The Buzz: AI Adoption, Brand Differentiation, & Embracing Discomfort

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Supply Chain Now – The Buzz: AI Adoption, Brand Differentiation, & Embracing Discomfort

Date: June 12, 2026
Hosts: Scott Lewton & Dr. Mudasir Ahmed
Special Guest: Anthony Reeves (VP, Global Brand and Creative at Kohler; Author of Eat the Donkey: Why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort)

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Episode Overview

This dynamic episode of The Buzz, Supply Chain Now’s weekly news and insight roundtable, dives into the accelerating adoption of AI in supply chain, the challenges and triumphs of brand differentiation, and the importance of strategically embracing discomfort for business growth. The show features expert commentary from hosts Scott Lewton and Dr. Mudasir Ahmed, and a compelling guest segment with Anthony Reeves, whose career spans building global brands at Amazon, Kohler, Airbnb, Nike, and more.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Optimizing Decision-Making & Tech Adoption in Supply Chain

• [03:04] Good decision-making, especially powered by digital tools and AI, is foundational for safety, growth, and resilience in supply chains.
• Dr. Mudasir Ahmed on Quantum Computing:
  “Quantum computing is not done in digital ones and zeros. It’s done at the atomic level. The world’s most complicated problems—supply chain is one—might be solved by it.” (04:34)
• With That Said newsletter and resource hubs were highlighted for up-to-date reads on these evolving topics.

2. AI's Real Impact: Strategy, Adoption, and Change Management

• [06:48] Mudasir discusses the enthusiastic desire for AI in supply chain roles but says true adoption stalls at the executive (especially C-suite) level due to:
  • Strategic clarity
  • Security and compliance concerns
  • Change management hurdles
• Quote:
  “AI is magical. It can do fantastic stuff. But this narrative that AI will take over jobs—I think it’s totally wrong. With every technology, humans adapt and get better.” (09:42, Dr. Ahmed)
• Advice for Leaders: Be proactive, volunteer for new tech initiatives, and focus on continuous skill development to avoid being left behind.

3. Spotlight: The Sensei Platform

• [10:19] Dr. Ahmed introduces Sensei, SCM Dojo’s AI-driven supply chain support platform, emphasizing its practitioner-built depth and integration of real-world best practices.

4. Special Guest Segment – Anthony Reeves

Background Highlights

• Led Amazon’s advertising growth ($1B to $20B)
• VP Global Brand and Creative at Kohler
• Author of Eat the Donkey: Why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort

Warm-Up: The Value of True Friendships

• [13:55] Both Anthony and Dr. Ahmed share stories of lifelong friends and the personal grounding such relationships provide.

On AI Initiatives in Big Brands: Learning from Starbucks’ Experiment

• [17:57] Starbucks scrapped a high-profile AI-powered inventory program after it failed to deliver, citing technical misreads of inventory (e.g., not distinguishing product labels).
• Anthony’s take:
  “Kudos to them. You try something, it doesn’t work, you move on... At Amazon we say, treat everything like a two-way door. If you hate it, make sure you can always turn around and come back.” (17:57)

Discussion: 2026 Predictions and Which Are Coming True

• [22:03] The group discusses how four supply chain predictions are playing out:
  • AI will arrive first in enterprise, slower for consumers
  • Leaders must ask uncomfortable ROI and organizational questions
  • Purpose-built AI will beat generic tools
  • Soft skills will matter more than ever
• Anthony:
  “The demand for interpersonal and organizational skills, emotional intelligence, creativity, and critical thinking will skyrocket.” (22:35)
• Dr. Ahmed:
  “People will start asking: with all this budget for tech, are we getting ROI? At some point, the CFOs will kick in—show me the ROI.” (23:17)

Data, Context, and the Real Barriers to AI at Scale

• [28:05] Only 17% of organizations have achieved AI at scale, per recent Gartner data; most struggle due to slow internal processes, data silos, and lack of context-rich, vertical-specific data.
• Dr. Ahmed:
  “AI needs business context and expert knowledge. Teaching AI those vertical skills is crucial for success.” (30:06)

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Brand Differentiation, Leadership Lessons & Embracing Discomfort

Anthony Reeves’ Background and Book: Eat the Donkey

• [33:45] Growing up in the Australian Outback, Anthony learned the value of resilience, learning from everyone, and embracing discomfort.
• Most powerful lesson:
  "You’re guaranteed to learn something from everybody...that’s the one thing that stuck with me throughout my life.” (35:09)

Building Great Brands: The Human Connection

• [36:19] Dr. Ahmed recounts brands like Chewy, which prioritize emotional connection ("they paint oil portraits for deceased pets")—a reminder that “humans buy from humans.”
• Anthony’s advice for startups:
  “At the most basic level, what do you want to be known, famous for? Amazon is all about customer experience. Airbnb is about belonging. Build everything around your true foundation.” (38:25, 41:19)

Why “Eat the Donkey”?

• [41:38] The title reflects his family’s real-world hardship and the survival lessons learned from making hard, uncomfortable decisions in the Outback—mirrored in how companies must act to survive and thrive.
• Anthony:
  “A lot of companies will make the easy short-term decision, but in the long run, that will put you out of business.” (42:58)

How AI Risks Flattening Differentiation

• [45:01] As AI and automation become ubiquitous—offering the same data, insights, and tools to all—brand differentiation will hinge entirely on what makes a company “distinct” beyond operational excellence.
• Example: Nike’s recent struggles are due to moving away from its foundational “motivation” brand ethos.

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Memorable Quotes & Actionable Takeaways

• "Don’t be the wait-and-see person. Be the early mover. Adopt the use case, and you will become invincible." – Dr. Mudasir Ahmed (09:51)
• "Treat everything like a two-way door..." – Anthony Reeves on fast experimentation (17:57)
• "Soft skills will matter more." – Anthony Reeves (22:35)
• "AI outcomes will only be as good as the underlying data. Governance and data quality need to be strategic priorities, not afterthoughts." – Listener, Vishal (32:04, via chat)
• "Restack your team every 12 months... That little bit of restlessness is a little bit of learning." – Anthony Reeves (52:19)
• "There is 100x more money available for the technology, but no money available for awareness, desire, and knowledge. That needs to happen first if you want ROI..." – Dr. Mudasir Ahmed (53:25)

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Timestamps for Notable Segments

• 00:59 – 05:52: Episode intro, theme, technology trends, and "With That Said" newsletter highlights
• 06:48 – 11:34: Dr. Ahmed’s perspective on AI adoption barriers and practical leadership advice
• 12:42 – 13:55: Anthony Reeves introduction, background, and warm-up (importance of friendships)
• 17:57 – 20:04: Learning from AI project failures (Starbucks case study)
• 22:03 – 25:01: Revisiting 2026 predictions for AI, supply chain transformation, and soft skills
• 28:05 – 32:04: Gartner Symposium insights—why only 17% have AI at scale; importance of contextual data
• 33:45 – 38:25: Anthony’s upbringing, leadership lessons, the power of learning from everyone
• 41:38 – 43:26: The power and message behind "Eat the Donkey"
• 45:01 – 47:49: AI risks flattening brands; how to maintain distinctiveness
• 48:19 – 51:44: Misconceptions about innovation, setting up mechanisms and principles for sustained progress
• 52:19 – 53:25: Practical advice on driving discomfort and growth by restacking and cross-training teams

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Practical Takeaways for Supply Chain Leaders

• Embrace discomfort as a strategic edge; proactively make hard decisions that foster long-term resilience.
• Invest in embedding AI with contextual, domain-specific knowledge—not just generic models.
• Prioritize change management, continuous learning, and human-centric skills alongside tech deployments.
• Protect and articulate your core brand identity to avoid “sameness” as digital tools become commoditized.
• Ensure data quality and cross-functional alignment to hasten tech adoption and maximize ROI.
• Regularly “restack” teams and responsibilities to cultivate freshness, learning, and adaptive growth.

