Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Supply Chain AI Implementation: Deanna Harner's Approach at Avanade

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Supply Chain AI Implementation: Deanna Harner's Approach at Avanade · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotis Bodi
0:16
and today's guest is Deanna Harner.
0:19
She is the US executive supply chain and AI strategist as well
0:25
as the executive supply Chain and Operations Advisory Lead for
0:29
America's manufacturing at Abana.
0:31
They are a global provider of Microsoft focused digital and
0:35
cloud services powered by a joint venture between Accenture
0:39
and Microsoft. They help businesses harness
0:43
technology and AI to transform their operations, Dr. efficiency
0:48
and unlock new possibilities. She is also the founder, CEO and
0:53
Executive Operations Supply Chain Strategist for RPE
0:57
Solutions, where she works with executives to drive
1:01
transformation across industries.
1:03
She has over 25 years of experience leading supply chain
1:07
transformations for Fortune 100 organizations.
1:10
Along the way, she introduced breakthrough approaches like the
1:14
Tariff Navigator to help companies mitigate cost and
1:17
boost performance. She is also a published thought
1:20
leader, having contributed to industry publications and spoken
1:24
at top conferences. Now before we get into all that
1:28
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2:09
All right, back to our guest today, founder of RPE Solutions,
2:13
Deanna Harner. Thanks for making the time to
2:15
Share your story today. Hi, Anthony.
2:17
Glad to be here. Happy Friday.
2:18
Happy Friday. All right, So Deanna, I'd like
2:21
to understand your career arc just a little bit before we talk
2:24
about present day. You graduated with from college
2:28
with a degree in human resources, specifically for the
2:31
hospitality industry, but it looks like you pretty quickly
2:34
found your way into operations, supply chain, logistics,
2:38
something very different than what you went to school for.
2:41
How did that first happen? Well, you know, at 18 we know
2:45
everything, right? I did.
2:47
I remember very. Clearly nothing's changed from
2:50
my 18 year old self to myself today.
2:53
So I I thought I would be in hotel and restaurant management.
2:55
It it was just degree in hospitality and I really wanted
2:58
to be a hotel manager. So I worked for The Four Seasons
3:02
Holiday Inn all through college and then I took a job working at
3:05
the O'Hare Hilton managing the front desk.
3:08
They had 900 rooms and they would go from 0% occupancy to
3:12
100% occupancy thanks to the O'Hare airport.
3:16
And I realized that's not the life I want.
3:19
I want to actually have a more regular day and so forth.
3:23
And so I pivoted to Continental Airlines and went in to work for
3:28
the executive chef designing menus and end to end supply
3:32
chain. Now, at the time it was not
3:34
called that and that's really where my transition from hotels
3:38
and to corporate supply chain and and manufacturing came in is
3:43
at that that venture. I got to travel the world at 20,
3:47
you know, tasting wine, tasting coffee, tasting food, designing
3:51
the menus and doing the end to end logistics.
3:53
So it was a great opportunity and I fell in love.
3:56
I like to problem solve and in supply chain, whether it's COVID
4:00
or tariffs, there's always, there's always something going
4:03
on. And so, yeah, that's where it
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started and that's how the pivot occurred.
4:08
OK, and so was it. Did it feel like a a natural
4:12
progression to move from the front desk of a hotel into
4:16
designing menus and traveling the world and finding suppliers?
4:20
Nope. This was all brand new.
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Well, and, and the fact that in my interview with the chef, he
4:25
asked me what temperature you kept food and I said at the
4:27
freezing temperature, not at the refrigerated temperature.
4:30
So like I had a lot to learn and so and so, yeah, no, it wasn't
4:35
at all. I mean, hotels is back-to-back
4:38
shifts, you know, like, you know, seven days, 14 days on in
4:42
corporate, even though you can work like in weekends, you do
4:46
have like an 8:00 to 5:00 Monday through Friday structure.
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And I when I went into the corporate role, I was like so
4:52
surprised because I thought that was amazing.
4:54
Like I only have to be here 8 to 5 usually and I can go home at
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5:00 and I have weekends. I mean, of course sometimes, but
5:00
most of the time and people who had been in corporate their
5:03
entire lives were like, this sucks.
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And I'm like. You need to trade seats just for
5:11
a little bit and figure out what it what it's like elsewhere.
5:14
So. So why did they take a flyer on
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you if you had no experience, didn't really have the the
5:19
skills at that point for it you charmed them?
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So I mean, in hotel and restaurant management, like in
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my degree plan, right, I had worked in the restaurant side.
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So there was some food experience that I had.
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I also think like, you know, quite honestly, and this is a
5:37
key throughout my career, like it's all about someone who opens
5:40
the door for you. And one of, you know, the
5:43
persons who worked with him recommended to talk to me.
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And I was young, I was eager. I did have that restaurant
5:50
degree. And he took a chance on me.
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And so I came in and worked with him and learned like, we used to
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have manuals of menus, paper, remember the blue bag paper, you
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know, stacks of menus. And yeah, it was the one that
6:06
was all accordion. It was all tied together.
6:08
It was like these computer papers it it was old school and
6:13
they sound like the carbon. Copies.
6:15
Yeah, it was kind of like a carbon copy.
6:17
OK, now I'm with you. Yeah.
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And the menus were on there. So if you want to do a change
6:22
and you wanted to change a product and a cost, you'd have
6:25
to like flip through this thing. And I'm like, I was trained in
6:27
Excel in college. Like what is what is this paper
6:30
thing with a calculator? But I learned the power of
6:34
financial analysis and like you would think in hotels, if I
6:38
reduced your rate by $50, no big deal, right?
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But on an airplane, if one little item in the back coach on
6:47
thousands of flights around the world with hundreds of
6:50
passengers, a penny is millions of dollars, right?
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So I learned like crucial information that really, you
6:59
know, and then the quality, like vendor quality, like you would
7:03
source a product. And then when it got to the
7:05
catering unit and got on the plane, it wasn't what you saw,
7:09
right? And having to deal with vendor
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relations issues and cost negotiations.
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I got to do all of that and it was really cool and travel the
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world. I got to travel in France with a
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bunch of chefs, you know, and it, it was a great experience.
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I pivoted into operations after about two years with the chef
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and then I spent the rest of my eight years at Continental and
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operations. So the regional carrier, their
7:33
small jets, right, I managed their, all of the catering.
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So if we hit the aircraft and did damage, if we had on board
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quality issues with the flight attendants and the food.
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I managed all of that for about 8 years.
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Wow, that sounds like quite an undertaking.
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At some point you had enough and you moved on.
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I was. Just ready for a new challenge?
7:56
I, I, I got my master's degree. So I, I took two years off and
8:01
got my master's degree. I had my daughter and when I
8:04
came back with a master's degree, everyone's like, you
8:06
need to be in finance. And I was like, I don't, I don't
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feel like that's the right role for me.
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But I got a job working for Gulf State Toyota freaking Group, who
8:16
they're a distributor of Toyota and supply a supplier, financial
8:20
analysis basically. So supply analysis and I quickly
8:25
learned that I am not a data processing data analysis person.
