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The Superpower is this ability to orientate your supply chain more from an end to end perspective so that it's much more than just distribution center and transportation. It's planning, it's new products, it's customer service, it's innovation. And to me, the ability to convince your organization that this is where our supply chain actually needs to start and stop to create the most value. That to me is the superpower.
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Welcome to Supply Chain now the number one voice of supply chain. Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe, one conversation at a time.
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Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever you may be. Scott Lewton and the always special guest, Mike Griswold here with you on Supply Chain now. Welcome to to today's show. Hey Mike, how you doing today?
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A
I'm doing great, Scott. Looking forward to today's session. It's always good to spend time with you and the folks that take time.
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C
To listen to us say same, same, same. I tell you, we get a lot of feedback around this very long running show. I was, in fact, I was going back looking at some of our earlier episodes. Mike, we're gonna have to set up a future episode that dives into probably we're approaching four dozen, maybe five dozen shows now. But today folks, we do continue one of our longest running, most popular series, Supply Chain today and tomorrow with Mike Griswold from Gartner. Of course, Mike serves as vice president analyst with Gartner and we're rolling out a new mechanism today. I did not put my creative thinking cap on enough because we're calling it the Lightning round. So it's not too terribly creative of a name, but it implies our approach. I've got nine questions teed up that we're going to get Mike to weigh in on. From a question or two around Mike's professional journey to supply chain buzzwords, those we like and those we don't like to supply chain leaders or their superpowers rather that we admire all that much, much more. So stay tuned as we walk through an outstanding discussion with the one and only Mike Griswold. So Mike, are you buckled in, ready to go, hanging on to your hat and all?
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A
Yes, I have fastened the seat belt. The arms are inside the ride. And yes, let's give this a shot.
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C
Oh, gosh. You know, I heard a great analogy earlier today. We were talking all about returns and reverse logistics and we are interviewing a legend, living legend, Chuck Johnston, who basically rolled out the returns of management approach and organization at Walmart and Home Depot. And he used a great analogy, Mike, that we just shared there. Just. It sprung in my mind it's like a roll up mattress. Once you get it out, it's not going right back in. So, folks, you got to be ready for a great conversation teed up today. So I'm stealing that one from Chuck, but Mike, question one, which is essentially our fun warmup question here today. So the Europeans largely dominated the Americans in the Rider cup just last weekend. Yeah, it got a little closer on the final round. Right. But we all knew what the outcome was going to be. The Americans were up against a really, really tough challenge. You're a big golfer, Mike. I'd love to get your reaction. And you aren't gonna yell at me or call me names, are you, Mike?
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No, I mean, I, I think, and I will, I will try to keep this brief. We could do a whole show on my thoughts on the Ryder Cup. I, I think the behavior of the fans is unacceptable. It's unacceptable at any sporting event. I think, though, that this is not a case where anyone should have woken up surprised that this was going to happen. Right. You knew this is what was going to happen when you picked several, however many years ago that we were going to have the Ryder cup at Beth Page Black in New York. Right. You, you knew if, if you had any brain, you knew this was going to happen. And unfortunately it did. And I think, you know, even if somehow the US had won, the way the fans behave would have still marred the event, regardless of the winner. I think it is a perfect example of, and I'll link this to the supply chain, it's a perfect example of an organization that had a plan in Europe and had a continuity throughout the entire Ryder cup process. You could hear it in the press conferences. You could see it. If you're a golf fan, you saw, you know, familiar faces. You've seen the same faces on Europe behind the scenes. Obviously, Luke Donald has coached the last two, but the vice captains and the other people involved with how Team Europe is constructed has basically been the same people in the same voices for years. Their attention to detail, their planning and their continuity, and the fact that they played very, very well.
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C
Yes.
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Are the reasons that they won again. And they're the reasons that, you know, if you woke up Monday morning having never watched the Ryder cup at all and saw 15, 13, you'd have said it was a nail biter. You'd have thought it was a nail biter. But to your point earlier, Scott, you said it very well, it really wasn't, frankly, after Friday and the beatdown on Friday, it was going to be very difficult for the US to recover. I think from a process perspective, there is a lot of things the US Needs to go back and think about. From a process perspective, from an organizational perspective, and even from what does the Ryder cup mean as, as a sporting venue. Right. Clearly the European team was highly motivated and highly bonded on a singular mission which was to win the Ryder Cup.
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C
Yes.