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Connect with the Guests

• Anthony Reeves:
  LinkedIn: Anthony Reeves
  Website: anthonyreeves.co
  Book: Eat the Donkey

• Dr. Mudasir Ahmed:
  LinkedIn: Mudasir Ahmed
  Platform: SCM Dojo & Sensei

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For more thought leadership, resources, and actionable insights, visit Supply Chain Now and subscribe for future episodes!

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Transcript

[A]

Curious about the latest trends in the world of freight dive into our exclusive coverage of the U.S. bank Freight Payment Index and U.S. bank's new quarterly rates edition. In partnership with DAT Freight and Analytics, the index provides deep national and regional insights. The Rates Edition provides a unique marketplace view of freight rates. Visit freight.usbank.com to explore these quarterly reports and sign up for updates For a dynamic take on this information and to learn what's happening now in the business world, subscribe to Supply chain now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

[B]

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

[C]

from across the globe.

[B]

One conversation at a time.

[C]

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton and very Special co host Dr. Mudasir Ahmed, all with you here on Supply Chain now. Welcome to today's live stream. Mudasir, how you doing today?

[D]

I am doing very well. Very well. This is Sunny Day in Birmingham. I'm doing fantastic. How are you?

[C]

I'm doing fantastic. It's we're still getting a break. We got 127° we weather coming soon but we've had such a nice extended spring so it's been, it's been gorgeous. But folks, today is the Buzz where Every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time we discuss a variety of news and developments across global supply chain and business news that matters is what we like to call it and the buzz is powered by our friends at APL Logistics all month long in June. APL Logistics is a global supply chain logistics provider specializing in and order management solutions operating from 180 locations across 93 countries. To learn more visit APL logistics.com okay Muer, we got a lot of stuff to get into here. Today we're going to be talking about the power of decision making optimization. We're going to be discussing a few of the latest examples of how AI continues to transform supply chain work. Speaking of AI, we got to learn from the successful AI projects as well as the ones that fail. More on that and we're going to be revisiting a few 2026 predictions to see what sticks and what didn't stick all that much much more. And as if that's not good enough, about 15 minutes or so we're bringing in a special guest, Anthony Reeves with Kohler. He's also a quite an author of a great read we're going to touch on. You're going to enjoy Anthony's invigorating perspective on the power of leaning into being uncomfortable. So, Mudaseer, big show here today. Are you ready to go, my friend?

[D]

I am super excited. I think the agenda you've sent me is right up my street. Especially the profile of Anthony is super impressive. We need more branding expert in supply chain because as you can see, we moan about how people don't care about us. So we need a branding PR expert to tell us how we can improve our PR within the organization and outside in the world.

[C]

So true. We got to tell a better story. I'm looking forward to getting your take on all these topics here today, folks. Trisha's already hard at work. She's dropping the link to our friends at APL Logistics. Go check that out. Alan Jacques is back with us. Hey, he says Scott and Mudasir Alan, look forward to seeing you in Atlanta soon. And Maria's back from Madrid. Maria, I'd love to get your take on some of these topics we're talking about here today. So let's dive in. We got a big show here today. Let's start with we got four things we're gonna hit before Anthony joins us. Mudasir, I'm going to start with our latest edition of with that Said, which published over the weekend. We lit off with a very high level summary. Three recent articles published to our resource hub and we pointed out how they converged on a key central theme, better decision making. Yeah, we've been talking about it forever. We've made some progress, but we got more work to do because whether we're pursuing a safer working environment, the better leveraging of data and AI, or preparing for massive growth ahead, the teams that optimize decision quality are most likely to be in a better position than those that don't. And as we talk about regularly, hey, the human workforce doesn't have to make all the decisions these days. More and more we can offload tons of decisions and make the tech do the work. So in this edition, beyond those great reads, you're going to find a bevy of tools and resources and some terrific live shows. Give it a read. Let us know what you think. Now, Mudasir, I think you're still dwelling a bit on our previous edition where we talked about the quantum era, is that right?

[D]

Absolutely. I think this was the, one of the, I think the first solid content I have seen in the Quantum Leap, which is very surprising because a night before I was watching, I watched a channel called Think Big, right. So there was a professor, I forget, you know, he's a Japanese professor and he was talking about how quickly the progress has been made in quantum computing. And if I put it simply, quantum computing is not done in digital one zero. It's done at the atomic label. That is the world most complicated problem supply chain is one of them would be I think is there to solve. Right. So the we have seen the acceleration, the age of AI. We got to talk about that more. But what's going to happen with quantum computing, it will be the leap in a think 100x or 200x but all of that brings it risk and challenges which you have rightly mentioned in the with that said article and you have mentioned some really good quotes and some good research, some experts in the article, which was a very, very good and thank you for sharing with me.

[C]

Hey, you bet, Mudasir. That's high praise coming from the one and only Dr. Mudasir Ahmed. So folks, Trish is making it easy on all of us. She dropped the link right there to the most recent edition of with that said, and it's even easier, you can go back and check out all of our previous installments, including the one on the quantum era, because it's a, it's an exciting and a scary time all at once that we're entering.

[D]

Absolutely.

[C]

Okay, let's see here. One other thing I want to call out that was in this most recent edition. So folks, Paul Delbar is a good friend of the show and he's launched a terrific new series that centers around a fictional grocery store known as the Corner Market. It's a blog series trying to think of the platform it's on and Amanda Trisha helped me out. But I've read through the first five chapters and I love the blend of business, leadership and personal observations that Paul writes about. So I want to invite you to check out the Corner Market and let us know what you think. Okay. So Mudaseer, I want to go back to AI and tech and all this stuff. You know, you work with all sorts of supply chain leaders around the globe. I think you've got a very unique perspective and point of view. I've checked out of course, a lot of your keynotes and your podcast, which I'm a big fan of. I'm curious to get your take on the topic of how you see AI continuing to transform work, especially supply chain roles. What are some of your thoughts there, Moody Seer?

