D (2:51)

I'm awesome, Scott. How have you been?

C (2:53)

Terrific. I'm great. It's so great to have you back. Enjoyed all of our interactions, including a great webinar we may touch on in a minute. But thanks for your time and you bring talent with you. Ryan, huh?

D (3:06)

Yeah, absolutely. When you asked about joining the podcast and having a student, Titus was the first one that popped in mind. So I asked and he was gracious enough to accept. Joining us on on the the the feed today, Ryan.

C (3:25)

That is terrific. Ask and they shall deliver. So you let the cat out of the bag. Titus Fagan is with us here today. A third year TCU student that's studying this accounting with a minor in energy business. How deadly is that combination? And as he'll tell you, Titus really enjoyed his supply chain class these had with Professor Goodwin. Now he's set to graduate in May 2027, but we're going to see if we can convert him over to supply chain today. We'll see. Kidding aside, we don't interview many non supply chain management majors, which is a really interesting aspect to today's conversation. Takes a village, folks, as we all know. Titus, welcome in. How you doing?

A (4:03)

I'm good, Scott. Thanks for having me.

C (4:06)

You bet. I am so glad when Ryan put the invitation out there. Titus. Oh yeah, I'm a bring it. I am going to bring it. So it's so great to have you here today. So let's, let's do this. Let's, let's not talk business for a second. And Titus, I really want to better understand on your weekends or your evenings when you got some free time, you don't have to study or intern or any of that stuff. What's one of your big hobbies?

A (4:31)

Yeah, I think the first thing that comes to mind for me is forecasting the weather. It's kind of a crazy side passion that I developed when I lived in Minnesota. But you know, forecasting rain and thunderstorms and snowstorms, it's, it's been something that's kind of gained some steam over the last four years for sure.

C (4:52)

Titus. Now that is. I'm quickly cat, I Wish I had AI here but I'm quickly categorizing hundreds over almost 2000 conversations on the podcast. And I don't think we've Ever had someone that is a. Whose hobby is forecasting weather? Ryan, I think that's a great hobby, huh? Yeah.

D (5:11)

There was a article in the Wall Street Journal about companies having to use Nvidia's open source weather forecasting software because the government with the cutbacks have stopped forecasting some of this. So it's maybe the hobby becomes the business at some point.

C (5:27)

That's right. And I think for additional context folks, of course Titus is. He mentioned Minnesota, but now he's based in Waco. Waco, Texas. And you know, whenever I think of kind of the Midwest and Waco may not be technically Midwest, but anyway, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, talk about how fast the weather changes. It's got to be fascinating to study it. And one more quick question for you, Titus, about hobbies in Waco. If folks traveling to Waco, let's say they arrive tomorrow, they're starving for a really good lunch, where would you send them?

A (6:02)

Yeah, there's this really good restaurant that's based out of Waco called George's and it's right on 35 heading down from Dallas to Austin. Really good. They've got a great chicken fried steak, good sweet tea, all the good southern food staples that you kind of have to have here in the South.

C (6:20)

Ryan, we gotta, we gotta have a show on the road at George's in Waco. You down?

D (6:26)

Absolutely.

C (6:27)

All right. All right, so really quick, Ryan, let's ask you, you know, you're doing big things industry. We'll learn more about that in just a second. But you know, as a hobby we were talking pre show about Texas Tabletop Society.

D (6:39)

Right.

C (6:40)

Board games are, I'll tell you, between pickleball and of course video games, but board games and vinyl records are all back, very, very popular. A quick blurb on what you do there. At the society, we are a member

D (6:54)

driven space for people to come in and gather and play board games. You can bring your own board game, but we have probably over 1100 board games, vintage, collectible, a lot you can't find anywhere else. So yeah, you just come in, make a reservation and play games. And we're very excited to the passion of being able to play games, but also to meet new people and get people to unplug and connect in the real world over a tangible physical item.

C (7:28)

That is love that. And I bet there's probably a board game exchange somewhere that helps facilitate the buying and selling. But. And we talk in pre show about one in particular that I always wanted as a kid, never got it called Axis and Allies and as you were saying, there's lots of variations of that game, of that board game these days, huh?

D (7:46)

Yeah, yeah, it's three or probably 10 different versions. World War II, World War I, Pacific, Atlantic, Battle of the Bulge. And then the designer. Sorry, I'm gonna get a little off Supply chain. You brought it up. The Larry Harris, the designer of that game, has a different version called War Room. The board is about 10 by 10, and it comes with a little push rods to push the pieces around the boards like in the movie. It's pretty cool. So it's Axis and Allies times a million. And of course, we have a copy of that at the Tabletop Society as well. Love it.

C (8:27)

If we could only keep all war on Tabletops, but nevertheless. Okay, Titus and Ryan, thanks for sharing a little bit about your personalities. And Titus, I'll be tuning into your forecast for what do you see coming in Atlanta the next few weeks, huh? Hopefully no more ice and snow. Ryan, as I shared earlier, you joined us for a webinar on supply chain. Now here, a year, maybe a year and a half ago, it was a great webinar. We got a lot of feedback. You and. And industry leaders, of course. Fred Bowman from Kinaxis was there. But I want to. Before we revisit that theme, let's make sure folks know about your practitioner background and. And your current roles because you wear a couple different hats. Could you tell us more?

