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Building the Foundation for AI Success: Real Lessons from SCLA 2026 · Speaking of Supply Chain

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  Speaker 1: A lot of times companies focus on the tools and
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  Speaker 1: the technology because that's maybe the easy part. It's harder
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  Speaker 1: to build people and build teams that are able to
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  Speaker 1: successfully utilize these tools and navigate a lot of change.
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  Speaker 2: Tools are sexy, right, and you can get your arms
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  Speaker 2: around them. You understand where they start and where they stop,
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  Speaker 2: and you can very clearly compare tool A the tool
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  Speaker 2: be the tool. See people are more complex. Welcome to
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  Speaker 2: speaking of supply chain. I'm Christine Barnhardt, head of Industry
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  Speaker 2: Engagement and Alliances at me BACK. This is where we
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  Speaker 2: go beyond the buzzwords to unpack what actually drives supply
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  Speaker 2: chain performance. I recently returned from the Supply Chain leaders
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  Speaker 2: in Action Conference or SCLA twenty twenty six, and rather
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  Speaker 2: than simply recap the agenda, I wanted to share the
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  Speaker 2: themes that consistently emerged across the keynotes, the breakout sessions,
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  Speaker 2: the customer key studies, and the hallway conversations. While AI
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  Speaker 2: was certainly front and center, what surprised me most wasn't
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  Speaker 2: how much people talked about artificial intelligence. It was how
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  Speaker 2: often they talked about leadership, trusted data, standardized processes, and
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  Speaker 2: people The messages throughout the conference were remarkably consistent. AI
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  Speaker 2: can accelerate transformation, but it doesn't replace the fundamentals. Joining
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  Speaker 2: me today is my colleague Kate Davis, who also attended
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  Speaker 2: the conference, and together we're going to share our biggest
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  Speaker 2: takeaways from the week and what they mean for supply
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  Speaker 2: chain leaders. Kate, welcome, how are you doing this morning?
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  Speaker 3: Doing well? Thank you? Thanks for having me, glad.
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  Speaker 2: To be on awesome. Before we jump in, I would
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  Speaker 2: love for you to introduce yourself. What do you do
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  Speaker 2: here at MEVAC.
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  Speaker 3: That is a good question. So I'm Kate Davis.
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  Speaker 1: I have been with NVOK for over ten years now
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  Speaker 1: and I lead our business voman and sales team for
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  Speaker 1: North America and also the pharma and life science industry
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  Speaker 1: practice globally.
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  Speaker 2: And Kate is being way too modest because she's kind
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  Speaker 2: of the a little engine that could behind our behind
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  Speaker 2: our sales and business development team, and we appreciate her
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  Speaker 2: so much because she keeps this on the straight and narrow.
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  Speaker 2: So let's get started. Kate, what was your overall impression
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  Speaker 2: of the conference. Was there anything that really stood out
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  Speaker 2: for you?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say, you know, typically or similar to
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  Speaker 1: other recent conferences, AI was a really big topic, but
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  Speaker 1: I think at SCLA specifically, something that stood out to
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  Speaker 1: me was the focus on the people side of it
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  Speaker 1: and leadership, and you know, every discussion was not only
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  Speaker 1: on technolog and AI, but really focused on the people's
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  Speaker 1: side as well.
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  Speaker 2: Agreed, I would say the same, which I think for
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  Speaker 2: me was kind of heartwarming. I think some of the
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  Speaker 2: other conferences I've been to have been very technology focused,
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  Speaker 2: and we did. We talked about a lot of AI.
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  Speaker 2: They opened the conference with a hands on AI workshop
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  Speaker 2: where we got to build an agent, but leadership and
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  Speaker 2: fundamentals and people and process was all part of the
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  Speaker 2: discussion as well, which I thought was really cool. The
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  Speaker 2: other thing that I appreciated in that hands on workshop,
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  Speaker 2: which kind of set the tone I think for the
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  Speaker 2: whole conference, is it wasn't about solving like the biggest
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  Speaker 2: problem in the room. It was about learning by doing
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  Speaker 2: and building confidence with AI, And at least for me
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  Speaker 2: because I'm kind of a nerd, it was it was
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  Speaker 2: pretty fun. I would love to understand what you thought
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  Speaker 2: about that first session, and I don't think we were
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  Speaker 2: at the same table, So what what did your table
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  Speaker 2: talk about or build during that session.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think something that stood out for me from
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  Speaker 1: that session was, you know a lot of times we
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  Speaker 1: talk about AI and you might see what one company
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  Speaker 1: is doing and it looks very very innovative and ahead
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  Speaker 1: of the curve, and that can be intimidating for others, right,
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  Speaker 1: and it almost seems like this huge learning curve and
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  Speaker 1: very difficult to get into the same kind of playing field.