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And I'm not saying the US Wasn't, but what I'm saying is there were so many examples of what Europe did to put themselves in a position to win that we did not that this Ryder cup was probably won two or three days, two or three days after Europe won in Rome with the work that they were putting in for an event that was two years later disappointed as a highly patriotic golf fan, highly disappointed in the outcome, probably more disappointed in the selection of the venue and what happened off the course that really was never should have happened.
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C
Yes, lots of good stuff there. Resilience. That European team found it. And I tell you, this first two days, it seems like they had a counter punch for every one moment that the Americans had. And I tell if I had a dime for every time one of the announcers said, well maybe that's going to give the Americans a spark. It never. We found a little of a spark on that final round. Just enough for me to watch, really. The whole thing from gavel to gavel. But even the approach shot that teed up the win for the Europeans. I can't remember the American golfer, but he, in a, that pivotal match on, on day three, his drive landed in the sand trap. He made an incredible approach out of the sand on the green, had a great putt and put pressure back on the European player. And then that got. The European player just shot a dagger.
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A
Yeah.
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Five feet out, made the putt and then the mat, the whole rudder cup was over. And that almost in a nutshell was kind of the epitome of the whole shooting match.
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So yeah, Europe, Europe had an answer for everything the US did, particularly on Friday and Saturday. I mean there, there was one instance where we made a 40 foot putt for birdie and then Europe made a 35 foot putt for birdie. Same exact hole. Right. So I think the other, the other lesson here is when you need to perform, right, your, your supply chain needs to perform, you need your best players to perform.
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C
That's right.
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Right. You need whatever your core competency is, it needs to perform Right. I mean, there is no doubt that outside of the Ryder Cup, Scotty Scheffler is the best player in the world.
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C
Right.
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I don't think you get a whole lot of debate pre Rider cup around that. Right. And I think post rider cup people would, may still want to debate that, but at the end of the day, he's the best golfer on the planet, yet he just did not perform on Friday or Saturday. And you know, the fact that it even got to two points when he delivered, you know, one point and really needed to deliver three points. You have to have your best assets, have to perform when the lights are the brightest, Right. Think about holiday season, right? Or whatever it might be for your particular supply chain. Your best assets have to step up. If they don't, you're going to have problems.
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We got to lean on something. We got to find some, some foundational expectations and assumptions somewhere and make educated bets on the super performing aspects of our organization. So good stuff there, Mike. And by the way, Shane Lowry was a gentleman. Yes. A European golfer that just came up clutch, it seemed like, throughout all three days. And you know what, Mike, I'm only kidding. But maybe those tariffs further motivated the European team because they were on a mission. I was so impressed.
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Very.
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C
Okay, so let's do this. Okay, this isn't this gonna be maybe the pseudo lightning round. We got a lot of stuff to get to. We're gonna have some elongated responses perhaps. But question two, Mike, totally different topic. So when I'm up late at night catching up on work, right. Maybe after taking the kids to volleyball or cheerleading or whatever, one of my go to's that keeps me hydrated and keeps me moving is the Kirkland brand. I'm big Costco guy Vitarane zero from Costco. Now folks, you may have heard me talking about this before. There's no sugar. But better yet, Mike, there's no sodium. So I find it better than a lot of that sports drinks out there because a lot of them are loaded up with that sodium. No sugar, no sodium. That's my go to. What is your go to? Snack fuel, you name it. When you're doing some late night super Gartner analysis, those crunch sessions.
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Yeah, I'm going to. I had a bunch, but I'm actually going to, going to piggyback on that drink from Costco. We love it in our house. And you know, my, my favorite flavor flavor is the orange. I think it's mango. That's my go to drink. It's interesting. A real quick story. We had Two years ago, one of our basketball players on the varsity, she loved that stuff as well. But she hated the orange, but loved the lemonade. I'm not a huge fan of lemonade. Love the orange. So we would bring in bottles and swap, right? I would bring her the lemonade, she would bring me the mango. Life was good, but no, for the same reason. Scott, you highlighted, right? No sugar, no sodium, tastes great. I will mix the lemonade with an iced tea to make my own Arnold Palmer. That tastes quite good. But yeah, it, it's a good. It's a good non kind of standard water drink. I love it. Great, great choice.
