Hello supply chain squad. Welcome to the she supply chains podcast. This is Katie. This is Courtney We are so excited for you all to get to know Deborah Lynn Deborah is currently the vice president of supply chain at Bell the makers of go-go squeeze applesauce Which is definitely a staple in my household and I know in Courtney's as well Deborah has a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue and she has worked across the supply chain in multiple companies with very different scales You'll get to hear about how she's navigated these spaces and how she's landed in her Goldilocks place where it's just right Let's dive in Start with like easy ones tell us a little bit about yourself right How did you end up in supply chain a little bit about both your career path and then a little bit on the personal side, too? Yeah, absolutely. So a little bit about myself I am an Asian American born and raised in the great state of Texas I have an undergrad degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University So love the Midwest as well. Shout out to my Midwest friends. All right, and Masters Yeah, and an MBA at New York University And so I would say that even though, you know, my heart still resides in the Midwest I have spent the most of my time after college and in my work life working in the greater New York City area Part of Texas Dallas Dallas. Oh, I like Dallas. Okay. Yeah, you familiar with it? I am I have my best friend lives in Houston It's like a press of heat She seems unbothered, but anyway, yeah, I like Dallas a lot in Austin's. It was nice as well. Oh Absolutely. Yeah, Dallas is completely transformed But I mean it's a you know, it's it's a good distance between Dallas and Houston So I always feel like the people in Houston, you know survival the fittest they're they're Created to be able to withstand that humidity for them Yeah, so more about me. I'm you know, I'm a mother of two my first is actually a fur baby who just turned four and then I had a son as Katie knows a year ago his name is Jude and love them both spoiled them both and Yeah, and then about my career. So I've spent the majority of my career in consumer products FMCG and I love it how I got into supply chain. So Let's see. It probably it started. I kind of fell into supply chain on accident It was my first internship at out of Purdue and I remember interviewing with Unilever at the time and Honestly, I you know, I just wanted a job. I didn't know what supply chain was and I remember Meeting with this super cool guy. His name was Jeff Gantt worker. I haven't talked to him in like over 12 years I hope it's okay to name drop Thanks, Jeff for my career But he was just he was so cool during the interview and I had no clue what supply chain was and he was like Yeah, you get to work on these awesome brands like Dove and and degree and swab and We just launched axe and I was like that sounds awesome And he's like your engineering degree is gonna be perfect for this. I was like, that's cool I'm in and so, you know, I I jumped in and it was a you know a six-month internship I ended up being an inventory planner So, you know what that was is I was responsible for looking at the five or six distribution centers that manage Unilever's personal care And making sure that I was making it keeping inventory in the right locations and that I was balancing stock appropriately And I was just like riveting for you. Was it? But you know what I still look back on it and I remember there's a few moments in that Internship that have really changed the facet of of my career and One of them was looking at SAP and seeing all the distribution centers and the the demand Signals for each of the distribution centers the you know the production flows coming in and I just remember Yeah, this is so awesome I feel like I'm the this puppet with my fingers across the United States making sure that every you know All stock is getting to the right place at the right time and it was it was a really cool feeling, you know I'd never looked at an ERP system before and So so that was one moment the second moment was when I realized I was going to be in supply chain even though I was majoring in engineering and It was a few I would say it was a few weeks into my internship Here I was you know balancing product and I noticed okay one of the distribution centers is about to cut Maybe in in three weeks time it was going to cut product and so I reached out to the supply planner And I was like hey, I see this potential risk There's no stock that I can move is there anything else like production that we could impact to help this cut And I remember the planner going hey, yeah, absolutely we could do that. That's a really good catch I didn't even see that and honestly we probably would have cut and I was like wow I am not a supply chain major. I am in my first real job Three weeks, you know, we're so into it. I'm like I deverelin prevented a cut So that that was probably the first time that I really thought You know what supply chain could be for me because you know, then I started seeing everything like supply chains this This network of people and teams and infrastructure that just move product across the whole globe And there's things we can do to prevent, you know risks and and make sure that stock is getting to our consumers Our customers at the right time and for me that was just the coolest thing So from there on out after that internship, I was you know, I was sold on supply chain Your enthusiasm is Love it. Yes Okay, so fast forward