The Supply Chain Dialogues started in early 2023 with a simple idea: turn four decades of executive experience into structured conversations about what actually goes wrong in operations, supply chains, procurement, and corporate design — and what to do about it.
Season 1 laid the groundwork. Working with AI co-host Amy, the episodes walked through the core questions that reveal blind spots in any organisation: where value leaks, where processes break down, and where leadership gaps hide in plain sight.
Season 2 opened the door to guests. Practitioners and academics joined the conversation — on sustainability, GHG emissions, digital transformation, leadership, and the harder questions that rarely make it into management meetings.
Season 3 went deeper into sustainability and the path to Net Zero, exploring the human, organisational, and market forces that determine whether companies actually change — or just report change.
Season 4 drew directly on doctoral research into GHG emission reduction in discrete manufacturing. The findings challenged much of the conventional wisdom around regulation, measurement, and organisational size — and pointed toward what actually works.
All episodes are available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, with full transcripts available here.
S02E13 - Profit - Supply Chains in M&As: the invisible gorilla
In drawing upon the iconic social science study conducted at Harvard, known as the Invisible Gorilla Experiment, we can relate it to the context of Mergers & Acquisitions and supply chains.
Just as participants in the experiment would throw high-speed balls at each other, members of the management board and their M&A team and banks engage in a fast-paced exchange of ideas and actions. Throughout this process, the supply chain, which we refer to as the metaphorical gorilla in our scenario, remains ever-present yet unnoticed and unheard in the background.
Failing to acknowledge or scrutinize the influence of this "ape" during the due diligence phase can only be viewed as a grave oversight, bordering on negligence. The supply chain can exert positive or negative implications on any manufacturing firm's overall success.
In this episode, Daniel and AImee show how to make the gorilla visible.
Enjoy!