Leaders in Supply Chain and Logistics Podcast
Leaders in Supply Chain and Logistics Podcast is one of our projects focused on bringing some of the best thought leaders in the industry, pick their brains and share it with as many interested listeners as possible.
We want to connect you with global experts, thought leaders, and executives in all things value chain. We talk about Supply Chain's leading-edge technologies, leadership stories, and personal success habits.
Leaders in Supply Chain and Logistics Podcast
#03: Paul Bradley CEO Caprica International Part 1
Paul Bradley is the CEO of Caprica International. Paul is the Chairman and CEO, Caprica International and serving on the Boards of various organizations. He was also selected as a ‘New Asian Leader’ by the World Economic Forum. Leadership roles have spanned American, Japanese, Chinese and Indian companies with responsibilities across 14 countries. Created 7 start-ups and participated in the successful IPO launch of 2 companies. Passionate about innovation and developing multi-cultural talent to impact the future.
Discover more details here.
Some of the highlights of the episode:
- Most important technology trends in supply chain
- How AI and Block Chain is changing the game
- The importance of innovation and entrepreneurship and how start-ups disrupt the industry
- What is it like to be a member of the B20 task force of the G20 Summit
- How important it is to have great mentors
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Hello everybody and welcome to the leaders in supply chain podcast. I'm your host Rodeph Sholom, you global logistics and supply chain practice headed for Morgan Phillips Executive Search. Um, this is episode three and together with us today we will have as guest Paul Bradley,
Speaker 2:Chairman and CEO of[inaudible] International. In this episode we will cover a lot of interesting topics around technology to the rise of artificial intelligence in logistics to blockchain and other very interesting topics. Stay tuned and without further ado, here is episode three.
Speaker 3:Hello everybody and welcome to our third episode of bleeders in supply chain and logistics podcast. We're happy to have together with us today, Paul Bradley, Chairman and CEO of Caprica International. Paul is a long serving supply chain professional, having worked for many years for large logistics companies around the world, including the and fung inertia in, in India, uh, as well as shipping lines like Nyk, APL. Um, Paul is an entrepreneur, an industry influencer in a globe trotter. He sits on the board of supply chain. Asia is an independent director of open port, um, serves on the executive leadership council for the Thunderbird Business School is a CEO mentor to several SMEs and tech startups and a very interesting guy. So both. Welcome and it's a pleasure to have you here.
Speaker 4:Thanks Roger. Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3:Um, and also for our listeners, a very interesting effect about Paul is that he was selected by the World Economic Forum is one of the 40 new Asian leaders, which is a, let's say a very select love as well as he, he was part of the beat 20 task force, uh, which is actually a part of the g 20 heads of state, uh, summit that was held in Germany early this year. So definitely, uh, the one, uh, one person that I know in that position support even further. Happy to have you with us here today. Um, so for today we'll have as usually series a series of questions. So broadly, first and foremost we talk about industry. Secondly, we'll talk about talent and skills, uh, questions. And thirdly, we'll talk about a few personal device and pulled my share with our listeners. So Paul too, to deep dive. You are a man of incredibly diverse background. How would you introduce yourself into Munis to people?
Speaker 4:Well, I guess the first thing is our industry is a humbling experience and we're all learning throughout our career, uh, still at the learning stage of an infinite knowledge experience.
Speaker 3:MMM hmm.