D (9:13)

Yeah. I joined Trinity Industries almost 12 years ago at this point. I am currently the Senior Director of Supply Chain Technology and Innovation, which is awesome. I deliver innovative solutions under the guidance of our chief Supply Chain Officer, Michael Shin. He's a real leader and visionary in the space. Got a great sourcing procurement background, former GE guy. We spend recently a lot of our time delivering, I hate to say it, but automated solutions leveraging artificial intelligence. Right. So it's like not only a buzzword, but we are actually delivering those solutions. We have a platform that really drives our innovation, integrates a lot of our supply chain technology systems and allows us to build applications that link those systems. So if you think about planning mrp, our financial data, we integrate it all on this platform and then on top of it, layer in either, you know, programmatic solutions or artificially intelligent LLM driven solutions. And some of the really exciting space or things that we've been doing is if you've heard about Vibe coding.

C (10:26)

Yes.

D (10:27)

The ability of a person that doesn't have formal computer coding background to use artificial intelligence to build applications that leverage artificial intelligence. So we get into this Whole weird mix of, you know, technology creating the technology. A person, you know, that may not necessarily, that's a supply chain expert, but not a technology or coding expert. Now starting to dip into that space. And people on my team have been pioneering the use of that technology too, to deliver solutions, which is pretty, it's been pretty cool. Well, what does any of this thing have to do with supply chain? Well, we're delivering supply chain solutions, but, you know, the platform is more of a technology driven platform at this point.

C (11:19)

Ryan, fascinating stuff. We could spend a couple hours on some of the cool things you're doing there. Bob, Coding is a very fascinating thing to, to think through and maybe, maybe one day it'll enable me and my non technology skill sets to do something there. But hey, Titus, how cool is it to, you know, be in classes led by Ryan or in other, you know, other parts of the business world led by practitioners that are doing it, not just teaching it? That's got to be cool, huh?

A (11:47)

Yeah. I mean, it honestly transforms the classroom experience because I learn much better from actual experience that my professors have. But I think, I mean, all of our students really do. It just adds so much value because they can actually add real life stories and experiences when they're teaching the concepts in class. And, and I know that's something that Professor Goodwin did a lot in class, and it's one of the reasons why I really appreciated his supply chain class. I mean, there was one lecture when we talked for 45 minutes about the supply chain and logistics of a cruise ship. Right. And getting all of the old stuff off of the boat and putting, putting all the new stuff on the ship in a timely fashion. And it really started to open my eyes to, to see, man. Like there's a lot of moving pieces and moving parts to make that work. So it really did transform that classroom experience and it does it elsewhere when people can bring in that real world experience.

C (12:42)

I love it everything supply chain. And I love that that light bulb for you is going on so that as you move into high finance and energy business, you can see and make the connections at the system level and ecosystem level. So that's good stuff. Hey, one quick blur. I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask about a great quote you had, Ryan, but I got an idea. We should reach out. I think you said it was Larry Harris that was the game board maker. He made that big old 10, that new 10 by 10 war game. He has got a supply chain, massive board game that we can move stuff around on tables. Let's reach out and see if he'll. If he'll take a. Take a leap with us. We'll see. Yeah, that sometimes those days are best spent on tables rather than in reality, huh? Yeah. All right, so, Ryan, let me ask you about this, because on your LinkedIn profile, as I was kind of seeing what you're up to here lately, I saw one of your quotes that was on the big billboard in Times Square in New York City. And this is your quote. AI isn't replacing the American dream. It's finally making the dream real for workers in ways we'd never imagined. In quote first, Titus, speak on that. What does that, where does that take your. Your. Your mind when you hear that?

A (13:54)

You know, I think the first thing that comes to mind for me is how AI can really help educate people. And it help. Can help them connect to things that they don't maybe fully understand yet. But AI can kind of fill those gaps so that they can be propelled forward. Forward. You guys were talking about vibe coding, and I think that's one of the ways in which AI can be used to help people kind of realize that dream more. I have no formal coding experience, but I've used different AI models multiple times to write code for different data analytics projects that I've had in some of my classes. And it's been really fascinating to be able to use that. But beyond that, I mean, you can use it in the finance world, you can use it in the accounting world, and I think it really brings and kind of lowers those barriers to entry for a lot of people who wouldn't be able to have access to this information otherwise if AI didn't exist.

C (14:48)

Well said, Titus. Democratization is what I'm hearing with your answer there. All right, Ryan, your quote, you strike me as you kind of feel that in your bones. Expound on that a bit, if you would.

