← Supply Chain Now
Supply Chain Now
The Buzz: Procurement Innovation, Logistics Power Plays, and Leading Through Change
00:48:19
Loading summary
Transcript93 lines
- [00:02]
A
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.
- [00:11]
B
From across the globe.
- [00:12]
A
One conversation at a time.
- [00:15]
B
Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Luton and the one and only Kim Reuter here with you on Supply Chain now. Welcome to today's Live Stream. Kim, how you doing today?
- [00:25]
C
I'm doing great. How are you?
- [00:26]
B
Wonderful. What's great to see you. I know you've been busy on a lot of different things which we're going to get into later in the show. But I got one quick check in. We're both comparing pre show some of our childhood memories when it comes to a little bit of snow we're getting in South Carolina and Virginia. How cold is it in your neck of the woods right now?
- [00:43]
C
It's pretty cold. It got cold last night. We got just a touch of snow yesterday, which, you know, I'm super excited about. But we're like in the 20s, 30s right now. Typical Virginia weather. But on the coast we don't get the snow like we used to.
- [00:54]
B
And I'm good with that. We don't either. We avoided the snow here in Georgia this weekend. But I'm good with brisk weather. I'm going to enjoy it because that oven weather in July is going to be here before we know it. So I'm going to enjoy all of these brisker days. But folks, we got a lot to get into here today. Folks. You know it's the Buzz where every Monday at 12 noon Eastern time, we discuss a variety of news and developments and weather across global supply chain business news that matters is what we like to call it. And as Kim knows, the Buzz is powered by our friends at EPG who is a leading global provider of a wide range of supply chain technology Solutions. In fact, EPG over a thousand team members across 23 locations worldwide, serving some 1600 customers, some of your favorite brands. You can learn more about how your organization can benefit from smarter connected logistics@epg.com so Ken, big show here today. Of course, it's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the States. We're going to be celebrating his leadership and extraordinary legacy here. In just a minute we're going to be touching on shifts that UPS continues to make. We're going to take a look at how turnover is plaguing supply chain leadership. We're talking procurement today, including what AI is doing to drive innovation as well as priorities that procurement leaders will have in this year and beyond all of that and much, much more. And Kim, in about 12 minutes or so, we're bringing in a special guest. Scott McPhee, CEO of Spend HQ, is here with us on the Buzz. You're going to enjoy his perspective today. So, Kim, did you eat your Wheaties? Did you take your vitamin B12? Whatever you need. Are you ready to go today?
- [02:24]
C
I'm ready to go. I've taken my zinc to help me fight the flu. And so we're ready.
- [02:29]
B
Outstanding. Outstanding. Folks. Stay tuned for a big addition to the Buzz by our friends at epg. Hey, really quick, let's see. Trisha, Happy Buzz Day. Say hello and let us know where you're tuned in from. Trisha, thanks for all your great support. She's also dropped a link to EPG here. C Ham is back with us in Delaware, tuning in for the Buzz. And she is in snow. Well, Sam, let us know what you do. Your favorite activities in the snow. You might be a skier, you may not be a skier. You may go truck tailgate, inner tubing like we did back when I was a kid. But great to have you regardless. So, Kim, before Scott McPhee joins us here today, I want to tackle three quick things on the front end. And we're going to start by sharing our almost weekly newsletter. With that said and the addition that dropped over the weekend, of course, we let off with MLK Day, including this great quote from Dr. King. I love this quote. Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. Man, I love that. So very true. And by the way, Kim, that image we used, we took that snapshot when the family went up to a DC a couple years ago. And look, the contrast between that new MLK memorial and that picturesque blue sky is captivating, huh? But folks, check it out. Let's see what else we tackled in. With that said, got some great feedback from our incredible SCN Global fam. We got resources from leading organizations such as easypost, Sayari, and US Bank. We even touched on Kim the Artemis mission because you know, I'm a big old space nerd, right, Kim, we've talked about that, right?
- [03:55]
C
That's what I clued in on, too.
- [03:56]
B
Really Well, I want to get your take, but really quick, folks, find our live event for the upcoming week. And with that said, so check it out. We're dropping a link to it right there in the chat. So, Kim, you said you keyed in on the we were talking space supply chain and kind of comparing and contrasting the rocket sizes, right? But Kim, what stood out to you.
- [04:16]
C
You know, I'm always looking for the next greatest challenge in supply chain, Right. I love solving supply chain problems. And so if we do put a permanent residence in space, they're going to need stuff on the regular. And so all of these things that we think about that are very at our fingertips that are around, you know, toilet paper, everyday necessities, there is going to have to be a really robust supply chain behind that because it's not running to the store, right? It's not. I got to run out and get it. We're looking at like two eternity time just to get the basics. So that's super interesting on how you're going to be able to do that. Of course, there's also a high fail rate, so probably the next biggest supply chain challenge is right there.
