Supply Change

If we’re to consider higher education as a supply chain, what would it’s output be? There are a lot of really important supply chains to consider in higher education, whether the supply chain of books and lab materials, or the whole host of materials a mini-city like a university needs to feed and house thousands of students. But in this episode, we explore an entirely different supply chain of higher education: the supply of students entering into the university and all the challenges and complexity that come with that. Ron Volpe sat down with the University of Pennsylvania’s Dr. Ross Aikins to discuss the implications of tuition, inequality, admission hurdles, and medication on the supply chain of higher ed.

Global trade is hard enough in stable time periods. But when it’s disrupted by trade wars, protests, political upheavals, and natural disasters, global trade can seem nearly impossible to navigate. So if you’re doing business in a region struggling with unstable markets, what do you do? We sat down with Carlos Casanova, Coface’s regional economist for the Asia Pacific region to discuss what’s affecting global trade and how businesses can protect themselves from unstable regional and global markets.

The philosophy behind design thinking can be best summed up by Steve Jobs’s quote, “design is not the way it looks, design is the way it works." And it’s popularity rose hand-in-hand with the rise of Apple. But it’s founding is much more than Steve Jobs and much more than just a methodology to make sleek designs for new technology. Our host, Ron Volpe, sat down with Barry Katz, professor, IDEO fellow, author, and pre-eminent design thinking scholar to discuss the rich history of design thinking and how it influences the way companies use design to solve problems and design products with their users in mind.

Around the U.S., in more and more states, entrepreneuring farmers, scientists, and retailers are building supply chains to cash in on an untapped and lucrative market. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build an entirely new industry. There are just a few problems. It’s cash only, there’s no infrastructure, and it’s federally illegal. We’re talking, of course, of the legal marijuana trade. Ron Volpe, Chief Supply Chain Evangelist and Global Vice President Apps Business Development at Tradeshift, met with Steve Albarran, co-founder and CEO of Confident Cannabis at the National Cannabis Industry Association trade show in San Jose to talk about the complicated case of the cannabis supply chain.

In this episode, we’re exploring the impact these technologies will have on the people within supply chains today. How are jobs changing? Who will be impacted? And how quickly will these changes come?

So what is the role of technology in the modern supply chain? Is it all a bunch of hype, or do the big buzzword techs actually have real-world use-cases? We’ll explore blockchain, artificial intelligence, digitization, and the Internet of Things and how they solve for supply chain problems.

Supply Change episode 5: an interview with Justin Dillon, founder and CEO of FRDM How many slaves are in your supply chain? Welcome to another edition of supply change. We’re excited to host our first guest, Justin Dillon, the founder and CEO of FRDM. FRDM is a business platform used by Fortune 500 companies to measure and mitigate the risk of forced labor in supply chains.

Apps are the secret sauce for supply chain innovation. The ability to digitize transactions and activities is critical to the future of supply chain procurement.

Episode three is all about design thinking. Roy Anderson interviews Ron Volpe to go deep into what design thinking is and how it applies to the supply chain.

Co-host Roy Anderson tackles the pressing question: does everyone really hate procurement? Listen in as he and Ron explore why procurement is much more than just buying the cheapest products.

Welcome to Supply Change, the inaugural Tradeshift podcast on the future of the supply chain. The supply chain world is fast evolving with new technologies, approaches, and cultures, and the way your business strategizes supply chain operations is more important to your success than ever. That's why we’re starting a discussion to explore what really matters in today’s supply chain environment.