401: RELEX Talks: State of Supply Chain 2024 – Sneak Preview
This episode features insights from Jill Standish, Accenture's Global Retail Lead, and Laurence Brenig-Jones, VP of Product Strategy at RELEX. Jill, with a career focused on the intersection of technology and retail, discusses the financial pressures on retailers and the transformative potential of Generative AI for personalization and efficiency. Laurence draws on his experience from a UK grocery retailer to explain how modern ML forecasting helps manage demand uncertainty. He emphasizes that technology is key to enabling the data-driven collaboration needed between retailers and suppliers to improve planning and react to disruptions.
A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the launch of a brand new live show here on Let’s Talk Supply Chain – Supply Chain Unfiltered. And I’m very excited to say that we’re doing it again! Today we are launching a second live show with another leading industry brand, RELEX Solutions.
RELEX helps retailers, wholesale companies, and consumer packaged goods manufacturers align and optimize demand, merchandise, supply chain, and operations planning across the end-to-end value chain. So they are the perfect organization to tackle some of the industry’s big questions for us in their new show, RELEX Talks.
And today’s host is Sarah Godet, Strategic Partnership Manager for EMEA at RELEX Solutions. She’s an expert in international sales development in the EMEA markets – and she speaks SIX languages! – so she’s the perfect host for our very first episode of RELEX Talks.
Sarah is joined by Jill Standish and Laurence Brenig-Jones to talk all about the state of supply chain in 2024. They’re going to explore partner collaboration, the barriers to improving efficiency, and a new trend, that we have TikTok to thank for – surge buying. Plus, they’re going behind the gloomy headlines to find out what’s really going on across the industry. So pay attention, because a little bird tells me that they have some good news for us!
So, get ready to fuel your curiosity and be immersed in exclusive industry insights, innovation, and inspiration – with RELEX Talks.
An introduction to today’s guests, Jill Standish of Accenture and Laurence Brenig-Jones of RELEX, and their roles.
An overview of an upcoming RELEX report, surveying retail and CPG leaders, that details the industry’s main challenges, opportunities and investment areas; and Jill and Laurence’s reactions to the initial findings.
Sarah, Jill and Laurence reflect on the rise in surge buying and the role of social media; how companies are starting to tackle these changes; and how the rise of generative AI fits in.
The guests reflect on the power of collaboration between supply chain partners and retailers; the growing importance of joint forecasting; and the impact this collaborative transparency can have on businesses, and the industry. “It’s a supply chain nightmare! As soon as a consumer hears there’s a shortage of something, there’s a demand spike! We saw that happening a lot in the pandemic, but it’s something that can happen at any time.” Laurence
Resources & Links Mentioned
- If you enjoyed this episode, and want to hear more from RELEX, check out 383: Transform Your Supply Chain and Retail Planning, with RELEX Solutions.
- Check out our other podcasts HERE.