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Like I took a personality test and it was like, that's on the
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bottom of my list of to do's and I was like, OK, it was good
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experience. I every everything that we'll
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talk about today, like it's all been good experience.
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I learned a ton and it has helped me be where I am today.
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So I'm grateful for all those experiences.
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But if you offer me a job today in data analysis, I'm going to
8:54
do us both a favor and say no. So it laid the foundation for
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some of your critical understandings, helping you
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connect the dots and a lot of the things that you're doing
9:04
today, but you don't want that to be your primary focus.
9:08
No, Excel sheets is not my primary focus.
9:11
I can tell you how to get out of Excel now into higher level
9:14
thoughts and and analysis. But yeah, so then after that I
9:19
went into, I work for Cisco Foods, I got my black belt in
9:24
Six Sigma. So that kind of leans back to
9:27
the operations, you know, side of of the business.
9:31
So I got my black belt, went to Cisco and helped to run their
9:35
ERP change. They were going from a homegrown
9:38
to SAP. So I worked on that project.
9:42
I did some pricing for them for about a year in category
9:45
management for a year. So I did three different roles
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within three years and I got called by someone I worked with
9:53
at Comcast and said, I need you to come over here.
9:57
I guess I'd missed that in the so there was Comcast in the
9:59
middle and like she was like, I need you to come over to
10:02
Comcast, right? And I was like, utilities, you
10:07
know, but I don't know, doesn't seem like a good fit from Cisco
10:12
and all this other stuff. But when somebody calls that you
10:16
have a great deal of respect for and they say they need you.
10:20
You listen, you take that call, you think about it seriously, at
10:23
least. Yeah, and it was, it was a great
10:27
experience, 'cause when you work for someone who you don't have
10:30
to worry about them, you know they have your back and they're
10:34
going to let you fly and soar and do what you do.
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Like that was a great experience because I I could just go in and
10:41
be my authentic self, do what I needed to do and not have the
10:45
fear of leadership coming back and be like, why would you do
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that? I think that's, yeah, that's so
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powerful. Deanna.
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I'm glad that you shared that because, you know, I've, I've
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seen this with myself, different opportunities, different doors
10:57
that have opened with so many of my friends who are in between
10:59
jobs and they're looking. It's so often comes from
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somebody in your network relationship that you have
11:06
somebody who knows you, knows what you're capable of.
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In this case, you weren't looking for something.
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You were gainfully employed, but it was somebody that you
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respected so much that you were like, all right, I'm going to
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pay attention to this and I'm going to I'm going to step out.
11:20
I'm going to do this. I'm going to do something a
11:21
little bit outside my comfort zone.
11:23
I talked to a lot of people who are in between work, right?
11:27
Either got laid off or, you know, whatever the case is,
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there's a lot of that, unfortunately right now.
11:33
And I talked to students coming out and I tell them all,
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network, network. Like you're unemployed.
11:39
Like even if you're employed, I still network, you know,
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fearlessly and often and ask anyone for a coffee chat, right?
11:47
And you're either going to become my client, my boss, or
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someone I enjoy time with, right?
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Like maybe we just have this time and we don't talk again,
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but it was a great time. And the reason I say that is
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exactly what the point you made is like my network has got me
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every open door. Now I have to walk through it
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and kick butt, right? I have to show up and deliver.
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But those doors have always been opened and every role I've had
12:10
by someone I know. And so it's it doesn't always
12:15
work that way. Some people's career is like,
12:17
you know, very different than mine, but in mine it's my
12:21
network. And so I, I think it's extremely
12:23
important to have a strong network that you can call on.
12:27
So you have this long experience of corporate America, good
12:32
roles, different kinds of roles, getting all kinds of great
12:36
experience. And then at some point you
12:38
decide you want to step out of what I'm going to call a comfort
12:41
zone, great benefits, right? The the security of, you know,
12:44
big corporations and you step out into consulting.
12:48
What was the impetus behind that?
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Yeah, I was really frustrated and, and wanted to like I, I was
12:56
frustrated in the fact that I thought I had been an internal
12:59
consultant and just kind of switched companies every three
13:02
years as I would go in and fix it and then go in and fix it and
13:06
go in and fix it. And so I was like, why can't I
13:09
do this like for one company 1 W 2, right?
13:13
And just do multiple clients, right?
13:15
Work for different clients and do the same thing and then go to
13:18
the next one that have the same payroll and the same paycheck,
13:21
right. And so the idea came to me and I
13:24
talked to some friends that were in consulting.
13:27
They were like a small boutique firm and said, yeah, you should
13:30
come. We need your skill, we need this
13:32
experience. And so it was a huge leap.
13:38
It was going from a full time paid job to contract work,
13:42
right, without benefits, without a guaranteed pay late in my
13:46
career, right? Like I, I'm not in my 30s,
13:49
right? And so it was, it took a lot of
13:52
courage and a lot of people told me, even though the first part
13:56
didn't work out as well as I would have liked it to, like
13:59
they were like, you were so courageous to try it, right?
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Like you took the leap of faith, you tried it, you put your all
14:06
into it. And so, you know, you can regret
14:10
parts of it and which parts of it went differently.
14:13
But standing here three years later and getting to talk to
14:17
clients and getting to like really bond and be like, we can
14:21
do this together, you know, show up together and get things done.
14:26
I love that that part of consulting is why I came in.
14:31
But yeah, it was, it was quite the leap of faith, and it wasn't
14:35
smooth. But, you know, here we are three
14:38
years later and I'm like, OK, you know, I learned a heck of a
14:41
lot. So did.
14:42
Did you feel like you were well prepared for that kind of work?
14:46
No. No, not well prepared for the
14:48
changes and the pay and the project work.
14:52
So like if you work for like a full time consulting firm, you
14:55
get a paycheck, right? But when you're an independent
14:58
consultant, there's no guarantee.
15:00
I could work with you for three months working on a deal and
15:03
then you don't sign it and I don't get any pay and then I
15:07
have to work the next deal and hope they sign it.
15:09
And so I wasn't prepared for that, right?
15:12
And so, and having worked in corporate America and like, you
15:17
know, you do a good job, you get paid right, Hopefully most of
15:21
the time to go to that type of work structure was very
15:25
challenging for my mind and my finances and everything.
15:29
So what I decided after two years of being an independent
15:32
consultant with RPE, I wanted to work for a firm.
15:36
So that's when I pivoted to Avanade.
15:38
So Avanade, as you mentioned in the opening is owned by
15:41
Microsoft and Accenture, 2 really well known companies and
15:46
created 25 years ago. And they said, hey, I need
15:48
someone to come in and talk about widgets, please me.
15:56
And I got hired on and, you know, did a lot of, you know,
16:00
I've done a lot of cool things in the year I've been there.
16:03
Widgets. What specifically did they want
16:06
you to talk about? So I call it widgets because
16:09
anything in supply chain is a widget, whether it's Walmart and
16:13
you've got stuff on the, you know, shelf, if you're making
16:16
light switches for a manufacturing company, if you're
16:18
Cisco and you're delivering product to restaurants, you're,
16:22
you're, you're handling A widget, right?
