Due to the pandemic, global supply chains were rattled, and we are still scrambling. So how are business, supply chain, and IT leaders rethinking supply chain and operations to ensure business readiness and resiliency to tackle future disruptions?

Contributor

• • Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Ulta Beauty

Transcript

Sanjog Aul [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to CTN. To learn more about the show, please visit ciotalknetwork.com and today’s topic is Rethinking Supply Chain To Business Resiliency. What are we talking about? We all have seen interesting times due to the pandemic and among other departments, frankly the most that got rattled was the supply chain and global supply chains are still recovering from the shock and there is a little bit of a scramble that’s going on. So the topic here is one is to of course discuss about how are we coming together which is the business, the supply chain leaders and the technology leaders to get over that shock and stabilize but even how about them using this as an opportunity to rethink reimagine supply chain and related operations to make sure the business is ready and resilient to tackle future disruptions. We hope we don’t get any, but frankly we cannot. No one can promise that. So at least we have to get ready.

Sanjog Aul [00:01:09]:
So how do you build that business readiness and resiliency is what we’re going to talk about and for that we have Amiee Bayer-Thomas, Chief Supply Chain Officer from Ulta Beauty. Hey Amiee, how are you?

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:01:21]:
Hi Sajog, I’m well. Thank you for having me.

Sanjog Aul [00:01:25]:
Great to have you. As I set the stage we know we are still recovering. So this is a state of flux but then what you were pre pandemic as supply chain function. You means the supply chain function itself at Ulta or otherwise giving your wearing your analyst of a sort of hats what it was earlier and what do you think is going to be the state of supply chain in the next two to three years?

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:01:54]:
I will tell you this Sanjog. The acceleration of e-com and the e-commerce business along with that increased customer expectation for speed has really catapulted and put supply chain in the front seat which ultimately is forever changing how we need to be thinking about our system and how we operate. What I would consider and kind of an analogy I use as I think about the supply chain pre pandemic was it was really almost this mystical, powerful oz that sat behind the curtain that we knew was critical to the business. It was a function that needed to be there but nobody asked a lot of questions and I think supply chain was happy being by the curtain so to speak but with the pandemic what happened was it really catapulted supply chain to the forefront and now we’re really sitting at the front and center of conversations of the headlines, of consumer conversations and so supply chain has to really at this point, step up and not only meet, but start to really think about how to exceed those expectations going forward. I think looking forward, I would expect that agile supply chain organizations are the ones that are going to continue to win but keeping people and innovation at the forefront of how supply chains operate are going to be the differentiators and how companies are going to be able to continue to deliver both on those guest experiences at the right time and in the right place

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:03:22]:
but it’s how you’re going to continue to really win through brand loyalty and brand love and looking forward, I think there’s a couple of things that leaders are really going to need to be mindful of that could become really significant challenges if you’re not getting ahead of it and those really are, number one, I would say accelerated omnichannel expectations. They think those are only going to continue to accelerate and then number two is diversity and talent in supply chain.

Sanjog Aul [00:03:49]:
So given the challenges that you saw, if you were to compare pre pandemic versus now, would you say that supply chain was a smooth sailing boat with everything hunky dory and everybody singing Kumbaya and now you’re saying it’s going to be a rough ride for a couple of years before we can expect that same song being sung?

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:04:14]:
I think before the pandemic, I don’t know that it was necessarily always smooth sailing. I think certainly throughout the history of supply chain, there’s been plenty of different challenges and opportunities but I think what the pandemic presented was a completely different set of expectations, consumer behaviors. It changed the landscape of, quite frankly, how consumers think and what they expect but it also, it also brought to the forefront what is supply chain and I think where previously if you asked a consumer or you talk to certain parts of the different businesses and you mentioned supply chain, it’s not something that most were versed in. They may be nodded their head. They’re like, it’s this mysterious thing we know of supply chain

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:05:03]:
but what happened was it really brought to the forefront supply chain and what supply chain does and the critical nature of the operation itself and how supply chain now is less and I would say the way I think about it Sanjog is supply chain is less of a support function behind the scenes and it has now been placed in front at the forefront and for us at Ulta Beauty, it’s the heartbeat of the business and we view what we do as an intricate part of how we deliver on the guest experience, but also how we are actually now fueling the growth of the organization versus just supporting that.