- [04:55]
B
Yeah, Kim, excellent perspective. And who knows, it'll probably make our terrestrial supply chain challenges be a lot more simple. But stay tuned, folks. We're going to be launching a space supply chain special podcast. So get ready as we dive into it. And hey, we're embracing the inner nerd. Inner space nerd. That's how that works. Yes. Again, Trisha dropped the link, y'. All. Check it out. Give us your take on anything. And with that said, we welcome it. And hey, Chris Thornton Jr. Great to see you, Christopher. It's been a while. Let us know where you are in the world today and we look forward to your comments on any topics we're talking about. Hey, one quick thing, Ken, before I know I want to talk about UPS and Amazon with you, but I want to include one more thing because we've added a new wrinkle too. With that said, we're really excited to collaborate more and more with one of my favorite nonprofits out there, and that's the team at American Logistics Aid Network. That acronym, the Allen Team, connects nonprofit organizations responding to disasters with the logistics, expertise and resources of the private sector. We invite you to learn more about open cases and projects and find out where your support can be used. And we also in the newsletter, each week we're trying to share to their top priorities where they need help. So check it out and give the Allen team a call. So Kim, I love your podcast and I really enjoy reading your various supply chain, leadership and business takes on LinkedIn. I really do. I get a kick out of it. Now, last week I was reading your take on a topic that it's been evolving for quite some time, but I loved your perspective on the UPS and Amazon relationship as it continues to ebb and Flow, of course most folks are tracking. UPS continues to reconfigure its network related on those big shifts and continuing shifts in volumes. But I think you have unique perspective given your time at Amazon and I would love to get you just to weigh in a few observations on the UPS and Amazon relationship as it has continued to evolve.
- [06:40]
C
As it's continued to evolve. You know, I was with Amazon when UPS held all the cards, right? So when they were the 600 pound gorilla where they were dictating how things were going to run, they were dictating what we could and couldn't do. And Amazon as it back then even more so does not accept no for an answer. And so this really started was the beginning of Amazon's diversification of carriers, leaning more on USTs, bringing them in as an alternate solution. And then eventually Amazon just created their own delivery network in order to work around basically the shortcomings of the commercial carriers that were in the market. No one can service Amazon the way that they need to be serviced from a logistics perspective today. But these early conversations with UPS really shaped what we see today in the market. And we went from UPS being the 600 pound gorilla to Amazon being the 600 pound gorilla and Amazon being the tail that was wagging the dog versus vice versa. And UPS had to evolve. I don't know if you guys all remember, but UPS didn't always do Saturday delivery. Right. That was actually a union requirement not to do Saturday delivery and they had to in order to keep the Amazon business and stay relevant. So that's an example of when you have a company that's over 50% of your volume, how they impact how you do business.
- [07:54]
B
Yeah.
- [07:55]
C
And so over time UPS figured they were optimized for Amazon, not optimized for themselves. And now we see UPS pulling back and trying to reconfigure, focusing on smaller businesses. They're trying to get actual, you know, small DTC customers now versus like you're not working with the big ones, not exclusively, but they are shifting how they move around and that's directly an impact from Amazon.
- [08:16]
B
Yeah, we could be here for hours. I bet you got some stories that we probably couldn't share all publicly. But one thing you shared there is an important, not just supply chain lesson, but life lesson you shared, and I'm a paraphrase, UPS found out they were optimized for Amazon and not optimize for themselves. Folks, we've all probably been there with some of the big customers that we have served and you got to constantly manage that Right. Because while we want to knock it out of the park for all of our customers, if we pay too close attention to just one, we could lose a lot of many others and stunt growth or create more complexity and other challenges. So, Kim, look forward to when the book comes out on all you could share there. But thanks for commenting on this relationship that continues to evolve. So let's see here. I'm about to introduce our special guest here today, but I want to call out just a couple of things. Tricia shared the link to Allen, right? The American Logistics Aid Network. Check that out. See him says, hey, I'm a child with snow made a tiny castle with neighborhood kids. Okay. And she commented on what you were just sharing there. Interesting to a set note. And sometimes as the famous founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, you know, he had a famous quote there around one of the most important things he learned to do is to say no. And I think we can all learn that, whether it's the customers, partners, suppliers, you name it. All right, so Kim, I am excited about our wonderful guest we got here today on the Buzz. Powered by EPG. Folks, you're going to enjoy. Scott McPhee is the CEO of SpendHQ, the leading provider of enterprise spend intelligence and procurement performance management solutions. Now, he brings more than two decades of experience leading technology companies and he's passionate about transforming procurement into a strategic data driven powerhouse. It's music to my ears. He's also a leading advocate for finance and procurement leaders to unlock their full potential by working from a shared understanding of value. I want to welcome in Scott McPhee, CEO of Spend HQ. Hey. Hey, Scott. How are you doing today?
- [10:06]
D
I'm doing well. Good to see you, Scott. Good to see you, Kim.
- [10:10]
B
Great.
- [10:10]
C
Hi, how are you?
- [10:11]
B
Great to see you. Did you see me there, Scott? Where I was asking if Kim had her wheaties in her B12 and I need to take more ginkgo biloba so I can recognize transformative business leaders. The good old memory. But it's great to see you here today and we want to do this. It is of course a very special day here in the States. MLK Day. It's one of my favorite shots, man, there on the in our nation's capital. What a great day to reflect not just today, but year round on what we do as humans, humans and leaders and in our businesses and our communities. But I want to start with a little question for you both here. Scott, with MLK Day as a backdrop, what's one element Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's approach to leadership that is important for all leaders to understand and model today. Scott, what comes to mind?
- [10:52]
D
Mlk what an inspirational leader. I think something that comes to mind here is really that if you have done any reading about him or watched any of the documentaries or had any exposure as he was leading his movement, he always continued consistently, kind of framed what that future state journey was going to look like for those individuals. And it was all about justice, dignity and equality. And despite any setbacks along the way and along the journey, he always reminded people that change and progress is slow, but if we're anchored in a vision for the future state, eventually we'll get there. So I think just really appreciating just that consistency of vision and just the inspiration that he led with in leading that movement towards that end goal, justice, dignity and equality for all.
