Supply Chain Now: The Buzz – Navigating the Complexities of Cold Chain Logistics
Episode Date: October 24, 2025
Hosts: Scott Lewton (A), Tandria Bellamy (B)
Featured Guest: Ilia Preston (C), Co-founder & CEO, Pacsafe
Episode Overview
This lively episode of "The Buzz" dives deep into cold chain logistics—a sector experiencing explosive growth and transformation. Hosts Scott Lewton and Tandria Bellamy welcome Ilia Preston, CEO and co-founder of Pacsafe, for a wide-ranging conversation touching on cybersecurity, warehousing trends, the ongoing impact of global trade wars and tariffs, tech alignment between CIOs and CEOs, and the unique orchestration challenges of the cold chain sector.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Cybersecurity in Supply Chain
[03:12 – 06:36]
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Trends: Average weekly cyberattacks on organizations have more than doubled in four years, yet cybersecurity budget growth is declining—from 17% in 2022 to just 4% this year.
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Industry Reaction: Hosts express confusion and concern over reduced cyber budgeting despite rising risk.
- Quote: "It just is illogical for that. It's like safety. If you're going to ignore it, you're going to have a significant event that could have serious repercussions for your organization." – Tandria Bellamy [04:24]
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Active Listening in Coaching:
- Emphasis on leaders developing active listening to coach through questioning, fostering mentee self-discovery and more complete understanding.
- Quote: "You have to be patient to actively listen. To actively listen. You may have to ask the same question three or four times to see do they really understand what you're asking." – Tandria Bellamy [08:42]
2. Leadership & Coaching Best Practices
[06:09 – 09:11]
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Patience: Coaches need patience; not everyone learns at the same pace.
- Quote: "Coaches that are patient, he put above all others." – Scott Lewton summarizing a lesson from a pilot training channel [07:48]
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Active Listening & Self-Discovery: Encourage mentees to arrive at their own conclusions through skilled questioning.
3. Industry Case Study: Navigating Tariffs and Trade Wars
[15:34 – 18:49]
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Lovesac's Four-Step Tariff Plan:
- Renegotiating supplier agreements
- Shifting production out of China (target: down to 13–14% by Feb 2026)
- Price increases for customers
- Cost cutting as the last measure
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Guest Insight:
- Quote: "As a recovering management consultant, I would say the playbook looks familiar. Right. Raise pricing, lower costs." – Ilia Preston [16:25]
- Manufacturing is shifting to neighboring countries but large-scale near/onshoring back to the U.S. remains limited.
- Life sciences sector focuses cost reduction by moving from air to ocean, optimizing packaging, and holding suppliers to SLAs.
- Increased use of rail and warehouse automation, alongside investments in visibility.
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Memorable Moment:
- Quote: "The biggest surprise for me was that cost cutting was the last leg of the strategy." – Tandria Bellamy [18:57]
- Hasty cost cutting can backfire if not informed by a thorough understanding of dependencies.
4. Warehousing & Real Estate Recovery
[21:19 – 23:12]
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Warehouse vacancy rates in the U.S. at a stable 7.1%—the first non-increase in three years, signaling a turnaround post-slump.
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Factors: Ongoing tariff uncertainty, seasonality (holidays), companies shoring up capacity, slight rebound in demand.
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Quote: "It mirrors some of the broader economic trends and lagging indicators. No surprises." – Ilia Preston [21:28]
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Inventory Question: Is warehouse demand up from consumer spending or from precautionary stockpiling?
- "If inventory levels remain the same and warehouse demand increases, that means that consumer spending is moving in the right direction..." – Tandria Bellamy [22:40]
5. CEO-CIO Alignment Challenges
[23:12 – 27:29]
- Cite: 2 in 5 CIOs claim internal clashes with CEOs over IT budget allocation; 36% say businesses invest adequately in IT modernization.
- 1/3 CIOs aren’t sure what their CEO expects—a sign of poor internal communication.
