 Hello, everyone. Welcome to the next edition of DSCI Insights. As we have promised when we started DSCI Insights, we would like to share with the global supply chain community the insights from digital supply chain transformation. And those insights are focused to be not only talk leadership-wise, but focused on the practical aspect of the supply chain transformation, learnings from the companies who are doing it on the ground, as well as learnings from the research we do, specifically the applied research, which is related to hands-on inputs and information from the market. So today with me, it's an honor to have Vivek Gelani, who is a digital supply chain institute director of research. So welcome Vivek. Thank you, Marco. Happy to be here. So Vivek, we selected a topic which is a very, very interesting topic, the topic of new customer. So as we know before, knowing your customer has been a business mantra for decades, right? But in the last few years, certain things changed, especially it changed towards the supply chain. So in that sense, supply chains became more customer-centric. But through the research you have been doing with the digital supply chain institute team, and as well with the digital supply chain institute global community, can you share with us what has changed? Yes, definitely, Marco. I think a supply chain has always focused on customer in a way, always talked about customer-centric approach. But in recent years specifically, we talked about the last two or three years, customer has been more increasingly aware of their purchasing power, and like Antoine, they're buying decision as well. And with the rise of the e-commerce right now, or if you say direct to customer market, you have information to social media access to the internet, all of this has empowered customers to access to more information and have higher expectation for product quality, delivery speed, transparency, sustainability expectation. And as a result of all of these evolving needs of the customer, and those needs are changing not just on annual basis or a six month basis, they are changing every day. Previously, like 10 years ago in supply chain, people used to do annual survey of the customer, okay, what are their expectations, but nowadays their expectations are changing every day, every minute. And I think supply chain leaders need to make sure that they tap into that information, tap into the social media information, their customer profile, make sure that they understand their customer's changing needs, and make sure that they meet those needs in the right way, to make sure that the customer have a good customer satisfaction, they have a good customer experience. And there are several reasons why, and I think I'll talk more later in the call, but I think just outline four of those. First of all, their expectations are changing. Second one is increased competition on the internet, on the web, or you talk about the social media. Next one is customer empowerment, and after that is increased demand for transparency, on where the actual product came from, where are they manufactured, how it's being delivered, and what kind of labor is involved into the process of delivering the product from end to end. So I think those are the main key points that I think supply chain leaders need to stay aware of, and make sure that they count those in when they think about customer centric, and at BSEI we actually say that overall it was customer centric, but now supply chain leaders and their company needs to be customer present with their expectations. Michael. Thank you Vivek, you know, listening to you when you said, you know, we need to be customer present rather than customer centric now, and listening to all components you have shared, it seems like the relationship with the customer today is more complex than supply chain on its own. With all the moving parts you have been talking about, and the expectations with digital channels, and then COVID as well accelerated. Having that in mind and knowing what you shared, I think this is the second year in a row that BSEI is doing this research, and as I know, and as you have shared, in general, this will be an ongoing project on yearly basis, so the notes can be compared, and the evolution of the relationship with the customer can be followed. Can you share with us, you know, what are the new insights from the last survey up to this survey, what you have located? Definitely, Marcus. I think the survey reveals a few, definitely more insights than I think supply chain leaders need to look at, and I think there are customer expectations that are changing, and some of, I won't list out like there are like 10 or 12 of those, but I list out the top three that we found out, and the first one was the factor influencing the return decisions, right? The why customer has written a particular product or services, why they were not satisfied with the product or the service, so the top three factors are around damage items, the product is damaged, incorrect product or size, a product does not match the description or service doesn't match their expectation as well. So these are the findings that highlight the importance of improving the quality and the accuracy of the product, right? So supply chain leaders need to make sure that in the manufacturing process, in the delivery process, or in the logistic process, they need to make sure they have the accuracy, and I think they can use the AI and ML technology to make sure that the product quality is up to the mark of the expectation of the customer, right? The second insight that was really coming out of this research was factor influencing the purchasing decisions as well, and there were top five factors that we found out. First one was system of reviews. We had product availability, speed of delivery, price, and also availability of various products in terms of different variety of the products available at the time for consumers to choose