Speaker 4:Interestingly, I started in campaigns and politics when I was young. I already in high school and college I spent a little bit of time in politics, uh, at a young age I worked at the US Senate and British House of Commons. And then I loved international business and international trade. So after graduate, when I got my MBA at Thunderbird and global management, I decided logistics and shipping was a way of connecting the whole world, right? Money, connection the world. And so there's the physical flow of goods. So I entered apls management training program in California, Seattle, New York, and just had a tremendous learning experience about the shipping industry, hands on, touching everything. And then you realize how important every role of everyone in the organization is. Right from lashing the containers to planning the trains, to doing the bills of lading. So for me, that was an invaluable way to enter the industry, to appreciate every step by having to do it, even loading containers and changing chassis tires. And then, uh, I went strategic and, and then, uh, from Apl, I set up Texas brand, why k came to Asia, heading a forest management center out of Hong Kong. And in those days we had a cartel called a naira and Twra and the nine main shipping lines. We would actually meet together in Hong Kong, kind of like in a movie, and we would determine the rates for all the products going in both directions of the Pacific. So just a phenomenal way to learn and being an Asia, seeing China Asean. Uh, and then I came to Singapore, uh, set up a JV for a BDP and Harvey Group. Uh, and then one of the great experiences of my life was working for doctor Victor Fung and the foam group, um, putting together the first four pl model. Uh, running a few businesses they're in. And I just learned so much. He's an incredible human being and a great mentor in our industry. So it was one of the life changing experiences for me. Um, and then I went to India with Mr Rgi Mattel and we started a logistics parts free trade, warehousing zone railroad and a technology company. And we took it public on the Bombay Stock Exchange. So I've been really blessed to come out to Asia with the Japanese experience, a Us Jv, uh, working for a mentor and an amazing human being, a doctor victor phone, and then with Mr Midtown giving me a chance to learn about India during this really informative stage of their economic change. And so it's just a constant learning experience. And from that I came back and I realize the entire supply chain is going to be disrupted just like every business. So I've also been spending more time now to helping involve SMEs and startups, not only to help them build the future, but actually to learn from them. So I say this whole experience is a constant learning curve. And the more I learned, the more I realized there's so much more to experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Super. Well, thanks. Yeah, thanks a lot for that. Um, and you know, to, to, to kind of carry on a question that, uh, in terms of the future, I mean, related to the future, we talk about supply chain 4.0 3.0 it depends on what's the supply chain of the future to you.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's a good question. I guess one of my frustrations in our industry is that we're still talking about a supply chain. I think the supply chain phrase is something from 10, 12 years ago, if not further. You know, and then we evolved to the demand chain, which Dell started and many other companies followed. And even Walmart. Uh, and then we've, we've been evolving already beyond demand chain into what I call knowledge network orchestration and dynamic value network. So when you look at Amazon, they're already, they're already using big data, advanced algorithms. They're starting to introduce early stage Ai. Um, that is a completely different business model. They already know what you're going to buy before you go to the computer to think about buying it. You know, the, the way that distribution network has evolved. Uh, and that's just one example. What is iTunes? It's a type of supply chain, uh, in a value if value network because they have over a million programmers around the world developing products for them for free. But any of those, uh, applications that get to enter the iTunes network, they take 20 to 30%. So these are all the new models that are rapidly evolve it and, and I think the industry is still moving too slow in terms of forwarding and letters of credit and, and just monitoring and tracking products. And in reality, the next 10 years will be the largest economic transformation in the history of the world because of AI, robotics and Iot. Um, one of the things I learned over the last 10 months being part of the B 20 task force on employment and education, which included supply chain and entrepreneurship. If for some interesting reason. And we just realize the speed of this technology is faster than anyone is, is imagining. And therefore every business leader at every level has to change their expectations. And I believe our supply chain industry is changing very fast. So the first stage where we are now is, you know, uh, advanced algorithms and we're looking at the first stage of big data and we're digitizing the supply chain. So this is already changing everything. And you can have fixed and virtual manufacturing Liam foam manufacturers from 20,000 factories without owning them. Uh, you can have fixed and virtual assets, you can own some warehouses, you can, you can take space from your competitors as long as they're visible through it. And then we're moving to the second stage where Ai, internet of things and robotics really come into plaque. And that's just going to start and it's going to move very rapidly, I believe it. And then again, Amazon is a great example of that transformation and others. And then what is the third stage? I think that will be fully integrated, artificial intelligence and the block chain and going from the Ledger, the virtual ledger structure, uh, linked to, uh, artificial intelligence is going to completely disrupt and redefine the industry dramatically beyond anyone's expectations. And I am an optimist. I believe all this will happen in the next eight to 10 years. So are we really prepared for it as an industry? How do we change the leaders of these companies to think beyond freight forwarding beyond shipping? And then how do we groom the next generation of talent to really be prepared for this kind of exciting future that's going to happen in the next decade? No. Excellent, excellent question.
