Helping Leaders to Embrace the Future

I never wanted to do a conference as a part of the business model. The supply chain market has too many conferences. Most, in my opinion, are poorly executed by companies with an event business model at their core. Others believe that if we get Chief Supply Chain Officers in the same room that we will unveil new insights and identify answers for the future. I believe that both models are detrimental to the health of the supply chain profession. Let me explain why.

• What is wrong with the event model? When a company focuses on events as a primary model, there is little value. Line of business users attend free and the sponsors pay large fees. The event, by definition, becomes a business development effort for sales personnel at technology companies to hunt prospects. This type of event is lose/lose. The attendees believe that they are coming for content, but the program is usually of poor quality. (For some reason, there are nine companies operating out of England with this model that produce multiple, but poor events.)
• What is wrong with the room filled with Chief Supply Chain Officers? Chief Supply Chain Officers, by definition, are competitive. The presentations are cleansed by their corporate communication teams to mask competitive insights. As a result, the sharing on stage is usually nondescript with little real value. Let's face it. Many are ready to retire. As a result, I feel that too many Chief Supply Chain Officers in the same room steals the oxygen.

My goal is to break these traditional models. Why? 90% of companies are stuck in delivering Supply Chain Metrics That Matter. I believe that we should encourage events to enable cross-communication between technology leaders (product development leaders at technology companies) and business leaders. These leaders need an environment to speak as equals. This is my mission.

To drive success, I feel that the best programs include open and honest dialogues about what is working and what is not working well. It allows the attendees to step out of the marketing hype cycles and question the status quo. This type of networking is easier when there is a focus on innovation and testing new technologies. The ultimate goal is to build a guiding coalition built to challenge the current state. I want to breakdown the barriers. This is how I ended up spending summers to plan and execute a September event. We will post the insights openly. I hope it helps.