WEBVTT - Bindiya Vakil is Keeping the World's Goods Moving 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:08.200 Welcome to Made by Women by the Seneca Women Podcast 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:13.000 Network and I Heart Radio. At a moment when businesses 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:15.640 face some of the biggest challenges in recent history, we 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:20.239 bring you inspiring stories, practical insights, and shared learnings to 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:26.000 help you successfully navigate in today's environment. I'm Kim Azzarelli, 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.240 and thanks so much for joining us. Today was an 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:34.800 unprecedented year of disruption. The pandemic dramatically changed the way 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.640 we look at even the most simple tasks like buying 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:41.240 household essentials at the grocery store. Today, we'll be talking 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.120 to a CEO who can give us a unique perspective 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.159 on that huge disruption. She's been Da buck Hill, founder 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.479 and CEO of Resilink, a company that focuses on supply 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.760 chain risk management. Now you may not know supply chain 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:59.080 risk management by name, but you definitely felt its impact. 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.080 During the early days of the pandemic. Everything that you 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.640 depend on to get through your day depends on a 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:08.640 supply chain, from toilet paper, to food to essential and 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.320 nine masks. Each supply chain was pushed to its limit 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:15.080 as the world reacted to the new challenges of COVID. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.920 That's where Bindia and Resilin come in RESI Link is 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:23.240 helping companies reimagine supply chain management through software that takes 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.679 into account the impact of issues ranging from natural disasters 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:31.560 to strikes to yes pandemics. I met Bindia through Springboard Enterprises, 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.560 an organization that for twenty years has worked to accelerate 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.600 the growth of women led companies through access to essential 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.120 resources and experts. I recently spoke with Bindia about her 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.600 struggles and her triumphs in bringing supply chain management into 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.280 the mainstream. Her perspective on resilience provides a lesson for 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:53.240 all of us. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Bindia. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.160 Thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you for 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.440 having me so tell us a little bit about supply 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:04.840 chain risk management. I think for our listeners it's really 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:07.200 interesting to know what it is and why it is 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.040 such a crucial topic right now. Supply chains have been 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:15.760 around since humanity has been around, and supply chain management 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.800 has been just as important today as you know the 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.680 earliest days. I think we all have probably heard some 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:27.720 of those from that little limerick about how for want 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.119 of a nail, a kingdom is lost. Um. I think 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:35.800 that I would say was probably the humanity's first documented 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:40.240 case of a supply chain disruption, So it is it's 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:43.600 always been important. I think why supply chain is more 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.720 critically important today or what has changed in the last 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.200 ten day, twenty years, is that we now have a 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:57.720 global supply chain. We take advantage of suppliers um overseas 0:02:57.800 --> 0:03:02.280 in lots of different countries. We ourselves are global, certainly 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:05.520 all of our suppliers are global. So we are now 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:09.920 more vulnerable in some respects than ever before. Do these 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:14.600 things that happen in countries that we are our suppliers 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.320 operate in, and a lot of times we don't have 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.160 enough inventory because we've also taken a lot of inventory 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.320 out over the years to become more cost effissient. Well, 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.679 we've all experienced a little bit of that firsthand during 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:31.560 this pandemic, and we'll get to that. But tell us 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.639 a little bit about what your company does. The biggest 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.560 thing you need to fix in supply chain in order 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:42.720 to manage risk effectively is to get information. The two 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:46.240 things that you need to know are I buy five 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:49.240 thousand parts, which are the countries or what are the 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.600 global sites that make those? And I know it seems 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:57.080 so simple, right but because suppliers change, because the tools 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:02.880 are different, there's a lot of dynamic dynamic shift going on. 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:08.000 A lot of companies over time lose this visibility to 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:13.360 that global supplier base where their parts originate. That's the 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.240 first problem. And the second thing is what are the 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.520 things that are going wrong or things that are happening 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.640 in those countries or those cities or towns which might 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:28.520 affect my ability to secure the raw material I need 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.440 to build and ship my own products. If we had 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:35.320 this little two bits of information, then we could be 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.560 a little more proactive, a little better prepared. We could 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:43.240 predict what could potentially go wrong and manage it a 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.880 little more effectively. And so you created res a link 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:52.400 to provide that solution exactly we were created. We created 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:58.839 a digitalization of supplier data solution before digitalization was a thing. 