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C
We're gonna have to get the Costco supply chain leaders on here and interview them. See, see how they're keeping up with a growing organization. Good stuff. And folks, again, if you want to add that to your shopping list, that's the Kirkland brand. Because Costco's got some great Kirkland store white label stuff. Vane0 so check that out. Okay, question three. Here's an interesting question I don't think I've ever posed to you, Mike. Now, so you've had quite a, quite a career in global supply chain, but if you didn't do supply chain in your career, what career would you have pursued?
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Yeah, it's interesting. Years and years ago, right, I thought I wanted to be. I love aviation. I love planes. I thought at one point I wanted to be kind of a corporate pilot. That seemed to be like the best job in the world. But then as I got older and realized that there's a lot of meticulous stuff. You know, when you do a pre flight, you have to like do everything. And if you don't feel like doing everything and don't do everything, bad things can happen. That kind of slid off to the side. And now I think if I had to do it all over again, it was. It would be some form of kind of color commentary around basketball. College primarily, probably now more women's just because I've gravitated through the coaching and through the women's tournament. But I find myself watching those games often asking myself questions. How would I explain that to someone? Is there something I would have that I observed that I would have suggested, you know, be done differently? So not sure I'd be a big fan of the travel and all that kind of stuff and time away from the family, but it would intersect very nicely with what I love to do, which is talk about basketball.
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C
Love that. I think you'd be great at it. I'd tune in just for the Mike Griswold. So we're going to come see you at some point. I've been talking about this for years. See you in your craft. Coach those teams. Okay, good stuff there. Now the lightning round, or maybe the pseudo lightning round shifts. We're going to be now getting your perspective on a whole bunch more what's going on out in supply chain. Here's an interesting question. So if supply chain planning were a board game, which one would it be? Chess, Monopoly or Jenga?
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Yeah, it's interesting when I, when I saw that question. Hopefully our audience knows those three board games, right. Because we do so much stuff online. I think to specifically answer the question, probably Jenga because of all the moving parts and having to fit things in in a way so that things hang together and that, you know, one misstep in pulling out one piece at the wrong spot, the structure collapses. And certainly I think that that's very analogous to the supply chain. Right. One thing can go wrong that either you, you know, in Jenga you kind of control it. Right. Because you're pulling out the piece of. And sometimes we are guilty of self inflicted wounds within the supply chain. But I would offer more often than not, things are done to us that cause those types of challenges and cause that Jenga structure to collapse. I will throw out one additional game my wife has been. It's an online game. It's a game called Township and it's been around for a long time. She's been playing for probably 10 years. It's a game where you basically start as mayor of a town. You build up the town and you have access to things like agriculture and things like factories. And it is a fascinating supply chain game because I will hear my wife talking to. Because now all the kids play, my daughter plays and now the grandkids are into it as well. And they're always talking about making stuff, putting it in their barn and waiting for a train to come or waiting for a plane to come or they can't make this until they've made that. So it is a fascinating online supply chain game, highly interactive, that I think really, you know, when I hear her talking to folks, hey, you need to do this so I can send my train. Right. It's got supply chain written all over it.
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C
Outstanding. I'm gonna add that. I wrote that down. Township. I'm gonna check that out.
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Yeah.
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But I love your commentary around the supply chain planning and Jenga analogy. Good stuff there. Okay, let's talk buzzwords for a minute. We are an industry that loves our acronyms.
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Yes.
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We love our buzzwords, we love our flavors of the month, all of that and then some. When you think of supply chain buzzwords 20, 25, what is one of your favorite ones and what's one that you'd love to retire forever?
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A
Yeah, and I'm going to. And it's not because I want to keep us on schedule. I'm going to use the same word and it's AI because I think it's gotten to the point where it is such a critical part of a lot of our supply chain challenges and providing solutions for the supply chain. But it's also thrown out there so often as hey, I will fix this or AI will fix that, or if we just had AI, life would be great. So I'm not necessarily in the camp of let's retire AI. I'm in the camp of from a buzzword perspective, we have to know what's going on with AI and we have to be embracing it. And from a. But let's really know what we're talking about when we say AI. And let's be a little bit more specific around what particular problem am I going to solve or what particular challenge is AI going to help me work through?
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Yes.
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That's where I think the conversations really need to go is kind of at those two ends and have fewer conversations and fewer discussions around. Just, hey, throw some AI at it and life will be good. Because we know that is not. Maybe that's what we should retire is this concept that AI will fix everything for us. Because it won't. Right. Just like any other tool you have in your supply chain, you need to identify what problem is it going to solve, how are we going to deploy it and are we aware of potential unintended consequences that might arise if we rush into using it?
