Rapid Crisis Readiness Checklist

Jeff Zudock 0:04

Number one, have very fluid conversations internally in your organization. Understand what your gaps are. So even if you didn't prepare for anything, do that. Know what your position is and don't be afraid to know it. Okay, make sure that everyone is being as transparent and uh frankly as as anxious as they really are, very openly.

Why Supply Chains Suddenly Matter

Tom Mueller 0:32

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Leading in a Crisis Podcast. On this podcast, we talk all things crisis management, and we're very happy to have you with us again this week. I'm Tom Mueller. Quick uh note if you want to email the show, drop me a line at Tom at LeadingInacrisis.com, and we love hearing from you. And also like and subscribe to the podcast and tell your friends and colleagues about us as well. On today's show, we are going to dive into an issue that's been on my mind uh for the last several months, and I think many others around the world as well, and that is the issue of supply chain management. Now, most of us don't think about our lives in terms of supply chain management, but we do notice when products we like and use every day go in short supply, or when the gasoline prices that we're paying jump up a dollar a gallon, as they have here in the United States. And all those issues are related to supply chain. Now, with the war going on in Iran now, that's been a key driver of a lot of these issues. So, our guest today is an expert in supply chain uh and commercial activities. He's a friend of the podcast, Jeff Zudok. Jeff, welcome back to the show. Thanks for having me again. Love it. Now, just to remind everybody, Jeff is a 37-year veteran now of ExxonMobil and associated companies with deep experience in commercial, retail parts of the business, and also in supply chain management. So Jeff brings a unique perspective on some of the issues that we're seeing globally and locally as it relates to the products that we like and use every day and some of the pricing issues that we're seeing around those. So, Jeff, thinking about your supply chain days and you know the many things that are happening out in economies around the world today, uh, what's your sort of take on what must be happening in the procurement and supply chain offices of major companies?

Jeff Zudock 2:53

I'm deeply embedded in what's happening in the supply chain and procurement activities in at least a couple of companies. Uh, you know, when I transitioned uh my own career from running supply chains to doing uh this higher level consulting work, it's been pretty interesting because you get exposed to many more different functions, right? Uh, and you know, more deeply exposed to the things that are creating, you know, whatever, chaos or you know, uh that's going on. And uh this uh particular conflict in Iran uh is no different. Um the uh and and I think a really good place, Tom, to start the conversation is uh actually going back to our first couple

Preparation Starts With Material Mapping

Jeff Zudock 3:40

of conversations and uh talking about preparation. The need for any significant supply chain, right, today is always around trying to anticipate not only what we need in the short term tactic, but at least in my view, right, over the years that I've been working in this, more importantly, to anticipate strategically what could go wrong, what could go right, right? Uh however, uh it's all about that preparation that allows you uh maybe not to thrive, but at least to survive when these episodes occur. And these episodes constantly occur, right? Maybe not on such a grand level, okay, but they occur all the time, right? There's not a supply chain on this planet that doesn't have issues around raw material or product supply at some point, right? And usually multiple points, right, or times during a year. So I I really want to start there. The need for any large company, uh frankly any small company too, right, to really have a clear view of where their raw materials uh, and in that I'm I'm speaking very broadly, right? That could be uh process aids or chemicals, it could be materials that are used directly in the manufacturer of something else or at least in components of it, right? That type of information should be an A-list item with every supply chain. And so when we come to points where either we are going to be impacted by some material that we need for something that we do, or that our suppliers are going to be impacted by some material that they need, right, to do uh what they need to make for us, uh, it's very critical to understand how all those flows go. Another piece, of course, is that in that evaluation, you have created mitigations, multiple mitigations, depending on the risk and the impact that a loss of that material would have to your business. Okay.

Tom Mueller 6:10

Well, that's the ideal state, right? That uh you're thinking about what could go wrong, you're planning for that. Uh, but you know, we see shortages of products turning up in different places. So sometimes we don't quite get that right, do we?

