Nicole Quigley: Hello, everybody, and welcome back to End-to-End Insights. I'm Nicole Quigley, and I'm so excited to be here with you today. Today, we are going to be talking about the future of supplier engagement and what it really means to build a more connected, resilient supplier ecosystem. I feel like often we talk a lot about supply chain resilience, but increasingly resilience does not just depend on what happens inside your own organization. It depends on the suppliers, the partners. and the broader network around you. So today I'm joined by three experts and we're going to talk about one example on how Jabil is approaching just that. Today we've got Frank McKay, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Graham Scott, Chief Procurement Officer, and Josh Wilson, Senior Business Unit Manager, who leads our market intelligence programs. Thanks for joining me, everyone.
Josh Wilson: Yeah.
Graham: Thanks for having us.
Frank McKay: Baby
Josh Wilson: Yeah.
Frank McKay: yeah.
Nicole Quigley: Awesome. So we're gonna just kind of dive right into things and I'm
Josh Wilson: I can
Nicole Quigley: gonna kick it over to Frank first. I kind of want to talk about building resilience beyond your own organization. So Frank, first question over to you. How much of an organization's resilience ultimately depends on the resilience of its own supplier network?
Frank McKay: Yeah, I I think yeah, if you if you just think about the evolution that we're on, and the journey that we're on, Nicole. If you if you go back twenty years, no one ever and even ten years, no one really spoke about resilience. It wasn't a word that meant a huge amount when you think about supply chains and now the fragility of them. it was just people were just making decisions and not really thinking about some of the things we have to think about now around geopolitical risks and constrained supply chains and shortages and the growth that we experience and some of the natural disasters that we now have to deal with because the world has truly went global when we think about supply chains. So you know it's something that we have to pay an inordinate amount of attention to ensure that when we are speaking with customers about that fragility, that we can give them some confidence that we're building a process and we're utilizing technology and of course investing in the right calibre of experienced folks around the globe that we can manage everything that the world throws at us and that we can be resilient and we can be that safe pair of hands when we think about how we manage a very, very complex global supply chain.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that's great. And you are so right. Resilience has truly become probably the biggest buzzword in supply chain right now. I feel like we hear it every other day, but for a good reason, there's something that is constantly happening every single time you turn on the television. And Graham, I'm gonna pass this one over to you. From a procurement perspective, how has that changed the way you think about those supplier relationships?
Josh Wilson: And how has that changed the way we think about the environment?
Graham: Yeah, I'm not sure that I would say it's changed how we think about them, Nicole. I think we've been fairly consistent in our approach with suppliers over the last decade or so, as Frank mentioned. We go through these cycles fairly frequently. I think we've understood over the last 10 years or so that things are going to change. It's not always
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Graham: going to be a pricing conversation with a supplier. It's not always going to be you know, all contracts driven type conversations, it's going to be around resilience and how do we get the components that we require to help support, our customers, as we look to build out products for them. So, yeah, it's definitely. know, supply chain resiliency and all those factors that come into play as we think about managing the component supply, managing material supply. You know, it's just becoming more and more crucial to the success of not just Jabil but also our customers. So it's definitely evolved as far as the importance
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Graham: of it. And I think there's more of an understanding of it. But I think as far as how we kind of look at it, I think it's been fairly consistent.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, it's it's almost about how to expect the unexpected, I'm sure, in these days and age and just get ahead of the curve. And I'm gonna ask you one more follow up question because you know, we talk about supplier relationships. So, you know, we also kind of think about rethinking that overall supplier experience. I know at Jabil it's so unique with how we treat our suppliers. So where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve The way procurement organizations engage with suppliers and not necessarily Jabil, but maybe just generally speaking for other organizations.
Graham: Yeah, we've got close to 40,000 suppliers and so we can't treat every supplier the same. We treat every supplier with respect, but When we think about the the complexity of each and every single one of those relationships, they differ significantly. You know, we might have one supplier that supplies as one part, we've got another supplier
Nicole Quigley: It is.
Graham: that can supply us with billions of components, every single year. So it needs balance. We need to make sure that we have the right technology support to enable the relationship and allow it to continue to flourish. And I think from there also, as we think about the investments that we're making in technology and in the relationship. It's vital that we understand just how we can maneuver them moving forward. it's not just a, we're doing this for operational and tactical reasons, it has to be
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: more of a kind of strategic view on things and how can we become a better customer to those suppliers and I think that's a different kind of tactic we've been taking recently, making sure that we are front and centre, that when those suppliers have a decision to make on who to supply components to, they want to supply the components to Jabil because we're a better customer.
Nicole Quigley: Yep. that makes sense. it sounds like it's a lot about, you know, having those processes in place and not having all these fragmented systems. And, you know, just another quick question on that. I'm gonna pass this over to you actually, Frank. When you think about technology specifically, you know, with what we're talking about, what do you think makes something just genuinely useful to a supplier rather than just another system they have, another piece of technology that they're using?
