We’re now in the fourth quarter of a year none of us imagined twelve months ago. The COVID-19 pandemic will certainly continue to dominate the headlines in the weeks and months ahead, but it’s only one of many factors that will impact supply chains moving forward. For example, there’s the upcoming elections in the United States, the seemingly never-ending Brexit negotiations, and the ever-present wildcards of foreign relations and Mother Nature.
For those of you who can’t wait to turn the page on 2020, there’s no guarantee 2021 will be any better — or any worse, for that matter.
What remains important is the need for supply chain professionals to keep learning and networking.
The Essence of Talking Logistics & Indago
In an Harvard Business Review blog post published a few years ago titled “Are You Learning as Fast as the World is Changing?”, Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine, writes:
These days, the most powerful insights often come from the most unexpected places – the hidden genius locked inside your company, the collective genius of customers, suppliers, and other smart people who would be eager to teach you what they know if you simply asked for their insights…Nobody alone learns as quickly as everybody together.
That is the essence of our mission at Talking Logistics and Indago: To facilitate peer-to-peer learning and networking.
We couldn’t do it without the support of our sponsors and all of you — our readers, newsletter subscribers, and social media followers — so thank you.
And we couldn’t do it without the support of our Indago research community. Our members (supply chain and logistics practitioners from manufacturing, retail, and distribution companies) share practical knowledge and advice with each other in a trusted and confidential manner — while giving back to charitable causes like JDRF, American Logistics Aid Network, American Cancer Society, Feeding America, and Make-A-Wish. This quarter alone we completed seven research surveys (see list of below) and made almost $1,000 in charity donations.
If you’re a supply chain or logistics practitioner from a manufacturing, retail, or distribution company, I encourage you to learn more about Indago and join our research community. It is confidential, there is no cost to join and the time commitment is minimal (2-5 minutes per week) — plus your participation will help support charitable causes that need our help today more than ever.
You can also follow Indago on LinkedIn to stay informed of our latest research results and news.
The Quarter in Review
In case you missed them the first time around or want to read/view them again, check out the top posts and new episodes from the third quarter of 2020. After reading/watching them, share this post with your colleagues and social media followers, then post a comment and share your perspective on these topics!
Top Posts
- Supply Chain Certifications: Are They Worth It?
- The Growing Need for Digital Yard Management Systems
- Budget Planning 2021: 5 Supply Chain Recommendations
- TMS: Everybody’s Favorite New Partner
- The Most Important Technology Company in Your Supply Chain Operations
- Industry 5.0 and the Supply Chain
- Two Important Questions for Transportation Executives
- Free Delivery Gets More Expensive
- The Convergence Continues (3PL, TMS, RTV Trends)
- Falling Into Supply Chain Management
New Episodes
- COVID-19 is Making Real-Time Freight Visibility Mission Critical
- Making A Difference: Transportation Insight
- Making A Difference: Capital Logistics, Echo Global Logistics, & Descartes
Indago Research Reports
- Generation Groups (September 2020): Do you agree or disagree that stereotypes about the different generation groups hinders effective communication and collaboration between supply chain team members?
- Waste in Supply Chain (September 2020): Which forms of waste are most prevalent in your organization?
- Safety Stock (September 2020): In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, do you expect to hold more or less safety stock of products and/or materials?
- Satisfaction with 3PL Partners (August 2020): How satisfied are you with your third-party logistics partners in meeting your overall needs and expectations? How satisfied are you with your 3PLs with regards to the following areas?
- Important Supply Chain Capabilities (August 2020): Which supply chain capabilities will become more important or essential moving forward?
- Forced Labor in Supply Chain Management (July 2020): Do you believe forced labor in your industry? What factors do you believe contribute the most to the problem?
- Falling Into Supply Chain Management (July 2020): What type of degree did you earn in college? In what functional area did you begin your career?
Reminder: There are many ways to stay connected with Talking Logistics throughout the year — choose all the options that you prefer:
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LinkedIn (Talking Logistics)
LinkedIn (Indago)
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YouTube (where you can also watch all of our episodes)
iTunes (where you can listen to podcast versions of our episodes)
