Rodney Apple: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Supply Chain Careers podcast. Very excited to welcome Lee Beard to the program. Lee, thanks for joining us today.
Lee Beard: Hey, thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me.
Rodney Apple: Lee, we’d love to understand how you got started on your supply chain career journey. What were some of the early influences back in the day when you were thinking about where do I start my career?
Lee Beard: I started off I knew I wanted to be an engineer. My dad was a manufacturing guy and I thought I was going to be a manufacturing guy. That’s what I started off doing. After I got my industrial engineering degree at Georgia Tech, I went down a manufacturing path and was a plant industrial engineer and manufacturing environments moved around a little bit with that and then went into production operations management.
I was, I went through some formal training, became a shift supervisor on that path. And I also knew that I wanted to go back and get a, an MBA at some point to round out the education. And while I was doing that, actually that’s when I got 1st exposed to Coke and the Coca [00:01:00] Cola company.
And it just so happens that was on Chris Gaffney’s team. But I was an MBA intern there and that was fountain distribution back in the day. And sure, Chris is very fond of that, but that was really my first exposure to really distribution and logistics. And then coming out of grad school, I actually went to Dell.
And so going to Dell was a ground zero of a lot of things, but really hardcore, logistics related and a lot of kind of e commerce and direct to consumer early days. So I learned a ton there. And There was a moment there in, I’d say 2001 or early 2000s that it dawned on me. I actually went back into the operations manufacturing or assembly what they had for think about desktops and notebooks.
And I was managing some of those facilities, but it dawned on me that. Most of the manufacturing was going offshore at the time. So I made a hard pivot. I made a conscious choice very intentionally. I remember [00:02:00] talking to my dad because my dad was always my role model. And I said, I think the future of operations in the U.
- Dad is logistics. And from that time, actually, I have been in a logistics related job. So really, 25 years ago, I made that hard pivot into logistics. I, I’ve been really just blessed and fortunate to have lots of kind of broad experience, which I’m sure we’ll talk more about. But it started off really with a technical degree and really go in manufacturing and then really branched out from there.
Rodney Apple: Yeah, I remember Lee when I started at coke and I think that was around 2004. And I do remember you somehow, and I can’t quite recall, but when you 1st came in, because I think I may have had a little bit of involvement, just maybe in the scene, you come through and the system where we were a little bit involved on that piece.
I don’t know if you remember exactly, but obviously you had a prior connection with Chris too. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, Chris gave me some advice. I had an opportunity [00:03:00] to stay with coke after my MBA. And he didn’t tell me to take the Dell job, but he said it would be really great if you got that experience.
And so I’ve always appreciated that. Just the objectivity about that. And I knew from that moment on. I think Chris, just paying you a compliment. I think that was really profound for me that you wanted the best for me and you had my best interest at heart. And it wasn’t just the company line that you were taking.
You were really thinking about me. I, I, that’s something that I have used and just an example I’ve shared with people through the years. And I think about really the right way of leaders that should think about their talent and the folks on their team. And sometimes when you have those conversations, people will look at you really strange, I can’t believe that’s what you’re saying. But it’s about really wanting the best for that individual.
Chris Gaffney: I appreciate that Lee. And, I think some of it’s ethical and some of it’s long ball because you and I’ve had the fortune to continue to work together. And I [00:04:00] think, it’s interesting of the things that we learned at Coke.
We always in the early days thought of all customers were either current or future. And if we lost a customer, we didn’t treat them poorly. We stayed in touch with them and said. Someday we’ll be doing business again. And I think that same thing applies, particularly in the supply chain industry.
People evolve, people grow and people ultimately shift gear. I think that’s a that is a good lesson for all of us to think about it. And again, I think there’s. There’s foundational reasons to do it, but it’s, we may see each other again. We might work together.
We might be customer and supplier. You never know. So you just take care.
Lee Beard: I laughingly say, if you love somebody, set them free. And, I just had that example on my own team here. And it’s absolutely the right move for this individual. It’s an internal move, but it’ll be huge growth.
It’ll be high impact. But I. Okay. I know he was really loving what he was doing in the role he was in but this is going to be huge, growth for him. And again, I think it’s, encouraging them to maybe [00:05:00] open the aperture and see that bigger picture a little bit.
Chris Gaffney: Yep Lee, in your intro, you talked about a couple of things that I know our audience.