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:03.120 So I started wrestling. I mean, it was still early 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.880 days for digitalization. I started wrestling in. The idea was 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.599 to take data that was out there in people's heads, 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.960 in the suppliers laptops, not in any kind of RP 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:19.320 system sitting in rows and columns, bringing it all through 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:24.040 our network and our platform into a digital footprint up 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.200 in the cloud, where many many companies could need collaborate 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.760 exchange this information seamlessly with each other. Well, we'll get 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.679 into how it all works and some of the data 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:37.679 science behind it, but let's start with your early days, 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.039 your personal journey. Did you always want to found a company? 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.359 It's very interesting, UM. One of my mentors, you know, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.320 she was the first person to interview me here when 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.360 I came here in two thousand and to the United States, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.200 And in the interview, she always tells this story that 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.720 I asked, Vinthia, what do you want to be? What's 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.359 your ambition? And I that apparently I told her I 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:05.279 wanted to be the CEO of the company, and um, 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.800 so she said that inside she was laughing. But that 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.280 was ten years later I was the CEO of Resilink. 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.400 So she, she says, apparently you wanted to you just 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.280 never realized it. So I knew that I wanted to 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.320 be at the top of whatever field I chose, but 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.280 I didn't really know that the paths to getting there 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.160 would be through starting my own company. So I know 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:34.200 it's a long answer to a fairly simple question. UM, 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.800 but I will say, no, my ambition was not to 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:42.000 found my own company. Um. But that's the path I 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:46.080 ended up taking to accelerate it a lot. So take 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.640 us through the early days of resling. How did you 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.400 get it started? And you know, were there any obstacles 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.200 in your way? The journey of wreslink, or the journey 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:59.839 of any founder, I should say, is riddled with obstacle 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.039 that you overcome, as you know, uh, and each one 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.320 makes you stronger. You know, whatever doesn't kill you make you, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.840 makes you stronger. It is very true, and it's certainly 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.760 very true for us. UM. It started for me. It 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.920 started with being at Cisco where I was in working 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:22.680 in the supply chain risk management space in procurement and 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.480 recognizing that someone needs to start a company for this 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.640 solving this problem because we were building some tools in 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:34.120 house and couldn't find any company that had a plug 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.520 in play type of solution. And so that was kind 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:41.160 of the German Nation of this idea that there I 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:46.440 had stumbled upon. It seemed, um that I knew something 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:50.119 unique and different about a space that no one else 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.600 was really tackling, and it was a little bit of 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:57.400 a niche space, supply chain risk management UM. And I 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.680 ended up becoming one of the experts in this space 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.600 just because of my passion for it. Risk just appealed 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:09.440 to me. Doing something about risk became my um purpose, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.080 you know. So it was somewhere deep inside of me 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.280 that I really believe that what I had, uh to 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.120 my my solution to this problem was real, unique and 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.120 could solve a very large problem for the industry. Um 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:29.080 And from there on I was I will admit, the 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:34.120 day I started wrestling, I was a much naive procurement person. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:39.120 I had never thought about being an entrepreneur. I knew 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.520 I wanted to start my own company, but I had 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.560 no idea what to do. What is the first thing 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.079 you do when you sit down you've quit your job? 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:51.240 And uh, it was this profound moment and I still 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.200 remember I sat staring at the screen for ten minutes 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.720 thinking what am I going to do now? You know? Um, 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.800 But that from that moment on, you know, you just 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.120 talked to a lot of people. You never look back. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:06.719 You tell people why you want to do this, and 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.520 they From there it takes on a life of its own, 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.360 but it is definitely riddled with a lot of nose 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:16.040 for every yes. And I don't want to mince my 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:20.440 word words there I have said it many times that 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.439 for every yes that I got, I got sixty notes 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:28.960 that I had to you know, write, overcome, overcome yes, 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.720 and those I used to call myself. And sometimes I 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.600 still feel like humpty dumpty. You know. I walk into 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.040 a meeting sometimes and I feel like I just got pounded, 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:40.640 and then I have to kind of put humpty dumpty 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.959 back together, put a smile on my face, and go 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.319 pitch it again to the next person, or the next investor, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.160 or the next customer. Well, it's so interesting that you 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:52.319 say that, because much of what you said I feel 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:55.199 like the universal experience of entrepreneurs, you know, looking at 0:09:55.200 --> 0:09:57.640 that blank screen after you quit your job and and 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.600 saying to yourself, now what, but then pushing through and 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.199 then facing all those knows. I know, you know, we've 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.760 talked about this a lot, but this idea of getting 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.160 comfortable with hearing no seems so critical because if you 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.640 can't hear no, it's very hard to get to they s. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.720 So how do you deal with that? That has been 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:20.160 one of the most difficult things that as a founder 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:25.199 I have had to get overcome. You know, it's it's 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.079 it comes from a deep place. So so here's the thing. 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:31.520 It's not just to know that you hear from friends 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.240 or family or someone. This is a know that comes 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:39.720 from people who are extremely successful, extremely rich. They've been there, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.440 done that, um started and sold a large company. You know. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.520 These are people who are your potential investors. These are 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.199 people who are your potential customers, people who you would 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.080 look up to or respect. And when those types of 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.280 people tell you and no, I do feel it is 0:10:56.320 --> 0:11:00.719 a lot harder to take that fine that in our 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.800 why am I doing this? Is this really help? Going 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.560 to help? And and for me it always took. I 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:11.400 always went back to know what I'm doing is important, 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.600 and here are the three reasons why. One was I've 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:19.440 seen firsthand paying millions of dollars when things went bad 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.160 and we couldn't get parts. We were losing hundreds of 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.640 millions of dollars when those types of events happen. So 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.120 people who are saying this no today may not have 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.679 lived my life, and so they don't understand what I understand. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.960 I am an expert in my space. They may be 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.160 an expert in something else, but in this space, I'm 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.640 an expert and go. That does not come easily. That 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:49.720 self confidence, particularly when you're younger. When you're not an 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:55.200 entrepreneur by by design. When you're not, you know, you're 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:57.360 just I will say a lot of times I say 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.079 I wasn't nobody when I started wrestling. You know, I 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:05.640 had no personal brand, I had no experience starting a business, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.920 and so it took me a long time to really 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.480 put that note into perspective, find that deep place within 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.480 me where that spark was there. That No, what I'm 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:19.840 saying is correct. The world doesn't see it today, but 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:24.000 they will see it eventually, right, because you're breaking new ground. Absolutely. 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.720 In fact, I can I say that my biggest salesperson 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:32.280 today is our president are in the White House, because 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.480 he last week made it an executive order that supply 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:43.920 chain risk management is a matter of national security. We'll 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.040 be back with senecas made by women after this short break. 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.440 That actually brings me to what you've been doing during 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.800 this pandemic, because if anybody didn't under dan why supply 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.880 chain is important when you couldn't find toilet paper or 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.920 you know, other essentials in the early stages of the pandemic, 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.480 I guess that's a great example. So what has been 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:15.280 your experience with this pandemic? The pandemic was the disrupter 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:20.000 of disruptors UM. When I say I have been in 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.719 supply chain risk management for twenty one years now that 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:28.520 I have lived through earthquakes, hurricanes, obviously, the swine flu pandemic, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:35.360 of all nine, multiple supplier bankruptcies, UM, multiple force major issues, 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:39.800 capacity problems, I've seen it all. But over a period 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:45.920 of fifteen years, twenty years, we saw covid bring all 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.960 of those things within the space of four months in 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.960 that's covid UM. So it was an incredible moment for 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:59.720 supply chain practitioners because it was the Black Swan of 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.360 ax Wan event and it moved on us. It started 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.000 in one region that was economically and very critical region 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.080 for our supply chain, which is the Hubei Province of China. 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:17.520 Wrestling AI picked up that initial alert on December twenty eight, 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.760 when the local Wuhan government asked the hospitals in the 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.440 area to be on the lookout for an unknown pattern 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:28.760 of pneumonia. We alerted our customers January fourth, and then 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:33.560 from there on, it was this unbelievable journey of alerting 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.240 our customers on a daily basis about what was happening, 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:42.280 assessing suppliers. When WUHAN shared down on January twenty two, 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:48.680 we had already launched a supply chain pandemic readiness assessment 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:53.040 out to twelve hundred suppliers. Now, remember it wasn't declared 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:57.120 a pandemic until Margie Leven. We weren't even calling it 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.640 an epidemic yet. When we created that assessment, and we 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.200 put out a maturity model, and we began doing these 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:11.560 bi weekly UM webinars telling our customers and the broader 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:16.200 community at large what to expect over the next few weeks. 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.600 What are the numbers to watch, you know, how will 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.120 the spread affected, how will media coverage, how will government react? 