- [11:42]
B
Scott Love it. Very poetic there. Your comments you shared. Ken, what comes to your mind in terms of leadership lessons we can learn from his credible legacy?
- [11:49]
C
You know, the best leaders and the biggest leaders I've worked with in the past, my favorites are always the ones who are able to pull out the uncomfortable truth and actually talk about it and not hide it, not try to pretend it didn't happen, but really pull that out for the group to look at and say, yeah, this is not attractive. We didn't want this to happen. This isn't our ideal state. But how do we move forward? Yeah. And that takes a particular skill set and a lot of courage in order to stand in front of a group of people and tell them that maybe it's not going as well as I think it is.
- [12:18]
B
Yeah. Again, good stuff there from you and Scott. And I'll tell you one thing I would add in terms of things we can learn from Dr. King, you're never too young to step into powerful and consequential leadership roles. I shared some perspective last week and I shared one of my favorite images of Dr. King. Oftentimes we can kind of see the same shots. I share this great shot of him as a father and a husband. And I believe Dr. King was in his mid-20s when he was elected as president of the Montgomery Montgomery Alabama Improvement association, which was one of its first prominent roles that certainly helped shape his fight for civil rights in our country. The boycott in Montgomery, of course, was an early big time event that he helped create and lead. So folks, I'll tell you, in addition to what Scott and Kim said, raise your hand, volunteer, get out of that comfort zone. We can all do more of that, really, no matter where we are in our journey, whether you're just getting started or if you've been in the industry for a while. So we got a lot to get into here today. We could spend hours talking about the incredible journey that Dr. King had in profound impact. But we got a lot of news. We're going to talk about cross global supply chain and the next place I want to go. Scott, we're going to continue talking leadership but a little different of a vein because Gartner research recently published research points to how turnover is impacting supply chain performance. That's kind of obvious, right? We've all known that it's nothing new, but check out some of these stats that they uncovered by interviewing 227 supply chain leaders in June 2025. To get this, 54% of supply chain leaders say that leadership turnover has moderately to completely disrupted their organization's ability to execute over the last three years. The survey also found a few factors that are related to turnover. Let's see here. Less than half of those polled found their company's leadership development programs to be effective. So the other half, not so much. Right? Only 31% found that the path to higher leadership included a work life balance man. Only 37% found that promotion and advancement processes were transparent. And hey, sunlight's good for just about everything. So Scott, again turnover in terms of the challenge it poses to so many organizations out there. Not new, but I found some of the data nuggets were interesting. Your thoughts on the role turnover plays in our supply chain organizations.
- [14:23]
D
As I kind of read through that report, I had the same response you did. It was eye opening and kind of shocking around. Just really what it was highlighting was just kind of the weakness of just a pipeline of future supply chain leaders out there. And so the game's got to change and we are seeing it change slowly but surely out there with more of a focus on the long term development model for supply chain and leaders. So much is changing out there as it relates to technology. There's a whole new set of skills that need to be developed. And much like any role in an organization, it's all about succession planning and kind of understanding what those skills of those future state leaders need to look like. What's in your pipeline now? Where are your gaps and how do you actually set a plan because it's just not going to happen out there. You have to be disciplined and prescriptive around developing your talent for the future of your business. It's a strategic and imperative. And so we work with 400 plus customers out there and we have a select few that are on our advisory board. It's a topic that's often talked when we bring these 12 CPOs together around. Hey, to survive in the new world out there, what do we need to change to build that talent pipeline and to effectively move people through that?
- [15:43]
B
Yep, good stuff there, Scott. And one thing you mentioned that I want to call out, you talked about the new skills, the imperative that the workforce, new skills that it has to have as we continue to get further and further in this golden age of supply chain tech. And you know what? It's incumbent upon leadership to help that workforce develop those skills. And I think that's why one of the things I read, of course, from the survey, Kim, your thoughts on turnover and all the many ways it can wreak havoc on organizations.
- [16:08]
C
Yeah, any turnover in leadership is going to wreak havoc in supply chain. I think it's sort of magnified just because the operations and the complexity of it. But what I see in supply chain leadership is this. We have sort of a transition from old school supply chain leadership, which has traditionally been sort of reactive. Come to me, I don't go to you. Kind of whatever comes down the hill, we're going to manage it sort of management style. And that's sort of how supply chains have been run for a really long time. I've been in this industry for a long time, so I've sat in a lot of those rooms. But today's modern supply chains are requiring supply chain executives that are collaborative, that are creative, that are strategic, that are solving problems before they happen. They're having proactive financial conversations with the other leaders in their organizations. And so what I see is a shift from the old way we used to do supply chain and managing supply chain. Sort of this, you know, leader in the ivory tower that nobody really talks to except, you know, when it's RFP time and then they come out and they do their dinners and their lunches and then they go back in the ivory tower. But now it is more like supply chain leaders need to be in the trenches. They need to be in the trenches with the other departments. Customer service, marketing, procurement. They need to be a part of everything. And that skill set. And I want to focus on this is because when we say that new leaders in supply chain need to develop new skills, right. People almost always say, oh, well, now I have to know how to use AI. The biggest skill that you can develop right now as a supply chain leader is collaboration.
