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From natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes to pandemics, cyberattacks, and labor strikes, companies have to navigate so many complexities to get goods where they need to go.
What's their secret weapon to operating within the unknown?
It’s the people.
Welcome to Supply Chain Champions, the show that showcases the stories of those who keep supply chains running smoothly. We're here to highlight their untold stories and share lessons they’ve learned along the way.
Join us as we peel back the curtain on the people who make supply chains work and enhance your own career in the process.
Tune in. Get smart. Move forward.
Bill Hutchinson [00:00:00]:
Supply chain transformation. It's really the new norm. It's the way we do business. Those who are agile, those who can look at chaos as an opportunity, are the ones that are going to be successful in a market like this. And that's what makes supply chain so much fun to work in.
Eric Fullerton [00:00:18]:
Welcome to Supply Chain Champions, the show brought to you by project44, where we're talking to the people who make supply chains work. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Supply Chain Champions. I'm your host, Eric Fullerton. And today we have a guest, Mr. Bill Hutchinson. Bill has spent well over 20 years in supply chain in logistics and leadership roles at companies like Rite Aid, Best Buy, Dell, Sears, HSN, Belk, Chewy, and Westrock. So certainly a wealth of experience that we're going to pull out from. Bill, thanks for being here.
Bill Hutchinson [00:00:57]:
Hey, great to be here with you, Eric.
Eric Fullerton [00:00:59]:
Awesome. So when you look at the resume that you have, there's so many different components to these different organizations, and you're coming in and you're focused on supply chain or you're focused maybe on more of the logistics side of things. Is there a common thread or approach that you employ when you're trying to go into an organization and transform some of those operations?
Bill Hutchinson [00:01:23]:
Yeah, you know, there really is. I think it starts with this notion of enterprise leadership. You know, one of the things that you learn early in your career is supply chain is an enabler. It's an important part of an organization. Your mission is really to enable, whether it's growth, whether it's it's profit maximization, whether it's entrance into a new market. Supply chain plays a critical role in all of those areas. But I think sometimes as supply chain professionals, we get too sort of tied up in our own KPIs and our own metrics.
But it really starts with understanding what the organization needs and what the organization needs from the supply chain. And that really sort of sets the table in any industry that you're in. And it also helps you be portable across industries.
Eric Fullerton [00:02:07]:
Yeah, absolutely. I wanted to dig in a little bit about the concept of supply chain transformation or digital transformation. And at multiple stages and parts of your career, you were part of probably many of these. For you, what does that actually mean? And how do you employ it and start to make it happen?
Bill Hutchinson [00:02:29]:
The best example of this is probably Dell. I joined Dell in 2007. Initially coming from Best Buy, coming from retail, and when I got to Dell. So I was expecting to learn all these things and learn their existing system because it was pretty slick at the time and sort of industry leading. When you think about how they delivered, configure-to-order product to customers, what I found was a company that had realized that the channel had emerged, they had to be more relevant with resellers, relevant with retailers. They also realized that we didn't need to own all this big manufacturing infrastructure. So how do we create some flexibility in our cost structure and at the Same time leverage 3 PLs, leverage OEM manufacturing partners for what they do well, more similar to what other folks in the industry did. So you think about that, all the variables changed.
Bill Hutchinson [00:03:21]:
And so thinking about how we reimagined or rethought of that supply chain from a customer perspective back was a great lesson and really served me well as I moved into different chief supply chain officer roles in different industries.
Eric Fullerton [00:03:36]:
Yeah, I think I wanted to dig into that a little bit too, because Westrock was, you know, where you were at most recently in that kind of chief supply chain role. Could you share a little bit about Westrock, what the company does, but then also, you know, what was your mandate kind of coming in to solve, to fix, to improve, or maybe just bring in some of your own expertise?
