EXPERIENCE: Vice president, operations; operations manager; and engineering manager, all with Pompeian; continuous improvement intern with Colgate-Palmolive.

EDUCATION: Université de Technologie de Compiégne (UTC); mechanical engineering, industrial reliability, and quality.

I was born and raised in Morocco, and then graduated from college in France. I came to the United States and joined Pompeian in September 2013 when I was 23 years old.

I came to the United States thinking I spoke decent English, but I really didn’t. I started in the maintenance department on a team of experienced mechanics, where I had no experience and a language barrier. The company trusted me, but gaining the trust of the department was more of a challenge.

To gain their trust, I focused on consistent, hard work combined with pride and love. Every day I worked longer hours, as I wasn’t yet thinking about having kids or buying a house.

I did this because I wholeheartedly agreed with Pompeian’s values. We offer a good, healthful product and are doing good for farmers, consumers, our employees, and the planet.

In this company, every employee matters. Knowing all of this means I can go through challenges and difficult days with pride. When I return home, I still smile and feel the same satisfaction as when I started. I was lucky that I was given a challenge and I embraced it.

Before Pompeian, I held an internship with Colgate in France, where I was able to see a large-scale production operation. Colgate also inspired me, when I was choosing my career path, to look at what I like to do and what type of businesses will remain meaningful and continuously do good for people. Food is one. People will always eat and drink, and value can always be added there.

It’s also easy to become passionate about the food industry, especially olive oil because it has a long history and provides many health benefits. In many countries, it’s on the table like salt and pepper.

Additionally, manufacturing skills can transfer from one company to another. I think of engineering as learning how to solve things. That’s the part I enjoy, as well as systems and process changes. These are also what drew me to supply chain.

There have been a lot of positive changes and growth across Pompeian. The company is family-oriented and culture-driven. We care about families, food and the planet, and I’m proud to be a part of it.

Salim Benjelloun Answers the Big Questions

1. What are one or two things you wished you’d known before starting your current role?

Without hesitation, it’s English. Speaking the language is an important requirement when coming to an English-speaking country.

Another thing is the American mentality about work and how much we focus on it. In Europe and Morocco, there’s a different mindset and balance. It wasn’t too difficult to adjust to the differences, but I would have been a little more efficient if I knew the American culture coming in. Yet, there is also the beauty of discovering it.

2. What kind of student and teen were you during your high school years?

One thing that made me who I am today when it comes to approaching challenges is that I was lucky to have parents that would not say no to anything. It doesn’t mean they always approved of what I was doing, but they left the responsibility to me.

My dad would say, ‘You’re going to keep going, hit the wall, and then come back. You have to measure the risk.’ So as a teen, I could sleep at a friend’s house even on school nights, but it was on me to make it to school the next day. This helped me to learn not to be scared of making my own decisions.

At the same time, making decisions can be exhausting. I would wear the same pajamas and socks each day so I didn’t have to think about choosing them. I then kept my thoughts for bigger decisions.

3. What motivates you to get you out of bed every morning?

The people I work with. Before I think about my job, I think about who I will be working with during my day.
What also gets me out of bed is the anticipation of uncovering new possibilities, and the excitement of turning potential into reality and embracing the day’s untapped opportunities.

Lastly, gratitude for the gift of a new day and the well-being to experience it.

EXPERIENCE: President; senior vice president of product management and marketing; vice president of product management and marketing; vice president of sales and marketing; and vice president of procurement and marketing, all with Industrial Supply Company.

EDUCATION: University of Utah, B.A., history and anthropology.

I went to college to be a high school history teacher. While I was applying to master’s programs, my dad asked me to come work for the family business. I did and after a few months, I knew I was in the right place. I never did get my master’s degree.

Instead, I started in our warehouse. Over the past 25 years, I’ve done a little bit of everything in the company. It was when I took over procurement that I really learned the business—learning about supplier relationships and how to get products to our customers in a timely fashion.

Today, I oversee the movement of products, ensuring we have the right inventory for our customers in each location. I also manage our 240 employees.

I’m part of the fourth generation of this family business. Family businesses are complicated and challenging, especially for a woman. For 107 years, a man has run Industrial Supply. And in Utah, we don’t have a lot of women in professional roles.

I wouldn’t call myself a feminist by any means, but we do have to work harder. There has been a lot of progress for women in the work world, but not enough.