Speaker 5:He's an excellent sharing in a very good structure of the stages and I could not agree more with you. The Dea and the transformation that we are already witnessing and the transformation that we will witnesses is probably unparalleled to anything that we have seen so far. Even as humanity if you want to put it. So the scale, the speed through which things are happening is definitely,
Speaker 4:um, very, very fast. Um, it always takes time, but it takes a lot shorter than it used to. But let's just look graduate, a couple of basic things from the old economy, right? Freight forwarding, doing a bill of lading. This can already be automated with new technology, but if I don't do the bill of lading, then what kind of, how do I get to build the spreads on freight? And if I do the freight, then I get to touch the warehouses, then I get to touch the trucking. But today the bill of lading can be automated with new disruptive technology. The shipping rates are being opened up with, with, with companies that are exposing that, taking out that component. The warehousing is much more transparent on costs and product visibility and then other companies. So you know, then you'll have other companies like open port it and others that are attacking the trucking space. So already every part of the traditional supply chain is under attack by small startups. And then even the banks that, that have made billions on letters of credit that is all automated already, that is going to come under a huge risk of the next few years. And ultimately that will become fully integrated through[inaudible] block chain as well.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. I mean, and you know, you mentioned look Jen a few times actually do as a very good question. I think it's on a lot of peoples in supply chain lips, you know, blockchain David Weaver, one of our listeners and, and uh, and uh, he had a question around blockchain. He actually asked, you know, blockchain is it high boreal, the value you've real earlier, when will we see widespread adoption into everyday processes?
Speaker 4:So maybe we deep dive a little bit further into it. Well, I think it's fair to say all of us are going through a really steep learning curve to figure this out because this is all new technology. They just came out of nowhere. I'm mentoring to startups right now and we're actually looking at an ICO instead of an IPO, which basically is raising money through the cryptocurrency structure. Wow. All right. They didn't know. I didn't know what it was eight weeks ago. And then I have to read up on it because we're actually thinking of executing it with a couple of the startups. So an ICO is a cryptocurrency, a way of raising funds instead of the traditional method and it added decision or maybe aids, the investment banks what, so, so we've seen bitcoin, bitcoin go to 2000 then down to 1500 and now over$4,000 all in the last six weeks with projections that it could be, we go way beyond that over the next few years. There are about 4,000 cryptocurrencies already. Uh, so, you know, we really just are trying to figure out what it means. And then you have a theory on which is basically, uh, creating a cryptocurrency, but it actually has validation points and you can see validation points touches all cs and everything else. So I don't think any of us can define when blockchain will really move across our industry. Uh, but first it's moving through the finance and banking industry at dramatic speed that will validate the process and then it will break out into other industries including logistics and supply chain, uh, with the virtual ledgers and the ability to work, turn the products as they move across. So they're already a three or four experiments in that space. I know IBM's doing one, but several companies, Maersk, Maersk is doing this. Walmart is already playing with it. Um, but, but as soon as those are tested and validated, uh, again, the disruption will move across. So I'm guessing it starting now, it will get traction in about three years and it will be very, very aggressively positioned across the industry in about five to eight years would be my guest. But it's all guesswork because it's so evolving and dynamic.
Speaker 5:Yeah, exactly. And I mean, I was, um, it was all over the news. Uh, the breakthroughs in the new partnerships. Ibm is really leading the way at the moment. Um,
Speaker 4:if they have Watson for AI,
Speaker 5:well they have Watson and they're doing a lot of good things and I think, you know, Mercer business doing a, a lot of good things as well. And they were really going digital all the way and the new CEO said that very clear direction and platform to do that. Um, and as you said, I mean, uh, and this question comes again and again, blockchain is, you know, a lot of questions around blockchain. I mean, David is just one of the many, many people that have problems
Speaker 4:like genders are asking and saying, yeah, yesterday and the CEO of a startup Ai Company but with tremendous background and he is already deployed his AI device into banking. And he gave me an example yesterday that they went into a major bank or leave out the specifics and they had a whole team of incredibly talented experts and I have spent over a year trying to analyze a finance solution and to demo his product. He plugged it into their database and once it was integrated into their database, four hours later it will solve the problem. And identified$300 million of savings. Wow. So, you know, just being able to plug in an AI device into a database, whether it's financial, manufacturing or logistics, is really going to be transformational. And again, skills, speed, capabilities over, it's just my book and then look how the shipping industry is. So the shipping industry's already been ripped apart, forced into mergers and we're not done with that. The next one will be freight forwarding. Yeah.
