Karl Siebrecht and Ben Dean examine supply chain resilience, discussing its critical importance in mitigating risks and driving business value. They are joined by Geraint John, VP of Research at Zero100, who explains the shifting focus on resilience from the pre-COVID era to today, highlighting how enterprises can adopt both defensive and offensive strategies to adapt to disruptions and seize growth opportunities. He also emphasizes the role of technology, talent, and infrastructure in creating agile and resilient supply chains that go beyond risk management to support long-term success.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The evolution of supply chain resilience from a cost-center approach to a strategic priority, particularly during and after COVID-19.
• Definitions and strategies for resilience on defense (risk mitigation) versus resilience on offense (value creation and growth).
• The role of advanced technologies, such as AI, in enabling visibility, monitoring, and simulation to address disruptions proactively.
• Insights into ROI for supply chain resilience investments, emphasizing cost avoidance, sales enablement, and superior financial performance indicators.

Additional Resources:

Follow Geraint John on LinkedIn

In this episode, hosts Karl Siebrecht and Ben Dean engage with Diane Randolph, a retired CIO and Retail Technology Executive, and Jonathan Salama, Co-Founder and CEO of Transfix.io, to discuss the evolving landscape of supply chain technology. Diane shares insights from her extensive experience in retail, emphasizing the importance of digitization, end-to-end supply chain visibility, and balancing competing goals like cost, speed, and sustainability. Jonathan provides a perspective from the transportation side, illustrating how automation and data-driven tools enable faster, more adaptive supply chains while preserving critical human relationships.

Key topics discussed

• The impact of digitization on supply chain efficiency, cost management, and sustainability.
• The challenges of integrating new technologies with legacy systems in supply chain operations.
• The role of automation and AI in reducing human error, optimizing processes, and improving decision-making.
• The importance of people and relationships in maintaining operational excellence alongside technological innovation.

Karl Siebrecht and Ben Dean explore the challenges and strategies for navigating supply chain uncertainties. Kris Ferreira, an Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, discusses the role of algorithmic decision-making in improving supply chain predictions, while Rick Watson, CEO and Founder of RMW Commerce, shares insights on managing market, global, and workforce uncertainties and the critical need for agility in modern supply chains.

Key topics discussed:

• When and how to use AI tools effectively and their integration with human expertise in reducing uncertainty.
• The challenges of sharing data across supply chain nodes and its impact on overall optimization.
• How time horizons affect the accuracy and applicability of demand forecasting models.
• The shift towards agility and resilience as core principles for navigating supply chain disruptions.

Additional Resources:

Follow Kris Ferreira on LinkedIn

Follow Rick Watson on LinkedIn