Join us as we discuss the paramount importance of nurturing relationships within the intricate tapestry of global supply chains, today on The Buzz!

This week, hosts Scott Luton and Jake Barr explore critical topics, alongside special guest Mark Gorlin, founder and CEO of Roadie. Listen in as they emphasize that successful leadership hinges upon the ability to cultivate rapport, and so much more. Listen in for:

• Insightful perspectives on the current dynamics of tariffs and their profound implications for retail leaders
• Innovative strategies employed by leading brands to enhance customer experiences amidst challenging environments
• Invaluable lessons gleaned from the peak season of 2024, highlighting the necessity of adapting to soaring customer expectations and cost pressures
• And much more!

Listen in as we navigate these multifaceted topics, and invite the audience to engage proactively with the ever-evolving supply chain landscape.

Additional Links & Resources:

• Connect with Marc Gorlin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcgorlin/
• Learn more about Roadie: https://www.roadie.com/
• With That Said: https://bit.ly/4hBZIKC
• National Supply Chain Day: https://supplychainnow.com/nscd/
• What 25 retail leaders are saying about tariffs: https://bit.ly/4iYzFhH
• Starbucks CEO Targets Customer Experience and Speed: ‘We Can Do Both:' https://bit.ly/4iWIrgd
• Gartner Supply Chain Symposium: https://gtnr.it/4iVA8RP
• SAPICS Conference: https://conference.sapics.org/
• Learn more about Supply Chain Now: https://supplychainnow.com
• Watch and listen to more Supply Chain Now episodes here: https://supplychainnow.com/program/supply-chain-now
• Subscribe to Supply Chain Now on your favorite platform: https://supplychainnow.com/join
• Work with us! Download Supply Chain Now’s NEW Media Kit: https://bit.ly/3XH6OVk
• WEBINAR- Bridging the Gap: Investigating the Disconnect Between Supply Chains and the People Who Run Them: https://bit.ly/3F1iZr2
• WEBINAR- Unpacking the Latest Tariff Updates, Best Practices & What to Expect Next: https://bit.ly/4ikvdcS
• WEBINAR- Lessons Learned from the Trenches: How AI Will Impact the Future of Work: https://bit.ly/3DUnROx
• WEBINAR- Adapting to Volatility: Navigating Trade Wars, Supply Chain Disruptions & AI: https://bit.ly/4kqSv2D
• WEBINAR- Altium 365: Integrated Supply Chain Management Across the Product: https://bit.ly/4bWSLma

This episode is hosted by Scott Luton and Jake Barr, and produced by Trisha Cordes, Joshua Miranda, and Amanda Luton. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/buzz-optimizing-customer-experiences-supply-chain-1409

Welcome to Supply Chain now the number one voice of supply chain.

Join us as we share critical news, key insights and real supply chain leadership from across the globe.

One conversation at a time.

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you may be.

Scott Luton and the one and only Jake Barr with you here today on Supply Chain.

Now.

Welcome to today's live stream.

Hey, Jake, how you doing?

I'm doing wonderfully.

It's March Madness time and we have.

All lost our minds.

Goodness gracious, folks, hopefully your brackets are better off than mine.

We're going to ask Jake about his little later in the show.

But it is March Madness.

And Jake, other than basketball, this is one of my favorite times of the year because it's so gorgeous in early spring here in metro Atlanta across much of the South.

I am eating it all in, Jake.

And it is prime allergy season.

True.

That's right.

That is right.

Giveth and taketh, right?

But folks, we have an outstanding show here today as Trish has already calling a happy Buz day.

Trisha, the pride of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Folks, let us know where you're tuned in just like David from Toronto.

Great to have you back, David.

Hope all is well up there.

One of our Canadian friends.

But folks, it's the Buzz.

Every Monday, 12 noon Eastern time, we discuss a variety of news developments across global supply chain and business.

Lots of great topics today.

What are retail leaders thinking, saying and doing about tariffs?

That's gonna be a big one.

The power of balance, relationships and big moves one big brand is trying to make when it comes to customer experience.

All that.

Jake.

Wait, there's more.

12:15pm Eastern time.

We've got a special guest joining us, Mark Gorland, founder and CEO with roadie Jay.

Because we were just talking with Mark and the whole gang.

So, Jake, sometimes it is so critical to stop and call time out so we can learn from all these crazy busy times.

And if we don't, our supply chain organizations in particular really miss out, huh?

A supply chain is a gainful lifetime experience, right?

So you've got to understand that every single day the challenges change and morph.

And you've got to keep learning.

That's right.

Got to keep learning, man.

Sometimes hour by hour.

Goodness gracious.

Okay, Jake, we got to get to work.

Roll up the sleeves.

It's time to go.

It is time to go.

It's past time to go.

We're going to start with resources and folks, our latest with that said, yes, our almost weekly newsletter was published over the weekend.

It was jam packed.

We touched on a variety of interesting things.

In fact, one magazine focused on greenfield development as ranked Georgia number one state new business center for like 14 years in a row.