[D]

I think I would say three things and both strategy, tactical and execution. Right there is the progress made within the supply chain tech firm. And I do a lot of emergency Work like yourself, you know, my mission is basically bring the be the problem and bring the solution which can solve that problem. In the supply chain tech space, there's a lot of tech available. I don't want to name any companies but for example, I was collaborating with Project44. We recently met there in collaboration with them. So they have run a pretty smart decision intelligence platform. In fact, we have built the official four curriculum of courses that people go to at Singdujo and learn how the agents are really transforming logistics, visibility, execution, the tech is there. Now the question is what I see in industry right now, which is a strategic challenge is the adoption of it, right? And the strategic issue, because I think there's a desire from supply chain folks and leaders to do it. But it sits at the company level. Let me give you example. So Sensei, which is our AI supply chain, business intelligence and execution layer, which we'll talk about more later, we pitched to a company, the Chief supply chain officer really liked it. But to get it approved it went to a CEO and the CEO said hang on a minute, let's hold on. Yeah, it makes sense, but I want to look into the AI strategy for the business and I'll get back to you when it is available. When we come back. When we think about it. So while the supply chain AI and the desire is there and people see the benefit, but at the strategic level, leaders are still not very clear how to go about it. And they have security concerns, they have compliance concerns and they have of course have people concerns to go with it. Right? So that's the strategy part. Now at the tactical execution level, it's basically the hype needs to match the expectation, right at the moment it's not matching. That's fact. I know all the CEOs and founders like me who's working in AI will say no, no, no, we're going to come in and we're going to save 80% of time. And you're creating your RFPs using AI augmentation and it will not take eight to 12 weeks. It's going to take, you know, four to six weeks. It's possible. But to make that possible or they make that very specific use case possible, someone within that organization needs to sit with it and with it and run the exchange management. So there's a debate of don't treat AI as a project alone, right? It should be embedded in the business. It's not straightforward. I mean you just want to buy a simple HR software for people to sign up for your holidays or recruitment, right? It doesn't happen because it needs to go through four, three or four layers of approval from all the way to the end user, up the way to the, you know, CTO compliance officer. We have to realize that change management and manage it along with the push. Right? And what I would recommend to the leaders and the users who wants to adopt AI is be more willing to put time and effort in the adoption. Right? AI is magical. It can do fantastic stuff. And this worry and this narrative of supply chain, okay, AI will take over jobs. I know I'm going against everybody or Even there's a CEO of Microsoft AI, he mentioned that all the blue collar jobs, 98% of them will be gone in 18 months. I think it's totally wrong. That would not happen with every technology you've seen, starting from manual to paperwork to the fax machine to the Internet to mobile to digitalization to cloud. Right now what happened is humans adopt technology and they get better with time. So the people who might lose the job who are not adopting, they're waiting and seeing. Don't be the wait and see person, be the early mover. Adopt it. Adopt your use case and you will become invincible. Not for your job, in front for the organization.

[C]

I like it. Learn and apply. Learn and apply. Raise your hand. Volunteer work on these new initiatives. But whenever we stop learning and we stop educating ourselves and stop developing new skill sets, hey, we're in trouble. And as Mudasir said, don't be the wait and see person. All right, so good stuff. I want to offer one last thing. We're about to bring on an outstanding guest. But Mudasir touched on something that I believe is a great opportunity and resource folks out there. So folks, you gotta check out Sensei. Dr. Mudasir Ahmed spent four years building SEM Dojo into the world's largest independent supply chain learning platform. Get this. 82 Practitioner Built Courses, 44 Best Practices Enterprise programs at some of the world's most successful companies. All that goes into and really fuels Sensei, right? It's what all that knowledge becomes when combined with AI. So SCM Dojo, AI Sensei is a new powerful platform that offers supply chain pros tremendous support in a wide variety of ways. And hey, just wait, there's more. Muir's got a great offer offering Sensei for a special limited time, 49 bucks a month. But it expires July 1st, so you gotta act now. Mudaseer, did I get all that right?

[D]

My friend, you will get absolutely spot on. Nothing to add.

[C]

Okay? All right. So folks, Go check it out. We're dropping a link right there in the chat. So speaking of great, great stuff here today on the June 8th edition 2026 of the Buzz, powered by our friends APL Logistics, we've got a great guest. So get this folks. From the Australian outback to global stages, Anthony Reeves has spent three decades leading brands, teams and transformation. In fact, he led Amazon's advertising business from 1 billion to 20 billion. Goodness. He's also served as Vice president of global brand and creative at Kohler and through wpp worked with brands including Airbnb, Nike, Verizon and Microsoft. He's well known as the strategist that tells companies what AI is doing to their moats, helps leaders navigate change and growth without losing what makes them distinctive. He's also published a great book which we're going to talk on in a minute. Eat the Donkey why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort. We're going to learn more about the colorful title in just a moment, but please join me in welcoming Anthony Reeves, Vice President, Global Brand and Creative at Kohler.

[D]

Hey.

[C]

Hey Anthony. How you doing my friend?

[E]

I do a great Scott yourself.

[C]

I am doing fantastic. I'll tell you. Motor's got us all charged up, ready to go on this Monday morning Mudasir. We've had quite a start, huh?

[D]

Yes, definitely Anthony, very impressive profile. I must say the introduction from Scott was brilliant. But I want to give you two compliments to get things going. First of all, the name is brilliant. I'm sure you're going to explain in the second part your reviews even within the first two months, it's fantastic. So being a fellow author, right. I'm also writing a book which I scares about getting good feedback. So many congratulations, getting really great reviews, really appreciate that.

[E]

Marcia, thank you very much. As you know as an author it is a labor of love.

[C]

Labor of love indeed. Well, all right, so let's do this. A fun warm up question now that we've exchanged pleasantries and jumped right in folks. Today is many things. We have World Oceans Day. Every day needs to be that day. I think we've got Eat Flexitarian Day. Interesting Thomas Paine Day here in the States and it's National Best Friends Day. So I want to dial in on that last one. Anthony and Mudasir, I'm going to ask you both, starting with you Anthony, who is one of your go to buddies that has been there for you through thick and through thin, your dioride. Who is that Anthony?

[E]

That's almost like the impossible question. So there's one person that immediately comes to mind. And Peter Scriven and I have been friends for decades. He is back in Sydney and he lives there now. We have climbed massive mountains together. We've hiked, we've solved problems together. We've gone through, you know, marriages and hard times and we've seen kayak through massive, massive swells together. And I think even though I don't see him as much as I should, without a doubt, if I need something or need to talk to somebody, Peter, Peter Scribbon is a person that I always go to.

[C]

Outstanding. Big shout out to Peter. Thanks for being a great friend out there. The world needs more great friends. All right, so Mudasir, same question. Who's one of your go tos?

[D]

I mean, I've got hundreds of hundreds of people in my connections, right. And my WhatsApp is full. But there's only, unlike Anthony, I've got four or five friends which I call and my definition of friends is that you can pick up duo call anytime and they can pick up call at any time and they're there for you. So for a friend called Kashif, he's in Canada and he's very different from me. He's very creative, right. And he's there to talk about personal stuff, professional stuff. And he is because he think very differently. He's always given me a very emotionally intelligent perspective on personal life and work life, right. And he's very bad in execution. So I compliment him because I'm good in execution. So big shout out of Kashif. He has been a great friend all my life. Known him about, I think I was like 13 since I know him. So more than three decades. It's amazing.

