269: The Best-Kept Secret For Vendor Relationships 

We’re continuing to put the spotlight on our incredible family of Let’s Talk Supply Chain live shows, bringing you special guests and exclusive content that you don’t want to miss. Last week, we featured First Things First, with Mercado in episode 262 and Coming In Hot, with Abby Baird in episode 264. And now it’s Sarah’s turn with Thoughts and Coffee. Known as "The Best 30-Minutes on a Tuesday", this weekly show brings you the hottest supply chain topics currently brewing in the industry, every Tuesday at 10am EST. In this episode, Sarah is joined by special guest Brad Blomstrom, Chief Financial Officer at Emerge, to talk about increasing corporate social responsibility through procurement, 2022 supply chain predictions – and to share the best-kept secret for better vendor relationships.   IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS:   [08.27] Sarah recaps on recent episodes, and shares what’s new with Let’s Talk Supply Chain, Blended and the LTSC family of live shows. [11.43] An introduction to special guest Brad Blomstrom and his role at Emerge. [13.59] Sarah and Brad chat about the poll of the week: do you drink coffee? [17.48] Sarah reveals the topic of her Monthly Hustle newsletter, podcast tips and tricks. “Smile, have fun, speak to what you know... and it’s usually a pretty good conversation.” [20.08] Sarah and Brad discuss the first of three trending supply chain articles: supply chain predictions for 2022, and the growing investment in delivery technology. “To procure capacity inside your network and get goods shipped on time, shippers need a solution like Emerge to be able to manage those capacity relationships in real time.” [27.38] Sarah and Brad chat about the white paper released by Emerge and Reuters all about enhancing relationships in logistics through data and collaboration. “You need to get use out of your data… previously, there’s been a lot of unstructured, single-purpose data that sits in a silo - and people lose a lot of the value that comes out of monitoring and utilizing the insights that come from their normal behavior.” [32.01] Sarah and Brad reflect on the third and final article of the episode, focusing on the importance of procurement to CSR initiatives.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED:   You can connect with Brad over on LinkedIn. If you want to find out more about Emerge, why not check out episode 243, where George Abernathy chats all about the company: what they do; bringing accountability to logistics; and why it’s so important to bring all the industry players together in order to build positive and mutually beneficial networks. Watch the full episode here! You can find previous episodes of Thoughts and Coffee over on the live show page, or you can check out other Let’s Talk Supply Chain podcasts HERE.