D (14:59)

I'd hate to say that Titus already said it, but I mean, that's, that's really the beginning of it. I mean, I see it work. Some of the points I brought on is the ability. So the, the quote was like you said, it was on a billboard sponsored by Palantir. I've participated in a lot of their conferences. They view their software and similar packages is like the Ironman armor for the American worker. And it really act as a force multiplier. So if you've got a very smart person that see they got a lot of academic knowledge or a lot of practical knowledge or a lot of both, they may not be able to turn that into A technological application to help improve the business. And what artificial intelligence really does is lowers what Titus said, lowers the barrier to entry to where it's really whatever your imagination can think of, you can create using artificial intelligence. If you can overcome the fear of, you know, that first step. And again, you know, the. A quote from my. One of my employees, one of the guys on my team is, there's this. It's called aifde, Artificial Intelligence for Deployed Engineer. It's an artificial intelligence that you can use to. It's an integrated suite of vibe coding and data and analytics. And just it's a partner to collaborate to create applications. And one of the people on my team, longtime supply chain guy, years and years of supply chain experience. But, you know, sometimes Excel could be potentially intimidating. You know, he took all of his Excel reports and used AI FDA to bring them into Foundry where anybody. It's no longer Excel on his desktop that can get corrupted or deleted. It's now an application living on a productionalized environment that anybody can get into. And you're like, what does that have to do with supply chain? What's all of our freight reports? He'd have to run them manually every month. And now some of them are automated because the data he used to get and type in and run is now integrated. And some of the other ones he still has to go in and type into. But now again, it's a productionized environment where anybody can do it. And he did it all using artificial intelligence, and it really accelerated his ability to do it. You know, I think there's some sort of exponential curve here where more and more people will start trusting these tools, getting into them and using them. I still don't know where all this ends up, but I feel like this is an extremely exciting time to be in many, many industries, not just supply chain, but you know, finance, accounting, energy. I mean, just these applications are limitless and really, really should the productivity of the American worker with these platforms is going to just explode.

C (18:02)

Sky's limit Titus, what I heard there and just that one example with his colleague there is the elimination of manual work. The elimination of manual data entry, which is not fun. Been there, done that, saving tons of time and all those things and more roll up to better accurate data because humans, we all miss type rates and the rates, the error rates vary. You'd surprise some folks getting time back to bill spent on more rewarding critical thinking where we can bring more value to the table. And let's face it, who likes the tedious spreadsheet Clunkery. I'm gonna call really is can be a painful part of the day. Titus, does that appeal to you?

A (18:45)

Oh, yeah. I mean, it really appeals to me. Even though as an accounting major, I have to say I love Excel. It's one of my favorite things to use, especially once you know how to use it properly. But it's appealing to me because especially in the field of accounting, I mean, that used to be what entry level accountants would do. They'd grab the data, they'd look at it manually, they figure out what they were looking for, and then they'd go enter it, or they'd go report it, or move it up the chain of command. And so now that there's AI that helps gather that information and put it in a way that accountants can read, that no longer has to be something that an entry level position would have to do. And, and in fact, when I was interviewing with different accounting firms, that's what I've been hearing is now they're enabling and empowering entry level accountants to grow in their field much quicker and become much more proficient in the field a lot faster, which is only going to help the company and also, you know me as a professional to hopefully move up faster.

C (19:45)

Titus. Well said, Brian. You've got a bright, bright leader right here. I wish we had a couple more hours with Titus, because I got to ask you lots of questions now based on. You've already established the bar here. So, Titus, let's start with this. We've kind of touched on some of the technological innovations going, going on, not just in supply chain, but in a broader sense. Right. But what's. If you look at global supply chain, you think about. I think you used a cruise ship example earlier.

A (20:13)

Right.

C (20:13)

Which is a really fascinating one. But when you go further out, a little more broadly out, what's one topic or trend or problem across global supply chain that really intrigues you right now?

A (20:25)

The biggest one for me right now, I think, is this concept of bottlenecks where you have all of this supply, but because of the transportation, you can't get that supply to where it needs to go. And the reason why I say that is because I'm really fascinated by the electric utility space. I think that's one I'll go to with my minor in energy business. You know, there's a lot of cases where. I shouldn't say a lot of cases. There are cases, though, where you have the electricity that could go to the customer, but because of transmission lines or too much traffic over those lines, they can't get all of that power to where it needs to go. And that's a fascinating topic because there you see the convolutions, I guess, of where the chain of command or the supply chain messes with the, the production. And I think that's why it's been such an interesting topic for me to learn about is because it's just in everything, it's pervasive. It goes in all different parts of business. Not just building the product and making the product, but also delivering it and then getting it to the customer. And so to me, I think that that bottleneck part or the part where supply chain can't get the supply to where the customers are is really fascinating to me. It's something that I want to learn more about to see how aspiring professionals can help solve these issues.