Frank McKay: Yeah, if you just think about just how complicated we are as a a company
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Frank McKay: because of you know, the the very fortunate and privileged position that we're in that we get to serve, four hundred and fifty of the world's most premier innovative brands on the on the face of the planet are pushing technology innovation every day. And that that spreads across about ten or eleven different end markets, Nicole. And when you just think about that, how global it really is and how deep the supply chain ecosystem goes. And as Graham you know referenced, just how many suppliers that we're dealing with across that ecosystem, we've got to strike a balance that kind of meets the needs for every type of supplier. Whether you're the most sophisticated supplier in our ecosystem, think about some of the guys in the semiconductor space that are driving,
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Frank McKay: you know, just absolutely, you know, bleeding and leading edge. technology when it comes to power management, just for an example, all the way through to someone who is supplying labels for us with absolutely no disrespect to our label supplier but just that that spectrum of complexity that we deal with and we've got to find a balance then that can accommodate every type of supplier that we can demonstrate there's value in dealing with Jabil And as Graham said, one of the things that we are maniacal around is making sure that when suppliers think about Jabil, they think of us as a good bet, they think as of us as a good customer, and when they've got choices to make, because the world operates completely differently these days, and they have to decide, okay, I can only support, a handful of customers that I would like to, then Jabil's name is always there and part of that is being easy to deal with. being a good customer, responding efficiently, being as transparent as we can, giving them access to information that, maybe just sets us apart a little bit. And honestly just treating them like a a customer wherever we possibly can. Those types of things I think ultimately drive the value. And then if you can layer technology in there and just making it easier to navigate inside the complexity of Jabil then I think we've struck a good chord and suppliers recognise that and they'll continue to support us as long as they see value
Nicole Quigley: Yeah. that was a great explanation. And I think that kind of naturally gets us into the bulk of this conversation now that we've set the stage, which is, you know, what is Jabil doing right now in that technology space to navigate these different things we're chatting about? So Josh, you know, was that supplier experience piece something that your team was thinking about when you guys developed PATH?
Josh Wilson: Yeah, yeah, for sure it was, right. And and I think Frank and Graham have articulated some of the investments that that we've made in technology to support that relationship with suppliers. And we want to continue to do that, right? And PATH the Partner Application Technology Hub is part of that, it's an extension of it. But the ethos of you know being a good customer it'll continue. based on the information that that the guys shared. At the moment, Nicole, suppliers engage with Jabil in a number of ways, right? You know, through a partner portal for the onboarding process, the way through to dealing with supply issues directly with the their commodity manager. And the challenge, and I think you know one of the opportunities that that come with PATH is, at the moment, a lot of the the interaction is siloed right and also the
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: the data associated with it is is kind of in different places And Frank touched on it, Technology's changing at an unprecedented pace. And and we think, particularly when we're when we're developing the partner application tech hub, that there's you know an opportunity for us to leverage that evolution, right? Consolidate and the supplier experience. And we think also, you know, kind of drive mutual benefits both to to Jabil and but importantly to the supply base. And just for a bit of context on that, paths intended, eventually it will become the the single entry point for suppliers to to engage with Jabil, So giving them, one place that they can, log on and do business with us. leverage the operational applications that they continue to do. But kinda at the same time as that, you know, touching on some of that resilience discussion that you've had. leverage the the tools that we've developed through through our joint venture partner ID8 to mitigate some of the the risk associated with doing business in a volatile market. So PATH is you know intended to be the single point of entry. what we are you know, laser focused on is is making sure that it provides value once the suppliers there. We don't want to just augment existing processes, augment existing solutions. You know, the the solution should allow our suppliers to one, engage with Jabil effectively, but importantly access some pretty impressive solutions designed to make those organizations a bit more resilient.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that was a great explanation. I think it sounds a lot about like bringing all these capabilities together in one hub. It's what Graham kind of touched on earlier, you know, no more fragmented systems or technologies. We all know there's like thousands of apps. We always have thousands of tabs open. So it's nice when you can have things all in one place, but it's not just a portal. It's becoming that central gateway for Jabil suppliers. So I really love how you explained that. I think it was
Josh Wilson: I think it was you know a really good
Nicole Quigley: you know, a really good explanation. So, you know, to kind of follow up on that and I'll open it up to Josh or or Graham if you wanna, tag on, why was it important that PATH created value, not only, you know, for Jabil internally getting all of our systems together, but also for the supplier as well.
Graham: You wanna go first?
