• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Innovation Footprints Logo

Innovation Footprints

What if . . . ?

  • Home
  • Blog
  • #FounderFuel – #NYCTech
  • Hack Your Startup
    • Founder Anxiety
    • Learn
    • Design
    • Pitch
    • Accelerate
    • Protect
    • Negotiate
    • More
  • #BeYourOwnMentor – Independent Study
  • About
    • About Me
    • Terms
      • Ethics Statement
      • Community Guidelines

Logistics and Supply Chain

#UnderConstruction | Why Is A Global Grassroots Supply Chain Community Starting in NYC, and Bangalore?

November 6, 2018 by Brian Laung Aoaeh

Disclaimer: This blog post reflects my personal opinions only. It does not represent the opinions of REFASHIOND Ventures, or REFASHIOND CO:LAB. It does not represent the opinions of The New York Supply Chain Meetup, or The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation. It does not reflect the opinions of any other person who is associated with any of those entities. This blog post does not represent the opinion of any other individual or organization that is mentioned by the author.

Acknowledgement: I am grateful to Anisha Surana, of Locus, for helping me with research about Bangalore, and India. She’s also been the point-person as we’ve worked across time zones to get things going in Bangalore. She’s been phenomenally helpful, even when our team in NYC has been stretched for time and other resources, and therefore less responsive than we should be.

Introduction

After thinking about value chains and supply chains since August 2014, I decided in August 2017 that I should focus the remainder of my career as a venture capitalist on becoming a supply chain specialist. So on August 23, 2017 I decided to start The New York Supply Chain Meetup. You can read about how I got there here: #UnderConstruction | Why A Supply Chain Meetup in New York? In summary: New York City does an enormous amount of business with the rest of the world. Therefore, it is a wonderful laboratory for stress-testing technological innovations for supply chain. Moreover, it is also a great gateway for supply chain tech startups that seek to grow in the North American market.

We Started In NYC! We optimize for enthusiasm.

Friday, November 16, 2018 will mark one year since our first public event, which you can read about here: Progress Report | #TNYSCM Minimum Viable Launch – Building A Supply Chain Community. We are celebrating that milestone with an event on Thursday, November 15 which you can read about here: #TNYSCM09 / Keynote, Showcase & 1 Year Anniversary Celebration.

Over the course of our first year:

  • Our kickoff on November 16, 2017 attracted about 150 people.
  • We have grown to 1,370+ members in NYC.
  • We typically have 100+ people attend each meetup . . . and they do not show up for the food or alcohol, as one of our members who has travelled from Philadelphia to attend our meetups on more than three occasions told a friend who was visiting from Europe. Our gatherings are very engaging affairs, and people have always tended to stay well after the end of each event to talk to one another.
  • We have helped some of our members connect with potential customers, and some of our speakers have gone on to raise significant amounts of capital from VCs or are on the verge of raising capital from early stage investors.
  • With far less in terms of resources, we have become the biggest  and most active community on Meetup.com that focuses on supply chain, technology, and innovation. We’re more than 10x as big as the Supply Chain Meetup of NYC – It turns out copying our name  and our mantra was insufficient to foster growth, and they have not had an event since April 2018. We’re more than 3x as big as the Future of Supply Chain & Logistics which is in Sunnyvale, California and is organized by Plug and Play Supply Chain & Logistics – They have not organized an event since October 2017; This is pretty amazing given that Plug and Play’s many corporate partners are reported to each pay $300K per year for the privilege of being part of that community. To be fair to Plug and Play, perhaps they have invested in a proprietary platform and so meetup.com is no longer a fair reflection of their size and scale.
  • We published The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation – Our Manifesto as a rallying cry to gather people who share our obsessive enthusiasm for supply chain, technology, innovation, and startups.

We started The New York Supply Chain Meetup with a deceptively simple but ambitious mission:

To nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain networks of the future — starting in NYC.

Soon after that we built on that mission statement by developing this vision:

To create a global movement; the largest community on the planet of people obsessed with supply chain technology, who are trying to develop new products and build new companies – while learning from each other, and supporting one another.

Now, We Are Launching A Community In Bangalore!

During this year of bootstrapping our community, we have built on our early progress in NYC, and are now on the verge of launching chapters outside New York City. On November 24, 2018, The Bangalore Supply Chain Meetup will have its public launch, establishing itself as the first international chapter of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation.

We are excited that Bangalore is the next chapter to launch after NYC. In all the time that I have been studying about the economic impact more efficient supply chains can have on the world, it has become clear to me that the developing world stands to benefit the most from technological innovation in supply chain. As a boy growing up in Northern Ghana and Northern Nigeria, I was always amazed by the durability of buses made by Tata Motors. I find it personally meaningful, that a supply chain community I am helping to start is building its first international presence in the home of Tata Motors. Here are some highlights about India, and Bangalore specifically:

  • According to the IMF’s Country Focus (August 2018): “India’s economy is picking up and growth prospects look bright—partly thanks to the implementation of recent policies, such as the nationwide goods and services tax. As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies—accounting for about 15 percent of global growth—India’s economy has helped to lift millions out of poverty.”
  • Information technology firms in Bangalore employ about 35% of India’s aggregate pool of about 2.5 million information technology professionals. Bangalore’s IT firms account for the highest IT-related exports from India. Bangalore’s growth as India’s IT capital has been helped by heavy investments by India’s Central Government as well as support from the Karnataka State Government. Bangalore accounts for 87% of Karnataka’s economy and 98% of the state’s software exports.
  • According to a 2016 report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India; The country could save $50 billion if logistics costs as a percentage of India’s GDP were to decrease from 13 percent to 9 percent. In other words, every percentage point gain in supply chain logistics efficiency could lead to $12.5 billion of savings for India’s economy. That is $12.5 billion that could be invested in more productive areas to spur more economic growth in India.

What is even more exciting than that? Our chapter in Bangalore is being launched through the dedicated effort of the team at Locus. I met Nishith Rastogi, Co-Founder & CEO of Locus, in June 2018, in NYC, while he was visiting the United States. We originally planned to chat for about 30 minutes. Instead we wound up spending nearly two hours chatting about the problems Locus is solving for its customers. This is a problem I have been interested in since 2016 – In fact, I discussed it at considerable length when I published: Industry Study: Freight Trucking (#Startups) and Updates – Industry Study: Freight Trucking (#Startups).

According to CrunchBase: Locus is an intelligent logistics automation platform with a built-in route planning and vehicle allocation engine which improves consistency and efficiency of operations, higher customer satisfaction with high adherence to service-level agreements (SLAs) & last-mile live tracking. The platform helps companies and enterprises in e-commerce, food delivery, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and other verticals to automate and optimize their logistics. The product suite comprises of a route deviation engine, order dispatch automation, a field user app, route optimizations, scheduling, tracking for end-customer, predictive analytics and other services and products. Locus offers the entire technology stack, in the form of a platform as a service.

According to CBInsights; Locus has raised $6.75 million from angel investors and institutional venture capitalists in India, Singapore, Japan, and California. Locus is also a graduate of Microsoft ScaleUp. When I met Nishith, he told me that the company was growing its business very rapidly in India, Indonesia, and other markets in Asia. Locus is now looking to grow it’s business in the United States, and has opted to begin that process by establishing a presence in New York City.

Finally, Nishith and I talked about the idea that propelled the formation of The New York Supply Chain Meetup. He grasped it immediately, and expressed a desire to build a community in Bangalore, one that would be connected with our community in New York City, and that would also subsequently be connected with every other chapter that launches in other parts of the world.

I explained that one of the goals of the community we were forming in NYC was for startups like Locus, and entrepreneurs like Nishith and his co-founders, to have a ready-made community of like-minded and helpful people they could connect with in NYC once they were ready to establish a presence here. That benefit should also work in reverse  . . . Obviously, that becomes more effective if the community in NYC collaborates actively with a similar community in Bangalore. That is how the idea for The Bangalore Supply Chain Meetup (#TBLRSCM) was born. It is a microcosm of how we hope The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation will function in helping early-stage startups building new technologies and new innovations to make global supply chains more efficient connect with New York City for customers, for talent and expertise, and for financial capital . . . . . No matter where they were founded, if they are expanding into the United States, we want them to call NYC home first, and we will become the community that welcomes them here.

Since our conversation in June, Nishith and his team at Locus have been hard at work putting things in place for the public launch. We would not have made it this far without the dedicated hard work of the team at Locus. They have taken on this initiative on top of their already very demanding responsibilities.

Our team in NYC could not be more excited about seeing The Bangalore Supply Chain Meetup get off the ground. You can help by telling anyone you know in Bangalore who may want to be part of the community that is forming there to look for the group on meetup.com. You may also signup for the launch of The Bangalore Supply Chain Meetup on the event page here.

What Problems Will Our Community Help To Solve?