And if you're interested in the supply chain ecosystem here in the state, make sure you join us for the Georgia logistics summit on April 23rd.

But that's just some of what we covered, Jake.

We shared resources from Magic Logic, try to say that a couple times fast.

And surveys from Gartner and Austin that I bet Jake's going to comment on here in just a second.

We shared an interesting read on human rights and supply chain from our friends at Gallagher.

And we also touched on a recent podcast I hosted with Sophia Rivas herrera which featured Dr.

Yossi Sheffey.

Hall of Famer Yoshi is a Hall of Famer.

I'm with you.

I'm with you.

And you got to hear our discussion on AI sustainability and a whole bunch more from that episode.

All that's in with that said, but Jake, here's why I want to take it and I'll get your thoughts here on this latest edition.

But we spoke about the power of relationships, including the critical fact that these relationships which are so paramount in global supply chain, really anywhere in life, global business, you name it, well, they require nurturing.

Now I've always liked this analogy, this bank analogy that I heard and was taught forever ago.

A successful business leader once told me that every relationship had a rapport bank.

And she said that the best of the best are the folks that recognize the need to make more deposits into that account and not just be making withdrawals.

Right?

Those were wise words.

I'm glad I learned forever.

And while I fall short some days, that's my aim every single day.

But beyond that, Jake, your thoughts?

What's caught your eye in the most recent edition of what that Said?

Well, I think you're absolutely spot on.

The criticality of what that role that plays in success.

Because at the end of the day, you can't look and just work on what's within your four walls and span of control.

From a supply chain perspective, most of your disruptions, most of the changes that you're going to need to bring into play and make work for you are because of either a partner relationship or an ecosystem relationship.

So to Me, the best of the best are making those deposits.

And they're making those deposits by actually investing in the development of the processes and the skill base of those partners.

I've got some players that literally send process engineers out to their top strategic suppliers to help them internally improve their reliability and throughput, et cetera.

Just exactly.

Now they're not dedicated suppliers.

They're supporting other people, but they understand, hey, if you're going to lift the performance of the total organization, you got to help those partners who may not have that ability to do it on their own.

Oh, Jake, I love that.

And that reminds me, when I was in the world of metal stamping and lost at least three of my nine lives, some of the best customers we supplied were folks that would send their people to help us find opportunities within our organization to improve that.

Took that mindset like you were just sharing.

So love that folks were dropped a link to.

With that said, I should also call out Jake really quick, the Gartner awesome Women in Supply Chain survey which is now open I think through for the next through the end of May perhaps you see that every year and it's worthwhile to participate, right?

Yep.

I'm blessed to have been part of helping to originate that years ago and I have to tell you, it is a great resource for helping to understand and level set current dynamics, current situation and also to help engage developmental supply chain leaders in getting better.

Love that folks.

There's more information on that survey, there's more information on our big week of live programming and so much more right there on that link for with that said, you're one click away from tuning in.

I've got to share one more thing because we've got National Supply Chain day coming up.

April 29th, folks.

National Supply Chain Day.

We've got a wonderful celebration, live celebration of that as we recognize our industry and especially all the talented folks that make Supply Chain happen each and every day.

Mary Kate Love, the founder of National Supply Chain will be with me.

The whole band's getting back together, so mark your calendars and if you can't join us for our live stream, that's okay.

Do something in your neck of the woods to celebrate this incredible industry and the people that make it up.

April 29th, folks.

And we dropped a link to that.

Thank you, Trisha right there in the chat one click away from learning more.

Okay.

I wish that that was all we had to tackle on the front end before Mark for Mark Corland joins us.

But Jake, we got a big, big topic.

Creating all sorts of headaches everywhere, it seems like.

But let's talk about this really important topic that's roiling supply chains everywhere.

Our friends at Supply Chain Dive shared a great read last week, like four days ago that was focused on tariffs and in particular 25 takes from RET everywhere.

Now folks, we're dropping the link to that article.

We're not gonna be able to share every bite and bit, but I'm gonna highlight a few and then get Jake to respond and share with us what he's seen.

So let's see here.

Let's start with American Eagle Outfitters CEO Jay Schottenstein spoke about how they've been through this before and how important it's going to be to stay calm and focused, especially until they know, quote, exactly what the story is, end quote.

Lots of moving pieces.

Target CFO Jim Lee touted his team's experience sourcing organization and how they've navigated Volat using that expertise and experience just like this before.

Other Target executives spoke about how they are shortening lead times in certain categories such as apparel, and have been moving things out of China to gain flexibility and agility.

We'll see.

Funko CEO Cynthia Williams said they've already been seeing disruption when it comes to the crossings back and forth on the U.S.

mexico border.

They've been actively using expedited shipping to protect that customer experience.

More on that to come.

She also spoke about the, quote, rules of the moment, end quote, when it comes to tariff policy, which is so true, it's like stick your finger in the wind and see which way it's blowing minute by minute.

It seems like one final one.

Best Buy CEO Corey Beery, who his colleague or chief supply chain officer, joined us on a previous buzz just a few weeks ago.

