, something else there. It's all about how resilient we can be and our organizations can be to whatever the disruption of the hour is. Good stuff there, Maria. Okay, Evan, what's one thing that surprised you from year two of this survey?
- [33:22]
D
Well, I had expected some things to fall off, so I think the surprise was that there wasn't a surprise. I had expected perhaps sustainability to go down in terms of the should be numbers. Right. The ambition numbers. I had expected perhaps to see even more of an emphasis on the resilience side. But you know, there's that old saying, you can have it fast, good or cheap. You get to pick two out of three.
- [33:47]
C
Right.
- [33:48]
D
Well, in this case you can have it cost effective, you can be resilient or you can have sustainability. Except it sounds like our supply chain managers are being told they have to do all three.
- [33:59]
B
Right.
- [34:00]
D
They have to be cost effective, they have to build in resiliency and they have to have sustainability built in. And so I think what I'm seeing in this survey is more and more is being demanded of our supply chain managers. It's the new reality. It's the dictates from the board, the boss, the CEO. That's what's coming up. That's the new normal.
- [34:20]
B
So true. The new never normal for sure. And by the way, I brought in a tree service and their company name was fast Good Cheap tree service and it was cheap, it was fast. But my trees are all hacked up in my backyard. Never come out of three. Dr. Dave, what surprised you about the survey this year?
- [34:39]
C
Maybe I was surprised that this year when we asked the question of international tariff impact and I thought there'll be quite a few individuals will say negative, but I didn't see that. As a matter of fact, some like 25, 28% of the respondents suggested will have positive impact. So that was kind of surprising to me. Secondly, when I look at the deeper analysis and when I found out the grouping, the data clustering process, it was very interesting to see that there are two distinct groups. One respondents were highly agreeable. On the scale of one to five, the response were close to four and others, the response was close to two and a half to three. So, I mean, these are the interesting observations that I saw. So it's very encouraging.
- [35:30]
B
Good stuff. Dr. Dave, surprises are going to abound when we pulled this many folks that are leading supply chains and doing critical work, moving mountains. Maria, your thoughts in terms of surprises or observations as we're in year two of this survey? Any thoughts?
- [35:48]
A
Yeah, I think we're entering or we've entered the era of executive overwhelm to the point of Evan made. Everybody being asked to do a lot more with a lot less, that's going to continue. And so I think the question is how do we rethink supply chains? How do we rethink business to some degree? How do we rethink leadership to be able to handle this sort of tremendous overwhelm that we feel to do things cheaper, faster, better, customizable, you know, whatever it is that you want. All the toppings on the pizza, how do we do that? And so again, I hate to sound like a broken record, but we do need to take that step back and look at where technology serves us for this, where I can collaborate with, you know, the people around me on this to be able to build something long lasting or at least certainly lasting through this crisis that we're in.
- [36:36]
D
You know, so often we do pit these things against each other. And I would say a lot of what Spark360 does with our clients, a lot of the work we do is trying to help people understand how do we do our sustainability in a way that is cost effective, that does turn it from a cost center into a cost saver, and in many cases build in resiliency. It's that trifecta. Starting at that level, you can start making these programs stand up on their own feet. And build from there.
- [37:08]
B
That's right. Good stuff there, Evan. The supply chain, greyhound track, the good old trifecta. All right, Dr. Dave and Dr. Dave, I'll start with you. Your favorite piece of feedback related to the overall survey initiative. What's been one of your favorite things you've heard from the market?
- [37:24]
C
Dr. Dave Number one is I really like to see this continuity that we are looking at on the trend, what the changes are taking place, especially when we are living in dynamic global competitive environment. So that's very, very interesting to see. In fact, once we find out when the tariff is settled in a few months or maybe next year, whenever we replicate the study, then it's going to be very interesting to see what respondents are saying. But also another thing we saw is when we plotted on multidimensional mapping and then we whatever statistical analysis, the respondents view the same way that the factor analysis gave us the results. So that's very encouraging that our results are very valid and the sample is very predictable and we can forecast it for the future.
- [38:17]
B
Good stuff. Evan, I love the combination here between the been there, done that, boots on the ground, operational side of the survey that you and the Spark360 team brings with Dr. Dave's data analytics. You know, is that really what the voices are telling us? You know, we got to be more data driven. And I love that, that one, two punch I'm hearing here today. Evan, you're one of your favorite pieces of feedback on the overall initiative this year, last year?