C (21:41)

Titus, love your several things you touched on there. But Ryan, I'm gonna pick one in particular's had my attention. A few months back I went to a conference hosted by Schneider Electric and one of the major themes coming out of there was if we love all the innovation that AI and modern day technology and evolving technology offers, that just should just add to our priority being placed on upgrading the infrastructure. Right. And in fact I saw one story in the last couple days. I think Danny Gonzalez at Industrial Sage put this on my radar, Ryan. It really focused on a, a power provider, energy provider, electricity provider that has 13 states and a portion of Washington D.C. amongst its, its geographic region. And regulators and local governors are trying to shift because the company is having a hard time keeping up with the electrical demand. They're trying to shift the burden to build out the infrastructure. Right. New plants and whatnot to tech companies since if you probably look at volume, they're big users. Ryan, your thoughts in general of our infrastructure challenges and your thoughts on, on tech providers and, and their role in helping us overhaul our, our very dated and old infrastructure.

D (22:58)

Yeah. And I guess you can look at it both, you know, the, the grid perspective. Right. You know, and that, you know, what is the most efficient way to move product from a logistics perspective is pipelines, you know, for oil or water. And most people they're like that's supply chain. Yeah, it is. It's a delivery method, but also electricity and the wires are a delivery method. I mean you could, a Duracell battery is a, you know, an extreme example of transporting electricity or power. But the same discussion can be applied to the roads and bridges and railroads in the United States. And there's an, it's a mixed model where if you look at railroads, the railroad companies, because they own the roads, right? And whereas we think about us and we interact with streets, the government usually builds those tax dollars. And there's different models of, you know, this road if. All right, so in Dallas we got Dallas North Tollway, which is a toll road. And then you've got 75, which is free. Very different experiences on both. But you know which one. It's just a way to pay for these things. So if we're talking about, I feel like, particularly when it comes to infrastructure, it's a classic public good. How do you properly price that? How do you get the government involved? And I feel like the beauty of the American experience is usually we out a way to have a joint corporate government delivery of these things. So as long as I feel like the spirit is there is people are recognizing a problem and we're getting all the people involved with solving the problems. I mean, I think if you were to tell people there's going to be an energy crunch, 10 years ago when we were fracking everywhere, it was like this huge oil boom. And then like, wait, why?

C (24:53)

Think you're crazy, right?

D (24:54)

But we'd say artificial intelligence is going to be real and it's going to spike. Demand everybody be like, what? You're crazy, right? So we've got this new technology. I think the government's saying, well, you guys are the ones driving the demand. You guys should be part of the solution. Which is again completely ironic where they're talking about opening Three Mile island again. Right. I mean the symbol of American industrial nuclear disaster. And because the, the power demand is so much, everybody's like, yeah, let's open nukes, which I'm 100% in favor of. My grandfather was in the industry. He was on the Nautilus, the original really powered. Yeah. Submarine. So I've always been proud of being a proponent of nuclear power. But anyway, back to the infrastructure thing. So there's a lot of solutions here and hopefully, you know, private public corporations can solve these supply chain issues. Both power transmission, which, you know, a lot of that power is going to power our factories, but then also the broader infrastructure of railways, roadways, bridges and you know, seaports to keep the United States at the edge of being able to bring in product, but also hopefully export products. Yes. Having a world class infrastructure I think is really important.

C (26:14)

Completely agree. And you know, if you think, you know the definition of infrastructure, I can promise you you're not thinking broadly enough. It's so holistic. I mean, Ryan just touched on a Few things. But Titus, I'll tell you, you mentioned bottlenecks, which is kind of what got this going. And I think we picked one of the biggest potential and growing. Real bottleneck out there with the energy infrastructure, huh?

A (26:37)

Yeah, I mean, I'm obviously still learning. I'm not working in the field per se, but yeah, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing with data centers right now being built out. And you know, I'm not. We don't need to go into this, this topic, but whether that's a bubble or not, whether they're overbuilding, whether there's going to be as much demand as people are thinking, but it is, it is a concern. I mean, we've got a lot of people who are, are moving to Texas or various places and that will require more demand or more energy, I mean, to match that demand. And then transmission and the supply chain needs to be built out or logistics, I should say, should be built out to, to be able to get that power to those people. And so it's really fascinating. And even beyond the electric space, right, with moving oil and gas and liquefied natural gas to, to our trading partners internationally, I mean, it's just a, it's a crazy field that has so many ties with supply chain. And that's kind of why I wanted to bring it up because it's just, it's growing right now. It's a big field, Titus.

C (27:31)

I love it. And well, I don't want to sleep on nuclear. I'm a big proponent, kind of sounds like Ryan, of this new chapter of nuclear power. You know, we're looking at what they call them, small modular reactors and all the. So many different applications and personal opinion, folks. And look, I'm not a nuclear physicist, but I don't think you have to be one to have an educated opinion. But I think just like green power, nuclear power is an important part of this power generation dilemma that not just the US but countries around the world certainly face. And we don't want it to limit not just our growth here, but the development of, of communities everywhere. So we'll see how it unfolds. Okay, Titus, here's a big question. That last one was big. Gosh, I didn't know it wasn't. It was not my crystal ball where that went, Ryan and Titus, where it would lead us. But the question I want to pose to you, Titus, is what do you want to do in industry and why? And include any thoughts on some of the change that you personally want to drive out in global business Yeah, I

