Intro & Outro: 0:00

Welcome to the Tennessee on Supply Chain Management Podcast. Listen and as co-hosts Ted Stank and Tom Goldsby set sail into the world of end-to-end supply chain management, diving deep into today's most relevant business topics. They'll share insights and pressing industry issues and tackle the challenges keeping supply chain professionals up at night. If you're enjoying the ride, download and subscribe to Tennessee on Supply Chain Management on your favorite podcast platform now.

Tom Goldsby: 0:28

Hello and welcome to a special edition of the Tennessee on Supply Chain Management Podcast. Professor Tom Goldsby coming to you from National Harbor, Maryland, uh just a shade south of D.C., the nation's capital. We're here for the CSCMP Edge Conference. I'm pleased to be joined by my good friend and colleague, Mr. Scott DeGroot. Hello, Scott. Tom, hello. How are you? Doing well. We're just uh so thrilled to be here. This is like the family reunion uh that we get together. I was just sharing with some friends earlier today. This is my 31 consecutive Edge conferences. I haven't missed one since 1995.

Scott DeGroot: 1:08

I was kidding you earlier, Tom, that you must have started coming when you were five years old. No, it was three and a half. That's three and a half. That's an amazing record.

Tom Goldsby: 1:16

Well, Scott, we're we're thrilled to have you here. The uh loyal listeners of the podcast are probably wondering where is Professor Ted Stank. Unfortunately, Ted couldn't join us here uh in the nation's capital for the Edge Conference. He's back in Tennessee tending to a family matter. So we're all thinking of you, Ted and family. Uh but Ted, uh, we expect will be back with us on the next broadcast, and we'll tell you more about what's in store. But hey, here we are today. I think it's the first Sunday in October, and we're at the Edge conference, and people are wondering who's the guest. Well, if you've read the promo, you you know who the guest is. It's CEO and president of the CSCMP, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, Mr. Mark Baxa. Hello, Mark. Oh, it's great to be here. Hello to both of you as well. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Mark's kind of busy.

Scott DeGroot: 2:05

Uh if those of you just forgot some of his time. It's amazing that you did. Thank you for that.

Mark Baxa: 2:10

This is the place and moment I want to be present in. So you guys don't have to worry about that.

Tom Goldsby: 2:15

I'm here for you. Well, we we very much appreciate it. We know our fans uh back on Rocky Top, uh far and wide, around the nation, around the world, are really pleased. And for those folks who haven't been to a CSCMP conference, an edge event here in the States or those programs that are now being offered around the world. In Europe and other places. Kind of helps set the scene for someone, Mark. What could someone expect if they were to arrive to the Gaylord Resort here in National Harbor? What would they expect to see next few days?

Mark Baxa: 2:44

Aaron Powell So this is probably the richest place in all of supply chain where you can be immersed into a culmination of over 100 sessions that cover the full span of all functions in supply chain, some of the supporting functions, the legal aspects, HR as well, leadership, as well as a combination of industry practitioners coming together with service providers, and I have to say it, since the presence I'm in right now, Tom, is the academia, right? Absolutely. This is the largest culmination of academics and universities coming together under the umbrella of CSCMP. This is your home. And I have to also say, too, that as a former board member, Tom, thank you for your service to this organization. Thank you. But also recognition that you are now one of the distinguished fellows.

Tom Goldsby: 3:34

Oh, thank you so much, Mark Everyone. It's a thank you both. I I uh I'll tell you what, I had an opportunity to accept that distinction earlier today. One of my dear friends, Professor Stan Griffiths, he was a doctoral student at Ohio State uh some 20 plus years ago, and he's gone on to have a great career at Michigan State. And you know, just in his opening remarks, as he was inducting me into the fellows, I was getting choked up. I this is an organization that just meant so much to me. And it really is the family reunion, is the way we think of it. And that's why I keep coming back. I'm sure never to miss one of these. Scott, you've been to a fair number of uh edge conferences as well.

Scott DeGroot: 4:12

Yes, indeed. I think a lot of this organization, and congratulations to you, Mark, for carrying on the great tradition. Of course, uh, you may know I spent a long time at Kimberly Clark, and we were very actively involved in CSCMP and really not only for um networking, but even more for the education of our team and making sure people were current and understood what was going on around them. So it's an amazing place to be. And congratulations.