- Quote: "If you’re in procurement you’re optimizing for cost. If you’re in quality, you’re optimizing for zero defects... At large organizations, you have competing priorities." – Ilia Preston [24:58]
- Hosts bemoan the persistence of organizational silos.
6. The Cold Chain Industry: Trends, Challenges, and the Need for Orchestration
[28:55 – 39:45]
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Market Growth: From $380B (2024) to projected $2.2T (2034); driven by demand for fresh/frozen foods, pharma logistics, aging populations, e-commerce grocery, and stricter regulatory temps.
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Shifting Priorities:
- From “visibility” (just seeing where your product is) to orchestration (synchronizing labor, transportation, quality decisions).
- Quote: "People want a more agnostic kind of software solution where they don’t need to train their employees on 10 different platforms ... All of that data is fragmented." – Ilia Preston [28:55]
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Consolidation & Integration: Companies desire unified platforms that can manage and integrate disparate data (IoT, real-time devices, packaging, carriers) into a seamless user experience.
- Quote: "You can't keep doing the same things over and over again and expect to get a different result. You truly have to understand the nuances of the problem in Cold Chain." – Ilia Preston [38:56]
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Food Safety & Recalls:
- Heightened food recalls drive demand for orchestration solutions.
- Real-time, integrated data improves compliance, insurance, product safety, and root cause analysis.
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Memorable Moment:
- Quote: "Orchestration isn't about watching shipments, it's about continuously improving the entire life cycle." – Ilia Preston [36:12]
7. Pacsafe’s Role and Innovations in Cold Chain
[40:21 – 43:32]
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What Pacsafe Does:
- Logistics orchestration and decision intelligence for temperature-controlled logistics.
- Eliminates data silos.
- Digitizes and automates workflows like lane qualification, exception management, temperature/product release (GXP validated).
- AI-powered support for analysis, real-time alerts, and decision recommendations.
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What's Next:
- Rolling out agentic (AI-driven) workflow solutions, enabling highly specialized, automated task management within existing customer workflows.
- Quote: "Because we are deeply ingrained into these organizations existing workflows ... these agents ... are going to be highly, highly effective." – Ilia Preston [42:53]
8. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On Active Listening in Coaching:
- "You have to be patient to actively listen..." – Tandria Bellamy [08:42]
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On Tariff Mitigation:
- "The playbook looks familiar. Right. Raise pricing, lower costs." – Ilia Preston [16:25]
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On Unifying Software:
- "Now people want a more agnostic kind of software solution where they don't need to train their employees on 10 different platforms." – Ilia Preston [28:55]
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On Orchestration's Purpose:
- "Orchestration isn't about watching shipments, it's about continuously improving the entire life cycle." – Ilia Preston [36:12]
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On Cold Chain's Uniqueness:
- "Not only can you not do the same things you've always done, you can't do the same things that are done in other transportation chains..." – Tandria Bellamy [39:11]
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On Data Integration:
- "Once again, data wins." – Tandria Bellamy [43:32]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- Cybersecurity in Supply Chain: [03:12 – 06:36]
- Leadership & Coaching Best Practices: [06:09 – 09:11]
- Tariffs/Trade War Response: [15:34 – 18:49]
- Warehouse Real Estate Trends: [21:19 – 23:12]
- CEO-CIO Alignment & IT Modernization: [23:12 – 27:29]
- Cold Chain Market Growth & Trends: [28:55 – 39:45]
- Pacsafe’s Solutions & Innovations: [40:21 – 43:32]
How to Connect
Episode Takeaways
- Cold Chain complexity is growing: Demand for seamless orchestration and actionable, integrated data solutions is at an all-time high.
- Data integration is critical: Success in modern logistics comes from tearing down data silos and embracing unified, interoperable systems.
- Coaching and leadership:
- Active listening and patience are vital.
- Organizational alignment—from C-suite to operations—is non-negotiable.
- Innovation pace means old playbooks need refreshing or replacing—especially in sensitive sectors like life sciences and cold chain logistics.
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