A (28:36)

think for me, when I think of what I want to change in industry, it more relates to the accounting world just because that's kind of where my allegiance lies as, as of now. It could be changed after this discussion. But you know, the biggest thing I want to add or kind of change in the industry is bringing that more technological knowledge to the accounting field. That was something that was, you know, brought up time and time again in all my interviews. Hey, we're going to rely on young people to help us understand these technologies. Obviously they're going to educate themselves as well and not just put their all their trust in a few 21, 22 year olds coming out of college. But you know, being able to use these new technologies is sometimes a challenge. Like I finally got my parents using AI. It's not a super high barrier, but you know how to prompt it correctly, right? What you can use it for, you can use it to modify spreadsheets like we were talking about earlier. You can use it in so many different ways than you at first realize. And so the biggest thing that I want to help bring to the accounting world is is that knowledge of being able to use technology and data analytics. I just had a class on that. How can I bring that to the field in supply chain, right? Having understanding of how getting a product to customer all works and, and so much more than that. So I think that's really where I'm focusing right now. But again, 21, that might change as I get closer to, to entering the field.

C (30:00)

Titus, I tell you, I loved your response. I think you're selling yourself short a little bit because I'll tell you the 21, 22, I don't know about you, Ryan, when I was 21 years old, I say this a lot. My focus was not on changing the world and in such an eloquent and educated fashion that we heard there from Titus. I was, I was in pizza and, and beer mode, quite frankly. Ryan. Right. But Ryan, hearing that and seeing of course having interaction with Titus and other really bright professionals entering or soon to enter the supply chain and really global business, that has got to be very rewarding, huh?

D (30:38)

Yeah, I think it's ironic. I mean I feel like and you probably are in the same boat. We get into the, the work world and it was very still hierarchical command and control. Your boss said jump. There was always how high. Right. And I feel like there's some of my co workers can take an attitude that people entering the workforce today have an entitled attitude or you know, they want to be in charge immediately. And it's sort of like, well, you got to, you know, show your bones and invest in Drudge and level up or whatever you want. And I view it as, with just vast macroeconomic trends, the hollowing out of a lot of corporations, we're going to depend on ambitious young people to come in and help, to his point, to help transform our companies. And I don't think. I don't look at it as an entitled attitude. I look at it as a very open and aggressive attitude that they want to make an impact right now, today. And it's not like, oh, slow your roll. Sit down, and here is a spreadsheet. Read this. It should be. No, it should be like, cool, you want to make an impact. Here you go. You know, we still gotta deliver the good, so to speak. But whenever you're looking at continuous improvement, whether it's supply chain accounting, there's always a list of stuff that people want to improve. And if you're ambitious enough to help improve the bottom line of any company you're at, we gotta figure out how to harness and unleash that creativity and ambition. Right. Your discretionary ambition, you know, maybe yours and eyes was, you know, let's get home and watch wwf, but you know, it can be, no, I want to help transform the business. Cool. Let's stay an hour after work and work on some stuff to make our job easier tomorrow. So I really, working with TCU students every week, I see that ambition, and I really want to push that in terms of what can you do for yourself? Go start your own company, or if you join a company, have a very entrepreneurial attitude. And I think TCU does a good job of instilling that.

C (32:57)

And hold that thought, because that's one of the next questions I'm going to ask Titus. But two quick things. First off, growing up in the central Savannah river area, it was NWA on wtbs, was my wrestling alliance of choice number one, and long live Dusty Rhodes American dream. And then secondly, I love how you put it about what I heard and use really eloquent words, but activating that pioneering and actionable spirit, right? These folks that really want to drive good change. And that's somewhat. We heard there from Titus. Titus, when you think of. We don't have to name names. When you think of your future employer, Right. And you think of the culture and the. The workplace atmosphere. You know, Ryan mentioned some things, some really traditional things that were a big part of our earlier chapters. Titus, what's a couple of things that you really are prioritizing with your future employers in terms of what work is like.

A (33:52)

I think the biggest thing that I'm prioritizing is how much are they going to throw. How fast are they going to throw me into. To. To the job? Like, how fast are they going to say, okay, you know what? Like, we trust that you've had this internship experience. We trust that you've had this knowledge in. In college. Let's put you in the deep end. And obviously there's going to be people to supervise that explosion if it happens. Hopefully it doesn't. But let's get you deep into to what the accounting world really looks like as fast as possible. That's really appealing to me because that's the way you learn. One of my mentors that I look towards always says, failure is the first attempt in learning. So the faster that I can get that experience for about failure or maybe not succeeding in. In what I'm doing, the faster I'm going to learn and faster I'm going to know the proper way. And so that. That's one of the things that makes me something I look for, I should say. And the second thing is just how collaborative of an environment is created around me. Because, you know, I think the best way to learn is. Is working with others. And that's what I think. Supply chain does really good at tcu. That, that department is. We have a simulation game that we play the entire course of the semester. And you have to collaborate because you have four different roles and they all connect. You have sales, you have supply chain, you have purchasing, you have operations or warehouse. Right. So all of those industries or all those positions, I should say, rather need to be able to work together for you to be successful in that simulation. And it's challenging, you know, because one person really knows their job really well and another person knows their job really well, but sometimes they don't know the roles of the other person. So bridging that gap is really important. And I think really, once you understand that and once you build out a good team, you all just are propelled so much further if you were just by yourself. And so that an environment like that and an employer is something that I'm really looking forward to and something that I look for as well.