China and Mexico are the first and second sources for the products the company sells and that price increases for American consumers are very likely.

Jake, we've been overdue for a big screen TV for quite some time.

I'm gonna have to get out before perhaps but on a more serious note, Jake, with all this uncertainty and the hour by hour changes, I'll tell you I'm not envious of all these executives on their board and analyst calls, but hey, as they're peppered with questions left and right.

But I guess that's why they make the big bucks.

Jake, what are you seeing out there?

Scott Bluntly, I'm disappointed.

Disappointed because unfortunately this is just a microcosm of a number of supply chain disruption potential issues, right?

Tariffs are one of them.

But the ability for companies, especially coming out of COVID et cetera, et cetera.

Right.

That was another one to actually understand the importance of doing better resiliency testing of their supply chains, turning it into kind of a gamification, as I call it, of a bunch of different scenarios and understanding their portfolios better around how to segment things.

I'll give you an example, Scott.

To me, I've got a few clients who are out there who quite frankly, they're doing knee jerk reactions, right.

And you have to talk them off the cliff.

Wait, no, I'm going to buffer quickly.

I'm going to go run and I'm going to grab a bunch of inventory and drag it across the border and then I'm safe.

I'm going, wait, let's go back.

100% of your SKUs do not deliver 100% of your revenue nor a hundred percent of your margin.

So selectively running scenarios of if we're going to carry any, we should carry it in these two product classifications or segments and do that selectively, not just by carrying on a wave of things that we're going to end up having to burn off or write off in the future.

So again, frustration and unfortunately it's bringing forward the sins of not being routinely prepared for disruption.

That's a big one.

I wish we had about four more hours to dive more into.

Just your response there, Jake, but just like my NCAA brackets, which are just a big old dumpster, my predictions of how this Terra trade policy error was going to play out, oh boy, was I wrong.

But hey, I've got lots of company I think in that regard.

Okay, Jake, we have an outstanding guest here today.

Quite the entrepreneur and industry leader joining us.

Now get this, if you think you know Mark Gorland, I can tell you you don't, as I do, deeper and deeper.

He's also co founded successful ventures such as Cabbage Vertical One Corporation and Pretty Good Policy, AKA pgp earlier in his journey.

So I want to welcome in Mark Gorland with Roadie.

Hey.

Hey Mark, how you doing today?

Hey, good, how are you, Scott?

How are you, Jake?

So good to see you, Mark.

So to level set with everybody.

Right?

The three people out there that may not know you and roadie.

Tell us about yourself and about the roadie store, if you would, Mark.

Sure.

Well, like you pointed out, I've started a few different companies which people either call a serial entrepreneur, or I can't keep a job.

But beyond that, started roadie.

Like, it was sort of the classic entrepreneur's dilemma.

So I was kind of down in the Gulf coast, and the developer did not put pans underneath the master bathroom showers, and somebody leaked into a bunch of units.

Huge pain in the ass.

Made a mess.

So I was on the hook to go and replace it.

So I'm heading down.

It's tile day.

I get to Montgomery, Alabama, get a call from the tile guy.

The tile guy's from ucla, if you guys know where that is.

It's actually not that one.

It's the upper corner of lower Alabama.

He doesn't talk like either of us.

Well, maybe Jake on a night in Nashville.

And the call goes like this.

He's like, hey, Marcus, Glenn, that bullnose TO done shown up broken and ain't gonna be here till overnight delivery, which is on Monday.

Where's the tile?

He said, I think it's in Birmingham.

I was like, fine.

I hang up and I Look at I65 South.

Let's see how these cars going south.

Look right, and see I65 north and all the cars going north.

I think, you know, there's bound to be someone heading down I65 right now from Birmingham.

I just knew who they were.

They could throw a box of tile in their trunk.

That's where the tile was.

I'd give them 20 bucks they're heading this way anyway.

It's probably someone going all the way down the beach.

And I got my toes in the sand by the time they get there.

And that is when it just hit me that there's this unused just natural resource of where everybody go every day.

More vehicles than UPS, FedEx, post office, every courier slapped together is all of us, 250 million passenger vehicles getting on the road every day with 4 billion cubic feet of excess capacity.

So the question was, what would happen if you put all that to use?

And that's what we did with rhodium.

Matching up people that are already on the way with big businesses and small businesses and you and me that need to send something where it needs to go.

Oh, I love that.

Now, Jake, you were having a little fun on the front end and offering to maybe use a roadie platform to send some annoying foxes from your neck of the woods out to my.

To my backyard.

Is that right, Jake?

That's absolutely.

I've signed up already.

But beyond moving foxes, which might have.

We're under some regulatory issues.

But speak about how Mark's moment, the little anecdote he shared where he had the eureka moment that would end up becoming Rhodian and you know, reach all the success they have been reaching for years now.

It's classical out of the box thinking where you take the original paradigm of saying no, only certain players are available to move the stuff that Mark needs from point A to point B on an already set schedule because they're living in the world of only their definition of what assets could be used to move those goods or services.

Right.

And so it's just rethinking.

