nutrād

In case I didn't run in to you at ProMat 2025 today, I'm around all week. DM me today if you want to chat in person about nutrād's Smart Pipe or Smart Portal solutions and how they remove cost and friction from your supply chain operations. #promat2025

In case I didn't run in to you at ProMat 2025 today, I'm around all week. DM me today if you want to chat in person about nutrād's Smart Pipe or Smart Portal solutions and how they remove cost and friction from your supply chain operations. #promat2025

"Hey John, we think you'd be perfect to talk about the 'Spectacular Failures' you've experienced..." ...said the invite from Billy N. and my friends at the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago. I've got to be honest, it was a hard invitation to accept. And, in a short talk + Q&A, I shared some of my "spectacular failures" and what I've learned from them. In case you were not in the audience last night, I shared the story of pitching HTML and the "World Wide Web" to?Tribune Publishing Company?leadership?in the 1990s - back when they were a Fortune 500 company. The pitch was supported by DARPA/Internet visionary vint cerf, John Gage at Sun Microsystems, and connected Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue in Chicago to an "internet" node at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's NCSA lab (where Marc Andreessen was working at the time and lent a supportive hand to our demo). The pitch didn't even last :15 minutes. "This tech stuff may have use in the legal community, but has no application in our core newspaper business." Spectacular failure indeed. But I leaned a lot from that fail. I learned that showing a massive, revolutionary vision of the future rarely - if ever - leads to a sale. Today, I drive a company with a vision for a massive transformation of Global Supply Chains. Our ambitious vision is rooted in the idea that the digital version of any product can broadly and deeply connect consumers and trade points and, as a result, create exponentially more value than physical products alone. I don't try and sell that. My failure at Tribune guides me to sell more digestible parts. I sell a relatable tool that makes Supply Chain transactions easier. But, as our sales grow across global brands, distributors, and retailers, I know we will be at the core of a radical rethinking of how supply chain trade operates.

nutrād is honored to have been a part of the Plug and Play Tech Center's "Supply Chain Selection Day" at their iconic Silicon Valley lab. PnP is the most active?startup accelerator?in the world with an average deal count of almost 1K deals every year - outpacing both Y Combinator?(YC) and?Techstars. For nutrad, it's not investment that draws us to PnP, but their massive global network of +60 locations, +25 industries, and +550 corporate partners. An unmatched ecosystem, "corporates" look to Plug and Play for pilot programs, investment opportunities, and innovative operational solutions - sorta exactly what nutrad's intelligent supply chain solutions offer. Looking forward to an amazing future with our friends at PnP!

Procurement is Changing Fast—Generative AI is rewriting the playbook.

Retailers, Brands, and Distributors who have heard my sales pitch know I use "Red Dye # 3" as an example of regulatory challenges that demand more helpful and intelligent product data tools. Today the FDA officially is repealing the color additive regulations that permit the use of FD&C Red No. 3 in foods (including dietary supplements) and ingested drugs. I cite Red Dye # 3 as a product data challenge because for more than 30 years the reporting rules on this single food and drug additive have constantly changed. Driven by consumer concern, the regulatory and reporting rules on Red Dye # 3 vary by country, state, retailer, and distributor. From a supply chain perspective, managing these changes - for a single, well-known product attribute - is a costly challenge. Imagine the job of correctly addressing reporting and regulatory changes across hundreds of products moving to dozens of countries, all 50 states, and hundreds or thousands of retailers. That job is not just hard, it's impossible (for humans). Oh, and today's FDA rule change (Docket No. FDA-2023-N-0437) is 21 pages long. Most Retailers, Brands, and Distributors will hope their existing reporting and data management tools are sufficient to satisfy today's FDA rule change. Maybe. Some Retailers, Brands, and Distributors will add additional consulting or full-time resource to understand and manage the implications of the rule change. Some will simply ignore the rule change and absorb fines and customer churn. But, some Retailers, Brands, and Distributors will simply add a new FDA validation to their nutrād Smart Pipes or Smart Portal instance and be instantly compliant with the FDA rule change. Curious to know what group you want to be in.

AI is "going to lower costs, improve quality, help us develop new customer experiences" said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. No surprise, AI has been the dominant topic at Retail's Big Show this week. But AI isn't magic. It won't lower your costs or improve quality without effort, investment, and action. If NRF motivated you to take action to leverage AI, let's talk about how we can help.

Although nutrād has not said much publicly, we were honored to have Bob Czechowicz, innovation lead for GS1 US, share news of our recently formalized partnership at the 1871 Supply Chain Innovation Summit this week in Chicago. Without standards, there would be no global supply chain. Logistics would not function. Bar codes wouldn't work. Weights, measures, and descriptions would be a chaotic mess of irreconcilable words and numbers. Because of GS1 - and the standards they have built out over the last 50 years - brands can move product to market for "scannable" sale anywhere. Amazing. We are excited to work with GS1 US, and our friends at Microsoft, Databricks, and Salesforce to unlock new supply chain capabilities using cutting-edge AI and Machine Learning tools. Want to learn more, connect with us or with GS1 US directly using the link below. -------- GS1 US: https://www.gs1us.org/ -------- Picture below: on-stage at 1871 with Bob Czechowicz from GS1 US and Ryan Murphy, Principal Program Manager, Supply Chain Architect @ Microsoft. --------

What excites me most about the current shift in AI conversations is the focus on business case + tangible results - not hype and fear. Omaxn's Pete Wilkins moderated a great session yesterday that focused on the real-world benefit of applied AI at the world's most recognized brand, McDonald's. Michelle Gansle, MCD's Chief Data, Analytics & AI Officer, shared how the QSR giant has successfully leveraged AI in its supply chain to drive measurable top-line growth. The energizing discussion left me with a powerful takeaway: organizations that stick to playing it safe with cautious pilots are going to be left behind. Way behind. The winners will be those who invest real time, resource, and talent to integrate AI at the operational level. If your organization is ready to move beyond pilot to results, engage with some of those driving AI Innovation here in Chicago (McDonald's corporate home!): Fred Hoch @ TechNexus Venture Collaborative Shyama Majumdar, Ph.D, MBA @ Polsky Center at the University of Chicago Betsy Ziegler @ 1871 And, if you're specifically interested in AI for Supply Chain, connect with me or my team @ nutrād - we're always up to meet for breakfast at McDonald's.