[C]

Good God, you can't make old friends. That's a tremendous, valuable friend of yours there as well. Mudasir and Anthony. Good stuff. And I will give a shout out and you know, it's like, it's like picking your favorite kid. It's not a fair question. And so, but I do want to give a shout out to my dear friend Tripp. I caught up over the weekend, AKA Catfish. He's been around a long time with me and appreciate, always appreciate his perspective and his stories. All right, so really quick before we dive in with Anthony and with Budaseer, I want to call out a couple things here. Number one, I mentioned the Corner Market. Go check out that series, folks. It's a really easy but interesting read. And also want to make sure folks see the link for Sensei which we touched on earlier, that Mudasir and his team have published. Great resource here. And then finally LK is back, the pride of South Georgia. Great to see you, Larry Klein. Hope you're doing well, my friend. All right, so Mudir and Anthony, let's see here. We're going to go through three stories and get Yalls take on these stories and we're going to start with some caffeine. Reuters is reporting on what Starbucks is doing and now not doing with AI. And as Reuters reported on, the coffee and retail giant had rolled out an AI program called automatic counting to its North American stores about nine months ago that was really meant to help fix the chain's persistent product shortages. Right. CEO Brian Nickel, I think I'm saying his last name right, thought these shortages were a big part of the sales slump that they had been experiencing up until that time. Essentially it was an app that attempted to help improve Starbucks visibility and accuracy into what was causing the shortages, such as miscounted inventory or mislabeled products. Automatic counting also attempted to eliminate manual work associated with inventory management. Who likes cycle counting? I do not. Some Starbucks employees commented that while they appreciated the intent behind automatic counting was failing really in its execution and results. So Starbucks announced last week that a program was being terminated and they intend to quote, standardize how inventory is counted across coffee houses as we continue to focus on consistency and execution at scale. One last thing before we get Anthony Mudaseer's comments. Brian Nichol, the CEO and the leadership team at Starbucks is making some progress overall in their efforts to turn the company around, including sales growth and stock price gains this year. I think some 26%. So Anthony, my thought is we get got whether it's AI or not. We've got to learn from the projects that work, the initiatives that work, and we got to learn maybe even more from those that don't. Your thoughts?

[E]

Yeah. So firstly to Starbucks tried something, it didn't work. You're moving on. It's a kudos to them and the decisions they've made to move on from that. And you know, coming from my background, even you think of Amazon and decisions they've made over time that have failed. You learn more from that. So if you can remember the Amazon phone for example, or Amazon restaurants, they failed miserably but they made the hard call to try something and then cut it off. And there's a great saying at Amazon which is treat everything like a two way door that you can go through and see what's on the other side when you hate it and don't like it make sure that you can always turn around and come back and Starbucks have done that really well.

[C]

I like it. And of course Amazon, they really nailed the art of pilots. Big fan, lots of experiments. I love it. All right, two way door mudaseer. When you think of going back to the Starbucks app that they recently shelved or just the bigger picture of learning from those that things that work and those that don't, your thoughts?

[D]

I think well done for Starbucks for trying it and I think that shows a lot about leadership desire. But I'm a move because I'm an engineer and I'm a tech guy and go through the technicality of the things when I think fails. But if you read through the articles and do the further search what it appears is let's call it the issues on cycle counting or basically the technology not recognizing the different bottles or missing the product in front of the lens is more down to the physical side of the architecture to work. So let's call it more that AI plus Internet of things and these technology I think will improve with the period of time. Let's think about Google Glass was failed but now meta and other people are doing it. So while it feels right, you know, failed right now and the people are not happy, I'm pretty sure at some point in future it will work.

[C]

Excellent comments to you both there and Tricia has dropped the link. Go check it out folks. Don't take our word for it. Give us your take.

[E]

Quick question. Do you think it was a human problem that it didn't work or technology problem that it didn't work?

[D]

I think based on the research remotes look like a technology problem. Not reading the product labels correctly, not differentiating between milk and a coffee problem

[C]

books and also folks, if you go check out the article, as I understand it, it was built on basically the team members holding a laptop or a tablet to take a snapshot of their inventory. So it was really I love the ease and the functionality that they had they designed it with. However, maybe the technology wasn't quite there or to what we said earlier maybe user error, you know. User error huh? Couple quick comments here for again folks go check out the article. The Shaw says hey, AI doesn't fail because of technology. It fails when execution, process design and operational realities aren't considered. Great reminder that transformation starts with process, not software. Alan says fail fast. I like succeed perspective and definely Larry Klein LK says nothing beats human familiarity with the inventory. This allows the employees tasked with using it to monitor the AI tool stuff all Right. Lots of Starbuck fans out there. So we got to move to this next story. We got so much to get to here today, everybody. You know, I don't know about y'. All, I love prediction making and then I love to revisit said predictions. So here's a blog article from our friends at 4Kites that offers up four predictions for 2026. Now I'm gonna hit these at a high level. I'm not gonna do it justice. You ought to go check out the original blog article. But I'm gonna ask Anthony and Mudasir which of these predictions may have been most accurate so far as we almost hitting the halfway mark of the year. So here they are at the high level. Number one, agentic AI will thrive in the enterprise, but consumers will have to wait. As in due mainly to security concerns. You know, we aren't giving AI agents unrestricted access to the open web and our credit card details when doing things or, or doing research on things like making travel plans. Number two, someone will finally ask the uncomfortable questions. Now this is a bit an interesting one, but for an example from this prediction, some supply chain organizations want AI to optimize inventory. We're just talking about it, but at the same time they keep separate P and LS across various functional aspects of the enterprise.

[E]

Right?

[C]

So the question is what do we really want to do here? Thirdly, generic AI tools will lose to purpose built solutions. Then finally, soft skills will matter more than ever because as the article shares quote, as AI handles more routine tasks, the demand for interpersonal and organizational skills, emotional intelligence, creativity and critical thinking will skyrocket. End quote. All good thoughts that are interesting to ponder. So Anthony, of those four, which prediction do you think has come to fruition the most?

[E]

It's interesting, Scott, the as you're going through the list, I, I was writing a few notes down and I thought I had my answer down. But when he got to number four, which is soft skills will matter more. It, it is the one that I do believe will lead into more as, as the 2026 continues and 27 into H1 kicks off. There's a couple of early indicators already. Not so much in supply chain, but definitely in social media. We're seeing a big change in social media at the moment with a lot more AI in there and people actually turning away from, from AI. And the soft skills, especially when you're interviewing people are going to become a lot harder, but they are the biggest skills to interview against.

[C]

Well, I agree with you Anthony Mudasir of those Four. Which one do you think?

[D]

I think I would have picked what Anthony picked because I think in universities and these days they're talking about power skills because of the age of AI. So power skills are there. Right. But I'm going to pick the, the second one, the ROI question. I'll just example, start with the recent example that Microsoft has stopped using cloud because the cost of tokens was actually more expensive than, than humans. And Even though the IPOs of OpenAI and Cloud is coming soon and SpaceX, but at some point people gonna start, okay, we got this. Hundreds of thousands of budgets, are we seeing the ROI? Right? And even we, I think the CFOs will kick in and they're gonna say, show me the roi. I think that will happen pretty soon.

[C]

Well said. I agree with you both. I agree with you both. And that one about asking the uncomfortable questions that probably wasn't as much of a prediction as talking about the newer uncomfortable questions that we need to be asking. I think that's very accurate, right? I think it's very accurate. Especially given all that modern technology poses here in the golden age of supply chain tech. We've got to keep it real with what we really want to do with said technology. All right, so folks, Trish has dropped a link there to that blog and I think this is my friend Andrew. I think this is, Andrew says, do you think we get dazzled by the outcomes and blind to the reality? By the way, Starbucks coffee isn't coffee.