Some of the complaints I’ve heard from startup founders who are building new technology for the supply chain market, or new technology-enabled products with supply chain functionality are:

  • How do we find enterprise partners for our first pilot? How do we find the individuals who will be our internal champions as we try to win our very first enterprise customers? 
  • How do we find supply chain professionals who can help us understand how our product would be used by professionals in the industry?
  • How do we identify talented people who understand technology but also understand supply chain so that we can recruit them to join our team?
  • How do we find professional service providers who understand the nuances of what we’re trying to do and can help us with tailored advice?
  • How do we find other investors like you?

From large companies we’ve heard comments like; We’ve been grappling with this problem for decades, and we can no longer afford to do things the way we have done them in the past. However, we do not know the people doing the kind of research that could lead to a better solution. Do you know anyone we may not have heard about who’s thinking about this?

So, as part of The New York Supply Chain Meetup, and ultimately as part of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation, we will create a partnership network which will help us tackle those sorts of concerns very directly.

The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation is the collaborative, and mutually supportive coalition of grassroots communities focused on technology and innovation in the global supply chain industry. The New York Supply Chain Meetup is its founding chapter.

We wouldn’t have made it this far without the generous support of the following people and organizations;

  • Jessica Lin and Allie Felix from Work-Bench: Who reached out to me even before I had clearly organized my thinking. Allie now runs programming and partnerships at the Embarc Collective. Work-Bench sponsored us by donating space for our events during our first year.
  • Michelle Shen from UPS: UPS supported us by contributing towards food and beverage for our launch last November. Michelle has also been a sounding board for us when we’ve had questions about how large organizations like UPS might think about working with nascent communities like ours.
  • Akshata Philar from SAP.iO. SAP.iO hosted us on alternate months at their office in NYC, providing space as well as food and drink for our members. Her colleague, Kange Kaneene of SAP Ariba has road-tested some of our ideas as we’ve worked on growing during the course of 2018.
  • Matt Turk of FirstMark, and founder of Data Driven NYC, and Jon Zanoff of Techstars, and Founder of Empire Startups, both graciously shared their individual experiences of getting startup communities off the ground in NYC.
  • My former teammates at KEC Ventures/Particle Ventures, indulged me when I told them I had started a supply chain meetup – this is after I had decided to become a supply chain specialist. KEC Ventures/Particle Ventures supported the meetup financially by covering the cost of food and drink for some of #TNYSCM’s events. My teammates gave me ideas about how to get things off the ground, and Susan Belding came to my rescue by helping me figure out some of the event-day logistics as we got going.

Last but not least: Lisa agreed to become my co-founder when I called her in a “panic” on August 24, 2017. We have been learning about supply chain, technology, and innovation together since we first met in June 2016. We are now in the early days of building a specialist supply chain early-stage technology venture capital firm. She shares my obsessive enthusiasm for all things supply chain + technology + innovation. I couldn’t have done this without her help.

We have been lucky to have a large team of volunteer co-organizers: Brian Lindquist, Paula Cadman-Mendoza, Christian McKenzie, Nathan Sjoholm, Tina Kang, Santosh Sankar, Joy Fan, Elizabeth Salcedo, Leslie Cohen, Natan Reddy, and Daniel James. I have a firm belief that nothing of significance can be accomplished without the concerted and significant effort of a team. As I look back on the past year, I am grateful for the contributions from every member of our team. It’s through their efforts that we have been able to accomplish so much with so little.

Looking Forward: Our Plans For 2019

We figured that 2018 would be our experimental year: We have small groups of people who expressed interest in forming communities in Vancouver, Singapore, and Athens over the course of 2018. However, we have deliberately moved slowly in order to allow the chapter that demonstrates the most enthusiasm to get organized first, while we learn the lessons we can from that experience. We expect 2019 to be a year in which The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation grows by launching at least one additional chapter per quarter . . . In other words, I expect that we will have at least 6 active chapters around the world a year from now. Ultimately, our goal is to bring our community together for an annual conference in NYC, starting sometime in 2020.

If you would like to help us make this happen: Consider joining one of the communities we’ve already started, or consider starting one where you live. We can always use more volunteers. We do not yet have a committed sponsor. If you’re a company that wants to discuss becoming a sponsor, let us know. Our contact information is available via our manifesto, and we’re easy to find online.

Forward!

My Supply Chain Credo

About Locus: Locus is a decision-making platform in the supply chain that automates human decisions required to transport a package or a person, between any two points on earth, delivering gains along efficiency, consistency, and transparency in operations. The company’s premier logistics optimisation solutions include route optimisation, real-time tracking of orders, insights and analytics, optimised permanent journey plans and automated shipment sorting.

Update #1: November 8, 2018 at 12:45 to update disclaimer, add link to event page at Locus’ website, and add “About Locus” section.

Update #2: November 9, 2018 at 22:53 to update event links for #TBLRSCM in order to avoid confusing people.

Filed Under: #TNYSCM, Communities, Entrepreneurship, Meetups, Shipping, Startups, Strategy, Supply Chain, Technology, Trucking, Venture Capital Tagged With: #TNYSCM, #TWSCF, Community Building, Early Stage Startups, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Logistics & Supply Chain, Logistics and Supply Chain, Startups, Technology, Venture Capital

The Fashion Supply Chain Is Broken

October 15, 2018 by Brian Laung Aoaeh

By Brian Laung Aoaeh and Lisa Morales-Hellebo

Originally published at www.refashiond.com on October 14, 2018.

Authors’ Note: This is the first in a series of six articles about problems and opportunities in global supply chains, with a focus on the fashion industry. This article frames the problem. The next article will delve into a historical analyses of technological disruption, from the perspective of risks and uncertainties for the fashion industry.

Executive Summary: Recent trends present incumbent companies in the global fashion industry with challenges and opportunities related to innovation in supply chain. In this article, we discuss how a historical top-down approach to business is giving way to an emerging bottom-up approach that is driven by consumer preferences. This is placing stresses on fashion supply chains which the industry can only address by adopting a collective, collaborative, ecosystem-driven approach to innovation.

The fashion supply chain is broken and must be refashioned. This is the conclusion we have come to after studying the issue, starting in 2014.

About The Authors

After 19 years in tech, Lisa Morales-Hellebo founded and launched the New York Fashion Tech Lab in 2014 with Springboard Enterprises and the Partnership Fund for NYC while serving as Executive Director for the first year. She then spent a year traveling to Puerto Rico to visit apparel factories, maker labs, cut-and-sew shops, ateliers, and universities in order to learn about the existing apparel supply chain and the challenges it faces.

Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA spent 10 years in investment research and management, with 2 of those 10 years as the first and only member of the corporate development team at KEC Holdings, a single family office, and 8 of those 10 years as the first member of the small team that built KEC Ventures, an early-stage venture capital investment firm based in New York City. KEC Ventures grew to $98M of AUM across two funds, with 51 investments. Brian was a partner at the fund from its inception till his departure in September 2018.

Our interest in supply chain originated independent of one another. We first met in June 2016, and spent hours talking about supply chain at our first encounter.

After having started thinking about value chains[1] in 2014, by August 2017 Brian had decided to become a specialist early stage investor in supply chain technology after having been a generalist early stage venture capitalist up till that point. So we teamed up and started The New York Supply Chain Meetup: to nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain networks of the future. Driven by our shared enthusiasm for all things supply chain and our belief in what the future of supply chain will resemble, we are now on the verge of launching sister chapters of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation: a collaborative, and mutually supportive coalition of grassroots communities focused on technology and innovation in the global supply chain industry.

In September 2018 we decided to team up to build REFASHIOND; an early-stage venture fund that will invest in the startups creating innovations to make global supply chain networks more efficient, starting with those reinventing the fashion supply chain.

Our Goal: To Catalyse Industry-wide Dialogue & Action

In engaging in the work that has gone into this article, and those that will follow, we hope to start an industry-wide conversation about tangible steps that participants in the fashion industry can take to arrive at a common framing of the problems confronting the industry, and then to find ways to work together to address those problems that can only be solved effectively through collective action. We encourage you to reach out to us if you’d like to discuss any aspects of this work, or if you’d like to collaborate with us in some way. Given our conversations with the industry executives in our network with whom we have the closest relationships we know supply chain, technology, and innovation are topics that every executive management team in the fashion industry is discussing and thinking about to some extent. It is time to start taking collective action to tackle the big issues. Please reach out to us by email;

  • Lisa Morales-Hellebo — lisa@refashiond.com, and
  • Brian Aoaeh — brian@refashiond.com.