- [38:43]
D
Well, for me, it's, you know, the survey can be used as a tool. As I said, the feedback, it's how are people able to leverage it? And one of the things that people have said is that it's validated some of the things they're doing. I think it's certainly helped people see the value or the proliferation of collaboration. We didn't necessarily talk too much about, but it's extremely high, both on the supply chain optimization and the sustainability improvement side. The level at which companies are collaborating with their suppliers is extremely high. And I don't think that's going away, but it does give people ideas. It makes people think when they start saying, oh, if 93% are being asked about this or if 75% of companies are collaborating on something, it makes people pause and say, okay, I can do that. And then it's always great to see those kinds of ideas and those inspirations come to fruition.
- [39:39]
B
I completely agree. And Maria, building on Evan's response there, you know, I love let's find the things that we should be automating, right? Let's take the tedious task from the people and then let the get those people together amongst the ecosystems, customers, suppliers, team members, you name it. Let's change those conversations rather than oh my, millions of freight invoices are incorrect. Hey, technology can solve that, right? No more freight auditing or whatever. Insert the example there and enable the people to change the conversations around innovation, serving the customer, new ideas, you name it. That's a beautiful thing. Your thoughts, Maria?
- [40:15]
A
Well, you know what? I think validating your thinking in this time of executive overwhelm is essential. Right? So any kind of survey that helps support the direction that you're trying to take or that your leaders want you to take or whatever, I think is very, very valuable. But I want to talk about what Evan was talking about with regards to partnerships and collaboration. I cannot stress the importance of this to me. I think that partnerships and collaboration are the new competitive advantage. If you think about the best supply chains, they're not just built on transactions, they're built on trust and on shared data, which was a point that was being made beforehand. So again, that reset of a mindset shift that we need to take back in order to, you know, to be resilient and responsive to any kind of insert here crisis that we're going to have is going to be these partnerships, Maria.
- [41:04]
B
I love that partnership. And if I got you quoted right, partnerships and collaborations is one of the newest, biggest competitive differentiators. So true. You And Evan and Dr. Dave, there's lots of, despite all the variants of responses and whether it's tariffs or what we shouldn't be spending, what we are spending, whatever, there's some strong common themes here. Both this conversation in the survey, that's what we need to lean into for sure. Okay, so we're coming down the home stretch to pick it back up on that greyhound track analogy. Evan, the trifecta. Let's see the full version of the 2025 supply chain trends and attitudes. Don't forget those attitudes. Report releases October 14th. Our audience members can get their own copy of the survey, its results. We'd love to hear your feedback as you dive into the data, you name it. Where do you agree with us here today? Where do you disagree? What's your own take? We love to hear all of that. Evan, quick question for you and Dr. Dave for the survey. What's next? Where do we go from here? Evan, your quick thoughts there?
- [42:04]
D
Well, I think one thing we've been getting a lot of questions about from our international client base is when are you going to do it here? And so I think the idea is next year we're going to see what the good people in the Netherlands have to say. We are fortunate that App State University has some strong relationships. I'll let Dr. Dabe speak to those and we've already begun discussions on launching that survey in the Netherlands.
- [42:27]
C
It's very interesting what Evans mentioned because we just came back from France. Our program has made connection in La Havre University outside Normandy. I just came back a couple of weeks ago from France and we met the individual in the Netherlands who will be helping us collecting the data. So my colleague and I went to France as well as Netherlands personally. So it's very encouraging. So we, we have great support from Spark360 and we just cannot thank them enough.
- [42:57]
B
What we need to do then? Dr. Dave, I'll come North Carolina, we'll fly out of Raleigh, we'll go hook up with Evan and Maria and we'll do it all in person over great beer and pizza and have just a blast. How's that sound, everybody?
- [43:09]
A
Like a plan?
- [43:10]
B
All right, good stuff. All right, so we're going to have a fast and furious finish here. We want to make sure folks can connect with our panel here. And I want to start with Evan. How can folks connect with you and the Spark360 team?
- [43:22]
D
Well, a couple things. You can always grab me on my LinkedIn. I'm pretty active on LinkedIn and you can email me as well. It's Evan yunkerpark360.com but of course, if you're listening to this on audio, Junker is spelled J U N K E R. And we should also say for Those on audio, Spark360 is spelled S P A R Q360. And then our website has a has a whole plethora of information that hopefully can help you out. And we'd of course be happy to talk with you if you have any questions or concerns. In fact, last week we launched a three tiered ESG framework for companies that are struggling to approach their sustainability programs. Very practical, very solution oriented. Sorry, Dr. Davi, it's not very academic, but it's very practical. A practical approach with a 1, 2, 3 phase and you can find some resources on that as well.
