November Warehouse Trends: Leadership Lessons and Supply Chain Modernization
November moved from October’s “progress made practical” toward the people driving that progress. The conversations weren’t just about tech adoption or process improvement. They were about leadership, the kind that unites vision and execution, logic and empathy, technology and trust.
Leading Through Change: From Vision to Daily Action
Rick McDonald, former Chief Supply Chain Officer at Clorox, opened the month with a rare long-view of leadership — the kind forged across decades of disruption. As he put it, “The speed of the customer is what supply chains have to work to keep pace with.” He added a candid reminder about modernization: “Sometimes it’s really easy… to run after a shiny object versus focusing on what you really have to address.” And when reflecting on digital acceleration, he noted, “Amazon stopped selling books and started selling everything else.” That was the moment the industry had to wake up.
That same spirit showed up in the conversation with Chris Hamley and Pete Allen of The Brecham Group, who take a refreshingly blunt approach to leadership development. Their motto, “Make it suck less,” might sound lighthearted, but it cuts to the heart of the matter. Hamley explained his catalyst moment bluntly: “I pulled the team together and said, ‘Boy, this really looks like it sucks.’” He then challenged his leaders to find one tangible fix each day: “I need everyone to go out and figure just one thing they can do to make tomorrow suck less.”
And while Hamley tackles leadership from inside the warehouse, Charlie Saffro, CEO of CS Recruiting, sees it from the outside, looking in. Her insight connected perfectly: “Right now, I’d say, the best skill people can have is knowing how to be human.” She also emphasized the importance of getting clear on your strengths, “I think the riches are in the niches, like they say.” She pushes candidates and leaders alike to get clear on where they add value, often beginning with a simple question: “What is your expertise?” And when describing how people should communicate their strengths, she put it plainly: “It’s a combination of really highlighting the area where you have developed… we want to see jargon on resumes.”
Together, these voices painted a picture of leadership that’s grounded, relational, and authentic, and one that sees people as the competitive advantage, not just resources to manage.
Connecting the Dots: Systems, Strategy, and the Future
If leadership is about people, it’s also about how those people connect systems — a theme echoed across Paul Lukehart of PL Programs, the Trackstar team, and Endpoint Automation.
When Kevin asked Lukehart about the future, his answer landed like a thesis for modern operations. As he explained, “the big challenge is gonna be integrating these systems and anybody who can crack the code on really effective cross-platform integration is going to be… the game changer.” He added that it’s not about one flashy technology: “It’s not necessarily one piece of tech or one robotic arm… the challenge is always gonna be this integration pain of putting these systems together and having them run effectively.”
Trackstar echoed the same idea from a technical angle. As their team put it, “Data is really valuable, but the challenge is there are hundreds of different WMS out there.” Trackstar is solving that integration problem directly. As they explained, “Trackstar’s universal API builds integrations into all of those different systems and then normalizes that into a common data model with single unified API endpoints for folks to connect with.” Instead of software companies having to chase hundreds of WMS integrations one by one, “software companies… connect once to our product and now are pre-integrated to all the different systems out there.” Their goal is simple but ambitious: “We are unifying the data from a very fragmented landscape into our normalized schema… so software can build tech without having to worry about the integration headache that is so pervasive in this industry.”
Endpoint added a ground-level perspective — the bridge between leadership intent and frontline reality. As they put it plainly, “We’re here to bridge the gap between ERP systems.” Their modular approach reinforced the idea that elegant systems don’t require overbuilding: “Modularity… my belief is the companies that have built this into the architecture of their business agility are the ones that are gonna succeed long-term.”
Across all three conversations, the message was unmistakable: unification isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s a leadership one.