Mark Baxa: 4:38

Well, thank you and as a leader, as you are for what you just said, I think that's a very important message for all the people leaders listening to this podcast, and that is investing in your people really matters. You know, I know that businesses right now are under extreme financial pressure, and cash preservation is a very high priority, and cost centers for developing people are often one of the first things that get cut. But when business gets better, you wonder why you don't have the presence and capability in your supply chain. Well, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and think about what happened, right? So that's what CSCMP is here for. Just exactly what you said. And there's so many different ways, cross-section of research, education, collaboration with uh universities that bring great content and great learning environments, both online and in person. So thank you for those comments.

Tom Goldsby: 5:26

Well, that's uh you just don't find it under one roof like that. But CSCMP is much more than a conference, and we'll talk about the value that's generated through the membership throughout the year. But it did occur to me that, you know, again, Scott, you're you're a first-timer on the podcast. And while you you've been our managing director for what, since summer.

Scott DeGroot: 5:49

That's right. Right.

Tom Goldsby: 5:49

That's right. And but maybe not everyone back on Rocky Top and the Tennessee and supply chain management ecosystem may be familiar. But yeah, we let Scott retire, I joke, for about 12 hours uh before we got our claws into him. He was a member of our advisory board that we, again, that select group of senior leaders and in the supply chain space that we hold so near and dear. Again, fortunately, you were in the Knoxville area. Could you maybe describe the the amoeba effects that that overcame you?

Scott DeGroot: 6:21

For those who don't know, I have a 38-year career working at Kimberly Clark Corporation and Galawine and amazing career. And I felt very, you know, that I had accomplished uh the things that I want to accomplish, and I had a great team behind me, and it was time. And my wife and I, we've lived all over the world. She's kind of said, Yeah, let's kind of stay here, you know, and settle in. And it was the right decision for us. And then um, the amoeba effect is the career development mechanism at the University of Tennessee, which is hey, Ted and Tom called up and said, Um, hey, you want to come and teach a class? Yeah, sure, I'll lecture at some classes. You want to teach this whole section? Sure. And one thing leads to the next, and and now I'm overseeing all of that, plus the Global Supply Chain Institute, which is uh, as you know, a great organization. We have over um almost 80 partner companies working with us on research and recruiting and talent development. So it's amazing.

Tom Goldsby: 7:11

Okay, I mean, we are just so thrilled to have you in that capacity. And Ted and I, I think we were just talking to a faculty meeting uh a few days ago and saying it's folks like Scott and our staff that really set us apart from other programs in a lot of ways. So thank you, Scott, for being a part of it. But let's kind of get to maybe a little bit of the news of the day and then we'll come back to CSCMP and the organization. We are within earshot of Capitol Hill. I think this is day five, six of the government shutdown. Yes. And the question I I want to ask, and I think I will. Let's have some fun with it. How long do you think this thing's gonna go, this shutdown?

Scott DeGroot: 7:51

Well, I'll be the first one to jump out there and mark and follow on, and that is um I don't know. I think it's gonna be seven, ten days. You know, I don't think uh we're gonna come in Monday morning. I'll be happily surprised if I'm wrong, but that it's all gonna be resolved. We were flying up here from Tennessee and our state representative was on the flight with us and interesting. Coming up here to uh do some work. I guess I'm breaking the deadlock. So I don't know. I think it's gonna be um seven to ten days.

Tom Goldsby: 8:18

Now, if you'd said that he was on the flight back, I think that would have been indicative of being uh a little north of the seven to ten day window that you're suggesting. But the fact that he's heading back to DC is interesting. Mark, what about yourself? If you were forced to throw a number or range out there, what's your gut?

