What if billions of dollars in supply chain waste could become a new source of profitability while helping communities in need?

In this episode of The Momentum Flow, host Luis Solana sits down with Steve Robinson, Founder & CEO of The Supply Chain Project, to explore the concept of the Second Supply Chain, a new approach to connecting stranded commercial capacity with real humanitarian demand.

From empty truck miles and unused warehouse space to excess inventory and billions in retail returns, Steve challenges supply chain leaders to rethink how they measure asset utilization, profitability, and operational efficiency.

Drawing on his experience with organizations including Walmart, Starbucks, and One Network, Steve explains how AI, advanced technology, and smarter orchestration can help businesses unlock value from resources that would otherwise go to waste.

In this episode, you'll discover:

🔹 The Second Supply Chain: How unused commercial capacity can be matched with humanitarian demand to create economic and social value.

🔹 The Economics of Waste: Why excess inventory, empty miles, and unused assets represent opportunities to improve financial performance.

🔹 AI & Supply Chain Orchestration: How intelligent platforms can connect organizations, identify opportunities, and optimize resource allocation.

🔹 Profitability Through Sustainability: How strategic donations, waste reduction, and improved asset utilization can support stronger financial outcomes.

🔹 The Human Balance Sheet: Why Steve believes supply chain success should include measurable improvements in human well-being alongside traditional financial metrics.

🔹 The Future of Supply Chain Leadership: Why eliminating systemic waste is becoming a strategic responsibility for executives.

About Our Guest

Steve Robinson is an award-winning supply chain executive, Founder & CEO of The Supply Chain Project, and an investor and advisor in strategic technology and wellness. His experience includes leadership roles and work associated with Walmart, Starbucks, and One Network.

How do you build a supply chain capable of supporting 15,000 restaurants, managing billions of dollars in operations, and delivering consistent quality across different countries and cultures?

In this special Spanish-language episode of The Momentum Flow, host Luis Solana sits down with José Carlos “JC” González Méndez, former McDonald's executive, to explore the leadership, strategy, and supplier relationships behind one of the world's most recognizable business systems.

JC spent more than three decades at McDonald's, beginning as the company's first employee in Mexico, where he helped establish the supply network for its entry into the country. His career eventually took him into leadership roles across Mexico, Latin America, and North America, as well as global leadership at Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Together, Luis and JC explore how supply chains become strategic competitive advantages, why long-term relationships matter more than transactional purchasing, and how leaders balance operational excellence with innovation and change.

**In this episode, you'll discover:**
- How McDonald's built its supplier ecosystem in Mexico and scaled across international markets.
- Why supply chain strategy must be part of business strategy.
- How supplier trust, risk management, and cost predictability support growth.
- Why successful leaders must sometimes rethink their career paths to gain broader experience.
- How AI and technology are transforming supply chain decisions.
- Why organizational culture, integrity, and leadership remain difficult to replicate.

🎙️ Episode Language: Spanish | Idioma del episodio: Español

English subtitles are available for viewers who prefer to follow the conversation in English.

What comes after supply chain visibility?

In this episode of The Momentum Flow, Luis Solana sits down with Matt Elenjickal, CEO and Founder of FourKites, to explore the next evolution of supply chain technology: moving from seeing what is happening to helping drive the outcome.

Matt introduces the idea of Outcome-as-a-Service, a model that pushes technology beyond dashboards, alerts, and visibility toward greater accountability for real operational results. The conversation explores AI agents, automated action, shared accountability between technology providers and customers, and the value of preventing disruptions before they become tomorrow morning’s escalation.

They also dig into a fascinating challenge: how do you measure the value of something that never happened? A delay avoided, a shipment rerouted, a stockout prevented, or hours of firefighting eliminated can create enormous value, even when the win itself is almost invisible.

The conversation ultimately asks a bigger question for operators, technology leaders, and investors: as AI becomes more capable of acting on supply chain data, will the value of technology increasingly be measured by the outcomes it delivers rather than the tools it provides?

🎙️ The Momentum Flow with Luis Solana
Guest: Matt Elenjickal, CEO & Founder, FourKites
Episode: Beyond Visibility: The Rise of Outcome-as-a-Service

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#SupplyChain #SupplyChainTechnology #AI #FourKites #Logistics #Innovation #TheMomentumFlow

What keeps a successful company from getting too comfortable with what made it successful?

That’s part of the conversation in tomorrow’s episode of The Momentum Flow with Dov Shenkman, CEO & Founder of Atid Group and author of Value Centric.