Bill Hutchinson [00:03:58]:
At Westrock, I actually ran fulfillment and logistics working with Peter Anderson, who was our chief supply chain officer. But our mandate there, $23 billion packaging company had grown through acquisition. The mandate really was how do we think about driving some synergy, driving some value from all these different companies that we bought. So the compelling thing there was we had a massive network, hundreds of physical locations in the paper and packaging industry. You're moving heavy, bulky product, sometimes without a lot of value. So cost of transportation, cost of logistics really matters. And we really had an opportunity to rethink and reimagine not only, you know, the way we physically move products, the carriers we used, but also what technology ran our supply chain and also how should we think about maybe talent more progressively in the team so that we get the most from our organization? So that was really the mandate and the focus. And we did a lot in the last two and a half years prior to being acquired, but really, really focused once again on the people we use to run the supply chain, the technology that we use to power those people, and then also obviously any kind of process or partner changes that we needed to make along the way.
Eric Fullerton [00:05:14]:
Yeah, it's a good point. I do want to dig into the technology part. But you actually got me thinking because the role that you had at Westrock, but then as you mentioned, you have had chief supply chain officer roles at Belk and then HSN. Is there a different approach that you take for different roles within these types of businesses? Like how do you figure out what to do, where to have an impact?
Bill Hutchinson [00:05:36]:
One of my first bosses at Rite Aid, Wilson Lester, was, was a great leader. I was 30 years old at the time, moved into this officer level operations role. The advice he gave me, which really set me up for success was to go out and listen, go out and learn and try to understand why we do what we do before you start to introduce change and before you drive change. And his advice was twofold. Number one, you may be wrong, your initial observations may be wrong. So try to understand why we do what we do and there may be good reason for it. Number two, as you start to introduce change and you will, you're in a much better place to win the hearts and minds when you've got a relationship and you've got some credibility with your team and your organization. And that was really important as a 30 year old VP, but that's been important in every role that I've been in since. You've really got to understand the business, you've got to walk the process and it really sets you up for success as you start to introduce change and drive transformation.
Eric Fullerton [00:06:36]:
Yeah. Awesome. In terms of some of the technology investments and I think this is a hot topic, right? There's this component of if you're coming into an organization or if you're in a leadership role there some of the decisions you make on bringing technology into the organization can be a little bit make or break. You really have to make the right bets. So can you walk me through a little bit of the process of like how do you make sure you make the right bets and what are the things you're going to do to try to ensure that success all the way through.
Bill Hutchinson [00:07:10]:
My opinion is you've got to invest in technology as if the organization's money is your own. And so understanding where you can get a solid roi, understanding where you can make technology investments. A good example is a transportation management system. Have made those pitches, done that implementation and realized benefit from those investments several times in my career. But it all starts with a framework for how are we doing things today? What sort of opportunity do we have to either streamline work and do it more efficiently potentially look at optimization differently, route optimization, carrier optimization, consolidation opportunities, and then Also, looking at investments like supply chain visibility, how can I start to drive different decisions in the business with my stakeholders that bring that investment far beyond just a return on logistics investment, but maybe, you know, a return on either improving customer satisfaction, improving customer service, reducing waste in the broader supply chain. But that really involves stakeholders up and down the supply chain.
Eric Fullerton [00:08:17]:
Yeah, right. You need these KPIs to kind of like determine the ROI of the transportation or logistics team investment. But for something like visibility, there's broader KPIs where if you do and can get that buy in to use some of that information, those insights, you can have probably a 10x impact than you probably otherwise would.
Bill Hutchinson [00:08:42]:
The question you've always got to ask yourself as you think about a visibility investment is how will I do things differently with this information if it's just visibility for visibility's sake? That's interesting, but it really doesn't drive a compelling business case for your organization. If I think about though, hey, there's a deviation in the supply chain that I now have visibility to. Should I put another shipment together in parallel to take care of that customer? Can I do something to keep that factory running when inbound materials might be short with our current course and speed, things like that. If you start to understand those things, you can anticipate much better how you manage your organization and you start to manage from your toes instead of managing from your heels and being in a reactionary mode.
Eric Fullerton [00:09:25]:
Yeah. And it's actually something I've heard you speak on, on a panel and a couple other things. And the concept of like agility and system agility is something that I know that you've, you've spoken about. Is that part of that story of from your toes, not your heels? And is that kind of what you're getting at when you say that?
Bill Hutchinson [00:09:43]:
It is. I think supply chain transformation 10 years ago, 15 years ago, was an initiative that a lot of chief supply chain officers came in and pitched, hey, I'm going to transform and change the supply chain with the velocity of change and the velocity of disruptors that are emerging in every industry today. It's really the new norm. It's the way we do business. And so I think those who are agile, those who can anticipate better than their competitors, those who can look at chaos as an opportunity, are the ones that are going to be successful in a market like this. And that's what makes supply chain so much fun to work in.