16:24
You may have made the widget or you're distributing the widgets.
16:27
So I, I've worked across from cable reels at Comcast, you
16:32
know, bananas at Cisco to cars at Toyota.
16:36
So I just call it all widgets. Basically.
16:38
I can go in and talk to any industry, any leader, and like
16:42
if they have an inefficiency, a problem with cost, a problem
16:46
with revenue, like let's go and diagnose what that problem is
16:50
and let's come up with a plan that gets you out of it.
16:54
So are you still doing consulting?
16:56
Are you full time with Avanade? Are you consulting with Avanade
17:00
or what's kind of your place there?
17:02
Yeah. So I am a full time consultant
17:05
with Avanade and so, you know, I spend most of my day like I
17:11
would say probably about 30 hours a week just talking to
17:14
clients, right, strategizing on how we can solve their problems.
17:19
Pretty much from May until probably September I was on 8
17:24
hours a day of calls about tariffs.
17:29
And. So, yeah, right.
17:31
At April, I launched our firm's tariff Navigator, which you had
17:35
talked about in the intro, right?
17:37
And So what that was, was something very different for our
17:41
firm. And it was like, in two days
17:44
we're going to assess your tariff problems.
17:46
In two months, we're going to fix your tariff problem and
17:49
using Microsoft that you already own, right?
17:53
And so we're going to come up with a data layer to make it all
17:56
transformed and ready, right? We're going to put an agent on
18:00
top of it, AI agent on top of it to help your team be more agile
18:04
in dealing with tariffs. And so I spent like most of this
18:09
year just talking tariffs. So if you want to talk about HTS
18:11
codes and nerd out, we can, we don't have to, but like it was,
18:16
it was a ton of conversation around that because that was the
18:18
biggest problem this year in business, right?
18:20
It's still impacting businesses today.
18:23
So that claim that you just made, we're going to fix your
18:25
tariffs in two months. What do you mean by fix them?
18:28
Yeah. So most of the problems with
18:30
tariffs is I don't know what my HTS code is.
18:33
I can't tie it to the government data.
18:36
Early on it was the government would change its mind every
18:38
couple of days and I would have to reassess my cost impact.
18:42
And all of that was manual. They had war rooms, right?
18:45
And large retailers and, and manufacturing firms that were
18:49
just trying to figure out with the new, you know, the new wall,
18:52
like what does that impact my cost?
18:55
And because their data was most companies data is not in a good
18:58
state, they didn't know that information.
19:00
They couldn't be agile in saying what even the impact was.
19:04
So our solution would take all of their data, tie it to the
19:07
government system and be able to say, OK, based on yesterday's
19:11
new government law, right here's your new impact on your items.
19:16
Well, now that I know my impact, what can I do about it, right?
19:20
Am I going to look to distribute differently, right?
19:23
I have everything in China. Am I going to move it to Mexico?
19:27
Am I going to just distribute it different or I'm going to
19:29
manufacture it different? Is it I'm buying, if I'm ACPG
19:33
company, I'm buying electronics, maybe I'm going to buy from
19:37
someone other than China, right? Find someone in Taiwan that I
19:41
can buy this electronic from. And so those are the things that
19:45
it would do. It would sit on top of the data
19:47
layer we would create and it would help them tie that
19:51
information and be able to talk and chat.
19:54
Like what should I do now? Right, here's the impact.
19:57
What do I do? So I've imported a lot of
20:01
products in the past, and there was that problem of, yeah,
20:04
trying to figure out what our tariff code was.
20:07
And it's not always clear. I've got, you know this pen, but
20:11
you know this pen. It, it might be under one tariff
20:15
code if it's plastic, another one if it's metal, but if
20:19
there's glass parts in it, it's completely different.
20:22
And it was just, it was mind numbing to try to figure out.
20:26
And I remember some of my peers, they would look for a tariff
20:31
code that was directionally accurate, that maybe was more
20:35
favorable to them. Was there any of this kind of
20:38
work going on? Like is there some, is there
20:41
some flexibility, some leeway in those codes?
20:45
There's not supposed to be if you talk to the US government,
20:48
but I, but I think quite honestly, like you may not know
20:51
all that information. And so you know, you're using
20:54
your best information you have. Maybe you're buying it from the
20:57
supplier and the supplier is telling you certain things.
21:00
They didn't tell you glass was in it.
21:02
So you're assuming glass isn't in it, right?
21:04
Because that indicator is not in your supplier records.
21:09
But the government like started going into large retailers and
21:12
manufacturers when they would change HDS codes, they would be
21:17
notified, the government was notified and they would come in
21:19
and audit the companies. So early on, companies were very
21:27
conservative and making any changes to what they had had in
21:30
the past unless they found it was like really, really wrong,
21:34
right? And they could justify that it
21:37
was wrong and it was just an error in their data processing
21:40
and they needed to update it. So most companies were just
21:43
looking to fill in the gaps. Most of them just had gaps like
21:46
we dealt with this one electronics distributor, right?
21:49
And components, they put electronic components together,
21:53
they created new parts like 1000 a week just based on new
21:57
assemblies of parts. And so knowing what all the HES
22:01
codes that went into those new parts and getting those updated
22:05
when the tariff changes every two days, like that is
22:09
administratively horrible. So like that's what we were able
22:14
to go in and be like, OK, well, let's automate some of that and
22:17
then tell your trade compliance person, here's what we found.
22:21
That's a similar code in your system, right?
22:25
Here's what we recommend the tariff code be.
22:28
Do you agree, yes or no? And then update their ERP versus
22:33
manually trying to figure it out like you probably did in the
22:35
export business, right? Yeah.
22:38
And and so I think this is a really good conversation to
22:42
highlight because whether you're in favor of tariffs, you think
22:47
that they're good or you're against the tariffs, you think
22:51
that they're bad. The part that doesn't get talked
22:55
about enough is what you're highlighting here, Deanna is the
22:59
disruption that it causes in day-to-day business.
23:04
All of this effort that you've had to put into it, all of the
23:07
folks that you've had to interact with at at your client
23:10
companies, they have taken their focus off of things that would
23:14
have helped to grow their business, expand into new
23:18
products, it whatever it is and. Now.
23:23
Yeah, and and now they have to focus all this time and energy
23:27
on not just a lot that changed once, but changes from
23:30
day-to-day and week to week and month to month and tweet to
23:33
tweet. And without stability.
23:38
I'm hearing this over and over and over again for my guest.
23:40
Even the ones who benefit from tariffs being in place, they're
23:44
like, the lack of predictability is killing us.
23:47
We can't plan. We can't.
23:49
And that doesn't make us comfortable to invest.
23:51
And then it has this trickle down effect and you're nodding
23:54
your head like, of course you understand all this.
23:57
You got a better front row seat to it than anybody.
24:00
Yeah, it's exactly that. And like whether you're for or
24:03
against tariffs, I totally agree.