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.720 All of those things we began to talk about since 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.840 January twenty two, every two weeks, and sometimes we have 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:36.640 chose when we look back because all of those things happened. Wow, unbelievable. 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:38.920 Who could have imagined, as you said this, this would 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.680 be the disruptor of disruptors, but that you were so 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.640 well positioned to help so many organizations. I mean, you've 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:49.160 really been credited with bringing supply chain management into the mainstream. 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.640 How did you educate people about this? Yes, so, suppling 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:57.840 risk management, which is the space that I UH pioneered 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:02.240 a solution for our back into thousands ten um. That 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.840 was not as as we talked about there. There were 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:08.120 no solution providers as such in that space. There was 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:10.760 a lot of consulting and all of that going on. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.200 Companies that wanted to do something in this space would 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.960 do some in house tools, using in house I t 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.920 um so and here I am UH. And at that 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:25.120 time I was the ten I looked ten years younger 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:30.560 than I do today. And again remember I was an 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.520 individual contributor at Cisco, had never started another company. So 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.800 when I started wrestling, it was a little bit of 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.200 a shock to me that the rest of the world 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.920 was not on the same page. I thought, we take 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.920 risks so seriously at Cisco. Of course, everybody knows that 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:48.600 risk is important and it's an area that we need 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.600 to invest in. And I left Cisco started wrestling, and 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.960 it was the wild West out there. You know, everybody 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.000 was so driven by cost and cost reduction in procure 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.920 are men that they weren't really considering risk to be 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.520 a critical need. That they thought risk management was nice 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:11.160 to have a side project that we would do. And 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:14.840 I think for me that was a huge and rude awakening, 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:19.240 and from there began my journey of educating these very 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:25.200 seasoned procurement leaders and experts about the need for doing 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:29.439 this using data and um you know things like a 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:31.639 lot of times people say, well, I'll just build another 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.760 factory in another country, or will hold extra inventory. You know, 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.600 those types of things take billions of dollars in many, 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:43.560 many years, right, and your customers aren't going to pay 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.240 you ten dollars for what they want to pay two 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:49.400 dollars for. So how are you going to fund that factory? 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.840 How are you going to recoup your investment? Whereas having 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:58.639 a risk management program with digitalization and cloud based technologies, 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.760 that's nothing in terms of your investment and you can 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:08.280 use that to be resilient today. So explaining those concepts, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:14.200 calculating that return on investment, convincing customers, using each event 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.919 as a learning mechanism to say, let's see how you 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.639 experience that event. How many millions did you pay in 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:26.399 expediting freights, are buying extra, paying extra for around materials, 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:31.800 and using each event as a learning tool to go um, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:35.840 create that awareness. Well, we're so grateful for what you did, 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.000 because when this pandemic happened. As we talked about, you 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:42.879 were well positioned to educate people early and quickly, and 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.520 you worked with numerous hospitals from what I understand, to 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.920 step up and fill the PPE gap. Can you tell 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.400 us a little bit about that. Yeah. PPE is one 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:58.440 of those products that hospitals by um In terms of 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:02.680 what the hospital spend on PPE, it's three to five 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.679 percent of the total dollars of spend. But when you 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.960 think about the time you walk in as a patient 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:14.160 to your clinic to the time you exit, the hospital 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:18.399 needs PPE in order to treat, process you all the 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.800 way to discharge you. They need PP, which means the 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:27.919 huddent of the hospitals operations need PPE in order to 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.720 sustain themselves. Meaning you could have all the drugs, you 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.600 could have everything ready to go, but no PPE, and 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:39.160 it hampers your ability to admit patients and provide critical care. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.480 So it's one of those products in supply chain that 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.320 nail that brings down the kingdom. This is a classic 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:52.439 example of supply chain disruptions on things we don't watch 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:57.640 carefully or care about. So the PPE supply chain entirely 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:03.359 relied on supply as predominantly out of China, where of 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:07.719 what we bought came out of various sites there. And 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:11.280 so when the initial disruptions began and ships began to 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:16.440 leave China with thirty percent full from various ports, that 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:21.120 PPE became a massive issue. And what ended up happening 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:25.119 in the US is the hospitals had disparities. You know, 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:29.240 some hospitals had and nine, others had K and some 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.320 had different sizes of and nine available some that they 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:38.400 desperately needed. And in the absence of that transportation UH 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:43.080 networks being available, what the local hospitals with and then 