A Bit of Historical Perspective

It is easy for outsiders to assume that the history of the fashion industry is completely divorced from that of technological innovation. That is wrong. In fact, the history of fashion, apparel, and textiles can be linked directly to some of the most important inventions of the industrial revolution.[2] A few key examples are the Fly Shuttle Wheel to allow one weaver to do the work of two; the Spinning Jenny, which increased wool mills productivity, the Cotton Gin, Power Loom, yarn Spinning Mule, the first factory, and even materials and textile innovations, like those used in the Mackintosh Raincoat.

Having acknowledged the role technological innovation has played in the history of the fashion industry, it is fair to ask: Has the industry’s more recent history lived up to the technological promise of the current era? That depends. We argue that the fashion industry’s incumbents’ collective investments in the industry’s supply chain have failed to keep pace with changing consumer expectations, expectations that change ever more quickly as advances in digital media and telecommunications unfold and shape consumers’ expectations of when and how to shop.

This is creating challenges for the industry as a trend towards shorter, less complex supply chains appears to be in the early stages of supplanting the long, global, and highly complex supply chains that accompanied globalization and large companies’ insatiable quest to outsource their manufacturing to foreign markets with the lowest combination of fixed and variable costs.

A Definition, And A Reiteration Of The Problem

Throughout this discussion, we will rely on the following definition of supply chain. A supply chain is:

A network of connected and interdependent organisations mutually and cooperatively working together to control, manage and improve the flow of materials and information from suppliers to end users.[3]

To reiterate the problem;

  • First: The fashion and apparel supply chain is broken and must be refashioned.
  • Second: Innovation is happening so fast and is so complicated that there isn’t a single company in the fashion and apparel industry that can reinvent itself quickly enough to take full advantage of new technologies and innovations. Instead, the industry needs to consider taking an industry-wide ecosystem approach to adopting technology and innovation.
  • Third: Because fashion and apparel is the world’s second largest polluting industry, the future of our planet depends on the industry adopting technologies that will accelerate the move towards more economically and environmentally sustainable supply chains.

According to FashionUnited, the global fashion industry is valued at $3 trillion in annual sales, with the United States accounting for approximately $400 billion of the global total. According to the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s Fashion.NYC.2020 report, New York City’s fashion and apparel retailers generate about $15 billion in sales, annually. It is inevitable that an industry of this scale will face supply chain challenges. Yet, as a whole, the industry has been slow to adopt digital technologies to aid in solving the supply chain issues it encounters.

The Current Paradigm

Predicting & Dictating Trends: Style and fashion has historically been dictated by a top-down system of influential designers and tastemakers who set the standards for beauty, taste, trend, and style. The rise of social media has created an unprecedented shift from top-down to bottom-up style and trend mandates, where the designers and tastemakers are now looking to street style, emerging brands, and influencers for inspiration and ideas about what consumers want. A team of trend-trackers monitors global social phenomena, hoping to observe the behavior of youth tribes and other emergent youth-driven phenomena that may be transformed into global fashion trends. The trend-trackers job is to record such phenomena and supply the information to industry clients, while also advising on brand strategies, developing marketing tactics, organizing events, and even providing designers and stylists who may design an entire collection for a brand. This process can take anywhere from 6 to 18 months. By the time it is complete the trend may already be out of style, and the result may be unsold inventory.

Sourcing & Materials[4]: Apparel sourcing is becoming more challenging due to; rising labor costs in foreign markets, increasing compliance costs due to alleged and documented labor abuses in far flung apparel manufacturing hubs in developing countries, and increasing consumer preference for sustainable methods of production as the effects of climate change come into stark relief.

Design: Designers work very closely with trend-trackers to anticipate consumer tastes, and to design clothes that they expect consumers to buy. However, by the time new designs find their way into retail showrooms, consumer tastes may have evolved away from the trend that inspired the designs.

Manufacturing: Apparel manufacturing is largely labor-intensive, concentrated in low-wage countries that are far away from most major fashion and apparel consumer markets, and subject to abuses such as the use of child-labor and slave labor. The process is inefficient, slow, and prone to quality control issues.

Distribution: Consumer behavior is forcing a convergence towards omni-channel and multi-channel distribution with increasingly decentralized warehousing, technological complexity arising from multi-platform selling channels, last-mile logistics, and automation all playing parts in making todays apparel supply chain more complex to manage than in the past.

Sales & Marketing: Technology has provided numerous distractions and shortened attention spans, making it more difficult for fashion and apparel brands to cut through the noise long enough to generate sales. Technology is also making it much easier for consumers to engage in comparison-shopping before they make a purchase.

With the proliferation and popularity of on-demand business models, consumers’ shopping behavior is shifting away from norms the global fashion and apparel industry is accustomed to and can control, and towards norms that favor consumers’ preferences. This shift is resulting in the hyper-segmentation of consumers who used to be seen as too “niche” to address because expectations built around sales volume didn’t make sense, or the industry deemed certain consumer segments as not meeting the standards for beauty imposed from the top. Plus-sized clothing is only recently being accepted as the untapped opportunity that it has always been in the United States where the average woman is a size 16, according to Racked.com’s article, “Size by the Numbers.”

Factors Driving Industry Profitability

Below, we highlight a few measures of profitability. There are others, but for brevity we have chosen to focus on a handful. To do analyses of this sort it is most useful to analyze trends over time for a company, and then compare that data on a relative basis to data for the industry as a whole or to data for a designated subset of peers.

Gross Profit Margin: Gross profit is measured by deducting cost of goods sold from revenue, and gross profit margin is calculated by taking the ratio of gross profit to revenue. Gross profit and gross profit margin reflect a company’s pricing power, the power exerted by its suppliers as reflected in its cost of goods sold, as well as the impact of competition.

Operating Profit Margin: This is also often referred to as EBIT Margin. It is calculated as the ratio of operating profit to revenue, with operating profit obtained by subtracting operating expenses from gross profit. Operating profit margin is a measure of how variable costs affect a company’s profit margins, and can be used to assess how much control a company has over the costs associated with running its operations. One-time charges should be excluded from the calculation. In the fashion and apparel industry generally, we expect that IT infrastructure investments that are required to operate in a multi-platform and multi-channel environment, increasing freight and supply chain logistics costs, as well as labor inflation in foreign markets will each have a negative impact on operating profit margins. Moreover, as we have previously stated, the trend towards increasing marketing expenditure in order to hold consumers’ attention long enough to generate sales will also have a negative impact on operating profit margins.

Return on Equity (ROE): A firm’s return on equity is calculated as the ratio of net income to average shareholders’ equity. It is a measure of how effective a company is at converting its assets into earnings growth. For example, if ROE is 15%, a dollar invested generates 15 cents of assets for the business. ROE is affected by revenue, selling and general administration expenses, taxation, operating efficiency, and inventory management. Management may use share buybacks to offset declines in ROE.

Inventory Turnover: The inventory turnover ratio is an efficiency ratio that measures a company’s effectiveness at generating sales from the inventory it holds. It is calculated as the ratio of cost of goods sold to average inventory. Inventory turnover ratio is affected by the rate at which sales occurs, which, in-turn is dependent on consumer sentiment. Companies in the industry often overestimate how much to stock in inventory, leading to steep wholesale and retail discounts. In the worst cases, inventory that cannot be sold is destroyed.

Earnings Per Share (EPS) Growth: Earnings per share is calculated as a company’s net income minus its preferred dividend payments, divided by the weighted average number of shares outstanding. Generally, earnings per share is affected most negatively by factors that reduce net income. As the industry generates increasing proportions of sales from the BRIC nations and other emerging markets, foreign exchange risk imposes negative pressures on revenues and net income. It is important to note that companies can easily manipulate earnings per share growth by instituting share-buyback programs.

Inventory Forecasting & Management Issues

The issues at play here are illustrated best in H&M, a Fashion Giant, Has a Problem: $4.3 Billion in Unsold Clothes a story by Elizabeth Paton that appeared in The New York Times on March 27, 2018. The article highlights a drop in quarterly sales accompanied by an increase in unsold inventory. According to the article, H&M’s customers have either moved to doing more of their shopping online or have gone seeking lower-cost offerings elsewhere. This is ironic since H&M has been a fast fashion stalwart for two decades during which it has experienced massive growth. The article describes some of the supply chain challenges H&M is grappling with, and how the company intends to respond: “H&M has insisted it has a plan, saying it would slash prices to reduce the stockpile and slow its expansion in stores. It said it hoped its online business would expand 25 percent this year.”

Lack of Efficient & Agile Supply Chain

What happens when the information or forecasts at one node in a company’s supply chain is incorrect? Incorrect information at any node in a supply chain creates a phenomena wherein the flow of goods is unexpectedly distorted over time due to differences between actual demand by end-consumers and forecasted demand by suppliers.

The phenomenon is known as the bullwhip effect, and it arises because demand signals are incorrectly amplified as information is transmitted along the supply chain. The bullwhip effect arises due to; poor coordination along the various nodes in a supply chain, and rational decisions that are made by supply chain participants using the best information at their disposal. The distortions are made worse because of the uncertainty that accompanies activities at every point in a company’s supply chain. The general consequence of the bullwhip effect is poor customer service.