Eric Fullerton [00:10:19]:
Yeah, absolutely. We've talked a little bit about your career, but I kind of want to Just pop back into it for a moment. You know, you've had a lot of leadership roles at great companies. You did give me one little nugget earlier, but I was curious. I'm sure there are many, but is there a specific moment when you can kind of look back on it and you can kind of attribute to, you know, where you ended up?
Bill Hutchinson [00:10:40]:
Coming out of grad school at the University of Tennessee, I took a job in consulting. So I went into Andersen Consulting because I knew I loved supply chain, but I wasn't really sure what industry I wanted to work in. And one of the things I learned with that experience was number one, the attributes of supply chain are so transferable to any industry that you want to work in. So I think that's really important as folks think about their careers. Many times people will pigeonhole themselves into, you know, hey, I'm a, I'm a healthcare person, I'm a tech person, I'm a retail person. Well, bringing that experience cross industry actually makes you a much more effective supply chain person because you tend to think about problems differently and you tend to bring best practices out that are cross industry. It's something that's drilled into your head as a consultant, but it's something that absolutely applies as you come out into industry and you really want to broaden your career and take it to new levels. And so, you know, I've spent time in tech, I've spent time in retail, I spent time in manufacturing industries. All of that experience is applicable as you take a new role. It certainly adds a ton of value and brings layers and approaches that many of your peers won't have.
Eric Fullerton [00:11:49]:
Absolutely. I want to jump back into tech before we ask a couple other questions. I think you've probably seen different waves of supply chain technology and oftentimes there's the hype around it and then there's the reality and then there's the productivity that that can occur for some of those things. But can you kind of take us through the journey and I'd love your perspective on what were some of those key tech advancements in your career and did you take advantage of all of them or some of them and where did that kind of work for you?
Bill Hutchinson [00:12:20]:
Yeah, you know, depending on the organization that you're in, depending on, you know, availability, funds, but also how, how relevant those tech investments are to me really drives when you make that investment. So in some cases, for example, being a fast follower is great given where you are in your industry, things like that. A good example there would be at Rite Aid I was part of a leadership team and a transformation team, both as a consultant and then as the VP of logistics where we didn't have a transportation management system. So making that basic investment, we chose not necessarily the most feature rich solution in the marketplace. We chose a solution that met the need, drove a 2 to 300% ROI the first year and really allowed me to sort of earn trust and get credibility to make additional investments in technology in the organization. So you sometimes will find yourself in those places, other times you find yourself in a, you know, an organization, a growth organization where, you know, supply chain is such a competitive advantage is so tied to the business strategy. Companies like Amazon who have made the investment in not just infrastructure but also in technology because it's such a key enabler and a key driver for their business. So it really depends on, you got to sit back and understand the role that supply chain plays. But then you've also got to understand, hey, is this a turnaround situation where I've got to get, you know, nitty gritty and do something cost effective, or is this a place where we're going to be one of the pioneers in how this technology is deployed?
Eric Fullerton [00:13:58]:
Yep, absolutely. You know, we've been fortunate to have a lot of, you know, supply chain leaders on this podcast, you know, including yourself, and they talk about different themes or focus areas. Each organization kind of seems to have a different approach. A lot of it is what you were just speaking to, right? Like how strategic is it? Is it a competitive advantage? Is it a differentiator, Is it a cost opportunity? So we have some examples of people saying cash is king. That's all I'm trying to do. I just need to make sure that I'm keeping or maintaining my service levels and, you know, making sure that I lower costs for others. It's customer experience is everything. Yeah, cost is nice, efficiency is good, but CX is everything.
Eric Fullerton [00:14:40]:
Can you maybe give me an example of somewhere you work where it was like that crystal clear for you in terms of the theme or the focus?
