Furthering our common cause
Collaboration is key to building a supply chain worthy of our times; here's a look at a fellow author whose ideas can help us along the way.
In a recent edition, I invited writers, innovators, and leaders to join me in a radical collaboration for building a supply chain worthy of our times. I've made progress. I'm excited to introduce @KevinZhang, author of the just-launched Kevin's Substack newsletter. Zhang co-founded Cohesive, a fully integrated AI-based analytics platform and chatbot designed to offer customers 24/7 guidance for product selection. Zhang's business and writing reflect his passion for making lives easier with technology, at work and in life. We've found a common cause in building a resilient supply chain, responsive to needs and aspirations, and regenerative for workers and communities. I look forward to an inspiring exchange of ideas. Below, I share a few observations from my conversations with Zhang and his first edition. Please take a look, share your thoughts, and support Kevin's journey as a founder and writer.
Expanding our knowledge base
Here's why you should read Kevin's Substack: Distribution manages a third of the U.S. economy but is absent from the conversation and debate about its future. According to Zhang, “Distribution isn't talked about very much, despite being a massive part of the American economy and an industry starting to see dramatic changes across people, process, and technology.” Distributors are working among themselves and driving forward, but too often adopting technology to improve internal margins and productivity without also, at the same time, exploring how technology can help customers, communities, and society flourish.
Zhang and his co-founder, Nam Nguyen, are startup founders building a business based on complementary experiences around data, analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning forged at world-class organizations (Microsoft and McKinsey & Company.) But most importantly, their hearts are in the right place for building a supply chain worthy of our times, as evidenced by their first edition's title: Distributors aren't Amazon, nor should they be.
Zhang's title means that differentiation cannot be achieved by following the herd, copying best practices, and attempting to keep up. Something more is needed—creativity sparked by new ideas, thoughtful testing and learning, all powered by purpose and a drive to do business differently. The supply chain needs a startup mindset and a culture focused on fixing what is broken and building something better—with new capabilities and experiences that are right for our times and updated business models with new engines for driving productivity and profits.
I suspect that, as with all early-stage companies, Zhang and Nguyen will push forward, learn from experiences, succeed and fail, pivot, and try again, over and over. Supply chain professionals can share their knowledge and wisdom as experienced practitioners by adding comments to each one of Zhang’s Substack editions. And by thinking of every edition as a collaboration, we may all discover new ideas and understand the work needed to make them happen together, striving to build a supply chain worthy of our times.
Leaning In
Zhang is on a mission to work both sides of the equation, helping distributors help customers as they help themselves. Distributors, and all supply chain professionals, can benefit from his experiences by subscribing to his newsletter and following his progress.
As always, I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Please leave your comments below, or reach out at mark.dancer@n4bi.com.