to now How would you describe your role to somebody that didn't know anything about supply chain? Yeah, so my role today I'm the VP of supply chain for bell and I work specifically on our go go squeeze business for the us And so the way that I would see it or liken it to is Similar to that of an orchestra conductor, you know, just as an orchestra conductor would Need to make sure that the different sections in the the orchestra are starting that you know, there's their pieces at the right time They're playing in sync with each other so that ultimately the outcome is this, you know, this beautifully composed song I think the supply chain and what I do is very similar to that I'm making sure that different aspects and functions of the supply chain are Starting at the right times they're working in sync with each other and in harmony so that The ultimate, you know end goal for us is building this beautiful efficient supply chain without any gaps or pauses that Can ultimately deliver to, you know, the customer what they need when they need it I love that Like we're not supply chain people. We are orchestra conductors. That sounds so lovely Yeah, I know Like this it could very well be because tonight i'm going to go see a concert with my husband to celebrate our anniversary Thanks appreciate it. So that might be why, you know, it comes to mind Deborah, you've been through a lot of change and I wanted to focus on how to navigate through acquisitions So they can be unsettling for everybody involved And so what leadership tactics do you employ to keep your team motivated and focused during the pre and post acquisition periods? Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. So in my experience in my career. I've been a part of two acquisitions And what i've noticed is it doesn't really matter if you're part of the team that's getting acquired or you're part of the team that is being acquired Every single person is impacted by the cultural and organizational shift of that acquisition and The outcome of those shifts is normally these periods of uncertainty where people aren't sure of their future or the or or what their role is going to be And so I think what i've done personally to to keep my employees and my teams engaged and motivated Was put really nicely By someone actually katie at a conference that you and I were at a few months ago and this leader had Spoken about the three h's and the three h's are essentially you honor the past You'd be honest about the present and you'd be hopeful about the future and I really remember those Yeah, I really love the way that she put it because when I reflect back on All the things that led to my success before an acquisition and after at an acquisition with my teams or with with, you know, any team It was me following those those three guard guardrails and um, and what i've actually found is not only does it help my team But it's also helped me to build allies and the company that is merging with my company allies that you know I had it known before and and we've been able to start off our relationships on a really really good footing from that So following an acquisition you have two companies coming together They have different strategic goals often you have to reevaluate that and how do you approach that process? Identifying the new The old kind of what you said about honoring the past but that you do have to be honest about where you are And moving towards that hope like how do you think about that in terms of goals and priorities and combining those those things with two different companies that could be in two different places Yeah, I honestly, I think it depends a lot on the circumstance of the acquisition So so if I were to take my experiences and acquisitions for example The first acquisition that I was a part of I was initially a part of you know, Unilever supply chain this big behemoth organization And I was asked to lead the supply chain of the startup that we had just acquired and we were You know keeping relatively separate and and that was sir Kensington's and the ultimate goal in terms of the the larger Objectives of sir Kensington's was leverage Unilever's scale and grow exponentially in a very short time frame And so, you know being as part of the startup in sir Kensington's obviously everyone at the company was super excited willing to do whatever it took to really meet that goal But some of the struggles and challenges that we ran into in terms of setting those objectives Was when we needed to work with Unilever to leverage Capabilities that they had to leverage sales capabilities, you know infrastructure sales infrastructures that they had we found that because The the goals and the targets for the teams at Unilever were catered to The core of the business and not these startups It was really difficult to get the the support and the resources we needed to start building upon those priorities And so, you know when I look at How we follow those three ages and what we what we learned from just struggling honestly, you know in the first many months of Having these expectations set by senior leadership, but when it came down to executing just not being able to get there It was looking at okay So honor the past the past for sir Kensington's is this this super scrappy startup Where we're willing to do whatever it takes we can take risks, but we can shift a lot But being honest about the present which was hey the present is we're going we're being asked to leverage Unilever is infrastructure on sales for example or