How might a fashion company counteract the bullwhip effect? First, some companies are reversing the effects of globalization by creating the cyber-physical infrastructure required to enable networks of small-batch, quick-turn, and localized manufacturing hubs in order to make it possible to manufacture goods for consumers in the key markets of Western Europe and North America in small batches, closer to the ultimate end-consumers. Second, some companies are developing and using more advanced software for predictive analytics. Advances in artificial intelligence make this a much more feasible proposition today than at any time in the past. Third, some companies are improving the real-time flow of predictive information and data between key nodes in the supply chain. This allows every participant in the supply chain to anticipate future demand more accurately, and to stock raw-materials inventory more efficiently. We will discuss the technology trends that are making solutions to this problem possible in the fifth article in this series.

Conclusion: A Race To The Bottom?

Prevailing economic, social, and technological trends point towards a challenging future for the global fashion industry. Incumbent players may choose to operate with a business-as-usual attitude. Alternatively, they may opt to address the industry’s supply chain challenges by adopting an ecosystem-based approach to solving the problems that are too big for a single company to solve on its own. This will require adopting a systems-thinking approach to how companies in the industry are run, and how they view their relationships with one another.

The companies that win will adapt to the changing landscape by building on their historical strengths, while simultaneously developing new supply chain capabilities through partnerships with former sworn rivals or relatively new technology startups.

The companies that lose will remain entrenched in the old ways of doing business, following one extreme round of price-cuts by even more extreme discounts. This race to the bottom will be exacerbated by additional measures like reducing the number of brick-and-mortar locations — measures that do nothing to solve the fundamental problem: The fashion and apparel supply chain is broken and must be refashioned.

Next in the series: Where Will Technological Disruption In Fashion Come From?

About REFASHIOND Ventures: REFASHIOND Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm that is being formed in order to invest in early-stage startups creating innovations that make global supply chains more efficient, starting with startups at the intersection of fashion and retail.

About REFASHIOND CO:LAB: REFASHIOND CO:LAB is the systems design, research, and strategy consulting arm of REFASHIOND Ventures. REFASHIOND CO:LAB helps organizations create competitive advantage through supply chain innovation.

________________

[1] One may think of a value chain as a company’s internal supply chain. The term is used to distinguish internal operations from operations that rely on a network of external parties.

[2] McFadden, Christopher. “27 Industrial Revolution Inventions That Changed the World.” Interesting Engineering, 18 Feb. 2018, interestingengineering.com/27-inventions-of-the-industrial-revolution-that-changed-the-world. Accessed Oct. 12, 2018

[3] Christopher, Martin. Logistics & Supply Chain Management: Creating Value-Adding Networks. 4th ed., Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2011.

[4] Berg, Achim, and Saskia Hedrich. “What’s next in Apparel Sourcing?” McKinsey & Company, May 2014, www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/whats-next-in-apparel-sourcing. Accessed Oct. 8, 2018.


Originally published at www.refashiond.com on October 14, 2018.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Industry Study, Innovation, Investment Themes, Investment Thesis, Long Read, Supply Chain, Technology, Venture Capital Tagged With: Apparel, Entrepreneurship, Fashion, Innovation, Logistics & Supply Chain, Logistics and Supply Chain, Long Read, Luxury Goods, REFASHIOND, Startups, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital

#CountDown: 11 Days To #TNYSCM06: Convergence Across the New Apparel Supply Chain

May 13, 2018 by Brian Laung Aoaeh

A cross-section of the audience at #TNYSCM #02, January 2018.

We’re now just a little over a week away from The New York Supply Chain Meetup’s sixth gathering. The purpose of this post is to outline our plans for that event, and preview what we expect to do in June. We’re still in the early days of building this community, so much of this is subject to change, especially as we go through the process of recruiting sponsors.

#WorkInProgress: Before the preview, however, some news by way of an update; In the 8 months or so since I decided I wanted to hang out with “my people” at a meetup in NYC that focuses on supply chain, technology, and innovation, The New York Supply Chain Meetup (#TNYSCM) has grown to more than 1,000 members. #TNYSCM is the originating chapter of The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation – a global network of meetups focused on supply chain, technology, and innovation. We are currently in the process of establishing The Singapore Supply Chain Meetup (#TSGSCM) and The Vancouver Supply Chain Meetup (#TVRSCM). We are exploring chapters in Australia and Europe. It’s early days for The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation . . . so there isn’t much to report, except; We’re working on it.

Our Mission

To nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain networks of the future – starting in NYC.

Our Mantra

The past ran on supply chains. The present runs on supply chains. The future will run on supply chains. The world is a supply chain.™

We are actively recruiting corporate sponsors with ambitions that match ours. If you’d like to hear more, please reach us through our website or another social channel.

The New York Supply Chain Meetup is powered by Particle Ventures, a seed-stage fund in New York City that invests in Supply Chain & Industrial Intelligence. Particle is built by the same team that launched KEC Ventures.

#TNYSCM06 is sponsored by SAP.iO, a venture studio, a venture fund, and a startup foundry that helps innovators inside and outside of SAP build products, find customers, and change industries.

[maxbutton id=”1″ ]

Logistical Details: #TNYSCM06

  • Date: Thursday, May 24, 2018
  • Time: 17:30 – 21:00
  • Location: SAP America, 10 Hudson Yards, 48th Floor, New York, NY. Please register by following the link above.

#TNYSCM06 will feature a showcase and a panel discussion.

Agenda

5:30 PM – 5:55 PM: Pre-event Networking
5:55 PM – 6:00 PM: Welcome Remarks (#TNYSCM, SAP.iO)
6:00 PM – 7:15 PM: Showcase (85 minutes / 10 minutes + 4 minutes Q&A each)
7:15 PM – 7:20 PM: Bio Break
7:20 PM – 8:25 PM: Panel Discussion (50 minutes), Q&A (10 minutes) 8:25 PM – 8:30 PM Closing Remarks

MC: Christian McKenzie (@Xian_Mckenzie)

Startup Showcase

Our showcase presenters are;

  1. Trendalytics
  2. Case Equity Partners
  3. Sewbo
  4. Fuse Inventory
  5. Bolt Threads
  6. Loomia

Panel

The panel will be moderated by Lisa Morales-Hellebo. Lisa is #TNYSCM’s co-founder, she is also building REFASHIOND, a fund that will play a pioneering role in reinventing the global fashion and apparel retail industry.

Our panelists are;

  1. Joe Sartre, Partner, Bleu Capital
  2. Leslie Harwell, Managing Partner, Alante Capital
  3. Nathan Cray, VP, Integrations & Operations, ALDO Group
  4. John Silverstein, VP, Operations, CGS (Computer Generated Solutions)

Preview — #TNYSCM  in June

Here is what our team of organizers is working on for June.

  • June 21: A Sourcing 101 workshop for startups building physical products. More details coming soon via our meetup page. So sign up there in order to be among the first to know when we announce the details. We are working on an event title, but all the other details are complete.

Other Upcoming Supply Chain Events

  • Transparency18: This is the flagship event series started by the founders of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance. It follows BiTA’s Spring Symposium, a members only event that occurs on May 21, 2018. I will attend both days of Transparency 18 on May 22 and May 23.

[maxbutton id=”1″ ]

 

Filed Under: #TNYSCM, Communities, Innovation, Investment Analysis, Investment Themes, Investment Thesis, Meetups, Startups, Supply Chain, Technology, Venture Capital Tagged With: #TNYSCM, #TSGSCM, #TVRSCM, #TWSCF, Community Building, Early Stage Startups, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Logistics & Supply Chain, Logistics and Supply Chain, Technology, Venture Capital

#CountDown: 9 Days To #TNYSCM05 – Bringing The Blockchain From The Lab And Into The Real World

April 16, 2018 by Brian Laung Aoaeh

A cross-section of the audience at #TNYSCM02, January 2018.

We’re now just a little over a week away from The New York Supply Chain Meetup’s fifth gathering. The purpose of this post is to outline our plans for that event, and preview what we expect to do in May and June 2018 . . . We’re still in the early days of building this community, so much of this is subject to change, especially as we go through the process of recruiting sponsors.

Our Mission

To nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain networks of the future – starting in NYC.

The New York Supply Chain Meetup is powered by Particle Ventures, a seed-stage fund in New York City that invests in Supply Chain & Industrial Intelligence. Particle is built by the same team that launched KEC Ventures.

#TNYSCM05 is sponsored by Work-Bench, an enterprise technology focused venture capital fund in New York City. Work-Bench supports early go-to-market enterprise startups and helps scale customer acquisition with community, workspace, and corporate engagement.