Jeff Zudock 6:24

No, we absolutely do not always get that right. The point I'm trying to make is that you got to at least try. And if you haven't tried at this point, uh I uh am more than happy to come help you work through whatever problems you have, contact me on LinkedIn. However, uh you're probably gonna have uh

Iran Shipping Bottlenecks And Oil Reality

Jeff Zudock 6:45

a little a little trouble. It's gotta be a bit of a stretch. And uh there's lots of examples of this. And let's let's talk about Iran specifically, right? Not the first time, again, that there have been major trade flows disrupted over the years. It's it's you know, it does happen from time to time and will continue to happen likely from time to time. The uh Iran in particular, obviously, the concern is that the vessels that already exist in the Gulf can't get out. So it's not a question of material availability in the sense that it is made or it can be made. Our problem is literally in the transportation of it. And I don't envy any of the folks on these ships and the risks that they're having to live through right now. I'm sure it's extremely dangerous and it's very difficult for them just to navigate through a day, I have no doubt. Uh let alone, you know, what is it now, 10 weeks, something like that. Uh it's it's been quite a while. And uh so uh when when you think about all that crude, and it's not just crude, and I'm gonna come to that in a little bit, but when you think about all that crude, let's start there, that's bottled up, right? Uh there's a bunch of things that happen. You know, first and foremost, uh we're still pulling oil out of the ground in the Middle East. It's gotta go somewhere. You're gonna fill tanks, you're gonna fill vessels, you're gonna fill everything you can fill. You're gonna keep producing. And of course you're looking forward and you're saying, okay, if this lasts another X number of weeks or whatever, maybe I got to cut back production, I gotta, you know, do these things. Because by the way, operating at low rates is better than operating at no rates, pretty much all the time. Right.

Tom Mueller 8:38

And Jeff, that's that's because for folks who may not be familiar with oil and gas industry, uh, you know, shutting in wells or restarting wells can be hard on the equipment, on the sub on the underground formations, all of that. So you want to have steady state type operations just to ensure the long-term uh wellness and productivity of your facilities, right?

Jeff Zudock 9:03

That's exactly right. The uh um, you know, the element that that literally rides parallel with that is that there are a lot of raw materials, actually, a lot of base raw materials for a variety of things are manufactured in that part of the world as well and are shipped elsewhere. We live in a global supply chain today. It's been like this for decades. And we become dependent on our ability to move and transport materials all over the place. In the news, you hear about fertilizer and you hear about fuel. Outside of the uh news, right, what you don't hear about are things like nitric acid, methanol, okay, uh, a whole host of things that are used in the production of a bunch of stuff. And while there are sources for it elsewhere in the world, those sources are not infinite. And they are already supplying many people that they may not be able to increase their production, they may not have additional capacity to be able to help everybody else out when the time comes. There's also, of course, uh the commercial element of it, uh, prices are going crazy right now across the board, right? They're they're they're just absolutely going nuts. And so when you're thinking about your cost to produce, even if you can get material, it's become extremely expensive to do so. And I have no doubt there's a lot of decisions being made right now as to whether or not some materials are going to be continue to be produced, or at least at what rates they might be produced, and how those downstream products are going to be supplied into these large global markets.

Tom Mueller 10:45

Well, Jeff, we have such a dynamic and efficient global supply chain, as you've pointed out. So for many of the products that we use every day in our lives, we have no idea about the feed stocks that are coming out of the Persian Gulf or related areas that are impacting those supply chains, the manufacturing process today. To me, it's just, you know, it's very eye-opening to understand that. And um, you know, just to see. So you were talking about methanol and acetic acid.