So that's why, I mean, I said very genuinely, he completely redefined how you think about the ability to execute last mile delivery.

Yep.

And I should just say, Mark, you deserve a supply chain Emmy award for the UCLA upper corner, lower Alabama or whatever that was.

Conversation phone call you got.

That was great.

At least he didn't sing it.

That's right.

There was some pre show singing threats going on with Mark and Jake.

We'll save that for later perhaps.

All right, so Mark, let's do this now that hopefully our whole audience is with us.

In terms of what you and the roadie team have been up to pick season, peak season.

No telling the roadie ecosystem how busy y'all are during all times of year, but especially during peak season.

27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

And still Roadie saw a 55% increase over what we had seen in the past.

There's lots of reasons that might be.

I mean, a shorter window means, you know, it's more last minute, a lot more same day.

But there's a few, you know, high level things we saw.

Customer expectations have just gotten higher.

We found that nearly two thirds of shoppers.

We did some surveys every year that we look at questions.

Two thirds of shoppers want it by the next day, if not same day as an option.

And a slightly smaller percentage actually wants it within a few hours.

It's not everything.

And I always go back to optionality is more important than how fast you can get it there.

But we see that and for certain types of deliveries, people are willing to pay for convenience.

But you especially see this on bigger deliveries, you know, grills and stuff.

But a lot of the folks that sell this stuff might not have the delivery assets to deliver it.

So that they need to prioritize this experience to what they're selling to get it to people.

Cost pressures are obviously intensifying on all of the retailers out there and they're trying to figure out something they have to absorb.

And some they're just trying to find better ways to do it.

And as Jake was talking about, a lot of the things that we saw within roadie is there.

Without having a fixed asset model, you can free up some cost and get things to people actually faster because the delivery model can stretch.

You don't have to build the delivery church for Easter Sunday, you can utilize others to expand and contract and you don't have to pay for those fixed access.

And lastly, the last mile efficiency is a key to profitability.

Whether you're doing it same day delivery, whether you're getting it to your stores or DCs near the people knowing where those products go.

I think Jake, that sort of ties into what you were saying about the products, like what are you really bringing over and what are you getting?

Tariff.

It's all the same that there's certain products that matter.

But whatever it is, you don't need the snow blowers down down near me in Florida, you need them in Chicago.

So Jake, with that counted, three lessons learned.

And Mark, grade me here.

I was listening hard.

My handwriting's terrible.

Though customer expectations continue to increase up and up and up.

Cost pressures also intensifying.

Right.

I think we all feel that with our wallet.

But the good news there is if you can get really good last mile to your point, you can protect and grow profitability.

But Jake, would you hear there, which one would you call out or what'd you learn?

It's all the above.

And the magic of what Mark has put together is the ability to actually have that optionality where I actually can make trade off decisions about how I'm segmenting out which product and which groups and which things that I really want to put the emphasis on and be able to deliver that experience.

Right.

Because at the end of the day a happy consumer is one that's going to come back.

Right.

And I think an extension of part of Mark's research is look, switching between brands has never been at a higher rate.

That's the unfortunate news.

So you also don't want your consumer to Actually you to be helping them opt in to switching because they can get that experience on the other brand and they can't get it on yours.

We'll see consumers self solving sometimes because they're not going to get the delivery experience they want.

You know and it's funny because it's I always say that like Amazon effect because you know everybody wants it free or faster but Amazon started it, Covid finished it and now it's just out of the box and running wild and expectations are just getting more.

It's not more fast, it's more optionality.

You want things at different times.

It's crazy how fast we're going here, but one of our dear listeners and audience members from the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina had a similar experience.

You did, Mark.

And I think this is Sylv talking about the initial leak that sparked the UCLA phone conversation.

Mark, if I'm not mistaken.

So Sylvia, let us know if you're able to also create a new successful startup from that messy experience.

And also a little side note before we keep going with Mark Gorland with roadie and the one and only Jake Barr, the John Wayne of global supply chain.

We dropped the webinar that we referenced earlier with Noha Samara, the rise of decision shapers.

We dropped that link right there.

You one click away from checking that.

I love comment Scott coming in because I always got those when we first started the app, like the best was like I had that idea already for this thing and you always would get it.

I never knew how to respond and it would go like dear Mark, I love, you know the idea of Rod.

I had this idea well before Bob and I didn't know how to respond.

So finally I figured it out and I was like, dear Bob, great minds think alike.

Please download the app Mark.

Love it.

I love it.

And Claudia has deemed your takeaways the three C's.

I love that Claudia, as always, that makes it easier to remember as part of telling a more effective story.

Okay, we're going to shift gears because we're going to kind of focus on that last key takeaway, Mark.

And that's the last mile and customer experience really.

But I want to do so with this great article from our friends at Barron's because as reported by Barron's, the relatively new CEO over at Starbucks Focused on, on improving customer experience and speed.

They want to do both.

It feels like five years ago, but that was just last fall.

He's been trying to turn things around at the world's largest coffee chain ever since.

Now Starbucks has been experiencing many y'all playing at home, declining sales, right?