[E]

All right, quick, quick one from Andrew. I'm really curious about the question because the question is interesting, is so Australians firstly are very precious about their coffee. So I'm just going to put that out there very quickly. And so the one party totally agrees where Starbucks isn't quite the quality of coffee, like in the UK or Australia, for example, is Starbucks a seller of coffee or are they a coffee shop?

[C]

Interesting.

[E]

And that will affect supply chain, will affect the customer service, will affect Andrew's question dramatically. And being around Starbucks a lot and because I spent a lot of time in Seattle, they're a cop. They want that third place, that coffee shop experience. And they do that through coffee. And that's where there's, there's a really big, really big point of the difference in there and how they go to market or how the supply chain works and what you want your staff to do if they're scanning bags of coffee. But they want to have that coffee shop experience. There's two different things altogether.

[C]

I think it's a great point. And Andrew's Great question. Moodiseer. Really quick, your comment.

[D]

First of all, I'm not a coffee drinker, so I'm indifferent in that. So I probably won't be able to add a lot of value in this. So sorry for that.

[C]

Yeah, it's okay. That's all right. Hey, there's tons and tons of takes on coffee and then you blend coffee with business and it's fascinating.

[D]

But I will add one thing though, because I go to the coffee shops with colleague drink, I think cappuccino, if nothing. But the experience of Starbucks as a coffee shop I definitely agree with Anthony is not for me. It's not for me. It's not good. Okay.

[C]

Yeah, fair enough. And it's been evolving. It's been evolving to be fair. All right, so we'll have to leave it there. We're keeping our finger on the pulse. It's fascinating to watch their continued efforts to turning the business around. All right, I got a couple comments. I'm gonna come back to those good stuff today. Vishal and, and Andrew and others. Let's get to this third story. So speaking of great friends, this is Paul Noble there in the middle, me and him talking. A couple years ago he released a great article, I think, in Forbes and focuses on key takeaways from Gartner Supply Chain Symposium 2026, the gift that Keeps on Giving. I'm going to share a couple nuggets and then Anthony and Una Sierra, look forward to your perspective here. First off, Gartner research shows that 94% of supply chain organizations want to integrate AI into their operations. They want to bring it in, yet only 17% have done so at scale. First question I think it begs is what the heck is wrong with 6% of folks that don't want AI? But that might be a different show. Separately, Paul references a popular keynote at the event and writes that AI agents need supply chain data that is different than the human centric data that has been prevalent for years. AI agents need data that's connected and contextual and continuous. Then one last nugget that I find interesting is a lot, a lot of stuff here. In the article, Paul cites KPMG's new report Risk Management and Resilience Emerge as Key Concern for Supply Chain Leaders. And in that research, 73% of businesses are said to be planning a comprehensive transformation of their supply chain operating model within the next one to three years. That 73% data point is up from only 11% just a year prior. I find that to be very fascinating. It's also One of the common themes that I heard at Gartner that the winners, let's see here. The winners in the current golden age of supply chain tech won't be those with the most AI. Rather it's those that combine a variety of things such as trusted data, faster and more successful decision making and use all of that to create new operating models in supply chain and elsewhere. So there's a lot here. But Anthony, your thoughts?

[E]

Not really sure how to. There's a lot of questions in there. So firstly my point of view is going to come from the enterprise level and the enterprise level it's not going to come from a small business point of view. It's definitely the largest scale and the first one is, you know, AI needs inputs and needs information and if your data's not clean, your data's not consistent, your data doesn't work across the board. Like why, why start implementing AI when the output is so reliant on the input? The first point you talked about was only 17% have had success with with AI programs is we need to think very closely about the reasons why not. And I'm a huge fan of looking at organizational structure and how teams move forward. So at the most basic level, if you want to buy an AI tool, does legal approve it, does security approve it, does it approve it, does procurement approve it? And in the past those teams have been all very, very separate. If you're at a group level or an organization level and you want to implement something incredibly basic from an AI point of view, you have to go across to all those in four individual departments to get approval. That is really hard and takes a long time. Also our organizational structure systems are built very much on a matrix team and you have draw to dotted lines here or they're very, very deep organizations and they're incredibly cumbersome and incredibly slow where AI and technology move very, very fast. So we're putting our teams in this real tension point where they're being asked to use AI, asked to move really fast. The organizational structure or enterprise unit is incredibly slow. So the I was going to be very Australian there for a second, but so the annoyance factor of it is frustrating the team. So all they do is behalf has two hearts.

[C]

Anthony, you point out some really interesting observations there, especially with what I'll call velocity differences in different parts of the organization when we're moving at an overall business velocity which gets faster by the hour. Mudaseer, your thoughts on Anthony's comments or the article in general?

[D]

This is my favorite topic and I speak on this I can speak on for more than an hour. So it's very hard for me to say that what I know based my recent research in two or three minutes. But I'll tell you one very important point. You use the word context, right? So the way what people are using street enterprise data, what they think is okay, we got too much data in ERP systems and other systems like connect with. Let's connect with the large language model and then large language model with some engineering will work and give us the output what we need and inferences and process mapping and data mining. What do we need? It will not work and let me tell you why it will not work. This keyword of business context and that part is important. There's a concept called RAG virtual augmented generation which is almost the basis of what we have built for Sensei. Let me give you a very small example to explain the point I'm making. So you could for example, you got a lot of inventory data or purchase order data. You can drop that Excel file to your cloud or you to your open app or copilot, whatever you're using and they say analyze and give me the forecast, give me the span analysis or give me, you know, change of safety stock. It will do it. It will do a pretty rubbish job. The reason it will do rubbish job for two reasons. It does not have the context of your vertical for pharma, for aerospace, for oil and gas. And secondly, it does not have the expert knowledge, we call it skills in AI like any human engineer you got to train your large language model like a supply chain consultant or the procurement consultant. So that's what we do at sensory, right? You can drop Excel file. We have 187,000 documents we have used using RAG to train the Sensei to think like me like which have a 20 years of experience and therefore the business context gets established and AI makes sense. So the 70% number will not grow faster unless organizations learn how to teach AI that business skills the vertical skills they need for their specific output for the agents. Because agent is nothing but some kind of human who's going to work on input and output as Anthony said.