Bill Hutchinson [00:14:48]:
I'll go back to a good Dell example here. As we started to think about segmenting our supply chain to service a channel business that was very, very different than, you know, someone who would go to Dell.com, order a computer, want that delivered a configurable notebook, $2,500 $3,000 price point back in the day and have that delivered to their house in less than a week. Those were two very different customers. The customer that came into Walmart, the customer that came into Best Buy came into Staples, one of our partners was comparison shopping our product next to everybody else. They had a sort of standard feature set they were looking for. So product configuration was less important to that customer. So we needed to think about how we invested not only in the product, but how we delivered and fulfilled those orders to those customers to be profitable. And so I think understanding that and taking a step back and understanding, hey, here's, here's where an investment like this is critical and matters to the customer.
Bill Hutchinson [00:15:46]:
If I spend a premium amount on a product and I want to configure that boy, we want to roll off the red carpet and take care of that customer with that experience. So we didn't look to dumb that down. We actually looked to improve that, make it faster, make it more predictable, provide even better information about milestones along the way. But then with that retail order, how do we think about a build-a-stock supply chain that is cost effective, where I can be next to, you know, an Asus or somebody like that on the shelf at 3 or $400 price point. I've got to think about those supply chains differently. So that was a really good case where the strategy for the company really lined up to how we thought about the design of the supply chain and then how we thought about the corresponding investments we needed to make that successful.
Eric Fullerton [00:16:32]:
Right. Awesome. You know, I think we've seen an interesting trend the past couple years. We're seeing more supply chain degrees, more supply chain specialties in colleges and universities. I guess my question, you've had a lot of leadership roles at a lot of different organizations. You've seen a lot of things. How would you give advice to someone who knows this is what they want to do with their career and is looking to get started? Maybe they've gotten a degree in or advanced degree. What would you say is something that they really should do early in their career?
Bill Hutchinson [00:17:06]:
One of the things I love most in my roles is going back and playing an active role in recruiting, campus recruiting. Because if you think about how you build your bench and how you build that farm team of talent that are going to be a future leaders in your organization, it's something that every leader should take a personal role in. My advice is twofold. Number one, most great universities you know and been involved personally with, the University of Tennessee as we've done this, but they've really integrated business, analytics and supply chain together. And so the advice I would give someone is the more analytical rigor you can bring to that academic program, the more valuable you're Going to be to that entry level role that is typically going to involve a lot of analysis. Hopefully you're able to drive some insights that improve the business. But the more of that you can get as part of your education, the better off you are. And secondly, and most of the good supply chain schools do a really good job of this, but getting a couple of internships and getting those internships in different industries so that you get a chance not only to look at what you want, but it also teases out that notion of, hey, the best practice in this industry or the disruption could be an idea that I have from a radically different place.
Bill Hutchinson [00:18:20]:
But if you don't start to develop that mindset, it's very easy to think, well, you know, hey, I'm just a retailer and this is how we work, or I'm a high tech person or a heavy manufacturing person. Don't dumb it down. Be intellectually curious and how other folks do things and that will really serve you well in your career.
Eric Fullerton [00:18:37]:
Awesome. And you mentioned you'd done a lot of work with Tennessee. We had, we had Ted Stank on recently. He's done a lot of, a lot of great work. And he was speaking too about the importance of bringing in real professionals and having like substantive study. A lot of what you were just talking about around the analytics piece, plus the supply chain management component. So it's nice, you know, when it all comes together, you know, in the.
Bill Hutchinson [00:19:01]:
Best programs now, whether it's Arkansas, Tennessee, Penn State, MIT. I mean, the relevance of the faculty now based on the work that they're doing outside with industry is a heck of a lot better than it was 30 years ago when you had a lot of theory. And now I think, you know, that professional tie, whether it's a supply chain forum, some of the groups that will bring industry folks into the classroom, it's just really, really important. I think as folks are evaluating programs that they want to be part of.
Eric Fullerton [00:19:30]:
Yeah, supply chain especially, and logistics especially. Right. Like there's theory is good, but once you're in it, it kind of changes the thinking. I wanted to close by doing something we usually do kind of have like a quick hits section at the end of each of the podcasts. You don't have to answer in one word, but usually kind of like a word or just a sentence. And we're going to kind of run through it and we'll see how you do. So what is one thing that you wish everyone who worked in supply chain knew and the industry would Be better for it.