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  Speaker 1: But in this session, it was really more about experimenting,
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  Speaker 1: like you said, right, learning from doing start small, try
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  Speaker 1: things out, learn from what you're doing, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: go on to a journey of getting to that that
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  Speaker 1: innovation and.
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  Speaker 3: Big fancy tool.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: So we talked about that at my table that you
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  Speaker 1: know a lot of the people are just experimenting right
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  Speaker 1: now and they don't have uh, you know, robust AI
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  Speaker 1: platform that they're using day in and day out.
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  Speaker 3: You Know.
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  Speaker 2: The other thing that I heard from several people is that,
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  Speaker 2: especially where AI is concerned, don't start out necessarily trying
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  Speaker 2: to solve a critical business problem. And and and I
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  Speaker 2: don't mean start small. I mean sometimes it's better to
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  Speaker 2: start kind of fun, right, fun entertaining something that maybe
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  Speaker 2: as a company you've been wanting to do, but it
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  Speaker 2: just hasn't been a priority. Uh So I thought that
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  Speaker 2: that was interesting too, which is because that's how you learn, right.
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  Speaker 2: And I thought about that, and I was like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we don't. We don't start out writing novels, right. We
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  Speaker 2: struck out like coloring on a piece of paper, right,
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  Speaker 2: and and then our creativity.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So what were your thoughts on that? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: do you think that small winds build confidence or I.
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  Speaker 3: Don't think so. I mean, even you know, when you're
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  Speaker 3: thinking about these.
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  Speaker 1: Types of tools or projects around AI, a lot of
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  Speaker 1: it is change management, and I think part of change
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  Speaker 1: management is building in those small winds, celebrating the wins
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  Speaker 1: along the way to build momentum, build the buy in,
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  Speaker 1: and keep people motivated. If you start and it's not
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  Speaker 1: going well, you're going to lose people very quickly.
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  Speaker 2: What was interesting because I had just like a week before,
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  Speaker 2: been at another conference, the s and OP Best of
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  Speaker 2: the Best SNOP conference, and a good friend of mine
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  Speaker 2: was there from Dude Wipes and they're a really fun
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  Speaker 2: organization too. I'd love to get them in SDLA. But
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  Speaker 2: she was talking about how in the beginning they were
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  Speaker 2: utilizing AI just to create like funny images that they
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  Speaker 2: could put in decks so that people would like remember
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  Speaker 2: the image and reinforce whatever the deck was talking about.
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  Speaker 2: And so as we were talking in this session the
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  Speaker 2: first day of SCLA, I kept thinking about that. I
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  Speaker 2: kept thinking, you know, maybe maybe we're like going about
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  Speaker 2: this wrong and instead of trying to boil the ocean,
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  Speaker 2: we just need to have some fun with it so
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  Speaker 2: that it's not so intimidating, right, exactly, Yeah, it was.
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  Speaker 2: It was also fun for me. I took notes throughout
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  Speaker 2: the conference and my key quote this for this particular
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  Speaker 2: session was AI capability is built through experimentation, not perfection. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and we so reward success. And I think as a
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  Speaker 2: society we have forgotten like how to be curious and
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  Speaker 2: inquisitive and that it's okay to experiment and fail. So
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  Speaker 2: maybe this will reteach us.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, And I think that motto of fail fast and
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  Speaker 1: learn from it is important here. I think a lot
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  Speaker 1: of companies and people are afraid to fall behind, but
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  Speaker 1: I don't think you're going to get there without this
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  Speaker 1: experimentation and learning from doing.
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  Speaker 2: Good good agreed, Agreed, So we kind of shifted gears
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  Speaker 2: on Tuesday morning physically as well as mentally with Brian
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  Speaker 2: Biro's keynote on leadership, and at first it almost felt
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  Speaker 2: disconnected from the previous day's AI discussion. By the end
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  Speaker 2: of the conference, I realized it really wasn't. In many ways,
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  Speaker 2: as technology evolves, leadership becomes even more important. So I
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  Speaker 2: would love to understand what you thought about Brian's keynote,
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  Speaker 2: what really resonated with you, And I'll tell you for me,
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  Speaker 2: it was really about us as individuals, as humans, we
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  Speaker 2: are the biggest durance to breaking through to that next
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  Speaker 2: level of leadership and success and grounding, if you will.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, totally agree.