 

[maxbutton id=”1″]

 

Logistical Details: #TNYSCM05

  • Date: Thursday, April 26, 2018
  • Time: 17:30 – 20:30
  • Location: Work-Bench, 110 5th Avenue – 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011. Please register by following the link above.

#TNYSCM will feature two panel discussions and a keynote presentation. The keynote presentation happens between the panel discussions.

Agenda

5:30 PM – 5:55 PM: Pre-event Networking
5:55 PM – 6:00 PM: Welcome Remarks (#TNYSCM, Work-Bench)
6:00 PM – 6:50 PM: Panel Discussion I (40 minutes), Q&A (10 minutes)
6:50 PM – 7:30 PM: Keynote Presentation (30 Minutes), Q&A (10 Minutes) 7:30 PM – 7:35 PM: Break
7:35 PM – 8:25 PM: Panel Discussion II (40 minutes), Q&A (10 minutes) 8:25 PM – 8:30 PM: Closing Remarks

MC: Daniel James (@daniel_r_james)

The panel discussions will be moderated by Rob Bailey (@RMB). Rob is CEO & Co-founder of MState (@mstatelabs), a growth lab for enterprise blockchain startups. Rob’s experience is in scaling enterprise startups – Kustomer, DataSift, SimpleGeo, and eScene, which he scaled from pre-launch to fast-growing revenue between $1M and $25M. In addition he has raised, or helped raise, $200M in venture capital. My friends Ed Sim and Eliot Durbin of BOLDstart ventures are each a co-founder and advisor respectively of MState.

The important and difficult job is never to find the right answer; it is to find the right question.
– Peter Drucker

Panel Discussion I

Tanjila Islam is the CEO and Founder of TigerTrade, an international B2B marketplace and supply chain solution for companies buying and selling excess inventory worldwide. TigerTrade’s customers include the largest off-price chains and brand outlets in the US, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Australia. As an end-to-end solution for the global trade of excess inventory, TigerTrade manages the entire supply chain, from vendor verification merchandise authentication to payments and shipping. Prior to founding TigerTrade, Tanjila was an international trade and economic development expert, designing and managing large-scale economic growth and trade promotion programs in developing countries, including Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh for organizations such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where she teaches courses on International Trade, International Business Transactions, and Global Sourcing. Tanjila is an avid traveler and adventurer and speaks Arabic, Bengali, English, and Spanish. She holds a B.A. from Columbia College, and M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from NYU, and an M.I.A. in International Economic Policy from the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.

Todd Scott is VP Blockchain Global Trade at IBM. In this capacity Todd has the responsibility for the Go To Market strategy and execution for the JV between IBM and Maesrk. He also owns building the new sales, enablement and operations capability for IBM as the main reseller channel for the JV. Prior to his current role Todd was the IBM VP and Managing Director for PepsiCo, and Southwest Airlines. Todd’s present role caps a 30-year IBM career that began as a client executive in Greenville, South Carolina. He then moved to the Mid-Atlantic area where he managed a team of sales and technical staff who provided integrated solutions for mid-market customers in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. In addition, during his tenure at IBM, Todd has managed regional sales teams covering various components of IBM’s business including Systems Technology Group, Channels Group, Media and Entertainment, Retail and Consumer Products. One thing he accomplishes in each of his roles is a clear understanding of the customer’s business. This enables him and his team to make credible and highly valued recommendations. Those recommendations included global SAP implementations to the design of new business operating models to implementing IT data center and business process outsourcing initiatives. Todd attended Davidson College and graduated in 1987 with a B.A. in Political Science.  At Davidson, Todd lettered every year as a basketball player and was a member of the 1986 team that participated in the Men’s Division One NCAA tournament. He lives in North Texas with his wife Norma. They have four children.

Nolan Bauerle is Director of Research at CoinDesk. Before joining Coindesk in early 2016 he conducted research for the Senate Banking Committee in Canada. He is a serial entrepreneur, a techno-optimist, and also writes science fiction. He holds an LLB from Université Laval.

Scott Carlson (@Scottophile) is Chief Information Security Officer at Sweetbridge. He is using his 20 years of experience gained from position at Cargill, Schwab, PayPal, and elsewhere to guide security policy as Sweetbridge transforms how the world thinks about asset backed loans, supply chain finance, and wealth building. Scott’s focus in the past has included Information Security, Data Centers, Cloud Virtualization, and Systems Architecture. He is a top-rated speaker and contributor to RSA, Gartner, Kuppinger Cole, OpenStack, and VMworld. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Moorhead State College.

 

[maxbutton id=”1″]

 

Keynote Presentation

Some researchers argue that building on existing blockchain and DLT frameworks is a mistake, because they are fundamentally unsuited for large-scale, real world applications. They argue that new DLT frameworks must be built to meet real-world demands. Our keynote speaker will offer one perspective on that topic.

Silvio Micali (@silviomicali) is the Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He has been a member of faculty of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT since 1983. His research interests are cryptography, zero knowledge, pseudo-random generation, secure protocols, mechanism design, and distributed ledgers. Silvio is the recipient of the Turing Award in Computer Science, the Gödel Prize in Theoretical Computer Science, and the RSA prize in Cryptography. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academia dei Lincei. His presentation will focus on Algorand (@Algorand) a scalable, secure, and decentralized digital currency and transactions platform. Algorand recently announced that it has raised $4 Million in a seed round of venture capital funding.

 

[maxbutton id=”1″]

 

Panel Discussion II

Samantha Radocchia (@SamRadocchia) currently serves as Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Chronicled (@ChronicledInc) which leverages blockchain and IoT technologies to deliver smart supply chain solutions. Prior to serving as CMO, she led product development and architecture as Chief Product Officer for 3 years. She is also a Co-Founder at Better Kinds, which fosters everyday practices of conscious consumption and responsible production by empowering people to make better micro decisions that lead to better macro results. Recently named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List, Sam is a thought leader in the blockchain sector and the founder of Machine Elf Consulting, an emerging technology and product development consulting firm based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 2012, the firm focuses on blockchain, IoT, and additive manufacturing advisement to enterprises and individuals. Sam has an entrepreneurial background that spans several technology companies. She became interested in blockchain as a mechanism to facilitate trusted interoperability, a challenge she sought to overcome leading her first two companies. Before joining Chronicled and Better Kinds, she previously served as the CTO of Huckabuy, a consumer product metadata aggregator and standards company and Founder and CEO of Stunable, a provider of inventory management and marketing software utilized by consumer products brands to integrate e-commerce sales with cross-channel interactions. Sam attended Colgate University, earning a BA in English and Anthropology – specializing in Critical Theory, Linguistics, and Symbolic Systems. She continued her academic pursuits at King’s College in London where she studied Management & Entrepreneurship and at the London School of Economics where she studied organizational culture. Samantha graduated from NYU Summa Cum Laude in the spring of 2013 with a MA in Media, Culture, and Communications, focusing on the socio-political analysis of emerging technologies. On the personal side, Samantha is an avid risk-taker and daredevil, attaining her pilot’s license at the age of 17 and accumulating over 700 jumps as a competitive skydiver.

Alex Mashinsky (@Mashinsky) is CEO and Founder of the Celsius Network. He is also one of the inventors of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) with a foundational patent dating back to 1994 and is now working on MOIP (Money Over Internet Protocol) technology. Over 35 patents have been issued to Alex, relating to exchanges, VOIP protocols, messaging and communication. Alex is a serial entrepreneur and founder of seven New York City-based startups, raising more than $1 billion and exiting over $3 billion. Alex founded two of New York City’s top 10 venture-backed exits since 2000: Arbinet, with a 2004 IPO that had a market capitalization of over $750 million; and Transit Wireless, valued at $1.2 billion. Alex has received numerous awards for innovation, including being nominated twice by E&Y as ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’, in 2002 & 2011; Crain’s 2010 Top Entrepreneur; the prestigious 2000 Albert Einstein Technology medal; and the Technology Foresight Award for Innovation (presented in Geneva at Telecom 99). As one of the pioneers of web-based exchanges, Alex authored patents that cover aspects of the Smart Grid, ad exchanges, Twitter, Skype, App Store, Net ix streaming concept and many other popular web companies. Additionally, Arbinet’s fundraising story was featured as a case study in 2001 by Harvard Business School. Alex holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from The Open University of Israel, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Tel Aviv University.

Juan-Jose Ruiz is a global Strategy and Business Development executive with experience in technology, financial services, and media/information industries. He is currently leading IBM’s Blockchain business development efforts across several verticals with particular focus on Global Commerce. Prior to IBM he filled a number of strategic and operational roles at Thomson Reuters based in Europe, Asia, and the Americas including leading Strategic Alliances efforts for the Scientific division worldwide. Juanjo started his professional career as a software engineer in Spain developing some of the early web-based vertical b2b marketplaces. He holds a Computer Science and Engineering degree from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, an MBA from Mannheim Business School, and got his Chartered Financial Analyst accreditation from the CFA Institute. In his free time, Juanjo is an active start-up mentor in the NYC area and volunteers in local youth sport organizations.

