0:02

Darcy MacClaren: Given this particular podcast is in conjunction with International Women's Day, I think it's appropriate to tie the two together.

0:09

So, my father was a Lieutenant Colonel Marine Corps, so I'm going to steal one of their phrases, all we need is a few good men - so what I will say is all we need for the future of supply chain is awesome women toembrace technology that we need to have to build risk-proof supply chains and use technologies like AI, Generative AI, IoT, blockchain, machine learning, predictive to build these risk-proof and sustainable supply chains.

0:39

Nicole Smythe: Welcome to the Future of Supply Chain podcast.

0:42

My name is Nicole Smythe and I'm a marketer, blogger, and podcaster in the supply chain space here at SAP.

0:49

So, in just two days, we'll be celebrating International Women's Day across the globe, and in celebration, we're in store for an insightful conversation with two incredible women, one of them being my co-host Sin.

1:00

So, Sin over to you. Sin To: Thank you so much for the kind words, Nicole.

1:05

Hi everyone. I'm Sin To and as Nicole said, I'm the co-host of today's episode.

1:10

And on today's show, we have a very special guest, Darcy MacClaren.

1:14

So welcome Darcy, and thank you so much for joining us here today on the podcast.

1:18

It's such a great pleasure to have you join.

1:21

If you could take a moment to introduce yourself, dive a bit into your background, how you got into the supply chain space, and of course, what you do today at SAP.

1:31

Darcy MacClaren: Great. Well, Nicole, Sin, first of all, thank you so much for having me on.

1:35

I'm a big fan of this blog, so I'm honored that you asked me to be on this podcast to celebrate International Women's Day.

1:42

So, little bit about me. I am the Chief Revenue Officer for Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

1:49

And what that means, basically, is I have the responsibility to help our customers transform their supply chain to be risk resilient, risk proof, agile, sustainable.

1:59

And so I make sure that our global team has the right solutions, the right services, the right partners, the right content across the globe to make this happen.

2:11

And as far as background, I've been at SAP for 12 fantastic years, and prior to SAP, I have 25 years of experience in the supply chain.

2:20

And I built a career on building and scaling highly specialized supply chain solutions, really in all areas, what we call Design to Operate.

2:29

So I started out first with planning and scheduling, I went to design, logistics, operate - pretty much across all the portfolios before I joined SAP 25 years ago.

2:41

Now, how did I get into supply chain?

2:44

Hewlett Packard really introduced me to manufacturing and supply chain very early in my career right out of university, I worked for HP.

2:52

And that's where I got started in understanding the importance of supply chain and manufacturing and quality, and they paid for my MBA, which then I discovered I had a love for optimism and algorithms.

3:04

And from that is when I started getting into starting small software companies and building and scaling.

3:11

So it came full circle that I got it from, you know, really academia, Hewlett Packard, started building companies, and then ended up at SAP, which really brings everything together.

3:23

Nicole Smythe: Absolutely. Well, we love a full circle moment and I can't think of a better person to be on for this episode today so excited for the conversation we're gonna have.

3:32

But like I said, in celebration of International Women's Day, we wanted to dedicate a special section of today's show to dive into your community, Empowering Women in Supply Chain.

3:42

So, could you give some insights to our listeners on how and why you founded this community and what being a part of this entails?

3:50

Darcy MacClaren: Well, I really started it out of self preservation.

3:55

It's really important to SAP that we build teams that are diverse and we measure it.

4:01

And leaders at SAP, you know, it's part of their approval process and their leadership rating because we do measure it.

4:09

And quite frankly, in supply chain, I had very poor diversity and it wasn't an excuse for me to say, I'm sorry, there's not a lot of women in this field.

4:19

There may be more women in HR or marketing.

4:22

So, it really became something where the recruiters were struggling finding qualified female candidates to help me improve my diversity, and I realized, I was going to have to develop my own pipeline.

4:35

And what that meant is I had to get awesome women involved, interested in the field, so I could recruit, mentor, coach them.

4:44

And so really the Empowering Women in Supply Chain, which is a network of SAP employees, customers, partners, actually now we have even university students, was allabout creating and getting women interested in the field, and then once they were in there to make sure we mentor, coach, and sponsor them throughout their journey.

5:06

And I will say that absolutely, yes, I did work towards accomplishing my mission of improving diversity in my supply chain organization, to which now I went global and now we're working at it globally, but, more importantly,it has been such an amazing journey to get to meet very cool women in supply chain that all have this vested interest, that are all really willing to give their time and their effort and their executive support to other women.

