September 8-11, 2024
The Supply Chain T-Leader
Join us in Chicago for a 4-day immersive simulation, designed to elevate leaders within supply chain sub-functions (“I-Leaders”) to become leaders across the end-to-end supply chain (“T-Leaders”)
This transformative executive development program is designed specifically for high-potential leaders to build the skills and awareness of a true end-to-end supply chain leader.
Important Dates
Program Dates: September 8-11, 2024
Registration: CLOSED
Format
Location: Chicago, IL - In Person
Focus: Festival Town (B2C Retailer)
Program Information
Program Fee: See details below
Program Size: Limited to 20 Participants
A Dynamic Future Calls For Dynamic Leadership
The Supply Chain T-Leader Program is for team leaders who want to grow their strategic end-to-end supply chain knowledge and develop their executive communication to become better leaders of transformation.
This 4-day simulation will challenge participants with a real-world case, with very personal, one-on-one coaching and feedback from current and former C-Suite executives.
Graduates will emerge from the program with the knowledge, techniques, and confidence to lead the supply chain organization into the future.
BUILT BY, AND FOR, GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN EXECUTIVES
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Team Coaches
Team 1 Coach: John Church
Former EVP and Chief Supply Chain, Transformation, and Enterprise Services Officer
General Mills
General Mills
As the Chief Supply Chain Officer at General Mills, John was responsible for overseeing Supply Chain and ESG aspects of global operations while providing strategic and organizational leadership. He played a significant role in expanding the Company’s footprint and market penetration through various M&A activities and successful integrations.
Team 2 Coach: David Warrick
Former General Manager Global Supply Chain and Supply Chain Technology Officer
Microsoft
Microsoft
David is a seasoned expert in the Global Supply Chain domain. With 23 years of experience at Microsoft, he held significant roles including General Manager of Global Supply Chain and Supply Chain Technology Officer. Today he works with numerous companies at the leading edge of Supply Chain.
Team 3 Coach: Peter Smith
Former COO
Party City
Party City
Peter Smith is a seasoned Chief Supply Chain Officer/Chief Operations Officer with a distinguished career in apparel and vertical retail global supply chains. Recognized for innovation, leadership, and problem-solving, he has held key roles at Party City (COO), Carter’s (CSCO), and VF Corporation, driving impactful change and optimizing operations.
The Immersive Experience
Welcome to Festival Town
After enjoying decades of growth and healthy margins, Festival Town has recently hit a patch of bad luck, exacerbated by some admittedly poor decisions. This once-great big-box retailer was clearly thrown off-track by Covid, but the signs of distress were around long before the pandemic.
Inventory is out of control, manufacturing costs are underperforming the market, and the logistics network just can't handle the requirements of the increasingly critical D2C part of the business.
Things have to change. Fast.
Three months ago the company was purchased and taken private by the global private equity firm, Silver Roads, which immediately gutted the executive leadership team. Now, interim CEO, Deverl Maserang, is relying on you and a small group of peers to turn its operations around.
Over a 4 day period, you will be acting as the interim Chief Supply Chain Officer, and will forced to make bold and innovative decisions to save this once proud company, re-architecting its supply chain, and rebuilding its technology stack. You will have limited funds and limited time, reluctant peers and cynical partners.
Do you have what it takes?
Your Support Network
The good news is that you won't be alone in this endeavor.
Along the way, you will receive ongoing personal coaching from supply chain legends:
- John Church (former CSCO, General Mills)
- David Warrick (former Head of Supply Chain and Chief Supply Chain Technology Officer, Microsoft)
- Peter Smith (former COO, Party City; former CSCO, Carter's Clothing)
You will learn the art of the possible, cutting edge trends, techniques, and technologies from top executives from Shipium, Nulogy, Algo, Kinaxis, Microsoft, and others.
You will be working alongside an A-List of interim executives brought in to run Festival Town, including:
- CEO - Deverl Maserang (former CEO, Farmer Brothers; former CSCO, Starbucks, Chiquita Brands)
- Head of Manufacturing - Frank Jones (former Head of Manufacturing, Intel)
- Head of Logistics - Tim Harden (former President, Supply Chain and Fleet Operations, AT&T)
And, of course, you will be in the trenches with 19 peers, all with similar backgrounds, experience, and potential.
Your Journey
Day 1: Welcome to Festival Town
Day 1 is a celebration. We will begin the journey with an onboarding discussion, a dinner and a proper celebration on the evening of September 8. There, you will meet your new colleagues and coaches, and, if their schedules allow, fellow executives. During the evening festivities, you will be provided additional details of Festival Town's history, organization, and current situation.
Day 2: Operational triage and cash preservation during the first 90 days
Day 2 is where the rubber hits the road. The jubilation of the onboarding celebration will give way to the pressures of the situation that Festival Town faces.