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  Speaker 1: And I really really enjoyed this session, you know, not
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  Speaker 1: only from the learning, but also just that activity of
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  Speaker 1: breaking through the board, which was great. And I think
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  Speaker 1: you're exactly right. There's so much that is tied to
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  Speaker 1: leadership around success, you know, around AI and anything else.
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  Speaker 1: And I think his key message was really, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we need leaders more than ever when we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: these complex, you know, solutions and problems who are creating clarity,
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  Speaker 1: building trust in their teams, and helping people navigate that
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  Speaker 1: uncertainty or you know, the unknown frontier of AI.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting my my my wood, my block is
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  Speaker 2: read it there so that when I come into my
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  Speaker 2: office I see it. It reminds me of what my
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  Speaker 2: intention was and what it is that I want to
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  Speaker 2: break through in the coming months. So for those of
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  Speaker 2: you that have never been to one of Brian's talks,
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  Speaker 2: and I think he said he did, He's done over
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  Speaker 2: like ten thousand of these, right, he's the breakthrough speaker.
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  Speaker 2: We literally got to like karate punch a piece of
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  Speaker 2: a piece of wood and by the way, it was
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  Speaker 2: solid wood, right, Like, this is not something that scored.
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  Speaker 2: There's no gimmick to it. There is some technique, but
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  Speaker 2: I did really enjoy it. So I think for me,
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  Speaker 2: a couple of things that I picked up was he
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  Speaker 2: said we should build people before building organization and the
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  Speaker 2: other one was around connection outperforms blame any thoughts on that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought that was a really powerful message.
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  Speaker 1: I think a lot of times, you know, companies focus
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  Speaker 1: on the tools and the technology, and because that's maybe
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  Speaker 1: you know, the easy part. It's harder to build people
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  Speaker 1: and build teams that are able to successfully utilize these tools,
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  Speaker 1: uh and navigate a lot of change.
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  Speaker 2: Agreed, And the tools tools are sexy, right like, and
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  Speaker 2: you can get your arms around them. You understand where
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  Speaker 2: they start and where they stop, and you can very
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  Speaker 2: clearly compare tool AI, the tool be the tool. See,
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  Speaker 2: people are more complex, right and we have nuance and
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  Speaker 2: you know, we have what's important to us and our
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  Speaker 2: in our beliefs versus the company's beliefs, and so it
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  Speaker 2: is more complicated. I think you're right. I think it's easy.
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  Speaker 2: I had not thought about it like that. But also
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  Speaker 2: technology changes quickly. Today we're talking about AI. What are
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  Speaker 2: we going to be talked about in three years. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know, but I think leadership remains really the differentiator
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  Speaker 2: for what makes some companies more successful than others.
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  Speaker 1: Any thoughts, Yeah, I agree, And even you know, kind
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  Speaker 1: of putting AI to the side, I know that's that's
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  Speaker 1: been a focus. But with any sort of technology or
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  Speaker 1: system selection implementation, you know, we see this stay in
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  Speaker 1: a day out in our projects, the tool is the
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  Speaker 1: focus and how are we going to configure it? What
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  Speaker 1: are the requirements, what's the functionality? But a bigger focus,
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  Speaker 1: or at least equal focus, should be the governance. Who's
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  Speaker 1: using it? How are they using it? Day in and
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  Speaker 1: day out, you know, do the day in the life
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  Speaker 1: of and is this working for them?
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  Speaker 3: Right? So having that dual focus on not only the tool,
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  Speaker 3: the sexy part, but also the people and the governance
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  Speaker 3: and the leadership.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we could have an entire podcast, I
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  Speaker 2: think Kate just talking about governance, operating models, change, change management,
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  Speaker 2: change experience because it's it's often considered a nice to have.
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  Speaker 2: Oh we don't really need that. The tool is going
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  Speaker 2: to fix it, And you're like, absolutely not right it.
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  Speaker 2: You want to you want to fail and fail fast.
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  Speaker 2: Don't think about those things and only buy a tool,
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  Speaker 2: right So uh okay, So note to self, UH will
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  Speaker 2: have a follow up when you uh when you get
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  Speaker 2: back next spring, and we'll talk about uh, we'll talk
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  Speaker 2: about uh change experience and whatnot. So start putting your
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  Speaker 2: stories together now. So for me, one of the strongest
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  Speaker 2: customer stories that I actually saw at the conference came
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  Speaker 2: from Craft TIGNDS.
