Copying Success, One Page At a Time

Good Saturday morning all and welcome to our 10th edition of "With That Said" (WTS), a weekly LinkedIn newsletter powered by your friends at Supply Chain Now .

We're leading off today's edition by sharing the Reader's Digest version of the Xerox origin story. DYK: on today, October 22nd, back in 1938, photocopying was invented. In fact, the world's first photocopied image appears at the top of this edition of WTS. It included the date and the word "Astoria", which referred to the neighborhood in Queens, NY, where the photocopy was made.

The inventor was Chester Carlson, the pride of Seattle, Washington, who was renting a room for his experiments in Astoria when he & an assistant had the breakthrough. After attempting to sell his invention and breakthrough "electrophotography" process to the likes of IBM & the US Navy , eventually, Carlson would strike a deal with Battelle Memorial Institute (now known as Battelle ) & The Haloid Company, which eventually would commercialize his patent & invention.

Leadership at Haloid hated the word "electrophotography" (it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it?). Almost by chance, a member of the Battelle PR team had reached out to a classics professor at 美国俄亥俄州立大学 to get some new ideas. After giving it some thought & research, the professor suggested "xerography", formed from the Greek words "xeros" (meaning "dry") and "graphein" (meaning "writing"). And while Chester Carlson hated it, Haloid's CEO and executive board liked & adopted the new term. In fact, Haloid thought about patenting the new term "xerography" - - but John Hartnett, the company's sales & advertising leader advised them not to. He said "Don't do that. We want people to use the word."

By 1958, The Haloid Company determined it needed a new name - - and didn't look far from what had become their primary product & source of revenue. Thus, the company would be known as Haloid Xerox. By 1961, the company would be known simply as The Xerox Corporation, which now sits at #415 on the Fortune 500 list.

Back to Chester Carlson, who was eventually made a multi-millionaire given all of his invention's success & global commercial growth. But he promptly began giving his millions away to philanthropic & other organizations, such as New York Civil Liberties Union , University of Virginia , and many others. In fact, according to his wife Doris, once Chester hit the big time, he only had one more goal: "to die a poor man".

Moving right along, in one of his Supply Chain Commentaries this week, Greg White addressed the tidal wave of automation that we're seeing across global industry, especially supply chain.

"Automation is inevitable in supply chain, and nobody will lose their job because of it. Why? Because as the “labor” generation (Baby Boomers — and big thanks to you for laying the ground work) gives way to the “ethereal” generations (millennials & Gen Z), workers are staying away in droves from jobs in warehouses & factories. Perceived as dark, dirty, dangerous & dull — though often, and especially these days, quite the opposite — younger workers are not taking openings in manufacturing & distribution. The only solution is automation..." - Greg White

Read his full commentary here (and let us know what you think).

Billy Ray Taylor , host of "The Winning Link" podcast, and author of the best-selling book "The Winning Link: A Proven Process to Define, Align & Execute Strategy at Every Level" was recently interviewed by IndustryWeek .

"...employees need their leaders to be deliberately and relentlessly clear about what each job entails at every level of the organization, as well as about who owns what. I started doing this in my tenure leading the turnaround of a lagging Goodyear union plant in deep-South Tyler, Texas, messaging up and down the ladder about who owns what in every part of the plant’s business strategy. I learned several things about clarity during my two years in Texas. First, it’s vital to boil the strategy down to actionable items. When I arrived, management was focused on the goal of making a certain amount of profit. That’s fine, but “earn a 10% profit” (for instance) is a key performance indicator, not a key performance action. You can't "do" a 10% profit; however, you can transform a culture, in part by being very clear as you define both individual and group success." - Billy Ray Taylor

Check out the interview & excerpts from the book here.

In his weekly Good News message, our founder & CEO Scott Luton focused on innovative leaders & organizations this week, including Walgreens , Paccurate , American Logistics Aid Network & our dear friend Enrique Alvarez :

"In one of our earliest conversations years ago, I recall him (Enrique) saying "we are changing the world". Enrique said that with conviction. Ever since, I've seen that conviction, passion & zeal for change lead to real action, time & time again. And more importantly: lead to real outcomes & impact. I'm very proud to collaborate & partner with Enrique on a variety of levels. With that said, our entire?Supply Chain Now?fam is so proud to see the Good News that Enrique & the?Vector Global Logistics?team has been named to the?Inc. Magazine?"Inc 5000" list." - Scott W. Luton

Check out Scott's full message here.

And finally today, be sure to check a variety of upcoming events here at SCN. Don't miss an opportunity to gather valuable market intel & expertise from across global business:

>> The Supply Chain Buzz on Monday, October 24th at 12 noon ET, featuring Ryan Kitchie from 6 River Systems, Part of Ocado Group : click here for more info

>> SCN Livestream on Tuesday, November 1st at 12 noon ET, featuring Ranga Bodla with NetSuite speaking to how to best navigate inflation: click here for more info

>> SCN Livestream on Tuesday, November 8th at 12 noon ET, featuring Paula Roets with 美国联合包裹服务 speaking to building successful relationships with your freight forwarder: click here for more info

>> SCN Webinar on Wednesday, November 9th at 12 noon ET, featuring Bryan Zickafoose with OMNIA Partners and Mark Trowbridge, CPSM, CSP, C.P.M., MCIPS with Strategic Procurement Solutions, LLC speaking to how GPOs can help you mitigate risk: click here for more info

#supplychain #procurement #leadership #transportation #freight #logistics #saturdayvibes Kevin L. Jackson, CISSP?,CCSP? Kelly Barner Karin Bursa Amanda Luton Clay Phillips Katherine H. Chantel King-Watts Todd Foster Trisha Cordes Donna Krache Allison Giddens Sofia Rivas Herrera Crystal Y. Davis, MBA,ACC, CLSSBB Joshua Montiel Vicki