The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast

This episode explores:The wide array of constraints currently impacting supply chain organizations. (1:17)Securing a long-term mandate for investment by resolving short-term issues for the wider organization. (4:18)Next steps for CSCOs who have secured their mandate for investment. (7:38)Internal challenges to combating constraints, such as skepticism and gaps in capability or knowledge. (10:16)Recommendations for CSCOs to overcome constraints. (15:06)Supply Chain Podcast host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner senior director analyst Laura Rainier discuss how supply chain leaders can combat increasing constraints to resources through the lens of Laura’s Supply Chain Executive Report: Thrive in a Resource-Constrained World. They explore how CSCOs can resolve short-term issues to secure investments and confidence in long-term initiatives for overcoming increasing constraints.

This episode explores:The digital elements driving General Mills’ supply chain transformation (2:39)General Mills’ technology solutions that link master, operational and transactional data (7:28)Human aspects of General Mills’ transformation: DEI, and initiatives to grow employee skill sets and community (13:47)Recommendations for supply chain leaders driving their own supply chain transformation (16:52)Host Thomas O’Connor and General Mills Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) Paul Gallagher discuss the digital, functional and human elements of General Mills’ supply chain transformation. They explore the areas in which the complexity of General Mills’ supply chain breeds opportunity for growth in resilience, cost optimization and more. Thomas and Paul close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders driving their own transformation initiatives.

This episode explores:The increasing scale of disruptions, and how an ecosystem approach is critical to ensuring continuity. (2:39)Intel’s top focus areas for ecosystem value. (6:58)Intel’s strategy for enabling and building relationships to drive ecosystem value. (12:26)Recommendations for supply chain leaders to drive value from their own ecosystems. (17:08)In this episode of the Gartner Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Jackie Sturm, corporate vice president of global supply chain operations at Intel, discuss Intel’s approach driving resilience through supply chain ecosystems. Jackie provides insight into Intel’s ecosystem priorities, and how Intel partners with its ecosystem members to achieve them. Thomas and Jackie close the show with several recommendations for supply chain leaders seeking to drive value within their own ecosystem, regardless of their size or place in it.

Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ryan Polk, a Gartner senior research director, explore the concept of demystifying supply chain transformations through “designed simplicity.” They outline the benefits of removing layers of complexity and ambiguity from transformation processes to help staff better cope with today’s unparalleled rate of change, and highlight successful examples from Cargill and Bayer. The pair close the show with actionable recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to implement this approach in their own organizations, and the benefits for doing so.This episode explores:Definitions for “designed simplicity.” (1:08)How the increased rate of change pushes organizations toward this approach. (3:36)Where to begin implementing designed simplicity. (5:31)Tangible, real-world examples from Bayer and Cargill. (9:05)Actionable guidance for supply chain leaders pursuing designed simplicity in their own organizations. (14:01)Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ryan Polk, a Gartner senior research director, explore the concept of demystifying supply chain transformations through “designed simplicity.” They outline the benefits of removing layers of complexity and ambiguity from transformation processes to help staff better cope with today’s unparalleled rate of change, and highlight successful examples from Cargill and Bayer. The pair close the show with actionable recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to implement this approach in their own organizations, and the benefits for doing so.

This episode explores:The current state of innovation in supply chain (1:08)Examples from leaders in the 2024 Power of the Profession Awards (3:46)Hype around generative AI shifting toward reality (6:34)Recommendations for supply chain leaders driving business value through their innovation efforts (11:54)Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Maria Nieradka, a Gartner vice president analyst for supply chain, discuss this year’s growing innovations in supply chain through the lens of Gartner’s 2024 Power of the Profession awards. They dive into the thriving world of innovation within supply chain through standout submissions from Dell, Danone and General Mills. They also touch on generative AI’s heavy impact on the year’s innovations across all spaces, not just technology.Thomas and Maria close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to drive business value through their innovation efforts.