Josh Wilson: Yeah, yeah, I I'm happ happy to take that that first claim. so Nicole, you touched there on the idea behind becoming the the single pane of glass for for Jabil suppliers. That's fairly simple, right? Suppliers should be able to engage with us, they should be able to do it efficiently and effectively. and the our endeavour at least is to make that as efficient and effective as possible. But but the value from PATH doesn't just stop there, right? You know, we we talk and and Frank mentioned that, how dependent are we on suppliers to drive our business forward? and we're super dependent on them, And one of the reasons for that is, resilience is a shared endeavour. particularly
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Josh Wilson: just now when you know Volatility is at pretty unprecedented levels. And Jabil's opportunity and respond to that volatility really depends on one how much we're investing in technology so that we can understand our network but also how you know the wider networks and engage in with with technology so that they can understand their exposure to risk and take action both proactively and reactively. And you know we're making big investment in the solution to support Jabil But I think if it was just to support Jabil, it would be it'd be a missed opportunity, and what we don't want it to be, Nicole, is just another requirement for suppliers to engage with, but when the opposite really is our intention. and to support that, one of the the things that's been pretty central to what we're working through, one of the things that's been pretty central to the value prop is we want it to be really rooted in the the voice of the supplier. and we launched mass supplier survey a few months back. I really appreciate the response from the supplier base. That information supported us as we have, it's validated the solutions that that we're including within the partner application hub. but secondly it's allowed us to prioritize what a supplier wants from a hub like this in the roadmap. And that will be crucial as as the platform evolves.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, I think that's an important distinction that you just said. There's a big difference between asking a supplier to use something because Jabil needs them to, versus giving them a reason to truly want to use it and to truly give them, kind of what you mentioned, a more interconnected experience, but also better information. And I'm gonna kinda move on to that now, talking about turning that information into better decisions because I know now we're, you know, implementing our market intelligence into PATH. Which is a huge, you know, key benefit for our suppliers. So, Graham, how does better market and commodity intelligence change the conversations procurement teams can have with suppliers?
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Graham: Yeah, I mean, helps in many ways, Nicole. I think if we look at just the... the kind of bread and butter of a commodity management role. You're looking at the components or the commodities that you manage and you're making decisions on who to
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Graham: source those components to. So having more information at your fingertips, try to understand a little bit more about what's going on in the market. Using insights to help support the data and the information you have at your fingertips is only just going to make and create a better sourcing decision. So
Frank McKay: Sagen you.
Graham: we're taking risk out of the conversation being more informed about what's happening in the market and you
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: know to enable a more resilient sourcing decisions. So there's a lot of time and effort spent on utilizing the market intelligence that we have within our own four walls to make sure that our teams can better understand what's going on out there in the market beyond just what we see and kind of pick up some of these snippets of information that is going to help make better decision, like I said before.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that's great. So, you know, thinking about moving from information to decisions. Josh, when you think about the intelligence that's available through PATH, through the market intelligence area, what makes information actionable rather than just, Wow, that's interesting, but I'm not gonna do anything with it.
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: Yeah, that that's a good question, Nicole. for me, information intelligence be becomes actionable one when it's directional for sure, But also when, those that are consuming it that are confident that it's accurate, right? And that's really
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: the premise, really the value proposition behind what we're trying to do at both Jabil and through ID8 Market Intelligence, which of course, as you mentioned, will form one of the value added solutions as part of the PATH. And what we do in in the market intelligence solution through the help of Graham's team through the the indirect team also through our trading compliance experts as well is we can combine our operational data, So our interactions in the market with with insight from those practitioners, who you know aren't researchers. But they understand the procurement and supply chain in practice, That they manage billions of dollars and spend across the ecosystem. and they understand that I've I've lived through some of the challenges or many of the challenges that that we're experiencing at the moment. And we leverage that, We leverage the the internal data and to give a view, but also to forecast on pricing on
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: lead times. on demand and also give our perspective on some of the other stuff that that's going on in the world. And as a result of that, as a result of what you're what we'd consider to be sort of practitioner verified and validated information. And we hope and the feedback we get from our customers is that you know they're confident using that information, to understand exposure early and to spark changes in the market quickly. And really to to understand what's kind of behind the shift in the market, validate it against their the their internal findings and come to a better decision as a result of good intelligence. But what what I also think is cool, Nicole, is that PATH gives us the opportunity to really accelerate this, right?
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: because we you know, combining that intelligence with our sort of wider data ecosystem, which is what we want PATH to become. So we pick up a market signal, for example,
Frank McKay: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: through our market intelligence solution, but we can also consider that alongside, some of the other millions of data points that we'll be gathering through the solution around, supply allocation, disruption exposure,
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: and tariff assumptions for example, which you know not only focuses on,
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: maybe a part of the market, but gives us a more holistic view of it.
Graham: I think, you know, Josh touched on a really important point, which is understanding, our suppliers supplier network, and our suppliers having a better handle on their supplier network, because, you know, the same issues and concerns and challenges that we face as Jabil with our supply base, our suppliers face with their suppliers as well.
Nicole Quigley: Mm, mm-hmm.
Graham: So giving them the ability to kind of use the technology, the insights that Josh has just mentioned there to help them manage their supply chain is only going to improve our supply chain and then obviously the support that we give to our customers. So I think it's really important that our suppliers truly get their arms around their supplier network.
Nicole Quigley: Yep.