That's not news which can be attributed to many things.

But one of the things they're attributing it to is long wait times for customers.

As Mark mentioned, likes to wait on anything these days.

Right.

It's inherent in our well trained consumer bones.

Now Nickel wants to regain the community coffee shop vibe and lessen wait times as it seeks to optimize overall customer experience.

Now here's some things they're doing.

Jake and Mark and all y'all out there, condiment bars are back.

Try to say that seven times fast.

That's right.

So if you like pouring your own half and half or sugar or whatever that's back, that's going to be available to you.

Store remodeling is taking place.

Staffing levels after going down where they're going back up.

New coffee making equipment is being installed.

30% of menu offerings are expected to be cut by end of year as Starbucks seeks to be more agile to be able to adapt to the latest consumer coffee trends and flavors.

But here, get this and we'll save this for a later show.

But some analysts and experts have claimed that in recent weeks at least that Starbucks is well overdue to invest and update its supply chain technology.

But again, we'll save that for a later day.

First quarter earnings will be reported in May and we'll see how those early, early returns look.

But mark, all of that to ask you whether it's our daily cup of delicious coffee or that logistics last mile customer experience of course is absolutely critical.

Your thoughts on how to optimize customer experience in that last mile Mark?

I mean Starbucks is a great example because he's got to do big things and he's got to do little things and you sort of have to be able to, I always say it to my team, we, you know, you might be baking the cake but you can't forget about sprinkles.

And you need to do some of those to make people believe as you go along.

Honestly, it's some of the things real time tracking I feel like is one thing that gets overlooked.

It builds trust, reduces uncertainty, lowers cost.

Our research that we did shows 60% of consumers that they don't have some trackability are not interested in buying from someone.

So those clear updates, even when there's a delay, especially when there's a delay, is so important because you're actually gaining trust even though there's an exception issue going on.

But having real time, it just reduces delivery, operations, costs, cost to support for end retailers, for people calling in and asking where's my stuff?

If you're already proactively giving it to them, then they're not going to be calling and asking about that.

And also just, just options.

Do you want it today?

Do you want late?

We talked about this earlier with Jake's example.

But think about it.

If you have a chair and you want to get it delivered, if it's just a chair, you might want to pay less and get it delivered next week.

If you're having a party tonight, you're going to pay for same day and get that chair.

Everybody makes that decision, even with the same retailers that lead to different decisions on that thing they're buying at that moment.

It's not I want it all right now, all the time.

Mark, I love that everyone does like options.

Indeed.

I'm going to work backwards here.

One thing you called out, I'm not sure if it was on your list or not or a sidebar comment, but proactively building the last mile process, really any process to prevent the need for customers to pick up the phone.

You know, Mark and Jake, I had a really unusual experience at a wonderful retailer over the last week or so where a couple numbers are wrong on the front end and it's led to right now three phone calls, including one for an hour long on my Sunday.

That's, that's not fun.

And then lastly, of course, real time tracking, which more and more is becoming table stakes by the hour almost.

Jake, what'd you hear there?

When it comes to optimizing last minute.

Mom, I think it's important that you drill down one more level.

Mark wasn't talking just about visibility.

What he was talking about was consequences of visibility.

So to me, that's an area where some folks, some companies still are struggling with.

It isn't that I need a hundred thousand transportation updates every five minutes.

It's I need to know the three that are within there that actually have a consequence where I need to be off, bring up options so that I can actually equip my frontline people so that they can actually not erode the customer experience.

Right.

So you can turn a potential disruption into still a satisfactory outcome.

And that continues from the store to even our drivers having that cell phone number.

If Jake's barbecuing his next door neighbor's house and we show up with a delivery, the driver can get in contact.

That saves a cancellation, that saves a return.

That saves Jake having to take an hour on Sunday to figure out where what he ordered was.

There it fixes all that stuff.

And the only thing I'll add, because it's not all negative, I mean same day delivery is.

It's not just a perk, it's a revenue driver.

You know, we've seen 80% of the companies that we've talked to that same day delivery have seen huge gains in revenue because they get it out there faster.

You wonder why your cell phone companies try to get your phones out to you because they don't want you to decide you don't want them anymore.

That's why it's very easy to get those delivered very quickly because once you have it in your hand, it's typically not going back.

Interesting.

Mark.

I've never thought about that last comment and I just got my kind of.

To your point, the last phone upgrade we did, I got it in the quickest amount of time we have ever gotten any to 3,000 devices that my family of five has gotten over the years.

Interesting point.

That was only because he was replacing his flip phone from 15 years ago.

Might be right.

Guilty as charged.

Guilty as charged.

Jake, I want to give you kidding aside, I want to give you the last comment around optimizing last mile and optimizing customer experience.

But before I do, a couple quick comments here.

Will says, don't mess with our coffee supply chain.

Hey, I think they're messing with it.

I think to help improve the overall experience.

We'll see.

The jury's out.

We'll see how these changes take effect.

I think this is Sylvia offering up options.

Brilliant.

Yeah, we love our options.