Sanjog Aul [00:05:46]:
What was the life and the day of Amiee, 2019 during pandemic and now.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:05:54]:
I would say in 2019 supply chain. I don’t know. I think there was some innovation happening pre pandemic, but what the pandemic accelerated is the need to innovate at a higher level and for supply chains to be thinking very differently about how they operate and again, as we think about how do we think about it is I think needs in my mind and I truly believe are either disrupting or being disrupted and the challenges that I know business leaders have had to navigate over the past few years, many now better understand the need to have to really pivot to deliver on those peak and valleys and those supply and demand areas that we’re experiencing but right now I would say we’re living in unprecedented times where oftentimes, there is no normal. It’s the one thing we can expect on a day to day is if there’s going to be change

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:06:49]:
and quite frankly there’s not really one solution or silver bullet for all of these shifts and changes that have happened since 2019, from 2019 to now but rather I think it’s a combination of how supply chains are going to have to think about the business and it’s a combination of both art and science, if you will, or intuition and data, which I think is going to really be what kind of set leaders apart and there are different ways to be kind of about both of those things.

Sanjog Aul [00:07:20]:
When things were stable as a business function, there was a lot of dynamism in the supply and demand related planning side. Things would shift. They may not get disrupted, but they would shift. They would have to be tweaked and there was some data available which you could rely on but today we have a lot of uncertainty on both sides, the demand and the supply side and frankly supply chain is essentially a service function which heavily relies on data both sides and at least the way people have reported, most supply chain leaders say I’m not sure if all the data or most data is available to the degree we used to have and not sure if they can rely on it. So that leaves leadership and the whole function, supply chain function, in a very interesting position.

Sanjog Aul [00:08:15]:
So how in this current scenario are organizations dealing with this demand forecasting and supply planning and frankly we are talking about data and I’m sure you are also heavily leveraging technology. So how is technology even helping IT department helping you?

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:08:32]:
We are, again, I fall back on what I just shared is e-com. It’s a bit of a combination of in these kind of unprecedented times where there’s so much change and evolution happening on a day to day basis, it really does become about that art and science and we at the kind of the height of the pandemic, my leadership team and I really took a step back to reassess how we think about supply chain, both as that business driver, but also as a functional operation, if you will and we thought about it through the lens of kind of three pillars and embrace a new framework in our approach to the business, one of which is our network. The second pillar, which is really critical, and you touched on, Sanjog, is the innovation and technology piece, which ultimately is going to open up and expand our ability to add new capabilities and processes to how we operate and again, there’s a bit of an art in that where you have to rely on that deep expertise and some of that strong intuition and the strong relationships that we have across our teams and certainly with our partners and our brands, but particularly the strong relationship we have with our IT department and teams but also there’s the science piece of IT which we really lean on, both our internal expertise as a function, but our IT partners as well as we think about enhanced technologies and how do we get at those insights that really can drive action, that are a little more predictive in nature

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:10:02]:
and we’re really focused on listening to our guests, thinking through how do we anticipate what it is they’re going to be expecting and wanting and then how do we, in partnership with our incredible IT team, deliver on an IT system to help support that and put some rigor in place behind that. So it’s a bit of an art and science approach that we’re taking and we’re really excited about the path forward and some of the new and innovative things that we’re going to be doing deliver on that.

Sanjog Aul [00:10:33]:
So since you mentioned that IT has come to support you and you also mentioned that your own people are banking on the skills that they’ve developed over the years and run it with an art and a science. Now, a specific question for you. When supply chain function, the dynamism that is inherent to the supply chain function and the scale at which, for example, your company operates, if you keep an ounce of art or a pound of art in this whole functioning, that means it is creating dependence on people and people themselves, I will not say they don’t want to be predictable, but humans cannot always be 100% relying on it’s not that they don’t want to do it, but life happens to people. So in your view, a good supply chain, should it have an art form at all or is it more of a stopgap arrangement till we get to a stable state or that nirvana state that we are all hoping for?

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:11:35]:
I believe that there is incredible power in people and that people are truly our power and at the heart of what we do at Ulta Beauty, our culture is truly best in class and within our supply chain. I would say that our foundation and what has enabled us to really become what I would consider a best in class evolved modern supply chain that we are today and the continued evolution that we’re going to continue to experience. While technology is imperative certainly for our success, it cannot replace the human needs in the business. As a value based company with a very strong culture in place, we know that our success is not going to happen without extremely dedicated supply chain talents and the careers and the opportunities that we offer in order to engage our teams as well is very critical to driving that engagement, work associates.

