Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving

Resilient Supply Chain is for supply chain, operations, procurement and technology leaders who need practical ways to manage disruption, reduce risk and keep business moving. Each Monday, former SAP Global VP and technology futurist Tom Raftery speaks with the executives, operators, founders and innovators redesigning how goods, information and decisions move through global supply chains. These are candid conversations about what works in practice—not polished PR narratives or vague predictions. Guests explain how they are responding to supplier failures, geopolitical shocks, volatile costs, capacity constraints, changing regulations and rising pressure to improve both performance and sustainability. The podcast examines: Faster planning and decision-making under uncertainty Supplier risk, sourcing strategy and business continuity AI, automation, visibility and operational intelligence Warehousing, logistics and fulfilment

Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving is a business podcast hosted by Tom Raftery, with 523 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Tom Raftery hosts Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving, a business show with 523 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

• 

  Episode #142

  98% Isn’t Enough: AI, Human Judgement and Mission-Critical Operations

  Sep 28, 202628 minS2

  Send me a message A 98% response rate sounds excellent—until the missing 2% includes police and ambulance calls. That is the problem with judging automation by averages when the exceptions carry the greatest operational risk. My guest is Josh Gould , CEO of The Big Word, whose teams operate at the intersection of AI, human judgement and mission-critical language services. His experience exposes a wider business issue: automation can cut cost and increase capacity, but poor escalation design can create service, legal and continuity failures. We examine why AI works best on repeatable volume, what changes when speed and accuracy start pulling in opposite directions, and why the handoff to a human matters more than many leaders assume. We also get into the economics: where automation genuinely lowers operating cost, where technology spend gets wasted, and why adoption may move more slowly than the current AI narrative suggests. Listen now to understand where AI should run autonomously—and where resilient operations still need a human ready to take over. If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard . Support the show Podcast supporters I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers: Alicia Farag Kieran Ognev Gary Lynch And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis. Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability? I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck Finally If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn , or send me a message using this link . If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it . It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #141

  Supply Chain Labour Planning: Saving Today Can Increase Churn Tomorrow

  Sep 21, 202631 minS2

  Send me a message Cutting labour when demand dips can look like smart cost control. But if workers respond by finding more reliable work elsewhere, today’s saving can become tomorrow’s churn, hiring cost and capacity problem. My guest is James Terry of Indeed Flex , who has spent more than 15 years in staffing and workforce management. We look at what happens when labour planning is treated as an HR exercise rather than an operating decision, and why that can affect fulfilment, throughput, customer service and the bottom line. We unpack the trade-off between cost, quality and speed, challenge the assumption that workforce consistency requires the same people on every shift, and examine why HR and operations can make contradictory decisions when their data sits in separate systems. We also look at where AI can help connect those signals — and where technology alone cannot fix poor workforce design. Listen now to understand how better labour planning can reduce expensive firefighting and improve the decisions that keep supply-chain operations moving. If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard . Support the show Podcast supporters I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers: Alicia Farag Kieran Ognev Gary Lynch And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis. Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability? I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck Finally If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn , or send me a message using this link . If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it . It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #140

  Why More Supply Chain Visibility Doesn’t Guarantee Greater Resilience

  Sep 14, 202639 minS2

  Send me a message More supply-chain data does not automatically produce better decisions. Digital systems can expose risk, but they can also reproduce the same governance failures, blind spots and weak assumptions already embedded in the operation. My guests today are Lara Schilling , Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management at the Technical University of Denmark, and Professor Stefan Seuring , a long-time researcher in sustainable supply chains. Their latest paper used 52 conversations from this podcast as its dataset, examining how technologies including AI, IoT and blockchain connect with supply-chain sustainability and risk. We look at why visibility is only the beginning, why failure stories are so hard to find, and why even academic research can become skewed towards positive outcomes. We also examine what leaders may be missing when indicators look reassuring, what happens when digital investments are judged at implementation rather than over time, and why the question “visibility to whom?” matters more than it first appears. Listen now to understand what separates useful supply-chain visibility from expensive digital capability that fails to improve decisions. If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard . Support the show Podcast supporters I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers: Alicia Farag Kieran Ognev Gary Lynch And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis. Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability? I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck Finally If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn , or send me a message using this link . If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it . It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #139

  AI Job Cuts Could Leave Your Supply Chain Short of Future Leaders

  Sep 7, 202630 minS2

  Send me a message AI can cut routine supply chain work and reduce payroll costs. But eliminating entry-level roles could leave your business short of experienced leaders when the next disruption demands judgement. I’m joined by Friddy Hoegener , owner of Scope Recruiting and a former supply chain professional. His experience in procurement and recruitment exposes a gap between filling today’s vacancies and developing the people who will make tomorrow’s decisions. Why do hiring processes stall even when a suitable candidate is available? We challenge the demand for an exact industry match and consider whether procurement teams could use the time freed by AI to qualify alternative suppliers before disruption. Listen now to rethink which supply chain roles you automate, which skills you hire for, and how you develop the people your business will need next. Also, check out Friday's podcast Procurement Pulse If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard . Support the show Podcast supporters I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers: Alicia Farag Kieran Ognev Gary Lynch And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis. Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability? I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck Finally If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn , or send me a message using this link . If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it . It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

  ListenShow Notes
• 

  Episode #138

  The Hidden Resilience Risk Inside Your Automated Warehouse

  Aug 31, 202633 minS2

  Send me a message Warehouse automation can increase throughput while quietly creating a new failure point: maintenance that has not kept pace. When critical assets fail, the consequence is not an engineering inconvenience. It is downtime, lost service and interrupted revenue. My guest is Asim Akram, CEO of MultiSensor AI. We look at what happens when conveyors, motors, chillers and electrical systems become more digitised while inspection and maintenance remain periodic and manual — a mismatch that matters directly to supply chain resilience and business continuity. We examine why degradation happens gradually while failure can arrive in one shot, why more automation can increase operational dependency, and why AI-based detection still achieves nothing if teams do not trust the signal enough to act. We also challenge the idea that maintenance is simply a cost centre rather than part of protecting throughput, service and the top line. Listen now to understand where hidden warehouse risk is moving, and what separates proactive operations from expensive firefighting. If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard . Support the show Podcast supporters I'd like to sincerely thank this podcast's generous Subscribers: Alicia Farag Kieran Ognev Gary Lynch And remember you too can become a Resilient Supply Chain+ subscriber - it is really easy and hugely important as it will enable me to continue to create more excellent episodes like this one and give you access to bonus episodes of topical, timely supply chain resilience analysis. Looking for a keynote speaker on supply chain resilience, AI, and sustainability? I help leaders understand the forces reshaping global supply chains, from geopolitical disruption and climate risk to AI and real-time decision-making. Download my Speaker Pack: https://tinyurl.com/spkrpck Finally If you have any comments/suggestions or questions for the podcast - feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn , or send me a message using this link . If you liked this show, please don't forget to rate and/or review it . It makes a big difference to help new people discover it. Thanks for listening.

  ListenShow Notes

Recent guests on Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving. Study who booked and why before you pitch.

Based on semantic analysis of episode topics and host coverage, this show is a strong guest fit for executives in:

Industry fit is computed by PitchCentric using vector embeddings of the show's episode catalog.