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  Speaker 3: UH.
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  Speaker 2: What stood out for me wasn't the AI, it was
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  Speaker 2: the years that they invested in building trusted data connected
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  Speaker 2: planning governance, which we just talked about, and standardized processes
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  Speaker 2: before they introduced AI agents and autonomous capabilities. So it
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  Speaker 2: really I think reinforced what we've just been talking about.
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  Speaker 2: And I think you were with me in that session, correct,
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  Speaker 2: So what I mean, what did it? I mean, did
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  Speaker 2: it resonate with you too? Or am I weird? Not weird?
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  Speaker 3: You're not weird. I think it's it definitely resonated in its.
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  Speaker 1: Core to what they were showcasing was that you need
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  Speaker 1: a really good foundation, I think right to kind of
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  Speaker 1: build the AI on top of so having like you said,
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  Speaker 1: good data, good processes, governance, and then your AI, when
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  Speaker 1: you put it on top is even more effective and
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  Speaker 1: you know you can actually trust what it's giving.
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  Speaker 3: You is usable. So it's similar to what we do.
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  Speaker 1: You know, with any sort of automation, we say the
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  Speaker 1: process and the data should be the foundation.
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  Speaker 3: If you automate a bad process, it's still.
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  Speaker 2: A bad process.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: I am on record multiple times saying, you know, one
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  Speaker 2: of the big things that AI does is drive you
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  Speaker 2: to the wrong answer faster. It is more efficient, right,
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't necessarily mean it's a better answer at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day. So I think that that's kind
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  Speaker 2: of fundamental. Is there anything else that you think organizations
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  Speaker 2: need to be aware of? As they're building their foundation.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think part of it is also, you know,
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  Speaker 1: going back to the people, having a cross functional team
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  Speaker 1: enables greater outcomes for AI. So a lot of companies
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  Speaker 1: we see, you know, there's eloads of teams working on
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  Speaker 1: our own AI tools.
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  Speaker 3: But if you can really make this.
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  Speaker 2: More broad and.
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  Speaker 1: More cross functional, with more teams giving input and utilizing
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  Speaker 1: the data and providing data, I think this is even
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  Speaker 1: the next step and enabling better outcomes. You know.
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  Speaker 2: The other thing, and I've heard a lot of people saying, oh, well,
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  Speaker 2: I don't need to buy a tool, I'm just going
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: to build a tool, or I don't need to hire
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  Speaker 2: a consultant. I can get everything I need off a chat,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: GPT or cloud, or I don't need to work with
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: an analyst. And I would push back, and I would say, well,
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  Speaker 2: you only know the questions to ask that you know,
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  Speaker 2: and others no questions to ask beyond that, and they
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  Speaker 2: have experiences beyond that. So I think that the need
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  Speaker 2: to collaborate not just within your organization but across multiple organizations.
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  Speaker 2: And I do think that is one of the unique
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  Speaker 2: things about supply chain leaders in action is it's by
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  Speaker 2: the members for the members, right, So it's all of
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  Speaker 2: us coming together, technologists, consultants, practitioners and having that discussion
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  Speaker 2: and that collaboration that also is really really meaningful, maybe
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  Speaker 2: even more meaningful now that everybody thinks that they can
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  Speaker 2: just get everything they need from an AI large language model.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, and even you know, talk about cross functional
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  Speaker 1: within an organization, but also we heard about some companies
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  Speaker 1: working with their suppliers and their customers to integrate data
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  Speaker 1: and it's even more powerful then.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly. So on the third day of the conference,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on the
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: future of planning, the pivot in planning, and one of
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  Speaker 2: the things that really struck me was how quickly the
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  Speaker 2: panel came together. So we had practitioners from different organizations,
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  Speaker 2: we had a technology partner that was represented, yet everyone
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  Speaker 2: came back to the same conclusions. Technology alone is not
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  Speaker 2: the answer. So trusted data, aligned processes, cross functional collaboration,
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  Speaker 2: human expertise remains essential. I feel like we're like a
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  Speaker 2: broken record. So I know that you were in the
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: UH in the discussion because you graciously took some pictures
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  Speaker 2: for me. What do you hear? What resonated with you.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it is kind of a core message
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  Speaker 1: that that translated across a lot of the different topics.