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Yes. And belying one of the points there you're making about AI, I was reading earlier a piece over on CIO Dive and according to S and P Global Market Intelligence, the share of companies that were that have been abandoning Most of their AI initiatives jumped to 42% this year over last year. 42%. And largely because I would argue lack of sound business cases and how some executives out there are just throwing AI at in any problem, even when it's not a great fit.
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Yeah.
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What?
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Yeah. What you can't have is you can't have AI running around trying to solve a problem. You need to clearly articulate the problem and then decide is AI or some element of AI the way to tackle that problem? It Would be great if we could find that 42% and just kind of dig into the root cause because I, I agree with you completely, Scott. My sense is it's misaligned to the problem and the business case probably fell apart because of that.
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C
Yes. And the sad thing is is because of, of the frustrations and the burnout and the lack of good outcomes that's going to jade a lot of very talented human beings do some great stuff with AI that's going to really maybe create some jading there and that of course has continued negative returns. So you know, we, it's a leader. I think it's a leadership problem and hopefully we can learn from it and get better at it. So I got to share two, two quick thoughts. So we're talking about favorite buzzword of 2025 and would like to retire. Your answer to both was AI, which I completely get in a similar vein. Vuca. I've been using vucra. It's been, you know, it's acronym, it's been around for decades but it is so apropos. So VUCA V U C A Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity has become one of my go to's and then one thing that like to retire forever, Mike, are folks that still need to say WWW as they share a. We don't need that anymore.
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Yes. Yeah. Fortunately I, I have not run into anyone that's a, that's a good one, Scott. I have not run into anyone that still uses www. And the VUCA one is another interesting one. We've on the Gartner side, if you were to look at a lot of our research and even our CEO Gene hall over the last probably year has been using VUCA a lot in terms of describing the environment that our clients are in and what do we as Gartner, how can we help them across all four of those? Right.
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All four.
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The V, the U, the C and the A. So yeah, that's that. I mean it's also one of those that I think that environment elements of those four things are going to be around for a while.
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Right.
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I think initially we were experiencing and even just to a degree. Today we're experiencing all four at once which really becomes problematic. I think we're going to continue to experience all or parts of those four letters for the foreseeable future.
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Yep, completely agree. And I think that the acronym VUCA dates back to the 80s and I think the US army war colleges who first coined that if I'm not mistaken. Okay. Moving right along in our pseudo Lightning round which supply chain tech trend is most overhyped now and which one is still underrated? Mike.
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So I think, think, you know, we'll go back to, you know, not to beat the AI horse, but I think AI is certainly one that is, is hyped now. I think for good reasons. I think from one that is maybe under hyped to a degree would be just the general, we've had these conversations, just the general planning technology space I think is one where if we don't plan well at the very beginning of our supply chain process, it's very hard to recover from that. And I, I think people are still wrestling with the general concept of planning, which is why we get so many people to our, our planning summit. Right. Kind of shameless plug for that. I know we'll talk about it later, but that's why we get so many people that want to come to the planning summit because I want to understand and kind of separate the hype from what's really going on in planning from a technology perspective. Certainly there's process implications as well, but I think we've really made significant strides from a tech perspective and now it's that intersections between the kind of the tried and true planning technology and this new thing called AI. What is that going to look like in a planning environment? Fact, I'm working with one of my colleagues, he's doing a session at the planning summit specifically around the impact of AI on planning. You know, is it going to replace planners? Short answer? No, it's not, but it's going to change that, that relationship. It's going to play, it's going to change that planning dynamic now that we've got this new tool.
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Completely agree and it'll be amazing. You know, I was reading the other day as I'm preparing for a little presentation in a few weeks about the universal product code history.
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Right.
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And I can't remember the name of when the, when the two inventors that, that started developing that technology and then patented it. It was called something different. They probably had different intentions for it. It was done back in the 50s or 60s and now, and of course now that we know, looking back we see how it evolved and now how it's ubiquitous today. You don't leave a single retail store without using a scan, you know, on the UPC code, barcode or what have you. And it's kind of boggled my mind a bit just for a second that I wonder what we're using today and, and, and how we have kind of assumed that it's only good for, however we're applying it today, that in 30 or 40 years the technology and AI, of course comes to mind, is going to be so transformational that we not. It's not even within our frame of reference in our mind today. That really will make you sit down and think about that for a second, don't it, Mike?