I tell you, all of us consumers do.

And Nadeem says, I agree with Mark on last mile delivery visibility as it avoids a number of queries and only real time data can help.

That's my point of view, Nadine.

Keep it coming.

All right, so Jake, I appreciated your comment about going a little bit deeper with what Mark was communicating.

What else?

Before we switch over, make a hard right turn and talk startup advice with Mark Gorland.

What's one other thing you'd like to call out and make sure folks walk.

Away here with He's Illustrating yet again the importance of people actually stepping back and thinking about building their supply chain and their customer experience from the touch point with the consumer back, not from inside out.

So outside in, thinking around the experience and importantly, what needs to be true in order for me to deliver it and hit those monikers.

Not only the satisfaction, but as Mark said, hey, I've got to do it cost effectively, right?

So that I can drive revenue growth if I can.

Scott.

I mean, that's why roadie's gotten into Roadie xd, our crosstalk product for big and bulky items.

Think about the last coffee table.

Think about the last ottoman chair like that's been delivered.

It's probably been a frustrating process of calls, not calls moving it out, turning that into something that is streamlined and you're going to get it the next day versus it being a week out.

People expect all of these larger SKUs, regardless of what industry you're in, to come with the same speed that you're getting your lemons, your laundry detergent, and your blue jeans.

They expect there to be no difference in it now.

Well said, Mark.

I gotta tell you, I got a refrigerator from our friends at Lowe's a year or so ago, and I saw it's like Andre the Giant drove this refrigerator over, he basically put it on his shoulder, put it exactly where he wanted it, and that just doesn't happen like that.

Plus, of course, kidding aside, there's a safety issue there, right?

And then an experience factor for team members too, that we want to protect.

So a lot of good stuff there, Mark and Jake.

All right, so, Mark, you gotta get outta here soon.

We'll protect your time, but before you leave, I bet plenty of folks are as curious about your entrepreneurial journey as I am.

And again, folks, look up Mark Gorland because it predates roadie.

It's been some interesting things.

He's been a part of roadie and many other ventures for that matter.

So, Mark, unfair question, but if you had to identify a couple of pieces of advice you'd offer to potential founders out there in our global audience, what would that be?

I can give you at least three.

I can give you a lot of them, but the top one is embrace storytelling.

I was actually a journalism major at the University of Georgia.

And a lost art is being able to communicate with the written in the spoken word.

And be able to do that.

You're going to have to sell everybody.

You're going to have to sell your employees, your customers, your suppliers, your investors, everybody out there.

So when you hear me do that story on the tile story and you hear the redneck voice.

Although I do recommend a redneck voice in a company pitch.

You're getting your attention by doing something that everybody else isn't doing.

But you're also giving a story that it's my tile, but it might be your tennis racket that needed to get to your kids tennis match.

You can take whatever my item is and replace it with one of your own.

So trying to bring those stories to life and not just give a death by PowerPoint of whatever the business is and turn it into a store.

We did the same thing at Cabbage.

We didn't say, oh, we want to give, you know, offer money and loans to small businesses.

We were like, okay, Bill is this stereotypical small business and he's just getting a hard time by the bank and the big bankers rich.

We had cartoons built of these people.

But there's all this data out there and we can give them a loan in seven minutes or less.

So the stories is big.

Second is seeking out mentors and diverse perspectives.

You see in a lot of companies they get surrounded by yes people.

I mean, honestly, I wish my senior team would agree with me more, but the best ideas in roadie are not necessarily, are not likely coming from me.

So encourage violent disagreement and figure out like, you know, where is the right answer.

As you're starting something, you're in a very special spot that you can look into all the silos of your company from customer service to marketing to sales, dealing with your investors and you just know ways strings tie to one another in a way that others don't.

But get different strong opinions from people and you'll make better decisions and listen to them.

You don't have to do everything, just listen to them and then is, you know, surround yourself with the right people and you know, get them on the bus.

And sometimes as you're growing a company, they might need to change seats.

That happened a lot in roadie.

But if you look at roadie right now, other than someone that retired all of our like, I've got people that have been there for 10.

So 10 years, nine years, probably the shortest of senior, senior management is seven or eight years.

And it's a pretty strong culture.

And people, you know, at least older folks that have been in companies before, not even that old, just know what it's like if you find a place where you've got transparency, trust and you're left alone to do your job.

I'm not hiring you to tell you how to do your job.

That's what you're here to do.

Leave people alone.

I love it.

Leave people alone.

Important policy.

And I love, number two, reaching out to mentors and diverse influences.

And folks aren't scared to disagree with you.

And at times, that violent disagreement that can oftentimes be so constructive, productive, and kind of help you rip blinders off.

Because sometimes I found, Jake, as I switch over to get your response here, sometimes I've found that there are blinders that we're fully aware of.

Right.

And we're conscious of.

And then we've got all sorts of blinders that are in our subconscious that we don't even know that we're wearing them.

And I think seeking out those diverse opinions from folks from all walks of life really help us see those.

No pun intended.

Jake, what would you add?