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  Speaker 1: And we saw, you know, what some companies are doing
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  Speaker 1: with their planning systems and really kind of your your
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: message of planning to performance and having those measurable outcomes,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and thinking about how they're using their planning
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  Speaker 1: processes and tools, and again the governance and the people
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  Speaker 1: and leadership exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: One of the things that Matt to Sean talked about
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  Speaker 2: on the panel was human in the loop versus human
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  Speaker 2: on the loop. Any thoughts for how people should think
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  Speaker 2: about that and interpret it. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I thought that was actually one of the most interesting
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  Speaker 1: points of the conversation, right because they hadn't really thought
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  Speaker 1: about it in that way before, you know, having people
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  Speaker 1: in the loop versus on the loop and giving that
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  Speaker 1: feedback in order to be able to better trust the outcomes,
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  Speaker 1: right exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, I think maybe we haven't termed
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  Speaker 2: it that for the last couple of years. We talked
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  Speaker 2: previously as an industry about like AI giving you what
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  Speaker 2: it thinks the answer is right, and then you telling
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  Speaker 2: it yes or no right, or or whether we're just
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  Speaker 2: observing right and we're letting it do its thing and
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  Speaker 2: it's learning on its own, and we're we're there, and
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  Speaker 2: we're kind of we're the Overlord or the Overwatch, right,
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  Speaker 2: but we're not actually, you know, really embedded in it.
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  Speaker 2: And so I do think some companies that are perhaps
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  Speaker 2: a little bit more mature, a little bit ahead of
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: where the majority are right now, they've moved from that
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  Speaker 2: human in the loop to the human on the loop.
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  Speaker 2: But what's interesting is I saw a statistic a couple
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  Speaker 2: of weeks ago that said something like between three and
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  Speaker 2: eight percent of these AI pilots are successful. That is
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  Speaker 2: not we're ready to take humans out of business, right like,
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  Speaker 2: We're nowhere near that. So I thought that that was
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: really good. I think the other thing in the panel
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  Speaker 2: that I loved hearing was nobody talked about we're trying
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: to lay everybody off. It was really about how can
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  Speaker 2: we support our people make better decisions?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, I totally agree, And I think you know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: we talked about the adoption rate a lot as well. Right,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: you can build these fancy processes and tools, but if
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: people aren't using them, they're obviously not going to be successful.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: And I think having that you know, human.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Providing the operational decisions and giving the tools or the
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: AI more input, more feedback, gets a better result, so
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: that hopefully you build trust in the system, you build
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: trust in the tool, and there's a better adoption rate.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So, as the conference are what was it two days?
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Two and a half days getting to a close, I
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: realized almost every speaker, regardless of topic, came back to
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: the same fundamental message, whether people were talking about AI
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: or planning or logistics or warehouse or leadership or transformation.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Right right, Because there's a bevy of topics that get
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: covered over that two and a half days, the fundamentals
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: haven't really changed, right, Like, it's still about getting the
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: best product with the best quality, you know, with the
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: best price to a customer when a customer wants it.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: That hasn't changed. So, I mean, how would you summarize
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: the conference? I'm going to put you on the spot
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: in one or two sentences.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So I would say my biggest takeaway and in the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: summary that I got out of the conference's companies are
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: trying to be more flexible, be more agile with everything
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: that's happening in the world right all the disruption and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: constant changes and the need to get to customers faster. Right,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: things are changing more and expectations are growing at the
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: same time. And I think what's really important as we
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: have these you know, new technologies, new tools like AI
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: coming and becoming more and more prevalent in companies implementing this,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: That's not the only solution to agility, right, It's also
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: you need to build stronger teams, have better leaders that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: can use these tools in an effective way. And if not,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: you know, you could be spending a lot of time
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and being distracted by trying to get onto this AI curve.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: If you don't do it in the right way, it
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: can actually maybe be a hindrance. So the really building
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: blocks you need that good foundation of good data governance
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: teams and then adding on AI and technology and tools
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: can help you unlock that that agility and flexibility and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: be able to make better decisions.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Faster, right exactly. And I think I'm going to speak
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: for you, but I think that is probably the message
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: that we would reinforce as a company to our clients, right, Like, hey, guys,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: don't just jump on the AI bandwagon just to check
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: the blocks, right, Let's really think about how are you
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: going to use it. What is the problem you're trying
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: to solve. What is the data that is required to
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: solve that problem? Because if you spend a bunch of
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: money on a tool, but you don't have good data
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: for that tool, I mean it's you know, a gold
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: plated boat anchor, right like, doesn't do you a lot
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: of good anything in particular that surprised you.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, I would say, honestly, the keynote from Brian
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: surprised me. I was not expecting this breakthrough exercise. You know.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: I thought he was joking at.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: First, and he was like, we're going to break boards.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: So that was surprising to me, but similar to you,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: by the end of the conference, I thought, yeah, that
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: really did have a rightful place, and we should be
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: focusing on leadership and not just technologies and the fancy
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: tools that companies are rolling out, but really professional personal
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: growth for everyone on our teams.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: And I'm lucky to be on the advisory board representing
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Mebach at SCLA, So I got to spend a little
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: bit of time in a breakout session with Brian with
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: the other advisors, and I will tell you he is
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: just he has so much energy and he's so much
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: fun and a bit like practical pragmatic. Right, He's not
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: some academic that is speaking to you about leadership. And
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: what was interesting as we had the discussion was many
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: of us because he challenged us. He's like, where is
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: the first place that you thought about applying this?