Sanjog Aul [00:12:33]:
So the way I interpret your answer is that for a supply chain to be world class like you’re saying, you’ve allowed your organization to blossom in that way, it will require people or leadership, supply chain leaderships, to not undermine the power of people side, even though they bring a little bit of a variability but that’s also the very source of excellence besides just banking on AI and data and technology.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:13:04]:
A 100%, Sanjog and I will tell you, we’re very proud of both the culture that we have at Ulta Beauty and certainly the culture that we have in supply chain and the high level engagement that we have within supply chain and we’ve worked really hard as a company and we’re working really hard to protect that because at the core of everything we do and at the heart of what we do are our people and so when we think about it through the lens of the guests, and we think about it through the lens of our people, when we put them at the center of what we do, we’re going to win as a result of that people first leadership approach that we take. As a result, our people are equally passionate about delivering for the guests. We have a very high, we have best in class engagement and culture scores in our supply chain

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:13:56]:
and even though there was a tremendous amount of disruption and while we are not immune to, certainly the staffing struggles that are out there, the labor headwinds and the war on talent, that’s happening. We’re very proud of the fact that we have managed to remain 100% staffed, through this entire last year, that our engagement as an office is at an all time high, our turnover is down and retention is up significantly and our associates are highly engaged and I believe that coupled with our business model and our strategic plan for the future is the secret sauce for why we’ve been able to be successful and while we’ll be able to continue being successful in the future.

Sanjog Aul [00:14:41]:
And I love the fact that you are making sure that people stay at the heart of the excellence or the source of excellence for supply chain but then as you also rightly mentioned that there was a lot of labor shortage related issues, everyone suffered and then to offset that we tried to use technology solutions. Would you be able to share the reality with our listeners in terms of how much of offsetting can truly any technology tool do to offset that shortage or that gap so that they can figure out because some people are overzealous going with technology, other people are naysayers, what’s a healthy balance.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:15:28]:
So I believe that you need to obviously be successful and you’ve got to make investments in tech, right in order for a supply chain to be dynamic and agile, which is going to be critical for the future. You can only thrive and be successful if you got great tech investments and you are investing in innovation and automation but that should be in support of passionate employees so that they can go execute with excellence. So it’s a mix of understanding how do you, for us, it’s about how do you streamline the work, how do you implement automation? That’s going to certainly help alleviate some of the dependency that you might have as a business and labor but instead how do you use the technology and the automation to enhance the associate’s experience with us, make their jobs easier, remove obstacles and again bring more skill building, it’s part of that advancement in tech and automation is also going to require upskilling and reskilling of your associates and that is one of the things, we think about, why people join, why people stay at Ulta Beauty. It’s for those tangible and intangible reasons. It’s that great competitive pay benefits, the hybrid work environment, the development opportunities, the career pathing that they see. Part of that in our distribution centers is around reskilling, upskilling.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:17:02]:
They’re learning new skills, they’re getting new experiences and they’re honing their craft and they are seeing the impacts that they can have and they’re seeing the opportunities to continue to further advance their career with us and I believe that’s where the secret sauce is in again, the heart of the people but if you think about technology and automation with the people in mind, then you’re going to likely strike the right balance.

Sanjog Aul [00:17:30]:
The very beginning of the conversation you said that pre pandemic supply chain was humming for most companies. So it was almost invisible because it was just working. Which means it doesn’t mean that it was simple to make it work that way. There was some complexity, some systems, some processes, some people who were making that happen. Now at current state it is at a transient state, perhaps towards that humming state, or maybe a different state that we are going to but does that mean should we continue to reintroduce or could this be an reintroduce the complexity which then we try to manage or is this, are we at a crossroad where we can say let’s try to fundamentally simplify supply chain so just to keep it humming. The folks within supply chain don’t lose their sleep anymore.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:18:27]:
I don’t think what I would say when the pandemic hit, I’m not sure the supply chain industry was quite ready for everything that was going to be coming out of the notion of plumbing prior to the pandemic because there was tremendous disruption. It was pretty list, so to speak, or cut and dry how a supply chain operated and the fundamentals of how a supply chain operates. Again, all of that changed and shifted as consumer behaviors shifted and changed as the external environment around us shifted, as consumer expectations for speed shifted and so now, I would tell you, now is the time and I would agree we’re at this inflection point when the pandemic hit. Most companies and their supply chains, we’re heads down and just we got to get through. I think those who were both thinking through the lens of we’ve got to remain nimble, agile, we’ve got to figure out how not only do we pivot and get through what’s happening to us today, but those that really were thinking about what’s going to be happening after this and what is going to forever change coming out of this that we need to be thinking about now in order to get ahead of when we come out of this pandemic and then those same supply chains that at the same time we’re taking good care of their associates and investing in their teams, those who continue to think proactively and how to build supply chain that are more dynamic are nimble. The supply chain, I don’t know that we would have used those words to describe supply chain back in 2019 or pre pandemic but those are really critical components, I believe of supply chains that are going to be successful in the future and that will be supply chains that can be moved beyond a support function and move into how we view ourselves, which is a catalyst for growth for the organization