Graham: This doesn't stop from Jabil back into our supply base. So I think Josh touched on a really, really important point as we look forward.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like PATH is, you know, you've not only got that market intelligence that helps you make that really good informed decision, and gives you all those great data points, but I know we've got the resilience hub, I know we've got tariffs and scenario planning. So, Frank, I'm gonna pass this over to you, but what do you feel like the differences between knowing a disruption happened and actually understanding what it means for your supply network?
Frank McKay: Yeah, and and I'll I'll I'll take us back a little bit as as well.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Frank McKay: answer that but if you just think of the the audience for a second of you know who would actually utilize and and engage with that PATH from the supplier network side more often than not and I'm j I'm just gonna call myself late career for a second. but we're dealing with a lot of folks now in the supplier ecosystem side and there's an expectation on our customer side as well those four hundred and fifty premium brands that we we talked about earlier who are early career and their expectation is wildly different in terms of they've kind of grown up in the the early part of careers digital natives almost and and there's an expectation that the pace at which we move at, the information that is is available is real time and it's not lagged and it's not a week old or even even a day old at this point. They're expecting to be informed almost as events happen and that kinda leads me to try and answer your question that yeah we've got to then have a mechanism, a technology and a platform where we can demonstrate that we've got our arms around any of these types of events that can happen around the world. And not only do we know that they're happening real time, that we have a mechanism and a technology and then a workforce that it can react in real time and it can provide
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Frank McKay: transparency and solutions and optionality for those customers and those suppliers where wherever the impact may be and we've got to demonstrate that in action and and folks have got to feel it. And the the race that we're up against is again customers of choices, suppliers of choices, they want to work with people that they trust, that they know that are making these smart, well thought out long term investments that will secure their supply chain, and that's on the customer side. And then in the supplier ecosystem side, they they want to feel that they're again making a bet, making an investment in a customer that's going to be around for a long time, that's get their best interests at heart, that can open the door to and open the aperture to new potential opportunities. and then we can pretty much deal with anything that the world again will throw at us because we know how to react, we know how to manage it and we know how to make actionable plans that result in outcomes that are beneficial to the upstream customers and the downstream ecosystem. I think PATH goes a long, long way. In fact I would even say it's probably the best product that I've ever seen that addresses some of those challenges, makes it easier for our
Nicole Quigley: Okay.
Frank McKay: suppliers to do business with Jabil. It offers that transparency, it offers that reassurance, it offers that resiliency. And I think it gives customers a really good feel that hey, we are that safe pair of hands that we we we talk about when we're engaging with them and we're trying to convince them that hey look No matter what goes on in the world, here's the investments that we've made to ensure that we are building that resiliency into the supply chain to the best of our ability. And by the way, this will never end. We are on an evolution.
Josh Wilson: I mean
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Frank McKay: you know, the the w once we've got PATH completely launched, we'll continue to add, evolve and and make it you know, continually better.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that was a great answer. Is there anything that, you know, either Graham or Josh kind of want to add on?
Josh Wilson: Were you created on the buttons like that? I
Graham: No, I think I would agree with Frank. The investments that we will continue to make in PATH will be for the good of Jabil, of course, but obviously the customers that are using PATH. And we truly do see value in this kind collaborative environment where, we can give, our customers, suppliers, whoever's the partner that we're talking about, the ability to manage their business in a way that we think is only going to improve and, again, support the business that we have within our four walls, but also help them, make them become
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: better customers, suppliers, whatever it may be. yeah, I mean, It's like anything that we do in technology, has to be an evolution. It's not just let's build it and then we stop and then we wait for a few years and think, well, maybe we should change it. I mean, the one thing I think that we've been very successful at from a technology perspective within Jabil is we never stop. We continuously
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: evolve and that will be no different with PATH.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: Yeah, and I I would just add to that. great points you made there, Frank, and also Graham. the PATH project we will continue to invest in it and the pace of change in the tech space is is as unprecedented as you know the the disruptive environment that that we're navigating at the moment. So, you know, as new technology comes online, as we validate it, as we test it to make sure that it fits the requirement of of the solution. all of this the the value added capabilities that we're we're including in PATH are are for the one goal, right? It's to drive that collective resilience across the value chain. And Graham touched on a good point as well, right? We've got really visible good visibility into our our tier one s suppliers as you start moving down the the the supply chain. that visibility is a bit more a bit more challenging. and a lot of the disruption occurs as you guys know before before tier one, right? So I think PATH what what PATH will give us the ability to do is is one understand exposure from a Tier One perspective, but also
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Josh Wilson: support our suppliers as they invest in tech, as they invest in solutions that allow them to drive resilience amongst their their suppliers, which again will make Jabil better as a result and provide a better service to those no four hundred and fifty premium brands that that Frank talks of.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that's great. No, this conversation has been super insightful, not only from a technology standpoint, but just overall how you can better have that buzzword of resilience because sounds like ultimately technology is really the enabler, but the bigger opportunity is creating that supplier ecosystem where Jabil, our suppliers, our customers, everyone just has better information, stronger visibility. I loved that word that you used, transparency. And just the ability to respond better, but respond better together. So I really appreciate all three of you taking the time to chat about this. If you found this podcast helpful, share it with a coworker, share it with a friend. And otherwise, thanks again and we'll catch you next time.
