 Welcome everybody to the next episode of DSCI Insights and as today's guest, I have Sugatric Uluru, who is the director of the Trailblazers program within DSCI. I don't want to explain a lot about the program because this will be her task today, but I can tell you that it will be an exciting focus into new way of approaching and diversifying talent within supply chain. So Sugatric, welcome and thank you for being with us. Thank you Marco, thanks for having me. So let's kick start and then deep dive maybe into something which can give our audience a clear picture of what inspired Digital Supply Chain Institute to create the Trailblazers program. Sure. So through our conversations and especially my conversations with the DSCI members over the past few years, some of you, some of those conversations you've been part of, I had the opportunity to conduct interviews with numerous women leaders in the supply chain industry and during these interviews, we discussed their personal strategies, professional growth strategies and one recurring factor that stood out was the significant role of a mentor in their success. These women leaders attributed a substantial amount of their achievements to mentorship and consequently, we have launched the mentorship strategy leadership program under the Trailblazers initiative, which aims to promote women leadership in the supply chain industry. And this is a topic of interest to all our members and our mentorship program will have a high-touch approach where each mentee will have a dedicated mentor along with practical life sessions focusing on digital supply chain leadership. And the overarching theme of this program and this initiative is to enhance collaborative learning and network building among early stage women professionals in the supply chain industry. This is really a very insightful, thank you very much for it and also very motivating and empowering. And it seems to me, especially because the program is entering into its third year, the empowerment is one of the, let's say key foundations. So having that in mind and pro-activity, which you have shown with the team and with the members is can you share then what you have learned or observed during the program in first two years? Yeah, I mean, we had great two years of the program. We started in 2021 Mark, as you said, and we called it 21 for 21 and we are in year three now, which we are about to call it as 23 for 23. And it is widely acknowledged, as we all know that the mentorship is a valuable resource in the professional development of individuals, right? However, through my two years of leading this program, I've come to realize that having access to an external mentor, someone outside of one's organization and network is even more valuable. And although we initially established the program as a mentorship and a leadership crack, the program organically evolved into a safe space for participants to discuss workspace hurdles and issues openly. And we introduced something called the open mic sessions, which have been particularly, particularly well received, allowing individuals to bring up questions and receive feedback from their peers in a small group setting. And that said, my main takeaway from this experience is that women in the supply chain industry require more avenues to collaborate and share best practices. And I'm delighted that a program has become one such avenue for women professionals to connect, learn from one another and grow together. Thank you for that, Sugathri. And as they usually say in business, right, you start with an idea, you know, you build it forward, you go to the market, you learn. And if you survive first two years and get successfully to the third, that means that, you know, you have the value, right? So it seems like you're graduating with that. And I think it won't be a value for everybody. If I don't ask you, you know, what have the participants said about the program and what have mentors said about the program? Because creating these kinds of things is nice. Having these ideas is great. But if you don't serve those for whom it's created, then, you know, it's a lost opportunity. So what's what were what were their inputs? No, that's a wonderful question. I mean, it's been such a gratifying experience personally reading this program and mentoring activity has been highly successful. That said, we had like 80% of the mentor-mentee pairs establishing or maintaining effective relationships. And of course, some pairs didn't work because, you know, whether they didn't have the right rapport connection. But out of the 80% success rate, like, you know, we have witnessed participants receiving promotions, some secured new jobs with the help of the mentors. And our participants have expressed deep gratitude for the program and the guidance they have received from the mentors. And vice versa, you know, the mentors have also gotten a chance to understand what's happening in the industry across various companies through their mentees. So I would say many of our mentors and mentees have expressed a desire to continue the relationship with the program and give back to the program in any way they can. Talking about leadership, it's always about, you know, like certain plans, ideas, but then as well, not everything in the plan goes accordingly, as they said. And thank you for being so open to say that certainly in most of the cases it worked. That's why the program is going forward, but there are certain things which, you know, didn't work and we learned from them. So having that in mind is how does the program prepare emerging leaders to lead the digital supply chain transformation? I think this is one of the most commonly asked questions. All the participants who apply for the program are curious to know this answer. So what I would say is to keep it short, we do have like mentorship is a huge part of the program, but apart from that, we also have live sessions where we cover a breadth of topics including what is the digital supply chain? What are some of the enablers for digital supply chain transformation? We also teach them digital supply chain integration concepts by which I mean, you know, we do have subject matter experts at the Digital Supply Chain Institute who lead these live sessions and they have a case study based approach in some of the live sessions and overall our program is designed to build an understanding of the digital technologies and strategies that underpin successful supply chain transformation while also developing the leadership skills and capabilities necessary to lead and manage the change effectively. So we deal it, like we have a holistic approach in terms of how we train the participants and you know, so far we've received great feedback in terms of what they've gained from the live sessions. So having in mind everything you shared so far, training blazers are a very collaborative effort, right? And call it an ecosystem, you know, on its own. And it's not only for the mentees or the mentors to be part of it, but a significant role can be then played with the organization, right? So you know, both mentors and mentees are part of, you know, certain companies. So in that sense, from your point of view, and I think that can be a very important message for those who are considering or, you know, willing to go down this route is why should an organization support this kind of initiative? And how do you think it aligns to their talent goals? Yeah, great question, Marco. And I think it's very important to have support from an organizational standpoint to take this program to the next level and have like more sort of exposure to it. And if there are many areas, I think, which will be useful for an organization from a talent development standpoint. First, investing in women's leadership training can help organizations develop their talent pipeline. And we all agree on this. By providing training and development opportunities, I think organizations can help women build the skills and knowledge they need to take on leadership roles within the company. So this in turn can help to build a more sustainable talent pool. That's number one. And number two, improved performance. Research has been showing that companies with more women leadership roles tend to perform better than those with fewer women in leadership roles. Women bring unique perspectives and so has diverse teams. By investing in women's leadership training, I think organizations can help to foster this kind of performance enhancing diversity. And number three, gender diversity. This is on the top of the list and priority for most of the organization. Women's leadership training helps organizations increase gender diversity. Women are often underrepresented in leadership positions, especially in supply chain. It's changing. It's changing for good, but I think the rate at which it's changing is not enough. So by providing training opportunities again, specifically for women in this supply chain space, organizations can help address this imbalance. And all these will lead to better employee branding or employer branding. Supporting women's leadership training can also help organization to enhance their branding by demonstrating a commitment to diversity, inclusion and talent development. And I think these days, especially when talent retention is the most important factor for most of the organizations, having this sort of priority and employer branding is the key. And supporting programs like us will help not just individuals, but the entire organization having a better supply chain in general. Thank you very much, Sugathri. I think in a short period of time, we have covered a lot. And on the other side, it's always nice to have top leadership on one side, but on the other side to have practical applications and programs like Braille Blaise-Hersies. And I salute you and your team for the efforts, persistence, and then as well, what you have created in the last two years going into the third. And I think this is a clear example of how things and investments related to talent can change pieces of very traditional parts of the industry related to supply chain. And it can bring innovation and as well, excitement and motivation for transforming. So thank you for being with us. And this has been another digital supply chain institute Insights. And we'll keep on promoting the things which are related to value of supply chain transformation. And we invite you as well to join us in the next session.