Asks about a lot and so I want to see if you can dig in a little bit on a couple of those. Number 1, the intentional decision on grad school. And if I recall, you and your wife saved money, came out of industry, came back into work and then, we’re able to, hold your breath until you got through that and went back.
So I want you to talk a little bit about, how that what was the value of that? Because lots of people talk about it. And then you’ve switched, where you work in the supply chain and you’ve switched industries. So I want you to comment on kind of both, you could say high points.
You can say lessons learned. You could say. How did you build your skills around agility as you move forward? Just give folks a couple different pieces and parts. And I’ll remind you if you have to come back to a couple of these.
Lee Beard: Yeah, no, thank you. Being goal [00:06:00] oriented as it pertains to a career.
is a really important lesson. Going through it with one of my own sons right now. I have sons in their twenties, one just graduated and it’s very overwhelming to him what lies ahead. He has no idea. It’s completely ambiguous and overwhelming. But I think it is about you don’t have to have perfect clarity, but at least setting some kind of, mid range goals.
I knew for me that I wanted to lead organizations or lead large teams 1 day. I, when I was a shift supervisor, leading people, that was a light bulb that went on for me. And I thought, man, this is what I really like. So I wanted to do that maybe on a bigger scale, but I knew that. Just being a functional technical person, I may not have as many avenues to do that.
And I needed probably a different, I needed more tools in my toolbox. So that was really where the MBA came from, was I really wanted to get some financial acumen that I didn’t really have, quite honestly. [00:07:00] And so that part of it and then the how are you going to do that? How are you going to make that happen?
Somewhat fortunate, obviously all of us who have sent kids to college here have seen what tuitions have done, but, we did, my wife was working at the time we were both working and we banked a salary for a couple of years just to be able for me to go back to school full time.
Everybody, a situation is different, but I believe that grad school is one of those things that you get as much out of as you put into and I wanted to go full time for me. And so I did that, we made that happen and I came out debt free is probably 1 of the best decisions that we ever made for sure.
But along the way, in that path to grad school and choosing the timing to do that. I think a lot of my class, I was a little bit older than a lot of my classmates. A lot of people had worked about three years. I had worked six years, so I was probably at the end of that. Curve in terms of the average classmate there in that program.
And, but for me, it was all, it made the whole experience much [00:08:00] richer because I just had such a different set of experiences. I had already led people and been a supervisor at that point. So I think that was super valuable, but again, it underscores the, Hey, set the short term goals. That was a goal for the next three to five years when I came out of college.
Undergrad it happened at 6 and then I think being objective Chris about opportunities that come your way. Sometimes you can’t see necessarily what the path is, but I do encourage people and I think. I’ve at least had that you heard me say, I wanted to lead organizations, that North Star.
And as I mentor people now, that’s one of the conversations, certainly people younger in their career, I have with them is you have to have that North Star with some level of clarity because in the absence of that, evaluating that next opportunity or those next two opportunities, it’s a hope strategy.
You don’t really know if that’s helping get you closer to that. And certainly being open minded I think also [00:09:00] includes about industries as well, and some of the industries I’ve worked in, I probably quite honestly never saw myself Being a part of, but if you think objectively about them, and again, in the context of your north star, or how those experiences can be complimentary or, cumulative in part of your development it’s a different mindset and a different maybe approach.
And I think you’ll end up getting, much more out of it than you thought. But I will say, hey, if you choose to stay at the same company all your career, some people do, some people have those opportunities. I think it’s more rare these days than more, maybe more the exception than the rule.
But that’s great too. I think the same lesson still applies.
Chris Gaffney: So I’m a big fan of agility. I think we, with one of our podcasts and leadership series, we talk about that. And I think about it in the same way as confidence in that you may not grow up being agile, but once you start doing different things and you say, wow, what I did, I was able to reapply maybe with some bumps, [00:10:00] but I got there and then I built on it.
Having moved to industries and moved where you are in the supply chain, what have you learned that’s been valuable? How do you build that agility? What’s transferable? What’s not? What are just a few things you would highlight for folks?
Lee Beard: I think, first of all, it starts with kind of self awareness of what your own strengths or opportunities are, and then really paying attention to what is the culture of the place that you’re going to how does the big machine work, so to speak, when you think about an enterprise and really then thinking about, hey, for the role I’m in, for the position I’m in this organization, what do I need to dial up or dial back?