24:04
Like I'm agnostic. I've talked about it so much, I
24:07
don't have an opinion, but but that what it it was the
24:11
instability, it was the constant change.
24:14
You would have executives and high level people at companies
24:17
and war rooms trying to figure this out.
24:20
They would come up with their new strategy, right, of how they
24:22
were going to try to buy products from different
24:25
suppliers to try and offset some of the new costs, right?
24:28
You can't avoid it, but you could try to offset it.
24:31
And they weren't focused on the things that matter, right?
24:35
And they were just focused on this.
24:36
And then what happens? They've spent two weeks to do
24:39
this. They implement it, and two weeks
24:42
later it changes and they have to go through that entire
24:45
process over again because it was manual, it was in Excel
24:48
sheets, and it wasn't tied back to anything that they could redo
24:53
it quickly. And so that was like the drain.
24:57
So now 10 months in, you know, companies are still struggling
25:02
with that. They're still doing it manually,
25:04
right? But now they're like, OK, this
25:07
is here to stay for at least the next couple of years.
25:10
Now I have to start looking at even beyond this stuff that I'm
25:13
managing, am I going to change out of China?
25:16
Like is China really a good next three-year plan?
25:20
And a lot of companies now are pivoting, right?
25:23
What are they pivoting to? What are some of the most common
25:26
domains you see them going to? North America, yeah, Latin
25:30
America, North America, Canada, they're trying to keep it either
25:34
in the United States or keep it close.
25:36
Which is what the goal of the tariffs has, has been and it's
25:40
interesting to me. So are you, are they finding
25:43
that with the tariffs in place that it's now more cost
25:47
effective to do here or are they just bringing it here because
25:51
then at least they've got the predictability of what the cost
25:53
is even if it is more expensive? Yeah.
25:56
I, I think that they're expecting that this isn't going
25:59
to change anytime soon and that their cost, they've done the
26:02
analysis and the cost is better to bring it on shore, right,
26:06
That China is not going to be a good long term plan for them.
26:09
And so they're pivoting. I also like, but even Mexico and
26:14
Canada sometimes are on the tariff list, right?
26:18
That the companies can't totally avoid that.
26:21
They're just hoping that Mexico and Canada is not as high as
26:24
China, right? Because they all know that the
26:28
labor rates in the US are too high.
26:30
The cost to build new facilities in the US, if you're talking
26:33
about like a distributor or manufacturing, those are
26:37
extremely high capital costs. They're already down in the
26:40
revenue because of tariffs, right?
26:43
And now you're asking you to put a huge capital investment to
26:46
bring it back to the US and increase labor rates.
26:50
And they're like companies. Some companies have shut down
26:52
lots of layoffs, like they're trying to figure this out.
26:56
So it definitely has a trickle, trickle through effect, right?
27:00
And all of the different areas we've described.
27:04
But, you know, most of them are doing what they can.
27:07
But I have to tell you, it takes me back to COVID as a supply
27:12
chain leader. During COVID, we learned that
27:15
you didn't know what was going to happen day-to-day, right?
27:19
COVID, was it going to be closed?
27:21
Were we going to be open? Were shipments coming in?
27:23
Were shipments not coming in? That went on for two years,
27:27
right? Very similar in the unknowns of
27:31
the tariff situation and the systems were broken, data was
27:36
broken, right. We had, we didn't have the
27:38
ability to make those decisions quickly like I was talking in
27:41
the tariff navigator approach. And it's like Fast forward it
27:46
several years and we still have the same problem with this
27:48
economic disruptor. So when I talk, I bring that up
27:53
because I want leaders to spend the time now to fix the agility
27:59
problem, right? So that when the next one comes,
28:02
it's going to come. We just don't know what it is,
28:05
right? There's going to be another
28:06
disruptor that comes at some point.
28:08
Like let's get our stuff in order so that when it comes, we
28:12
can be agile, right? We may not like it, we may lose
28:15
some revenue, but like we could respond faster.
28:19
What do you mean get our stuff in order?
28:21
What does that look like? Because we don't know what the
28:23
next disruptor is going to be. So we can't proactively build
28:26
the next tariff navigator because we don't know what it's
28:29
going to be. Yeah, data, data insights, both
28:34
tariff and COVID, I needed data insights quick.
28:38
I needed to know where my inventory was, where my supply
28:41
shipments were, what my alternative suppliers were, how
28:45
I could pivot right when we're talking supply chain, if
28:47
logistics was a challenge, I couldn't get the shipment right
28:51
from China. Like what were my alternative
28:53
logistics options? And if you have data that's
28:57
transformed and you have real time key insights, I can do what
29:01
if scenarios, right? I can do what if scenarios all
29:05
day, Like what if this happens? What if that happens?
29:08
But most of the time what I have found in both of these
29:12
disruptors, it's the data and the lack of real time insights
29:16
that makes this so challenging. So is it that the data doesn't
29:21
exist or is it that the data is so hard to interpret?
29:26
Like the data is already there, but it's just not in a format to
29:30
that you can make sense of it. Most of the time it's because I
29:36
have multiple ERC systems, I have multiple SAS pricing
29:40
systems. I have, I have all of this
29:43
disparate systems and I don't have a data lake, a data
29:46
warehouse, whatever you want to call that data fabric layer,
29:50
right. I don't have that.
29:52
And so all of my disparate systems from the sales team to
29:56
HR to operations, all of those are in different systems.
30:00
I don't have a unified place. And when I do have a unified
30:04
place, is it accurate, right. So maybe my people are putting
30:09
in the delivery dates incorrectly.
30:11
So I have bad data going in. Maybe it's it's transformed
30:16
incorrectly, right. And so that is that's the core 1
30:22
is that most companies don't have a very strong agile data
30:27
layer. And then two on top of that, is
30:30
it accurate? So part of what you're
30:34
campaigning for then is to create that agile data layer,
30:39
what to me sounds like a really sophisticated dashboard.
30:42
It's pulling in data points from various places.
30:45
That part I get. How do you fix the bad data
30:49
input? Somebody you know fat fingering
30:51
something on an input? If I can share a story of what I
30:55
did. So when I was at Cornerstone
30:58
Building Brands, we had 30 ERP's.
31:03
Why? First, why?
31:05
We grew through merger and acquisitions.
31:07
It's not uncommon. I've talked to a client that had
31:10
300. I thought I had a lot and then I
31:12
was like, OK, there's worse out there.
31:15
But yeah, so 30 Erps just within our windows division, we had
31:19
eight Erps. And so when we were making a
31:22
window and one plant it was called X and another plant it
31:27
was called Y and another plant it was called Z.
31:30
So we couldn't even see like our inventory across our business
31:34
unit because items were all called differently.
31:38
I still talk to clients just this week that had the same item
31:41
master rationalization challenge.
31:44
So you have multiple ER PS, you have IT, you know, inability to
31:50
really like ERP transformations. One of the things Avanade does,
31:53
it is the hardest thing to do at an organization.
31:56
I did it with Cisco Foods, right?