Mark Baxa: 8:34

Well, if I were hopeful, I would have hoped this never would have happened. Sure, sure. Right. See where we are and the preponderance of conversation that seems to be levied into this through the media, you know, with those that have the microphone, it you would think that this is just like going to be impossible. I'm counting on the members of Congress, influence of the president and others to get this done in short order because we need our federal government operational everywhere. So I hope it's no more than seven days. I mean, it's just a hope. You know, I don't have a crystal ball, but I've also seen these things go on for an extended period of time, and we have been surprised how long this can really go. What I would hope for is that we get beyond the core of the politics of how can we outposition each other and let's do the right thing for the American people and really for the globe, because this federal government is here to help support a very fluid supply chain. Many don't realize, and we don't want to let this go very long. We need to get back to work here.

Tom Goldsby: 9:31

I don't know if I heard a number, but you said you hope no more than the seven days. To your point, these things come along from time to time. I think the last government shutdown was in Trump 1.0, December 22nd of 2018, carried over for 35 days into 2019. I'm certainly hoping we don't set a record. And I think we can all recognize that uh people and their supply chains would suffer immensely if that were to be the case. So I suspect it'll probably run maybe a 10 days or tad north of that, but hopefully not much more than that.

Scott DeGroot: 10:01

We were chatting a little bit before this idea that in the first day or two, you people don't really see overtly sort of the impact. And then people start worrying about TSA lines and is a national park open. But over time, you were making a point, Mark, about the fact that the amount of volume that moves in and out of our border, the mechanisms that keep all this freight flowing, the government plays an important role in that. And over time, that's sand in the grinding wheels can really hurt our country. So I I thought that was a great point you made.

Mark Baxa: 10:32

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, there's a tremendous support system behind that. The essential services are working, as you mentioned, the TSA, customs at the border, keeping things moving. But behind that are a bunch of things that are occurring that are transactional, that are supported by a much deeper bench. And that work is stacking up. And in some cases, those roles also support answers to the port. If a shipment gets stopped and a little bit of research needs to be done on that, and those people are not available as import specialists to answer the frontline officer's question about this particular shipment, what happens? You get parked. So this is not a good day for us. And Tom, I get your point. You know, I I remember in the first administration, and and let's face it, President Trump has a very big voice and he has a very big presence. And there's a lot of leverage going on here as to like, okay, let's slow this down a minute. Let's get our voice in the media for a while. Right. And that's the kind of politics that doesn't work for me. Uh, that's the kind of thing that I think is a bad representation of what they have been brought to Congress to do, and that is represent the people. Yep, well said.

Tom Goldsby: 11:38

So something that I did pick up was uh we've been attending the academic research symposium. It's a day and a half event, got underway yesterday afternoon. It's wrapping up a right about now. And we're so fortunate to have not only our friends from peer institutions around the United States and North America, but increasingly a global presence. I was talking to some of our friends who were coming over from Europe, and they indicated, yeah, they saw the Americans coming in, and they quickly got processed and on their way to the conference. And then I was hearing of two and a half, three hour delays to get through custom screening at Dulles, whether it's passenger transportation, freight transportation, maybe we're already seeing some signs of it. But let me get to the international element of it. You know, CSMP, you noted in your opening remarks to the ARS today, is a global organization. Can you talk about some of the things you're doing? And I know that you all, I say you all, CSCMP has a new certification, some new training and the SE Pro extension that you might want to talk about. We do, yeah.