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It does. And I'm wondering, as you were saying that I was thinking to myself, well, what, what might that be? And I'm going to land real quick on kind of the shopping experience. Right. We think about the development of the UPC code. I mean, it's been relatively unchanged since it was first implemented. I'm wondering 15, 20 years from now. I think about my own current shopping experience even with self checkout, picking the item up, scanning it, putting it in my bag, wrestling to get my Walmart bag to actually open, all those types of things. But you do see, I see it in the Chicago airport where you can just kind of. They're taking pictures of product as you're moving it through this device. There's still an element of checkout. It's a lot faster though. And I'm wondering if we're just going to get to a point at some point where we can just leave everything in our cart and we go through some big tunnel. I know Kroger for a while was experimenting with things like that, right. Where you just run your shopping cart, multiple cameras, take all kinds of pictures of what's in your cart. You've already prepaid with, already preloaded a credit card and you're just zipping out now. You know, you still may want bags and that kind of thing, but to me, the shopping experience is one of those things I think we're going to look back on and say, I can't believe we used to have to scan an item one at a time. Right, right. So it's true. We'll see, we'll see, we will see.
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And you know, that's the cool thing about retail, the innovation we see in retail and how it, it touches the consumer with each and every interaction. It's fascinating thing to study. Okay. You have been involved, Mike, with the Gartner supply chain top 25 for a very long time now. Your role in that has certainly evolved.
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Yes.
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Just like the retail environment we're talking about a second ago. But I've got it. I've got a question I've never asked you. And because we've talked a lot, as those have been published, we share your analysis all the time. All the different companies and what we can learn from that. But I've never asked you what's one of the funniest or maybe the strangest reactions that you've ever gotten from an executive about where their company ranked in the top 25.
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A
So, yeah, I've been very fortunate, Scott, to have been part of this for a long time, both as an author, as manager of the program for five, I think five or seven years to being able to present on stage the top 25. If we go back in the Wayback Machine. When we were at amr, we did a live reveal at our event in Phoenix where we had dinner, we went through the countdown, we talked about all the companies, and then we, you know, we did a live reveal right after dinner. One of my best experiences is I had, as an analyst, had built a really good relationship with Starbucks. And you obviously, we don't tell anyone, kind of, we don't reveal the list. It's like super secret until we actually do the live reveal. But to be there the first year that Starbucks got into the top 25, to reveal them and then hear their table at dinner just erupt in being so happy that they made the list and just to talk to them afterwards and just how proud they were for being able to get into this list and be recognized as one of the 25 best supply. @ least from our perspective. Right. One of the top 20. The 25 best supply chains in the world was pretty cool to see. Right. And a lot of people have that reaction in terms of getting into the list now. We've evolved. It's a webinar now. We can showcase this with a lot more people. But having that in person, in the moment reaction was. Was by Starbucks was pretty cool.
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C
Well, I bet. So very rewarding. I gotta ask you, and you may not can tell me, but do you ever have folks that. And I'm just picking out a couple numbers that folks may be ranked at 22 that think they should be in the top 20 and they want to kind of make their case after the fact. Do you ever get any of that?
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A
Yes. So there are people like Starbucks that I think have a healthy appreciation for the top 25 and what it can mean. We have other companies that have what I would refer to as an unhealthy obsession with the top 25 and where they land. The last year that I was really actively part of the program, I did probably 75 to 80 company debriefs after the event. So we reveal we have a very detailed set of collateral. We Send companies. That really breaks down the methodology. Here's where, where all your points came from. Here's how you landed whatever number you landed at. And the conversations that go well are the ones where we're not really talking about you landed at number 20. We talk about here's kind of where you did well and here's opportunities for you to improve your supply chain. The conversations that don't go well is when someone lands. I'll just make up a number. Someone lands at 10 and all they want to talk about is how do I get to nine or eight. That's not why we, we built this program. Right, Right. So I know it's, it's a cliche, but it is about having the right perspective on what to do and how to participate and how to think about where you land in the top 25 and having the right perspective.
- [29:42]
C
Love it. And I'll tell you, that's why I'm a fan. I love the analysis. I love the benchmarking, I love the comparing, contrasting, and I love the learning ability. No matter if you're a small business in a different sector, you can learn so much leadership, supply chain management, innovations, mistakes, how to recover, all that stuff. I think from the discussions that top 25 causes creates every year. Okay, we're question eight. Now we got two to go. So this is now we've talked about the intersection of supply chain and Hollywood a couple times before. That's where this question comes from. If supply chain were a movie sequel. Right. It's global supply chain industry. Were a movie sequel, what would the 2026 title be?