This episode explores:How an organization of L’Oréal’s scale stays sufficiently agile to meet customer needs. (2:52)L’Oréal’s view on e-commerce operations and their evolution. (6:23)Handling volatility across plan, source, make and deliver capabilities and the wider ecosystem. (10:59)Building products as “experiences” through additional services. (14:51)Recommendations to help supply chain leaders keep pace with and adapt to customer needs. (18:42)Host Thomas O’Connor and guest Damien Decouvelaere, global CSCO at L’Oréal, explore L’Oréal’s approach to profitably adapting to customer expectations despite significant volatility. Damien walks listeners through the five major trends impacting L’Oréal’s supply chain, most of which stem from evolving customer preferences. Thomas and Damien also discuss L’Oréal’s strategy for diversifying customer experience across distinct markets, especially through customization and e-commerce tools. The pair close the show with three recommendations for supply chain leaders to adapt their operations to customer expectations.

This episode explores:The “intangible” items supply chain leaders must manage, and why it’s been difficult to extract value from them. (3:08)Human economics, and what elements of “people productivity” supply chain leaders should focus on. (7:24)What’s missing from investments in digital economic value. (11:55)How supply chain leaders can enhance output from their resources. (14:54)Which of the three economic elements supply chain leaders should focus on first. (18:30)Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner research vice president Ken Chadwick explore how supply chain leaders can extract value from “intangible”, off-book items like data and human knowledge. As presented in Executive Report: The Future of Supply Chain 2024, Ken broadly categorizes these intangibles into three “economics”: human, digital and resource. Caroline and Ken discuss what supply chain leaders should do to improve output and productivity from these three economics, including which one should be prioritized first. Download the Future of Supply Chain eBook

Host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner VP Analyst Dwight Klappich dive into Dwight’s Predicts 2024: Supply Chain Technology, a set of five predictions for growth and change in supply chain technology between 2026 and 2028. Thomas and Dwight explore the value these predictions hold, the research that drives them and the broad challenges they address, particularly in regards to workforce and talent management. They take close looks at two key predictions surrounding smart robots and employee engagement tools, respectively, then close the show with a review of past predictions in supply chain technology.Dwight Klappich has been with Gartner for 21 years and has over 40 years of experience in supply chain management applications and technologies, having served in various commercial and leadership roles at technology vendors in this market. Dwight focuses on warehousing and fulfillment technologies plus logistics automation processes, best practices, applications and emerging technologies, such as robotics.This episode explores:The value of Predicts 2024: Supply Chain Technology. (1:13)How Predicts 2024: Supply Chain Technology addresses broad challenges like geopolitical uncertainty, talent strain and improved customer outcomes. (2:39)A deep dive into the prediction that smart robots will outnumber frontline workers in manufacturing, retail and logistics by 2028. (9:04)Why 40% of large warehouse operations will deploy employee engagement tools by 2028. (13:09)A review of both accurate and inaccurate past predictions. (19:23)

his episode explores:Why organization design has become so important to chief supply chain officers (CSCOs). (1:15)Reasons for the recommended shift away from centralization and decentralization. (2:35)Examples of integration in real supply chains. (4:29)An overview of the six supply chain “archetypes” — that is, distinct ways supply chains organize themselves through integration and differentiation. (7:53)Recommendations for redesigning supply chain organizations. (15:28)Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner Senior Research Director Alan O’Keeffe dive into supply chain organization redesign through the lens of integration and differentiation. They discuss six supply chain “archetypes,” frameworks that supply chain leaders can use to cleanly evaluate their enterprise’s reporting lines, leadership, scope of work and more, as they design fit-for-purpose supply chains. Caroline and Alan also explore pitfalls prevalent in traditional “centralization versus decentralization” supply chain organization design, specifically its polarized, all-or-nothing approach. Finally, they close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders pursuing supply chain organization design by offering the six archetypes as a starting point. 