- [17:29]
B
I like it. I might would add one more to that of course we hear a lot and say a lot about demand sensing. Well, hey, we need workforce sensing, right? To counter to your point of the counter. That traditional way that supply chain leadership has approached it. Good stuff there Scott and Kim. And folks, we're dropping as always, we'll drop link to these articles we're tackling right there. So don't take our word for it. Dive in and we'd love to hear your take really quick before I move on to the next story going back to Amazon and ups. Francisco, great to have you here today. Says I work with dhl and we also had to evolve, evolve and reconfigure with Amazon. Hey Francisca, we feel that in our bones. I know Ken does.
- [18:06]
C
Yeah, I did a lot of work with DHL and international stuff. They were a fabulous partner. Fabulous partner. They made a lot of changes.
- [18:13]
B
Well Francisco, great to have you here. Let us know where you're tuned in from. Okay, Scott and Kim, we're going to be talking a lot about procurement here today. Really appreciate the good work Scott and his growing organization is doing. But from our friends at Payments, research from Oracle says that AI can reduce the time to complete basic income and procurement tasks by up to 80%. How about that? Liberating human teams from some of the basic blocking and tackling such as processing purchase orders. And that's a great thing because McKinsey data shows that full time human team members, get this. Are managing up to 50% more spend than they were just five years ago. This article again from our friends at Payments, cites several examples of companies leveraging AI and procurement, including the use of AI supported tools and negotiations with indirect suppliers and leveraging AI to help find a single source of truth in supplier contracts, which can lead to significant savings and operational clarity, which is a powerful, powerful thing. Both are. Now Scott, now I'm sure we could be here for days talking about all the different ways that AI is playing an innovative role in procurement and really beyond what are some of your general thoughts when you read articles like this? What are some of your general thoughts that you're seeing business leaders do out in the marketplace place?
- [19:26]
D
Yeah, fascinating article. And these are conversations we're having day in and day out with our customers. And the only slight change I would make to that article is as opposed to the tagline or the title being May Boost, I would change it to Will Boost because we are seeing it out there in our current base and with the current use cases and workflows. And so whether it's preparation for contract negotiations Whether it's autonomous sourcing, whether it is building out a category management, management plan, these are live things happening right now. And what I find fascinating is there's so much talk out there about, hey, it's going to eliminate procurement roles and jobs. In reality, what we're actually seeing with our customer base is that it is augmenting teams. It's not necessarily replacing teams. And because we're at the early stages of this technology, so it still requires huge human oversight in many cases. So we're seeing it as a significant productivity enhancer or booster at this phase of kind of the adoption cycle that we're in.
- [20:30]
B
Yeah, Scott, good stuff. I hope I never report. You mentioned human oversight. Let's keep it that way, Kim. I don't want to report to a bot anytime soon, but kidding aside, augmentation, that's a common theme we talk about here. Your thoughts, Kim, related to how AI is impacting the world of procurement.
- [20:45]
C
So procurement is one of the most difficult parts of supply chain. You know, I move stuff a lot, but the very beginning of this and procurement, who are we going to buy it from, what we're going to buy, what are the pricing, where the contracts are, all those kind of things, it's very complex. And if there's any place I've said that I think you could apply AI quickly is demand speculation and then also procurement. Because the truth is nobody knows, right? Nobody actually knows how much anybody's going to buy. We can use historical data to try to predict it. We can use historical pricing to figure out what we think our price is going to be. But they're all kind of predictive, right? So these are always places where I thought AI could be useful. Again, as I always say with AI, you got to train it and you got to watch it and you got to continue to train it. It doesn't come smart, it gets smarter. So don't just turn it on and go get a cup of coffee and come back because you will find that it is faster, which means it also makes mistakes faster.
- [21:34]
B
That's right. And folks, Scott and Kim to get perfect illustration of that. I saw Georgia Tech had a staffing change, right? And the coach they brought in, they had a shot of his playing days. I think it's George Gods. He was a Georgia Tech quarterback. I thought I recognized the stadium he was in in the shot. So I went straight to Google and I asked it to, hey, give me Georgia Tech's conference schedule from 2013. I think it was. It did two seconds later. But the AI driven response put Georgia Tech in a different conference. It didn't happen to acc and that's the first time in recent memory because I wasn't asking for the quadratic equation which sounds high flute it may not be but but you know something basic what conference a football team's in. So as Kim mentioned, you got to watch it. And Scott, I'll give you the last word here. We can't just set it and forget it like a good old Ron Papil used to put in his infomercials way back in the day. Constant oversight to make sure we're getting out of it and getting the outcomes and not creating more headaches for our people. Huh?
- [22:27]
D
SC yeah, absolutely. It starts at the front end too around having the right foundation of data because garbage in, garbage out and it does require at this current phase of where we're at with the technology requires that monitoring and that volition.
- [22:42]
B
Good stuff. And again Trisha dropped a link to that article there and see him. Great call out here. Kim, you mentioned the importance of collaboration earlier. Sam says amazing that collaboration has to be highlighted as if anyone can do this work alone and it is frustrating CM when we find the those that don't like to collaborate. When I said that I bet we all a few images popped up maybe between our ears. So Scott, enjoyed reading an interview that you had not too long ago. Shippers are leaning on not just AI that we're just talking about, but many other things as they navigate elevated pricing from the good old United States Postal Service, which rolled out a variety of pricing increases for 2026, which I think kicked in yesterday. I believe you were interviewed by Procurement Magazine on how shippers can be ready to successfully navigate these increases. And we're going to drop the link to the full interview right there in the ch. But Scott, what are some initial thoughts key things that shippers gotta be considering in light of these cost increases or others?