Jeff Zudock 11:22

So uh acetic acid is a derivative of methanol, but that would be one of the things that that would be significantly impacted. Okay. So downstream products of methanol could be acetic acid, it could be formaldehyde, it could be a lot of things. Methanol, uh MTVE, for example, which is used across the globe, except in the United States, right, as a fuel additive. So uh the ability for uh a lot of producers, I mean, I'm not just talking about the companies that I work with, but a lot of producers are really gonna struggle right now to get materials, period. There are other sources, there always are, but all these supply chains vary, uh, they're all different. Um, you know, lead times are very different depending on where you're getting it from. So even if there is availability, it might take you twice as long to get it, right? There's all the compliance rules that would need to be dealt with if you're coming from new sources. So, what are the tariffs on these materials, right? What are the requirements to bring things into countries? You know, a lot of countries in the world have local content requirements, uh especially in oil and gas. Uh, methanol is a great example of one of these things. The uh methanol that uh is used quite a bit uh in uh in production is used to mitigate what are called hydrates, which are uh like giant blocks of of ice that form in risers. And the uh, you know, believe me, you never want them to form, but methanol is used uh predominantly to mitigate and eliminate these hydrates. If uh even if you have methanol available, again, it's just become quite a bit more expensive uh to get it. The but if you don't have methanol available and you got to go to new sources, it may be tough. And this is just one example, okay. Uh there's a lot of materials, additives, et cetera, that are produced from materials that come from that part of the region in part, right? Uh, and a lot of them actually are produced there. There's a lot of raw materials that are just produced there that can't get shipped out now. Okay. Uh now, you know, you say, okay, well, listen, China is a powerhouse in a lot of these different areas. Why not just start getting them from China or India? Uh, and the answer is, well, maybe you can, but maybe you can't, right? Uh, I uh have already uh been informed that some countries have introduced um export restrictions for these very reasons. And so the pool, the pie of your potential mitigations are actually smaller as well in some cases, right? And again, lead times affect these things. Uh uh just because you know of other suppliers, if you don't have a relationship with them today, and again, this is very important, even if you've identified them, if you don't have relationships with them, they may not be willing or able uh to provide material for

The Hidden Chemicals Behind Modern Life

Jeff Zudock 14:10

you. But there's a lot of downstream effects. And and let me walk you uh walk you through uh one in particular. So uh uh with respect to fuel additives, and I was kind of drifting that way, there are uh, you know, several companies that make a variety of different fuel additives, but there uh are some additives that are only made by a few companies. Okay. And uh in the case of one in particular, and I don't want to get uh too much into detail if that's okay, uh, because it is an active project I'm working on, but um uh in one in particular, there are uh uh not even you know 10 fingers worth of producers in the whole world, right? Uh the material is actually only produced on two continents. So the need to get that material is extremely high because there is absolutely a barrier to being able to make material, whether it's for domestic use or for export, if we can't get this particular additive. And this additive uh has its roots in in terms of where the uh materials are supplied from uh in Europe, in Asia, uh, and that's about it. Okay. There are, of course, difficulties in getting a bunch of these raw materials out today, so the availability of that material has been getting tighter and tighter and tighter over the last few weeks. Okay. Uh you know, usually, uh, or at least in my experience, when you're working with uh some materials like this, you can plan out generally how much you're gonna need in the course of a year, but doing that, you know, same SNOP type process on a week or a monthly basis is quite a bit tougher. Depends on the cruise you're running, it depends on you know the uh activity of your catalyst, you know, how close you are to changing out the beds, things like that, right? Gets how much you exporting versus making for for domestic use. So uh there's been a great disruption there. And, you know, frankly, it's gonna be very difficult to solve. There are there really are no solutions yet, other than contacting, you know, as many of these uh producers as you can and see what you can eke out and get. So that that's a really good example of even when you have a good plan, uh, you know, sometimes uh uh there's even limits uh to be able to solve those.

Tom Mueller 16:41

So, Jeff, talk to us a little bit about the the knock-on effects of you know that fuel additive shortage, then right? So how would how would those of us not in the industry today even be aware of that? Or would we? Is this really just about companies running sophisticated you know refining and processing equipment being able to make their feed stocks and sell to their own suppliers who are making you know dashboards for automobiles or other plastics products?