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:20:27]:
and I believe right now is the time for supply chain leaders to build and rebuild with the right talent, with the right culture at their core and with the right resources and technology that is going to be able to fuel both the business but also fuel the talent growth.

Sanjog Aul [00:20:49]:
Let’s take a quick break listeners. We’ll be right back and as Amiee painted a pretty beautiful picture which we will all like to make a reality, but how do you go about doing it? How do you reimagine the supply chain like the way Amiee painted and actually start building it? What would be some of the chapters of the playbook which will lead us to that desired state? Please stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

Sanjog Aul [00:22:18]:
Welcome back and so Amiee, love the picture that you painted devil is in the execution and how do you go about planning and making sure that you’ve got the right team in place, you got the right business cases, you’ve got the right partners in place. There are so much, so many pieces of the puzzle which we have to bring together and orchestrate for this to truly become what we want it to become. So if you had to share a playbook with some specifics, what would that look like, the chapters of those playbooks.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:22:56]:
Start by saying again, today’s leaders really need to start viewing supply chain as that dynamic growth driver and really having that kind of north star in terms of moving beyond a support function. A reimagined supply chain really operates at the front and center in a company’s business strategy and for our team, there are really three chapters, if you will, to our playbook that are really critical to succeeding and at the height of the pandemic, my team and I really took a step back to reassess how are we thinking about supply chain both as that business driver, but also as that functional expert and operator and we took that step back and introduced a new framework which have become our three chapters to our playbook and that for the first one we talk about is the network. So getting the right product to the right place at the right time, at the right cost. Second is innovation in technology.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:23:58]:
How are we enabling new capabilities, delivering on cost efficiencies, simplifying and improving service and quality for our stores and for our guests, and then lastly, capabilities and processes with some of that innovation and technology, how are we advancing and moving forward our capabilities and how are we optimizing and simplifying processes that are going to help us drive operational excellence, continued simplification, effectiveness and cost optimization?

Sanjog Aul [00:24:28]:
So you gave quite a beautiful looking list which could be put on a whiteboard or on a piece of paper if you had to drill down and mark or highlight some areas which will become very important for us to look very closely because they could be the weakest link or they could be the very critical components to getting all of these chapters, becoming complete chapters and delivering to what you’re saying they will deliver. What would those drill down critical components be for those chapters that you mentioned?

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:25:03]:
So I’d start probably with the network in that first chapter in terms of getting the right product to the right place at the right time and right cost. We’re on track to deliver in four unique types of fulfillment centers. So part of your network is to think beyond and to think differently than maybe what your footprint might look today, both in the types of buildings that you’re standing on, the way those buildings operate, what those buildings support in terms of the omni guest experience and then how are you leveraging your brick and mortar location. Brick and mortar really serve two purposes for us at Ulta Beauty. It’s a place for our guests and our associates to experience and have these wonderful experiences and human connections. It’s a place of discovery, but it’s also a mini distribution center and we’re really thinking about how do we leverage our stores to be able to deliver on the omni experience and expectations with the consumer and so we’re thinking differently about that

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:26:09]:
and we currently have a hundred shift from store locations, we’re going to be expanding them this year. We’re really thinking about all omni, all on in a store. So I think that’s one critical component to be thinking about in terms of the network when it comes to innovation and technology, got to be thinking about modernizing your ways of working. Whether that’s from a financial perspective, a service perspective or operationally. What are you implementing around technology and automation that’s going to help deliver again, simplification, advancements in analytics and ability to move faster and make decisions and be much more nimble in what you do, as well as create opportunities to better the experiences of our associates in our distribution centers. So I think investments in innovation and technology to help maximize productivity, deliver on the ground efficiencies and enable business growth are going to be really critical and then lastly in your capabilities and processes.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:27:15]:
Again, supply chain, I think in some instances previously might have been operating a bit in a silo and you’ve got to really bring yourself up and out to the forefront and be highly engaged in the company’s business strategy as a driver and through capabilities and processes. It’s about thinking through that end to end and working cross functionally to deliver on better visibility. To think through the lens of a potential control tower and enabling that real time visibility, real time decision making, proactive responses to disruption is going to be really important for the future.

