Heather Carroll is the Chief Revenue Officer at Covariant. They are an Artificial Intelligence Robotics company that, amongst other things, automate pick-and-place processes at warehouses and fulfillment centers. In this interview, she expands on how every period of turmoil is followed by one of creativity and innovation.
Retailers and customers share the same concerns today about the state of the economy, Carroll says. They’re worried about the prospect of recession — whether it’s coming and how deep it might be. And on the retailer side, that influences decisions about capital investment.
She says there’s a tendency to view the crises of the last three years as unprecedented.
“This isn’t new — we’ve seen this before. Prior post-pandemic trends inform us how companies successfully came out of those periods — what led them onto a trajectory of growth.” - Heather Carroll(CRO Covariant)
She cites the historical examples of the Black Plague, followed by the Renaissance, and the flu pandemic of 1918, followed by the “Roaring 20s.”
She says, and Nucleus agrees, that the space between chaos and recovery is shrinking thanks to modern technology, which is speeding up the pace of innovation.
“You have to focus investments on things that are going to deliver on your value proposition — getting closer to the customer, and removing disturbances when you can’t find labor. It’s all about the ROI,”
Companies must move fast, she says, adding that 52% of those on the Fortune 500 in 2000 no longer exist.
“If you don’t innovate in times of crisis, you get disrupted.”
Nucleus notes that in terms of ROI for retailers looking to optimize their supply chain, get resilience, and flexibility, and save money; partnering with a 4PL Supply Chain as a Service provider such as Nucleus provides the best return on investment available in the market today.
Source: Supplychainbrain
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