. Where can I leverage prior experience or where do I need to be a sponge and just learn? I think those are really important things. What I see some pitfalls. It is, the people who run the same play all the time. And then they also think that because it was successful once [00:11:00] before, it’ll always be successful again.
Lee Beard: I just don’t, I think that has limited, applicability applicability is probably I guess the word or, and then I think we’ve all probably been in meetings where you get tired of hearing war stories at the end of the day. I think you have to be, to your point, more agile than that and be in the now of where you are.
And that, I think, is, again, starts with the self awareness part of it.
Chris Gaffney: You and I have talked a lot about industry in the contrast of working in, in retail versus CPG and that type of thing. And I know we’ve had some pretty cool conversations about what are 1 of the things that you would say for folks who’ve been on either side of that coin for most of their career of the benefit of being on the other side of that fence or.
Lee Beard: I think I’ve thought a lot about it. It is the different industries that I’ve worked in and what was different about them or what did I learn from that or take from those, going back to the Dell days and technology, I think a [00:12:00] powerful lesson there was obviously the pace, but the technology and innovation.
When you think about curves, you’re always 1 curve away from being obsolete. And what’s interesting is you look, how much infrastructure we had and how much of our time and energy were dedicated to assembling desktops and big servers. Those things are big servers. Really don’t exist anymore or only, in the cloud.
And so the times really change. And I think being nimble around that, or at least paying attention to that, but then operating at pace and adjusting your pace to what industry you’re in, I think, in the food and beverage, what was really interesting is you have no idea for a C. P. G. Company. Certainly the scale at which they operate until you’re really in them. They’re everywhere in every store, in every occasion, and the supply chains that it takes to be able to do that with excellence. Most people have no idea. It is staggering. And then [00:13:00] also back to, the electronics, which was hyper growth mode in CPG, you’re growing, very low rates or you’re flat in some years.
You may be down depending on what the economy is doing. So it’s a very mature industry compared to that. And then just moving over to footwear and apparel when I was at Nike. Operating globally, a truly global supply chain was very eye opening for me. And I really, honestly, just steep learning curve thrown into the deep end there fortunately but to really learn.
How a truly global supply chain at that scale works and the complexities of that was an amazing experience. But then again, what in that industry is how important again. Innovation is and then moving to retail, going one more step down the chain at Nordstrom, for example, the complexity and the sophistication of a truly omni channel retailer and what that means to support a supply [00:14:00] chain.
There’s omni channel like that seamlessly for a consumer is it’s fascinating. It’s super complex and very challenging at the same time.
Rodney Apple: Those are some wonderful perspectives you shared from moving from, completely different industries. What about your thoughts on the evolution of logistics? Your roots are in logistics, transportation, warehousing what are some of the big things that you’ve seen change? You mentioned omni channel.
That’s obviously 1, but could you go into some detail there as you’ve as you progress in your career?
Lee Beard: Maybe come at it from a little different angle is like one of the things that’s changed dramatically in the time there been there is the diversity of the talents and supply chain. And I think that’s super encouraging.
And, if you do anything on campus now with any of the programs, undergrad or graduate level, it’s very noticeable just how the talent, the young folks, the, the. Professionals that are coming out. I think it’s a very attractive field. We’re attracting the best and the brightest [00:15:00] and I think a really diverse group of talent and it’s very exciting for the future.
I think it bodes well for the future of supply chain. But clearly technology has radically changed supply chain in the logistics areas, probably over the last 15, 20 years, but it’s just accelerated. If you go back in the last 10 years, it’s just at an accelerating pace and it’s overwhelming quite honestly.
And, as somebody who’s even worked a whole career in the field, just. Trying to stay abreast of the change, but then the bigger challenge to me is separating the noise. From what’s really meaningful AI machine learning all that. That’s really where all the buzz is these days. And, I probably get 4 emails a day, cold calls of, small shops that are AI or machine learning related who can automate your processes or your systems or, data.
And [00:16:00] so it’s going to be a lot of, I think shaking out that happens. I think use cases will be solidified, as we go forward Hey, where’s the sweet spot of these technologies? Where’s the value? Because you can go do a lot of these things, but certainly as the leader, you’re wondering where’s the value?
Where’s the most value? That I can gain from these things. Because otherwise, they’re distractions, quite honestly, and so I think that’s a real challenge for all supply chain leaders and professionals today is. Being able to see through the fog a little bit and have clarity about what the future is.