Frank McKay: Thanks, Nicole.
Graham: Thanks, Nicole.
Josh Wilson: Thanks, Nicole.
Josh Wilson: Yeah.
Graham: Thanks for having us.
Frank McKay: Baby
Josh Wilson: Yeah.
Frank McKay: yeah.
Nicole Quigley: Awesome. So we're gonna just kind of dive right into things and I'm
Josh Wilson: I can
Nicole Quigley: gonna kick it over to Frank first. I kind of want to talk about building resilience beyond your own organization. So Frank, first question over to you. How much of an organization's resilience ultimately depends on the resilience of its own supplier network?
Frank McKay: Yeah, I I think yeah, if you if you just think about the evolution that we're on, and the journey that we're on, Nicole. If you if you go back twenty years, no one ever and even ten years, no one really spoke about resilience. It wasn't a word that meant a huge amount when you think about supply chains and now the fragility of them. it was just people were just making decisions and not really thinking about some of the things we have to think about now around geopolitical risks and constrained supply chains and shortages and the growth that we experience and some of the natural disasters that we now have to deal with because the world has truly went global when we think about supply chains. So you know it's something that we have to pay an inordinate amount of attention to ensure that when we are speaking with customers about that fragility, that we can give them some confidence that we're building a process and we're utilizing technology and of course investing in the right calibre of experienced folks around the globe that we can manage everything that the world throws at us and that we can be resilient and we can be that safe pair of hands when we think about how we manage a very, very complex global supply chain.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that's great. And you are so right. Resilience has truly become probably the biggest buzzword in supply chain right now. I feel like we hear it every other day, but for a good reason, there's something that is constantly happening every single time you turn on the television. And Graham, I'm gonna pass this one over to you. From a procurement perspective, how has that changed the way you think about those supplier relationships?
Josh Wilson: And how has that changed the way we think about the environment?
Graham: Yeah, I'm not sure that I would say it's changed how we think about them, Nicole. I think we've been fairly consistent in our approach with suppliers over the last decade or so, as Frank mentioned. We go through these cycles fairly frequently. I think we've understood over the last 10 years or so that things are going to change. It's not always
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Graham: going to be a pricing conversation with a supplier. It's not always going to be you know, all contracts driven type conversations, it's going to be around resilience and how do we get the components that we require to help support, our customers, as we look to build out products for them. So, yeah, it's definitely. know, supply chain resiliency and all those factors that come into play as we think about managing the component supply, managing material supply. You know, it's just becoming more and more crucial to the success of not just Jabil but also our customers. So it's definitely evolved as far as the importance
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Graham: of it. And I think there's more of an understanding of it. But I think as far as how we kind of look at it, I think it's been fairly consistent.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, it's it's almost about how to expect the unexpected, I'm sure, in these days and age and just get ahead of the curve. And I'm gonna ask you one more follow up question because you know, we talk about supplier relationships. So, you know, we also kind of think about rethinking that overall supplier experience. I know at Jabil it's so unique with how we treat our suppliers. So where do you see the biggest opportunities to improve The way procurement organizations engage with suppliers and not necessarily Jabil, but maybe just generally speaking for other organizations.
Graham: Yeah, we've got close to 40,000 suppliers and so we can't treat every supplier the same. We treat every supplier with respect, but When we think about the the complexity of each and every single one of those relationships, they differ significantly. You know, we might have one supplier that supplies as one part, we've got another supplier
Nicole Quigley: It is.
Graham: that can supply us with billions of components, every single year. So it needs balance. We need to make sure that we have the right technology support to enable the relationship and allow it to continue to flourish. And I think from there also, as we think about the investments that we're making in technology and in the relationship. It's vital that we understand just how we can maneuver them moving forward. it's not just a, we're doing this for operational and tactical reasons, it has to be
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: more of a kind of strategic view on things and how can we become a better customer to those suppliers and I think that's a different kind of tactic we've been taking recently, making sure that we are front and centre, that when those suppliers have a decision to make on who to supply components to, they want to supply the components to Jabil because we're a better customer.
Nicole Quigley: Yep. that makes sense. it sounds like it's a lot about, you know, having those processes in place and not having all these fragmented systems. And, you know, just another quick question on that. I'm gonna pass this over to you actually, Frank. When you think about technology specifically, you know, with what we're talking about, what do you think makes something just genuinely useful to a supplier rather than just another system they have, another piece of technology that they're using?