In my role as a board member for the Industrial Supply Association, I learned an awful lot by working with people from across the country who also run businesses. And it was good for my confidence because I was able to contribute and make a difference to our association and our industry.

We’re in the process of moving two branch locations to better serve our customers. It’s hard enough to move one at a time, but moving two is very challenging, as we are trying not to shut down our customers at the same time.

And about two years ago, we moved to a different Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. We jumped from a DOS-based green screen to the cloud, without a stop in the middle. That also was challenging. But technology is one of our strategic pillars.

We think about what’s coming next and how technologies like artificial intelligence will impact our business.

It’s challenging to move to new systems. For people who are having a hard time adopting, we train, train, train and make sure they’re comfortable asking questions. It’s also important to explain the ‘why’ behind the changes. In this case, the vendor was going to sunset the software, so we didn’t have a choice, but it also happened to be the right move. This helped people get behind it.

Plus, these changes are strong signals that our company is investing in the resources that will take us into the future. Employees know we’re not going anywhere.

At times, when I’ve been dealing with business challenges, I’ve thought maybe this is too much of a headache; that maybe I should have been a history teacher. But I’m in the right place. My great-grandfather started this business and I listened to my dad talk about the company growing up. I attended meetings with him. We entertained customers and suppliers at our house.

And it’s a fun business. Distribution is not exactly sexy, but it’s wonderful. Salt of the earth people work in industrial distribution. I love the people here.

Jessica Yurgaitis Answers the Big Questions

1. What are the first three things you check about the business when you wake up?

The first three things I check are the previous day’s sales, the cash balance, and the inventory.

2. If you could travel anywhere, without being constrained by time or money, where would you go?

I’d go to Italy again and again and again. It has a nice vibe and wonderful food. My husband is Italian and I love his cooking.

3. If you could throw a dinner party for anyone in the world—living or not—who would you invite?

Jesus. I’d love to have him over and see what he thinks of the mess we’re living in right now.

4. What would you tell your 18-year-old self?

You’re smarter than you think you are, and you can do more than you think you can. Keep trying.

EXPERIENCE: Chief technology officer, Kohl’s and DICK’S Sporting Goods; senior vice president, The Home Depot; chief operating officer, Desktone; executive vice president, supply chain, and chief information officer, Staples; senior vice president, technology, Charles Schwab & Co.; chief executive officer and president, Website Pros; executive vice president, Office Depot; multiple director positions.

EDUCATION: Harvard University, graduate work, psychology; Harvard University, A.B., computer science.

I have spent the past decade with large retail companies and played key roles in helping them modernize their approaches to technology. My biggest insight? Businesses need to build their technology for the actual end users, such as customers and frontline associates.

As an example, at one company, we designed an order picking system. But when we observed the best pickers, they didn’t use the system. The people who should have been using the system were ignoring it and had figured out a better way to complete their tasks. It takes some humility, but you come to grips with the idea that maybe we should stop building systems this way.

Enterprise technology often is built for people who spend most of their lives in offices. When you focus on the needs of frontline workers and customers, you end up building software that people actually enjoy using.

I’m bringing that mindset to Omni. My team and I want to understand, for instance, what drivers actually do. How much of what we’re asking them to do makes their life easier? Or do they get their work done, and then figure out how to get it reflected in the system? I’ll be taking some truck rides to find out.

Omni is good at moving physical goods across every mode. We have smart people working to understand our customers’ needs and figuring out the best mode for their shipments.

My team and I want to do more combining of smart people and smart algorithms. This might mean analyzing, for instance, current traffic versus historical patterns, among other factors, to come up with more scientific predictions of actual arrival times. There’s a lot of opportunity in the transportation and logistics space to apply more predictive science.

I’ve always been interested in software and how it can make things better. Then I became interested in what makes people tick. The intersection of those is operations.

For one employer, I advocated for and then ran a large supply chain transformation. It turned out to be less about the correct answers to optimizing the supply chain, and more about changing participants’ hearts and minds and getting them oriented to a different view of success.

The first step is building tools that help the people doing the work, rather than focusing on a theoretical best practice.

The second step is figuring out if everyone is working toward the right goal. Complex supply chains encompass many links and each has its own idea of operations excellence.

People understandably take pride in their personal performance and often gravitate toward siloed metrics. You have to win their hearts to get them to think about the bigger prize.