31:59
It is hard. And so a lot of times they just
32:02
don't do it. So they have these 30 ER PS And
32:06
so then it's like, how do you do that data layer?
32:09
Like who owns it? And I published an article not
32:12
too long ago about data as the on sexy work.
32:14
Corporations don't want to talk about CE OS, don't want to talk
32:18
about data. They shouldn't have to.
32:20
But if they're not able to be agile, then they have to talk
32:24
about data. They have to get tactical and
32:27
say, why can you not give me this information?
32:31
And so if it's, it's part like having that layer, but to the
32:34
people aspect. So let me tell you about that.
32:36
So we had 30 Erps. We were going to one metric
32:41
across all of our business units.
32:43
We had five business units on time and full to our customers,
32:47
right? How well were we delivering to
32:50
our customers key for manufacturing?
32:52
How was I satisfying you as my customer?
32:54
Did you get what you need on time with the right quantity and
32:57
quality? Everyone measured it
33:00
differently, right? And when we went in and looked
33:04
at the data, if you just looked at the raw data, our first
33:07
business unit was really at 49% on time and full just with the
33:12
data, no manipulation, no transformation, none of that.
33:17
And we took them to 50%. They all had KPIs that said they
33:24
had to be in the 90s. They were all going to lose
33:26
bonus, right? We took them.
33:29
From 30 to 50%. At 80 to 50%.
33:34
OK. Yeah, 30% down, right.
33:37
Got it. So they were meeting their
33:39
goals. We took them to failing, right,
33:42
not meeting their goals. And but you know what happened
33:46
in three months that data got corrected, right, because it was
33:51
the folks who were entering the wrong information, not entering
33:55
the information into the ERP and it was producing incorrect
34:00
results because of that data. So we got people to say like,
34:03
hey, this is going to impact you, we need you to do this.
34:06
This is how critical important it is.
34:09
And then we had calls every week with finance, sales and
34:14
operations and supply chain every week.
34:16
And we talked about every order, right?
34:19
And what is the OTIF? Why was it late?
34:22
And we had all of these. So you dealt with the people
34:25
side of having them accountable on these calls.
34:28
You dealt with the people side like, hey, we're going to go
34:31
with the data that exists, right?
34:33
We need you to do your part and put in the right dates, right?
34:37
We need you to update the information and within six
34:40
months we could now report accurately, right, what a real
34:44
OTIF was because we weren't at 30% or 50%, right?
34:49
We were at like 75%. It was just a bad data entry or
34:54
the lack of data entry that was making it look bad.
34:57
Yes. So we took them down, got them
35:00
to update the data quality. Now we're at 75 and now because
35:05
our metric is accurate, we can go and have real conversations
35:09
with why is it at 75, which customers are we not delivering
35:13
well to, why are we not delivering well to those
35:16
customers and what do we need to do at a strategic level?
35:19
And that's how we did it. We got the people involved, we
35:23
had those open communications and then everyone got measured
35:27
on the new success. Was it hard to identify that bad
35:31
data entry was the the first problem that needed to be fixed,
35:35
or was that pretty obvious? Within a couple of weeks it was
35:39
pretty obvious. We spent two weeks just arguing
35:42
internally about what field in Oracle had the right customer
35:47
promise date. And that began to highlight, OK,
35:51
this is if you can't easily say this field in Oracle is your
35:55
customer promise date, this is your customer due date.
35:59
And everyone has a different opinion that already highlights
36:03
that this is, you know, it's a people and process data issue
36:07
and we need to fix that. We need to agree as an
36:09
organization, everyone's going to use this field.
36:13
This is what that field's going to mean.
36:14
Everyone's going to do this field.
36:16
This is what that means, training and awareness, and also
36:19
bringing the metric to what it really was with the data.
36:23
Fascinating. OK.
36:25
So tariffs, we talked about agile data, getting ready for
36:31
the next big disruptor, who knows what it's going to be.
36:35
Talk to us about how AI figures into everything that you're
36:39
doing. Yeah.
36:41
So I, our firm is focused on AI. So right now, even with the
36:46
tariffs, it was an AI conversation, right?
36:48
And So what you hear a lot in the media, right, is that, you
36:52
know it's going to take your jobs and not just the media.
36:55
I've been on conference floors where people are like, it's
36:58
going to take your job. And, and so like there's that
37:01
fear of it's taking your job and all of that.
37:03
My perspective is this, every technology change that has
37:08
happened in our careers, right? Whether it's a desktop to a
37:12
laptop to a cell phone, right, whether it's RPA to AI, there's
37:18
changes that occur. They're usually not massive
37:21
changes and new jobs come out of them, right?
37:25
So, you know, when you weren't doing desktops, you were making
37:28
laptops. So the workforce changed to
37:31
that, right? RPA was a big thing, Robotic
37:35
process automation. Now it's AI.
37:38
Will AI impact some roles? Yes.
37:42
Not at a very high speed. We've been talking about it for
37:45
over a year, and most companies are still at the beginning
37:48
stages. They're still just trying to
37:50
figure out what it means and what they're going to do with
37:52
it. So it's not an immediate job
37:55
taker. It's not going to take all jobs.
37:58
And what I always tell folks who are are on the scared side, it's
38:03
like upskill yourself. Learn how to prompt, no matter
38:07
what your job is, if you're HR, if you're finance, prompting is
38:11
going to be necessary. Like how to get the right
38:14
information out of the chat so that it doesn't give you the
38:17
bogus information that we all talk about, right?
38:20
That it gives you good information because you've asked
38:22
the right questions, you've put the right parameters.
38:25
That's what we should be worried about in doing with our time.
38:28
Not that it's going to take our job, because the other piece of
38:31
it is what we talked about with data.
38:33
You don't have to go into that again.
38:35
But if I sit an agent on top of bad data, I get bad results,
38:41
right? There's no silver.
38:43
Equals bad output. So what roles, what areas are
38:48
you seeing that AI is currently having an impact on jobs and
38:54
where do you think sort of that next layer of jobs that are
38:59
perhaps at risk? Yeah, I think the initial ones.
39:03
So first of all, like the chat bots, you know that we have
39:07
ChatGPT and copilot that's on Teams and Outlook and stuff like
39:12
that. Those are productivity AI tools.
39:14
Those are likely not going to reduce jobs.
39:17
It's going to make you maybe work less hours or maybe do
39:20
different tasks. The AI agents is what we're
39:23
talking about when we talk about like a digital twin, like
39:26
someone who can do what you do beside you and take some of that
39:30
work off you. And at some point, if I have
39:32
enough of you and I have enough agents, I don't need all of you,
39:35
right? That's when the workforce
39:36
reductions start. So for agents, it's where the
39:42
data in the process is repetitive.
39:44
So accounts payable, accounts receivable, like those type of
39:49
roles that you can have an OCR system read it, input it,
39:54
analysis it, and then all the AP person is being, Yep, check
40:00
right, data entry. Those type of roles are
40:04
definitely the best case where AI is a quick fix.
40:07
Not even a quick fix, but a quicker fix.