In this episode, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Ewan Andrew, President & Chief Sustainability Officer at Diageo, explore Diageo’s approach to sustainability initiatives and the related strategies and trade-offs. They explore Diageo’s simultaneous commitments to stakeholder expectations and driving business growth through real-world examples of successful circular supply chain initiatives, as well as strategic pivots when difficulties arise.Thomas and Ewan close the show with recommendations to help supply chain leaders drive relevant productivity increases that support sustainability initiatives aligned to their organization’s wider goals.Drivers for Diageo’s sustainability initiatives. (2:09)Diageo’s approach to strategic investments that balance sustainability trade-offs. (5:35)Real-world examples of Diageo’s sustainability strategies in action. (8:45)Real-world examples of Diageo’s strategic pivots when plans didn’t go as expected. (18:44)Recommendations for supply chain leaders tackling sustainability through their supply chains. (21:02)Ewan Andrew’s career with Diageo spans over 25 years, but he has been President of its Global Supply Chain & Procurement since September 2019. Within this role, he leads a team that ensures Diageo’s complex and modern supply chain operations work to the highest standards delivering a range of premium drinks for consumers.  Ewan also is Chief Sustainability Officer. Diageo has ambitious commitments through its 10-year environmental, social and governance (ESG) action plan, which will help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. An integral part of this plan is pioneering grain-to-glass sustainability focused on three areas: preserving water for life, accelerating to a low-carbon world and becoming sustainable by design.

This episode explores: Why aren’t supply chain leaders seeing the value they expect from digital trade-off analysis technology? (4:45)Creating returns on digital trade-off analysis investments by closing the “digital to reality gap” through localized, cross-functional decision makers. (07:03) Who are localized, cross-functional decision makers? What roles do they hold? (10:06)How does decision making change going forward? How do chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) know what choices to send down to localized decision makers? (11:34)Three steps toward reaping the decision-making benefits localized leaders can provide. (20:40)Host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner Research Director Suzie Petrusic discuss how digital trade-off analysis technology is not providing the expected benefits, and how supply chain leaders should respond. As discussed in Suzie’s research Leverage Human Visibility and Digital Analytics for Better Decision Making, global, end-to-end (E2E) decision makers rely on digital technology and data-derived models to make better decisions. However, poor process adherence and incomplete process digitization mean these technologies and data models provide crystal-clear insight that is fundamentally flawed and inaccurate. Therefore, Suzie and her research recommend leveraging the human visibility from localized, cross-functional leaders to improve decision making. Caroline and Suzie discuss the reasoning and data behind these findings, as well as recommendations for supply chain leaders looking to employ them.Suzie Petrusic, Ph.D., is the Gartner Senior Director Analyst serving chief supply chain officers in all the areas of supply chain related to strategy leadership and execution. She has authored and co-authored research and case studies on topics such as risk, supply chain maturity, the future of the supply chain, customer enablement, inflation and recession, and supply chain constraints. She also leads Gartner’s research agenda for chief supply chain officers. Upcoming research topics from her team include supply chain sustainability and digital technology.

This episode explores:How supply chain operations in Asia/Pacific (APAC) countries have evolved in recent years. (1:16) How organizations are reoptimizing their supply chain networks in Asia/Pacific regions. (3:27)How supply chain leaders are responding to the challenge of upskilling the talent needed for moving into new markets in Asia/Pacific. (6:14)The key logistics challenges businesses need to tackle as supply chains shift toward deglobalization. (9:37) Guidance for supply chain leaders with operations in Asia/Pacific regions over the next three to five years. (12:07)In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Teh Leng Tan, a Gartner analyst focusing on Asia/Pacific supply chain trends, discuss how supply chain operations in that region are rapidly evolving as businesses explore new manufacturing and distribution network strategies. At the same time, supply chain organizations are also tackling talent and logistics challenges in that part of the world.As disruptions in APAC have increased and tensions between the United States and China have intensified over the last five years, supply chain operations have been exploring such strategies as regionalization, localization and deglobalization. Prior to this time, China was viewed as a low-cost, fast-paced manufacturing hub. But more recently, those geopolitical tensions, along with a declining population in China coupled with increasing wages, have forced companies to think outside the box. For example, some organizations are looking toward expanding operations in markets such as India or Vietnam, and are rethinking talent acquisition and logistics strategies. Tan offers his observations and advice to supply chain leaders on how to advance and enhance their operations in the region.

