“Forever is composed of nows.”?-?Emily Dickinson
Good Sunday morning all and welcome to this edition (No. 56) of "With That Said" (WTS), a LinkedIn newsletter powered by your friends here at
Supply Chain Now
. Pour yourself another hot cup of coffee, and let's start by rolling through a few of the news stories and leadership perspectives that our team has been tracking lately:
- On the heels of the collapse of the digital freight broker Convoy, the Wall Street Journal reports that given the weak freight demand, there is far less investor appetite for sinking money into supply chain tech companies. According to Pitchbook data, there was $62B invested into logistics deals in 2021. For the first half of 2023, only $5.7B worth of deals have been made. Learn more about this story (as well as a variety of other global business news) from the Logistics Report via
The Wall Street Journal
: click here
- The furniture industry continues to navigate more challenging waters, as consumer demand has fallen sharply from the highs of the pandemic, where lockdowns caused consumers to make their homes more comfortable. Furniture sales declined 6.5% further in September alone. The ripples have led to numerous furniture makers & retailers to go out of business. Last week,
Z Gallerie
filed for its 2nd bankruptcy in 2 years. Learn more from Supply Chain Dive: click here
- Shifting over to the housing market:
CNN
reports that U.S. home sales have dropped to a 13-year-low in September, helped in part undoubtedly by the highest interest rates in decades. Housing starts in the U.S. were slightly up in September (over August 2023), but year-over-year numbers were down 12% from September 2022.
- Speaking of key economic data points, initial reporting from the Federal Reserve shows that manufacturing output rose 0.4% in September 2023. But year-over-year numbers were still down 0.8% from September 2022.
- As Cybersecurity Awareness Month has come to a close (October each year), here's an interesting interview that talks about the ever-increasing attacks on cities & municipalities.
Michael Lee Sherwood
, the Chief Innovation & Technology Officer for the city of Las Vegas, shares some of what they are doing in one of the most high-profile cities (and perhaps targets) in the world. Learn more from
Louis C.
&
VentureBeat
: click here
- Are self-storage units popping up everywhere in your neck of the woods too? As the industry continues to expand, occupancy rates have dropped to 90% in 2023. Owners are turning to IoT and other technologies to decrease costs, gain efficiencies and optimize the customer experience. Learn more via
Elizabeth Parks
and
Parks Associates
: click here
- ICYMI:
Scott Luton
spoke about the inspiring journeys of
Abir T.
and
Hannah Kain
in his weekly "Good News" message last Friday. We invite you to check it out and give us your take: click here
Big programming week ahead! Come join us for one of these live sessions this coming week, featuring leadership from a wide array of organizations, including Georgia Pacific,
Verusen AI
,
Esker
, and more. Our programs are free to join, but registration may be required (click each image for more info):
#supplychain #supplychainmanagement #leadership #manufacturing #logistics #freight #transportation #news #innovation #tech #AI #ML #planning #procurement #sourcing #logtech #digitaltransformation #DoGood
