Speaker 3
Yeah, it's going to be mandatory going forward. Yeah. You know, going back to kind of the both of you are speaking to, it's not easy and it's hard. It kind of a paraphrase, President Kennedy, we do these things because they're hard. Those are where the greatest value and advancements we can make, right? Is it supply chain or leadership or humanity, right, Greg?
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, that's where you get the rewards, right? There is no reward without risk. No risk in
Speaker 3
no biscuit. Oh, I'm right. That. I actually didn't make that out. Well, still.
Speaker 2
Probably for the YouTuber. I don't know.
Speaker 3
No risk in a biscuit, but I want to go back. So this is Jeff. Greg said earlier, which I think is a T-shirt ism for things beyond supply chain. It's being accelerant, not a hurdle. I think there's all sorts of ways we can apply that in our organizations. Okay. So Jeff, we've tackled three topics thus far. And this fourth one, before we get some advice from you on how folks can get started and make sure folks do not connect with you, this fourth one is talk to us about how we can work with Treasury to improve supplier health and working capital. Your thoughts here, Jeff. Yeah.
Speaker 1
Let's start with the idea that how many supply chains and supply chain practitioners even think about Treasury, even think about the role of finance in their supply chain execution. I think that's one of the things that I love most about what I'm able to do is thinking about supply chains holistically. I run into companies all the time. And to this day, it's still amazing to me how it's divided between people that make stuff and people that move stuff. And sometimes those two worlds don't cross. But there's a third one, which is that there's there are people that pay for stuff and none of the first two happen without the latter. And I think that's one of the biggest takeaways is thinking about supply chains holistically and recognizing that the financial aspect of a supply chain is very, very real. And it is the grease that makes everything run. And so thinking about what the financial needs are of your suppliers is part of the equation. It's part of the calculus, not just what your own kind of financial needs are. So I think that's a mindset. And when it comes to Treasury, cash is king. And I think we see a lot of consolidation. We're seeing a lot of M&A out in the industry. People are looking to extend payment terms still. I think we certainly saw a lot of that during COVID. And I think that one of the things that is so important is when you make an impact to cash availability and to liquidity for your suppliers, it has an impact. And the idea is not to be punitive to them. And so striking that balance is really critical. I think one of the things that I see out there is how do you accelerate payment decisions so that you can offer extended financing windows. So if programs are offered, they become more valuable, right? A longer and earlier I can get cash is the more valuable is to me. And that way I'm willing to consider offering discounts or early payment terms at a discount for shippers. And so we start to think about the margin impacts and the cost of goods impacts to the financial operation of an organization. But I think ultimately it's really about how do you bring even that network approach to the idea of Treasury and terms extension. So one of the things that I'm excited about us doing is that banks are they own those really important Treasury relationships that are out in the golf course. Those are the business doesn't run without cash. But being able to do more and think about bringing different types of financial institutions, large networks of institutions. So some of them are large global banks and our networks. Some of them are smaller regional banks. They've all got different jurisdictions. And lastly, I think it's really important because a lot of these financing programs are often offered and they're limited just to the really, really large suppliers. And that's limiting. So I think one of the things that's also really important to think about is how do you get to the long tail? How do you kind of invoke and offer up those financial benefits and those rewards to partners but across the supply base that you're working with? Yeah.
Speaker 3
So I think we're going to be a big way in there and how we can really leverage Treasury and not just help our large suppliers on Jeff's last point but all of our suppliers and make sure they're healthy and the ecosystem can win. Greg, your thoughts? Yeah.
Speaker 2
First of all, acknowledge that they exist. Jeff's point is very valid and that they are an important part of this thing, right? And also acknowledge how you can run your business. I think of planning and forecasting and inventory optimization is a great impact on finance because usually aside from real estate, if the company owns real estate, their largest asset is their inventory. And the more effectively you manage that and the more risk you take out of your supply chain, the better you can optimize and manage that inventory more. I don't want to say tightly but more closely, you're not trying to create risk by running inventory tightly, which most companies do. They just arbitrarily do that. But if you have technology or you have the capability to manage and optimize your inventory effectively considering all of the inputs and all of the risks in the supply chain, which has been a, I mean, band planning and optimization has been a product for nine on 70 years now. So there's something out there that can help you. Then that is a huge benefit to the organization, right? Is optimizing that working capital, knowing when you want to spend it, knowing when there's opportunity in increasing inventories that, you know, that brings greater profitability to the organization or optimizing those inventories to support demand and risk without excess.