Dov has spent more than 30 years working in business transformation, and we get into why companies lose momentum, why waiting until something is broken can make transformation much harder, and how leaders can keep the organization focused on where value is actually being created.

We also talk about AI, customer value, supply chain, and the danger of treating new technology as another cost-cutting exercise instead of asking what it could allow the business to do differently.

There’s a lot in this conversation for leaders trying to balance what’s working today with what the business will need tomorrow.

What keeps a successful company from getting too comfortable with what made it successful?

That’s part of the conversation in tomorrow’s episode of The Momentum Flow with Dov Shenkman, CEO & Founder of Atid Group and author of Value Centric.

Dov has spent more than 30 years working in business transformation, and we get into why companies lose momentum, why waiting until something is broken can make transformation much harder, and how leaders can keep the organization focused on where value is actually being created.

We also talk about AI, customer value, supply chain, and the danger of treating new technology as another cost-cutting exercise instead of asking what it could allow the business to do differently.

There’s a lot in this conversation for leaders trying to balance what’s working today with what the business will need tomorrow.

What happens when one of the most overlooked parts of the supply chain finally gets a technology upgrade?

In this episode of The Momentum Flow, Luis Solana sits down with Matt Yearling, CEO of YMX Logistics, to explore how AI, automation, computer vision, and electrification are transforming yard operations.

Matt shares why traditional yard management is often still labor-driven, how YMX is building a more intelligent yard operating system, and why the path to automation starts with standardizing and instrumenting operations first.

They also discuss safety, pay-for-performance pricing, electric yard trucks, autonomous operations, and why the yard could represent a significant untapped opportunity for supply chain improvement.

If you’re interested in where AI and physical operations collide, and what the next generation of logistics could look like, this conversation is for you.

What does the future of supply chain leadership look like when AI, technology, and human judgment are all changing at the same time?

In this episode of The Momentum Flow, Luis Solana sits down with Pascal Montilus, Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Chain Officer at The Clorox Company, for a conversation about the evolution of supply chain from an operational function into a strategic driver of growth, innovation, and competitive advantage.

Pascal shares lessons from his journey from mechanical engineering to global supply chain leadership and explains how his definition of “end-to-end” has evolved from optimizing manufacturing to connecting consumer insight, demand, suppliers, customers, and execution across the enterprise.

Luis and Pascal also explore how AI could democratize capabilities across organizations, why technology alone cannot transform a business, and why human judgment becomes even more important as technology advances.

They discuss:

• The evolution of end-to-end supply chain leadership
• AI as a force multiplier for people and organizations
• Why technology must be paired with process and people
• Moving from functional optimization to enterprise-wide decision-making
• Building resilience in an increasingly complex environment
• Digital fluency, financial acumen, and cross-functional leadership
• Why adaptability is becoming an essential leadership capability
• Developing the next generation of supply chain leaders

The big takeaway? Supply chain is no longer simply a function to optimize. It can be a catalyst for what an organization has the potential to become.

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#TheMomentumFlow #SupplyChain #AI #Leadership #Clorox #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #BusinessStrategy

In this episode of The Momentum Flow, Luis Solana sits down with Bjoern Kirchner, Corporate Vice President of Global Supply Chain at Henkel Adhesive Technologies, for a wide-ranging conversation on how technology is reshaping global supply chains and redefining what effective leadership looks like.

Drawing on a career that has taken him across Europe and China, Bjoern reflects on the major technology shifts that have transformed the industry, from ERP systems and external data integration to the rise of artificial intelligence. He also explains why technology alone rarely creates lasting value without the right processes, data quality, governance, culture, and organizational readiness behind it.

Luis and Bjoern explore the difference between digitizing existing work and creating true business transformation, how leaders can balance governance with agility, and why AI will increasingly handle transactional and complex tasks while humans focus on judgment, relationships, stakeholder alignment, and long-term strategic decisions.

They also discuss the leadership capabilities that will matter most in the AI era, including curiosity, resilience, international experience, cross-functional understanding, and the ability to turn technology into better decisions and stronger execution.

This episode is for supply chain leaders, executives, founders, investors, and operators who want to understand not only where AI may create value, but what organizations must do first to capture it.

Subscribe to The Momentum Flow for more conversations on supply chain innovation, leadership, technology, investing, and sustainable growth.

#TheMomentumFlow #SupplyChain #ArtificialIntelligence #Leadership #DigitalTransformation #ERP #Innovation #Henkel #BusinessTransformation