5:37

So, it's just been totally fulfilling for me.

5:39

And I just have such a passion for it, and I think we've made a little headway to an improving diversity in supply chain.

5:46

Sin To: Yeah, right. I mean, to have this Women in Supply Chain network that you have that we are also trying to develop our own is really enhancing, and developing, and, also helping to build a career.

5:59

And this is also what I found out when I volunteered to be part of the SAP Business Women Network to help also younger talents to feel more inclusive in the company, right?

6:10

So, to have a diverse team is really important for companies to succeed and which is also underlined by a lot of studies.

6:17

But, apart from Empowering Women in the Supply Chain, to have this network, it's also important to have technology.

6:25

And as you mentioned, you stepped into the role of Chief Revenue Officer for Digital Supply Chain since stepping into this role andbeing at the global level, what are some of the trends and topics and also challenges you see driving supply chains around the world?

6:39

And does it vary by region? And also how can diverse teams help to improve supply chains?

6:47

Darcy MacClaren: Oh, great question. What's interesting about going global is the reality is our supply chains have gotten so complex and we operate a global economy.

6:59

So it's very clear that even though there is a disruption in the Red Sea, it affects the entire global supply chain.

7:07

And so it is a global trend that we're seeing that, we're operating in this global economy and we have to be very aware of that.

7:16

And the top trends that I see are, first of all, risk resiliency.

7:20

That's here to stay. We all know disruption is a new norm.

7:24

We actually track global disruption, right, by the Federal Bank of New York and they come more frequently and they have a bigger impact and that's here to stay.

7:34

So, supply chain leaders have to realize that, plan for it, and embrace technology to do so.

7:41

The second trend we see is sustainability.

7:45

That is now top of mind. It's not just a tagline on your corporate mission on your web page.

7:51

It really is important to build sustainability in.

7:55

That does vary by region, as far as some regions are much more statutory, it's much more regulated than others.

8:05

But everybody is going to it and it's just going to be a matter of time before the regulations are pretty much across the board.

8:13

And so what people are now doing, you have to act, you have to report, but more importantly, going forward, act in a sustainable way, because it's the right thing to do, but your customers want you to be sustainable as do your employees.

8:25

Third trend really is transparency across your entire ecosystem and within your own organization.

8:32

That's truly an enabler to be connected.

8:36

And then the fourth one, that maybe I should have put this number one cause everybody's talking about it and you can't get out of a conversation without, is Gen AI.

8:44

So Gen AI and AI are real game changers in the ability for really having a self healing supply chain.

8:53

And so that's going to be very exciting.

8:56

I do think in the area of supply chain, you'll see relatively quick adoption because the problem is so big, so much data is so complex.

9:05

This can be a real. Technology to use to really get your hands around your supply chain.

9:10

Sin To: Right, I mean, you just mentioned really important topics.

9:14

And then you also mentioned Gen AI, and AI is the hottest topic maybe on the Earth right now, and I truly think we won't be able to avoid AI in the future, like we weren't able to avoid the iPhone when it got launched in back in 2006, 7, 8.

9:29

So how are business systems and also technologies, especially in AI and Gen AI, dealing with these challenges that you just mentioned?

9:38

Darcy MacClaren: Well, there's really three ways it can enhance productivity, efficiency and decision making across the broad board we have here, and really that it analyzes data in an automatic way.

9:50

So where we see in supply chain of it being used is process automation.

9:55

So artificial intelligence can answer, quickly, vast amount of data from manufacturing processes, which identifies patterns, bottlenecks, workflows, and then it optimizes them.

10:07

So we've had equipment hooked up for years, but now it's really taking all that data you're getting off of all that equipment, all that sensors, and really putting AI on top of it to help it.

10:17

We also see it in predictive maintenance, where the capabilities of AI can help in many ways, including real-time monitoring, doing detection, predicting potential failures to get ahead of it, and thenidentifying maintenance issues in a lifecycle in advance, where you're collecting AI information to really figure out the equipment lifespan and to have smoother operation because you can anticipate it better.

10:45

And then you see a lot in quality control, where you can use AI to enhance quality control capabilities, analyze data from sensors, cameras and a lot of that automation in real-time.

10:55

It also eliminates waste. So there's a lot of different ways, usually investing a lot of data and analysis that we're now automating, and we're putting AI in place to do that.

11:07

So, you know, throughout the supply chain, you can see the relative areas where you can actually use AI to make it more efficient, more accurate, more sustainable.