Jeff Zudock 17:17

Yeah, it's a really good question, Tom. The uh interesting thing is that these additives tend to be very specialized, okay? And they're used globally, right? I wouldn't call them commodities, but there's you know great similarity across all the producers. So, you know, you know, fungibility is very high, right? Drop-in is real easy. Uh, would the average person have any awareness uh that something like this is going on? No. I mean, they're they're they're looking at diesel prices or gas prices, and they just see them going up. They're not thinking about the components inside. Okay. The uh interesting thing about this particular uh scenario is, and and and this uh is more of an issue what I'm talking about for diesel than it is for gasoline, but uh Europe's supply of fuel, diesel fuel today is significantly impacted because producers in Asia aren't refining as much as they were before. Okay. So they need diesel in Europe. And so exports from maybe some non-traditional or I'll say maybe lesser volume supplying uh regions go up, right? So if you can get the diesel, albeit at a higher price, however, that diesel doesn't have the required uh additives in it to either drive better performance of the engine, or frankly, just to meet whatever compliance laws are uh you know existing, then you're gonna have a shortage, and you're gonna have a shortage fairly quick. And and in the supply chain world, quick is measured in weeks and months. Okay. The there's always existing supply, there's always tanks that are full, right? As we deplete those and as the replenishment of that initial supply starts getting lower and lower and lower, the shortages tend to come after that. The other thing that you need to remember too is it's just not about the product. There's a whole bunch of ships that aren't available right now, right? There's a whole bunch of transport vessels that aren't moving anywhere. And even if they can move, they have an issue with getting fuel as well, right? So uh in this particular case, the average person on the planet might not realize the impact of it, i.e., not uh a trucking company not being able to get diesel fuel further downstream of when the actual start of the event happened, right? It could be four months, five months down the road because all of that supply has to get re-kicked up, right? And uh all of those different variants that have been introduced into the supply chain have to restabilize, and they will likely restabilize in different ways, which you know we can't anticipate yet. So, no, I don't think uh a lot of the problems that folks are going to face, and they're going to face them, uh, are even visible yet. Right. But uh in my view, I think a lot of them are starting to become visible. I don't think we're that far away. I think the summer is uh uh things are gonna get quite clear.

Tom Mueller 20:49

And so,

Fuel Additives And Compliance Driven Shortages

Tom Mueller 20:50

yeah, and so Jeff, what I see, what I look out there, as you've mentioned, is you know, storage tanks that have been full are are coming down now. So we're burning through uh a lot of the stocks. Uh, and that's going to show up in higher prices or shortages of products soon. I mean, I hear stories out of California regularly now, but prices going up and real uncertainty around where's that next tanker of fuel coming from that's gonna supply California? And but I think my sense is mainland US is more okay with supply given the refining capacity and the crude oil production that we have. Um, is is this really a problem that's more European-Asian, or is that gonna hit here in America as well?

Jeff Zudock 21:40

Sure, it's gonna hit here. Now, uh the material, the additive that I was just talking about, isn't even produced anywhere in North or South America. It's only produced in Europe and in Asia. And if we can't get you know sufficient quantities of that material, I can tell you right now, we're gonna have the same issue maybe downstream. But we're going to have the same issue at some point, right? It's not going to go away. California is an interesting case. And I did have a conversation with a couple of people about it. I couldn't get a lot of specifics. California, for you know, in my experience and the things that I did has been more of an an outbound uh uh you know area, right? I ship ship out of Long Beach, et cetera. Uh, but uh less of an inbound. However, uh the entire west coast of uh North America, so all the way up into Canada as well, is extremely dependent on shipments from Asia. It's close, right? It's very close, it's cheap. If I bring it in on the East Coast or into the Gulf, then I have to rail and truck, etc., right? So uh no, California is very dependent on Asia, and Asia is very dependent on the Persian Gulf. And so, yes, California may be seeing, you know, some you know impacts maybe a little quicker than the rest of the country. Now, the good thing about you know California is that we can get stuff from the other coast. I mean, one of the great things about the US is that we literally have three major shipping regions that we can ship to, right? We have the entire uh Gulf, we have the East Coast, and we have the West Coast, right? We have tremendous infrastructure to move that material. And when people always ask me, you know, Jeff, can you help me figure something out? I tell them the same thing. If you've got enough money, you can make anything work in supply chain. At some point, you can always be at the top of the list. It's just gonna cost you, and it is sometimes it'll cost you a lot. So uh when you see that.