But, obviously, the technology and the availability of kind of real time data and visibility and all those things have just unlocked so many deeper levels of improvements and transformation. In e commerce, obviously in omnichannel, we talk about friction a lot. Anything that is friction [00:17:00] inside of that consumer transaction, you obsess about those things.
And I think what’s happening now with the technology is we’re really. Addressing a lot of the friction that have been in supply chains. And when you think about all of the 3rd parties and all of the various parties that are involved across supply chains and all the different systems, particularly if you’re crossing borders and you have customs documentation, those types of things, but there’s so much friction.
Even still to be ironed out. So that’s all opportunity. And then I think also just, really streamlining a lot of redundant tasks or very manual tasks. Obviously, it’s been 1 of the initial focuses. So that we make the jobs more rewarding, and we line our talent or valuable talent up against really the highest leverage opportunities.
Rodney Apple: And because things are advancing so rapidly, do you ever experience buyer’s remorse? Okay, we found the [00:18:00] solution and by the time it takes to implement that solution, there’s a whole nother shiny object out here. That’s got better bells and whistles that ever happen.
Lee Beard: I think it’s a great conundrum quite honestly, Rodney, is one of the differences, for example, of, I’d say a lot of companies that have been around a long time versus a startup, or maybe even somebody whose business is native e commerce, et cetera, is the pace at which they move is so slow.
Different, whereas the bigger traditional companies tend to move a lot slower in their ability to make decisions, but also execute and deploy. And then they have to do it in a much larger scale, typically. It is a real risk and a danger that by the time you make a selection and the time you’re able to deploy and execute, the technology’s changed.
I think that has to be part of your evaluation process. But I think, we’ll never move at e [00:19:00] commerce pace, but we have to recognize where we can be much faster and what the benefits of that are. But then I think we also, as you did think about, how do you solve particular challenges or use cases or whatever you want to call them?
How do you build for that? Flexibility or agility that you’re going to need because even this solution that you’re going to put in place. May not be the long term answer, or it may be completely obsolete in 5 years or 10 years.
Rodney Apple: And on that note too, Lee, companies that are setting up and help me out with the term. Is it a dual supply chain? So you’ve got a group that looks forward and they’re a test lab to see, yeah, kind of thing. A digital twin. Yes. The term I was looking for.
Lee Beard: Yeah, I think we’re starting to build that. I know some are much farther along in that. And then there’s also, a [00:20:00] lot of case studies that you read. Where I think when you really peel it back is, they’re focused on 1 or 2 specific use cases of what they’re calling a digital twin rather than, on the surface, it’s a kitchen sink term that everybody thinks, wow, there’s a complete virtual double of the entire enterprise.
That’s usually. No, in fact, I’ve never seen that be the case. I will say I’ve never seen it. It could be out there, but it’s, what I’ve seen are a lot of things that are logistics, digital twins or a facility, digital twin. And, those have great benefits too, right? If you can do a lot of what ifs analysis or risk mitigation or risk resiliency kind of planning, there’s just capabilities we didn’t have in the past.
But again, I think in the absence of a comprehensive strategy of how do those things all what role do they play? What is the true scope of that? And then how does that fit into our overall kind of supply chain strategy? I think they are science projects quite [00:21:00] honestly. Yeah. I don’t know, Chris, do you see that differently?
Chris Gaffney: No I gave a speech at the international society of beverage technology in the spring. And I think we’re going to do an article on it. And I did a look back on new technology and a look forward. And I think, so much of it for me, some percentage of these new technologies don’t ever pan out.
A good chunk of them pan out, but they come to maturity a bit later. So some of it’s timing. I am a general believer that for a large swath of people, A lot of these new investments still disappoint. They still don’t deliver on what the promise is. I am probably objectively a more conservative person have more moved to the bias of.
Be a fast follower, and maybe again, I don’t sit in the Econ business for the majority of my career, but when you see something starting to get larger scale [00:22:00] application, you got a better chance of going and getting it approved in your organization. You got a better chance of working with partners who’ve come up with a more successful model that can scale faster.
And you may get to the value place not too much later than you would if you started early. And then I, when it comes to particularly the artificial intelligence and that type of thing, I’m very much about hitting singles, get in the pond build some understanding and acuity in your organization, both amongst leaders around.