11:17

Nicole Smythe: Absolutely. And I think, like Sin said, it's in everything.

11:21

And I was having a conversation the other day where someone just said, what is AI?

11:25

And I was like where do we start? Because you can really adapt it to any type of field, but especially supply chain.

11:32

It was such an i nteresting question because it is so complex and so just multifaceted and I'm just excited to see where it really takes off.

11:40

Darcy MacClaren: Oh, Nicole, I love those type of questions where you could give a quick answer about what it is or it could be a very lengthy question, right?

11:48

Depending on who you're talking to, right?

11:50

Nicole Smythe: Exactly. I'm like, well, the real answer is AI is artificial intelligence if we really just want to end it there.

11:56

So I can tell you what it means. But I think one of the really interesting use cases for AI as well is, you know, in the opportunity and the challenge of the current labor shift.

12:06

There's not enough people in supply chain itself, but as we've also seen, there's also not enough women in supply chain and STEM, as well.

12:14

So, in light of that, you know, I've looked up a few different studies, and I'd like to highlight an interesting statistic that was done by McKinsey in celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

12:26

So in Europe, if companies were to double the share of women in the tech workforce to about 45% or an estimated 3.9 million additional women by 2027, GDP could get a boost of as much as 260 billion euros to 600 billion euros.

12:47

So, as we can see and hear, the data speaks for itself.

12:51

But, we're still seeing a gap in women actively going for and attaining these roles.

12:57

So, how can we encourage more workers, especially women, early in their careers, to move into the supply chain management space and other related fields?

13:06

Darcy MacClaren: It's a great question, and what has helped, quite frankly, is COVID.

13:13

What COVID did is it highlighted supply chain to the world.

13:19

Heads of company, heads of states, grandmothers knew what supply chain was.

13:24

So it got visibility to what it was, and that was a good thing for the industry.

13:30

And the importance of it within organizations has been elevated, so it often sits in the C-suite now, and we're recruiting from supply chain executives because they have such a broad perspective on the entire organization.

13:43

So that is all good news to get visibility of supply chain as a career, right?

13:50

And then also that it's an exciting career.

13:54

So what we're doing to recruit people from supply chain is, first of all, we're not insisting that you have 20 years of supply chain to take some of these jobs.

14:03

Instead, it's this is a real cool area.

14:06

It's fun. If you have certain skill sets - quantitative, analytic, problem solver, can handle pressure - this is a really great job that has all sorts of different possibilities of where you can take it.

14:21

So the visibility helped that it was a profession.

14:25

It was exciting profession. It's one that embraces technology in a big way.

14:31

And that's how we're getting more people in the field and, specifically, more women.

14:36

And then if you look where it all starts at - you know, I'm a sales professional, so it's all about pipeline - the beginning of the pipeline in the funnel starts in academia, to your point, to STEM, to universities that have programs.

14:50

So now instead of having maybe an IT career or a career in finance, now people are coming out, I think I want supply chain, because you can take that any way you want in the field.

15:01

So I think a lot of things are pulling together, right?

15:05

And also there's the demand for it. So, good people are quite in demand, and those that like technology, those that like algorithms, optimization, problem solving, or collaborative, they're ideal to move into supply chain.

15:18

And I love the stats that McKinsey has as to why, particularly women, are well suited for supply chain because of better collaborators, which becomes very important when you're talkingabout working with partners, strategic thinking, and all that is lens why, according to McKinsey's study, we're going to put more women in the field, which, hey, I'm all for that.

15:38

Nicole Smythe: And it is so funny because I went to school for supply chain, and no one knew what supply chain was.

15:46

They were constantly asking like what my education was, what I was learning, and I was like, I'm learning about how our economy works essentially and how it keeps running.

15:54

You know, it was so interesting. And then, you spoke about COVID, that's when people finally were like, Oh, that's what you went to school for, I finally get it, you know.

16:03

Darcy MacClaren: But you had a help in that you had a mother that was the supply chain, so you were one of those fortunate few that had a female role model that you could see what she did was just kind of help.

16:15

Now, I think we have some more of those to hopefully help, you know, other women.

16:19

That saying is, you can't be what you can't see, right?

16:22

So the more that we get in the role, the more other women will hopefully migrate to this, what I think is a, very exciting space.

16:29

Nicole Smythe: Absolutely. And you know, we've had conversations before, both with you and with my mom, which has been such a great experience to be able to have with her.

