EP 5 —11x CFO Raymond Silcock on Navigating the Challenges of Global Supply Chains

In this episode of the Smarter Sourcing podcast, John speaks with 11x CFO Raymond Silcock, about Raymond's career in procurement and supply chain management, including at Diamond Foods, CTI Foods, Perrigo, and Neptune Wellness. 

Raymond gives examples of the various international supply chains he has seen and how even a few hours made a difference in pricing of a product. In particular, they discussed the challenges a supply chain might face and how Raymond and the companies he worked with addressed those challenges.

Topics discussed:

• How the Campbell's Soup meatpacking supply chain was heavily influenced by politics and the requirements of shipping perishable goods.
• The challenges of having international workers and how Raymond helped address them while working at a company located on the US-Mexico border.
• How Swift Armour used triangulation to manipulate the profitability of its Argentina branch.
• How deeply a company has to dig into the cost base of a product to make sense of the numbers.
• Putting costs into the context of global events such as a pandemic internally and externally to your company.
• How sometimes it's better to learn from your mistakes than it is to always have a backup plan.