Frank McKay: Yeah, if you just think about just how complicated we are as a a company
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Frank McKay: because of you know, the the very fortunate and privileged position that we're in that we get to serve, four hundred and fifty of the world's most premier innovative brands on the on the face of the planet are pushing technology innovation every day. And that that spreads across about ten or eleven different end markets, Nicole. And when you just think about that, how global it really is and how deep the supply chain ecosystem goes. And as Graham you know referenced, just how many suppliers that we're dealing with across that ecosystem, we've got to strike a balance that kind of meets the needs for every type of supplier. Whether you're the most sophisticated supplier in our ecosystem, think about some of the guys in the semiconductor space that are driving,
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Frank McKay: you know, just absolutely, you know, bleeding and leading edge. technology when it comes to power management, just for an example, all the way through to someone who is supplying labels for us with absolutely no disrespect to our label supplier but just that that spectrum of complexity that we deal with and we've got to find a balance then that can accommodate every type of supplier that we can demonstrate there's value in dealing with Jabil And as Graham said, one of the things that we are maniacal around is making sure that when suppliers think about Jabil, they think of us as a good bet, they think as of us as a good customer, and when they've got choices to make, because the world operates completely differently these days, and they have to decide, okay, I can only support, a handful of customers that I would like to, then Jabil's name is always there and part of that is being easy to deal with. being a good customer, responding efficiently, being as transparent as we can, giving them access to information that, maybe just sets us apart a little bit. And honestly just treating them like a a customer wherever we possibly can. Those types of things I think ultimately drive the value. And then if you can layer technology in there and just making it easier to navigate inside the complexity of Jabil then I think we've struck a good chord and suppliers recognise that and they'll continue to support us as long as they see value
Nicole Quigley: Yeah. that was a great explanation. And I think that kind of naturally gets us into the bulk of this conversation now that we've set the stage, which is, you know, what is Jabil doing right now in that technology space to navigate these different things we're chatting about? So Josh, you know, was that supplier experience piece something that your team was thinking about when you guys developed PATH?
Josh Wilson: Yeah, yeah, for sure it was, right. And and I think Frank and Graham have articulated some of the investments that that we've made in technology to support that relationship with suppliers. And we want to continue to do that, right? And PATH the Partner Application Technology Hub is part of that, it's an extension of it. But the ethos of you know being a good customer it'll continue. based on the information that that the guys shared. At the moment, Nicole, suppliers engage with Jabil in a number of ways, right? You know, through a partner portal for the onboarding process, the way through to dealing with supply issues directly with the their commodity manager. And the challenge, and I think you know one of the opportunities that that come with PATH is, at the moment, a lot of the the interaction is siloed right and also the
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: the data associated with it is is kind of in different places And Frank touched on it, Technology's changing at an unprecedented pace. And and we think, particularly when we're when we're developing the partner application tech hub, that there's you know an opportunity for us to leverage that evolution, right? Consolidate and the supplier experience. And we think also, you know, kind of drive mutual benefits both to to Jabil and but importantly to the supply base. And just for a bit of context on that, paths intended, eventually it will become the the single entry point for suppliers to to engage with Jabil, So giving them, one place that they can, log on and do business with us. leverage the operational applications that they continue to do. But kinda at the same time as that, you know, touching on some of that resilience discussion that you've had. leverage the the tools that we've developed through through our joint venture partner ID8 to mitigate some of the the risk associated with doing business in a volatile market. So PATH is you know intended to be the single point of entry. what we are you know, laser focused on is is making sure that it provides value once the suppliers there. We don't want to just augment existing processes, augment existing solutions. You know, the the solution should allow our suppliers to one, engage with Jabil effectively, but importantly access some pretty impressive solutions designed to make those organizations a bit more resilient.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that was a great explanation. I think it sounds a lot about like bringing all these capabilities together in one hub. It's what Graham kind of touched on earlier, you know, no more fragmented systems or technologies. We all know there's like thousands of apps. We always have thousands of tabs open. So it's nice when you can have things all in one place, but it's not just a portal. It's becoming that central gateway for Jabil suppliers. So I really love how you explained that. I think it was
Josh Wilson: I think it was you know a really good
Nicole Quigley: you know, a really good explanation. So, you know, to kind of follow up on that and I'll open it up to Josh or or Graham if you wanna, tag on, why was it important that PATH created value, not only, you know, for Jabil internally getting all of our systems together, but also for the supplier as well.
Graham: You wanna go first?
Josh Wilson: Yeah, yeah, I I'm happ happy to take that that first claim. so Nicole, you touched there on the idea behind becoming the the single pane of glass for for Jabil suppliers. That's fairly simple, right? Suppliers should be able to engage with us, they should be able to do it efficiently and effectively. and the our endeavour at least is to make that as efficient and effective as possible. But but the value from PATH doesn't just stop there, right? You know, we we talk and and Frank mentioned that, how dependent are we on suppliers to drive our business forward? and we're super dependent on them, And one of the reasons for that is, resilience is a shared endeavour. particularly
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Josh Wilson: just now when you know Volatility is at pretty unprecedented levels. And Jabil's opportunity and respond to that volatility really depends on one how much we're investing in technology so that we can understand our network but also how you know the wider networks and engage in with with technology so that they can understand their exposure to risk and take action both proactively and reactively. And you know we're making big investment in the solution to support Jabil But I think if it was just to support Jabil, it would be it'd be a missed opportunity, and what we don't want it to be, Nicole, is just another requirement for suppliers to engage with, but when the opposite really is our intention. and to support that, one of the the things that's been pretty central to what we're working through, one of the things that's been pretty central to the value prop is we want it to be really rooted in the the voice of the supplier. and we launched mass supplier survey a few months back. I really appreciate the response from the supplier base. That information supported us as we have, it's validated the solutions that that we're including within the partner application hub. but secondly it's allowed us to prioritize what a supplier wants from a hub like this in the roadmap. And that will be crucial as as the platform evolves.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, I think that's an important distinction that you just said. There's a big difference between asking a supplier to use something because Jabil needs them to, versus giving them a reason to truly want to use it and to truly give them, kind of what you mentioned, a more interconnected experience, but also better information. And I'm gonna kinda move on to that now, talking about turning that information into better decisions because I know now we're, you know, implementing our market intelligence into PATH. Which is a huge, you know, key benefit for our suppliers. So, Graham, how does better market and commodity intelligence change the conversations procurement teams can have with suppliers?