Too often, there are conflicts between the best outcome for a single link in the supply chain and the best outcome for the whole supply chain.

I’m excited because Omni Logistics does a great job for our customers and it’s a great place to work. Being more effective at digital optimization offers all upside. It’s great to say, ‘Everything can actually be better.’”

Paul Gaffney Answers the Big Questions

1. From a professional perspective, what movie or TV show resonates with you?

Holmes on Homes or Holmes to the Rescue on HGTV. The host, Mike Holmes, understands how a house should be built, and he’s often called into situations where you wonder, ‘How did this happen?’ The same thing happens a lot with software.

2. If you could accelerate the development of one supply-chain-disrupting technology, what would you choose?

A Star Trek transporter beam would be super effective. The more serious version of that would be advances in 3D printing. Instead of shipping goods, we’d make them where they’re needed. It’s largely in the movement of goods that things get chaotic.

3. What would you tell your 18-year-old self?

Spend more time understanding how people make decisions and less time figuring out what the right answer is. Even when the answer is in the spreadsheet, implementing it often has more to do with understanding people.

Romaine Seguin is chief executive officer of Good360, a global leader in product philanthropy and purposeful giving.

Responsibilities: The overall success of Good360: employee engagement, donor relationships, and understanding our nonprofit network so we can impact lives, close the need gap, and open opportunity for all.

Experience: President, Global Freight Forwarding, UPS Supply Chain Solutions; President, UPS International, Americas Region; Chief Operating Officer, Europe, Middle East and Africa, UPS; VP, Minnesota, UPS

Education: MBA, Webster University; B.A., marketing management, William Woods University

I remember closing our UPS office on March 20, 2020, when the pandemic started. At the time, I thought, ‘This will sort itself out. The world will be all right.’

Then, FEMA called and said, ‘We need your best and brightest.’ We all knew frontline workers and none of them had personal protective equipment (PPE). My sister was a nurse at a major hospital and had to wash her mask for three weeks until PPE started moving.

That’s when I knew our role was about saving lives. UPS moved freighters of PPE around the world.

We could hardly catch our breaths and then the vaccines started rolling out. UPS was instrumental in moving them in the United States and around the world.

At that point, I had been with UPS for 38 years. Managing a large team through the pandemic set me up to pivot. When I received a call from Good360 to join, I’m so glad I did.

Good360 is the logistics arm for those with products to donate, and we move products to vetted nonprofits. In 2022, we impacted more than 22 million lives.

From Teaching to Supply Chain

When I graduated from college, I thought I’d go into teaching. Then I answered an ad and started unloading trucks with UPS.

The company found out I had a master’s degree and wanted me to move into management. I told them I liked what I was doing. They said, ‘You can continue to do that, but you’re going to teach and hold people accountable.’

Professionally and personally, moving into management was the best decision I made. My career accelerated. I had only been with the company five years when I moved to Europe.

When I transferred from a finance role in London I moved back into operations in Louisville, Kentucky. I love the challenge of supply chain management. You have to put the pieces together, and you know you can do it in a more efficient way, a more sustainable way, or a more community-minded way.

I was fortunate to travel the world, and I saw how some of it is not as bright as you want it to be. I’m trying to make it better one step at a time.

I spent time in Nigeria, where 297 young women were abducted from Chibok Government Secondary School for Girls in 2014. It broke my heart. I researched how, when goods cross borders, armies don’t. If the country had a formal economy, the women would have still been in school and the young men would have made different choices.

I created a TED Talk on this subject. The fact-checkers go over everything about 150 times, and you have to know the speech cold when you go on stage. I had to rehearse to different groups. I’d walk in a park and ask people if they would mind listening to my talk. But the toughest audience were my family and friends. The talk challenged me in different ways, but I’m glad I did it.

When I moved to Good360, I went from 17,000 to 70 employees, including 50 young enough to technically be my children. It’s my responsibility to make sure they have a great experience. For most of them, this is their first step on their professional journey.

I have been so fortunate. At this point in my life, it’s about giving back.

Romaine Seguin Answers the Big Questions

1. What activity helps you with supply chain or management?

At the gym each morning, I pound out a 5K on the treadmill. I get my best thoughts there and then feel like I can conquer the world.