[C]

I tell you, I for one wish I could think more like Mudasir and Anthony here. So you are operating above my pay grade and we're going to have to have y' all back and we could talk for hours probably on just this last article. But I appreciate Yalls comments and we're going to keep driving because we got a lot more good stuff to get to see. I'M going to bring in Vishal's comment. Just really quick. AI outcomes will only be as good as the underlying data. Governance and data quality need to be strategic priorities, not afterthoughts, man. Vishal's coming on strong here today. Okay, before we dive into this next segment, we're about to learn from Anthony's journey and some of his. His leadership journey as well. But I want to share a resource from our friends at APL Logistics. I love checklists, folks. I love checklists. A good list. Amanda does, too, and she'll probably own up to it here in just a second. Our friends at APL Logistics published a neat read that focuses on 5 signs your supply chain has outgrown how it's managed today. I mean, if you've got the national champion Indiana Hoosiers football team, we can't manage them like a peewee football squad. Right? Well, check out these. That might be a bit of a stretch, but check out these five things. Let us know what you think. And, hey, reach out to our friends at APL Logistics who can help you delight customers and unleash your supply chain's full potential. Okay, Anthony, me and Mudaseer are dying to dive deeper into your perspective and expertise here today, and I want to start on a bit of your background. I touched on your background when I introduced you, but I think it's a lot more important that we expound on that a bit. Would you please share a few anecdotes from your upbringing, especially given its connection to your book Eat the Donkey, why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort, which we're dropping a link to. Tell us about your background, Anthony.

[E]

Yeah, thank you, Scott. I grew up, you know, spending immense amount of time in the Australian Outback. And, you know, we've all seen Instagram and TikTok stories about it. I say generally they're pretty accurate. You grew up in an environment where the nearest store or the nearest gas or petrol station, depending where you are in the world, is like thousands of kilometers or miles away and you really had to plan and make a lot of progress and to consistently move forward. And with the learnings from the outback, the harshness and the loneliness, as I went through my career and moved to some of the larger boardrooms of the world, those lessons really carried over. And those lessons really did me well. There's a lot about independence, there's a lot about stubbornness, but the most important is about progress. And having that sense of progress for me is really, really important. One of the biggest lessons that I don't Think is written in the book. Well, I know I stopped. Written in the book is I remember you as a family. We pulled into a fishing hole or a dam in the outback in the, in the Northern Territory once and dad was setting out camp, set myself and my brother off to go fishing for the night and, and to go fishing for. So we eat food for the night. And with that we, you know, we went and cast a line. The mosquitoes were horrible. They're probably an inch long and they'll be bitten everywhere. And we weren't catching any food. And this is a bit of a problem when you, you try and live off the land as much as possible. And about 30 to 40ft down there was a First nations person who grew up more independent than we were. And he started laughing at us. Not cause we were a couple of white kids that were fishing is because we were fishing entirely the wrong spot. So he dragged us down 30, 40ft. We cast a line first catch, we caught a fish. You know, the usual story after that. But the biggest lesson for me wasn't about the fishing. It wasn't about any. Anything in that direction. It was really about the ability to learn. And you will pick up learning from everybody in life. It doesn't matter who they are. Whether they're a doctor or they're a rocket scientist or they didn't graduate high school. You're guaranteed to learn something from everybody. And that's the one thing that stuck me through my entire life.

[C]

Anthony, I love that. And folks, I want to share, we've shared the book. We're also dropping a link Eat the Donkey why Great Companies Embrace Discomfort. We're going to touch on what he means about that attention capturing title in just a second. But Mudasir, I love his key point he made there because we really can if we're not humble enough to make sure we can learn from everybody from every walk of life no matter what they've done or haven't done their career, then I don't think we're looking at the world. Right. What are your thoughts here?

[D]

No, that's absolutely agree with the story and the sentiment here. Right. And with the again we're talking about technology and AI. What is getting more important here is the human emotional intelligence part of it. I recently heard the story that there's a company called Chewy who basically send a hand painted oil painted picture if the pets pass away because they just want to create emotional connection because that's the only thing we do. And the danger of if you call somebody I think I just recently called Oracle Office for some reason and it was like nine different options. And after that I went to an agent and I'm thinking, I just want to talk to human late, please. Okay. So it's annoying as well. So I think big companies basically, and even small, they need to find a way to create, you know, this human connection because eventually humans buy from humans. Don't give your credit card to AI. You're going to regret it. Yes.

[E]

That chewy story is such an amazing story. How that as a big brand who relies on so much supply chain and, and just in time, supply chain management truly understand that moment that matters of a pet owner. And when your pet passes away, they've realized that that's a big moment for you. And they've realized from a marketing point of view is how to be there for somebody. And it's a phenomenal the way the brand does that.

[D]

I know we're considerate of time. I have to ask this question to Anthony because I think I'm dying. He's a brand let's call champion. He knows how to build brands, big brands, right. So you have to give one advice to let's call it startup owners, right? How to create. And the problem with technology is you have to set technology right. But we just talk about human connections, what they have to do to build that human connection and build the brand along with it.

[C]

So listen, that's an excellent question. I'm going to back up for a second because I think what's important for folks to take Anthony's response to your question is if they understood a little bit more about his, his professional journey because like you said, he's worked for some brand leaders, industry titans. So from that corporate leadership perspective, Anthony, share a little bit more about your background, your current role and to Muda Sears Question if you had one tip for folks out there.

[E]

Yeah. So you're from, from high school and then college and then onto my career. I grew up as a, as a creative person inside, you know, a lot of the world's largest advertising campaigns. And I hope that you've seen some of my work in the past in Super Bowls or Grammys or areas like that. I've been very fortunate. I had a lot of people that have taught me and haven't had a lot of patience. And as I grabbed my career grew and I, and I grew further forward. I ended up moving into Amazon for a long time and from that sort of helping Airbnb reemerge through the pandemic just now really Close to bankruptcy to the point they are now. With that and with the lessons I learned from the Outback and to the largest brands I've really become to appreciate there's only a couple of things that truly matter for a business and that you need to anchor yourself towards. We touched on this a little bit with, with Starbucks earlier. If you think about what Amazon is as a company and we're, we know how big Amazon is, like 1.6 million employees globally. Their anchor point is not about technology. Their anchor point is not about retail supply chain. Their anchor point is not about, you know, AWS and being a great cloud company. They are at their core business wrapped around customer experience. Everything they do evolves around that. And I was so fortunate when I, when I joined Amazon. Our neighbor across the way, Tom, is a remarkable human being and just a great storyteller. He was employee number five at Amazon and he can really tell me the stories of when, you know, Jeff's desk was a door taken off the hinges and how customer experience affected Amazon at that point, when they were just selling books or the off sites that they did to improve the customer ordering system. So it did capture your credit card information because Amazon invented that one click ordering and the capture and the credit card capturing. But it's all based on how do they improve that customer experience. Another example that we know well is, is Kodak. Is what business is Kodak in? Because. Or what were they in? I should say, were they in the film business or were they in the image capturing business? And they optimize towards the film business, but they're really in the image capturing business. The mood is here, going back to your question about what makes, you know, any small founder think about is like at your very base level, the basics of all level, what do you want to be known, famous for? And Airbnb is all about belonging and Amazon is all about customer experience. You know, Starbucks is a coffee shopper experience. Kodak thought they were one business and they were actually were a different business altogether. And I believe that foundation of the core, that one thing you can drill it down to, is really important. And even from a personal point of view, like if you think about yourself outside of your family and your friends, like what's that one thing that you want to hold true to who you are and what makes you strong a company is no different from that. And that's the foundational level, the foundation of what a great company will stand at.

[C]

Like it? All right, so for the sake of time, we're going to be moving Fast mood. A Sir and Anthony moving real fast. We've teased this enough though, because this phrase. Anthony, when I saw information on your book come across in a message to us, I'm like, eat the donkey. What the heck is he talking about? Anthony, tell us more.