Speaker 5:I, I would, I would, I'm a three agreed to that. Um, of course, uh, you know, we won't touch upon this today, but we will need to also be with Ai, the be very careful this humanity again, I mean to the dangers of it of course as well. We don't want to end up in the terminator movie kind of scenario, but definitely, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4:why don't we tie that discussion at the end of this because I think it's worth talking to. Cool.
Speaker 5:Um, but let's go back. So thanks for the clarification of, looks you little bit back a little bit to the g 20. Right. Tell us, tell us more. I mean, I'm personally very interested in, I think a lot of people, obviously not a lot of us will ever have a chance to sit on the g two and t meeting in the, in the community. What happened there? What are some of the topics? What are people discussing about by the world leaders thinking about what, you know,
Speaker 4:give us some more details. What is really an amazing experience? I don't even know how I got pulled into it. Frankly. I got nominated and submitted, uh, some forms and then I was appointed to one of the committees. So there were five task forces made up of members from the 20 countries and uh, and some, some beyond that. And our task force was employment and education, but it was quite wide. So it included a lot, as I said, supply chain. It included entrepreneurship, uh, around that piece. Uh, and then these different five task forces a meat over 10 months, uh, on a voluntary basis, uh, in Europe. And then we basically put together a policy paper with specific strategies and recommendations. Those we then need for two days. We met prior Chancellor Merkel who was very impressive. Um, and she was leading the sessions, right? I mean she was, she, she was sharing the whole jury 20 this year it rotates and then administer Schwabel and others and then basically these documents are presented to her. They synthesize it into a tighter document and then she presents it to the g 20 countries who then peel off and negotiate to form their final documents. It's just a really cool process to be part of and again, you're dealing with all the different cultures from South Africa and China and Korea and the US and England, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, Argentina, Russia. So it was just a beautiful opportunity to connect cultures. But what we really looked at was the impact of Ai and robotics. It was just the driving theme. And I w I'm speaking to them on my own behalf, not on behalf of B 20 task force, but we just see the speed of AI and robotics moving faster than most CEOs can, can realize or most political leaders can realize. And therefore we need to change the whole thinking of business strategy because of the disruption. And we need to seriously take a look at redefining the whole education process for the next generation. We literally have to train people for jobs that don't exist yet. And this is more training about, uh, I mean I guess it was done also to train more on mindset. They don't actually hard skills because that build eliminate that absolutely change. And it's also metro third and one underneath the really young in mind. This is my personal opinion needs to be looked at. And this is quite, again, a series that tie back at the end is[inaudible] and you know, his is government policy. This is going to be incredibly important because of course a lot of jobs will be reshaped to disappear and we'll need to see what we do. So we're already looking at$6 million jobs at risk just in transport in the United States alone. So how do you protect people? How do you protect their dignity? How do you give them opportunities to have, have purpose and an exciting jobs in the future? Uh, the human element becomes more important. Actually. You don't even programming, most programming will be automated within eight to 10 years by AI, it'll be programming itself. So, so even programming only has a temporary window and therefore we really have to think of what are the human skillsets that allow adaptability. Uh, and then we seriously focused on the importance more than ever, of entrepreneurship, of new thinking, uh, of collaborative teamwork instead of individual leadership styles. But collaborative teams sharing knowledge becomes much more important as a management style and, uh, and, and then also enabling SMEs to connect and collaborate on a global platform. So it's just a fascinating experience and I feel really privileged to have had a chance to be part of it.