2. If you could attend any event in the world, what would you choose?

A Women’s World Cup game. They’re so exciting and I love supporting women’s sports.

3. Who is your hero?

My college English professor, Dr. Florence Krause. I went to college on a softball athletic scholarship. She would come to my games, and ask why she didn’t see me in English classes. I told her English was my toughest subject. She said, ‘That’s why you need to do it.’ I ended up minoring in English. It brought down my GPA, but it taught me to put myself in places where I’m uncomfortable.

Theron Neese, COO, Integrated Supply Network (ISN)

Responsibilities:  IT development and infrastructure, process improvement, distribution, procurement, quality, inventory control, and transportation.

Experience: Executive vice president, operations, FCX; vice president, replenishment and 3PL solutions, vice president, manufacturing and supply chain solutions, and multiple other executive positions with Cardinal Health.

Education: MBA, University of South Carolina; B.S., biology and chemistry, University of South Carolina Honors College.

Years ago, I worked as a warehouse operations supervisor. The plant manager conveyed that part of my job was to make it easier for tomorrow; to take one or two hours to fix a problem so I didn’t have to deal with it every day and so things would run more smoothly.

It’s a concept from Lean—to always be looking for the next bottleneck and working to tackle it. It stuck with me and has been part of my Lean journey.

At ISN, I’m in charge of procuring domestic national brands and company private brands from overseas, planning inbound and outbound transportation, and overseeing pick, pack, and ship.

One thing that makes all these responsibilities challenging is that we truly are omnichannel—we operate in ecommerce, business-to-consumer, and business-to-business. And we partner with regional and national wholesalers and distributors.

We also do a lot of same- and next-day shipping. We take orders until 3 p.m. and then ship them out on the same day. All this adds complexity.

In my five years at ISN, I’ve focused on distribution and driving improvement across the enterprise. Over the past few years, we’ve consolidated 18 distribution centers to seven, many as a result of acquisition activity.

Handling change requires several steps. One is making sure we have the right people. While you can teach most things about business, I look for drive, ownership, and process orientation. I want to hire people who drive forward and need to be held back versus prodded on. If a team member takes ownership, they will work to improve the company, not just their area. And a process orientation ensures that people are always looking to improve.

I’m also extremely data-driven, whether the issue is inventory, financial, or something else, so we don’t make emotional decisions. For instance, when judging carriers, we look at their current performance and whether they’re meeting our needs.

We also consider simplicity—it doesn’t make sense to use 50 carriers at one site.

I try to be transparent and use Lean processes: plan, do, check, act. We constantly look at our processes to make sure we do better next time.

As a distributor, we are hit hard by inflation as we try to pass on manufacturer increases while remaining cost competitive. We’ve looked for ways to reduce costs, while maintaining inventory availability and service. Those have been key challenges.

We implemented Locus Robotics for warehouse efficiency and Blue Ridge for supply planning. Pick rates have more than doubled, and our inventory has been reduced by more than 30%. Every day, I use Power BI to review inventory levels and transactions and I engage in a lot of communication around supply levels, to make sure we utilize our capital effectively.

We’re also implementing a more robust sales and operations planning solution. We involved sales and category management in the process, so we reduce inventory in the right places, and our changes are tied to customer demand.

In college, I was a chemistry and biology/pre-med major. I took a break from school after earning my Bachelor’s degrees and worked in different roles for a liquid pharmaceutical manufacturer.

I really enjoy operations because of the ability to rapidly improve the business and solve problems. Plus, every day presents a new challenge.

Theron Neese Answers the Big Questions

Theron Neese is chief operating officer with Integrated Supply Network (ISN), a Lakeland, Florida-based distributor of automotive tools and equipment.

1. If you were granted one superpower, what would you choose?

The ability to read minds. (I’d also need the ability to turn this power on and off.)

2. What would you tell your 18-year-old self?

To slow down and enjoy the ride. I’d also tell him to take on different roles. While I did a brief stint as vice president of sales, I wish I had taken on more roles at the manager or director level. You learn a lot about the business when you’re in the weeds.

3. If you could travel anywhere in the world, and time and money weren’t constraints, where would you go?

The place I’ve enjoyed the most is Alaska in the summer. I’d also like to see the pyramids and the Great Wall of China. I think of supply chain and manufacturing developments and how in ancient times, they were able to create these structures without today’s tools. They are marvels of human ingenuity.