16:37

But it's hard to see yourself at a table if you don't see someone there before you, and to have leaders like you, and me, fortunately, to seemy mom at tables like that, it's something where it's like, I can do this, I can sit there, I'm very much capable of sitting there, as well.

16:50

I know what I can bring to the table because there was women before me that showed me what to bring.

16:55

So it's very important and I'm just excited for the new generation to come learn from the generation that's looking to exit and kind of pass the baton to us, as well.

17:04

Darcy MacClaren: Love it. Love it. Nicole Smythe: But you mentioned some skill sets, as well, that, are really geared towards women.

17:11

So, based on your experience, what skill sets and traits do women bring to the field that are differentiators from their counterparts, so to speak?

17:20

Darcy MacClaren: Yeah, it's these skill sets that when I needed to increase my team and go elsewhere, started looking for these skill sets instead of past experience, which didn't exist.

17:33

And some of these are related specifically to women, and some are just generic.

17:38

The generic ones are, obviously, you need to be a problem solver, analytical, right?

17:45

Because you're given, sometimes, some very hard problems and you got to find a way to shift the problem, get the product, et cetera, manufacture it.

17:53

What I think women are particularly very good at is this concept of collaboration, win-win, working on teams, strategic partnerships.

18:06

That's where they're very, very good at, and that's what really helps.

18:11

Now, one of the things that I think is very important and cannot be underestimated, and it's even more important the further up you go in your supply chain career, and you were hit up with it recently when somebody asked you, what is AI?

18:28

The ability to talk about complex issues in simple terms is a huge benefit, because often times you're talking about what youdid or how you solved it to a senior leader who may not be that involved in the details of the technology and how you solved it.

18:47

So the ability of a supply chain practitioner to explain things in easy, non-technical terms is of huge benefit.

18:56

So that's why I always encourage folks to do to really understand it and to be able to explain it simply, like what can AI do for supply chain, is a huge skill set to develop.

19:08

Sin To: Right, right. You just mentioned some of the skills like collaborations, strategic partnerships, win-win behavior or the ability to talk about complex issues to make it very easy to understand.

19:21

But, just like in general, don't you think that sometimes these skill sets also apply to other jobs?

19:27

And don't you think that, especially for STEM, that sometimes the other skill set, you need to understand mathematics, statistics, numbers, would also scare some kind of young girls not to go into STEM?

19:40

Because I'm based in Germany, this is something in Europe is also still an issue here to get more girls into the STEM profession or studies.

19:50

Darcy MacClaren: I have that as kind of basic, everybody needs to get involved in mathematics and statistics as almost a core, right?

20:01

That we all do to survive in our world, quite frankly.

20:05

So, Even though you may not want to be a very technical developer, those skills are huge and I think should be, you know, depending on what part of the world you're in, high school, pre university.

20:20

It almost should be the basic. And, quite frankly, the U.S.

20:24

is getting behind in other parts of world for STEM.

20:29

So, we really need to encourage young women to get these basic educational building blocks down because it's not just supply chain.

20:39

You are correct. Even if you look at an HR, right?

20:43

That is totally full of a lot of analytics and they're using Gen AI in the SAP suite big time, and you need to understand that.

20:51

So to me, it's almost, it goes back to the reading, writing, and arithmetic, right?

20:56

You gotta have those basic foundation building blocks to be a corporate citizen, quite frankly.

21:02

Sin To: Absolutely. Totally agree. Darcy MacClaren: Maybe I have to add another one.

21:05

Reading, writing, arithmetic, what? Generative AI?

21:08

Do we have to have that one? I don't know. Sin To: Yeah. Actually!

21:10

Darcy MacClaren: We need a fourth one we need to add! Nicole Smythe: I think it's better to be a part of the curriculum whether the new generation wants to or not.

21:17

Darcy MacClaren: Right, right. Sin To: But I think in the next couple of years, that would be a subject that they would teach at school because there's something that you cannot avoid anymore, right?

21:26

And also like, programming, part of the fundamental studies that in school boys and girls learn about this.

21:33

Because I've got two young kids and they will start school next year, the older one, and I'm very keen to see what they're going to learn at school.

21:40

Because they are very comfortable to use the iPhone with a swipe.

21:44

For them, it's so natural and they cannot imagine what a phone is like.

21:48

Darcy MacClaren: That is a whole generational change.

21:51

What's interesting is in many parts of the world, they're no longer teaching cursive writing, right?

21:57

That's considered not a skill set that's needed.