You work with a ton of successful entrepreneurs.

What else would you add to Mark's short list?

Actually, you know, Mark, I think, undersold one of his key points because the reality is what he's also done is he's understood what his role is, which is engaging and empowering the rest of the team.

So a founder and a leader and an innovator has to realize there's a time and space for where the idea gestates and blooms into this company.

Right.

And therefore, I need those diverse skill sets in order to be able to scale and expand edge.

Well said.

So Pete Kite, who started Fiserv, took over my spot on the board on Cabbage.

And he one of his best pieces of advice was like, figure out what you suck at and don't do it.

But you're right.

I mean, I subscribe to the mentor thing, too.

Mine is Frank Blake, who was formerly chairman CEO at Home Depot, Chairman of Delta.

I mean, he gave me good advice.

Like, you get to this stage in a company, there's probably only three or four important decisions you make a year.

But the hard part of the job is figuring out which ones those are and making sure you're not wasting time and focusing people on those paths and not a lot of distractions.

There's lots of room for distraction, especially in the early stages, starting stuff up.

But super helpful.

Very helpful.

And I think that to your last point, first off, I love to figure out what you suck at and don't do it anymore.

I think that's advice we all need to really consider.

But secondly, the jury's out.

We still have to get him on stage in Nashville to figure out if it really is the singing or not.

That's right.

That's right, Jake.

But kidding aside, your last point you shared there, Mark, not only is the challenge to make those decisions of the critical ones, but kind of to what you're saying, prioritizing.

What are those?

Four to five.

And I know I've missed a boat on some of those in my journey, so good stuff there.

Mark Gorland, Claudia is again summarizing your expertise there.

Appreciate that, Claudia.

Big show.

Bob Bove is adding his own never quit.

You may be one customer away from the success.

Your team, investors, and you have always knew what's possible.

Love that.

And this is Sylvia going back to the storytelling advice you had.

Her favorite aspect of Toastmasters storytelling.

I love it, Mark.

I do, too.

I do, too.

All right.

So, Mark and Jake, I hate to wrap up this segment.

Me too.

I could do this all day.

I'll tell you, all we need is foxes and maybe a few adult beverages.

And we're gonna do a.

A super bonus version of the Buzz.

But, Mark, I know you're hitting the road soon.

How can folks follow up with you and connect with you in the roadie ecosystem system?

Mark Gorland, Just connect with me on LinkedIn.

Mark Gorland.

Mark with a C.

And if there's anything we can do for you, I'm happy to get you the right folks.

I really appreciate you having me on, Scott and Jake, it's great to talk to you.

I'd like to hear you sing as well.

Better with bourbon.

Better with bourbon.

That's another tip.

Everything's Better with bourbon.

Well, folks, we have dropped Mark's LinkedIn profile right there.

I'm sure we'll also be dropping the roadie URL, so stay tuned for that as we try to make it really easy.

But definitely connect with, with follow.

Check out the roadie ecosystem, I'm telling y'all.

And Mark Gorland, thanks so much for spending time founder and CEO with roadie.

Safe travels, my friend.

All right, take care, y'all.

Thank you for having me.

You bet.

All right, Jake, Change agent, man.

Change agent.

That's what you love.

I'm with you.

That was a great segment.

That's one of those.

And we've had a.

We've had a slew of them here lately to start the year off.

You know, we usually have guests join us for 25, 30 minutes or whatnot, but many of them lately, we've needed a couple of hours to dive in to the goodness that they're bringing to show.

This is what makes the engagement so important, Scott, is this is a few minutes to take out of your week to actually step back and to rethink what's possible.

And so we continue to, you know, hit the drum beat of bringing people that are looking at this thing and they don't just accept what they can see through the first lens of goggles.

Right, right.

They're actually rethinking the problem statement, and that's how you deliver the breakthrough.

I'm with you.

Well said.

All right, so folks, as promised, the Roadie URL's right there.

Simple roadie.com.

how about that?

All right, so, Jake, I'm going to circle back and go to the well one more time because I've got two pages of notes from Mark's segment here.

And if you had to pick one thing from what he shared, and he shared a lot of good stuff, I think it's very actionable.

What should folks leave the buzz?

Keeping front and center.

Look, he brought a simple thing to life that often gets overlooked, and that is you design with the end in mind.

You work your way back from the experience and the objective of what you're trying to do on the problem statement, and you say, hey, what needs to be true to be able to pull that off?

And so he just didn't get bottlenecked with saying, well, wait, last mile delivery, it's already defined.

Right.

It's.

No, he stepped back and he said, wait, there may be a different way to approach this.

Right.

So I think the point of, of thinking about that with a context of how do I think about what needs to be true to get past this problem is one.

And the, the second is he wasn't scared to experiment.

That's right.

So critical.

And, you know, would you take that a step further, Jake?

And it's beyond the individual comfort level, but as leaders, we have to be comfortable with our team's important willingness to experiment as well, huh?

Absolutely.

And you know, Mark is a great example of an innovator who also understands his role of bringing people with diverse skill sets together and letting them do their thing.