Responsibilities: Merchandise planning and demand forecasting, supply and inventory planning, inbound logistics, warehousing and distribution, final-mile delivery, supply chain technology process and analytics, and quality assurance.

Experience: Senior vice president, global planning and logistics, and vice president, global planning, both with Hasbro; head of retail and CPG consulting, North America, Tata Consultancy Services; vice president, business development, KKM; vice president, inventory replenishment, CVS Pharmacy; managerial and executive positions with Retail Solutions, Inc.; American Greetings, Arthur Andersen, E&Y, and Ciba Corning Diagnostics.

Education: M.S., biomedical engineering, Boston University; B.S., biomedical and electrical engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

My role at Bob’s Discount Furniture is a new one. We brought all the supply chain areas across our organization into one place, and I’m responsible for moving goods from start to finish.

A first step was getting everyone to work together. I started with a weekly call with the leadership team. I love making sure everyone knows exactly what everyone else knows.

Making It Right

The lightning rod that brought together every function was asking: ‘How do we make it right for the customer every time?’ If we promise we’ll get a product to a customer in one week, then we have to deliver on that promise.

To get there, we are working hard to make sure our in-stock levels are where they need to be. We are nine months into this effort. Our goods come from abroad in many cases. During and coming out of the pandemic, the thinking was, ‘just get your hands on whatever goods you can get your hands on.’

At some point, though, we have to prioritize. We have several thousand stock-keeping units (SKUs) across 75 suppliers, and all have finite capacity.  We worked to help our suppliers prioritize our critical needs.

As a second step, we spent a lot of time this year building relationships with a large number of carriers to make sure that we have the capacity we need to move all our goods.

The third step was boosting visibility. That is a big challenge and a big opportunity for everybody in the supply chain.

In-Stock Levels

With these initiatives, we were able to drive our in-stock levels to where they needed to be. Today we’re about back to pre-pandemic levels. That has been exciting for us.

My career has been non-linear. I started as an academic scientist, and then moved to medical products, consulting, and consumer goods.

The academic world was great. I was studying movement and neuromuscular systems. It was really interesting and great scientific work, but it didn’t have that practical, pragmatic element to it.

In my first supply chain role, the challenge for me was pushing out of my comfort zone, trying new things, and figuring out how to get my arms around the system.

That’s where my engineering degree helps. Everything to me is a big, complex system, whether it’s running a supply chain or running a company.

What I love about supply chain is how it combines several cool things. It’s a large and complex system. It’s a big mathematical problem–‘I have to move these things from point A to point B and these are the variables I have to deal with’—so it has intellectual excitement to it. I also love that it’s practical.

And, finally, we serve customers. I love when someone receives our furniture and it feels good in their home.

Ramesh Murthy Answers the Big Questions

1. What activities help you in your role?

I am into music and enjoy figuring out how all the components and systems go together so I can get the outcome I want. If you mix and match different equipment, you get very different sounds. It’s Zen and also analytical.

2. What’s the best leadership or supply chain advice you received?

Early in my career I learned success is about having the best people you can get, as opposed to necessarily having the best plan or strategy. That was a big change for me. I had always felt you lay out the strategy and then hand it to people to go do it. It’s much better the other way around.

3. If you could time travel, what period would most interest you?

As an engineer and a bit of a nerd, I always wanted to be in the Renaissance period; to spend time with Da Vinci and watch how he invented. Today we’re in a period of technological creativity. It’s different from the pure physical creativity of that time.

Experience: President and chief operating officer, investor, and board member, Fernish; board member, Radiant Logistics; chief operating officer, Dolly, Inc.; vice president, operations, logistics, fulfillment and supply chain, zulily; leadership and managerial positions with Amazon.com and with Dell Computer Corporation.

Education: MBA, MIT Sloan School of Management; S.M., transportation and supply chain, MIT; MSE and BSE, industrial engineering and operations research, University of Michigan.

Early in my career I was lucky to have several formative and amazing experiences. At Dell, for example, I worked on a massive reimagining of our manufacturing and logistics processes.

To understand them, I went on the plant floor and physically walked the processes, while also observing the virtual, software-driven process. I’d see that if we got rid of one step, we still had to figure out how to get certain information to the right person at the right time.