This is all about making better decisions faster. How do you get the right skills and capabilities in your own team and partner and then you can gain momentum over time.
Lee Beard: I think it’s relative to the type of technology
to, just going back to the Dell example, one of the things that was eye opening to me in those days was, there were no kind of sacred cows there.
Dell was super nimble and they were perfectly willing to go spend millions of dollars and then make a hard pivot away from that. One or [00:23:00] two or three years later in a different direction, because, they felt like that was where they needed to be or, competitive differentiation depended on that.
I think in this space is certainly in a more of a food and beverage retail kind of established, large company and they’ll probably use a different now too is really harder. You’d be less likely to make those types of transformational bets and incur that kind of tech debt. So you are going to hit a lot more singles, right?
You’ve got to be really more intentional about the use case you’re solving or the capability. And how that is complimentary or solves a specific gap that you have.
Chris Gaffney: Lee, when we first started talking about this, you talked about people. So I’m going to come back to people. Lead and have led large organizations, but you had that early.
Insight that you would one day like to do that. And we just, I think one of our recent podcast series said was, you want to be, you wanna run the big show. What is your [00:24:00] advice for those early on in career who aspire to eventually lead teams and then maybe lead larger teams and organizations?
Lee Beard: I think there’s two things that come to mind.
One is. It’s not for everybody. Always say that teachers, for example, teachers are in it because that’s their passion. They that they want to help people. They want to teach. I think leading people is. Very similar. I use a teaching analogy all the time. There’s a big aspect of our roles, which is teaching learn, do, teach.
We’ve talked about that, Chris, a lot. So I think getting a read on that pretty early because obviously it’s challenging in a different, completely different kind of way. Particularly when you’re a frontline supervisor. Or your manager, it’s you take on whatever your team is dealing with, inside and outside of work, those become your [00:25:00] burdens, that’s every single day.
And a lot of people that I’ve seen over the years. Very quickly or man, I hate I don’t want this. I don’t need this. Whereas I think, others really embrace it. And, that’s where I found myself. And so I think if that’s the way you’re inclined, then my advice to people is get that experience leading people as early as you can and never let go of it.
Don’t go back to an individual contributor job. If you ultimately aspire to lead organizations or large groups, it’s really hard to go into that role as a leader, then take an individual contributor job, and then come back and still keep progressing. That that’s the dilemma.
And I think, you just have to recognize it’s not saying it never happens, but it’s more rare. And I do think the earlier you start to get that experience leading teams. It’s just like anything else. The better you will get at it, the more cycles you have, and the more you will learn, the more [00:26:00] things you’ll be exposed to, the more environments you’ll do it in.
And I think that’s how I would advise people who really want to go down a leadership path and leading organizations.
Chris Gaffney: Yeah, I think there are a couple really. Important point, so I’m going to I’m going to re highlight what you said you’ve got to be comfortable with the level of accountability that comes with leadership, which means you got to be able to be in distress.
You’ve got to be able to keep your emotions in check. Your good days are not going to be. They’re not as good as you think they are in the bad days aren’t as bad as you think you are. But once you’re in that riding up the organization, you and I’ve been in a couple of those roles. You got to deal with the successes and you got to deal with the things that don’t go so well and be able to keep moving on.
I really like that point and I agree with you on the 2nd point is that if you’re committed to it, then you have to stay in that track. So I think those are great points.
Lee Beard: Yeah, and I would add on to that. I think it’s [00:27:00] more broadly applies, I think, in a career development sense, and in that
it gets back a little bit to the North star and at least being intentional enough and having enough clarity that, whether that next opportunity is one that’s going to help you get closer to what your North Star is. And what I see a lot of pitfall is that I think of a lot of people earlier in their careers and even mid levels in their career, they just watch the job posting system of where they work and then just jump on whatever they happen to see post.
Without any really thought about how does this really help me towards what I’m really trying to achieve in my career. Or somebody who has some influence with them says, hey, you really ought to think about this job. When it really may or may not be something that helps them as part of the bigger equation.
And then, they’re unhappy in that role. They wind up in that role and then they’re unhappy and they feel like they’re not being developed. Or they’re at a dead end. [00:28:00] Bye. One of the lessons early on that somebody shared with me that I just has been transformational for me was, Dell was the 1st place I’d been where a manager sat down with me and said.