40:12
Where I think companies really want to get to, but they have to
40:16
do the work that I've described so far, the data, the upscaling
40:19
of their people. Then it comes in to shop floor
40:22
optimization, your data from your machines, how can you be
40:26
more predictive and maintenance and quality issues, inventory
40:31
optimization. We talk about planning.
40:34
Think about if you had an agent that you could say, OK, COVID
40:39
just happened, right? These factors just occurred.
40:43
I need you to adjust my demand, right?
40:46
Because I'm not going to have all this demand.
40:49
I need you to adjust this. I need you to tell me if I went
40:52
to Mexico, what would happen? And I can do that quickly with
40:56
an agent. It's going to make me be able to
40:58
be more responsive, right? So those are some areas that AI
41:02
is going to come into place kind of think of as twins to people
41:07
and their roles. And one of my colleagues calls
41:10
it your intern, right? And she calls it your intern
41:12
instead of a digital twin. And the reason she says that is
41:16
because an intern needs a lot of guidance, right?
41:20
When you get a brand new intern is maybe your podcast intern,
41:24
right? Like they're not going to know
41:25
everything, you know, on day one.
41:27
You're going to have to give them instructions.
41:28
So when you're chatting with your agent, you have to give it
41:33
a lot of instructions. So it learns and it knows.
41:37
And so all of that being said, I think that the, the, the
41:40
immediate next year is upscaling our people, right?
41:44
Getting them to use Copilot and ChatGPT in their regular days,
41:48
getting them comfortable with that and finding the right use
41:52
case. That makes sense, right?
41:55
A lot of clients come to us and they're like, just tell me what
41:58
I can do today. And I'm like you, you've been
42:02
doing this a long time. Like there's, there's nothing
42:04
that's going to fix it today. There's no out-of-the-box that
42:07
fixes things, right? Like it's all like consulting,
42:11
finding out what your problem is and then making something that
42:14
works for you. That could be multiple things
42:16
put together, right? An agent could be part of that.
42:20
So that's my perspective. I think that AI will impact
42:24
jobs, but it's not going to be immediate.
42:26
And there's a curve that you can go along with it to be prepared.
42:31
So it's an interesting perspective because I've
42:33
certainly talked with a lot of folks who let's talk about
42:36
computer programmers. They're like, I used to need 10,
42:40
now I need 2. And I'm, you know, good friends,
42:44
like kids graduating from college with degrees in computer
42:47
science can't find jobs like five years ago.
42:51
That's what everybody was telling their kids to go into
42:54
job security forever. Everybody needs good
42:56
programmers. And you're nodding your head
42:59
yes, you're seeing this or agreeing what?
43:02
Perspective those roles, we still have to program the
43:05
agents. Like our company hires data
43:08
engineers and programmers to have to code the agent.
43:13
That's a code. It's code.
43:15
So maybe the type of computer programming that they learned,
43:19
maybe they learned SQL or Java or something like that, like
43:22
they have to learn a different type of code.
43:25
So what they're being taught needs to change, but you still
43:29
need programmers. You still.
43:30
So what would be the type of code that they would need to
43:32
know to be able to program the agents?
43:36
Yeah, so it depends on what tool you use.
43:38
Like Copilot, right, has its own language.
43:40
So if you're doing a Copilot agent, you have to know that
43:43
language that Microsoft has, but it's programming.
43:46
It is. I'm not the technical
43:48
programmer, but I've seen them. And I'm thinking like, OK,
43:52
that's not that different than SQL and the things that I did
43:55
know. And it is people building those
43:58
things. So when you come to us and
44:00
you're like, I want this podcast agent, we have to build it.
44:03
And it is a technical programmer who's building it.
44:07
So Dan, I've got two boys, they're 9 and 11 now, and one of
44:11
them thinks he's going to be a professional football player.
44:14
And his dad's 5 foot 7 and 155 lbs.
44:17
So, you know, I don't have the heart to tell him.
44:20
And then the youngest one thinks he's going to be a YouTube, I
44:24
think is where he is right now. You know they've got kid dreams,
44:27
which is fine. I love it, yeah.
44:29
Yeah. But, you know, as, like I said,
44:32
as parents 5-10 years ago, like, hey, you know, I knew the
44:35
professions that, you know, had needs.
44:38
Now I don't know, you know, what the world's going to be like in
44:41
two years, let alone, you know, 10 or 15 when they're out in the
44:44
workforce. What from your perspective,
44:47
where you sit, the view that you have of the world, what kind of
44:50
coaching would you offer? I would see what you as a person
44:55
would not go away from, right? If you go to a five star
45:01
restaurant, right, and you're paying hundreds of dollars for
45:04
your meal, do you want a robot to serve you right?
45:08
Do you want to chat with a you know something on your on your
45:12
desk if you're you know, on a flight, right?
45:15
Do you want those flight attendants to do you want to
45:18
chat with an agent? Maybe, yes, right, But I think
45:21
there's a lot of personal interactions that is done in the
45:25
workforce, right? That is still going to need to
45:29
be there. Some of the marketing stuff like
45:32
maybe ChatGPT helps, but I still want a person who's been doing
45:36
it for a long time to help guide the agent to make sure that it's
45:40
an effective marketing campaign. I do LinkedIn post and I use
45:45
ChatGPT right to tell me which is the algorithm that's going to
45:49
pull this up. It's not always right.
45:52
I have to help coach it too based on my experience of what
45:55
works. So I I think there's two fold
45:58
like one find where it's not going to completely change the
46:03
job. It may, you may have to upskill
46:05
yourself to be able to prompt, but then the other is like where
46:10
where is customer service not going away, right?
46:13
I'll give you a great example. I don't do this often, but I do
46:17
do it sometimes. Taco Bell.
46:21
Went to the Taco Bell recently and the person that comes on is
46:25
an agent. It's an AI agent, right?
46:29
And I'm all about automation. It's, you know, a dollar Taco.
46:32
I know the revenues aren't high. I get it, right?
46:36
And I was like, had this experience and I kept saying I'm
46:39
done. Like my order is complete, my
46:42
order is right. And the agent was not like it
46:44
was like, would you like, you know, Tabasco sauce?
46:47
Would you like this? Do you want this?
46:49
Would you like to upgrade? Would you want to super size?
46:51
And I'm like, I am done. And the the person in the
46:56
background like took the agent off and they started speaking to
46:58
me. Now, since I've gone a couple of
47:01
times since then, the agents gotten better, but it's still
47:04
not the experience that I even want a Taco Bell right now.
47:09
Maybe the agent gets better, right?
47:11
And that's. Of course it will the hope
47:14
right? It gets better, but there's
47:16
sometimes I just want to have a human and so in the.
47:19
Same way if I'm on a, you know, a computer chat or you know, one
47:23
of the automated phone systems. I don't want a robot.
47:27
Like if a robot can answer my question, then I could have
47:29
found it in the help files on their website.
47:32
I need to talk to a human being who can fix something for me.