Tom Mueller 23:41

And that's Jeff, that's because you're putting products instead of on you know, million-gallon tankers, it's going on rail cars on a railroad and getting hauled in in smaller quantities across the country, and it's just a more expensive, you know, sort of per gallon cost to do that. And even extended to be done.

Jeff Zudock 24:03

Yeah, it can be done. But even extending what you said, remember, I did mention that you know, some of what we're doing is getting rebalanced, right? So the need to move, you know, material in trucks or in rail or things like that may be different depending on where they're coming from, okay, and where they're needed, and what's running short now versus what's going to run short later, okay? Uh, or you know, what we have an abundance of. So all that rebalancing, we're literally in the throes of it right now. All of it. And we'll just have to see. I, you know, I'm up here in Colorado right now, and uh, when I filled up on my my way in, uh fuel uh at in the area where I'm at, which is in central Colorado, was the highest I've ever experienced uh since I've been coming up here. It's almost five dollars a gallon, very close. And uh that again is just one element. There are a variety of other things uh that for sure I can tell are just starting to creep up, right? Right, just starting to creep up, and all that is due to availability, right?

Tom Mueller 25:11

Well, Jeff, does this uh, you know, I think back um, gosh, I don't know, maybe it was 10, 15 years ago, this whole just in time uh inventory management uh thing became really hot. And I think you know, maybe it was the Japanese who were really good at that, and then you know, Walmart picked it up, and it it uh you know it became a very efficient way to sort of manage your capital and and to run your business. But in times like these, that just in time delivery doesn't really work, does it?

Jeff Zudock 25:47

Well, maybe not for everything that you were getting it in before, yeah. And you know, there's I'm sure modifications. I I first got introduced to uh just in time when I I was actually in a commercial role and I was working with Saturn, um, the car company, not the planet, but uh the uh uh uh the uh I had to throw that in the tongue, I'm sorry. But um the uh uh uh Saturn uh was modeling their supply system after the Japanese can vans, right? Which was really neat. And it was the first time I had ever experienced it. So there were uh, you know, um, I guess uh you'd say trucks running around picking up exactly what the plant would need that day or the next day, right? And there were really interesting staging areas and methods, and uh the planning uh process part of it was was extremely impressive. It relied completely on the supplier's ability to have material available at a at the moment that you know the the plant needed it. Uh it was really neat, it was quite educational, and of course, uh it just takes so much cost out of that production because the cost is then you know the burden of the supplier. They have to hold the inventory. You know, the producer, in this case Saturn, was not investing a bunch of working capital in inventory that wasn't moving, right? They only got it right when they needed it. Uh, really smart.

Tom Mueller 27:13

So, well, and so their books looked a lot cleaner, right? Because they're not carrying this working capital, and it was just a way, you know, to pump up your balance sheet a little bit, I guess.

Jeff Zudock 27:25

They have more cash available, right? They have more cash available. Inventory is an asset, and so yeah, right. So the other thing is there's there's lots of other stuff. You pay, you know, some states charge and countries uh, I believe outside of the US charge uh uh taxes on inventory, right? I mean, it's just a good financial thing to do. You you always carry the minimum amount of inventory of whatever that you need, but you always have to have enough so that you can produce what you need to produce, right? So, you know, so you know, fast forward, of course, uh uh, you know, this whole concept uh evolves and evolves and evolves over time. Uh, you know, I've talked to companies like uh Cisco, the chip producer. Uh, you know, they uh I think they told me in a uh uh hear call that I had with them one time that, you know, they really don't hold any more than seven days of inventory of anything anywhere, right? They've just been able to model their production and their uh supply chain around holding almost no inventory at all. Pretty impressive. But that also means that they're uh, you know, that it's not only about the companies that are receiving it that are just in time, they have to produce just in time, right? And they have to be able to make sure that every single item that needs to go to wherever it's going is, you know, following that grand, uh, you know, that grand plan. So today, if you're dependent on uh things that are, for example, perishable, right? Food is a great one to talk about just in time. You have a very limited amount of time to get from A to B to C, because otherwise things just spoil. They go bad. And we import and export a tremendous amount of perishable materials. So when the supply chain is disruptive or is disrupted, uh, you know, very well could be that even if the material is available, I don't call it grapes from chili. Okay. Uh if the ship's not, I'm not sure what's yeah, what the thumbs up are, but thank you. I appreciate it. I really do appreciate it. The uh uh uh, you know, there may be an interruption in being able to get the ships, or maybe containers, you know, the container balance has been disrupted because of all of this, right? And so we can't get the