I pulled together about eight software teams and two hardware teams. Initially, I didn’t know the difference between, for instance, a router and a switch. I had to facilitate very humble conversations and ask, ‘How does this look to you? Does this seem like I have it? What am I missing?’

That experience showed me I could learn and have an impact, even in ambiguous or scary situations. It allowed me to see I could provide real value by marrying the worlds of supply chain, logistics, operations, and technology.

A Well- Rounded Education

I grew up thinking cross-functionally. I was interested in theater and music, and I also liked math, science, and writing. That’s how I ended up at the University of Michigan. It’s an amazing school with a lot of colleges that are top in their fields.

I applied to the College of Engineering. During my freshman year, they were recruiting for a program to build operational leaders. I didn’t think I wanted to be in operations, but I would get to take classes in engineering, business, foreign language, and culture, so I’d have an incredibly well-rounded education. I fell into the operations world, and really love it.

In any company that’s growing quickly, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by growth. You have to establish processes that are repeatable and predictable, so you don’t have to think about every action. With these processes in place, you can focus on where innovation will come from and where the opportunities are. Facilitating these conversations is a big part of my job.

My impact as an individual is limited to the time in the day and the skillsets that I have. But if I can remove roadblocks for others, I can get huge wins. The greatest thing for me is to watch others grow and develop, and even surprise themselves with what they’re able to do.

With each of my career moves, I’ve gone to earlier-stage companies. There’s a great phrase: ‘Running a startup means oscillating between terror and euphoria.’ You’re constantly faced with things that can feel very high stakes.

But the sense of collaboration, the camaraderie, the feeling that you’re all working in one direction and taking ownership in what you’re trying to build—even through the ‘oh my gosh, are we going to be able to do this?’—that’s why I keep going to startups.

Kristin Toth Answers the Big Questions

1. What supply chain disrupting technology would you like to see developed quickly?

Transparency in the supply chain is so key because there are risks to participating in the global economy. I would like anything technology that could provide transparency to questions like: Where are my shipments? When should I expect them? Are things on track or not?

2. What hobbies or activities make you better at supply chain management?

I love cooking and baking and that’s also why I love operations; you follow a set of instructions, pay attention to what you’re doing, put a lot of love into it, and then see the results.
During the pandemic, I began baking sourdough bread. When I try to work through a tough problem, I switch gears and might bake cupcakes for the team. I get lost in the process; it’s very zen and helps me reset and think things through.

3. If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

I wish I could teleport. I have teams and friends everywhere and would love to be able to see them more easily. I’d love to, say, hop into our warehouse in Austin, solve a problem, and hop back out.

Responsibilities: Oversee distribution, fulfillment, network design, inventory and demand planning, forecasting, transportation, logistics, safety, and facilities, among other functions.

Experience: Vice president, logistics and inventory management, Sleep Number Corporation; vice president, fulfillment and final mile, Ashley Furniture Industries; senior director, online operations and fulfillment, Sears Holding; director of distribution and logistics and logistics manager, Coca-Cola Consolidated, and senior operations manager, Amazon.

Education: M.B.A., Sullivan University; B.S. Business Administration, University of South Carolina.

While interning with Walmart, I visited a distribution center in Monroe, North Carolina, and immediately knew this was where I wanted to be.

There was so much going on: high-tech conveyors and de-palletizers, trucks coming in and out, people working on different things. I was hooked.

Then, early in my days at Amazon, I learned the importance of being able to quickly change and try new things. As part of an operations team that launched multiple new buildings, I had the opportunity to teach and train new employees, open new facilities, and implement technology to go faster.

As I grew in my career, I learned different aspects of the distribution network, including transportation, inventory management, and e-commerce operations. I got into network design and the engineering that goes into figuring out not just where you’re at, but how to skate to where the puck is going and build a network for the future.

When I joined Ashley Furniture, we worked on the customer experience from a customer lens, and not just an operations lens. We focused on enhancing the experience once the drivers and furniture arrived at customers’ homes. When you cross into somebody’s home, the experience is not just important; it’s sacred.

At Northern Tool + Equipment, our customers are the ones who do the tough jobs. They kept the country running during the pandemic. They’re professionals and serious DIYers, who want pro-grade tools.

We aren’t just a store trying to sell goods. We’re anchors in our communities and we keep the people who do these jobs working.
I’m proud of our ability over the past few years to not just adjust, but also to be agile. We’re not a small ship, but we’re much smaller than the biggest ships. Those ships can weather some storms, but they’re also hard to turn.

