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Solving Supply Chain Puzzles: Insights from a Year of Interviews

Kelly Barner : December 19, 2024

Art of Supply Podcast Blog Post

Solving Supply Chain Puzzles: Insights from a Year of Interviews

I was lucky to welcome an amazing group of guests this year on Art of Supply. 

I always feel a double responsibility when I interview someone for the show: asking questions that are thoughtful and worthy of their expertise, and capturing compelling conversations so people will continue to tune in.

Looking back at the year’s interviews there are a few ideas that stand out as particularly thoughtful - not just on their own, but collectively. 2025 is going to bring a LOT of change, and it is time to get ready. 

In this episode, I’ve pulled an excerpt from each interview and shared my thoughts on why each one is so key as well as how they connect.

 

 

Don’t ever make a decision solely on short term cost.

Victor Suarez: Former Lead Vaccine Program Manager for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine in Operation Warp Speed at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Founder and Principal Growth Partner, Blu Zone Bioscience & Supply Chain Solutions, LLC 

I interviewed Victor shortly after he testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Personnel, about the risks inherent in global pharmaceutical supply chains.

In his testimony, he called attention to the fact that if we only make sourcing decisions based on price, the U.S. will never be able to compete with countries like China. But, if we expand our decision making framework to include quality, it could change everything from the choices we make to overall market conditions.

“We have created a situation where our small molecule, generic pharmaceuticals are being treated as a commodity, like paperclips from Staples, where you are not going to pay a penny more for a paperclip that you get from Staples than the paperclips you're going to buy from OfficeMax,” Victor explained. 

“The difference is these are exquisite medicines that are designed to help people either fight off cancer to deal with a deadly chronic disease like heart disease, or somebody that's got diabetes and has to have their medicine dialed in just right before they have complications. We've treated this like a simple low level commodity when these are essential to life.” 

I find it ironic that Victor used the example of office supplies, the ultimate example of an indirect commodity product. And he’s right; we don’t care what kind of facility our paperclips are made in as long as everything is ethical and legal.

But with pharmaceuticals, we absolutely should care. In fact, how we define quality should include the facility that the ingredient was made in. It is impossible to make a decision on cost alone, because all other factors cannot be held equal. 

Make sure you understand the underlying economics of any strategy you plan to implement.

Thomas Goldsby: Dee and Jimmy Haslam Chair of Logistics at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Co-Executive Director of their Global Supply Chain Institute

At one point during our conversation, I asked Thomas whether supply chain decision making had remained fact based over the last few years or whether we had given ourselves over to emotion, especially where low cost sourcing and re-shoring are concerned.

In his response, he not only traced the rise of China as a sourcing location, but he also shared how those decisions look in the rearview mirror.

“The vigor with which companies left to go to the Far East and pursue that low cost country sourcing has certainly not been reversed. That's why it is largely emotional; it's largely talk,” he told me.

“I remember a survey that I saw a consulting organization ask in the late 1990s, they asked companies that had offshored their operations, ‘Are you glad that you did it?’ I think something like 75 percent of companies in the late 1990s said, ‘We’re not so sure we would have done that.’ They didn't look before they left.” 

Companies were not light about the decision to source in China. In many cases, they had to in order to compete. While we look back now and probably find it easier to stand with that 75 percent of companies that aren’t so sure it was a good idea, hindsight remains 20/20. Our energies are better directed to the opportunistic bandwagon things we are doing today… recognizing what they are and then putting in the effort required to find another way.

Knowing how to be an effective problem solver - even in difficult circumstances. 

Ashley Hubka: Senior Vice President and General Manager at Walmart Business

I was curious about how Ashley would define and describe strategy. In business, ‘strategic’ is usually synonymous with ‘good.’ But what does it really mean?

“In my mind, most fundamentally, strategy is about asking good questions, creating alternatives, and then making decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. I think that's clearly there. The other thing I think about is it's a place where you have a 360-degree view of a business.

The idea that asking good questions is an important skill really appeals to me. Show me a person who listens well and asks good questions, and I’ll show you an influential person, a problem solver.

Given all of the change we know is coming in 2025, we may not always be problem solving, but the whole competitive landscape is likely to change. Asking questions first, and then making statements and recommendations later may just be the best way to get through the year.

I’m already looking forward to the interviews I’ll conduct and share in 2025… some of which are already underway, and then looking back through the same broad lens to see what we can carry forward with us.

 

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