What today’s supply chain leaders must do next

 Straight Talk with Brian Straight • July 27, 2025

Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of Straight Talk. Inside, we discuss:

• Cross-functional leadership

• Trucking’s role in supply chain

• Explaining de minimis

• AI alters the outlook for IBP

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Leaders lead

       (Photo: Getty Images)

This week, I want to spotlight a powerful series of articles from Supply Chain Management Review—all penned by top-tier professors—that appeared in our print issue last year. (Subscribers can read the full series here). The reason I want to highlight these articles now is twofold: First, the topic is an important one that seems more relevant than ever in 2025 as supply chain leaders try to navigate a world that remains unpredictable. Black Swan events? Maybe they should just be called Monday.

The second reason for highlighting these articles now is a bit self-promotional. One of the co-authors, Steven A. Melnyk, will be presenting on this exact topic at our upcoming NextGen Supply Chain Conference. Melnyk will be presenting as part of our breakout sessions at the conference on Thursday, Oct. 23. His presentation, titled “Leading beyond the Silo: Elevating and Enhancing the Supply Chain,” will be one that you will want to attend if optimizing your supply chain is a priority. You can find more information on this year’s NextGen conference, including registration information, here.

Melnyk’s presentation is an adaptation of the in-depth article series he penned with Alan Amling, Distinguished Fellow at the University of Tennessee Supply Chain Institute; Nick Little, director of the Railway Education Center for Railway Research & Education at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University; and Lee K. Levy II, Ret. Major General of the USAF, and CEO of The Levy Group, LLC. Melnyk is part of the Department of Supply Chain Management at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University.

One of the coolest parts of my job is to learn from people much, much smarter than I. In that way, if I can be a conduit to help other smart people think differently, to innovate, and to evolve as leaders, then I feel I’ve done my part for the industry. After I read these magazine articles, I felt like I learned something about managing people and organizations. And, I believe that after reading them, or, hearing Melnyk impart these lessons in person at NextGen in October, you may also find something to help your own organization.

The articles build a thoughtful, practical case for why today’s supply chain leaders need to rethink how they operate—not just within their function, but across the entire enterprise. And the professor’s 30-minute presentation in Nashville will pull the full arc of this topic together into an engaging, fast-moving session designed to connect the dots. Here’s a quick recap of the four pieces—each one building toward that broader leadership message that you will hear at NextGen.

1. Setting the stage

The first article introduces the idea of a balanced supply chain—one that carefully manages cost, service, and cash without letting one dominate at the expense of the others. It also outlines the five realities shaping our environment: from increasing cross-functional dependency to executive scrutiny to operating in a state of constant volatility (does that sound familiar?). The message? Today’s supply chain isn’t just a function but rather a critical enabler of business performance.

2. Managing at the edges

Next, the authors zoom in on the “edges.” What are the edges? They explain that the edges are those areas where supply chain intersects with marketing, finance, product development, and more. These are often the sources of breakdowns, misaligned incentives, and missed opportunities. The article pushes us to think more deliberately about these connections, encouraging stronger communication, shared metrics, and active collaboration to avoid the costly ripple effects that can stem from isolated decision-making.

3. Changing how we make decisions

The third piece dives into decision-making frameworks. The argument here is simple: better decisions don’t happen by accident. They require intention. The authors promote scenario planning, risk modeling, and assumption testing as tools to improve agility and reduce blind spots. It’s about shifting from reactive to proactive, from siloed to system-wide. If you want better outcomes, you need better inputs and a more inclusive process.

4. Leading beyond the silo

The final article—and the inspiration for the conference session—brings it all together. Here, the authors focus squarely on leadership and the need for supply chain professionals to step up as cross-functional connectors. It’s not enough to optimize operations in isolation. To succeed, leaders must align functions, influence decision-making, and create governance structures that reflect today’s complexity. This is where theory meets action.

Putting it in context

What I love about this series is how grounded it is. It doesn’t just paint a picture of what’s possible. It actually offers real-world examples and advice that the authors have implemented with some of their own clients. It provides mental models, tools, and real-world dynamics to help you think differently about your own role. I can’t possibly do justice to the process the authors outline in the article series, which ran more than 15,000 words over four issues of the magazine, to explain the entire process (and which, as Melnyk noted in the first article, is the collective wisdom or more than 120 years of combined experience in supply chain for the authors and been explored, to some extent, over dozens of published and peer-reviewed articles over the years). Melnyk, though, is the perfect person to explain the series and the process, and he will do just that at the 2025 NextGen Supply Chain Conference.

Understanding the role of trucking

       (Photo: Getty Images)

Wether you are in manufacturing, food and beverage, retail or any other industry, if you move product or raw material, you probably rely on trucking for some portion of your logistics needs. Rosemary Coates, executive director of the Reshoring Institute, sat down with Pamela Bracher, deputy general counsel at the American Trucking Associations, to discuss some of the topics shippers need to be aware of when it comes to trucking. While many shippers will simply say, “I outsource my logistics so I don’t care.” Well, nuclear court verdicts may suggest otherwise. Bracher breaks down the differences between asset-based truck carriers, brokers (which many of you use) and the legal liabilities each party in the movement of goods faces. She also talked about the Carmack Amendment, which limits the liability a trucker faces when there is a loss or damage to a shipment. You can list to Coates’ podcast episode with Bracher here.

De minimis impact explained

       (Photo: Getty Images)

I’ve mentioned several times in this space about the elimination of the de minimis exemption for imports of less than $800. Often, these items are associated with e-commerce shipments, but more and more larger companies have been breaking up imports into lower-valued shipments to avoid Customs duties. That is ending, and John Lash, group vp of product strategy at E2open joined our sister brand Supply Chain 247 to answer some questions on how the end of hre program will impact importers, sourcing strategies, and compliance risks. You can read his Q&A here.

What I read this week

Integrated Business Planning is the latest area to see significant change as AI unlocks a new era of agility, foresight and competitive advantage. … Looking to derisk your supply chain? Gartner’s Ronak Gohel has a few tips any organization can benefit from. … Leading companies are investing 70% of their AI resources into the people that make the tech successful, rather than the tech itself. … Gartner predicts that most companies will drop their voluntary sustainable packaging goals by 2028. … A majority of business leaders worldwide believe resilience is the most important quality a company can possess. … In the materials handling world, warehouse management systems continue to dominate the tech conversation, although AI is gaining.