Bill Hutchinson [00:20:04]:
I'll go back to this notion of enterprise leadership. That's more than one word. But knowing that functional excellence is sort of a table stake, it's expected. But this notion of being an enterprise leader, bringing the supply chain into the C-suite conversation is so important. Many of your peers in other functional areas won't know what supply chain is capable of, won't maybe be as up to speed as we are about things like supply chain visibility, supply chain disruption, hey, what happens when this tariff goes from A to B tomorrow? Things like that. So supply chain is a trusted advisor. You've really got to earn that seat. But I think it starts with really sitting down with your stakeholders and listening to what they want from the supply chain and it really starts to drive the right strategy.
Eric Fullerton [00:20:55]:
Yeah. Awesome. Okay. What is one trait that all of the best supply chain professionals seem to have?
Bill Hutchinson [00:21:03]:
Intellectual curiosity. The desire to continuously learn. Learning in this business never stops. And if it does, you're dying. You're a dated milk carton at that point. So I think really, this notion of being intellectually curious, how do other folks do things? What about this business could I apply to mine? Even if it's in a completely different industry? That is a common trait of the best of the best.
Eric Fullerton [00:21:27]:
Awesome. Supply chain trends. I want to ask you one that is overrated and why. And then one that is underrated and. And why?
Bill Hutchinson [00:21:39]:
So overrated, I'm going to say sustainability and green. And I'm not going to say it in the way that I don't think it's important, because it is absolutely important. I'm going to say it in the way of. Up until earlier this year, we were going down a path of massive mandates that our logistics providers and our supply chain providers were going to have to meet. Whether that was emissions requirements, whether that was electric vehicle adoption, you know, and the reality is that most of our providers were facing situations where the infrastructure wasn't ready, the underlying technology didn't work, it was going to drive massive cost and inefficiency into the network. So rather than lose the notion of what we want to do, which is really, really important to everybody, sustainability is important full stop. If you look at all the weather and climate disruptions we've had around the world, you can't deny that it's an important thing. But you've got to do it with industry and you've got to do it at a pace that makes sense, that doesn't completely disrupt business or completely destroy all credibility in the plan.
Bill Hutchinson [00:22:40]:
And I think that's where we were. Hopefully we're moving away from that, but I think that's one of the most overrated topics that folks have talked about. Underrated. So AI, it's hard to say that's underrated because it's on everybody's radar. If folks really look at what AI can do, AI is one of the biggest, biggest productivity enhancements. The potential of what that can do to make us all better. Not replace us, but make us all better at what we do. You know, eliminating rote activities, making us more productive, bringing information and data from disparate systems in disparate places into decision makers so that they can spend their time once again looking forward in the business.
Bill Hutchinson [00:23:20]:
That's really, really important. Far too many times we look backwards at the business. We may spend half of our week trying to figure out what happened last week. Those were the supply chains of yesterday. You've really got to come in and you've got to have a real time command of what's going on so that you can make better decisions. You can anticipate what you're going to do with those changes. War games in different scenarios, and you'll be much more agile than your competition.
Eric Fullerton [00:23:44]:
Yep. Awesome. All right, one last question for you. We are a podcast, so, you know, we're trying to maybe go a little viral. We want some hot takes. Bill, what is your hot take on the supply chain industry or logistics industry today?
Bill Hutchinson [00:23:58]:
If I think about supply chain, it's easy to complain. Whether it's what happened with COVID whether it's the tariff issues, whether it's the disruption that we've seen, look at it as an opportunity. Anytime you've got disruption like this, disruption creates opportunity. See opportunity. In this disruption, you and your company will do much better as a result. We sit here, we make excuses, we complain. You know, that's gonna put you in the back row. If you can look at these things as an opportunity where you can differentiate your capability, differentiate your organization, good things happen.
Eric Fullerton [00:24:33]:
Awesome. Well, you know, I just wanted to thank you for spending some time with us today, sharing your, your expertise, your background, providing some, you know, some good advice as well. But most of all, Bill Hutchinson, thank you for being a supply chain champion. Appreciate you being.
Bill Hutchinson [00:24:49]:
Thanks, Eric. Really enjoyed it.
Eric Fullerton [00:24:54]:
Thank you for listening to Supply Chain Champions. To get connected and learn more, visit project44.com, and click the link in the comments. To subscribe to project44's newsletter, tune in, get smart and move forward.