Participants will begin the day bright and early, meeting with Festival Town's interim leadership team to learn the details of the crisis facing the company. The team must quickly get its arms around the vast amounts of inventory that has clogged up stores and warehouses, in order to free up enough cash to address the struggling manufacturing organization, and begin to rebuild the logistics and transportation network.
The group will be assisted by an all-star cadre of advisors and coaches, learning the leading techniques and technologies that are shaping the supply chain industry.
Participants will be forced to make difficult decisions, and communicate those decisions to affected stakeholders, building support and resources for the chosen initiatives. Not all of these stakeholders will take the news lightly. But with the oversight and tutelage of the team coaches, there is no challenge that the team cannot overcome.
After a hard day of work, we will break character and enjoy dinner, drinks, and a fireside chat at one of Lincoln Park's many wonderful restaurants.
Day 2 Coaches
- John Church (former CSCO, General Mills)
- David Warrick (former Head of Supply Chain and Chief Supply Chain Technology Officer, Microsoft)
- Peter Smith (former COO, Party City; former CSCO, Carter's Clothing)
Day 2 Advisors
- Ron Link (former CSCO, CVS)
- Amjad Hussain (Chief AI Officer, B/eye; Former CEO Algo)
- Jason Murray (CEO, Shipium)
- Jason Tham (CEO, Nulogy)
Day 2 Festival Town Key Figures
- Head of Manufacturing - Frank Jones (former Head of Manufacturing, Intel)
- Head of Logistics - Tim Harden (former President, Supply Chain and Fleet Operations, AT&T)
Day 3: Optimizing for mid-term competitive gains during Year 2
On Day 3 we will skip ahead 12 months.
In Year 2, thanks largely to the brilliant work of the interim supply chain executive team, Festival Town has turned a corner and is no longer in danger of insolvency. Now the team must plan the transformative initiatives that will shape the company for mid- and long-term success.
Whereas in the first 90 days, the team was given little to no financial resources and were focused solely on survival, in Year 2 the company has the benefit of a relatively healthy financial situation and a longer-term horizon for investment. Like all corporations, however, the supply chain team must demonstrate the strategic and financial importance of each initiative in order to gain the resources--financial and otherwise--to support implementation. Participants will find that while the stress of the existential crisis is no longer with them, the challenge of gaining resources and support are as great as ever.
On Day 3 the team will primarily focus on building capabilities that create closer, more agile ties between sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, and planning. This day will have a heavy change management component, and will end with a high-stress presentation to Festival Town CEO, Deverl Maserang.
As with Day 2, we will break character for dinner and facilitated conversation with Deverl Maserang.
Day 3 Coaches
- John Church (former CSCO, General Mills)
- David Warrick (former Head of Supply Chain and Chief Supply Chain Technology Officer, Microsoft)
- Peter Smith (former COO, Party City; former CSCO, Carter's Clothing)
Day 3 Advisors
- Anne Robinson (former Chief Strategy Office, Kinaxis)
- Ivanka Jauregui (former Innovation Direction, Proctor & Gamble)
Day 3 Festival Town Key Figures
- CEO - Deverl Maserang (former CEO, Farmer Brothers)
- Head of Manufacturing - Frank Jones (former Head of Manufacturing, Intel)
- Head of Logistics - Tim Harden (former President, Supply Chain and Fleet Operations, AT&T)
Day 4: Year 3 and Beyond
Day 4 will skip ahead another two years.
Participants will arrive on Day 4 to a changed organization. With two consecutive years of successful reconfiguration and digitization, Festival Town is now moving at new speeds, with intelligence and automation that could previously have only been imagined. Now the team must present its accomplishments to the Board of Directors.
Participants will spend the final morning of the simulation preparing for the Board presentation, where they will discuss the situation they walked into, the actions they took to turn the company around, the results of their actions, and the vision for the future of the company.
We will end with a family-style lunch and a brief ceremony to recognize participants for their accomplishments in transforming Festival Town.
Day 4 Coaches
- John Church (former CSCO, General Mills)
- David Warrick (former Head of Supply Chain and Chief Supply Chain Technology Officer, Microsoft)
- Peter Smith (former COO, Party City; former CSCO, Carter's Clothing)
Day 4 Advisors
- Anne Robinson (former Chief Strategy Office, Kinaxis)
- Atif Rafiq (former President, MGM; former Chief Digital Officer, Volvo, McDonald's)
Day 4 Festival Town Key Figures
- CEO - Deverl Maserang (former CEO, Farmer Brothers)
- Head of Manufacturing - Frank Jones (former Head of Manufacturing, Intel)
- Head of Logistics - Tim Harden (former President, Supply Chain and Fleet Operations, AT&T)
Who Should Apply
Participant Profile
The T-Leader Immersive Program is:
- Designed for senior and mid-career supply chain leaders responsible for a particular element of the supply chain system, such as planning, manufacturing, inventory management, or logistics
- Suitable for leaders aspiring to or already serving in executive-level roles who want to keep current on trends to accelerate delivery
- Ideal for leaders looking to understand the relationship between all supply chain functions, align supply chain strategy with business strategy, and communicate the implications of technology to broader business teams
Participants will emerge:
- Able to align supply chain strategy with business strategy, taking into account all related aspects of a project
- Skilled at translating supply chain initiatives into business value
- Confident in negotiating with or educating business leaders from non-supply-chain functions
Participants are expected to:
- Have led teams within a supply chain organization
- Possess well-practiced leadership and communication skills
“You are creating a class of people that doesn’t need consultants.”