leverage the the supply chain capabilities at Unilever, but Realistically those capabilities are built to support a multi-billion dollar organization They're not built to support this one, you know, sir Kensington is less than 100 million So it you know this is it's it was the teams even though they wanted to help They they couldn't because their targets their goals were really formed to to support the the large mothership company And so being hopeful about the future was was really how do we engage in these positive conversations? at a top down you know from a from a top down level of Realigning our our our targets across the business and making sure that the teams that we depended on The startup depended on to to enable that success were also aligned on you know The targets for sir Kensington's and that we were you know We had a shared stake in the success of both sets of businesses and you know that was one of the things that I learned coming from You know this having a startup being acquired by a big company My by second acquisition that I was a part of was a little bit different It was two acquisitions of or it was one acquisition where the two companies were pretty much the same size of each other and so in that From that standpoint the three H's were a little bit different. It was it was honoring the past cultures and what was great between both companies and Being honest about the present the present was that you had you had two companies of the same size Of which the go-go-sweeze business was the growth driver And so what we needed to do was take a look at the holistic You know business with both what we call the cheese side of the business and the squeeze side of the business Yeah super creative so looking at both the cheese and squeeze sides of the businesses together and seeing okay What trade-offs did we need to make collectively? From you know one area of the of the business or one portfolio to another So that we can invest our resources in the right areas for the total good of you know of the business And so I think to go back to your question Courtney it really just depends on the circumstance of the acquisition But you can apply those three H's you know in many different ways Okay, so You've worked across these different companies, which I just think is fantastic As you think about the different sizes of them What are some of the biggest differences that you've observed and how they operate? Well, how do you have to adapt your approach to each of these environments? Yeah, so I maybe just to take a step back. I've been a part now in my career I've been a part of you know the big fortune 500 size companies I worked on the startup that was still separate from even lever at the time and then now I'm at uh bell Which is what I consider you know a medium-sized company and what I have Observed is that you know a startup is you move fast Yeah, you take risks, but you can also shift directions very quickly when you learn, you know Those risks sometimes don't pan out. You're super nimble, but you know on the other hand There's minimal processes and plays. There's no stage gates for decision making It's kind of like the wild wild west at times and and you follow the founders mentality Uh, so you know depending on the founders personality that could mean many different things Versus, you know at Unilever when I was part of the the core of Unilever Everyone knew their lane, you know your roles and responsibilities were well defined You knew where your responsibilities started and where it stopped And more than likely the objectives you said at the beginning of the year Were the same objectives that you would need to meet at the end of the year You know, whereas in a startup your objective is going to change quarterly at at minimum and And and I also you know, I also learned to appreciate after I came from Unilever working You know at a startup and and now at this middle medium-sized company That larger companies have actually really great internal resources so Great technical resources for you to learn and gain your your skills Within supply chain, but also great resources for leadership to develop and so I think one of the things that I've done to in terms of my approach to helping sure you know my success and my happiness as I go between You know small to a medium to a large-sized company is I just adjust my expectations So I'm not going to go into For example, my current company right now I would expect that I'm going to learn a lot from my peers about how the overall business functions But I'm not going to expect to be able to have a 10-day deep dive into the nuances of snop with all my colleagues because Fortunately, you know, we we just can't we can't take that much time off the business And there's not meant that many colleagues to be able to do a deep dive with and so My approach is you know, I I adjust how I go into conversations My expectations for the outcome of those conversations my expectations for what we can change and what we can't change as you know As it pertains to the framework of the business and and I found that Having changes in those expectations has also helped me have a broader mindset of what can you do? Like if you set these these larger expectations And what can you do within those those guardrails to really make a difference within the scope of your of your company? so Just curious So in the startup when you're in this is like, you know, I've been in large company for a long time When you're changing priorities or objectives like quarterly