This fireside chat recap is from Day 3 of FreightWaves Global Supply Chain Week. Day 3 focuses on food/perishables and CPG.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Overcoming silos in the digital value chain journey
DETAILS: What should digital transformation really mean to leaders in today’s business world, full of disruptions and shifts in priorities? This fireside chat discusses the top things to prepare for and the key steps to take in order to attain successful digital value chain journeys, from regional supply chain improvements to global digital transformation programs.
SPEAKERS: Gary Berger, president, Berger Business Consulting; and Patrick Jones, director of supply chain execution, transformation advisory, Blue Yonder. Fab Brasca, group vice president, global solutions, Blue Yonder, hosted the chat.
BIOS: After a 30-year career with PepsiCo, Berger established his own consulting practice in 2018, leading a small team of experienced professionals to help companies achieve success beyond what was thought possible. At PepsiCo, he was most recently the vice president of global digital transformation, responsible for defining and implementing breakthrough technological advances across manufacturing, logistics and sales operations. Solutions implemented leveraged big data, advanced analytics, machine learning optimization, augmented reality and predictive analytics across 150-plus countries.
Jones is a leader on Blue Yonder’s transformation advisory team, specializing in supply chain execution practices. He helps clients across the supply chain industry by understanding their unique supply chain challenges, assessing the potential impact of Blue Yonder Solutions, and recommending solutions and processes to maximize the return on technology investments.
Brasca leads his organization to drive thought leadership, go-to-market strategy and solution execution excellence for Blue Yonder’s 4,000-plus customer base. Additionally, his organization works closely with customers to understand requirements, drive best practices and promote adoption of Blue Yonder solutions across the globe. Previously, he was VP of solution strategy and supply chain execution.
Key quotes from Berger
“Most good companies have already done a really good job of optimizing within their functional boundaries. Where digital transformation is really kind of the sweet spot is in optimizing beyond what those natural boundaries are. That is, across the entire supply chain. It’s even beyond the supply chain and into other functional areas — and even inside other companies, either upstream or downstream.”
“I think the very first thing that a company needs to wrap their mind around is making sure of their relentless focus on driving the business value associated with that particular digital transformation.”
Key quotes from Jones
“The important thing is it’s got to be more than a project mentality. It’s not a technology project. The important thing is you’ve got to be willing to look ground up at every aspect of operations and organization. It’s not an IT-driven initiative. It’s got to be a business-driven, p-and-l driven, bottoms-up approach, using technology as an enabler but not as the primary driver of the work. To me, that’s the key.”
“When you talk digital transformation, you’ve got to be able to point to the different takes on value you’re going to get. Some are bigger than others, but they’re all going to be there. So how do you lay that out? Definitely the value is front and center.”