Dave Anderson
Managing Partner, Supply Chain Ventures
WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH
Your Coaches & Advisors
This immersive experience provides an extremely unique and valuable opportunity to get personal coaching from some of the most accomplished supply chain executives, innovators, and thought leaders. Participants will have a coach with them throughout the experience to help them process situations and information, prioritize actions and initiatives, plan for difficult conversations, and to unpack and reinforce the learning moments.
Throughout the experience, we will put innovation leaders and thought leaders with our participants to provide insights on trends, techniques and technologies that are shaping the modern supply chain discipline. Participants aren't learning from a consultant or a professor, but instead they're learning from those who are shaping the industry directly. When we are reshaping the logistics network for Festival Town, for example, we will learn from the team that built Amazon's Prime network, and who now run the successful logistics tech company, Shipium.
Finally, participants will be working alongside an all-star cast in Festival Town's executive leadership team. From the Chief Executive Officer to the Chief Finance Officer, Chief Revenue Officer, Head of Manufacturing, and Head of Logistics, all of Festival Town's executives are accomplished executives who deeply understand the challenges of transformation. They will not make it easy.
Coaches
Advisors
Festival Town Key Personnel
JOIN THE NEXT GENERATION PARADIGM
Benefits to You
Grow beyond your functional expertise into a T-Leader, spanning end-to-end knowledge and responsibilities. Our team of former Chief Supply Chain Officers have identified three areas supply chain leaders need to master to succeed in this dynamic new normal.
End-to-End Expertise
Work with seasoned Fortune 500 executives to understand how end-to-end supply chain functions connect with finance, marketing, sales, and other business functions.
Topics of focus include:
• Managing the interconnectivity between planning, manufacturing, inventory management, and distribution.
• Storytelling and case-building with the executive team.
• Understanding concerns and priorities across departments and functions; learning how to relate to other executives.
Technology Savvy
Latest Supply-Chain-as-a-Service technology solutions have evolved from one-size-fits-all ERP systems to constellations of agile, light-implementation, best-in-class spot solutions.
These new solutions connect supply chain functions end-to-end requiring supply chain leaders to also think end-to-end.
• Discuss innovative technologies incl. latest AI applications.
• Benchmarks with peer organizations.
• Build relationships with technology leaders, investors, and thought leaders.
Cross-Functional Communications
This dynamic future requires organizations to stay agile and adapt constantly. Changing processes, implementing new technologies, upskilling their teams.
• Stay focused on solving only relevant business problems.
• Become comfortable making difficult decisions in times of uncertainty and lack of all the facts.
• Communicate effectively with your stakeholders and teams.
"By fostering a solid understanding of business and financial implications, this program has enabled our participating team members to better present supply chain initiatives from a business perspective that strongly resonates with our executive strategy and team."
David Leich
Executive Director Global Supply Chain, GM
The Location
Festival Town HQ
- The team will have dedicated, private space on the first floor of CH Robinson's beautiful flagship office in downtown Chicago, and will be working in the executive board room, learning & development room, kitchen, and multiple breakout rooms.
- There will be plenty of private spaces for calls or independent work time, but we strongly encourage participants to block out the calendar for full immersion into the simulation.
The Neighborhood
- The Festival Town HQ, and the hotel, are located at the intersection of Chicago's trendy Lincoln Park, Bucktown, and Logan Square neighborhoods. This location is a short walk from world-class dining and cultural landmarks, and a 5-minute taxi ride to the beautiful Chicago Lakeshore.
Lodging
- We have a room block reserved for all participants at the Hotel at Midtown Athletic Club. Bring your exercise clothes--you don't want to miss out on the incredible amenities at the Club.
Program Cost: $10,000 per participant
Session Dates: September 8-11, 2024
Location: Chicago, IL
Limited to 20 Participants
Schedule Your Briefing Call
If you are a supply chain leader ready to take the next step in your career, or to help grow your team into executive leaders, we'd love to talk more about how the Supply Chain T-Leader Immersive Program can fit your goals.