22:00

And you wonder, so how are people going to sign their name?

22:04

Do they, you know, do they do an X? I don't know. Do they print it?

22:07

Is it all digital? Where it's just you have a digital signature, you're not going to be writing your signature.

22:12

And education needs to transform and it does need to keep up with technology.

22:17

And we have iPhone native, students coming in.

22:19

They'll do things differently, easier, and, quite frankly, it's quite exciting to see what will happen, isn't it?

22:25

Yeah, Sin To: it is. Absolutely. Nicole Smythe: Very.

22:27

I'm even learning from the next generation coming up and they're not that much younger than me.

22:31

Darcy MacClaren: Well, I'm of the generation, I can't figure out the remote, you know?

22:35

So, I'm behind you two, for sure. Nicole Smythe: I'm the dedicated tech support for my parents still to this day.

22:42

Sin To: Yeah. Darcy MacClaren: Isn't that awful to have to have your kids tech support you?

22:45

It's terrible, but that's what kids are for, right?

22:48

Nicole Smythe: Yes, exactly! Sin To: So if we are coming back to our topic that we are here for our podcast.

22:53

If I am now a young girl and I would like to get into supply chain, , what do you give them as kind of advice in their career, in this specific space?

23:02

Or if I'm not just a young talent, but just a woman that would like to get into this space?

23:09

Darcy MacClaren: Well, first of all, I'd say what a smart decision, right?

23:13

But seriously, what I would highly recommend is first of all, make sure you have the basic understanding of what it is, and basic technology that's applied to supply chain, to make sure you understand the field, the opportunity in it.

23:33

I also recommend that you talk to practitioners in the field.

23:39

Recently at our Hudson Yards office, I had a group of students in from St.

23:44

Lawrence University, I've talked to other students a few months ago at Lehigh, talking to them about the profession and the different jobs inthe profession because a lot of times they don't know, as a young talent, the broad base of different skill sets within a job like supply chain.

24:01

So it's really understanding the different opportunities in it, getting a basic education in the core foundation of it, and then what also is very,very helpful in your career journey as you're going through university is to do some internships in various aspects to give you a feel of what you like.

24:22

And then, of course, it's networking with people in it and then, ultimately, making sure you have good sponsors as you go through your career.

24:31

That's kind of the path that I recommend people do because I think it's very important that you have a passion for whatever you do.

24:38

I am really passionate about it.

24:40

I feel it's my personal responsibility to work with customers, to get their products to their customers, and delight them in how they do so.

24:50

And if you have that passion for your job, because you like it and understand it, then the rest just kind of comes and what you need to do to get there.

24:59

Nicole Smythe: That's great. We can certainly tell you're passionate and that's why we knew you were the perfect person for this episode because your passion is so visible and, we're really inspired by it.

25:08

And I know everyone listening and all young women looking to get into the field will be inspired by it, as well.

25:14

So, thank you so much for everything. Darcy MacClaren: Absolutely.

25:17

Nicole Smythe: So, Darcy, as crazy as it is, we're already nearing the end of the podcast.

25:22

And given the series is named the Future of Supply Chain, we ask every guest the same question, which we are very excited to hear what your answer will be.

25:31

But, in your opinion, what is the future of supply chain?

25:35

Darcy MacClaren: Well, And I do love this podcast and I know you do always ask this question, so given this particular podcast is in conjunction with International Women's Day, I think it's appropriate to tie the two together.

25:48

So, my father was a Lieutenant Colonel Marine Corps, so I'm going to steal one of their phrases, all we need is a few good men - which, by the way, came out of a brainstorming session the Marines had and said,listen, we're a small branch, all we really need is a few good men, and thus came a whole campaign - so what I will say is all we need for the future of supply chain is awesome women to embrace technologythat we need to have to build risk-proof supply chains and use technologies like AI, Generative AI, IoT, blockchain, machine learning, predictive to build these risk-proof and sustainable supply chains.

26:25

Sin To: Awesome. Nicole Smythe: Perfect answer.

26:28

Awesome. Well, Nicole Smythe: thank you so much Darcy for such a great conversation.

26:33

It has been truly such a pleasure having you on today and thank you so much for your time and insights.

26:38

And of course, Happy International Women's Day.

26:42

Darcy MacClaren: Thank you. Nicole Smythe: And thank you all for listening.

26:45

Please mark us as a favorite and you can get regular updates and information about future episodes.

26:51

But until next time, from Darcy, Sin, and I, thank you for discussing the Future of Supply Chain.