[E]

Yeah, so my wife and I and a great friend Nate battled for a long time over this title. And with the title we're talking about foundations as an individual or as a person has been the core theme. And we kept coming back to the fact that as a family there are times when we had to eat donkey to survive and everything was so remote. There's stories wrapped around cattle stations and trying to find food and the only piece of food left is what they feed their dogs. But we had to find food and protein in a way that kept us healthy to make that hard decision so we can go on and do something else. And I believe we're in an environment now where as a big brand and big enterprises and even small ones, we're not willing to make hard decisions anymore. We're not willing to say we make this hard decision now, it's going to be better off serving us down the road later. And even from an Amazon point of view is Amazon will sacrifice short term revenue for long term gain. They will make hard decisions about missing dollars or missing money, so they'll live for longer in the long run. So in the outback we made the huggy eating donkey and it sucked. It does not taste like chicken in any way. But I'm here to tell the story about it today. And a lot of companies will dive into a revenue pool because it's an easy decision or will optimize something because it's an easy decision. But in the long run that easy decision is actually going to put you out of business.

[C]

Well, and that is not an appetizing. There's so many aspects of what you shared that's not very appetizing. Anthony. I'm not throwing stones by the way. I love your humility with how you have taken your upbringing and shared it with folks that are trying to navigate their own challenging times. Anthony. And by the way, my copy is on the way by by Amazon. I wish that in the next week or two mudaser react to what he shared there, especially as we tie it back to the title of the book.

[D]

I think absolutely right. If that is the message, if that's what you want to send is fine. I mean I work for industry 17 years and I think the difference between let's call it agile startup who make Good decisions, hard decisions and grow faster and, and the innovation lacks or the it's lacks from big companies. It's decision latency. They're not making hard decision. They just they got so much data points to make a decision. So by the time they arrive to a decision, the data point they made the decision are already obsolete. Right. And they just can't make that decision and then the whole cycle starts. So they're not just make not making the hard decision, they are not just the decision latency is too big. And that's the same goes for the AI adoption or any change management improvement adoption. Right. If you're going to wait for the 18 months to deploy AI in your company enterprise wise, it's too late. Your competition has already done it there ahead of you 20 years.

[C]

Yep. And, and really it, it, it bites you twice because not only is it late and irrelevant, but you're wasting resources into making a decision that is no longer doesn't even matter. That's excellent point Mir. We got so many questions, so little time. Anthony, I'm interested in a key point. I don't think you've made it yet. I think it came in our pre show conversations where you see AI flattening brands towards sameness. And what I want to ask you is with all the investments that we're making, not just in supply chain but in global business into AI and automation and the like, how can leaders leverage these technologies without optimizing away the very things that make us in terms of our organization, organizations and our cultures and our products unique? Your thoughts, Anthony?

[E]

This is a really great question, so thank you. With AI, there's so many great strengths to it, so have no doubt. I'm a fan of Implementia. The hardest part about AI, especially with media and paid media across the board, is every company is going to have access to the same technology, the same data, the same signals, the same insight, same supply chain. Because you could be tightening up their supply chain all the way through and optimizing it all the way through. Everyone's going to have that same base core information. So we've stick with Starbucks making a bag of coffee for $5 and sell it for $15. Every coffee manufacturer is going to have this same information how to do it, how to make it great. When we talked about Chewy early on, we talked about that moment that matters. And what makes you distinct as a brand is going to be the strongest part. If you go back to the foundation of who you are as a company and as a brand is how do you remain distinct. And the best way to do that is like working out what is your foundation and why you matter. And it's really important to think about that. And I only pull out one other case example, and there's one that all of us should have heard about is what's happened to Nike really since about 2021. Since then they've lost 64% of their market cap. Billions and millions, the tens of billions of dollars have disappeared from Nike's market cap. They brought in a person who is very non sport and non Nike and they moved out of brick and mortar retail. They took retail away, the touchy field of Nike. They moved away from sport, they moved towards faster fashion, they moved towards celebrities and they forgot why they were in business in the first place. And Nike doesn't sell shoes, they don't sell shirts. They sell motivation. At the core of what Nike is, when you look at the original principles that Bill Bellman built, they're a motivational brand and they believe in motivation. They're the ones that help you get out of bed in the morning, lace up your jogging shoes and turn left or turn right or go off to hot yoga or something like that. That's where Nike belongs. And they've forgotten that core, that foundation of who they are.

[C]

Anthony, we could talk about. Nike is a fascinating brand to where, where they've been, where they are and where they're headed. It really is fascinating. Business wise, brand wise, you name it. All right, Mudasir, react really quickly. I've got three more questions. I think maybe 37 more questions for Anthony. React really quick.

[D]

One more example. I would give essential. The point is the example of Costo, right? It's the experience. They lose money on every $1.50, you know, hot dog and the CEO say I'm going to lose millions. But that has not changed because that hot dog or $50, it's not food. It's basically the human connection of their members who comes in and pay the membership fees and the experience. So when they leave the feel good, I save money on the hot dog. Such a small things. And on the count of that, they make billions in the membership. So is the cash already covered? Brilliant example.

[C]

Excellent. You know, me and Amanda can eat there for I think less than nine bucks. I wouldn't suggest doing it every night, folks, but it's a cheap date. All right, so let me ask you this. So you've worked with brands that consistently have reinvented themselves. Anthony, you touched on a couple I think already. What's one of the biggest misconceptions that leaders have about innovation. And, and also in, in this landscape where sure there's there's some very successful transformations. Right. But there's also some. A lot of transformation efforts that fail left and right. Your thoughts, Anthony?

[E]

Yeah, a couple of things and I would hate to be a public CEO at the moment. You're. The housing market is flat, interest rates are really high every quarter you got to report to the market of what's going on. Innovation was not an overnight thing. Innovation is a year process takes a long time and even CIOs, the chief innovation officers, they turn their jobs really quickly. They're not in a job full for a long time, like three to four years. And so with that is like how do you really keep the innovation going through the company? I believe that a great company needs mechanisms and a great company has consistent mechanisms to keep the progress moving forward. And they can take a variety of thoughts. The other one is I'm not a fan of principle. Sorry, not a fan of values. You know, if we, the three of us started the company today, I could probably assume that one value would be assumed best intent or one value of be about building trust. And they're pretty mundane. But when you work out the foundation of your company, I believe that principles hold to your, to your foundation. And values are something that are forced upon people is here's how you should act or here's how you behave. We're telling employees how to act and how to behave and that's not really fair on them either. I'm a big fan of principles that help innovation move forward and Amazon has like 16 or 18 principles that hold them true to their foundations as a company.

[C]

All right, so mudaseer react. I heard a lot about foundational values and how we've got to protect that focus and that adhesion to those foundational values. It's easy. Especially given growth and success and and lots more leaders and team members joining. It's easy for those things to get diluted and that's where some companies will lose their way. But what you hear there from Anthony

[D]

Moody, the values again is a vague text but it's ivorly mold the culture which that's the leader's job right. Is to establish the culture of, of whatever they want to create. So take example of Costco is customer service. They pay more than anybody else to do that. But I'll have a comment on, on innovation and the. And the lack of it. Right. Which Anthony also touched upon. It's down to even the Bigger dilemma, the bigger organization is they don't know. So innovation is basically two, two types. Product driven innovation like Apple, you create something like ipod which people know does not exist and then the iPhone. So that's product. And the second is the problem led innovation. I think companies don't know which one works for them. If you ask any chief engineer officer, you're going to say, oh, I'm going to hear what salespeople say and like but what are you, what's your thinking of? Are you a product driven innovation leader or you are a customer problem driven innovation leader? Lack of clarity is a problem.

