If Roberto Isaias, Chief Supply Officer at toy giant Mattel, is hiring, I am sending in an application. More on that in just a bit.
I am fresh back from almost two full days at the 2024 Edge Conference in Nashville at the magnificent Gaylord Opryland hotel and convention center.
This is actually the second time in three years that Edge has been at this first of the Gaylord’s complexes, as CSCMP has aligned with these now Marriott properties for 5-6 years, coming off the Gaylord in Orlando in 2023, and headed to the Gaylord National Harbor in Maryland across the Potomac River from Washington DC, in 2025.
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At one level, it’s pretty simple: what supply chain capabilities do the multiple commercial units in Mattel need and want to be successful?
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This is actually the second time in three years that Edge has been at this first of the Gaylord’s complexes, as CSCMP has aligned with these now Marriott properties for 5-6 years, coming off the Gaylord in Orlando in 2023, and headed to the Gaylord National Harbor in Maryland across the Potomac River from Washington DC, in 2025.
As those who have stayed at any of Gaylord’s knows, it is often very confusing to navigate from point A to point B across the mammoth properties, but the overall experience is worth the modest frustration.
I believe the attendance this year was in the low 2000s, down maybe a few hundred from 2500 or so last year in Orlando, for reasons not clear The SupplyChainXchange trade show seemed to be up a bit in terms of number of exhibitors.
This is the fourth Edge conference under the leadership of my friend Mark Baxa, ex-of Monsanto and a long active CSCMP member, who took over in early 2021. Baxa seems now fully comfortable in his executive role.
The show has a theme this year (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t), which was “The State of the Global Supply Chain.” I am not sure how that theme was really executed, but maybe it was baked into the sessions more than I perceived.
Some changes in the show structure were inaugurated in 2023 after years of a mostly static structure. Most notable of those changes was the addition of a late afternoon keynote presentation on Monday and Tuesday, following some CSCMP business and an opening keynote. In between were educational sessions, and some open time, designed to allow time to visit the SupplyChainXchange.
The afternoon keynote was back here in 2024, and I think to the good.
Also continuing was a reduction in the number of breakout session seen in 2023, when the number declined from over 100 in 2022 to about 55 last year, and a bit fewer in 2024, amid a continued reduction in the number of presentation tracks.
Conference Chair Amy Proctor of Trinity Logistics noted the consistent feedback from attendees that when it comes to educational sessions, quality was better than quantity, leading to the continued session consolidation.
My opinion: I think this reduction in sessions has gone as far as it should, and in some cases, notably warehouse and distribution topics, may need to be reversed a bit.
Switching gears, also in the opening session, long-time supply chain and logistics executive and consultant Heather Sheehan, whose varied career includes a stint as Chief Supply Chain Officer industrial giant Danaher Corporation, was presented with the Distinguished Service Award, the industry’s most prestigious honor.
I know of Sheehan but not personally, but her resume is impressive, and she seem a very appropriate winner of the DSA.
In her brief remarks, Sheehan said she got a lot of her active involvement with CSCMP and encouraged young supply chain professionals to take chances in their careers – a consistent theme of DSAs over the years.
There was some additional CSCMP-related business that I may summarized next week.
So let’s move to the keynotes, starting with the opening presentation from a guy named Morris Morrison. I must confess I did not know of him but that may be me.
I would characterize this as a motivational session, as in bits and pieces he told his story in a very appealing way, rising from being orphaned and raised by a grandmother to what is now tremendous career success.
I am not sure what if any what the takeaways from his presentation really were, but they were delivered charmingly, with some supply chain terms thrown around, and the crowd ate it up, offering a loud standing ovation.
The Monday afternoon keynote was an interview with Fawn Weaver, CEO of bourbon company Uncle Nearest, with the story of a pre-civil war slave becoming a master whiskey maker, inventing what we know today as Tennessee whiskey (e.g., Jack Daniel).
 A journalist, Weaver was able to correct the historical record on all this, and parlayed that, almost accidentally, into an award-winning whiskey company.
Not much to do with supply chain, but a great story I had heard before.
But all about supply chain was the Tuesday opening keynote with the aforementioned Roberto Isaias, who started out in engineering only to rise to CSCO at Mattel.
He told the story of the role the supply chain played in the remarkable business recovery of the maker of Barbie, Fisher Price and a variety of other toy brands, and shared his philosophies on supply chain and the business.
At one level, there was nothing especially brilliant here. But Isaias somehow put a twist to that that made it very different, delivered in a heartfelt, passionate way that combined made it one of the best keynotes I have seen in many years.
In part, it can be summarized as “it’s about we not me.”
Greatly simplifying, it was not long that ago that there were tough times for toy makers. But Mattel has reinvented itself, exemplified by the huge success of the Barbie moving in 2023. (Note: expect many other brand-themed movies from Mattel soon.)
At one level, it’s pretty simple: what supply chain capabilities do the multiple commercial units in Mattel need and want to be successful? And then how do you work very collaboratively to develop a plan with each business, backed by joint SLAs?
The SLAs explicitly recognize tradeoffs, notably between inventory and service. Often, that involves using different sourcing options (shorter and longer supply chains, including use of air freight), depending on where the product is one its lifecycle.
But Isaias is about a lot more than that, especially when it comes to his people, including welcoming news of failures/mistakes. If you don’t take this approach, Isais said, issues get buried.
The overall message to me: supply chain success and transformation are easier than we may think, if you just approach it from a different mindset. Very good.
I am going to end this trip report here. I will be back next week with Part 2, including highlights from select educational sessions, and my overall review.
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