47:35
So I'm 100% with you. Yeah, and I would just say
47:39
upscale what I tell people, sorry, just when I talk to young
47:42
students who are getting out of college, I'm like the two things
47:45
I in supply chain. But I think it also could go
47:47
across other fields. Data analytics, right, Being
47:51
able to analyze data quickly and efficiently and prompting prompt
47:57
engineering. You don't have to be a
47:58
programmer of copilot, right, but you have to be a prompt
48:02
engineer. What questions do I ask to make
48:05
sure I get the right information to make my job more efficient?
48:09
And then you're going to be more efficient, you're going to be
48:11
more valued in your role when you get that role.
48:15
And I think that's that's what I recommend a lot of folks do.
48:18
Do you recommend any resources for folks who are like, I'm
48:21
trying to figure this out, where do I go?
48:24
Yeah. So I usually recommend like
48:26
universities, like MIT, I'm in Boston, right?
48:29
So like local universities have prompting certifications, right?
48:35
Microsoft, I am a huge fan of Excel because everyone uses it.
48:40
And so Microsoft has certifications you can do online
48:44
to learn how to do Power Query, which is in Excel, and in Power
48:48
BI you learn that code and how to do that.
48:51
And if you use Excel, those are easy transformations.
48:55
So the two I recommend is some certification in Excel and Power
48:58
BI. Not just because I work with
49:00
Microsoft, but because clients use Excel, companies use Excel.
49:05
I'm going to give a quick plug for one of my former guests.
49:08
CAS Maxwell has a company for for those groups that are based
49:12
in Ohio where I am AI al.org, actually a program where you can
49:17
get training and then the state pays you back for the cost of
49:21
that training. I think it's just specific to
49:24
Ohio. So I'd like, I like the other
49:26
suggestions that you offered. So Deanna, you know, the
49:31
hardships that we go through in life often times teach us some
49:34
of the biggest and most powerful lessons.
49:36
I'd be curious to explore a particularly big challenge that
49:40
you've overcome in your life, how you got through that, and
49:44
what you learned going through it.
49:46
Yeah. So about four years ago I went
49:50
and had gastric bypass surgery and I lost 180 lbs and I've kept
49:56
it off and it's a 90% regain. So the fact one, that I lost it
50:01
and two have kept it off has been transformational.
50:04
I probably the doctor suggested after surgery I would have had a
50:08
heart attack if I had not had the surgery because of how
50:12
overweight and I'm, I'm short, right.
50:14
So the combination is really bad.
50:17
And I got to that point because I didn't do a lot of self-care,
50:21
right? Like I work too much.
50:23
I didn't take the time for myself raising a family and, you
50:27
know, just letting it get to a point that exercise and diet
50:30
alone was no longer successful. And over the last four years,
50:35
not only just relearning how to eat and how to take care of
50:38
myself, which is required as part of the process, I also
50:42
learned about self-care, right? And that it is, there's a lot of
50:47
people who talk about balance in your life, right?
50:51
I don't believe in that. I believe in harmony because if
50:54
you start a new job, you're going to be spending more time
50:57
at the office. If you've been at your job for a
50:59
year, hopefully you spend less time in the office, right?
51:03
And so even when you're at a new job and spending a lot of hours
51:07
there, always keep time for yourself always because you show
51:12
up better as a parent, you show up better as a Co worker and a
51:15
friend and in society. And so those core like lessons
51:20
that I learned and I'm, I'm not like it was, it was horrible,
51:24
right? Like the experience is very
51:26
tough. Like you have to learn to eat
51:28
differently or you get sick. I've passed you're.
51:31
Talking about the the experience of coming out of the bypass
51:34
surgery. The bypass surgery, yeah,
51:37
because your stomach goes from 30 ounces to 3 oz and you can't
51:41
eat large quantities. You have to eat an ounce at a
51:45
time and weight an ounce at a time and weight or you actually
51:49
lose the food. And that is very difficult to
51:53
learn if you've been enjoying food like at a normal pace your
51:57
entire life, right? The other thing is because
52:01
vitamin deficiency is very common, I went through a low
52:05
iron period for about 8 months and could not find a solution.
52:09
It was causing me that and dehydration was causing me to
52:13
pass out. I passed out four times and
52:16
ended up in the ER before I went to a cardiologist and a cancer
52:23
doctor and I had to cry to the cancer doctor and I said please
52:29
do not let me leave here without a solution.
52:32
I said I cannot get out of bed. My energy level is so low and
52:37
the insurance companies, I don't want to get into it, but like
52:40
you know how that works. They wanted me to take
52:42
something. It wasn't effective.
52:43
I was there to see a follow up and I was like, you have got to
52:46
get them to give me the one that works.
52:48
I can't go through this anymore. So a lot of doctors helping.
52:52
I talked to a doctor in Costa Rica who tied it back to my
52:55
bypass surgery because of the dehydration and the low iron.
53:00
And so now like I am exercise, drinking water, eating right,
53:07
like those should have been always important.
53:10
But those are like center to everything I do.
53:13
What was the fix for your low iron and the dehydration?
53:17
Yep. So the low iron, I had to do an
53:19
iron infusion and so that fixed that.
53:23
And as long as I continue to take my iron pills should be OK.
53:27
The passing out could occur at any time.
53:31
There is a side. Yeah, still.
53:34
So if you're dehydrated, your blood pressure is low, right.
53:38
And if you eat food that the lower intestine is not
53:43
expecting, it causes your body to go into shock.
53:47
So sugar is an example of that. The lower intestine because they
53:50
take, they take out the upper intestine in the surgery and it
53:54
becomes a lower intestine. So the stomach goes to the lower
53:57
intestine. So if I eat sugar without
54:00
protein, which is not healthy, you should eat a balanced meal.
54:05
But if you do it, you have a cookie AT2O clock, right?
54:08
Or a glass of wine before dinner and you're dehydrated, Blood
54:12
pressure low, it hits the intestine, your body shuts down.
54:17
Wow, it never. And this, this should be
54:20
something that they know about and they tell you about as part
54:23
of the surgery. The doctor would not even
54:26
discuss it with me. I had to go to Costa Rica to get
54:29
a doctor to identify that that is in fact what was happening.
54:34
But this sounds like that's just how the body works, it wasn't
54:37
specific to you. It wasn't.
54:40
It wasn't even an error the doctor made.
54:43
Like this is not a malpractice thing.
54:45
This is just because of the new body function, right?
54:49
This is. Not a lot of people you would
54:51
think experience. Yeah, but they they didn't.
54:54
I couldn't get anyone here to assist besides a cardiologist
54:58
and a cancer doctor. And then when I figured out the
55:03
recipe, now I can, you know, manage it myself.
55:06
If I'm traveling, I have a bracelet.
55:09
If she passes out, you know, give her water.
55:12
But like, yeah, I totally agree with you.
55:15
I would still do the surgery today.
55:17
Yeah, I would still do the surgery today.
55:19
My life from walking, I call it Walking Dead.
55:23
I couldn't walk to the end of the street, I couldn't travel, I
55:26
couldn't do the things I wanted, I couldn't show up how I wanted.
55:29
I would absolutely do it again 100%, but I wish I would have
55:34
known a few things. Yeah, really.
