The Zero100 Podcast

Hosted by Zero100

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Episodes

108

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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About the show

Welcome to Zero100, the “unboring” supply chain podcast. Each week, Zero100's researchers, analysts, and data scientists deliver sharp takes on the news, delve into new research, and interview leaders at the forefront of supply chain’s digital revolution, giving you the insights you need to drive growth and resilience.

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June 9, 202619 min

Is SynBio Manufacturing's Next Frontier?

Synthetic biology promises to revolutionize manufacturing, growing materials in fermentation tanks instead of relying on traditional industrial or agricultural sources. But can it scale? Zero100 Chief Content Officer Matt Davis sits down with Mathias Cousin, Managing Director at Monitor Deloitte and a SynBio veteran, to find out. Mathias reveals why manufacturing economics, not science, determines who survives, how AI is compressing design cycles from years to months, and why the biggest breakthroughs may come from replacing cows, not crude oil. With real-world examples, he shows what supply chain leaders need to understand as biological manufacturing moves from the lab to industrial reality.

May 26, 202620 min

What Will Humans Do When 60% of Work Is Automated?

Zero100 predicts that by 2030, 60% of supply chain’s functional activities will shift to automated or autonomous execution. But what happens to the workers in that equation? This week on the podcast, Zero100’s Matt Davis, Caroline Chumakov, and Lauren Acoba deliver the honest answer. Drawing from analyses of 413 solution providers and over a million job descriptions, they reveal how the division of labor is already shifting, explore and what work will remain distinctly human as data tasks move to automation and strategic judgment, supplier relationships, and systems thinking become the competitive advantage. With examples from BMW’s frontline upskilling programs and Fortune 100 adoption strategies, they show how winning companies bring entire workforces along this journey.

May 19, 202622 min

Breaking Free from AI Pilot Purgatory with PowerThreads

“If one more person brings me another pilot, they're getting fired," one C-level supply chain executive told Zero100 — and they’re far from alone in their frustration. Most companies are drowning in AI projects that never scale because they’re optimizing functions in isolation while ignoring how decisions actually flow across the business. The solution? PowerThreads: end-to-end AI-enabled workflows that connect sensing, deciding, and acting across organizational silos. This week, VPs, Research & Advisory Lauren Acoba, Jenna Fink, and Geraint John break down the five core PowerThreads driving 95% of enterprise value, share a $300M sourcing transformation that required five years of unglamorous foundation-building, and explain why optimizing one bottleneck without understanding the full system often just moves the problem downstream.

May 6, 202619 min

The Great Planning-Sourcing Standoff (And How to End It)

Planning and sourcing should be natural partners. So why does it so often feel like they’re working out of sync? This week, VPs, Research Kelly Coutinho and Geraint John dissect the disconnect – and, more importantly, how to bridge it. They share how leading companies are turning functional friction into competitive advantage by using AI to translate demand signals into sourcing actions, creating continuous planning rhythms that keep both teams aligned, and building cross-functional crisis protocols built to survive disruption.

April 28, 202625 min

Global Capability Centers: What to Move, Where to Invest, and How to Build Trust

Target's running a quarter of HQ operations remotely. Unilever's outsourcing demand planning to seven global hubs. Lowe's manages North American inventory from thousands of miles away. Today's Global Capability Centers have evolved far beyond back-office support – they're making the calls that drive your business. But without trust, governance, and the right talent strategy, they'll never live up to their potential. This week, Caroline Chumakov and Geraint John (VPs, Research & Advisory) and Justin Gillebo (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) break down what actually belongs in a GCC, why India isn't the only answer, and how to avoid the “us vs them" trap that hinders most implementations.

April 21, 202619 min

The Zero100 Mailbag: Who Owns AI's Bad Calls – and What’s Happening to Entry-Level Jobs?

Should you fix broken planning processes before automating them, or does that just delay progress? When an AI agent makes a bad decision, who's actually accountable? And how do junior employees build expertise when AI handles the foundational work they used to learn from? This week, Cody Stack (VP, Research Analytics) sits down with Kelly Coutinho (VP, Research & Advisory) and Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Research & Advisory) to tackle these questions and others from Zero100’s supply chain and operations community.

April 14, 202619 min

How On Built Supply Chain as Its Competitive Edge

At 16 years old, On has a rare advantage: young enough to be agile, mature enough to scale globally. This week, Chief Supply Chain Officer Craig Jones tells Kelly Coutinho (VP, Research & Advisory) how the company’s using this window to build supply chain as a competitive advantage, not a cost center – from the development of LightSpray’s three-minute shoe uppers to AI built on obsessively clean data. His philosophy? Automate the mundane to liberate the magnificent, finish the race together, and build the company you want to be in five years, not the one you are today.

April 7, 202620 min

Build to Adapt, Not to Last: Church & Dwight's Manufacturing Evolution

When Carlos Ruiz joined Church & Dwight as Chief Supply Chain Officer, he realized the company's biggest asset – rigid, built-to-last manufacturing lines – was actually holding it back. His solution: stop building equipment for 15-year depreciation schedules and start building for speed and flexibility. But the real challenge isn't the technology or capital approval – it’s convincing people to let go of what worked yesterday. This week on the podcast, Carlos tells Zero100's Jenna Fink (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) how he’s tackling change management, navigating board expectations, and leading Church & Dwight's evolution from Lean foundations to end-to-end operational excellence.

March 31, 202619 min

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Humanoids

Backflips and kung fu routines make great viral videos, but what's the actual business case for humanoid robots? Zero100’s Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Research & Advisory), Kevin O'Marah (Chief Research Officer), and Jenna Fink (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) cut through the hype to explain why we predict a 1000% jump in real humanoid workflows this year. Turns out, the biggest advantage isn’t the robot itself – it’s that humanoids can drop into existing workflows without expensive facility redesigns, cutting integration costs by 80%. The team explores lessons from BMW’s approach in Spartanburg, why China's robotics lead matters, what makes a use case worth pursuing, and how to tell when a demo is operationally credible or just impressive theater.

March 24, 202625 min

Zero100 Forum 2026: Scaling AI in a Fragmenting World

Zero100’s Forum brought CSCOs and COOs to the Arizona desert to tackle the question keeping operations leaders up at night: how do you scale AI when insights outpace execution? Caroline Chumakov and Justin Gillebo (Senior Directors, Research & Advisory) sit down with Sophia Pouzyrev (Account Executive) to unpack the candid conversations that defined the event – from the Rt Hon Sir Tony Blair’s insights on the unwinding of 30 years of globalization to Scott Galloway's challenge on designing work for Gen Z. The verdict: leaders have moved past pilots. 2026 is about production, orchestration, and building talent that can keep pace with technology. If you're stuck between insight and action, this debrief captures what's actually working.

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