C (35:51)

Hiring managers. Did you hear that? CEOs. Did you hear that? Take it to heart. This is really what Titus just shared. I value it at face value from him, but really it folds up into a big common theme that I hear in a lot of these now generation shows. Ryan really quick Want to check in with you and what you heard there from Ryan in terms of what he prioritizes in the environments of his future employers.

D (36:15)

Hopefully I, I think Thomas would agree. The class that I teach is for non supply chain majors, but business majors. And what I always try to emphasize is I'm trying to arm you with how to understand what's going on supply chain. So if you're in finance or marketing or accounting that when a supply chain professional is talking to you, you have something to hang your hat on and you have the beginnings of an understanding and appreciation of supply chain concepts, particularly that cross functional nature. Whereas you think a supply chain generically is a thing, but it's many linked things in functional areas across the company. So that cross functional collaboration both within the department, you know, because accounting is like, oh, they're ar, that's ap. You know, it's like to supply chain people, that's just like money, right? And then so, but so you know, within our departments, people that want to collaborate and then across departments wanting to collaborate, I think that's a key driver to growing professionally in your career but also helping your company not just being siloed or allowing yourself to be siloed and just like look, I'm only going to do this and this is, you know, it's. I think what we always want are the people that want to collaborate and you know, want to work with the broader team, but also the broader company.

C (37:42)

Well said, Ryan. We got to be good leaders but also good followers and good collaborators. Tell you one of the worst things you can say, at least in my opinion is hey, that's not my job. Because no one likes to work with folks that think hey, that's not my job. And it may be true, but still. So Titus, Ryan a couple of times has talked about basically the culture at TCU and the academic culture and the way that they bake certain aspects into their education and, and delivery styles. I guess for lack of better phrase. I'm going to ask you Titus, what makes based on that and some other things you see what makes TCU's supply chain management program successful or broader? You know, it's academic environment successful. Your thoughts are, Titus?

A (38:28)

Yeah, I think as it applies to supply chain, I think what makes that program or that class, like Professor Goodwin said, it's, it's for non supply chain majors. I think what makes it super successful is the collaboration. I think I mentioned that earlier but you know, bringing people together and then also giving them a real world application of supply chain through that Simulation. I mean, that experience is invaluable. And for the first three or four weeks when you're running that, you have no idea what's going on. Your ROI is going down, your warehouse is way overstocked, you're not producing enough of your product and you're like, what is going on? But once you start taking a step back and looking, okay, what area can I fix first? And then breaking it down into little bite sized pieces, it starts to really make a difference. And by the end, you know, I think our team had an ROI of 30% or something like that, which is crazy, is really high. And it was just super fun and rewarding to see. Okay, it was super challenging. In fact, we were the last place team. Second week, we went down to minus 36% and did a rebound all the way to 30. So, you know, I think that's what really does wonders for the supply chain program at tcu. Now, in the broader community of the learning space at tcu, I think what really differentiates the TCU education in my perspective is the connection and the closeness between the professor and the student. And on top of that, this idea that this professor is also learning. Right. The teacher scholar model, where they're teaching students, but they're also learning more in their field, so that they're teaching the cutting edge of whatever subject they're teaching to the now generation, like you're saying. And, and I think that is has just made my experience so much better, whether it's in, you know, any business course or even in, I have a few non business classes about talking about social media and being resilient in today's world. And all of these professors stand right beside you in that learning space and provide you with new insights that are being developed right now in the field. So it's awesome. It's fascinating. It's such a gift, I would say, to, to be able to be a student right now.

C (40:37)

Titus, let me ask you a dumb question because I think me and Ryan and all of our audience members probably can draw some conclusions here. But how has all that you just described in the overall environment at TCU best prepared you for a really successful and impactful career journey to come?

A (40:52)

Yeah. I think the biggest thing is kind of what Professor Goodwin touched on, not siloing yourself. Right. What that type of education model really does is it makes me understand that it's not just one topic. Right. Accounting focuses on not just the accounting side, but where all those accounts are coming from. Right. That relates to marketing as it relates to sales as it relates to supply chain. So you can't, you know, focus on each subject as it's just the end of the or the only thing in the world that matters. And so I think that learning model of educating students with new industry expertise, as well as standing beside students, really helps us broaden our perspective to go beyond what the classroom topic is. And that's going to, I think, pay hopefully massive dividends in the workforce. When I'm working on different clients that might be industries I've never heard of, but because it kind of ties back to some of the things I was taught in college, I'll be able to be successful. So that's the hope again. I have worked maybe two months fully in the corporate space as an intern this last summer. So I have, you know, really no, you know, backed evidence that shows that that's what happens in, in the business world. But, you know, I can hope, right?