We’re strong enough to weather the storms, and we also can make agile cuts and invest in supply chain initiatives to make us stronger and better. For instance, we’re implementing ship-from-store technology for customers using our direct channel. Utilizing store inventory gets us geographically closer to the customer and normalizes inventory.

We launched with an alpha site. We try and fail, and hone the system before we plug it into place. The patience to do that is not easy, especially in a violently changing supply chain environment. But once you get it nailed down, you can execute fast. That has been key to the success of this program.

We’re growing and investing in new facilities and systems in an environment where everything is scary and up for grabs, and a lot of folks are trying not to collapse. I’m grateful for the growth of my team as we’ve done this.

Shaun Bunch Answers the Big Questions

1. What activity makes you better at supply chain management?

I’ve coached my three teenagers in basketball at all levels. Coaching basketball is one of my passions and it plays into my obsession with supply chain. Basketball is a sport of orchestration and adjusting to the dynamics of the other team. You have to have good plays and training so each individual can harmonize as a team, and then respond to the other team.

2. If you could speed the development of a supply-chain-disrupting technology, what would you choose?

Better technology around the movement of big and heavy goods.

3. Who are your heroes?

My grandfather is one. His ability to lead our family and in the community, his work ethic, his kindness, his business savvy and smarts, and his ability to unite—I strive to be like him every day.

Professionally, I love risk-takers; people who charge in with a vision, not knowing exactly how to get there. But they charge anyway because they know it’ll work. Jeff Bezos gets a lot of bad press, but Amazon started out like everything: an idea. His ability to be fearless in building it was monumental. It taught me if you have a vision and you’re passionate about executing it, anything’s possible.

Responsibilities: Managing a fleet of vehicles along with several warehouse, driver, and office teams, and overseeing product shipments.

Experience: Owner, Tuff Harber LLC; operations manager, Walmart; program manager, troop commander, assistant operations officer, executive officer, and platoon leader, all with the U.S. Army.

Education: M.S., Organizational Leadership, Columbus State University; B.B.A, Business Administration, Bellarmine University.

Going through Army Ranger school, an extreme combat leadership program, I repeated every phase at least twice. Instead of graduating in the usual 62 days, it took me about 200 days. That was a humbling experience.

But I was 100% determined that I was not leaving without a Ranger tab. I tried to learn from my failures and bounce back. I was still fortunate enough to graduate; the graduation rate is only about 50%.

In the military, I served as an executive officer—basically, a logistician for about 100 people, forecasting consumption rates for fuel, ammunition, food, and other items. I excelled at keeping my team equipped with everything they needed, before they knew they needed it.

The Army also provided an opportunity to lead and work with different types of leaders and people, and taught me the importance of the human element. I won’t ask somebody to do something that I won’t do or haven’t done. I give everybody the same respect; I don’t talk down to people.

After the Army, I talked to Boston Scientific about a sales role, and to Walmart about an operations manager position. The operations position would also allow me to teach leadership. I jumped on that role and was with Walmart for about four years.

Empowering my team to take ownership is 100% the direction that I run. For example, when I joined Milgard Windows, I noticed a collection of spare items and junk collecting in the back lot, taking up space where the fleet should park. Plus, if I brought visitors here, that’s what they would see first. It was like a handshake from our operation. I did not want that reflecting on my team.

So, one of the first projects my team and I took on was to clean this area. When it’s hard to know where to start, cleaning and organizing is always a good point. It helps you organize not only your space, but your mind.

We also focus on using data and leveraging it to plan our work. For instance, if items are breaking on the truck, we ask: “Which routes? How is the driver securing the loads?” We look for the true root of the problem, rather than just react to it.

Once a month, we come together as a team to celebrate birthdays and do team-building activities. Everyone now takes more ownership and it shows. For instance, we cut the percentage of outstanding invoices by about 77%.

Leadership style and engagement drive the culture at Milgard. We tell employees, ‘These are your boundaries; this is your target; get to your target and stay in the boundaries.” That allows autonomy so everyone can develop their own way to reach the goals.

Just a few minutes ago, I had an issue on the floor and asked one of the workers responsible for the area to handle it. He told me things I didn’t know and said, “I might try something like this.”

I learn from my team every day.