Speaker 5:Mm, no, thanks for, thanks for sharing more. Um, and let's talk, I mean, let's talk very pragmatic, very realistic. Now, you know, what, what do you see the zero moment today? Some of the biggest challenges companies in Asia List Upload Asia for a moment in Asia. I'm facing around their supply chains. I mean, what, what, what are they more struggling with? You know, we've talked a little bit of both some elements, but you know, uh, what do you see as the main elements that they're struggling with to, to, to make that transition to was the future?
Speaker 4:Well, you know, we, we've seen in the past, infrastructure was a differentiator. So when Singapore builds Cheney airport and, and, and the amazing port or when Shanghai's sets up a, the biggest port in the world or the airports, these become power hubs that, that give them advantage over other countries, right? It, regardless of population, the infrastructure has driven that advantage within the Asia region. Now we're going beyond the physical infrastructure to the technological infrastructure and architecture. So now the critical thing is like Singapore smart city initiative from the prime minister, right? And China's launching this as well. Uh, and that is how to use technology to integrate all the different activities across cities. And countries. So the countries that are now moving into that space are going to have a significant advantage in logistics and supply chain. There's one, uh, it's just reality. And so it can create further gaps from the countries that are slow building infrastructure. And then our extra far behind in seeing the technological breakout, it could further differentiate the power hubs across Asia, probably William[inaudible]. And then the second stages is, you know, we needed a TPP, right? Frankly, the integration of the main Asian countries with the u s Mexico, Canada, Chile into this, uh, integrated trading architecture in the same with, with North America and Europe, this, these kinds of advanced rules enable a faster movement and efficiency in the supply chain. And, uh, the fact that that broke down and then you see Brexit, these are reminders that, that with all the exciting changes that that will pull the, uh, supply chain or what I would call dynamic value networks forward. We're going to have increased political risk and that political risk, most leaders in our industry aren't prepared for it. So, whether it's the south China Sea disputes or the issue in North Korea, suddenly diverting cargo movements, um, those kinds of political risks are gonna are gonna Happen, I think a bit more in Asia than in the past. And, and, and while we're transforming technologically and with infrastructure, we also have to build more contingencies for political risks and as Mariska and others just learned, uh, you know, I mean hunting coat, a lot of people by surprise. Yes. But, but what I was saying is, is Maersk, which is such a well run company, they had the cyber attack. So, so the one thing that we're not prepared for is a dramatic increase of lethal cyber attacks. And I think that's going to be the Achilles heel that we really have to build a much stronger safety net around to enable this a breakout with technology. And, and I think in many ways, you know, uh, Asia will be a leader in a lot of this breakout technology. Uh, the biggest consumer market in the world, you know, is going to really give Asia chances to experiment and evolve new models in logistics. But at the same time, we just need to be aware of some of these breakout things. And you know, in our industry, even the old days, no matter how well we think we're doing, we're always going to get hit by surprises. We're not, when I was in the shipping side, we had a Kobe earthquake and none of our ships could go through the Kobe port and we had to reroute ships with 12 hours notice with no place to go. Um, how do you deal with that? I had a charter ship once that there was a charter ship on arm's length, but for a major chemical[inaudible] and its sake near the Hong Kong harbor area and it say, wow. And then how do, how do you deal with that? It's a, it's a risk potential chemicals. Fortunately it was salvaged and, and the damage was there. In India, we worked with a major client in retail. We took over their warehouse on a four pl model and then the monsoon hit and the warehouse flooded and it, you know, three meters by. So the traditional challenges are always going to be there in our industry. Um, but now we're going to have the cyber challenges and the political risk a little bit more. And, and I think with all the exciting, positive things coming, we're going to have to also build a more safety architecture in the process. Yeah.
Speaker 5:Blend plan bs basically in the, I mean, Morris cost in my thing, I was reading$300 million and I mean it's a, it's a pretty hefty, hefty bill. Um, and definitely them in your rights of blue, right? We're going to see more and more of that on the surface that you are, there's another,
Speaker 4:I'm always an outcome that is long term. So I think anything gene and maybe, I mean, he's gonna think human talent is so amazing. And with the technology I think, you know, we'll turn these challenges into new opportunities ultimately. Yeah.
