Episode 7:
Problem solving through data solutions with Priscilla Parrish

Perfect. I’m thinking, I wonder if there’s anyone listening to the podcast who might be considering a career in supply chain or wanting to become a logistics expert, and you’re saying, fixers and problem solvers. They’re going to be able to geek out on fixing any of these problems.

Well, you’re veering us into, I know you’re sort of pet topic. The one you love talking about, which is all around data, isn’t it? When we had our Navigate session, we spoke about data. Tell me, what is it about data that you love?

Which is interesting. So I suppose, is there an implication in what you’re saying that in possibly supply chains that are not data rich, or maybe the old world of doing supply chain, people were making subjective decisions that came with probably greater risk.

Which is super interesting. You did speak about those different, I think you were talking about, it was almost like different camera lenses and everyone was zooming in on the data in a slightly different scope and with a slightly different lens. But of course, the dependency was that the data was consistent, the data was accurate, so that what everyone was approaching it, they were able to do that.

Which is really interesting because I imagine even though it might sound obvious all of your departments got together and spoke about your shared needs, it’s so easy for all of us to end up in little silos, in little areas of our own. So even the fact that you were able to use sort of, I suppose, data as almost like the single common language to bring functions together, I think is so great to hear.

Priscilla, it’s really interesting to hear. Obviously the way that you guys are doing things at Velocity Commerce is, I hope you don’t mind me saying, it’s quite an evolved and advanced supply chain. You’re using data, you’re working collaboratively across the business. I imagine, even within the scope of your own experience over the last few years, you must have seen a real change between the old way of doing things versus how you’re doing things now. So, what’s that transition looked like?

Which is great. I know we’ve spoken before about Excel. You had some interesting personal experience of seeing just the kind of the opportunity cost and the impact of a slow and broken process using Excel. You spoke before about things like human error. Can you tell us a bit more about what that looks like for businesses that are dependent on those old, old ways of working?

It’s super interesting. I’d love to see that advert. I think I might get onto YouTube myself and see if I can find it.

Sounds great. But it’s interesting because you were talking so much about the potential of having improved data leading to automation and what that can mean for a supply chain in a business. But I think there are lots of people who might listen to a podcast like this who work in supply chain, maybe a business that’s not felt ready to take that step, or that sees a list of reasons not to change the way they’re managing data and processes. What is your stance on the sort of adoption of improved data and tech within supply chain?

There’s some really practical advice in there though, isn’t there? Which is for anyone that’s maybe thinking how to make that case, follow the money, be brave, talk to the leadership and to your key stakeholders and use that data to demonstrate potential.

Amazing. Now obviously, I’m a convert to the Priscilla way of thinking. I’m sure lots of people who are listening to this are converts too, but you’ve had such an interesting career. I’d love to hear Priscilla. You said yourself, you’ve had ups and downs, you’ve seen failures, you’ve seen challenges, and that’s something we talk about a lot. Ship happens. So can you tell us, what’s the story that you tell your friends at a dinner party about when ship has happened in your supply chain career?

Who would have thought?

Well, testament to how important visibility is and how important being able to follow that data. But I never thought that clothes hangers could have cost so much stress.

That’s a good point though. You can’t open a shop unless you’ve got something to hang the clothes on.

I’m going to catch you out though, because this was meant to be a ship happens moment, but you really overcame that. You sorted out, you solved the problem, the Priscilla way persisted. Has there ever been a ship happens moment that you’ve not been able to turn around?

You’ve told me about the many hats that you have to wear in your career. I’m imagining you got your Inspector Poirot detective hat for a case like that.

I have a Sherlock hat. I didn’t bring it today. I forgot it completely. But I have a Sherlock hat. My coordinator, she has a Watson hat. We are Sherlock and Watson. We’re a dynamic duo.

Love it. I love a dynamic duo. Priscilla, as we come towards the end of our podcast, I’d love to hear from you what you envisage or think of as the future of the industry. Is there anywhere that you would like to see change in the supply chain space?