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Graham: Yeah, I mean, helps in many ways, Nicole. I think if we look at just the... the kind of bread and butter of a commodity management role. You're looking at the components or the commodities that you manage and you're making decisions on who to
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Graham: source those components to. So having more information at your fingertips, try to understand a little bit more about what's going on in the market. Using insights to help support the data and the information you have at your fingertips is only just going to make and create a better sourcing decision. So
Frank McKay: Sagen you.
Graham: we're taking risk out of the conversation being more informed about what's happening in the market and you
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: know to enable a more resilient sourcing decisions. So there's a lot of time and effort spent on utilizing the market intelligence that we have within our own four walls to make sure that our teams can better understand what's going on out there in the market beyond just what we see and kind of pick up some of these snippets of information that is going to help make better decision, like I said before.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that's great. So, you know, thinking about moving from information to decisions. Josh, when you think about the intelligence that's available through PATH, through the market intelligence area, what makes information actionable rather than just, Wow, that's interesting, but I'm not gonna do anything with it.
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: Yeah, that that's a good question, Nicole. for me, information intelligence be becomes actionable one when it's directional for sure, But also when, those that are consuming it that are confident that it's accurate, right? And that's really
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: the premise, really the value proposition behind what we're trying to do at both Jabil and through ID8 Market Intelligence, which of course, as you mentioned, will form one of the value added solutions as part of the PATH. And what we do in in the market intelligence solution through the help of Graham's team through the the indirect team also through our trading compliance experts as well is we can combine our operational data, So our interactions in the market with with insight from those practitioners, who you know aren't researchers. But they understand the procurement and supply chain in practice, That they manage billions of dollars and spend across the ecosystem. and they understand that I've I've lived through some of the challenges or many of the challenges that that we're experiencing at the moment. And we leverage that, We leverage the the internal data and to give a view, but also to forecast on pricing on
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: lead times. on demand and also give our perspective on some of the other stuff that that's going on in the world. And as a result of that, as a result of what you're what we'd consider to be sort of practitioner verified and validated information. And we hope and the feedback we get from our customers is that you know they're confident using that information, to understand exposure early and to spark changes in the market quickly. And really to to understand what's kind of behind the shift in the market, validate it against their the their internal findings and come to a better decision as a result of good intelligence. But what what I also think is cool, Nicole, is that PATH gives us the opportunity to really accelerate this, right?
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: because we you know, combining that intelligence with our sort of wider data ecosystem, which is what we want PATH to become. So we pick up a market signal, for example,
Frank McKay: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: through our market intelligence solution, but we can also consider that alongside, some of the other millions of data points that we'll be gathering through the solution around, supply allocation, disruption exposure,
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Josh Wilson: and tariff assumptions for example, which you know not only focuses on,
Frank McKay: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: maybe a part of the market, but gives us a more holistic view of it.
Graham: I think, you know, Josh touched on a really important point, which is understanding, our suppliers supplier network, and our suppliers having a better handle on their supplier network, because, you know, the same issues and concerns and challenges that we face as Jabil with our supply base, our suppliers face with their suppliers as well.
Nicole Quigley: Mm, mm-hmm.
Graham: So giving them the ability to kind of use the technology, the insights that Josh has just mentioned there to help them manage their supply chain is only going to improve our supply chain and then obviously the support that we give to our customers. So I think it's really important that our suppliers truly get their arms around their supplier network.
Nicole Quigley: Yep.
Graham: This doesn't stop from Jabil back into our supply base. So I think Josh touched on a really, really important point as we look forward.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah. Yeah. And it sounds like PATH is, you know, you've not only got that market intelligence that helps you make that really good informed decision, and gives you all those great data points, but I know we've got the resilience hub, I know we've got tariffs and scenario planning. So, Frank, I'm gonna pass this over to you, but what do you feel like the differences between knowing a disruption happened and actually understanding what it means for your supply network?