- [23:36]
D
Well the good news on this one is we actually got a heads up it was coming so we were able to as shippers get out in front of it and prepare for the change. So there's nothing like getting surprised out there by kind of hidden increases in pricing. But in this case we had the opportunity to tackle that upfront and so no one should be getting surprised by kind of the hidden past there's of these costs. And so the key to navigating this is really understanding the underlying data and most have it at a surface level. But getting down to that line item level detail is really critical to Kim's point to be able to model it and forecast it out so you can plan accordingly. And so with our base and what we're seeing out there is those that have a heavy presence with the U.S. postal Service, they took the proactive steps to actually really dig into that data and start to do some forecasting so they could navigate this increase accordingly.
- [24:32]
B
Two things there from what Scott shared Kim. Number one, hey, at least it's a silver lining that we get a heads up. You know, a lot of problems are just dropped in our labs. Right. And number two, as he was calling out your perspective, we got to go deeper. Can't stay at surface level. Your thoughts. So Kim, on navigating all these increasing costs for shippers.
- [24:50]
C
So I think the USPS thing took people by surprise because USPS doesn't up the rates on a regular basis basis as is like FedEx and UPS where it's almost like an annual. But just be honest. Like USPS has been losing money for a long time. Every year they're most close to bankruptcy. We don't know what's going to happen with them. But their business has changed dramatically. I live in a very rural location. I have to pick up a lot of my packages at the post office. So it's a very intimate relationship with my post office. And 20 years ago they delivered bills, right? Ladders, little things that went in a bag, right. 80% of their business now is is Amazon packages and they were not set up for that. They don't have post offices for that. They don't have distribution centers for that. My poor ladies at the post office are like up to the eyeballs and Amazon packages or tripping over them. So this had to happen. How do you navigate it? Exactly what we just said. Get real deep on what the requirements are. There are some little niches in there that you might be able to take advantage of, but you're probably going to have to go back and look at.
- [25:44]
B
All your carriers riches and the niches could have been there, done that advice. And I tell you, if you say 80% is Amazon packages, the other 20% are credit card offers or other junk.
- [25:53]
C
Mail that's off the cuff. Don't quote me on that. I'm sure people are out there like is it truly 80% is dang close. But yeah, they have really changed how they do business. It's no longer the postal service, it's the United States Courier Service is really what it is now.
- [26:06]
B
That's a great point because there are some big decisions that hopefully sooner rather than later that we've got to come to grips with. We've discussed the role. When the USPS was formed forever ago, of course, society was a lot different and to your point, gosh, they've been in the red for a long time. The red gets deeper and deeper. We're gonna maybe reinvent perhaps USPS role.
- [26:26]
D
We'll see though, for anybody that's a history buff, next time you're in Washington D.C. go to the USPS museum. It's actually phenomenal to see the entire history collection of stamps and just kind of the evolution of the Postal Service over time.
- [26:41]
B
Outstanding.
- [26:42]
C
Part of the pony express.
- [26:43]
B
That's right. It's a fascinating. And by the way, that's the best part about dc. All the different museums and resource centers, a lot of them are free to go to. So folks, if you hadn't taken your family to D.C. lately, make sure you do. All right. I bet this is Amanda is my hunch. Amanda says Kim. I think about that every time I go to the post office to send my Amazon returns. It's about the only time I'm ever in the post office. Despite my best efforts. The limit returns. That's a whole different show. A lot of good stuff. Scott we're about to get into a segment. We're gonna learn more about Spend HQ and learn about some of the big moves you are making. But before we go there, I want to share this big news from our friends at epg. The innovative supply chain technology leader is announcing new AI driven logistics solutions which are powered by a very familiar name, NVID AI infrastructure and EPG's deep human logistics expertise. The company has also introduced its new supply chain execution AI environment called EPG Aura. These new rollouts will help organizations optimize decision making, stability, resilience, service and speed. All this points to, I think, an exciting new chapter at epg. Whereas they're going to tell you they're on a mission to set the pace for the logistics of the future, you can learn more about EPG and this innovation via the the link in the chat. Really good stuff there. Scott McPhee, we're going to dive more into what you and your team have been doing here on the buzz for January 19th. Gosh, 19th, 2026. So let's start with some level setting, if you would, for the three people out there that may not know Spend hq. Tell us briefly what organization does.
- [28:11]
D
Sure. So we're the strategic execution layer for procurement and really what we focus on is enterprise spend data and taking that and driving driving insights and the actions and ultimately the value for organizations from that data. So it's kind of a full stack platform, starting with messy enterprise spend data that, based on data we've processed, generates insights. Those insights convert into actual initiatives in action. We track and manage those, ultimately delivering results. And so we work with 400 plus customers out there. Over the life of the business, We've processed over 10 trillion in spend. About 1.2 trillion a year flows to the platform. Last year alone, we had about 290,000 procurement initiatives slash projects managed on the platform, resulting in close to about 17 billion in savings. So it's really all about taking data and delivering value out of that data.
- [29:08]
B
All right, so Kim, one of the things I heard there from Scott and can you imagine insights they garner from 10 trillion in transactions over the lifetime of the company? But if you want to dive in deep, especially in a very fast, complex environment, you got to have the right tools. And one of the things I heard there from Scott is how Spend HQ empowers their customers to dive deep on the right things. We should be looking at not all the noises out there, but what'd you hear there, Kim?