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: For?
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Almost hands down everybody in the room did and say
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: it work. Yeah, Like I want to take this to
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: my family, I want to take this to my kids.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: I want to take this to this you know, young
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: person that I've been mentoring or whatever, because it was
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: just it was so energizing, like this whole light bulb
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: moment where you're like, I'm not keeping my eye on
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: the prize and therefore I'm not you know, I'm not
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: focused enough on what actually I'm trying to accomplish. I'm
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: thinking three or five steps ahead, and quite frankly, that's
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: a distraction, right. It was just, Yeah, it was I
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: I have thought about the session a lot since since
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: we were at a CLA a couple of weeks ago,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: and I'm trying to figure out, like what if there's
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: any public sessions that Brian's doping because I'm like, I'm
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: gonna take my children because they need to have that
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: moment too.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I was very motivational, and you know, I've also been
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: thinking about his message around having a vision right and
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: visualizing what you want that success to look like. And
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: that's probably half the battle right, is being able to
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: visualize what works like and where you want to be
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: Agreed, Amy Rarden and I left the conference and we
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: had another event right after it, and we did the
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: finger pointing exercise. I don't know if people aren't familiar,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: but Brian has you think about a spot, like turn around,
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: look behind you, think about the spot behind you, and
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: then point to it, and then he has you visualize now,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: now I want you to think about going past the
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: spot that you pointed to, and you do that a
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: couple of times, and then as you turn to point,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: it's like magic, you go past that initial point that
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: you went to. And so Amy and I were like,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: we're like preaching this to everybody that we met for
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: like two or three days afterwards. I came home told
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: my husband about it because it was I mean, you
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: know what, it makes a lot of sense, and it
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: was a really quick way to kind of reinforce that
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: vision matters right, I think vision matters personally and professionally.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: So if there was one message that I took away
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: from SCLA, it's that AI is not replacing fundamentals, and
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: it is not replacing people, it's actually making them even
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: more important. So I think organizations that really invest in
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: trusted data, standardized processes, strong leadership, and collaboration are really
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: in the best position to take advantage. So, Kate, I
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: so appreciate you joining me today, Love, thank you. How
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: can folks get in touch with you?
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: They can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I am
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: also have an email that they can reach out to.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: So before we'd wrap, I'd also like to recognize one
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: of the highlights of the conference for me, which was
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: scla's Lifetime Achievement Award presented to mister John Fitzgerald, who
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: is actually a very good friend of mine. So throughout
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: his career, John has been a champion for supply chain professionals, innovators,
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: and he has mentored countless individuals myself included within supply chain,
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: and his closing remarks included the reminder that eighty is
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: the new sixty, which I thought was a really fitting
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: into a conference that ultimately reinforced the importance of leadership, curiosity,
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: and investing in people. So for those of you listening,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: if you'd like to have a conversation with me, you
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: can find me on LinkedIn. I'm always happy to connect.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: And before we wrap, i'd like to thank our sponsor, Meeboch.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Meebok is a global supply chain consulting and engineering firm
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: focused on helping organization's improved service, optimize working capital, strengthen
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: their resilience, and drive measurable business outcomes across the end
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: to end supply chain. From strategy and planning transformation through manufacturing, warehousing,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: transportation and distribution operations, Miebach helps organizations turn supply chain
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: decisions into real world performance. Thanks again for joining us
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: and we'll see you next time. On speaking of supply
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: chain