Remember when store shelves emptied out in March of 2020? From toilet paper to furniture to electronics, product shortages became commonplace — and many businesses are still playing catch up. There is one positive from those early pandemic days. It shone a blindingly bright light on breakdowns in the supply chain, bringing an otherwise backburner issue to the forefront.
But a cursory understanding of supply chains isn’t good enough for business leaders. They need a strong understanding to prevent problems and capitalize on potential opportunities their competitors might not see.
We explored the issue in Supply + Demand: The Real…
How people and companies get the daily things they need and who supplies them.
(Interviewed by Our Founder/CEO, Tiffanie Stanard)
Caitrin Carickhoff has spent six years making sure the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is stocked with everything from medical devices for the operating room equipment to cups for the cafeteria. A value analysis improvement advisor on the supply chain team, Carickhoff helps review potential new products coming into the facility.
At a hospital with more than 500 beds, 25,000 annual admissions, and 15,000 employees, it’s a big job. She also supports supplier diversity initiatives, helping to ensure that CHOP…
Archer Smith, Supply Chain Associate — Stimulus, Inc.
If you have paid attention to Stimulus on social media in the past few weeks, you may have noticed our poll showing that after price, recommendations are the key element to supplier choice by an overwhelming margin. Despite all the changes in procurement in recent years, the value of a good business network remains unparalleled, but this becomes a problem for companies that want to bring on diverse suppliers. Minority-owned businesses (MBE’s) provide the same quality of service but have less access to the important business relationships that are so favored when…
Supply + Demand: The Real Cost of Doing Business (Event Series)
A series of events designed to help founders of CPG companies navigate supply chain issues, discuss industry trends and optimize sustainability in their supply chain.
One of the most crucial elements to successfully scaling a startup is having a handle on your supply chain. Failing to cultivate an understanding of supply chain is a common reason founders are unable to bring their product to market at scale.
Through first-hand experiences and industry-specific insights of experienced founders, we plan to help our audience better strategize around how to get their…
My name is Neeharika Damera and I am the Senior Product Manager at Stimulus. I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself and my role at the company. I have 12+ years of experience guiding teams to deliver innovative technology products from conception to launch across different industries and organizations of different sizes. I have an Engineering degree and an MBA.
I joined Stimulus at the onset of the pandemic last year. At Stimulus, I am responsible for product strategy, engineering management, and customer success for the Stimulus Relationship Intelligence Product (SRIP). I serve as a bridge between…
By Tiffanie Stanard, Founder/CEO — Stimulus, Inc.
Remember the first time you applied for a job? Maybe you didn’t get hired because you lacked experience. But you can’t get experience if you don’t get hired.
The same paradox is true for vendors and suppliers. Without experience, there’s little chance to work with big companies.
Stimulus believes that the future belongs to business leaders who partner with vendors and suppliers that offer diversity in background, thoughts, leadership, customers, and more, which would uplift economies and change lives. …
Plus our plans to become the Go-To Solution to help companies make better purchasing decisions!
By Tiffanie Stanard, Founder/CEO — Stimulus, Inc.
Like most people, my vision for 2020 was vastly different from the outcome.
No one predicted that a global pandemic would fundamentally change daily life. While we all adjusted to wearing masks (kind of lol), using double the hand sanitizer, and working virtually — COVID-19 was disrupting global supply chains too. Vendors struggled to meet demand, leaving companies small and large unable to serve customers at full capacity. Manufacturing stalled. Deliveries were late. Services slowed. …
The holiday season has always been stressful on supply chains, but that stress has for the most part been predictable — increased retail visitors, higher demand for consumer goods, larger crowds in airports, and spikes in purchases of unusual products like Christmas trees are all par for the course. But 2020 has shown us that nothing can be taken for granted this year, and businesses should be prepared to extend that logic to the holidays. Here are three predictions from Stimulus about what to expect from this unusual, pandemic-beset holiday season:
1) Its going to be a long one
Archer Smith, Supply Chain Associate at Stimulus, Inc.
If you are like me, you have rarely put any thought into your employer’s buying process. When you were at the workplace you printed documents on company-owned paper, sat in an office with company-provided furnishings, which were cleaned by a company-selected contractor. These days you might be working from home on a company laptop. But, like me, you probably hadn’t considered that each of these items or services was the result of highly intentional purchasing processes. That specific laptop model on your desk, for example, was chosen from dozens or hundreds of…
What are your daily supplies? What are the items that you use every day — the food, clothing, furniture, pens, transportation, utensils, or other possessions that enable you to live and work? Chances are, those items were produced and provided to you by private companies, placed on store shelves in your neighborhood for you to purchase or on websites to be shipped to your door. But you might not know how much work goes into creating even the most basic products, and the scale of connection required behind each of your daily supplies. …
