Creating a B2C to B to C Improvement Cycle at Walmart Business w/ Ashley Hubka
Release Date: 10/31/2024
In Defense of Lean Thinking with Thomas Goldsby
Art of Supply
Everything runs in trends, supply chains included. What was once considered a critical strategy can be cancelled in a heartbeat if conditions change - only to be rediscovered and reapplied to great advantage a couple of years later. In this week’s Art of Supply interview, Kelly Barner welcomes back Professor Thomas Goldsby. Tom is the Dee and Jimmy Haslam Chair of Logistics at the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He is also the Co-Executive Director of their Global Supply Chain Institute. Tom rejoins the show to make a case in support of lean...
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Scope 3 Showdown: Green Century v. Ford
Art of Supply
On May 8th, at Ford Motor Company's annual shareholder meeting, they will face a proposal focused on how they report their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on their way to being carbon neutral by 2050. The proposal was made by Green Century Capital Management, a sustainability-focused activist fund that regularly challenges recognizable companies about their emissions reduction efforts, using the threat (or promise?) to mount a shareholder vote if necessary. Companies like Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s have faced similar challenges, all intended to...
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LTL Shakeup: Will Amazon join the fray?
Art of Supply
A few weeks ago, rumors started to swirl that Amazon might be standing up their own for-hire less-than-truckload (LTL) operation to compete with the likes of FedEx Freight, Old Dominion, XPO, and Saia. So what are these rumors based on, and how likely are they to be true? More importantly, what would such a move mean for other national LTL carriers? In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barners digs into the details of this buzzworthy supply chain news story: Where the rumors started and how Amazon might take the first steps to move into the LTL space The current LTL business landscape and...
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Who owns the Panama Canal?
Art of Supply
The Panama Canal is a 51 mile long waterway that allows ships to cut about 8,000 miles off of a trip from New York to San Francisco around the route around Cape Horn. The country of Panama owns the canal, which is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, an agency of the Panamanian government, but who owns the ports located on either side of the canal? Until now, it has been CK Hutchison, a Hong Kong based firm - raising concerns about China’s interest and influence in the supply chain critical Panama canal. On March 4th, it was announced that CK Hutchison had decided to sell two of the...
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Decoding the DOGE Savings Calculator
Art of Supply
The Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE, was created by executive order on President Trump’s first day back in office. It immediately became one of the most controversial parts of the administration’s first couple of months. Love it or hate it, if you work in procurement, you have to watch what DOGE is doing. And if you can’t bring yourself to review their objectives, strategies, and tactics, you at least have to watch the DOGE savings calculator. Public-facing and deliberately bare-bones, the DOGE savings calculator provides information on savings, payments,...
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Investing in People-powered Safety in Food Manufacturing W/ Nathan Walts
Art of Supply
“Everyone at the plant has a duty to protect the products that we're sending out to the customer. Ultimately, you really have to think about it as sort of a ‘circle of life.’ What's my responsibility with what I'm doing in this part of the process, and what’s going to happen when this product reaches the consumer?” - Nathan Walts, CEO, WorkForge The food supply chain is uniquely complex and critical, because when something goes wrong lives are at stake. Regulations and standards play an important role, but only if people follow them. It takes a lot of hiring, training, and retention...
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East and Gulf Coast Port Strike – Part 2
Art of Supply
Back in October, when the East and Gulf coast port strike ended after 3 days, we knew there would be a part 2. Short though it was, the strike is estimated to have cost the U.S. economy $3.8 - 5 Billion per day, but that wasn’t seen as the greatest ‘cost’ at the time. With the Presidential campaign in full swing, all eyes were on the impact it might have on the candidates’ relative popularity. Now that the members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) have ratified the deal negotiated with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), we can look at that deal and the...
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A Narrow Path Towards Noninflationary Tariffs
Art of Supply
Since President Trump took office on January 20th, speculation about tariffs has been omnipresent in supply chain planning conversations. But we do have a guide to the administration’s philosophy, A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System, written by Stephen Miran and published by Hudson Bay Capital in November of 2024. Miran is Trump’s pick to lead his Council of Economic Advisers, and will be appearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs the day this episode first airs. In his User’s Guide, Miran makes the case that it is possible...
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Lessons in Listening from Joe Rogan and Charlamagne tha God
Art of Supply
“I talk to people and I record it. That’s it.” - Joe Rogan People often say that we all need to learn to communicate better, and that is true. But we need to invest more effort on the listening side than the talking side. Joe Rogan and Charlamagne tha God are standout media personalities and cultural icons. They are also fantastic listeners and exceptional conversationalists. Their ability to prepare for and host interviews has earned them millions of subscribers and billions of downloads, making it easier to get their choice of guests. What can all professionals learn from their...
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Who will decide the future of EV trucking?
Art of Supply
Who will decide when EV trucking goes from being an option available to anyone to an enforceable mandate that everyone must comply with? That question is at the heart of this week’s interview. Kelly Barner had the opportunity to speak with Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers. His state is on the front lines of a legal effort to ensure that if regulations end up driving the EV transition, that those regulations are properly established - undertaken by elected officials with a vested interest in the people of Nebraska and the dozens of states who have stepped up to support their...
info_outline“Most fundamentally, strategy is about asking good questions, creating alternatives, and then making decisions about how to allocate scarce resources. [...] It's a place where you have a 360-degree view of a business.” - Ashley Hubka, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Walmart Business
Corporate and consumer buying started and developed on separate tracks, and while there are some things that procurement has learned from and embedded in the B2B experience, others will always be beyond reach.
What would happen if you took a consumer shopping experience and expanded it to support institutional customers as well? Walmart Business is in the process of finding out.
Ashley Hubka is the Senior Vice President and General Manager at Walmart Business. She has held a number of consulting and strategy positions during her career and holds a degree in Philosophy from Harvard University.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner sits down with Ashley to learn:
- Why Walmart decided to offer a distinct experience for organizational and commercial customers
- How that experience is different than the consumer Walmart experience (and when it is the same)
- Areas of strategic B2B focus over the next 12-24 months
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