Speaker 5:Um, last question there, grabbing the industry, what advice again from, from David, we were very good question. What advice to tech startups in the supply chain space would you give? Where do you see any innovation deficit or not enough? Yeah. Not enough startups addressing that particular need. Big One.
Speaker 4:I'm going to add a story a little differently because one of the challenges I see in Asia is too many startups are literally taking things that are already being done in the u s side or Europe, but especially silicon valley. And they're basically replicating it here. And, and so, you know, you're taking something that already exists, but you're replicating it out here as a quote start up and you're getting capital and you're building it. And what is the real agenda of that? The real agenda is you're hoping the big US or European company is going to buy you out later, right? Or even within Asia now, you know, at, at 10 cent or an Ali Baba is going to buy you over at some point. So is that really startup entrepreneurship? It's Singaporeans. It's a cast sue entrepreneurship, right? So what we really, you know, need, need to to do is create a much more dynamic entrepreneurial culture. So, uh, I need a lot of interesting startups from Fintech, Med tech in the logistics space especially. And the first thing I'm looking at is, are you different? Are you creative? Are you building something that's trying to find the unique solution that you can test and scale with case studies and then you have real value? Or are you doing something that already exists? So, so it's very easy on Google to validate are you doing something that already exists. So for first, I want to see in our, in our logistic supply chain space, which was to your question, I want to see the real entrepreneurs who were thinking about new solutions, new radical breakthroughs. You know, we have, you know, one startup I'm working with, they have each pod, so wherever you deliver an outer areas, there's a validation system, electronic purchase order delivery, right? And then they're integrating different trucks with live visibility into a full dashboards, but you can do it on your phone in four different languages. So these are cool things that, that are evolving within Asia. And, and then they're tested with some major customers and then they have scalability. Um, you know, was v from Israel came out to Asian and created a company looking at transparency of shipping rates. So I still like to find those companies, and I know the Singapore government and other countries in, in Asia are also trying to create a bigger ecosystem that will inspire the more radical entrepreneurs who can really make an impact in technology to real innovation next to not, this copy gets the, so that's the most important. I mean, it's not bad be a cop again necessarily. I mean it's always the people that, I mean it's Lazada and I mean, it's not a new idea and we need them. But I mean, you see, so what they do, what they do is they build a footprint in a copying mode. They differentiate with some new pieces around it and then when they're acquired later, it allows for faster traction. But you know, here's, here's an example. What did Amazon do in February of 2016, I believe they filed a patent for three d printing trucks. And they're already testing them. They're already deploying them. And what they do is they don't go to a warehouse, they load with chemicals. Absolutely. And then they figure and then they figure it's 30 minutes to deliver these toys to a certain house and therefore it's 28 minutes, the production process. And then they start three d printing in the truck, the actual item, and then it's done two minutes before they arrive. So that is a really radical solution. Ups, this is something that as a lawyer, these testings. Yeah. So I mean these are the things, even here locally, Robert[inaudible] is using drones now to do his inventory stock takes and his new supply chain, city warehouse. Wow. Right. So the drones are flying through and they're actually counting inventory. And I remember what we used to go through planning the Labor and shutting down the whole warehouse and doing the stock take from major customers. This is being done by drones now, so, so, so we're really looking for the technology that can be applied in different ways. Um, and then basically the most important thing having done seven startups myself and been involved with two Ipos is we need to build case studies is something Victor Fung taught me as as a mentor is when you start a new business, build case studies, get a few clients, test the technology, prove that it works, then scale and as you scale then more investment capital will come on board and then you can, you can break out with it any more customers. So don't go too wide, go deep deep with a few customers deep with, with a few markets because each market has different political and economic and regulatory issues. Just go deep in a few places, refine the technology, prove that it worked, then capital will come to you and then you can really scale and breakouts. So I think that's a general rule for everyone. Super. But then I answered your question. I think it's a, it's a very good, but it's a very good point. It's a very good sharing and I mean I think it does.
Speaker 1:This is the end of the park one. Stay tuned for part two where we talk more about recruitment and skills gaps.
