Digital Supply Chain STOKED! – Executive Leadership Forum, Baltimore

Monthly blog featuring George Bailey, the Managing Director of the Digital Supply Chain Institute interviewing a series of supply chain leaders from around the world.

George is on the Advisory Board of Lockheed Martin and the American Productivity and Quality Center. He is the Executive Professor of Digital Innovation and Management at Pepperdine University and the Chairman of the Jackson Hole Ocean Sailing Team. George was based in Tokyo as Sony’s Chief Transformation Officer reporting to Chairman Sir Howard Stringer.  Previously he was a member of IBM’s leadership team and the global lead for the PriceWaterhouse Strategy Change business.

Today I get to interview……. myself!  We had an amazing Executive Leadership Forum with top supply chain people from around the world. You should know what they talked about:

Welcome to STOKED! George-san, tell me about the Executive Leadership Forum that you hosted last month?

Over the last 18 months, the Digital Supply Chain Institute (DSCI) has held numerous conference calls and face-to-face meetings with the top talent responsible for supply chains at over 30 global companies. We have been working to bring a clear vision of the

Digital Supply Chain (DSC) to help companies make the transformation to digital.

On October 12-13, at the Under Armour Waterfront HQ in Baltimore, MD, USA, the DSCI convened our third Executive Leadership Forum (ELF) to present new tools to help companies develop a strategic path forward. The meeting was attended by over 70 senior supply chain executives, representing a wide range of industries including apparel, automotive, aerospace, fast-moving consumer goods, finance, software, technology, and transportation.

What did you hope to achieve the Baltimore Forum?

We presented our objectives for the Forum at the opening dinner at Rye Street Tavern on the evening before the start of the event. Over a relaxing meal, we told attendees that we had three primary goals:

• Reinforce our original research on the Frontside Flip and the potential for a customer-centric supply chain that allows companies to grow revenue.
• Present the new “Digital Supply Chain Transformation Guide: Essential Metrics”
• Engage participants help to pick essential DSC metrics, review the  DSC Transformation Maturity Assessment, use real-time big data and AI/Machine Learning to drive demand, and learn from pilot Blockchain projects.

What other topics did the Forum cover?

In addition to the topics just mentioned, we conducted two workshops: DSC Transformation: Going from Strategy to Action and Driving Demand with Real-Time Big Data and AI/Machine Learning. The workshops allowed us to go really deep with the current research and gave participants the opportunity to ask questions and share their ideas on the best ways companies can execute transformation. All Forum attendees rotated between both 60-minute workshop sessions.

What did you learn from the live polling that you conducted during the event?

We wanted our members to help select the most essential metrics for tracking a digital supply chain. Attendees took part in real-time polling and selected the top two metrics from each category they thought best represented the type of metrics applicable to their company. What we learned is that 35% want to boost revenue from their DSC work. No surprise there. But 39% cite loss from supply chain disruption a big risk factor and 32% want to track the percentage of revenue that moves north thanks to new advanced technologies.

What have we learned about Blockchain from the pilot projects underway?

Interest in Blockchain is sky high right now. During one of our sessions, panelists currently conducting Blockchain Proof of Concept projects shared their experience and insights from the work so far. According to Aricent, one of the pilots, Blockchain helps to streamline communications while boosting transparency and accountability. It helps improve consumer trust and can be useful verifying legitimacy of open source components as well as distribution, for example, proof of downloads. Most importantly, Aricent believes that it will boost their revenue because customers will appreciate the rapid speed enabled by Blockchain.

What’s next?

Members were encouraged to assess the state of their current supply chain using DSCI’s Transformation Maturity Assessment. That will help them develop a strategic plan and decide on investment priorities, metrics and the actions necessary across all four strategic domains: Demand, People, Technology, and Risk.

Thank you, George-san! We will interview one of the top supply chain leaders next month and unveil some new Digital Supply Chain ideas.