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.280 I say local, I mean nationwide. What we needed was 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:51.640 a way to find the ppees inventories that were available 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:56.399 between hospitals in country. And so what we did was 0:20:56.440 --> 0:21:01.320 obviously wrestling being a cloud system hospitals. We have about 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:05.439 more than forty hospitals nationwide as our customers. We brought 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.520 them together and then invited other hospitals, created a free 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:15.359 digital almost like a matching matchmaking program where the procurement 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.960 expert could say, Hey, I have this size of n 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.280 N I'm looking for that size, and the system would 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:27.440 match a hospital that had that particular model or variety. Wow, 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:30.000 I mean amazing. I think what you've done in this 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:32.639 period is so critical, and as I said, we're grateful 0:21:32.680 --> 0:21:35.080 that you started this business when you did, so you've 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.520 seen firsthand how hard some of these world disasters can 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.159 be and obviously the pandemic. What makes you optimistic in 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:47.119 this moment? I feel that there's always something you know risk. 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:51.520 The other side of risk is opportunity, right, That is 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.000 it's you have. It's all about the lens with which 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.679 you view a situation. And I always have been that 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:03.280 person that sees the opportunity in risks. Right. Um, I 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:06.960 feel that. Um, and again coming back to my point, 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.800 whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right, So I 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.320 feel that the world did learn from this. You know, 0:22:14.480 --> 0:22:20.080 companies that have survived COVID and COVID related disruptions. Um, 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:22.960 we see this topic now, you know what, you know 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.240 that we we have an issue. When John Oliver is 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:30.040 talking about supply chain disruptions, ar no Noah is talking 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:36.280 about supply chain disruptions, we all percent of humanity experienced 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:40.480 a supply chain disruption in their personal and professional life. 0:22:40.840 --> 0:22:45.280 And so this to me is that moment of transformation. 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.840 It's that tipping point where risk no longer became a 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:51.640 nice to have. It not only went in the business 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:54.879 world from being a nice to have to a compliance 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.000 issue to a national security issue. And we see this 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:00.440 more and more across more and more country days over 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:04.919 the next couple of years, that governments will prioritize certain 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:12.920 sectors where mandates around compliance in transparency should be coming out. Obviously, 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:17.760 the executive order came out from President Biden creating four 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:23.280 industries um and this is very critical and quite frankly 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:28.320 asked you, and I've said this years ago in I 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:33.080 did a webinar where I said that semiconductors have the 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:36.480 potential to end the life as we know it because 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:42.000 every device today uses semiconductors from medical devices too. As 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:46.040 we go into a more electric vehicle world, there's all 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:50.320 these routers and switches in consumer electronics. Heck, Nike shoes 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:55.480 have electronics in them, right. So this is this one 0:23:55.560 --> 0:24:01.119 little minute sized part that is now of different types 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:06.400 obviously that has applications all over and there's fast pace innovation, 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:09.680 which means you need to bring up expensive capacity, clean 0:24:09.800 --> 0:24:13.760 room dependency, the need for continuous water and power in 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:17.520 the manufacturing process. Billions of dollars to bring up a 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:20.040 way for fat and this is a single point of 0:24:20.119 --> 0:24:23.800 failure in the global supply chain today. Well, that's fascinating, 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:28.159 UM and scary at the same time. My last question 0:24:28.200 --> 0:24:30.840 would be, I mean, obviously you've accomplished so much, and 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:34.159 you've really shared some great advice for us, especially around 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:36.600 you know, having the resilience to hear No. Is there 0:24:36.640 --> 0:24:39.159 anything else that you would tell women who are just 0:24:39.240 --> 0:24:41.639 getting started, who have a dream, who want to go 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:45.640 after it, especially these difficult times, anything you would impart 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:47.960 on them. I will say a few things. I mean, 0:24:48.000 --> 0:24:51.840 I think from a COVID standpoint, I feel very strongly 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:55.439 that COVID was very rough on women in general in 0:24:55.480 --> 0:24:59.800 the workforce, UM, in particular especially women who had children, 0:24:59.840 --> 0:25:02.960 and we saw news about how record women dropped out 0:25:03.000 --> 0:25:06.359 of the workforce to take care of children. So I 0:25:06.480 --> 0:25:11.600 just and I have tremendous empathy um for the struggles 0:25:11.640 --> 0:25:16.840 every day UM that women face in keeping things moving 0:25:16.880 --> 0:25:19.879 in their personal lives and their professional lives. And the 0:25:20.040 --> 0:25:24.800 nose will always outweigh the yeses UM. I feel also 0:25:25.000 --> 0:25:27.639 that women as in general, and I don't mean the 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:31.200 general life, but I do feel there are people men 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:36.560 and women who take their personal confidence, who derive their 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:41.160 personal confidence from what others are saying about what they 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:45.800 believe in UM. And I think that in that moment 0:25:45.880 --> 0:25:52.240 when you're down, when you're struggling, you are hearing those nose. 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:58.160 Remember there's a yes right around the corner. Keep walking 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:03.320 towards that, because every no brings you closer to the yes. 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:07.920 The question is are you willing to keep walking towards it? 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:13.080 And there was one very profound interview that I read 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:17.480 several years ago during my lowest point that said that 0:26:18.200 --> 0:26:21.840 I will remain the CEO of wrestling until the day 0:26:21.880 --> 0:26:25.639 that I give up. Until that day, I will be 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:29.720