Mark Baxa: 12:47

Thank you so much. It's great. Well, first, I have to say that if I could repeat just for a few seconds here what I shared this morning, and that is CSCMP is comprised of membership from academia service providers, those that provide the essential services to those that actually build, ship, and move stuff, the practitioners. And there's a lot of support around that. There's consultants and everybody else in between. All of this makes up our ecosystem at CSCMP. Even though that we have a domiciled presence in the United States for 63 years, ever since Dr. Bauer Sachs and others came together, we are a global organization. We have roundtables around the world, we have academics around the world. And the presence that we are really trying to emphasize is we may be domiciled U.S., but everything matters globally. The supply chain is global. Our ecosystem inside of CSCMP must mirror that. And I am so thrilled to see so much more engagement coming from our members from around the world, as opposed to making it more U.S. centric. This was our hope. This is what we wanted, right? So we're seeing it. It's great. And people are really engaging. The other thing I'll say is that this is not about a workforce that's paid for on the backs of our members. It's the opposite. Over 700 people, volunteers, members of CSCMP, make up our ecosystem and make it work, which is really cool. Wow. And I just can't imagine us not being in a place that we talked about here, and that is supporting each other through advancement of research and content and everything else that we do. So in light of what you just asked about our new SCPRO offering, it is simply called SCPRO Global. And what's inside of there, and will continue to be built, are courses that help companies, academia, and any interested parties grow their knowledge and the ability to transact internationally and not just in and out of the U.S. I'm talking about globally, things around import and export, INCO terms, which are essentially the language of transportation insurance at risk around the world. Not a law, but a common understanding, right? And that's so vital. And many, many other facets of managing freight forwarders and brokers. This is language that's done principally in English around the world, but something that is very, very key that CSCMP is now advancing their presence in. And the cool thing is we're actually giving customs brokers here in the U.S., and we'll do things like this for others around the world, continuing education credits for certain courses that U.S. Customs has endorsed as worthy because they have to continue to educate themselves. And now they can do that right here at CSCMP, which is cool. So we're broadening not only our content, but we're inviting more disciplines and supply chain to be a part of it. And this content will continually be approved and endorsed by CSCMP through members of our certification and education committee led by none other than Chris Boone at Mississippi State and others. So we have academics involved in saying this is worthy of the good housekeeping seal of CSCMP. It's accredited content by CSCMP, and I couldn't be more excited about that.

Tom Goldsby: 15:58

That's fantastic. And I was excited when I saw about that. And it to some extent reinforced what we're trying to do at the University of Tennessee as well. Of course, I'm the director of the uh MS program and global supply chain. And I like to equate that any of our undergraduates with a bachelor's degree in supply chain management should be able to go out into any entry-level position and do very, very well, we believe. We prepare them for that. However, I equate it a little bit to like learning how to swim in a lap pool. You jump in, controlled environment, maybe you learn how to do a flip turn, yeah, get more proficient at your stroke. But we in the global program, and it sounds like with the SC Pro Global certification, we're trying to prepare them for swimming in the deep blue ocean, right? Where the vagries of Incoterms, geopolitics, and these things present themselves a little bit more, right? So kind of raising and expanding the perspective, the purview in which they need to excel. That's a really cool premise. It sounds like a very fresh product this week. Release party right here at Edge this week. Great, fantastic. Well, you're working with Chris Boone and a whole host of other folks of pros. And that's why I come to CSCMP, right? It's not just to see my academic colleagues, but it's to immerse myself in industry. And to the point you were making earlier, I don't know of anywhere else where those two worlds come together. And you were encouraging us academics, stick around for the edge conference, the next three days that we have in front of us. Right. That's where I get inspired. So tell us about what's in store for these next three days. What are some of the big events that we can expect to be a part of?

Mark Baxa: 17:37

Well, you get to really enjoy our keynote lineup that we have, and that makes up an important part of our conference, which the general sessions where we gather in mass, right, to hear awards, but also experiences of some really great names. You're gonna hear from John Phillips from PepsiCo, you're gonna hear from some keynotes that really touch on the human element of leadership, you're gonna hear from Doug Cantriel from Ford Motor Company, a household name for so many. And certainly recognizing in a brief moment, I'll talk about Henry Ford as one of the initial inductees into the CSCMP supply chain hall of fame. We'll also have on our last day, which is critically important, we're gonna hear from people that are deeply entrenched at the global and also country level around impacts from the geopolitical climate that we are currently in. What do you need to think about in terms of well, essentially keeping your supply chain moving, progressing, but also your business because we are definitely in a a certainly volatile time, uh mostly human introduced, as you know. And on the backside of it, the supply chains are in a position for some surviving and others looking for opportunities to continue to optimize. So we're gonna hear from some great voices. And then there's over 100 individual sessions dealing with the details of so many things across planning, procurement, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and distribution, and customer service. And again, as I said earlier, there's gonna be some softer pieces to this around talent and legal and other things like that. So this is a culmination. This is the place where you stop for a few days and get energized, but also some real thought leadership indoctrination. And in the end, I want everybody to leave changed. I want them to be almost unrecognizable when they're back at their desks or working with people in their own companies. That what happened to this person? Wow, where'd they get all this stuff? Well, this is why we're here to educate, build up, and develop individuals so that they can in turn do more for the companies they work for, right?