Sanjog Aul [00:27:54]:
See, so the different drill down points that you made were very well made. Now one thing which does come up is supply chain essentially is a chain of partners and suppliers and while Ulta, under your leadership might be doing a phenomenal job and has all the intention and you’re putting money where your mouth is, so that’s why things are coming together but the supply chain’s own integrity and effectiveness is also heavily dependent on your value chain partners or ecosystem partners or supply chain partners and they may be at a different level of recovery after the pandemic. They may have different profitability and existence and growth metric that they’re following. How would you get them to come together, align their own recovery paths and or their own imaginations or reimaginations of supply chain to sync with yours.

Sanjog Aul [00:28:56]:
How much of realistic influence can you exert on that value chain for you to say yes, Ulta did what it could and as a result the whole supply chain actually became what it should become. Basically harnessing the true potential of supply chain by bringing the partners and suppliers together even though they have different agendas and intents.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:29:20]:
The strength of our relationship with our partners and our suppliers is really critical to our success and we have extremely strong relationships with our brand partners, with our cross functional partner. Collaboration is one of the things that we is talked about a lot. It can be a bit of a buzzword but it’s really at the core leadership, quality and Ulta Beauty that we believe fuels our success and is what makes us so special and so we knowing those partnerships are so critical both internally and externally, we really everybody wants to win and I think that’s at the core of all of it. Our brand partners want to win, our cross functional partners within Ulta Beauty and so the thought is working together. We work together, we come together, we collaborate together to win and that’s really how we manage that supply and demand, how we mitigate issues, how we are working through controlling costs, how we are are delivering that increased speed and efficiency that’s needed to deliver on the guest experience and it’s how we’re able to prioritize and align if you will on what we want to go after and what we want to go after together.

Sanjog Aul [00:30:36]:
One is to have the intent of winning and you’re right that at least that optimism should prevail but the reality check could be that some of them are barely trying to survive nobody’s fault here but they may be a different level of recovery and survivability. Even though you are the best friends, they have some business realities to deal with and Ulta may not be the only one who would have this issue across its supply chain. That’s just the reality that we are all dealing with globally.

Sanjog Aul [00:31:04]:
So if any organization which is looking on its left side and the right side and look at the whole supply chain links if you will and with different people with different level of recovery and survivability and or thriving as a status, what would you do new more or different in handling these relationships or supporting them compared to the pre pandemic so that eventually we win but during this process we don’t try expecting too much from them when they’re trying to keep their lights on.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:31:38]:
It’s combination I would say of a few things, Sanjog is mutual respect, I think the beauty we take a position of we respect and we value our brand partners, we value those vendors that we work with and certainly value our cross functional partners internally. So it comes really from the core values of what we do wanting to our values really are grounded in winning together but doing what’s right and also loving what we do, owning what we do. We have key core values that, that we are really the platform and the foundation for how we operate both internally and externally and that’s really, those are really our guardrails and we know that different companies, different partners are in potentially different stages of recovery.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:32:29]:
We work collaboratively with the idea to win together and so we, I would say we, the open lines of communication. It starts with we’re probably communicating more than we’ve ever communicated before. I would say we’re collaborating in ways that we maybe haven’t done before. We’re connecting in person where we can and we’re talking solutions. We have partners come to us, we go to partners and collaboratively we look at where are your pain points, what are the things that are causing opportunities or other opportunities that we can help you and in turn, how does that then help us as we think of the true full ecosystem and the true end to end supply chain beyond Ulta Beauty, both upstream and downstream

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:33:18]:
and so it comes from again, I would go back to a few things. It’s remaining highly collaborative. It’s mutual respect, it’s open lines of communication. It’s being open to new ways of thinking and opportunities to help and support each other. That quite frankly we’re seeing coming out of those conversations and some of that collaboration, some really incredible win win opportunities for both our partners and for Ulta Beauty.