Gary Harber Answers the Big Questions

1. Of all the places you’ve traveled, which one left the biggest impact?

South Korea. I was there from fourth through sixth grade. It was cool to be culturally immersed and learn the language as a kid.

2. If you could throw a dinner party with anyone in the world, who would you invite?

Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Reagan was in office during a time when he was successful. I’d like to hear what he’d say about what is going on today. Schwarzenegger was in the military, he rose to governor, and he did the whole Hollywood thing.

3. You’re suddenly able to time-travel. Where and when would you go?

I would love to transport myself to ancient Egypt to see the pyramids, or to see how the Incas made Machu Pichu. I’m a nerd about understanding the engineering of ancient sites, such as the statues on Easter Island or Stonehenge.

4. Do you have a hidden talent?

I was a college cheerleader. I typically don’t advertise that too much, but it happened and it was cool. It’s even on my LinkedIn profile now.

Responsibilities: Ensuring 3,000 restaurant locations receive their products on time, accurately, and cost effectively. Working with four partners to manage 19 distribution centers, while also managing 250 vendors across the country.

Experience: Senior manager, distribution and logistics, also with CKE Restaurants Holdings; logistics and distribution manager, and transportation manager with ACH Food Companies.

Education: Studied architecture at the University of Memphis and drafting and design at Northwest Mississippi Community.

I grew up with Legos, and own a few adult Lego sets now. Working with them helps me gain a big picture perspective.

You’ve got to be able to see everything, and also see things that are not there, like a sculptor sees a monument within the marble. Whatever you’re building may not look like anything until you finish, so you have to take it methodically: step one, step two, step three.

That’s how I see a supply chain across the country. If I have problems downstream, this approach helps me figure out where to go upstream to fix it.

When I was hired at CKE, the company had just changed distribution partners for Carl’s Jr. One of my initial jobs was to complete the transition and get everything up and running with minimal disruption to about 1,200 stores that were served by five different distribution centers. We finished in about six months.

I’m a firm believer in being out in the field at the distribution centers. I make sure things are going well and stand next to the people who make it happen and support them. I answer questions and communicate with our company operators and franchisees, so everyone knows what’s going on.

At ACH, a food retail company that sells to grocery and big-box stores, we found ourselves in a capacity crunch in late 2014. Over-the-road trucks were hard to find and expensive. So, we accelerated the shipment date by one day and converted a lot of our shipments to intermodal. This gave us the capacity to serve our customers and allowed us to move products at a much cheaper rate.

It also balanced the work week at our distribution centers, so they could better plan their labor needs. It was a triple win across the board.

In supply chain management, you need to be resilient and resourceful and have a strong think-outside-the-box mentality. “The way we’ve always done it” may not apply anymore because the environment has changed. A lot of our internal and external customers look to supply chain professionals as the port in the storm. You need to keep pushing forward and never give up. It helps to be stubborn. I’m not sure if that’s a good trait or a bad trait, but right now it works for me.

Before I started in supply chain, I had been working my way through architecture school. I got married and needed to bring in more income. An asset-based truck line in Memphis was looking for dispatchers, and they paid about two dollars more per hour than I was making at a grocery store. I jumped in that seat, and it was a pure adrenaline rush every day.

When fires are burning, if you’ve done your job and with a little luck, at the end of the day, you’re dealing with smoldering embers. Then, you come back the next day and it’s a different set of problems.

I like the creativity and helping people. I was bit by the bug and stayed in supply chain ever since.

John Brewer Answers the Big Questions

1. What is your hidden talent?

In my spare time, I write supply chain parody songs with a guy in Chattanooga. I write the lyrics and he adds music and vocals. For instance, Truck Drivin’ Blues is a parody of Workin’ Man Blues by Merle Haggard. And Long Haul Comin’ is a riff of Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress by The Hollies.

2. What is your favorite band?

AC/DC. I am going to be trouble when I get to the rest home. I’ll have a boom box strapped to the front of my walker and blast it as loud as it’ll go.

3. What book has had a personal or professional impact on you?

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. It sets you up for success in supply chain because this sector evolves at a very quick pace. This book helps you deal with change.

4. What would you tell your 18-year-old self?

Drop the attitude. When you’re 18, you think you know everything and nobody can tell you anything. Then you get into the real world, and you find out just how much you don’t know.