Hey, you realize that career development is your responsibility and I, I’m also old enough. I’ll show my age, but when I started my career, it truly was, you kept your head down and you worked hard. And then somebody came and tapped you on the shoulder and said, Hey, your next job is in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Be there on Monday. And you went, but that really has changed obviously. And it was very uncomfortable for me to then say. Hey, I need to go set up some exploratory one on ones with people. I didn’t even know what that was. I saw other people doing that. I had to put some thought into what is my North Star?
What do I want to do? What are the one or two or three type of paths here that may help me achieve that? [00:29:00] And I think that was the profound thing that I share with people in development conversations almost every day is development doesn’t just happen. You have to take charge of that. And I say, it’s not your it’s not your 100 percent responsibility.
I share a 50 percent accountability in that, but you have to do the hard part. And the hard part is you have to put that thought into. What is my north star? What is what I want to achieve ultimately in a career? Because if we don’t have that conversation and you don’t share that with me, and I don’t understand that, how can I be your advocate or a good coach or help you identify?
Here’s what I think the experiences are. They’re going to help you get closer to that. I just see those things always lacking or either just haven’t been done well over the years with a lot of folks.
Chris Gaffney: Gotcha, I’m going to go in another direction, but something I know that’s really important to you.
You’re have a [00:30:00] huge commitment to learning. You’re very effective in managing your national network of allies and friends in the industry, but you’re also a big industry association guy. So where you hit all those different areas and your thoughts on, what’s important that you’d like to convey to our audience.
Lee Beard: Yeah, I think they’re all connected. I am a huge advocate, obviously and proponent of being involved if you want to call them extracurricular activities or, professional organizations. Outside of your immediate company outside perhaps of your immediate role for a number of reasons, and it’s not just about networking, there’s certainly a huge networking component, which I’ll talk about, but really is the reality is in a supply chain career, at any given time, you’re a functional person, you’re working in a function somewhere in the supply chain.
And [00:31:00] if you want to continue to grow and be a complete supply chain leader or an enterprise leader. You really need a much wider view of what’s happening rather than just in your function. And quite honestly, it’s easy to get pegged as a functional person, which I have at times in my career. And so I was very intentional through CSCMP, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, that I wanted to have a much wider view of what’s happening in supply chain.
What is trending? What are the macro trends? How is it changing? How do these things all fit together? Because I was working in a transportation space, or I was working in a purely logistics related space, etc. So I wanted to stay abreast of what’s happening on the planning front, what’s happening on the manufacturing front, etc.
And it’s been very beneficial for that CSCMP in particular, but there’s a number of great organizations out there, like APICS as [00:32:00] well. But then the networking part of it I would say about that is the power of the networking is that it actually makes you a better leader or a better asset for your own company, because when you have a network, for example, if I can pick up the phone and who has call somebody who does what I do at a Home Depot or at Coca Cola or at another big company and say how are you thinking about this problem?
How are you evaluating? What KPIs are you’re using? Here’s the challenge I’m having, and you can bring that back into a discussion in your company and say hey, I’ve done some informal benchmarking and here’s how other companies, other leading companies are doing this, or they’re encountering the same thing.
It’s not just us. That’s value for your company. It’s absolutely value for your company. And so that’s why I’m just such a believer in it. I think again, just like I said, with grad school, you [00:33:00] get as much out of it as you put into it. I’ve chosen to put a lot into it over the years. But through that, I’ve also been afforded the chance to be a board member to be a board chairman.
I got some experiences that I wouldn’t have gotten there. Otherwise. So I, I encourage everybody that I can to make that part of. Your career plan is how are you going to think internally and externally about leveraging all the resources that are available out there to help you achieve your goals?
Chris Gaffney: And then, you are a supply chain professional, and we take on that obligation of making those connections cross functionally, internally, and then upstream with our customers, downstream with our suppliers. And we do that for our existing business and for our new business. So talk a little bit about, how you foster culturally, behaviors and actions that.
Reinforce collaboration and innovation.
Lee Beard: It’s funny. [00:34:00] Rick Blazgen, who is a kind of legendary leader of CSCMP for years. Rick would regularly say, hey, I’ve been in this a long time, but at the end of the day, supply chain is still a people business. And he’s exactly right. We talked about technology and how the landscape is changing relationships matter.