from. And this highlights actually importance of how the products are easily accessible for them to order, how fast and efficient is the company in delivering them in the delivery time. So I think that's where supply chain leaders also need to focus on. And the third insight that we found was really highlighting was transparency in the supply chain. So our recent survey found out that 41% of the customers want to have transparency into where the products are made and where they are coming from. This highlights the growing demand for transparency as well as the need for any supply chain leader. And this doesn't really care about any supply chain organization to have to incorporate transparency into their operations, right? Not just as a report that goes out to the shareholder, but as an attach it to the product that goes out to all the customers, because customers are the ultimate stakeholders that's going to value your company and your supply chain. Now, have you delivered to them? I think that's where supply chain leader needs to focus on. So those are the main three insights that we got was the factor in influencing the return decisions, factor influencing the purchasing decisions and the transparency into the supply chain. Very, very interesting Vivek. And one thing you mentioned I would like to underline and repeat. And that's that basically our main stakeholder in today's supply chain is the customer, which is a big demographic change from the previous times. Having that in mind as well, what you shared, it looks like that the overall visibility and transparency from first to last mind is important to the new customer, not only to the company's partners and suppliers who are part of the value chain, but now for the customer as well in a sense of having fair and transparent pricing, seeing the inputs of the, let's say, experiences from the other customers, understanding the ESG side of it and also having transparency and visibility on the way of where and how the product has been created. So this really changes the paradigm on one side, but it also helps companies for the future focus on the right areas to improve and then keep happy loyal customers. So having all these things in mind, how would you say that comparing the two researches, do you see any trends emerging from that? We were talking now about the differences, but are there any trends that you see we can follow? Yeah, definitely Mark, I think comparing 2021 to 2022. We also want because up until this point, supply chain was always seen as a backend of any company was never the front runner up of the company from part of the any company where they are the decision makers that wrote the last five years and especially in the last few years, supply chain has always been the top of the town and has always and now customer has been talking about supply chain. So we all also wanted to know about how supply like does the customer know about supply chain? Do they know the definition of it? So that was in the survey highlighted that there was an increase in awareness about supply chain and the knowledge about supply chain from 70% to 90% from 2021 to 2022. So that was really how well now customer knows how supply chain works and they know they have the knowledge about the supply chain. That was also increased awareness from 60 to 65% after the COVID pandemic about supply chain. And there was also one more data where a privacy is one of the more concern for customers nowadays, but people are still willing to share the data for personalized product recommendation where 41% are okay with sharing the data compared to just 28 in 2021. So definitely that is we see those kind of trends as long as you are or a company is providing a better privacy protection on the data and they are not sharing outside their organization. They are willing to share the data. There's one more interest in fact was the price. Price to remain at the highest point of factor influencing the purchasing decision. It was still the highest factor in 2021. It is still highest. It was 75, but now it's 79 compared to 2021. And if you look at I think the way market is shifting the way global GDP is going right now and the talk of the decision right now. I think people are more aware of the price right now. And I think it's going to stay there for at least a year moving forward. And Marco, going back to your transfer transparency comment, I think companies need to do more in terms of transparency because that's going to stay there. It's not going to just help customers. But it's going to help you internet as well. After COVID pandemic and the recent global conflict going on, right? The companies need to focus on their agility and flexibility within the supply chain and getting the transparency for customers, but also for your operation will help you diversify your supply base, diversify your operation base, diversify your manufacturing base. And it will ultimately help you deliver your products on the right time to the right customer. So I think transparency is also one of the highlighting point coming out of that. And I think it's a win-win for both if they do that. Very, this has been very insightful, especially explaining how the new customer is now more aware of what supply chain is and how it functions and that notion maybe can drive us towards the potential on the other side that if people are getting more knowledgeable about it, more engaged with it, maybe the future of talent in supply chain will be much better than it was before because the customer is now going towards understanding in a better way and maybe they'll go towards the company. But putting, let's say, a joke aside, I think the side which you shared related to the transparency and pricing can be seen as well as a trend where through new customer and their engagement, which is now through digital channels, real time in a way, we can also measure the pulse of the market. And the pulse of the market is, as you rightly