at minimum How do you make sure you're just not whiplashing around and you're actually making progress? So I mean the the ultimate the like the first response that I would have for that is sometimes there is But but it's whiplashing everyone's happy about it because everyone's like, you know, it's with the startup There is the coolest thing about it is you have this This ultimate vision, you know, the larger vision Which is I want to get our brand out there and I want to grow and there's so many ways in which we can do it and this is where, you know, founder's mentality comes in because We you know when when I was working at the startup we had We we are condiments business or Kensington's is a condiments business and so For most of most of our time was spent trying to to grow the condiments business But then you know a month later We were also launching a documentary about french fries and then a month after we were also opening a food truck Of french, you know of hamburgers and french fries that were triangle shaped patties You know in the heart of of the financial district and the supply chain's focus was okay How do you make sure that you maintain the supply chain of a food truck? In addition to how do you how do you support the you know the the stock inventory or the inventory across, you know, three dcs? So there's definitely whiplash But you just kind of have to roll with it to be honest and in a startup You're most times the not you're happy to because these ideas are what makes startup quirky It's like it's those risks that startups take that make them That differentiate them from you know from the all other all other startups that may not necessarily work out and you took that answer somewhere I had no idea was going love it though That's the startup for you That's the startup. That's the that's how your objectives are going to start and how they're going to end Awesome. So what I appreciate about that though is I'd like to you talked about like the different expectations depending on kind of where you are But how do you kind of like weave in some of these best things right because I think what we worry about is sometimes Well, we talk a lot about like change fatigue and everything is always changing And that's true But like how do you get some excitement behind like you want to make progress? I get that you just want to change for the sake of change, but also Sometimes your business just needs you to go with this And so it's like how do you bring that startup mindset to like a mid-size or a larger one? But then also I can imagine Sitting in a startup and I haven't before I'd want like a little bit more process I'd want a little bit more structure maybe and so how do you how do you kind of like weave in like the best of both But still maintain like hey, this is a big. This is a mid and this is entrepreneur Yeah, I mean for me. That's why I'm super happy in this mid-sized company Everything like I think of it as the Goldilocks of companies, you know, it's not too big It's just right because we have process. We have an ERP system. We have stage gates But you know, I I think I think it's also about expectations You know, it goes back to what we talked about before is The culture of a company and the way you impact the business deliverables Within the culture of the company. There's different there's different levels of expectations that you should have Going into, you know, your role or how you set targets and and so What I did was there was certain, you know, there was if I looked at how, you know My expectations at Unilever everything was super process driven and I was there was there's rarely a surprise because more than likely We had to talked about, you know, a topic and then talked about a topic again and then decided on the next Whereas, you know at the startup, I was surprised like every you know every two every every couple days So but it was changing the expectations on okay If I wanted to implement some type of process, you know at the startup Then it was it was just presenting the idea because I think one of the great things about the startups are That you're working organically so close to each other and everyone builds a really good collaborative relationship Very naturally that you're just needing to present an idea and then needing to to find the right way within the culture to instill that idea Um, and so, you know, I think it really just depends Uh based on, you know, what company you're at and what the culture is. It's great. Can we talk a little bit about like, okay, you're a new mom Yeah, you've transitioned back to work. Can you talk a little? Yeah, so first I'll like congrats One new mom I know you made it and I wanted to hear a little bit about your experience around like how did you think about like, uh On your way out and then your transition back Anything that maybe you planned for any surprises you had any advice you would share to anybody else It's like going through this any kind of parent Yeah, so my my company is really terrific in that I was able to take a full six months off Uh for my maternity leave, which I I really truly consider that as a blessing and something that I would be a complete advocate for You know all companies to continue to do because as a mom It really helped me Take the time that I needed to be with my son, but when it was time for me to return to work I was fully ready to go uh and and super excited to go back But one thing that I actually hadn't planned for was that Six months is kind of a long time to also be