This episode of the Supply Chain Podcast explores:Why supply chain leaders need to start viewing employee turnover as an opportunity rather than a challenge. (1:11) What do supply chain leaders need to do to start embracing turnover. (4:40) The changes required for the process of backfilling a role after an employee leaves. (8:53) How supply chain leaders can improve employee productivity. (12:43)Tackling the challenge of onboarding other senior stakeholders for the cultural change of embracing employee turnover. (17:32)Caroline Chumakov is a director analyst in Gartner’s Talent and Sustainability team. She covers supply chain talent strategies, change management, communications, culture and centers of excellence. Caroline assists in elevating the supply chain profession to attract and retain top talent and speaks to what talent strategies and specialty organizational structures may address the gaps in supply chain capabilities. Caroline also advises clients on how to improve the diversity of their supply chain workforce and create inclusive work environments for all. She specializes in guiding clients through the development and deployment of supply chain centers of excellence. She discusses best practices for leading changes, whether focused on broad transformation or small-scale initiatives, and she advises on relationship-management communication strategies.

This episode explores:Defining GenAI: a capability at the peak of its hype and plenty of use cases (2:20)Reasons for CSCOs to take action on GenAI now rather than later (5:02)Real-world GenAI use cases in supply chain (7:04)Recommendations for supply chain leaders implementing GenAI in their own organizations (13:03)Host Thomas O’Connor explores generative AI (GenAI) with guest Cliff Henson, corporate vice president of cloud supply chain at Microsoft. They discuss approaches and opportunities in this emerging space, including use cases for GenAI in space planning and order fulfillment. Though early in the GenAI journey, Cliff discusses the transformative potential of the technology and how it has enabled the connection of disparate systems and provided the ability to obtain data-driven insights in minutes, rather than weeks or months. Then, Thomas and Cliff close the show with four discrete recommendations for supply chain leaders seeking to implement GenAI in their own organizations. 

This episode explores:The concept of antifragile supply chains and thriving due to uncertainty. (00:44)Supply chains are on a spectrum of coping with uncertainty from a state of fragile to resilient to antifragile. (3:12)How supply chains respond to uncertainty depending on where they are on the spectrum of fragile to resilient to antifragile. (5:48)Insight from organizations already on the path to supply chain antifragility. (11:39)Advice for listeners on how to get started on their journey to supply chain antifragility.  (17:56)Host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner research vice president Tim Payne discuss findings from the Executive Report: The Antifragile Supply Chain - Thriving Under Uncertainty, a report that proposes a paradigm shift towards managing uncertainty in supply chain organizations. Tim, author of the report, dives deep into how the majority of supply chains’ approach to uncertainty is fragile, and ultimately rooted in preventing major losses from uncertainty. These organizations are protective of stability, and build their supply chains for redundancy and efficiency. However, shifting towards an “antifragile” mindset allows supply chain organizations to convert uncertainty into business growth and competitive advantage. Thomas and Tim close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders interested in pursuing this antifragile mindset, including how and where to begin the process.