Frank McKay: Yeah, and and I'll I'll I'll take us back a little bit as as well.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Frank McKay: answer that but if you just think of the the audience for a second of you know who would actually utilize and and engage with that PATH from the supplier network side more often than not and I'm j I'm just gonna call myself late career for a second. but we're dealing with a lot of folks now in the supplier ecosystem side and there's an expectation on our customer side as well those four hundred and fifty premium brands that we we talked about earlier who are early career and their expectation is wildly different in terms of they've kind of grown up in the the early part of careers digital natives almost and and there's an expectation that the pace at which we move at, the information that is is available is real time and it's not lagged and it's not a week old or even even a day old at this point. They're expecting to be informed almost as events happen and that kinda leads me to try and answer your question that yeah we've got to then have a mechanism, a technology and a platform where we can demonstrate that we've got our arms around any of these types of events that can happen around the world. And not only do we know that they're happening real time, that we have a mechanism and a technology and then a workforce that it can react in real time and it can provide
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Frank McKay: transparency and solutions and optionality for those customers and those suppliers where wherever the impact may be and we've got to demonstrate that in action and and folks have got to feel it. And the the race that we're up against is again customers of choices, suppliers of choices, they want to work with people that they trust, that they know that are making these smart, well thought out long term investments that will secure their supply chain, and that's on the customer side. And then in the supplier ecosystem side, they they want to feel that they're again making a bet, making an investment in a customer that's going to be around for a long time, that's get their best interests at heart, that can open the door to and open the aperture to new potential opportunities. and then we can pretty much deal with anything that the world again will throw at us because we know how to react, we know how to manage it and we know how to make actionable plans that result in outcomes that are beneficial to the upstream customers and the downstream ecosystem. I think PATH goes a long, long way. In fact I would even say it's probably the best product that I've ever seen that addresses some of those challenges, makes it easier for our
Nicole Quigley: Okay.
Frank McKay: suppliers to do business with Jabil. It offers that transparency, it offers that reassurance, it offers that resiliency. And I think it gives customers a really good feel that hey, we are that safe pair of hands that we we we talk about when we're engaging with them and we're trying to convince them that hey look No matter what goes on in the world, here's the investments that we've made to ensure that we are building that resiliency into the supply chain to the best of our ability. And by the way, this will never end. We are on an evolution.
Josh Wilson: I mean
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Frank McKay: you know, the the w once we've got PATH completely launched, we'll continue to add, evolve and and make it you know, continually better.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that was a great answer. Is there anything that, you know, either Graham or Josh kind of want to add on?
Josh Wilson: Were you created on the buttons like that? I
Graham: No, I think I would agree with Frank. The investments that we will continue to make in PATH will be for the good of Jabil, of course, but obviously the customers that are using PATH. And we truly do see value in this kind collaborative environment where, we can give, our customers, suppliers, whoever's the partner that we're talking about, the ability to manage their business in a way that we think is only going to improve and, again, support the business that we have within our four walls, but also help them, make them become
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: better customers, suppliers, whatever it may be. yeah, I mean, It's like anything that we do in technology, has to be an evolution. It's not just let's build it and then we stop and then we wait for a few years and think, well, maybe we should change it. I mean, the one thing I think that we've been very successful at from a technology perspective within Jabil is we never stop. We continuously
Nicole Quigley: Mm-hmm.
Graham: evolve and that will be no different with PATH.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah.
Josh Wilson: Yeah, and I I would just add to that. great points you made there, Frank, and also Graham. the PATH project we will continue to invest in it and the pace of change in the tech space is is as unprecedented as you know the the disruptive environment that that we're navigating at the moment. So, you know, as new technology comes online, as we validate it, as we test it to make sure that it fits the requirement of of the solution. all of this the the value added capabilities that we're we're including in PATH are are for the one goal, right? It's to drive that collective resilience across the value chain. And Graham touched on a good point as well, right? We've got really visible good visibility into our our tier one s suppliers as you start moving down the the the supply chain. that visibility is a bit more a bit more challenging. and a lot of the disruption occurs as you guys know before before tier one, right? So I think PATH what what PATH will give us the ability to do is is one understand exposure from a Tier One perspective, but also
Nicole Quigley: Mm.
Josh Wilson: support our suppliers as they invest in tech, as they invest in solutions that allow them to drive resilience amongst their their suppliers, which again will make Jabil better as a result and provide a better service to those no four hundred and fifty premium brands that that Frank talks of.
Nicole Quigley: Yeah, that's great. No, this conversation has been super insightful, not only from a technology standpoint, but just overall how you can better have that buzzword of resilience because sounds like ultimately technology is really the enabler, but the bigger opportunity is creating that supplier ecosystem where Jabil, our suppliers, our customers, everyone just has better information, stronger visibility. I loved that word that you used, transparency. And just the ability to respond better, but respond better together. So I really appreciate all three of you taking the time to chat about this. If you found this podcast helpful, share it with a coworker, share it with a friend. And otherwise, thanks again and we'll catch you next time.
Frank McKay: Thanks, Nicole.
Graham: Thanks, Nicole.
Josh Wilson: Thanks, Nicole.