And I think they matter even more in a supply chain because of all of the different entities that are involved in a typical supply chain. You think about 3 P. L. S. You think about, service providers, you think about transportation providers, carriers, et cetera. Relationships really matter.
And I think I saw that, pretty early on Chris, and in your world at Coca Cola, our world, in the relationships we have with transportation providers and how a good one really helped us when times were tough and really stormy relationships. made it really hard. And [00:35:00] so I think that recognition as a leader, I think you have to go in with that recognition and then In your own organization, you have to cultivate that internally and externally and certainly internally, right?
Is it factors into the who are you going to put into leadership roles and the types of leaders you have? You certainly want people who recognition that or recognize that success equals collaboration. There’s very little we can do in supply chain. In a functional silo. That’s just a fact. So then when you take a step back and say, hey, success equals collaboration, and then a lot of that relationship is the basis of that effectiveness of collaboration, because ultimately we want to be able to influence other stakeholders.
There are going to be things difficult things that we ask these other stakeholders to do or need them to do. And if we don’t have the relationship equity to do that. It’s just [00:36:00] not going to work. My big seven habits fan and just the, the emotional bank account concept, do you have
enough deposits to cover the withdrawals you’re going to make.
And certainly when times are tough. We’re going to have to make some withdrawals so you better have enough deposits to cover it. And I just see that some are naturally wired that way. Some folks naturally think that way. But for me, for sure, over the years that’s part of really what I’m looking at when I’m interviewing somebody as somebody on my leadership team is, do they think collaboration 1st?
Because that ultimately is going to. Determine the level of success we have.
Rodney Apple: Yep. I want to touch on something you brought up earlier. You were excited to see the level of people that are coming in to supply chain at young ages. And when I go back 20, some years ago, when I got into this recruitment side of supply chain, there’s maybe 6 universities that taught it and we were counting the [00:37:00] other day.
I think it was a well over 125 that have supply chain programs. Chris and I have talked about this trend, though, and it may be considered a risk and that, we’re seeing a lot of folks gravitate towards what we talked about also, which is the technology, the analytics, the automation, like the call it the sexier side of supply chain and they’re that’s their North Star.
But if they want to go into leadership roles, there’s the heartbeat that they need to be paying attention to, which is the operation side. What would you advise to those? Call it student young professionals that aspire to lead large teams that are. Tracking closer to that technology analytics path and may not be incorporating that operations.
Is it important to, to get that experience? Or do you think there are people that can lead without having led. Operations and I’ll use the word directly as in working within a plant or a distribution center. [00:38:00]
Lee Beard: Yeah, I think we’re all biased probably by our experiences. But over the years, I know, Chris, you and I have talked about it. It’s almost intimidating when you go on campus now and you see the caliber of the students that are in classes and what they’re learning, what they’re capable of. Technically, they are extremely impressive. Just extremely impressive. And but I think at the same time functional technical expertise.
It is part of the equation, obviously, for you to be a successful leader. If that’s what you want to do, right? You have to have the depth, some level of depth and the cycles of experience operationally to be able to know the application of that technology to know process to know, the details, if you will.
But the, what I see is. A lot of the programs focus solely on that, to your point, and the only way people are going to recognize [00:39:00] or get the heavy people aspect of this and how important that is either through a high quality internship, which they may or may not have had the good fortune to have.
Or, if they happen to get into one of those jobs, there are a number of companies that will hire supply chain graduates, undergrads right into supervision roles. I think that’s, there’s some risk in that. There’s also some upside to that as well. So no I think you have to have both because what I’ve always said is when I became a shift supervisor, I had an engineering degree, had technical background.
That shift supervisor job was like going to college all over again in a completely different way. It was as foundational as that undergraduate degree that I got completely different. The combination of those 2 together is what will allow you to be a successful leader of a larger organization or supply chain organization.
I believe [00:40:00] that. I, you can lead smaller teams, probably specialized, maybe very functional teams without having done that kind of in the operational environment. But even then. The question becomes, are you a great business partner? The CIO we have here and the one that was her immediate predecessor are amazing business partners.
And because they are business people, they truly don’t think like technology people. They think like enterprise leaders and they view their role as helping my team be successful. And so that, I think again, comes back to, do you have that operational background in addition to the technical chops that you have for sure.