55:36
And that was going to be my question if you talk to other
55:38
folks who have had the procedure and have had the same kinds of
55:42
side effects experiences you. The tough thing is, like, I've
55:47
been to some support groups, but it's only the people who have
55:51
just had the surgery and they're dealing with that first phase
55:55
and I haven't found an Ave. to communicate with the larger
55:59
bypass group. And there's a lot of us, right?
56:03
Sometimes they don't want it to be known, right, that they had
56:06
it. And so there's a lot of shame
56:07
and shock and like, hiding it. I go out and say it because I'm
56:11
proud of the journey I've been on.
56:14
And I think others need to know that there's some challenges,
56:17
but the success is worth it. So it's hard to find the folks
56:21
to communicate. And I find the doctors are not
56:25
as interested in communicating it.
56:27
And I don't know why. There could be several reasons
56:30
why. So yeah, I don't have a solution
56:33
for yet. So if anyone listening to this
56:35
podcast, message me afterwards if there's a way to communicate
56:39
it out because it was scary. Like I was passing out in areas
56:44
that like on the I was with my exchange shooting in Madrid.
56:48
She's 19. We were going to the top of the
56:51
Space Needle in Madrid and I was like, I don't feel good.
56:55
I sat down at the top where everyone's coming out and I like
57:01
you pass out cold, like blue face, non responsive.
57:06
And here's this 19 year old like, Oh my God, right.
57:11
And none of us knew what was happening this.
57:14
Was the first time it happened. The first time it happened was
57:16
there. Yeah.
57:19
So. And then it took a year and
57:21
three trips to the ER before we figured out, you know, it was
57:26
tied to the bypass, and I had to do things differently.
57:29
And still to this day, it's hard.
57:31
Like, who doesn't like a nice cookie at 2:00 in the afternoon?
57:35
Who doesn't want the glass of wine before the appetizers come,
57:39
Right? Like, we all want that.
57:41
And I'm like, can I get the bread?
57:44
It's like I need bread. So, yeah.
57:47
So that's my transformation, and I'll tell you that.
57:50
And some of the consulting challenges that I had, we talked
57:53
about a little bit. It all happened at the same
57:55
period of time in my life. And what I have learned is my
57:59
superpowers connecting and talking and being authentic.
58:02
And I will not ever stop that. Sharing with you today, sharing
58:06
with others like that is my passion that came out of this
58:10
really bad situation is like, how can I use my story, my
58:14
career story, raising a kids story, my health story and help
58:20
others, right? And I think if we do that as a
58:23
society and we connect with people and we help where we can,
58:29
I think that's that's an amazing legacy, right?
58:32
And that's what I want to do. I love that and I appreciate you
58:36
opening up like that, Deanna. Thank you.
58:38
And I've just got one more question for you today.
58:41
But before I ask it, I wanna do three things.
58:43
First of all, I'm gonna share or tell people how to get in touch
58:46
with you, whether they wanna talk about the bypass or
58:49
something else. AI digital dashboards, getting
58:53
your data ready and cleaned up. So you can find her at Deanna
58:58
Harner on LinkedIn. So search Deanna Harner, you can
59:02
look for Avanade, AVANADE. And we'll also include a link to
59:07
her profile and the show notes. So that makes it really easy for
59:10
folks to find. Also for listeners, as a
59:13
reminder, if you want to get more employees access to
59:16
benefits that won't hurt them financially and carries a
59:19
financial upside for the company, reach out to us at Add
59:22
Back benefits.com. And finally, if you take just a
59:25
moment to leave us a comment or review on your favorite podcast
59:28
app, you will hold a special place in my heart forever.
59:31
So thank you very much. So last question, a year from
59:34
now, Deanna, you and I reconnect and you're celebrating something
59:37
big. What do you hope that big thing
59:39
is? My big thing is I want to start
59:44
doing speaking engagements and getting paid.
59:48
So I started about a year ago, right, doing small university
59:52
speaking. And then I had my first
59:54
mainstage event. I'm doing a podcast next week
59:58
with the university in Ireland on a master class.
1:00:02
And I really want to do that. And it's not all work related.
1:00:05
Like I do want to do some like we talked about life and work,
1:00:09
but also share experiences like about AI and like you know, how
1:00:13
you can do it effectively and go through supply chain resilience
1:00:16
a little bit better and faster. That's what I want to do.
1:00:20
I want to continue to be out and talk to people and and just be
1:00:24
able to share experiences and stories and connect with people.
1:00:28
That's that's my next thing in a year.
1:00:30
So there's the personal stuff, and that might be sort of one
1:00:34
set of audiences and speaking opportunities.
1:00:37
But on the professional side, you know, the work that you've
1:00:40
done with tariffs, with AI, with data cleanup, it seems like
1:00:47
those opportunities would be rather vast.
1:00:50
Do you have a specific direction or directions in mind for that?
1:00:55
Yeah. So right now focusing a lot on
1:00:58
universities and organizations, right.
1:01:01
So like ASCM right, as a national supply chain
1:01:06
organization doing a lot of speaking with them, universities
1:01:09
who have supply chain degree programs and any conference,
1:01:13
right, that can have that. The mainstage that I did for
1:01:17
change conference with ASCM in Ohio a couple months ago, we
1:01:22
were talking about the future of supply chain and AI, right.
1:01:25
And so a lot of that is where I think the opportunities are is
1:01:28
to speak through organizations and and professional
1:01:32
associations and conferences. Well, and I see something we
1:01:36
didn't mention in your intro, but you are an adjunct professor
1:01:40
at the Houston Community College.
1:01:42
So are these the kinds of things you're talking about there?
1:01:44
Yeah, absolutely. So they wanted to bring in
1:01:47
professors who hadn't been career long, professors who had
1:01:51
real world experience and the Community College space
1:01:54
especially, they get paid and incentivize on kids going to the
1:01:58
four year school. So they wanted to bring in
1:02:01
professors who had the experience to teach and give
1:02:04
them real world experience and knowledge so that they stayed
1:02:08
interested and finished their associate degree and then went
1:02:11
on to the four year degrees. So I was hired to have these
1:02:15
conversations with students to talk about the real world.
1:02:18
The real world and supply chain is you have to know excel every
1:02:23
role. You have to know it, right?
1:02:25
And so know that like learn it and then in your first week
1:02:30
you're going to improve your impress your boss, right?
1:02:32
And they're going to be like, wow, what the heck was that?
1:02:35
It took me 40 hours last week to do that and you did it in four.
1:02:39
So it's taking those insights that we kind of talked about in
1:02:42
my career that I talked to clients about and translating
1:02:45
that to future leaders and how they can then take that
1:02:48
information and apply it in their education and then
1:02:52
hopefully obviously in their career.
1:02:56
Deanna Harner from Avanade and RPE Solutions, I want to be the
1:02:59
first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story
1:03:02
with us today. I really appreciate it.
1:03:04
Thank you, Anthony. I appreciate your time.
1:03:07
Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:03:09
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:03:11
today.