Scott DeGroot: 19:35

You know, while you were chatting, it struck me so many places, and people are talking about the technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence and the way that's shaping the supply chain of the future. But you touched on something there, the power of relationships and the need for building these human relationships with your suppliers and with your customers and internal to your organization. And I was looking at the agenda this weekend, excited about. There's a lot of conversation about the power of the human relationship and the human element in this AI revolution. Do you feel like that that's important?

Mark Baxa: 20:08

Oh, absolutely. I mean, there are things that I look forward to seeing with the technology at our feet and the future of it around artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence or robotics and computer systems and what it can do for us well beyond the pale of large language models, which are very, very impressive, by the way. And now we're going to see where we can take repetitive tasks, operationalize them. And you know, some of this has been already there. The automobile industry has had robotics on the assembly line for many years already. But now we're talking about critical thinking and learning and where this can take in a human and automation type of interaction that's actually thinking about how do we resolve a broken part, how do we fix this without having to dig through manuals and those kind of things. And automatically the answer is there. You ask, it's there, right? So there's just so much opportunity here. And then taking supply chains where they use predictive analytics atop of your core data, creating a better demand synopsis, or actually thinking about logistics modeling and the solver model, that's gonna be history here pretty soon. Artificial intelligence is gonna do that for us, right? You still need to teach it, by the way. Sorry. We still need to understand how these algorithms work. We gotta know. And that's the biggest thing, I think. In your question, is the intersection of human talent and knowledge, understanding the solution? Can it be implemented? Is it legal? Has it skipped something, some form of filter that it should actually be running through? And in the end, does it really add the kind of value? Can it actually be implemented? Does it make sense? Does it add liability? Does it add risk? Or does it take liability and risk away? All of these things are, you know, cannot be done without the human mind attached to it. Are there jobs that are going to disappear? Yeah, there's been jobs disappearing every day ever since we've been born. Are there new jobs that are going to be created? Yes, there's new jobs created every day since we've been born. And that's that continuation is going to go. That's not where I think our heads need to be. It's like, how do we maximize this opportunity? And if there's retraining or adjustments, or in fact, paradigm shifts that occur, let's do this. Let's engage around it. The one thing I do want to throw out there is that our IT specialists who are watching all the digitization occur that we have around us is that they spend an incredible amount of effort in preserving and protecting the security of what's on the road ahead, what we currently have and the future. There's a lot of bad actors that want what we have. Right. There's a lot of folks that want to create impedance to this, right? For whatever reason, it exists. So that's the one thing I would layer in is that these support functions that watch these digital systems work because we're going to be that much more reliant on them. I mean, think about autonomous vehicles. My wife sees the Waymo taxis and she's, I'm scared to get in one of those things. I'm saying I'm standing there going, let me get in one. I don't see how this thing works. You know, so all of this, you can't prevent it. Let's optimize it. Let's step in and let's go. But I think the connection of humans into this is very important. And I'll say one last thing. Blocking and tackling will always exist. If you don't know how logistics systems work, if you don't know how planning systems and processes should work, and I can go on and on across the functions of supply chain, which gets to the heart of what you're teaching in your universities and what we're all actually promoting through our online education and our live education, then you're going to lose. You can't take the eye candy of digital technology and expect it to solve for all your problems without the human interaction in it. And you're not going to know how to evaluate the solutions if you don't understand how supply chains work, if you don't know the function of each supply chain and your role in your function. So let's just put that out there that the need for understanding how supply chains work and in-roll functions have to play out no matter what technology does.

Scott DeGroot: 23:59

Very well said, Mark. Everything that you say is not only true, but supply chain leadership who may not be quite up to speed on all the technology, they really need to have that operational empathy and that awareness that you need to get ahead of the curve. Because if you don't, you'll be out of the game.