[E]

Yeah, go ahead. I remember when Amazon first started printing advertising messages on the outside of the box and it's a really big deal now. It's gone through the minions and it's gone through a lot of Acura and car dealerships and Jeremy and she was the person that really helped drive this forward. She was never held back from doing it. She was encouraged to do it and she had to work out like when people were picking off a line in an Amazon warehouse, at what point the boxes would come through. Is that how they got involved in areas like that? And she did a very stunning job of owning it from all the way through. And with a single threaded leadership that takes it through. But the problem with a lot of innovation now, especially with AI, there's too many leaders trying to own it. And when you don't have that single threaded leadership and the org structure is not right and therefore the culture is not ripe because I don't know who I report to this week, nothing's going to move forward.

[C]

I'll tell you what, we could have three or four more hours and still be scratching the tip of the iceberg on some of these topics. Let's do this. I want to make sure we get a practical starting point for folks out there, Anthony, folks that are willing to lean into one of your key messages here today. Leaning into that strategic discomfort that really drives the book, drives your perspective, it drives success of what you've seen firsthand in industry. Where can these folks start? Maybe they've been sticking in their comfortability lanes, but now they're ready to lean into the uncomfortability. Where can they start?

[E]

So there's a. We're speaking about Org. So I'm going to stick with Org for a second is I'm a big fan of restacking a team every 12 months and I'm not talking about rolling people out, I'm not talking about anything like that. I'm Talking about asking people to do a slightly different job or do their job in a slightly different way than before. And that little bit of restlessness is a little bit of learning. And. And it's like, it's like me fisher fishing in a fishing hole or a dam. It's like I had to learn to do it a different way and read something a different way and read the water a different way. And I and restacking a team is very similar to that. From a creative point of view. There's generally like three types of creative. There's a designer, there's an art director and it's a writer. And quite often a writer might do a bit of art direction or a designer might do a bit of writing. And it's a great way to shake things up a little bit. And I would say the same. If someone is in it, could they do a procurement job just to learn a little bit. It helps open up their mind. And I'm a huge fan of those little restacks that make a big difference.

[C]

Anthony, that's very practical. I love that advice. Very practical. I completely agree with it. Mudasir, you're shaking your head. Would you agree with his advice there?

[D]

100% agree. And I double down on this drive by this the adoption slope is change management and okay, Adkar is one of the famous change management philosophy. It's awareness, desire, knowledge. I'm running a learning platform for last four and a half years and I can tell you this, there is 100 times more money available for the technology but literally no money available for awareness, desire and knowledge. And actually that needs to happen first if you want ROI on your $100 million.

[C]

Well said. Lots of actionable advice from both of y' all here today. Maybe y' all need to hit the road, take it on. Have a global road show with Mudasir and Anthony. We'll see as we start to wrap the conversation. I want to again encourage folks, check out Eat the Donkey why great companies embrace discomfort. Look at that quote up at the top. It comes from Rob Schwarz. He says quote, a manifesto against average. Read it at your own risk in quote. That is quite an endorsement. So folks, go check it out. All right. Really quick. Also one other thing to check out and encourage folks. We start a new blog post series with our friends at Journal of Business Logistics. They basically have taken big research papers and have bowled it down into bite sized chunks that we're calling the manager's cut. So go check out the first one in this series when safety technologies backfire how can managers prevent it all? So go check that out, folks, at the resource hub. All right. I want to make sure folks know how to connect with you both, of course, you folks, you know how, how to get the book. You also know how to tap into Mudaseer's powerful Sensei platform. We've included links for both of that. Anthony, I know you're doing keynotes left and right. You're in demand, my friend. That's a good, good way to be. But folks want to reach out to you questions about the book or they want to interview you or set you up for a keynote at their event, you name it. How can folks track you down?

[D]

Anthony?

[E]

Thanks, Scott.

[D]

There's.

[E]

There's really two ways. One is I'm, I'm very active on, on LinkedIn. So that's a very simple and straightforward Broadway or Anthony reeves co. I said.conor.com I hesitated too long and someone else told dot com. So Anthony Reeves co is also another great way to reach out to me.

[C]

Outstanding. Appreciate that. And Trisha's gonna be dropping these links right there. And Dr. Mudasir Ahmed, I'll tell you what, it's a pleasure to collaborate with you. It's great to see you in person in Chicago at the Project 44 event and prior to that at Manifest, I think briefly manifest, but really quick, Anthony. And to everyone out there, I interviewed a dozen folks or so, business leaders, supply chain leaders in Chicago and they all sat in on Mudaseer's certification training. I think it was all focused on, on AI. And I'm telling you, Mooseer, to a person, they were raving about what they received and what you delivered. So for whatever that's worth, that, that carries a lot of weight with me. So keep up the great work. How can folks track you down?

[D]

Thank you very much for the endorsement. You send me a personal email that means a lot in showing to all my, my friends and family. Thank you very much. As I said, you are the real OG influencer. So an email, right? So just like LinkedIn, I'm the most active there, so just Google it, Dr. Mudasirama, you'll find me. Send me a DMA. I'll take a lot of time replying or just drop me an email at Mudasir, my first [e-mail] outstanding.

[C]

And folks, Trisha's had her hands full. We've got Mudaseer's LinkedIn right there. We've got Anthony's URL, Anthony Reeves Co right there. We also have Anthony on LinkedIn and we also have the again the link. Go check out Sensei. Give it a spin. Give Muda Seer some feedback. Feedback is a blessing, folks. Feedback is a blessing. All right, want to thank everybody again. Anthony Reeves, VP global brand and creative at Kohler, also a published author. Go get your copy of Eat the Donkey. Thanks for being here, Anthony.

[D]

Thank you.

[E]

Scott Mudir. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much.

[D]

Pleasure.

[C]

Back soon and my fantastic co host. I'll tell you, we need a couple hours with Dr. Mudasir Ahmed who's doing some really cool things at SCM Dojo. Thanks for being here, Mudasir.

[D]

Thank you for being, you know, inviting me. It's lovely to be with you, especially Anthony. Very impressive. Thank you very much.

[C]

Big thanks to our friends APL logistics folks. Be sure to connect with [e-mail] of course. Also, big thanks to man and Trisha behind the scenes for helping us with all the production out there. Most importantly, a big thanks to our global audience for being here with us. I know we could hit everybody's comment question, but really, y' all keep it coming, folks. You know your homework and Anthony and Mudasir brought it here today. Take just one thing, you can take two, great three, even better. But take one thing you heard here today from Anthony and Mudasir. Share it with your team, put it into practice, do something with it. These not words. That's how we're going to keep transforming global supply chain, global business and leave no one behind. And with that said, on behalf of the entire Supply Chain now team Scott Luton, 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.

[B]

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