said, yet focused on the price competitiveness in most area because of the global macroeconomy situation. And today, customers do that without under quotes a survey because if you follow your channels and your customers, you can learn the trends of the market in a right way. So keeping our promise as well from where we started with that, I think what will be good to try to close with would be something to see what would be the actions that supply chain leaders can take going forward. Having in mind the things we have discussed and, let's say, the new setup of parameters which the new customers is setting. So through your research and work with various different global companies, what would be your advice for the actions? Definitely, Marcus. I think there are several steps that supply chain leaders take. And the first one, I think the supply chain leaders need to transfer the supply chain needs to make that from the back end of the office to the front end of the office to be at the center of the table with the other functions within the company, right? So I think companies need to do some sort of flip of the organization and especially the supply chain to make it a more digital supply chain and transform that. And to do that, we have a DSCI, we have written a good paper about it, a good action paper that I think supply chain leader can review and take some of those action items from it. Other than that, I think one of the key highlights and key action that we see up until now after COVID companies were focusing on scenario planning on if this kind of conflict happens, what got the action that supply chain leaders can take to manage their operations. But just to use that concept and use it for the customers on understanding every day run 10 to 15 scenarios on how customers expectation are changing that will help them change their operations and change their manufacturing and make sure they are on top of the needs of the customers. I think that that can be a really good action that supply chain leaders can take. And when we talk about some of the survey findings, I think based on that, I think if company can improve the product quality and accuracy to reduce the likelihoodness of return, that can be a good one. They can offer a wide variety of products and information related to transparency, reviews and availability and how to easily access those and order those products that can be a really good for customers and also for the company as well. They can focus on delivering fast and efficiently efficient delivery times. They can also incorporate feedback into the needs, right? So whenever they like it was a sales function before, but now it's a supply chain function. The supply chain function needs to make sure that they are reviewing what customers are saying about them on their website, on the platform, on different social media platforms, even on different podcasts. And anywhere they are mentioning your brand or your company, you need to be aware of that and how your brand image is changing. That's going to change customer's perspective. That's going to change their customer's expectation. And that's how you need to deliver on those kind of expectations. So I think those are the main actions I think supply chain leaders can take. And overall, I think after COVID, all of this, they need to build in the agility and flexibility into the supply chain when they do that to make sure that when next conflict happens, they are not out on the water and they don't have anything to deliver on. So it seems like actionability on one side and then as well, let's say, flexibility are very important things. And the new customer basically is now maybe engaged more than ever with the brand. But on the other side, they bring a certain acceleration towards the transformation and then keeping a happy and loyal customer with the activities you shared with WVAC gives a comparative advantage to the company and it becomes a relationship driven, let's say, focus on transforming supply chain hand in hand, which is new comparing to what it was. So we can conclude on a positive note, WVAC, that there are so many changing and moving parts if you agree. But on the other side, now we have customer as part of our supply chain and they will be as well vested engaged active members of the supply chain if they are happy with the product and delivery, right? Yeah, yeah. So I'll just close with this one, right? I think the customers are the main stakeholder for any organization or for any supply chain, right? And one should be driving the decision around the operations and the products and the services because those are the ones that are creating revenue or are going to increase revenue or decrease revenue, right? And to do this, I think at ESCI, and the insights that we have is going to differ from company to company on how you operationalize those insights and how you put an action plan towards it. But the front side flip framework that we have developed can help you put that framework around it, put those action plans around it. So definitely I recommend the viewers to at least read the front side flip action paper that we released last year also read the whole new customer report and make sure how you can align your company's actions according to the front side flip framework that can help you transform your supply chain into a digital supply chain that fulfills the needs of your customers. Dear Vivek, thank you for being with us. We look forward to more insights from your research laboratory going forward. We'll definitely reach out on the new areas and then as well following through the new customer segment and your continuous research. And I would like to thank you for being with us and thank everybody for listening and support and stay tuned for more actionable digital supply chain Institute insight. Thank you Mark. We're not happy to be here. So definitely we'll share more insight on new topics that we are doing research on. Thank you.