This is going to sound like a plug for Zencargo, but after adopting the Zencargo, and sharing my vision with Zencargo, and seeing how much it aligned, what the extrapolation of sort of the visibility that I’ve gained and the accountability that they have been able to provide me for my suppliers, the next step for me is tightening up that chain and going digital. I want everything digital. No offense to the lovely people at Zencargo, but I want less contact with you as much as possible. Unless there’s a problem, unless there’s a fire, unless there’s something that absolutely needs my attention right then and there, I would love to see things happen in a very automated way.

I was part of automation and implementing automation in my last warehouse and seeing robots and seeing those types of things and building business cases for that. For me, that’s the core to my job, is making sure that we enable the rest of the business to go forward without costing more and being more agile. I would love to see more companies doing those things.

Also, more companies thinking about their footprint. I’ve spoke in depth about container utilisation and how important that is to me. But it’s not just the utilisation point of it, it’s the environmental impact that it has. You ship a half full container, well, not only are you wasting money, but you’re impacting environment in a negative way. There needs to be some accountability or at least someone looking at that to try and minimise those things. So I’d love to see more of an environmental aspect of logistics and how the two can coincide. Because supply chain is always going to need to be there. We’re always going to need to have a supply chain. We just need to be better at what we do for our earth and the future generations.

Such a true point. I feel like I probably also need to throw in an official disclaimer that we didn’t put too much pressure on you to call out Zencargo.

But thank you for aligning to our way of thinking and hopefully our vision of a world with smarter trade. Priscilla, I’ve got two more areas of focus that I’d love to go through with you. One is, it’s around appreciation actually. Because something I’m noticing is we have these podcasts and I’ve been so privileged to talk to some amazing leaders from across the supply chain space. In a world that is logistical and full of heavy goods and machinery and products and SKUs, actually at the heart of it, even with the data and the tech, we’ve got a whole lot of incredible people who are driving supply chain and we all have people to thank in our journeys. You already called out someone who mentored you. I was just wondering while you’ve got this forum of the podcast, is there anyone that you would like to call out and thank for their impact on your career?

There are two people I will call out and they’re both going to really hate me for this: Karen Donovan and Jess Mays. I am proud enough to call them my friends. But also they’ve both helped me in my logistics career. It’s always great to have that sounding board with someone who isn’t … Logistics is really a niche career in a way that you can explain what you do and people still don’t understand it. I mean, now they do with the pandemic and supply chain being blamed for everything. Well, the shortages of everything. But having someone who you can speak to and they understand the struggles, they’ve been there, they’ve done that, and they can give you advice on it, that’s been a great help, especially transitioning from operations into logistics. It seems like it’s sort of a good fit, but there are this way of thinking, this is how it should be operationally. You have to tweak it for logistics because it’s not the same. It’s different. Those two people are probably high up on the list of people I’d like to thank.

Thanks for calling them out. It’s great that obviously that mentorship has turned into into friendship. It’s the best end point. We’ve got one more thing to do Priscilla, and you knew it was coming. It’s time for our quickfire question round.

I knew this was coming.

It’s edge of your seat stuff. I hope you’re ready.

Let’s do it.

Let’s get started. First question for you, Priscilla is, would you rather at this moment in time, focus on making your supply chain agile or resilient?

Resilient.

Perfect. Can you sum up the supply chain market in three words?

Hectic, trying, fruitful.

Great best career advice you’ve ever received?

Always follow the money.

What is the number one lesson that working in supply chain has taught you?

Ship happens. Your delivery might be late. There’s no reason to be mad at that delivery driver. It could have been 12 different movements above that person. Ship happens. It is what it is.

We love that Priscilla. I knew we were going to have a good time. Thank you so much. It’s always a pleasure speaking with you.

Thank you for having me.

And a huge thank you also to our audience for tuning into this episode. If anyone has any questions or any feedback, please do contact me or Zencargo on LinkedIn. Thank you everyone and until next week, goodbye.