This episode explores:An overview of Gartner’s Maverick program. (1:04)The concept of biomimicry and how honeybees can inspire supply chains. (2:20)What supply chains and CSCOs can learn about the role of autonomy from honeybees. (4:45)The role of swarm intelligence and how it can influence supply chains to operate like a hive. (11:19)Key actionable advice supply chain leaders can take away from honeybees and biomimicry. (16:40)In this podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and Gartner senior director Claudia Clemens dive deep into Claudia’s Maverick Research: Biomimicry: How Honeybees Can Inspire Future Supply Chain Design. They explore how the humble honeybee hive’s individual worker autonomy, nonlinear task structure and swarm intelligence can inform real-world supply chain practices like decentralized governance of autonomous workers and collective actions toward sustainable growth.Thomas and Claudia close the show with recommendations for supply chain leaders, including empowering both human and machine supply chain elements through clearly defining purpose and leveraging autonomy, flexibility and democratized data to create true diversity of thought.

An overview of Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25 ranking — what it measures and what the leading companies are doing differently than others: New opportunities and how supply chain can respond to risk and drive commercial innovation and growth for its organization. (3:16)Stories of innovation from organizations in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 (5:51)The idea of collective progress and how supply chains in the Top 25 are driving it (09:37)How leading supply chains are transforming how they work to cope with challenges, such as employee burnout, high turnover and lower employee engagement (13:12)Recommendations for supply chain leaders who want to embody best practices of the Top 25 (18:24)In this podcast, host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner VP analyst Simon Bailey discuss lessons and best practices from Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25. They explore how companies featured within the Top 25 drive growth and mitigate risks by seizing innovative opportunities, transforming their organizations and engaging in collaborative action across the supply chain landscape. This exploration includes specific examples from the pharmaceutical, retail and automotive industries. Caroline and Simon also recommend actions for supply chain leaders seeking to integrate these top companies’ practices into their own organizations, including how supply chain can drive business transformation and drive growth.

This episode explores: Insight into Haleon’s transformation from three supply chains to one big supply chain (0:44)The role of agility and resilience in Haleon’s supply chain transformation (5:33)Avoiding change burnout during transformation and disruption (9:28)Key advice on preventing change burnout for chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) (13:56)Host Thomas O’Connor and Haleon CSCO Bart Derde discuss how Haleon managed its transformation from three distinct consumer pharmaceutical supply chains into one. Bart discusses the transformation’s consumer insight, agility and resilience goals. Bart shares direct insight into gaining employee buy-in for these transformation initiatives by building agility and resilience into their corporate culture. Thomas and Bart also share recommendations that help supply chain leaders avoid change burnout by connecting interpersonal employee goals with organizational goals.

A tale of two companies — “build-in” vs. “bolt-on” sustainability. What is the difference and what works? (1:27)How can CSCOs effectively manage the enterprise’s approach to sustainability and risk management? (4:52)How to build a strong offense for sustainability. (9:28)How can CSCOs better build sustainability into supply chain capabilities? (11:22)How can CSCOs make sustainability a part of everyone’s job in supply chain? (14:35)Key recommendations for CSCOs who are keen to keep sustainability a top enterprise priority. (17:02)In this Supply Chain Podcast, host Caroline Chumakov and Gartner Research Director Sabu Mathai outline findings from Gartner’s Supply Chain Executive Report: Balancing Sustainability and Resilience for Our Climate Future.They discuss the two types of company responses to sustainability and resilience: “build-in” companies who integrate sustainability as a core tenet of supply chain planning and operations, and “bolt-on” companies who retrofit sustainability onto existing businesses where it is most convenient.Caroline and Sabu walk through the sustainability benefits and best practices “build-in” companies enjoy, and how chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) can acquire the necessary attention, accountability and cooperation from their business partners to strengthen their organization’s sustainability efforts.

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Thomas O’Connor and guest Marie Robinson, executive vice president and chief supply chain officer at Sysco, explore recommendations and strategic insights for long-range planning (LRP). Marie discusses Sysco’s integrated approach to using LRP analytics and data to serve daily operations. This creates organizationwide utility and trust in the LRP process, and it allows Marie and her teams to iterate on LRP models as needed. Thomas and Marie close the show with recommendations for cleaning and maintaining data inputs that allow supply chain leaders to build more robust LRP plans.