C (42:09)

I can hope, you know, while I hope I breathe or while I breathe I hope is actually South Carolina, my home state's motto, which I think is a really important one, because hoping and envisioning a brighter future, more innovative future, a better future. I think it's, it's something that has to happen every day. I think of folks that no matter what reality is right, they embrace it. But there's all, you know, that optimism, I think fuels so much innovation and continuous improvement and big leadership gain. So, yes, hope, hope, hope. Titus, hope and do. Ryan, I want to follow up with you on what Titus just shared there because two part question here. Number one, react to what you heard there from Titus in terms of how all that you are doing at tcu, which is growing left and right by all accounts, is impacting that perspective and that potential that he spoke to. And then secondly, man, what are some of your, I mean, this has got to be rewarding to be kind of in your role, having these conversations and sharing, you know, seeing those light bulb moments that happen with the Titus of the world. So two part question, react to what we heard and how cool is it to do what you do?

D (43:19)

I think he was spot on about the teacher aspect where everybody TCA continues to learn for good or bad. Like when Titus took my class two semesters ago, the class I'm teaching the semester after was different than the one I taught him. The common thread was that simulation. But because I learned so much from teaching his class and I think his class wasn't the same as the one before, I keep trying out new delivery methods, new concepts, and it makes it Fun and challenging. But the class I'm teaching this time is totally different because I'm taking advantage of new thoughts. Like the this company, little CAD just published a book called the Introduction of Supply Chain. It's free. Okay, I 100% recommending downloading it or reading it. It's mind blowing. But it is the least introductory book I've ever read. It's like, it's like it's sort of a supply chain once you're a supply chain expert because it really gets you to reframe the thinking. And the definition I gave to Titus, the supply chain is. It's the flow of goods and information and money from downstream for goods and information and money upstream. And the new def. I still teach that definition because it brings into information goods and money. And the most important part is getting stuff to the customer or consumer. The new definition from the book is the mastery of optionality under variability to move physical goods. So when I read that, people are going to be like, well, what the heck is he talking about? But it blew my mind. I'm like, wow, this is such a great way to think about supply chain. So using like new tools to help quickly change the curriculum, where I use tools like artificial intelligence to say, hey, here's the old curriculum. I need help changing it to take advantage of these new thoughts and ideas. And it helps me go through and change things on a dime. So as a teacher, it's really useful to keep things new and fresh, but also understanding. Having this like sort of playground to work with students on cutting edge stuff. But I can also apply that back to my day job and then also my side hustle of running a business. These are all things that all kind of you get this flywheel going of, you know, learning how to use these tools, applying the tools everywhere in your life, it's really cool. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the pastor at my church to use artificial intelligence.

C (46:00)

There we go.

D (46:03)

The Pope's making it tough. Rightly, there's concerns, but we. It's still funny. It's. It's really about how do you apply this everywhere in your life? And I'm having a blast doing it.

C (46:15)

And you know, to your last point, I think it's a healthy balance. It's a healthy balance and the balance will be different for different folks in different roles or in different preferences and comfort zones. And that's okay as long as I think, I think the important thing, and I love hearing Titus has gotten his parents to kind of experiment a little bit I think is so important, even if you're a skeptic and you just doubt the return experiment a little bit because it's going to create some ideas and help you get some hours of your precious and very finite life back. Okay, Titus and Ryan, really good conversation here. I want to ask you, Titus. Yeah. Me and Ryan ran into each other at in Orlando at Gartner Supply Chain Symposium. One of the biggest, one of the, one of the I think most well run and very valuable supply chain industry shows each year. Titus, have you been able to get out yet to a couple trade shows?

A (47:12)

I have not actually. I've never been to a trade show, unfortunately.

C (47:17)

Well, we got to change that because whether you're in accounting or energy, like I mentioned that great Schneider Electric, that was a great, great event. Eye opening event or certainly supply chain. We'll have to give you some put on your radar and get you out. And by the way, Modex Titus is free to attend, it's in Atlanta. Each year they're, they're expecting like 40,000 people. And I know you like love supply chain and you know the great thing about supply chain is that as you've already and Ryan already kind of share touch, it touches everything. So you go to a supply chain show, especially when the big broad ones, really everything is represented there. Ryan, how about you? You going to be at symposium again this year?

D (47:57)

Yep, yeah, we'll be at symposium and just to remind you, I know we bumped into each other at Manifest as well, so I'll.

C (48:04)

That's right.

D (48:04)

Yeah. So we're going out to Manifest two weeks and we got tickets to see the wizard of Oz and the Sphere. So we're going to go see 100-year-old movie in, in a new venue. So yeah, we'll be out there. And then yeah, of course at the Supply Chain Symposium in May.

C (48:22)

Love it.