Mark Baxa: 24:16

Yeah, that's very true. You got to support your people. And not just in a traditional sense of learning. I, you know, going back to this very fast evolution of technology in front of us, there is an accountability factor in this. You may be an AI startup, you may be a technology long-term provider that's getting into AI, and you may be evolving. So let's not find ourselves in a place where you're pitching the tool without teaching the user how to maximize performance, reduce risk, right? It's on your back right now because nobody knows what this is. There is no, if you want to know what's on the road ahead, ask somebody on the way back. We're not on our way back. It's like kind of like COVID. Who's on your way back from this? We haven't seen this in 100 years. Who's over a hundred years old in the supply chain? Not very many. Right. So there were no teachers today. The teachers are those that are creating the technology. That's their accountability. So I'm asking for help. You got to own education with this as you develop.

Tom Goldsby: 25:10

Well, it sounds as though, Scott, we at the University of Tennessee and academics abound are going to have some opportunity to bonus the conversation. But that said, I think we do need to adapt and we need to pivot. And I think, you know, it's something universities are struggling with ourselves about what is the role of education scholarship in the future. There was some very provocative discussion in the symposium this morning about the publishing game and how that could that could change a lot in the future and how our journals are very challenged to determine what's real and what's not so real out there. But I think we need to teach our students how to be successful, navigate it, leverage the capabilities, but also to do it in an ethical fashion. And so that's the game we play. Well, hey, Mark, you you've mentioned some of the things that we can expect here at Edge, and again, so excited about the next three days ahead. But also you mentioned SC Pro and this extension into the global domain. What are some of the other things that CSCMP is up to? It's not just the activity here in North America. We love the European Research Symposium. I can speak to that, the ERS that I think is set for Madrid. That's right. So many of us were gathered in Verona. They did a tremendous job last year bringing us together, practitioners and academics, one place, one time, much like we have here this week in D.C. But what are some of the things that we can look forward to, the balance of this year into next year?

Mark Baxa: 26:33

That's a great question. And it's kind of like a hub and spoke concept. So you got CSCMP's core in the middle, the things we've always stood for, the research that we do, like the State of Logistics Report and other reports like that. And then we springboard out from there and we do our white papers and other micro things, and then we come into how do we promulgate the learning and development content into roundtables, and then you get to the edge conference, and you get, like you said, you get the European conference. But I'll speak about this from a standpoint of how we're growing our base to educate. This is key. So where do people go? The magic of asking a question to any one of the chat programs out there is pretty fascinating. And I'm sure it's a struggle for universities and schools and those kind of things as well, is what's real, what's not, right? But beyond that, we are focused on uh taking continuous education and people development and supply chain to the next level. And what I mean by that is CSEMP offers the foundational learning. With Daniel Stanton's leadership, we move our content on LinkedIn learning, and that's LinkedIn Learning Supply Chain Foundations. We've had over 85,000 course starts in the last 18 months. 27,000 exams, 24,000 have passed, and about 10,000 of those appear on LinkedIn. People are really proud of it. Then you go to SC Pro Fundamentals, which are eight courses across the disciplines of supply chain. And this is after they graduate. This is from a four-year school like UTK. This is like, what do you do to continue to sharpen your saw? So you can go there, then you go into SCPRO Fundamentals, and we also have an assessment tool. Now we have SC Pro Global, and we're going to look for other expansions. We're going to be working with university partnerships on executive level education. It's interesting. Our mission is to connect, educate, and develop supply chain professionals throughout their career. And one of the areas we were a little short on was the executive level. Now there are other organizations that support the executives. Very proud of them. Participate in some of them myself. But we created the executive inner circle, and that is exclusively for the chiefs, the VPs or EVPs, and supply chain are their functions. And we yet we let a few service providers in there as long as they're willing to participate in the conversation. We don't want them selling. So we do two summits a year, plus the third one is actually kind of our executive track here at Edge, and those are all live. We've been to places like the Machine NASA facility where the Saturn V was built and the space shuttles, and now Artemis. So really cool, in-depth learning experiential kind of things. We've been to your fellow university of MIT. You know, maybe one of these days we'll come to UTK. So we take these executives into forums of extensive deep thought conversation. So we're going to expand that. We love this, they love it. It's an area of opportunity. So it's not just about online learning, but it's creating ecosystems for unique parts of the supply chain and leadership development. So I'm really thrilled about this. The other thing I'll say is that I want to challenge, and I did this this morning, is we are open access for publishing. Now I know there's rules in the academic world about if you're going to put it into a journal, like Journal of Business Logistics, you can't prepublish, right? You got to wait. And I respect that fully. But in the world of academia, you write so much, you produce so much that in just a little bit of time, you can take the theory and transpose it into hey, here's how you might want to implement some of this stuff. Here's how it might apply to the business transactional side. Whatever that might be, I want to put it out there that our academic world has an open license to publish and push things to CSCMP at a high rate of speed. If you've got something to help, help, let's do it. Let's partner, let's do great stuff. And I want to see more of our academic community participating. And it's on the round table boards backs to do this. I want to say this, but all of our live events in various cities and countries around the world, I want to see more collaboration. And it's coming. You know, we're in Mexico, we've got Tech Monterey helping. You know, we've done some things together over the years, you know, with Ted Stank and yourself and many others. I mean, just there's just so many great things that are happening. I'm kind of getting excited here. But I think the opportunity for CSCMP to continue to evolve in this way by capitalizing on the brain trust of our academic community is tremendous. And our practitioners have real learning and to continue to share that. That's how we get better together, and that's how we make professionals really capable, is by really engaging and doing things together like that. So I hope more of that comes because we're excited to make that happen.