Sanjog Aul [00:33:46]:
Life happened to a lot of people with respect to losses or setbacks personally and that goes with I’m sure many people who may be part of your team or supporting teams and for your partners as well, while Ulta needs to recover and you may be very well on your path to recovery and so your ecosystem partners, but those individuals who did not sign up for a disruption like pandemic and went through a lot of issues which may still persist for some. How do you get them from the state of saying I have to be here so that I can get my bills paid, to let me see what I can do to find out from the trenches those beautiful cool ideas or creative ideas which will help us reshape reimagine supply chain and not just stop there, but do it so that it becomes resilient because you’re talking about a different level of thinking but if people are preoccupied, they cannot ideate as much as you would like them to be and you want all the possible brain power possible and creative power possible to be put on this. So it comes down to of course, how do you get them motivated? So what did you do on the ground to rekindle those creative juices and the curiosity at scale.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:35:12]:
Our team works seamlessly across the organization, with the entire organization to deliver emotional human connections and that certainly is something our guests appreciate. Our beauty enthusiasts love. It’s again, it’s at the heart of what we do when we put our associates there. It’s about the emotional human connection for our associates as well. So our people first values based leadership is I believe, what inspires our team to keep pushing, to keep growing, to keep winning together. We do that through different ways in terms of how we uplift our associates, how we invest in our associates, whether that’s through the development opportunities that we’re providing, cross functional growth. We are arming them with the best tools for success that we can, both in order to be able to execute, but also and able to be able to build skills and through training

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:36:08]:
and then certainly we took a very bold, strong step forward and we did some activity and some work around stop, continue ideate and we created safe places at our corporate office. We created safe spaces in our distribution centers for associates, all associates to get together and to talk about what are the things we can stop doing that don’t make any sense, that maybe don’t necessarily drive the business or support the business anymore based on how things have changed, that we could just stop doing what are the things that are absolutely core and critical that we have to protect and continue doing and then we ideated on what could we do, what should we be doing that we haven’t been doing? How could we rethink and shape how we think about supply chain, how we work together, how we function as a team of associates, as a team, as a leadership team and we created that space and I have to tell you, Sanjog, we had almost 100%, we were at almost 100% participation in these sessions and we heard from all of our associates the things that they want us to protect, the things that they, the obstacles that we needed to remove in order to make their job, their work, their lives easier and we ideated with them on what could we do differently in terms of everything from how we operate and the business and the future strategy, our supply chain all the way through to flexibility of working what’s most important to them personally and then we built a plan that we’ve been executing against for the last year and a half, 12 to 18 months, where we have been delivering on all of those things

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:38:01]:
and I do believe as a retail leader, because we listen to, learn, because we are both imagining and reimagining how we can operate with excellence going forward and that our people we keep at the heart of what we do. That is what is engaging our associates is what is keeping our associates here and I would tell you it’s why they wake up every day thinking about our guests and being very passionate about coming to work.

Sanjog Aul [00:38:33]:
One last question, since it seems based on your responses, you’ve come a long way in terms of getting over the pandemic shock, stabilizing it, using the power of subtraction to stop doing things we shouldn’t like I love your analogy, or rather a formula of stop continue and ideate and you’ve started practicing and you saw some successes at the ground level, some ideas came. The last thing left is when something doesn’t work for most of us, it’s usually leadership, either not thinking straight or they’re not collaborating, or something is an issue at the top. So if you had to leave a message based on your successes and the bruises that you may have had during the journey, what would you stop doing as leaders and what would you start doing as leaders if you were to build if any leader had to build their supply chain resilience for future.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:39:28]:
Supply chain is more than just a component of the business. It is an exciting field that is constantly evolving with new technologies and exponential growth and right now we are no longer behind the curtain. So I do believe the best is yet to come and it is, now is the time really for supply chain leaders to take the wheel and to start thinking about how do they build and rebuild with the right talent, with the right culture and resources so that as a supply chain you can become the fuel that grows the business and the talent within the organization.

Sanjog Aul [00:40:08]:
Once again, thank you so much Amiee for sharing your insights about how an organization such as Ulta has gone about rethinking reimagining supply chain and developed a business resilience with others can take as an example and run with. Thanks so much.

Amiee Bayer-Thomas [00:40:26]:
Thank you.

Sanjog Aul [00:40:28]:
And listeners please like us on social media, subscribe to our podcast. Once again, thank you for listening to CTN. This is your host Sanjog Aul signing off. Till next week take care and god bless.

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