Sharad Malhautra is a Senior Manager at EY Enterprise Blockchain, where he leads digital transformation initiatives for enterprise clients focused on digital and emerging technologies, specifically Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies. He has gained more than 13 years of experience spanning engagements in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Among other accomplishments; He evangelized and led the sales and engagement for the first Blockchain Advisory Project for EY globally, he led a blockchain engagement on price verification and negotiation for a leading CPG company, and led an event-management track-and-trace Blockchain engagement  to enable visibility across the network for a leading logistics company. Over the years he has earned a reputation for; leading complex global business initiatives, being a trusted c-suite advisor on emergent technologies, a willingness to accept a high degree of uncertainty, and successfully scaling businesses. He often speaks at industry events on Enterprise Blockchain. Sharad holds a B.E. in Computer Engineering from the University of Pune, and an MBA from Rice University. Beyond his work at EY, he is a strategic advisor to BillionBricks, a non-profit organization that works with homeless and displaced communities in India and South East Asia.

 

[maxbutton id=”1″]

 

He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.
– Confucius

Preview — #TNYSCM  in May & June

Here is what our team of organizers is working on, between now and June.

  • May 24: A showcase of startups in Fashion, Apparel, and Retail supply chain. THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG! I am excited about the plans our team is putting together. Don’t wait. You can sign up for #TNYSCM06: Convergence Across the New Fashion & Apparel Supply Chain.
  • June 21: A Sourcing 101 workshop for startups building physical products. More details coming soon. I have been told; “THIS IS GOING TO BE BIGGER!”

Other Upcoming Supply Chain Events

  • Transparency18: This is the flagship event series started by the founders of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance. It follows BiTA’s Spring Symposium, a members only event that occurs on May 21, 2018. I will attend both days of Transparency 18 on May 22 and May 23.

Filed Under: #TNYSCM, Case Studies, Communities, Computer Science, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Mathematics, Supply Chain, Technology, Venture Capital Tagged With: #TNYSCM, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Distributed Ledger Technologies, Early Stage Startups, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Logistics & Supply Chain, Logistics and Supply Chain, Technology, Venture Capital

#CountDown: 3 Days to #TNYSCM04 – Supply Chain & Artificial Intelligence

March 11, 2018 by Brian Laung Aoaeh

A cross-section of the audience at #TNYSCM #02, January 2018.

We’re now less than a week from The New York Supply Chain Meetup’s fourth gathering. The purpose of this post is to outline our plans for that event, and preview what we expect to do between now and June 2018 . . . We’re still in the early days of building this community, so much of this is subject to change, especially as we go through the process of recruiting sponsors.

Our Mission

To nurture and grow the world’s foremost open, global, multidisciplinary community of people devoted to building the supply chain networks of the future – starting in NYC.

Become a coporate sponsor. Email me at: brian@tnyscm.com for more details about our vision, and the team that’s working behind the scenes to build this community.

The New York Supply Chain Meetup is powered by Particle Ventures, a seed-stage fund based in NYC that invests in Supply Chain & Industrial Intelligence. Particle is built by the same team that launched KEC Ventures.

Logistical Details: #TNYSCM #04

  • Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018.
  • Time: 17:30–20:30
  • Location: SAP America, 10 Hudson Yards - 48th Floor, New York, NY. An organizer will be downstairs, at the security counter.

#TNYSCM #04 combines a Lightning Talk, a "Fire-Side" Chat, and a Showcase. It is sponsored by SAP.iO and co-hosted by The New York Supply Chain Meetup and the New York City Bots and Artificial Intelligence Meetup.

SAP.iO helps innovators inside and outside of SAP build products, find customers, and change industries.

REGISTER HERE!

Agenda

5:30 PM - 5:55 PM: Pre-event Networking
5:55 PM - 6:00 PM: Welcome Remarks (#TNYSCM, NYCBAI, SAP.iO)
6:00 PM - 6:30 PM: Lightning Talk (15 Minutes), Q&A (15 Minutes)
6:30 PM - 6:50 PM: "Fire-Side" Chat (15 Minutes), Q&A (15 Minutes)
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM: Showcase (10 Minutes, with 5 Minutes of Q&A, each)
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM: Closing Remarks, Post-event Networking

Lightning Talk: Evolution & Use Cases of Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain, From An Industry And SAP Point of View

David Judge (@DHJudge) is Vice President of Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning products at SAP. He guides product strategy and drives increased market awareness for SAP Leonardo.

Geoff Maxwell (@geofflm) is Global Head of Business Strategy and Execution Analytics and SAP Leonardo. He is responsible for go to market strategy for SAP’s portfolio of Leonardo solutions.

Fireside Chat: The Future of AI-Driven Transformation in Retail Supply Chains, and in Government Agencies.

José P. Chan is VP Business Development for Celect, a predictive analytics firm founded out of MIT, which helps retailers optimize their inventory portfolios in stores and across the supply chain. Previously, he worked internationally in retail for over two decades with LVMH, Richemont and Roberto Cavalli. José has held senior management positions and has extensive experience in buying, marketing, merchandising, planning, and has run retail store networks. He holds an SM from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MBA from University of Rochester, a BS from Cornell University and an AAS from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Sameer Anand is a Partner with A.T. Kearney’s operations practice with over 16 years of experience in management consulting. He advises clients on large scale transformations to drive step changes in productivity with an underpinning of analytics and digital across CPG, retail, industrial products, and high tech industries. His areas of expertise include consumer products, manufacturing, supply chain planning, sourcing, bracket pricing, logistics, and advanced analytics. Prior to joining A.T. Kearney, Sameer worked at Deloitte and American Airlines.

REGISTER HERE!

Showcase Presentations

At #TNYSCM #04 we'll have 3 startups talk about the artificial intelligence-driven products they are building for the supply chain logistics industry. They will appear in the following order;

ClearMetal (@ClearMetalInc): Founded in 2014, and based in San Francisco, CA, ClearMetal provides predictive data and analytics for the supply chain logistics industry, enabling its customers to unlock increased efficiencies in global trade as ClearMetal enables them to solve complex problems using a data-driven approach. According to CrunchBase and CBInsights ClearMetal has raised $12M over two rounds of financing, most recently raising $9.0M in its Series A financing which was led by Innovation Endeavors. SAP.iO is an investor in ClearMetal.

Wise Systems (@goWiseSystems): Founded in 2014, and based in Cambridge, MA,  Wise Systems develops route-optimization software that schedules last-mile delivery truck drivers while considering multiple constraints like customer time windows, traffic, and service time. Wise automatically dispatches schedules to drivers and the software recalculates and updates schedules in real-time as things change in real-time. According to CrunchBase and CBInsights, Wise Systems has raised $1.1M in seed capital. Dynamo Accelerator is an investor in Wise Systems. Santosh Sankar, a co-organizer of The New York Supply Chain Meetup, is also a co-founder & director of Dynamo.

Optimal Dynamics: Based in Princeton, NJ, Optimal Dynamics brings AI to the trucking industry based on over 30 years of academic research and development centered on the use of Computational Stochastic Optimization and Learning in solving problems related to dynamic assignment problems in transportation and logistics. Optimal Dynamics recently raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding.

REGISTER HERE!

Preview — #TNYSCM  in April, May, June

Here is what our team of organizers is working on, between now and June.

  • April 26: A panel discussion and keynote presentation, focused on the issues that have kept blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies in the lab and out of the real world. The keynote presentation is by Silvio Micali, he will talk about his work creating Algorand. THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG!
  • May 24: A showcase of startups in Fashion, Apparel, and Retail supply chain. THIS IS GOING TO BE BIG!
  • June 21: A Sourcing 101 workshop for startups building physical products.

Other "Upcoming" Supply Chain Events

  • TPM2018: Is now behind us. It was awesome. Read my blog post about it here: #TPM2018: The Woodstock Of International Container Shipping & Logistics
  • Maritime Global Technologies: Reverse Pitch on March 15, 2018 from 09:30–12:30. MGTIC is an initiative of SUNY Maritime College to build a global maritime technology innovation hub by bringing together all that the New York City metro-region has to offer entrepreneurs building software for the global shipping and maritime logistics market. I’m a member of the advisory board and have previously blogged about it here and here. I will be there. Say hello, if we've never met before
  • Transparency18: This is the flagship event series started by the founders of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance. It follows BiTA’s Spring Symposium, a members only event that occurs on May 21, 2018. I will attend both days of Transparency 18 May 22 and May 23.