off Especially when your company has just been acquired and so When I left, you know, obviously my mind wasn't on well What's it gonna be like when I come back to the office after six months when I left it was like, okay How am I getting this baby out of me and Get the sleep in that you need right now and there were these were questions we all asked Someone told me don't read that last chapter of what to expect when expecting Don't read that just just go in hot and hope for the best Exactly exactly. So your mind is filled like I had like four You know four new mother books in front of me And that's where my mind was you know the last month before I went out But um, but what I came across when I came back was a super different dynamic Of the company and my team than when I had left so to put it into perspective when I left We were still completely separate and we were And my team, you know, it was doing a certain scope of of of activity When I came back our parent company bell was much more integrated I had you know shifted some areas that my team was prioritizing and it was just a staple to prioritize They weren't even talked about anymore And so when I came back and for me it was it was kind of that I was kind of thinking Okay, am I redundant here now what you know, where can I add value? On one hand I love that my team felt empowered to take certain things and and they've carried the torch so wonderfully And I wanted to keep that empowerment, but on the other hand I was trying to figure out. Okay, so Where is the dynamic of relationships? You know who who who are my global counterparts that I needed to to partner with and who wasn't you know, who who made the decisions now? Um, and it took time to kind of untangle that and figure that out and I would say that If I look back on what I was doing, you know immediately after I came back and where my head was at it would just be to To not stress so much about needing to immediately Add value and and to immediately deliver results and it was take the time to observe take the time to To be okay with the shift In in your scope and a and a mindset shift of where you could add value and where you could grow and and appreciate You know how your your team has been able to take on your responsibilities and then just build off of that Um, you know and then from an acquisition standpoint, it was Just take the time then just to meet people if the great thing about you coming back is your team's already been covering for you So you don't have a ton of super urgent things Take the time to just meet with new people that aren't you know that weren't part of the business from when you left and and grow from there That's so thoughtful and reflective because I think anytime we start a new role or we transition somewhere new You feel like I gotta get in there and I gotta prove myself and You empowered your team. You let them shine And then it allowed you to really come in like build those relationships again the network and figure out where you wanted to head next I think that is very wise Can we get to a couple of fun questions? Yeah Four minutes go Katie. Go. Okay ready. We're gonna do rapid fire Is there a personal quote or mission that inspires you? Yes, the best things in life are often waiting for you at the exit ramp of your comfort zone Are both writing that one down Okay, I know what is some of the best or worst career advice that you've been given that has stuck with you over the years So this one This one is a little bit of explanation because the best advice that was given to me was actually during my first internship As well when I realized that I was in the stick and supply chain and it was when a senior planner said to me Deborah, it's just deodorant and What that meant, you know and and how I've taken that with me across my career is Don't freak out about failures or mistakes that you made you know if things are going If things are super stressful at work, you don't need to take that home and keep that You know that that black dark seed and let it grow and fester within you at the end of the day It's just deodorant Uh, and that's what I tell my team at the end of the day. It's just apple sauce It's okay if you make a mistake because you know, it's just apple sauce So we'll fix it and we'll move on and and and that's the great thing about being in consumer products It moves so quickly by the time you've you know, you figured out you made a mistake Don't worry. You can plan for you know the next one and then fix that go from there Can we please have the title is don't freak out. It's just apple sauce Feel it exactly Or during covid. I wish this you know the toilet paper manufacturer is proud to say it's just it's just toilet paper Oh, thank you so much, Deborah. This has been lovely. We have so many nuggets Yeah, I really enjoyed chatting with you guys. I really appreciate you having me on Yes, and you need to let us know when you're coming to minneapolis because we want to I would love that. I absolutely will. Yes. I'm the restaurant queen. I know we're going to go I'm so excited. It's all about me. I just follow Courtney So that is that's perfect. Thank you for joining us on she supply chains We had a great chat with debrilin and we loved her energy and insights A big thanks to our team and our amazing listeners If you enjoyed this episode, please rate review and share Stay tuned for our next episode with Whitney Schlesinger from McCormick. See you soon supply chain squad [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