D (48:22)

In Orlando will be there a couple other ones that might pop up. You know, we were just at a user conference for Orchestro, one of our supply chain software providers and we might be at the Generos American Supply Chain Conference in April and I'm not sure if we'll make that one though.

C (48:43)

Okay. And that's in Texas, right? American Supply Chain Summit.

D (48:47)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's here in Dallas, which is. I think we went last year. When I say we the the Trinity team, I think we're going to go this year. And so hopefully if they're listening, I know they're both. You know, I've heard following up with us about getting us to Go. But we'll. Because it's local, we'll. I think we'll be going again.

C (49:05)

Awesome. All those are great, well regarded shows. And Titus, we're going to get you out. So whether it's one of those he's mentioned or. Or maybe something in the finance industry, you know, Fintech is such a hot, hot space. And Atlanta here being Fintech alley, did you know that, Titus, Atlanta's one of their nicknames is Transactionale, I think is what they call it. So we'll have to talk more. All right, so, Titus, a couple last questions for you. Have you ever been to Vegas yet, Titus?

A (49:35)

I have not, but I really want to go.

C (49:37)

Okay.

A (49:37)

Not been yet.

C (49:39)

So we're gonna get Ryan's review of the Sphere and Wizard of Oz and maybe his people watching because it's the best people watching in the world. Love Vegas. Love shows, food, entertainment, and of course networking at these conferences. And Titus, we'll have to get you up there too, as a conference capital for sure. Okay, how can. Ryan, let's start with you. All these conferences, I bet you do some speaking, of course, you're doing some teaching, you're an entrepreneur, you're driving supply chain change there at Trinity. You stay pretty busy. But how can folks connect with you if they want to compare notes or anything you've shared here today or maybe have you come in and speak?

D (50:17)

The best way is really LinkedIn. If you connect with me, please write a note and mention that you saw me here, because I'm one of the funny ones. I tend to only link into people that I've actually met, either put eyes on or shaking hands, which can be irritating, but I'm totally willing to link in with people that meet me through venues like that, so. But you just got to reference it in the note. And yeah, I'm the only Ryan Goodwin at Trinity Industries, and I had shorter hair in the picture, but the beard, still, still gnarly. So you can. You can pick me up from my beard.

C (50:53)

Love it. Love it. And we're going to get an update on the tabletop scene soon, Ryan. Love that. Okay, Titus, Titus Fagan, same question for you. How can folks track you down? They may want to recruit you to their team or they may want to pick your brain on anything you shared here today or have you speak what have you. How can folks track you down, Titus?

A (51:15)

Yeah, absolutely. It's kind of the same way that Professor Goodwin threw out there LinkedIn. I'm the only Titus Fagan associated with TCU, so it's somewhat of a unique name. So hopefully you should be able to find it just just fine. But the same thing in the little note also put, you know, on Supply Chain now podcast would be the best way because you know, I'm the same way. I don't, I don't usually connect with people that I don't know or that aren't from TCU specifically just because, you know, you never know. So that would be helpful as well.

C (51:43)

Awesome Titus. Good stuff. And I like yalls tips there. It's good to blessed be the ties that bond and even more blessed are the informed ties that bind. Right. We connect dots. Good stuff. Big thanks to Ryan Goodwin with TCU and Trinity Industries and much more. Ryan, I appreciate what you do and not only the industry driving innovation, but it's a force multiplier effect by helping smart folks like Titus better understand our world and be better prepared to go out and change it. So Brian, I really appreciate what you do.

D (52:18)

Thanks for having me on Scott, as always, look forward to us running to each other at the conferences and next time I can hopefully join you here on a different topic.

C (52:26)

Let's do it. Do it in person next time. And Titus Fagan with tcu, a third year student. I can't wait to see what you do next. Big things coming for you. Titus. Thanks so much for joining us here today and sharing some of your perspective.

A (52:43)

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was such a such a gift and honor to be on with y' all and learn more. As you know, I'm trying to figure out what my, my future holds for me.

C (52:52)

Well, it's inarguable. It's gonna be bright. It just depends on where you want to do it and I'm looking forward to getting updates from you. So big thanks Titus. Also, big thanks to Dr. Stephanie Thomas and wise folks. Love what wise is doing. Go find out. Plug in support what they're doing. They're really bringing communities of schools, supply chain students together across the country and beyond. You can check out the link right there in the episode notes. Of course. Big thanks to our wonderful audience SCN Global Fam. Really appreciate all the feedback and input and support. Keep it coming. You make us better and stronger and you're why will you or why we do what we do. So with all that said folks, you know the homework, you got to take something that Ryan or Titus said, do something with it, right? These not words. They brought a lot of actual perspective and whatever you do. Scott Luton, on behalf the whole team here at Supply Chain now challenging you.

D (53:43)

Do good.

C (53:44)

Give forward. Be the change that's needed. And we'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now. Thanks, everybody.

B (53:50)

Join the Supply Chain now community. For more supply chain perspectives, news and innovation, check out supply chain now.com subscribe to Supply Chain now on YouTube and follow and listen to Supply Chain now. Wherever you get your podcasts.