Tom Goldsby: 31:03

That's excellent. The focus on education, and it's a sincere focus. You know, I'll have to admit I've been around some industry events that claim to be educational and they're anything but rather promotional of a lot of things. Uh, but uh the education focus that then brings the academics to the table. And and you were very poignant this morning and in speaking of the beginnings of the organization in the interview that you conducted with Dale Rogers, and we went back to Don Bower Socks and Bud Low Land and some of the greats in our field who were right there at the table. So it only seems to proliferate and grow. It's so exciting for me as someone who's been here now for 30 years to see the younger people coming into our field as practitioners, yes, but also the academic side of the house. So we very much value that. And we're gonna have some opportunity to be a part of the show as well. We've got a session here. Scott, I think you're a part of a session tomorrow with Dan Palace on planning.

Scott DeGroot: 31:58

That's right. We're gonna be talking about procurement and the relationship between planning and procurement. Yeah. Uh yeah, that'll be tomorrow morning.

Tom Goldsby: 32:04

We're also gonna be out there in the exhibition space uh trying to round up some business.

Scott DeGroot: 32:09

Yes, yes, yes, University of Tennessee and the Global Supply Chain Institute and great partnership with CSN.

Tom Goldsby: 32:15

It is, it's a longstanding, very important partnership. And hey, Mark, thank you so much for being here on the podcast today. We're so thrilled to be here to have some of your very precious time on the scene. And speaking about the scene, hey, Scott, as managing director, maybe you can plug what is going to be the first episode of season four at our forum November four through six. We're going to record uh another live session, right?

Scott DeGroot: 32:43

Yeah. Uh first of all, we'd love everyone, partners and um students and faculty to come to the FAW Forum in Knoxville November 4th, 5th, and 6th. And we're gonna have a former retired rear admiral, Kevin Sweeney, is gonna be with us. We're looking forward to uh talking with him, and he'll be on the next podcast as we kick off the brand new season. Fantastic.

Tom Goldsby: 33:05

He'll be able to help us sort out the geopolitics. Hopefully, the government shut down is way in our rear view mirror by then. But again, we're so looking forward to hosting uh friends and students, faculty, staff on Rocky Top November 4, 5, 6. And hey, thank you so much for joining us on this special edition of Tennessee on Supply Chain Management. As always, we really appreciate it. If you've got any comments, questions, please send them to gsci at utk.edu. And stay tuned. We've got a great season four in store for you.

Intro & Outro: 33:38

Thanks for tuning in to Tennessee on Supply Chain Management. If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe today on your favorite listening platform to get all of our episodes as soon as they drop. And don't forget to take a moment to leave us a rating. Have any questions, thoughts, or feedback? We'd love to hear from our listeners. Email us at gscii at utk.edu. Join us next time as we continue pulling back the curtain on the world of supply chain, educating and entertaining you along the way. Until then, listeners.