Filed Under: #TNYSCM, Co-Founder Stories, Communities, Customer Development, Entrepreneurship, Investment Themes, Investment Thesis, Sales and Marketing, Shipping, Supply Chain, Technology, Trucking, Venture Capital Tagged With: #TNYSCM, Business Models, Business Strategy, Community Building, Early Stage Startups, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Logistics & Supply Chain, Logistics and Supply Chain, Startup Communities, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital

#TPM2018: The Woodstock Of International Container Shipping & Logistics

March 11, 2018 by Brian Laung Aoaeh

I’m posing with the TPM2018 Signage in the Speaker Ready Room at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, CA.

Notes:

  1. This blog post represents my opinions only. It does not represent the opinions of my teammates at Particle Ventures (formerly known as KEC Ventures), nor does it represent the opinions of any one at Journal of Commerce, JOC.com, JOC Events, IHS Markit or any related entities therein. It also does not represent the opinions of any of the people I mention specifically.
  2. Particle Ventures is not an investor in any of the startups highlighted in this post.

I have not been shy about telling people how much I hate travelling, and how much I hate big conferences. So, it takes a lot to persuade me to travel in order to attend a big conference. This year, I am happy I broke my own rules in order to attend TPM 2018.

What is TPM? TPM stands for Trans-Pacific Maritime . . . and TPM2018 is the 18th successive annual instalment of the conference. I have not read an official history of TPM, but from what I have gathered it began as the brainchild of Peter Tirschwell, Senior Director of Editorial Content at IHS Markit and a few of his teammates and colleagues at IHS Markit and Journal of Commerce. Early last year, after one of my conversations with Fauad Shariff from CoLoadX he said to me “You need to attend TPM. You’d get a lot out of it.” I had just published a needlessly long blog post; Industry Study: Ocean Freight Shipping (#Startups).

Early this year, Peter emailed me to ask if I’d consider moderating an Innovation Jam at TPM. We had previously met in September 2017, while I was at IHS Markit in Manhattan, NY visiting Daniel James who also works at IHS Markit. Given my experience at CMA2017, and how much more I’d learned about supply chain in general, and shipping in particular since February 2016, I knew I wanted to see what TPM is all about. So, after talking it over with my teammates at Particle Ventures, I said “yes”.

I have always believed that seed-stage VCs should spend as much time learning about industries in which they intend to invest. Some of that learning comes from reading books, media articles, and research articles. Some of that also involves speaking with individuals who actually work within the industry. Another avenue to learning about an industry is attending industry conferences, because conferences allow you to get a sense of the community or communities that come together to makeup the industry. Done well, conferences enable you to learn about trends and issues of concern within the industry, and simultaneously meet individuals for on-on-one conversations.

Context – Who Am I? What did I Expect?

I am a partner at Particle Ventures, a seed-stage venture fund based in New York City that invests in technology startups with a focus on Supply Chain & Industrial Intelligence. Our team at Particle believes the greatest technological shift of our time is happening at the intersection of data and heavy industry. Particle is built by the same team that built KEC Ventures.

Together with a team of co-organizers, I also founded The New York Supply Chain Meetup in August 2017 – to my mind, a logical next step in my evolution as a VC developing a specialty in supply chain and industrial intelligence; I wanted to hangout with people who think obsessively about software, global supply chains, and innovation. We’re building multidisciplinary community to bring techies and supply chain professionals together to pursue ways to enable innovations that will lead to the supply chain networks of the future. We expect to launch a website soon. Stay tuned!

As a result of my background, it is very likely my interpretation of things will seem strange. It will also often be wrong. When I am wrong, I hope you’ll let me know, and tell me how to correct my knowledge. If you are in the shipping industry and want to connect, or if you are a startup creating a new product for the supply chain industry . . . I am easy to find online. Don’t hesitate to connect.

To say TPM2018 met my expectations would be an understatement . . . It blew expectations completely out of the water. Here’s my recap.

Sunday, March 4

I thought it would be helpful to attend the Editorial Luncheon, because I find what journalists do to be similar to what early stage VCs do in some respects. So I wanted some insight into how journalists who cover container shipping and international logistics are thinking about the industry. The luncheon was phenomenal . . . I told someone after it was over that if I’d been told that was it, we all had to go back home because TPM2018 had been cancelled, I still would have felt the trip was absolutely worth it.

I know, I know . . . You’d like to know more details. Sorry. That conversation was off the record.

Next, I had coffee with Chayenne Wiskerske. Chayenne is a managing director responsible for sales and management at Wiskerske Onions, a family run business that has existed since 1933. She’s the 4th generation of her family to go into the business. Wiskerske Onions is a Dutch company that exports onions to 110 markets, and has a network of growers in 23 countries. We talked about many things, including

  1. The use of distributed ledger technologies and digital tokens as a way to keep track of produce in the supply chain with transparency and visibility, but just as important,
  2. As an alternative to existing banking infrastructure in situations where multinational corporations like Wiskerske Onions encounter foreign currency risk due to regulations that severely limit how much foreign currency they can transfer out of countries in which they do business around the world.

Monday, March 5

I was up way too early on Monday, March 5, 2018 . . . I decided to head to the Long Beach Convention Center before sunrise on Monday, March 5, 2018.

I started my morning by meeting with Christy Coffey, a cybersecurity collaboration advocate, computer scientist, and inventor. She currently serves as the VP of Member Services for the Maritime & Port Security Information Sharing and Analysis Organization (MPS-ISAO). We talked about trends in cybersecurity especially as it relates to maritime shipping and port operations. I am interested in how early stage cybersecurity startups can collaborate with the maritime shipping industry, so meeting Christy was one step towards helping me begin to get some ideas about how channels of communication may be enabled between cybersecurity startup founders and people responsible for increasing the maritime industry’s cybersecurity preparedness. This also one area of focus for the Maritime Global Technologies Innovation Center at SUNY Maritime College, which I have been helping get off the ground.

With Christy Coffey of MPS-ISAO, after we’d been talking about cybersecurity and maritime operations – port and vessel operations, at the Long Beach Convention Center on Monday, March 5, 2018.

The morning’s program began with welcome remarks, followed by the keynote address. This year, Jochen Thewes, CEO and Chairman of The Board of Management at DB Schenker delivered the keynote. A few things struck me about the welcome remarks, as well as the keynote . . .

  1. Software technology is top of mind . . . The theme for the Innovation Jam frames things nicely and captures the mood around technology in maritime shipping;Beyond the hype and the promises “What Can Technology Really Solve?”
  2. Artificial Intelligence is already making a small difference for some of the big players in the industry . . . The goal now should be to apply AI even more broadly to augment existing efforts. Some of the sentiments about AI in maritime shipping are echoed here: Cargo Drones and Data Swarms: Experts Weigh In on Digital Transformation in Shipping & Maritime
  3. Like everyone else, people in the shipping industry are really excited about bitcoin and blockchain. The jury is still out how or if the shipping industry will adopt it as quickly as some hope.
  4. Jochen Thewes is a really good public speaker.

During the keynote, Jochen Thewes made a remark about how a team of mathematicians DB Schenker has hired relatively recently has made a big difference in how they run their business. I chuckled and muttered under my breath . . . “Uhm. That’s what mathematicians do. They solve problems.” The gentle man sitting next to me looked at me and said, “You find that impressive? The forecasting timeline?” I replied, “Yes. Given the business they are in, yes, that’s impressive.” Then I looked at him and asked, “What do you do?”

He said, “I am the Chief Economist at Maersk.”

My mind was immediately blown.

Graham Slack is Chief Economist and Head of Strategy at Maersk! Can you imagine what insights he must have into the state of the world’s economy? I discovered I was sitting next to him during the kickoff keynote on Monday, March 5.
Graham Slack, Chief Economist at Maersk takes the stage to discuss the 2018 outlook for container shipping.

Another highlight on Monday, was the concurrent session Technology II: Blockchain – An Example of How it Could Apply to Shipping. It was moderated by Daniel James, Director of Commodities Financial Markets at IHS Markit. The panelists were;

  1. George Goldman, President, Zim USA
  2. Gadi Ruschin, CEO, Wave Ltd
  3. Bjorn Vang Jensen, VP of Global Logistics, Electrolux, and
  4. Jason Manganaro, VP of Sales, SPARX Logistics.

The room was packed with people interested in hearing about a specific implementation of Wave’s distributed ledger document management network. From Wave’s website; “Wave has created a peer-to-peer and completely decentralized network that connects all carriers, banks, forwarders, traders and other parties of the international trading supply chain. Using decentralized technologies, all communication between these parties will be direct and will not pass through a specific central entity. Due to its decentralized nature, the Wave network will not have any single point of failure and will not rely on any single entity.”