- [29:32]
C
So getting the signal out of the noise is crucial in procurement because you will be chasing down the wrong things. I see a lot of people do this, right? They're not zeroed in on what the specific things are driving up their cost or creating unpredictability in their supply chains. And they start to do these big sort of swath improvements that are kind of peanut buttered across a bunch of things. And they don't actually get down to the actual root cause of what the actual problem was. You know, and a great example of this is paying for like expedited shipping because you're going to be out of stock. But what the actual problem was was that your analytics poorly predicted when you were possibly going to sell out of this product because it didn't take into account a weather event or a sales event or something that spurred an increase in sales. And so as a result, you end up going out of stock or potentially going to stock. And now we're paying for extra shipping. And when someone looks at that, you go, well, we should have never paid for extra shipping, but then actually go down to what actually cost. Pause the extra shipping in the beginning.
- [30:28]
B
Kim. Love that. And Corinne Bursa shared the same peanut buttering analogy to it last week. I'm gonna steal it from y' all both. A great point. When I was in the manufacturing world, gosh, expedited shipping, anything, any mode was expensive. Nothing's changed. And to your point, if we don't get down to root cause, guess what folks, the bad news is going to happen again and again and again. And it's not just the dollars which is important, but it's a headaches on our people, right? Let's make life easier for them. Scott Good stuff. Now that we kind of better understand what Spend HQ does, you' some big news too because in recent months your organization made a strategic investment in a company known as Sligo AI. So if you would tell us more about the startup and what prompted the investment.
- [31:09]
D
Sure. So Sligo AI is really the first creator of a purpose built agentic enterprise procurement platform. So it's really about with the advent of AI, how do you quickly establish and build a agents to leverage the value of the data that procurement organizations hold. So unlike a number of AI solutions, it's really purpose built and grounded in the context of that organization's procurement data and then the organizational and operational context. And so what was really exciting for us at SpendHQ was we sit on this huge amount of data that we just talked about. We're processing a large amount foundational element of our our business is all about enterprise spend data. So how do we accelerate unlocking the insights? We've been utilizing AI in our platform since the launch of the business around the optimization, the classification, normalization, categorization, et cetera and then elements to drive insights. But now with this mass amount of data in a secure scalable fashion, how could we go faster on the performance management side and on the spend side to unlock more insights and more values for our customer. And so what Sligo provided us was really the ability to accelerate our journey with a purpose built platform that's simple and easy to use to stand up new agents, whether it's category management agent, it's a sourcing agent, it's RFX agent connected in a secure manner with all the proper kind of AR required governance and surround it.
- [32:44]
B
Kim One of the things I heard there, this big move general themes is we can't just go faster for faster sake. We got to increase velocity and success and our ability to do both at the same time here in this incredible age we're living in. Your quick thoughts what you heard there.
- [32:59]
C
From Scott this was a great investment because what people don't realize is that artificial intelligence has to be educated. And last number I heard I with Google's Gemini I think the last number I heard was 30 billion. It's probably higher than that now that they started Spent just educating the AI. So by partnering with Sligo, they were able to get the best of both worlds. Right. We can take a lot of this industry expertise and practice and leveraging that with an already educated lot of data, lot of intelligence AI engine versus trying to build it on your own, which is going to take forever.
- [33:31]
B
Yep. This an age old discussion. Do it internally or outsource it. Well folks, if you're going to do it internally, got to make sure you got the skills and the resources and know how. Otherwise, goodness gracious, you could burn a lot of emotional intelligence individual business maybe.
- [33:45]
C
Burn up a lot of money too.
- [33:47]
B
That's right, no doubt. Folks, Trisha dropped a link. You can check out the press release related to this big move that Scott was just sharing. So Scott, you've mentioned a couple times you work with I think 400 organizations around the world, you know, $10 trillion in transactions, some powerful platform there. As you put your finger on the pulse with procurement leaders here in we're still in the first month, 2026. What are some of the key priorities that you're finding that they they're targeting?
- [34:12]
D
So number one ties back to our investment in Sligo and no surprise, AI and how do we move forward with this in our organization? So how do we start to build the organizational skills and capabilities to leverage with the technology? And you know, that's several just forming task force, others moving forward with implementing new technology solutions. But everybody is wrestling with cutting through the noise and what are the solutions that I can deploy that are going to drive real value? First and foremost, when we hear that, you just see an AI addendum in every RFP now and just the nature of the environment has shifted. So the second is really procurement teams are being asked to do more with less. And so how do they leverage this technology but then also leverage their teams to accomplish more and actually increase the velocity of the decisions and the value that they're delivering, delivering. And so it's not assuming they have the right data in place. It's about velocity of outcomes from that data, not more and more analysis. And then the final aspect is we live in interesting times now. You know where there's talks now about, you know, the EU launching the bazooka on tariffs and new 25% tariffs coming. So the climate is changing. So just as procurement organizations are operating, are they embarrassing, embedding risk awareness into kind of everyday decisions that they're making they want to get out of in front of it to avoid the downstream disruption?
- [35:43]
B
Scott, on your last point, Cam I tell you, if we keep going this pace, I'm gonna need a whole new bingo card because nothing I've been reading, nothing has hit news cycles, has been on my bingo card, it seems like for months. But Kim, in light of those three priorities that he touched on, what'd you hear there?