Leading Warehouse Innovation by Example
While others spoke of leadership in cultural or organizational terms, James Malley, CEO of Paccurate, embodied it in practice. His now-famous “spatula story” — the moment a simple kitchen tool exposed massive packaging inefficiencies — became a lesson in persistence. Malley explained its impact in his own words: “It went viral when the CEO got wind of it and just went on a war path internally questioning why they are shipping boxes that are 90% full of dunnage.” As Malley explained, “one of the last projects we did, we found if we could increase the cubic utilization of the robot shelf by 16%, it increased the ROI of the whole system by like 30 or 40%.” The math is simple: “the more work you get on a single bot in most cases, the better.” And that efficiency compounds downstream, from fewer trucks on the road to right-sizing AMR fleets — all part of how Paccurate has helped optimize more than one billion packs to date.
Bob Hutson of The Beacon Group discusses leadership at the strategic level — where real estate, finance, and operations collide. As he put it, “A lot of people think supply chain optimization is just about optimizing warehouses. It’s a lot more than that. It’s involved in cash flows and ROIs, and a lot of financial implications to these decisions.” He stressed the value of early involvement: “Getting in upfront helps these customers from the start when they’re just beginning to think about what they’re gonna do is extremely valuable.” Too often, companies jump straight to site selection without real analysis. “They think they know what they need… ‘Find me a warehouse in Omaha, Nebraska.’… But there really [is] no thought that goes into that.” What attracted him to Beacon’s expanded approach was the ability to guide the entire process, “all the way through turnkey and… turn it over to a customer to run it.” In his words, “We call it owning it. We own it with you.”
On Deck: Leadership Meets Execution
December brings a different kind of momentum, one shaped by more innovative processes, sharper decision-making, and clearer visibility across the warehouse floor. From transforming SOPs and tightening legal awareness to refining fulfillment agility and elevating orchestration, the next set of conversations will push us from leadership lessons into practical lift-off.
If you’re not already following, now’s the time. Subscribe to The New Warehouse on YouTube for a steady stream of warehouse wisdom—product demos, live tradeshow coverage, AI how-tos, process tips, and deep-dive webinars you won’t get anywhere else.
Why New Processes FAIL in Your Warehouse (And How to Fix It)
Why High-Performing Warehouses are NEVER Dirty (An Expert’s Guide) | DC 101
November moved from October’s “progress made practical” toward the people driving that progress. The conversations weren’t just about tech adoption or process improvement. They were about leadership, the kind that unites vision and execution, logic and empathy, technology and trust.
Leading Through Change: From Vision to Daily Action
Rick McDonald, former Chief Supply Chain Officer at Clorox, opened the month with a rare long-view of leadership — the kind forged across decades of disruption. As he put it, “The speed of the customer is what supply chains have to work to keep pace with.” He added a candid reminder about modernization: “Sometimes it’s really easy… to run after a shiny object versus focusing on what you really have to address.” And when reflecting on digital acceleration, he noted, “Amazon stopped selling books and started selling everything else.” That was the moment the industry had to wake up.
That same spirit showed up in the conversation with Chris Hamley and Pete Allen of The Brecham Group, who take a refreshingly blunt approach to leadership development. Their motto, “Make it suck less,” might sound lighthearted, but it cuts to the heart of the matter. Hamley explained his catalyst moment bluntly: “I pulled the team together and said, ‘Boy, this really looks like it sucks.’” He then challenged his leaders to find one tangible fix each day: “I need everyone to go out and figure just one thing they can do to make tomorrow suck less.”
And while Hamley tackles leadership from inside the warehouse, Charlie Saffro, CEO of CS Recruiting, sees it from the outside, looking in. Her insight connected perfectly: “Right now, I’d say, the best skill people can have is knowing how to be human.” She also emphasized the importance of getting clear on your strengths, “I think the riches are in the niches, like they say.” She pushes candidates and leaders alike to get clear on where they add value, often beginning with a simple question: “What is your expertise?” And when describing how people should communicate their strengths, she put it plainly: “It’s a combination of really highlighting the area where you have developed… we want to see jargon on resumes.”
Together, these voices painted a picture of leadership that’s grounded, relational, and authentic, and one that sees people as the competitive advantage, not just resources to manage.