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A
Yeah, I'm gonna. I would not classify myself as like a rabid Star wars fan. I've seen all the movies. I have perspectives on kind of which ones I liked and didn't like and which ones I thought were better than others. But I think for this question I'm going to use the kind of the Return of the Jedi analogy. Right. And I'm going to use that from the standpoint of think about the supply chain pre Covid. Right. It was one of those things where we have one. I'm not going to pay any attention to it. As long as it doesn't screw things up, I'm going to be okay. And now let's fast forward to Covid and coming out of COVID And people really had an appreciation of what it's like to have a really good supply chain and why you need to have a really good supply chain and the ramifications of not having a really good supply Chain. And I'm thinking of the story in those first few movies of the Star wars saga, right. Where the Jedi are kind of down and almost out. And then in Return of the Jedi, they come back and you realize the good things that happen when the Jedi are back and the Force is back and all that kind of stuff. And this reminded me of the appreciation that we should have had and that we now do have because of the COVID experience around kind of the return of the supply chain as being a force that can drive your organization forward, or it can be a boat anchor that's going to hold your company back. And it's really up to you to decide what type of supply chain do we want to have and how do we want to extract value for our organization, for the supply chain. So probably not necessarily a perfect tie in, but when I saw your question, Scott, that's kind of what popped into my head.
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C
You know, I bet there's lots of supply chain practitioners out there that wish they had a lightsaber at various times, various days.
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Yes.
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C
So you Return to the Jedi is when you mentioned it. That's interesting. Personally, that was the first movie I can ever recall going to. My mom took me to see it at the Mark 1 and 2 in Aiken, South Carolina, and I was over the moon, no pun intended, with Return of the Jedi, even though, looking back now, it's one of my least favorites. But at least I can understand the plot, unlike the modern movies of Star Wars. I gotta get my son to catch me up on the 37 plots that's taking place in the same movie.
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A
It's interesting, Scott, because now what I have to do is I need to go online and have someone explain to me, for example, like, when in the Star wars universe, when does the Mandalorian take place?
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C
Yes.
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Or. Or when do these other ones take place? You know, when Rogue, Rogue One, which is actually one of my favorites, when did that take place? Right. As it relates to the plans for the Death Star. So, yes, there is a lot of these. These things. Trying to figure out when they happen, I think is important to kind of appreciating the stories.
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C
I'll tell you. It makes supply chain planning look easy.
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A
Yes, it does.
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C
All right, really quick. Mine will be Groundhog Day, one of the most iconic movies of my. Of my growing up. And because as the name implies, or if you've ever seen the great Bill Murray, Andy McDowell movie, we're going to see a lot of what we're seeing this year. We're going to see it next year. But how we solve those problems, that's, that could be the big differentiator. Okay, question nine, nine of nine here today. And then we're going to talk about the planning summit which is a great opportunity for folks out there. What is one superpower when we think supply chain leadership, Right. What is one superpower that you admire the most when it comes to the modern supply chain leader? Mike?
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A
I think, Scott, it comes down to the evolution of leadership in terms of how they actually define their supply chain. I think you and I have been around long enough where we can remember. Supply chain used to equal distribution and logistics. And in some instances supply chain was only logistics. It was just moving stuff. Fast forward to today and I look at our top 25 companies and the broad span of control that those companies have when they define their supply chain. So for me, the superpower is this ability to orientate your supply chain more from an end to end perspective so that it's much more than just distribution center and transportation. It's, it's planning, it's new products, it's customer service, it's innovation. Right. It's all of these broader things that, that leading companies are saying, you know, we want our supply chain to manage this. We want our supply chain to be responsible for this. And I think that to me is one of the superpowers or it's one of the differentiators. When I look at companies like those in our supply chain top 245 is they have broadened their horizons around where they want their supply chain to start and stop. And to me, having that superpower, the ability to convince your organization that this is where our supply chain actually needs to start and stop to create the most value, that to me is the superpower.