- [35:58]
C
I agree with everything he said. Global supply chain has never been more unpredictable. Let me just put it that way. In the United States, I think may not be suffering the way that we are, but we wake up almost every day not knowing exactly what our supply chain may or may not look like depending on an executive order. So what we're seeing in supply chain, and I think this has been coming for a long time but you know, supply chain is a lot used to be set and forget it. We got 6,000 containers, we'll get 6,000 more next year. There wasn't a lot of active thinking with supply chains. Also with procurement, same vendor, we wouldn't use them for 30 years. We negotiate on the price a little bit every year, but for the most part things aren't changing. But recently since we kind of flipped the table on global supply chain, we have to make decisions more often and with sometimes less detail. So we are now deciding almost on a monthly basis where do we want procurement, do we want to try to get out of China, do we want. We went to India when our Indian working. So there's a lot more decisions that are happening and they're finer decisions. They're not the big sort of gross decisions like we're going to move from one big vendor to another. Big vendor people are making smaller decisions things but that may shift tariff rates one way or the other by including something or not including something. It's just become more fluid. People are looking at fluid landed costs now. My landed cost from yesterday is going to change for tomorrow and how do I react to that? So these are places where I think AI can allow us to think faster and in finer detail, not take over the executive function, but do that level of processing for us.
- [37:28]
B
Kim, spot on. As you and Scott both respect sharing your commentary around those priorities. The big decisions are always going to be tough. We're gaining resources and perspective and tools and technology to maybe to make those differently where they're a little bit easier perhaps, but still you're always gonna have big decisions. But the call out for me was what you just said there, Kim, is the totality of endless micro and smaller decisions. And how can we get technology to make a lot more of those accurately for us so that we don't, as humans, don't have the constant burnout of this. Everyday is filled with millions of decisions. Kind of like Scott and Kim, that old joke. End of the day, you ask your husband or wife or significant other what they want for dinner and they don't even want to make that decision because they've made decisions all day long. There's a, there's a parallel here and that's one of the things I am excited about. Despite the challenges of this current era that you both pointed to, it's really interesting to see the technology evolve and some of the incredible outcomes and how it makes our people's day much, much better. Scott, congrats on your continued growth and innovation. We're going to have to have you back. But in the meantime, how can folks connect with you and the SpendHQ team?
- [38:35]
D
Sure, two ways. Feel free to reach out directly to me. It's smackvpendhq.com we'll drop that in the chat. And then secondly, for anybody that happens to be in the Southeast or the Atlanta area specifically, next week on January 28th and 29th, we're hosting our annual Insights event and are expecting to have about 135 procurement leaders globally coming in to spend a day and a half with us, all focused on innovation with AI procurement best practices. Of course, some product updates on our side. But if you're interested, just hit us up@spendhq.com and we'd love to have you join us.
- [39:14]
B
Outstanding. Is it kind of like a procurement leadership version of Davos, Scott, is that right?
- [39:19]
D
Exactly.
- [39:20]
B
All right, folks, you can see Trish has Already shared the URL there. SpendHQ.com and Scott shared other content information. Sounds like a great event. We'll have to get some of your key takeaways maybe after that. Big event. Yeah. Scott McPhee, CEO at Spend HQ. Big thanks for you joining us today here on the buzz. Scott.
- [39:36]
D
Thanks, Scott. Thanks.
- [39:37]
B
Have a good day.
- [39:38]
D
Take care.
- [39:39]
B
All right, Kim, so would you sign up for a supply chain version of Davos even if it wasn't in a beautiful apartment? Maybe if it was just in, I don't know, Atlanta, Georgia? Yeah, that's right. I'll try to think of something.
- [39:52]
C
I would love to get some of the big key supply chain leaders and innovators out there together. There's a lot to be learned.
- [39:58]
B
Learn from those people, undoubtedly. And we talk about decisions. We got a lot of challenges to work through this year and beyond. So talking of change, I want to share. So, Kim, you're Leading the digital transformation of a company that's over 135 years old. In fact, folks, if you've tuned into anything, any of our conversations we've had with Kim over the years, you know, we talk about seafood and supply chain and Kim knows seafood like few do. In fact, this company, Cowart Seafood, is launching a new website. Look at those delicious oysters right there in front of you. So Mark, Mark this URL and get ready. But Kim, I want to go back to the digital transformation side. You know, we learned, of course, that term's been around forever. We used it a lot in the last three or four or five years since the pandemic. I learned something from every companies I read or come across in terms of their transformation. What's been a key lesson learned or two from your efforts there thus far?
- [40:50]
C
So it was a great opportunity where I hopped right on it. Not often in this age do we find 135 year old company that has zero digital presence. I'm talking no brand, no logo, no website, no email. And so what I've learned shockingly is that there are a lot of companies out there still doing business the old way. And if you're out there and maybe you've been in business for a couple generations and what you've been doing has been working for you, I really encourage you to try something different and embrace the digital transformation. You know, the companies that I've been working with here in Virginia, in the seafood industry, very old industries, very manual intensive industry and somewhat isolating because of the way that the work is, it's very isolating work. And so there's a lot of companies out there that haven't really embraced the future and they're losing speed, they're losing momentum because of it. So that's my biggest takeaway from this, is that if you are out there and you're a multi generation company and you do not at least have a website, you gotta do it.
- [41:44]
B
Gosh, you got to. And folks, Trisha has dropped a link to this new site that Kim and team.
- [41:50]
C
That's right, put in your email. We got an introductory offer. If you put in your email, follow us, you'll know what's going on. But we're super excited to bring this previously only, available through restaurants and distributors, product directly to consumer. So I hope to see you guys there.
- [42:05]
B
So folks, you can submit your email address, get that intro offer that she mentioned. And by the way, just looking at oysters and Amanda, I love oysters. Amanda really loves oysters. But these ones on the left, Ken, I don't know if you know the brands that are here in this image, but I like the smaller, smaller ones, the briny ones.