Speaker 3
A lot of good stuff there, Greg. And to one of the points you made, I tell you, it's pretty risky to act arbitrarily in today's environment. It's a lot of good stuff there, Greg. And I'm going to take no risk, no biscuit. Oh, I'm going to, I'm going to owe you probably some some commissions there. Love you. But if you do that, you're going to make me find out who I did get it from. All right. So Jeff, I hate that our time with you has almost come to a close. I can tell you, Greg, Jeff has talked a couple of times about things that get him excited. I bet when Jeff gets excited, it's contagious for his team and the companies he works for there. Jeff, as we wrap up, I want to ask you about leaders that are really wanting to lean into some of these opportunities that you and Greg and I have all spoken about and truly change the status quo and help their organization and help their teams or team members that want to win. Yeah. What's some advice there that you'd offer them?
Speaker 1
I think it's twofold. The first is Greg used the term outside in earlier. And I think that's huge, right? We've talked a lot about just you've got to know who your partners are. And there has to be a genuine commitment to mutual benefit. You really have to think about them as strategic partners and what can you do to offer them something? It's got to go beyond just the transactional nature of how can I get the product that I want at the lowest cost. And then the second part is all invoke. I'm a huge Apple fan. I'll invoke a quick Apple story for my when I worked at Apple, I helped lead and stand up a business team in one of their retail environments. And at the time, Steve Jobs was still there and it was clear he wasn't going to be around forever. And he was known as an innovator. He was a product guy first and foremost and people wondered who would succeed him. And when Tim Cook started to get more on stage and it was obvious that he would take the helm, I think a lot of people were surprised because you associate Apple with products and innovation and excitement. Tim Cook was a supply chain guy. He kept the trains running and part of the reason that they were so successful was because of the incredible success they had in optimizing supply chain. And so this is kind of what I would leave people with. We used to think that companies competed product to product. And I think that the perspective that I've gained over the last 20 years is now companies compete supply chain to supply chain. It's not who's got the best product. If I can't get that Nike shoe that I want because they don't have my size or my color, if a component part isn't available and a plan has to shut down and I can't get something out for it to be transformed into a finished good and delivered to a customer, I failed. And the brand impact to those failures can have a longstanding ramification. So think about your supply chain holistically. Think about optimizing it and think about taking a network approach to how you do that.
Speaker 3
Jeff, well said, now you tell us you worked at Apple with Steve Jobs. They were going to have you back and get some good stories there too. But I love your last couple of comments. Folks, stay tuned. I'm going to get Greg's patented key takeaway from today's conversation. But first, folks, if you want to learn more about a lot of things that Jeff spoke about and what they're doing in for Nexus, how they're him and the team are helping to put an end to end in inefficiencies. I love that and optimizing supply chain networks everywhere. So check out the link we're dropping in the chat. One click away from learning a lot more about that. And Jeff, how can folks, if they want to connect with you, we had a couple of questions in the chat, how can folks connect with you, maybe have a tasty adult beverage as y'all talk supply chain or your Apple stories or anything else? How can folks connect with you, Jeff?
Speaker 1
Yeah, one of the greatest networks that we all know, LinkedIn is a great way to reach me and look forward to speaking with anybody. Outstanding.
Speaker 3
I think we're going to be dropping Jeff's LinkedIn profile right there. You want to click away and as Cora Coze says, hello, Cora, supply chain is your brand maker. Great Apple take. Thanks for sharing. Cora, I hope you and the family are doing well. Okay, Greg, we have heard as we knew we'd get from Jeff, a truckload of brands here today. So Jeff really appreciate that. But Greg, if you had to boil it down to one key takeaway from today's conversation, what would that be, Greg?
Speaker 2
Your supply chain is your brand. It doesn't matter what your brand looks like. It doesn't matter what your brand representation or marketing or PR is. It doesn't matter what your brand promises. It doesn't matter what your sales are. It doesn't matter what you say to the marketplace. It matters what you deliver to the marketplace and supply chain delivers, not just your product, but also your brand promise. And you have to recognize that. That's why I think some of these things that Jeff is talking about are so critical. What represents your brand out there? I think about, we talked a lot about treasury here, right? I mean, how you pay matters, it represents your brand, right? How you deliver obviously matters and represents your brand. And the amount of interaction and collaboration that you produce amongst your supply chain, either direct or extended is critical to assuring that. And I think that is the realization that some CEOs have started to come to is that this is more about get it here fast and cheap. It's about represent our brand in the best manner that we can to the entirety of the marketplace. Because if you promise Nike shoes and people can't get them, they're going to go to Adidas or on or who even knows, I mean, new balance, whatever, and find what is substantially to Jeff's point the same or at least a similar enough shoe to get the job done. So it is absolutely critical. We've seen extreme examples. Peloton was crushed by their supply chain, right? A huge brand, admittedly riding the wave of people being on lockdown, but then they couldn't deliver and it absolutely destroyed the company. So it is that important to you. I mean, Peloton will go down in history as a massive, I mean, they may come back from it, but that incident will go back, will go down in history as a massive supply chain failure. Excellent