Connecting the Dots: Systems, Strategy, and the Future
If leadership is about people, it’s also about how those people connect systems — a theme echoed across Paul Lukehart of PL Programs, the Trackstar team, and Endpoint Automation.
When Kevin asked Lukehart about the future, his answer landed like a thesis for modern operations. As he explained, “the big challenge is gonna be integrating these systems and anybody who can crack the code on really effective cross-platform integration is going to be… the game changer.” He added that it’s not about one flashy technology: “It’s not necessarily one piece of tech or one robotic arm… the challenge is always gonna be this integration pain of putting these systems together and having them run effectively.”
Trackstar echoed the same idea from a technical angle. As their team put it, “Data is really valuable, but the challenge is there are hundreds of different WMS out there.” Trackstar is solving that integration problem directly. As they explained, “Trackstar’s universal API builds integrations into all of those different systems and then normalizes that into a common data model with single unified API endpoints for folks to connect with.” Instead of software companies having to chase hundreds of WMS integrations one by one, “software companies… connect once to our product and now are pre-integrated to all the different systems out there.” Their goal is simple but ambitious: “We are unifying the data from a very fragmented landscape into our normalized schema… so software can build tech without having to worry about the integration headache that is so pervasive in this industry.”
Endpoint added a ground-level perspective — the bridge between leadership intent and frontline reality. As they put it plainly, “We’re here to bridge the gap between ERP systems.” Their modular approach reinforced the idea that elegant systems don’t require overbuilding: “Modularity… my belief is the companies that have built this into the architecture of their business agility are the ones that are gonna succeed long-term.”
Across all three conversations, the message was unmistakable: unification isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s a leadership one.
Leading Warehouse Innovation by Example
While others spoke of leadership in cultural or organizational terms, James Malley, CEO of Paccurate, embodied it in practice. His now-famous “spatula story” — the moment a simple kitchen tool exposed massive packaging inefficiencies — became a lesson in persistence. Malley explained its impact in his own words: “It went viral when the CEO got wind of it and just went on a war path internally questioning why they are shipping boxes that are 90% full of dunnage.” As Malley explained, “one of the last projects we did, we found if we could increase the cubic utilization of the robot shelf by 16%, it increased the ROI of the whole system by like 30 or 40%.” The math is simple: “the more work you get on a single bot in most cases, the better.” And that efficiency compounds downstream, from fewer trucks on the road to right-sizing AMR fleets — all part of how Paccurate has helped optimize more than one billion packs to date.
Bob Hutson of The Beacon Group discusses leadership at the strategic level — where real estate, finance, and operations collide. As he put it, “A lot of people think supply chain optimization is just about optimizing warehouses. It’s a lot more than that. It’s involved in cash flows and ROIs, and a lot of financial implications to these decisions.” He stressed the value of early involvement: “Getting in upfront helps these customers from the start when they’re just beginning to think about what they’re gonna do is extremely valuable.” Too often, companies jump straight to site selection without real analysis. “They think they know what they need… ‘Find me a warehouse in Omaha, Nebraska.’… But there really [is] no thought that goes into that.” What attracted him to Beacon’s expanded approach was the ability to guide the entire process, “all the way through turnkey and… turn it over to a customer to run it.” In his words, “We call it owning it. We own it with you.”
On Deck: Leadership Meets Execution
December brings a different kind of momentum, one shaped by more innovative processes, sharper decision-making, and clearer visibility across the warehouse floor. From transforming SOPs and tightening legal awareness to refining fulfillment agility and elevating orchestration, the next set of conversations will push us from leadership lessons into practical lift-off.
If you’re not already following, now’s the time. Subscribe to The New Warehouse on YouTube for a steady stream of warehouse wisdom—product demos, live tradeshow coverage, AI how-tos, process tips, and deep-dive webinars you won’t get anywhere else.
Why New Processes FAIL in Your Warehouse (And How to Fix It)
Why High-Performing Warehouses are NEVER Dirty (An Expert’s Guide) | DC 101