- [35:57]
C
Yeah, well said, Mike. Been there and done that perspective. I would just add one of the things I admire the most in the modern supply chain leader and really timelessly when it comes to supply chain leadership or business leadership are those leaders that can bring people together and talk about the toughest topics of our time. Toughest issues, toughest challenges, you name it. But do so in a fact. As Corinne Bursa likes to say, a facts, not feelings. Respect for all. If we have folks that disagree, let's, let's, let's share all that. Let's share the perspective and the data. But at the end of the day we're going to find a way to move everybody forward and that every leader that I've come across doesn't have that you've got to want to do it you've got to spend the time and invest the preparation and the disposition in order to do that. But man, the people that, that really practice and perfect that superpower, they can really move mountains and they, everybody wants to move them with them, you know. Mike?
- [36:58]
A
Yeah, I agree completely, Scott. I think it's, it's the ability to, even if you are the smartest person in the room, to not come across as being the smartest person in the room. Meaning you're willing to take ideas and observations from others and then have a healthy discussion around the topic. And to me that we all know folks that come into situations thinking they've got all the answers based on their experiences, want to take what they did from over here and just bring it over there. And those situations are where supply chain struggle. It really is this fostering of ideas, this recognizing that individually I don't have all the answers. Collectively we probably do have all the answers. And fostering an environment where people feel comfortable surfacing and, or challenging ideas and assumptions.
- [38:01]
C
Yes. And you know, sometimes all of that, some of those folks that are the smartest people in the room, they've got to allow other folks to experience things for the first time, even if they have a certain assumption about how it's going to end up. It's kind of a modern play off of the. One of my favorite Mark Twain's sayings that I'm a paraphrase here, but a man that carries a cat by the tail learns a lesson that he'll never learn any other way. And then sometimes folks need to carry the cat by the tail and say, okay, I'm never doing that again. But the learning and the experience and the good things that come out of those failures like that man, those are what creates transformational leadership moments. So agreed. Good stuff. Okay, let's wrap talking about the Garter planning summits, which have really grown in popularity the last few years. I'll be attending the Denver, Colorado version in December right around the corner. But prior to that, the planning summit's also going to take place in London in November. And Mike, if folks love to really join a targeted, focused event around one, you know, the really big but very focused topic, subject matter of supply chain planning, this is the event for them, right?
- [39:18]
A
It is. I think Gartner does a really good job with their events strategy from the standpoint of the reason for an event and the reason you should attend an event is very clear. And we do, I think, a really good job of tailoring content to meet that mission. Right. The mission of the Planning Summit is to really provide insights for people. Everything from people that actually do planning from a day to day perspective to the people that have to run a planning organization. What are the things that you need to know around what's happening in the world of planning so that you can get the most out of your planning organization? So highly focused. It's got a mix of kind of stuff for people that lead planning teams and stuff for people that actually do day to day planning. So there's a good mix of that kind of strategic and tactical stuff. It is the place to be if you want to learn more about planning, undoubtedly.
- [40:21]
C
And the sidebar conversations I've heard learn so much about. I can't wait to participate in the keynotes and the panel sessions and the workshops and of course all the great supply chain networking that takes place at these summits. Similar, different, but similar to the symposium. So folks, you can learn more@gartner.com you'll be able to find all of Gartner's global conferences and events there. And make sure you key in on the Gartner Supply Chain planning summits again. London in November and Denver in December. Okay, Mike Griswold how can folks connect with you? Whether it's Ryder cup talk or whether it's Supply Chain superpowers, how can folks connect with you?
- [41:03]
A
Yeah, let's throw basketball conversations in there as well because the college basketball season is kicking off as we speak. Mike Griswoldard.com, linkedIn those are the two best ways to reach out. Love to hear from folks on work or non work related stuff.
- [41:20]
C
Love it. Mike Griswold, Vice President Analyst with Gartner. Mike, always a pleasure to connect and learn from you my friend.
- [41:27]
A
My pleasure. Great to talk to you folks.
- [41:30]
C
Hopefully you enjoyed this conversation, this wide ranging conversation as much as I have. Hey, I promise to fine tune the lightning round machine. We were enjoying the conversation too much today. But regardless, I know that gosh by keeping count. I got my 17 pages of notes here.
- [41:45]
A
Great.
- [41:45]
C
Actual takeaways from Mike. Hopefully you'll take at least one thing you heard here from Mike. Share it with your team. Deeds, not words. That's how we can drive, continue to drive supply chain transformation out there and leave no one behind. But whatever you do on behalf of the whole team here at Supply Chain now, Scott Luden challenging you. Do good, get forward, be the change that's needed and we'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks everybody.
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B
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A
Community.
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