Just In Time Inventory In A Crisis

Jeff Zudock 29:40

containers to down there, whatever. Uh that very well could be a reason why you see some rising food costs and things like that as well, right? Uh, you know, when you look at things that need to come right away, medicine is another one, it's a really good example, right? Uh, you gotta make sure that those supply chains are still continue to be robust. And if you've got 1,500 ships sitting around in the water somewhere, and uh, you know, all the material on them are used to make some of these different materials, right? Or at least support the transition or transportation of them, then yeah, yeah, you're gonna have some problems. Extend that even farther uh to companies that just have really good robust supply chains, very efficient supply chains. And now a lot of these raw materials are either on allocation, uh, there have been some forced measure, uh, force majeures uh declared, right? Uh now maybe even if you can get it, uh, and even you can get them in time, you're not going to get the quantity that you yeah. No, this this particular conflict has uh been extremely disruptive. So even though we're, you know, we feel like, you know, in terms of oil supply, we got a lot in the US. And while it's expensive, we should be okay, you know, over the long haul in terms of availability. You know, what we also have to remember is there is the rest of the world that we do want to help and support that we are going to export to, right? To make up those gaps and balances. And that that that is gonna happen, okay. The uh and therefore that will also impact our ability to make and and produce and ship as well, right? So uh just in time, yeah, yeah. For sure there's impacts. I can't point to any particular uh specific example that I'm working on right now, uh, but uh uh other than that fuel additive, which is almost just in time, but uh uh yeah, it's there for sure there's impacts.

Tom Mueller 31:32

So, Jeff, if you're running, you know, a major um procurement department or you know, running you know, VP of supply for a big company, are you thinking that, hey, you know what, we may need to adjust our processes here, or we're gonna have to think differently about how we run this business. You know, where does your mind go when you you know you sort of think about this all strategically? And how how could we better position the company to avoid this next time?

Jeff Zudock 32:06

It goes back to the very first thing I said, and that is all about preparation. It it honestly does. The ability to impact something after it happens is very difficult unless you've already developed a good plan to do it. Period. So were I a VP in supply chain or a VP in procurement when uh you know those those first events happened uh in the Middle East, whatever it was, like I said, uh eight weeks, ten weeks ago, uh the very first conversation would have been share with me what our mitigation plans are, share with me how long we've planned those mitigations to work, and let's start working on what's downstream of that, right? Not oh my gosh, how do I get more apples? Okay. Uh yeah, because if that's the question you're asking, yeah, you're gonna have a tough time. You are it's already too late. It's it's well, it unless it's short-lived, right? Which, you know, I I wouldn't call this short-lived, right? Um uh unless it's short-lived, yeah, you you needed the plan in place before. So uh the uh so my my my my my first comment is that my my next comment is what I just said, and that is you really need to look through over a timescale of what you need to do at different points along that that timeline. Okay. So we are okay for now, and then we're gonna be, you know, we're gonna have difficulty, you know, we're gonna be pressed, but we're still gonna work, and then we're gonna get to a point of real concern. And what do you do at those different stages, right? How do you set up so that you can make it through all of that? Right? What support do you need? What uh uh what different things do you need to change? What transitions do you make in what you make? What about your customers that you serve, right? Hopefully everybody has already segmented all of their customers, right? I mean, we've been segmenting customers for uh, you know, decades and decades. You know, now's the time to say, all right, well, if I have transactional customers, are they the ones that are gonna go on the worst part of the allocation that I'm gonna need to, you know, put in place and it's my strategic customers that I'm gonna continue to supply, or is it something different? I don't know. I know what what you know, again, the companies that I've worked with over the years have done and do, but uh, it's those kind of things that you should be thinking about three, four months before they happen once that event happens, so that you can literally just pull the trigger and say, okay, we're at this point, let's start doing it this way. Okay, we've crossed another line. Now let's adjust again.