- [44:13]
B
Outstanding. And Dr. Dave, let's make sure folks can connect with you. How can they do that?
- [44:18]
C
I can be found very easily on Appalachian State University website. My email address is D A V E D s@fstate.edu and that's very easy to find. I'm also on LinkedIn. You are welcome to connect with me through LinkedIn as well.
- [44:37]
B
Outstanding. Good stuff there. We're also going to include a couple more resources, Maria, folks need to know how to connect with you as well. You got a big event coming up, T Fest in November in Europe, so you folks got to check that out. But Maria, how can folks connect with you?
- [44:50]
A
Well, you know me, I'm a very shy girl, but you can see me on LinkedIn if you're not following me already. That's probably the best way is on LinkedIn. I do have a website as well, Maria Villa Blanca.com and I've got a podcast. So as you know, it's got transform talks with Maria Blablanca. And yep, just reach out to me.
- [45:10]
B
Outstanding. Please do reach out to our entire panel, folks. What a great conversation. Evan, Dr. Dave and Maria. All right, couple quick things, folks. I want to make sure again, don't take our word for it. Really don't. I mean, I'm taking Maria and Dr. Davies and Evan's word for it, but go do your own research, download the report, dive in, let us know what you think it says, and compare and contrast that with your own experiences in your own organization. Also can learn more about the really cool things they're doing at Appalachian State University with Dr. Dave and specifically the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management. Look at that. A gorgeous shot of Boone, North Carolina, where they've got beautiful mountains when they're not moving them. So check that out, folks. Sorry, I had to. I had to. All right, Maria, you're going to get the toughest question of the whole day. I think. What is one of your favorite key takeaways from the last hour?
- [46:04]
A
Well, I knew you were going to ask me this, so I've prepared two, you know, just, just to make it easier. But the one thing that I would say is that the best supply chain leaders, you know, they're not waiting for the perfect conditions. They're investing in visibility, piloting sustainability, and building partnerships today. Now, even in the middle of this uncertainty. So that's my biggest takeaway. You don't have to wait for the perfect conditions. The second takeaway, Scott, since it's beer and pizza day, I'm going to say this. Visibility analytics and AI are the base ingredients. Okay? But sustainability is the topping that makes the supply chain worth sharing.
- [46:38]
B
Oh, Maria, I love it. And we got a bonus one. I love it, but it's excellent comic. Kidding aside, you can't wait Right. You can't wait. We had a great panel last month full of CSEOs, and one of the biggest themes there is if you're waiting for the perfect time to do xyz, if you're looking for that perfect stable ground, you're wasting your time because it's not coming. You got to jump in. Got to jump in. Great stuff. Maria Villa Blanca, so nice to have you here. Thanks for being here.
- [47:06]
A
Likewise. Thank you.
- [47:07]
B
Evan Yunker, Spark360. I love that you get your hands dirty and you roll up your sleeves and you jump into things. That's how it should be. We need people like that, organizations like that. Thanks for being here.
- [47:18]
D
Thank you. Thanks. It's always great to be with you.
- [47:20]
B
That is right. And Dr. Dinesh Dave with Appalachian State University, I really appreciate your passion for helping us all better interpret what's going on and where things are headed from an industry standpoint, as well as helping these bright minds of the now generation and the top talents coming in our industry, helping those light bulbs go off, you're doing really a big, noble mission. Thanks for being here. Dr. Dave.
- [47:45]
C
Thank you so much. I really appreciate all your support and we look forward to working with you and Spark360 and other organizations. We are looking forward to it and.
- [47:55]
B
I'm coming your way. We're headed to see Evan and Maria, folks. Hope you enjoyed this discussion. Most importantly, thanks to all of our global family members for tuning in. But you got homework. We heard a lot of good stuff, actionable stuff, great wisdom from Evan, Dr. Dave and Maria. You got to take one thing, folks. Just one. If you can do two wonderful. Take one thing, do something with it, right? Share it with a team member. Put it in practice. Deeds, not words. That's how we're going to keep transforming global supply chain and not leave anybody behind. So with all that said, Scott Luton here, on behalf of the whole Supply Chain out team, 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. 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.