Chris Gaffney: Good deal. Lee. You know what? There’s one more thing. I want to throw in the heat that we didn’t talk about, but I do think. It’s 1 of those things that our audience can learn from. You [00:41:00] moved your family. I think 3 times you can correct me and it’s a big deal as the world has evolved there. We grew up in the early days where, as you said, they told you where to go next and, things have evolved.
And there are a certain set of people who just say. The economy goes up and down. I want to stay anchored to a place where I’ve got deep roots and network and I don’t move that much, but you have so both the pros and cons of that and or how do you manage that? With your family. So it’s a it’s a win across the board.
But what do you advise for folks given your experience?
Lee Beard: Yeah, first of all, I think I will recognize and acknowledge there’s no right answer here, right? The right answer is what’s right for you individually. And I respect either one for me. I’ve been open to making those moves. But have been very, calculated about them too.
And that thorough evaluation, my [00:42:00] wife and I both grew up moving around a little bit. So we didn’t have super deep roots in just one place. A lot of people have a very different background and a frame of reference home is home. And that’s where all the family is. We weren’t like that.
And we moved around a number of times. And we felt and feel like, hey, we’ve grown every time we’ve done that. The upside outweighs the down because we learned. Different things, different areas, different cultures, et cetera, part of the whole life experience. So that, I think, having a partner who sees it the same way you do, I think is probably super important because I do also have worked with a number of people whose partners don’t see eye to eye on that.
And I do think also if you are. Inclined to say, hey, look, this is home. I stay here. It’s a function of where you are. Like if you happen to live in Atlanta, Georgia, and you’re a supply [00:43:00] chain logistics person or Chicago, Illinois, if you’re not in one of those major metros or even different ones that aren’t as strong by chain or logistics wise, it could be more limited set of opportunities that you have.
And I think you have to recognize those things and then be okay with what is most important to you. I was going to say, and is it a family first and being close and adjacent to the rest of this family or extended family and I get all that. And those things change over time. But anyway, that is it’s worked out well for us to do that.
The downside of that, Chris has been. It is hard, particularly on the kids depending on their age. But it’s interesting now that my kids are grown. As they reflect on it, every one of them says, I’m a better person because we moved. I learned a lot. I’m glad we did. So I, I don’t think they’re just saying that.
I think they genuinely, they’re old enough to mature enough to think that way and have [00:44:00] seen, have a little perspective. So I think it’s worked out well for us.
Chris Gaffney: There used to be a detective who used to say one more thing. And then one of my favorite authors, Atul Gawande, always says, ask one more question. And I’ve got a doctor who’s really good at that. We covered a lot of ground. Is there one thing we missed that you would say?
Hey, the final thing I’d want the audience to hear from me that would be meaningful. Anything else? On your list.
Lee Beard: Yeah I think we should talk or just, at least talk about sustainability for a couple of minutes. And the reason I’m passionate about that is, I think that as supply chain leaders, we have such a large role to play.
Here and I think we have an opportunity, a natural opportunity, particularly in kind of logistic space. Where the things that we’re doing is logisticians. Long before, we really started talking about sustainability. Are things that are naturally the right things to do for the environment. That’s running fewer miles or fewer empty miles.
That’s filling [00:45:00] up trucks and being more efficient. It’s all of those things load optimization or, truck to rail conversion, those types of things. It’s that power of and if you will, hey, it’s a great thing for productivity and efficiency and. It reduces carbon. So I think, certainly logistics leaders need to embrace that aspect of their role.
I can’t think of a company out there who doesn’t have a sustainability agenda or some goals set around that. And so I think just recognition of the role that supply chain has to play here. But also has the opportunity play here. We’re doing some exciting stuff now with, some electric vehicles and some of our technician vans and local deliveries and those types of things.
And yeah, the technology isn’t as robust yet to be as commercially viable as we want it to be, but we’re not standing idly by there, right? Because we know this is going to be a bigger [00:46:00] opportunity and we need to take advantage of that and we want to play a leadership role for our company on that.
Rodney Apple: All right. I’m going to do the wrap here, Lee and Chris, is there anything else you want to finish out with this career advice? I think you’ve given plenty. Yep. I think we’re great. Okay, Lee, thank you so much for coming on to the supply chain careers podcast today. This has been a tremendous episode.
I know our audience will get a lot of value of it value out of it. So we appreciate your time today.
Lee Beard: It’s been an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much. Rodney. Thanks so much. Chris. Thank you. Awesome.