I mean, empowering an organization has a hell of a rate of return to her.

Yep, that's right.

Well said.

All right, we're going to wrap on events I want to acknowledge.

Korai Kozay is with us here today.

Kura says, hey, vision is the most important execution, the second most.

Cora, I love what you have been doing and the content.

Great perspective you've been putting out in recent months, and great to have you here as well.

Hopefully the slopes treated you well this weekend.

Weekend My friend.

All right, so Jake, not quite as exciting as premier ski slopes, but almost.

Almost.

You know, on the heels of enjoying time out at Manifest in Vegas and Promat in Chicago, last week was outstanding.

We're pleased to be serving as a formal media partner for Gartner supply chain Symposium coming up in May.

It's hard to believe May is just around the corner.

And folks, we're dropping the link so you can learn a lot more and check out and hopefully join us.

I've been to a couple and it is outstanding.

The sidebar conversations, the presentations, networking, all of it.

Now Jake, I can't wait until you and I are going to be interviewing lots of movers and shakers over the course of two plus days.

But Jake, you've been to plenty of these Gartner supply chain events, including probably the planning events as well.

And when it comes to the symposium in May, why should folks consider Give me one or two reasons why folks should really consider joining us.

I'll give you multiple reasons.

First, you know I've had the opportunity and honestly honor to keynote at a number of those events event.

But importantly, there's not an event that brings together such a diverse group of supply chain professionals.

It is the event that if you are going to spend some time actually either yourself or with your team, giving them the opportunity to seek out discussions with people from completely different verticals than what you are currently competing in and having not just one person you could talk to to from a different vertical, but several hundred that you can seek out and spend time with.

So it is first and foremost a premier learning opportunity for you.

Second, the event focuses on sharing experiences.

Right?

So an awful lot of case studies that you can actually go through and see what someone did, the experiment they tried, what did they learn from it, what were their lessons, their takeaways so you can literally fill up.

I've walked out of the event and in previous years where I literally had a book of notes that thick of things not only that I got from individual one on ones, but also through the sessions.

I'm with you.

And if Jake Barr is taking notes, folks, you know it's got to be good, hard hitting stuff.

All right folks, I want to make sure I call out the dates here and get that right.

5th through 7th May down in Orlando at the Dolphin and Swan.

And folks, one of the things that Jake didn't mention is is got the best supply chain happy hour that I've seen thus far in my career.

So folks, join us.

And Trisha has dropped the link.

I appreciate that.

Now Jake, one other event before we wrap here today.

I want to share with folks we touched on this last week or two weeks ago and that's the Sapicks event in Cape Town, South Africa.

This is their 47th annual event.

How about that?

So I'm excited.

I had to miss last year.

We're back back this year.

There's gonna be supply chain leaders from over 50 countries.

And one of the coolest things here is the 8th through the 11th of June.

One of the coolest things we're gonna drop link to that is we've got a little play on the podcast called the Moth.

And the Moth is a great storytelling focus podcast where folks are sharing snippets of their journey.

We're gonna take a little spin on that from a supply chain perspective and we're gonna be featuring three or four supply chain practitioners sharing a really honest and authentic and transparent portion of their journey.

So folks, stay tuned and make sure you join us in Cape Town subscrib.

So Jake, I want to give a shout out to that conference as well and for a little bit different reason because many firms have a global footprint and where they do business, but they may not be as developed or as mature across what I'll call the Middle east and Africa continent as well.

And so you've got a incredible array of talented individuals who have a depth of knowledge of a space and an area that is a huge growth area globally that you can learn from as you get to the event.

So just an unusual gathering with huge depth of knowledge.

I'm with you.

Well, what a great call out.

And folks, the innovation across the African continent, all the many countries and communities and you name it is amazing.

We've dropped the link to the Safe Picks conference.

We've dropped a link to Gartner in May.

It's right there.

It's one click away folks from checking it out and we invite you to join us again.

We'll be interviewing folks Ed Gardner and folks at say Pixel.

Looking forward to that.

Okay, Jake, always a pleasure.

Really have enjoyed your perspective once again on the buzz.

Thanks for being here.

Can't wait for the next one.

Me neither.

I'll tell you what.

Also before we wrap, want to thank again Mark Gorland and the roadie team.

I really enjoyed his perspective that he shared with us here today.

Very actionable supply chain entrepreneurship.

Big thanks to man and Trisha behind the scenes.

And most importantly folks, big thanks to our global audience for being here with us.

That's why we do what we do.

A little call out from Trisha you can find and subscribe to Supply Chain Now.

Wherever you get your podcast, we've got a link there to plenty of our resources.

But folks, whatever you do, take one thing you heard here from Mark or Jake or folks in the comments.

Share it with your team.

Put it into practice.

You know we change this game of global supply chain by doing, not talking about it.

Deeds not words.

And with all that said, on behalf of the entire Supply Chain now team Scott Luden, challenge you do good, give forward.

Be the change that's needed.

We'll see you next time right back here on Supply Chain Now.

Thanks everybody.

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