- [42:20]
C
Those are the sweet stools, named after the owner's great grandmother.
- [42:24]
B
Okay.
- [42:24]
C
And those are our smallest.
- [42:25]
B
Yeah.
- [42:25]
C
The Heavenly Headleys, which are named after the owner, our market size, which is mid size. And then we're also offering what we're calling the big lake, which is the owner's father. And Those are our 4 to 5 inch oysters, which are probably the biggest oysters you're going to get on the market. So if you are an oyster lover, those are the oysters for you.
- [42:43]
B
As Amanda says. Placing that order now, Kim CM Says, loved having oyster roasts when we were in Charleston, South Carolina.
- [42:51]
C
There you go.
- [42:52]
B
All right, so folks, check it out. Stay tuned. We're going to get some more lessons learned as Kim continues down this journey. Just part of the latest digital transformation that you've been leading in your journey. So stay tuned, folks. Hey, one more quick question, Kim. Seafood companies. I spent a little bit of my time in the food industry for really big distributors, but when it comes to seafood companies, do the owners of companies have a relationship where they, you know, kind of share information or is there really kind of stiff competition? And there's probably a blend, but your thoughts there?
- [43:19]
C
It's a blend, I would say, you know, they try to work together. The oyster pie is only so big. That's what we say is, you know, there are only so many people are going to eat oysters. And so we try to work together, but market competition is always going to be there, especially with the bringing of the more Internet and E commerce focus. What's really been interesting is a lot of the smaller oyster growers and seafood providers adopted E commerce and Internet earlier. And so what's really interesting is we saw a lot of like, rather small operations starting to nip at the heel deals of the big operations because the big operations were less likely to adopt a digital transformation. So that was interesting to see how that happened, where smaller companies were able to get more traction just because they embrace digital.
- [44:01]
B
You know, going back to your advice, you know, all of us, all of us can get stuck in, you know, getting the orders out, whatever that may mean your business, you know, kind of stay focused on getting the business done rather than keeping at least a couple fingers or a couple toes in the. It's right into what's going on and how we can change. And because you blink and it's 2035 and we're still doing business as if it's 2015 90, right? Or 1890. But we're going to keep our finger on the pulse, Kim, of you and the Coward Seafood organization and try some oyster soon. So before we close, we're going to make sure folks, y' all can connect with Kim in just a minute. But hey, I want to share with you a big project that we tackled last year. Kim, if you been a part, well, you have been because you're doing it with Coward Seafood. But website development, new websites, those are always challenging. Well folks, at supply chain now.com you can check out our still relatively new website. We're excited about it, right? You can check out our upcoming live programming page anytime for folks like C. Ham or Christopher or was the gentleman from DHL earlier that was sharing about the Amazon experiences. Francisco like any of those folks want to keep our live programming on your radar. We got a new dedicated tab upcoming live programming for you to do just that. And Ken, we've also been really busy building out our our resource hub where you're going to find white papers, news, ebooks and blogs such as this brief written summary of an interview I conducted with longtime supply chain industry leader Rob Haddock. We got together at Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver last month. You're going to find a lot of these interviews, other resources, because in the day, as we've got a tidal wave of information and goings on and challenges and successes, we're trying to provide good practical resources and information that folks can use along with many other things to find more Success. Success in 2026. That's the name of the game, isn't it? Kim?
- [45:53]
C
Yes. Success and supply chain.
- [45:55]
B
Success and supply chain. So folks, you can check all of that out at Supply Chain now dot as Trisha's put here in specific, the resource hub you can check out. You want to click away right there. Kim Reuter what a great episode. Really. Also enjoyed Scott's comments and some other comments we had from the cheap seats. I want to make sure folks know how to connect with the Kimberly Reuter. Kimberly how can folks do that?
- [46:18]
C
LinkedIn is the best way. Hit me up on LinkedIn and check.
- [46:21]
B
Out your podcast wherever you get podcasts.
- [46:23]
C
Oh yeah, I forgot. And my podcast Supply chain Wake up. I've been so heads down with the oyster business. I've the podcast has taken second. But yes, there are 150 episodes on the podcast. We've organized them into playlists as well. So feel free to check out the playlist if you want to listen to some things in sequential order. And we have a lot of great insights from a lot of great innovators on Supply chain have shared their stories which is super awesome.
- [46:46]
B
Really good stuff folks. Check it out. Kim keeps it real like you do and that's important. What a great show here today folks. First off, I want to wish everybody in whatever way it means for you, but a very happy and special Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day here. Really. Not in the States but everywhere else. Of course he had a monumental world impact. Let's try to take some of his leadership style and apply it to what we do year round. Big thanks to Scott McPhee with Spend HQ. What a great session with Scott. Want to thank of course the one and only Ken Kim Reuter, one wonderful co host here. Our friends at EPG who are powering the buzz all month long in January and I might add fueling many global supply chains electric performance in 2026. Of course a big thanks to Amanda and Trisha behind the scenes. Amanda, keep those returns low. And most importantly, big thanks to our global audience, our SCN global fam for being here. Hope you enjoyed the show. Hey, take one thing you heard here and you heard a lot of great actionable leadership perspective from Scott and Kim. Take one thing, put it into practice. Deeds, not words, right? It's about what we do. With all that said, on behalf of the entire supply chain, our team, Scott L challenge you. Do good, give forward. Be the change that's needed. Hey, be just like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And this world would be a much, much better place. We'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks for bye.
- [48:02]
A
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 podcast.