Tom Mueller 35:06

So you've got various gates along the way that you're looking at. Um and then triggers you're pulling, hopefully with mitigations and that.

Jeff Zudock 35:15

Jeff, there's many communication, Tom. Let me and and let me highlight this. This is really important. Uh, you know, any good supply chain and any uh, you know, good, robust procurement organization obviously uh has already established very good communications with all their providers, whether they're service providers or material providers, right? That communication needs to be open, it needs to be transparent, and it you know needs to be frequent in times like this as well. You really need to know where you stand because things are changing for them too. So even if a supplier says to you, hey, I can supply you through July, something may change for them. And so you need to be talking about that in April, right? Before uh or getting surprised by it in the end of June. So those are the things that I would, you know, and again, they're kind of high level, uh, but they're there. The other thing that I would uh absolutely say that the uh leadership uh has needed to enact immediately is to get the people that actually do the work, you know, and I tend to be very proletarian about this. Uh, the people that are actually the boots on the ground in the supply chains and in the procurement organizations and the commercial organizations to be the ones working a lot of these issues. They are the ones that are most familiar with not only what our capabilities are, but where those gaps exist because they deal with them every day. And they're the ones that need to be driving these short-term tactical solutions, right? That allow the leadership or you know, maybe some other folks to

Leadership Moves That Reduce Damage

Jeff Zudock 36:55

work through what some of those longer-term strategic issues are.

Tom Mueller 36:59

So did that help address it or yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I absolutely and and I love that approach. I was just thinking, you know, I wonder how many managers and VPs, you know, would go down to that level and say, let me let me talk to the guys who are actually, you know, running these procurements and managing the relationships in that.

Jeff Zudock 37:21

So it's about trusting your organization, Tom. It's it's it's really about trusting your organization, right? These companies hire people that they believed are great at what they do, otherwise they wouldn't have hired them, right? So trust them to do what they do well, and by all means question it, by all means test it, by all means push back and make sure that you know, whatever responses and plans are that are being put in place or established are going to address what you need, but get the right people in the room. So yeah.

Tom Mueller 37:53

All right. Well, Jeff, we're about out of time here. I wanted to just throw uh, you know, give you one more opportunity, just you know, from a from a high level, as you know, as you you would advise a uh consulting client today on dealing with these types of situations, your your top couple of pointers again, um, to help people feel better, get on top of this situation.

Jeff Zudock 38:21

Yeah, number one, have very fluid conversations internally in your organization. Understand what your gaps are. So even if you didn't prepare for anything, do that. Know what your position is and don't be afraid to know it. Okay, I mean make sure that everyone is being as transparent and uh frankly as as anxious as they really are, very openly. And absolutely establish, if you haven't already, but hopefully you have, and and have lots of conversations with your suppliers today. Um, you know, a lot of what people are going to need to solve coming up right now, if we haven't you know developed a lot of plans, are going to be very tactical. And so making sure that you have folks that know how to address things tactically, believe it or not, are very important. From the strategic perspective, if uh, you know, your organization has already addressed plans for key mitigations and things like that, great. Make sure you're learning from this, make sure you're updating them, and make sure that you are implementing, right, along the way, what some of those changes and and and enhancements and evolutions are. Absolutely do that and be sure that that you are revisiting every single learning all the way through. But the biggest piece would be take a look at what was impacted and make sure that you spend a lot of time and a lot of energy developing processes around how to address the next one. That's really important. That's the biggest takeaway I can offer. There's there there are no silver bullets in this. There's none. You just gotta be prepared. Just like the Boy Scouts, be prepared.

Tom Mueller 40:13

Be prepared. All right, Jeff Zudok, thank you so much for joining the show again and for sharing your expertise

Final Takeaways And Closing

Tom Mueller 40:20

on this.

Jeff Zudock 40:21

It's my pleasure. Thanks for asking. Tom, I really do appreciate it.

Tom Mueller 40:25

And that's gonna do it for this episode of the Leading in a Crisis Podcast. Thanks again for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you again soon on another episode. Take care.