Tuesday, March 6

As you can imagine I woke up feeling nervous on Tuesday morning, which is the day that the two hour-long Innovation Jam Sessions were held. It’s one thing to be in front of a big audience and to have no idea who’s judging you . . . It’s a completely different issue to be in front of the best and brightest of the industry . . . . Especially, for someone like me; I used to have a very severe stammer as a child. In fact, the first time I spoke in public in secondary school, the audience booed at me. Nevermind, I endured all 9 minutes of it. The story has a happy ending, so ask me about it when we meet in real life.

To calm my nerves I went and took a walk around the Grand Ballroom at the Long Beach Convention Center while it was empty.

The Grand Ballroom at The Long Beach Convention Center, in Long Beach, CA.

Personally, I think the highlight of Tuesday’s agenda was listening to Lior Ron, cofounder of Otto and now head of Uber Freight discuss Uber Freight’s vision for digital freight marketplaces during TPM Accelerator: The Future of Trucking and What it Means for Shippers.

Here are two videos that explain the vision.

The Innovation Jam

Photo Credit: Caught in the Moment Photography.

Quoting from TPM2018’s website; “Technology is all well and good, but what problems can it actually solve? That remains the disconnect between the hype and the reality of the digital revolution as it relates to transportation and logistics. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars invested in startups — not to mention massive technology investments by legacy players — basic problems that shippers experience every day remain unsolved. The question, then, is whether technology can solve them. The JOC editorial team set out to answer that by reaching out to beneficial cargo owners about their most severe supply chain challenges, and inviting technology providers and others to propose how they would solve them. The result was nearly 80 proposed solutions to 17 of the most severe BCO pain points, proposals that an ad hoc committee of BCOs then reviewed and ultimately decided which ideas it wanted to see presented at TPM. The result: Eight technology providers will present their proposed solutions to pain points that range from poor supply chain visibility, exception/contingency management, gate efficiency, rolling of cargo, and variability in ocean carrier schedules. Attendees will have the opportunity to vote on the solution that most convincingly addresses the pain point it addresses, with the winner announced at the end of the jam.”

What Problems Can Technology Really Solve? First of a Two-Part Track – Exports Session

As sponsor for this session, John Golob, CEO of Lanetix kicked things of with an introduction. For the first hour we had 4 presentations from 4 technology providers, each addressing a specific BCO pain-point.

From Left to Right; Adam Compain CEO, ClearMetal. Zvi Schreiber, CEO, Freightos. John Motley, CEO, Log-Net. Robin Jaacks Vice President, Sales Operations, Ocean Insights. Photo Credit: Caught in the Moment Photography.

What Problems Can Technology Really Solve? Second of a Two-Part Track – Technology Session

As sponsor for this session, Todd Ericksrud, President and CEO of MatchBack Systems kicked things of with an introduction. For the second hour we again had 4 presentations from 4 technology providers, each addressing a specific BCO pain-point.

From Left to Right; Gordon Downes, CEO, New York Shipping Exchange. Sumitha Sampath, Vice President of Operations, XVELA. Karim Jumma, Interim Chief Product Officer, INTTRA. Vladimir Pshonyak, Founder and CEO, Pier Trucker. Photo Credit: Caught in the Moment Photography.

Based on votes from the audience, Gordon Downes and the New York Shipping Exchange walked away with the prize for most persuasively addressing the pain-point that NYSHEX had been invited to discuss with the audience of BCO representatives. That being said, I thought each of the presenters did a good job . . . I’m already thinking about ways to make the Innovation Jam at TPM2019 better for the folks chosen to present; more guidelines about where to place their emphasis, and more direction about how to prepare for a presentation like this – It’s a hybrid between a normal sales pitch, a product demo, and some elements of an Oxford-style debate – with possibly big implications for each business that’s presenting. At the least I think people who agree to moderate should do more to help each presenter put their best foot forward by helping guide presentation prep and practice ahead of the conference. This may also mean getting the process of selecting presenters for the innovation jam done about a month earlier than happened this year. That said . . . 2018 is the first year in TPM’s history that there’s been an Innovation Jam, so I think we’re off to a great start. Now the focus has to be on making the communication between startups and the maritime industry more robust and free-flowing.

(L) Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA, Partner, Particle Ventures and (R) Gordon Downes, CEO, New York Shipping Exchange. Gordon won the TPM2018 Innovation Jam via Audience Poll. Photo Credit: Caught in the Moment Photography

I felt beat after the Innovation Jam . . . So I went back to my hotel and walked 14.4 miles as part of my effort to get back in shape after suffering a case of plantar fasciitis last summer.

Wednesday, March 7

I was supposed to head back to NYC from Long Beach on Wednesday, in the afternoon . . . But snow storms on the East Coast caused me to change my plans. So Instead of heading out early, I now could stay for the full day of programing on TPM2018’s final day. I am happy I did.

I will highlight two things;

Technology Forum: Preparing The Port of Los Angeles-GE Transportation Information Portal for Prime Time was a series of presentations followed by a panel discussion that focused on how GE Transportation, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Port of Long Beach are working together, and with other stakeholders to remove bottlenecks to the free flow of intermodal cargo once it arrives at the ports. I hope this is only the first example in a a model that spreads to other major ports around the world. Essentially,GE Transportation, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Port of Long Beach have created a collaboration model that brings together technologies from large and small companies, and some early stage tech startups too to create a system that will ease congestion at the ports. Project44 and Voyage Control were part of the presentations, and they participated on the panel discussion too.

Lunch with Speaker – “Bold and Clear Predictions” was a presentation by Lars Jensen, CEO and Partner, SeaIntelligence Consulting. I am happy I had to stay for this because of my change in travel plans . . . He discussed some questions I have been thinking about over the duration that I have been teaching myself about supply chain and the opportunities for innovation driven by tech startups – the kind I hope to discover and invest in. For example;

  1. He talked about some of the business models that he believes will work, and he also talked about some of the business models that he feels have less promising prospects. He confirmed some of my assumptions, and some of my concerns on this topic.
  2. He highlighted some of the startups he feels have strong prospects of gaining adoption by the industry. I became happier as I heard him confirm some of my guesses when I was studying the opportunities for startups in the maritime shipping industry in February 2016.
  3. He also discussed industry dynamics I did not know . . . I now will go and spend some time following up on some of the threads he pointed us towards.
  4. He discussed the Amazon Effect in some detail, but he has a different perspective than other speakers. Most others spoke about Amazon as a threat. Lars sees it as more of an opportunity . . . The shipping business is so tough that he believes that I Amazon decided to become a carrier onto itself, that would be one of the earliest signs of a coming decline in Amazon’s fortunes. I agree with him. For the same reason I did not think Apple would start building cars.

He’s an author, and so I have bought two of his books and added them to my reading pile on supply chain and shipping.

My Takeaways

  1. Supply chain presents an enormous opportunity for startups to create value through technological innovation.
  2. However, global supply chains will not be “disrupted” . . . Startup founders who approach supply chain innovation with a “we are going to disrupt yada yada” mindset will find the going very hard. This is mission-critical stuff, chaos and general pandemonium is anathema to how the industry runs. Early stage investors will do well to keep this in mind.
  3. Trust is key. Relationships matter. Old systems and new technological innovations have to play well together.
  4. Supply chain industry professionals and tech startup folks should spend more time around one another in order to enable the cross-pollination of ideas and knowledge.

There’s more from my time at #TPM2018 on Twitter.

When you’re thinking; “Someone from @FreightWaves should be here.”

Then you run into Michael Vincent, EVP Commercial Solutions, FreightWaves.

FYI @_CraigFuller_ . #TPM2018 #Shipping #Trucking #DynamicAssignmentProblems #SupplyChain #TNYSCM | The world is a supply chain. pic.twitter.com/YGmBnXPLRy

— Brian Laung Aoaeh, CFA (@brianlaungaoaeh) March 4, 2018

Filed Under: Communities, Conferences, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Shipping, Supply Chain, Trucking, Venture Capital Tagged With: Innovation, Logistics & Supply Chain, Logistics and Supply Chain, Ocean Freight Shipping, Startups, Technology, Venture Capital

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Search Innovation Footprints

Archives

Tag Cloud

#MarketVoicesAtFreightWaves #TNYSCM #TWSCF Behavioral Finance Blockchain Business Model Canvas Business Models Business Strategy Community Building Competitive Strategy Conferences Cryptocurrencies Disruptive Innovation Distributed Ledger Technologies Due Diligence Early Stage Startups Economic Moat Entrepreneurship Industry Study Innovation Investment Analysis Investment Thesis Investor meeting Logistics & Supply Chain Logistics and Supply Chain Long Read Network Effect Ocean Freight Shipping Persuasion Pitching REFASHIOND Ventures Startup Communities Startups Strategy Supply Chain Supply Chain Finance Supply Chain Logistics Supply Chain Management Switching Costs Team building Teamwork Technology Value Creation Venture Capital Viral Marketing

Footer

Calendar

March 2021
S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Oct    

Categories

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2021 · Innovation Footprints. All Rights Reserved.