Resilient Supply Chain — How Leaders Keep Business Moving
Resilient Supply Chain is for supply chain, operations, procurement and technology leaders who need practical ways to manage disruption, reduce risk and keep business moving.
Each Monday, former SAP Global VP and technology futurist Tom Raftery speaks with the executives, operators, founders and innovators redesigning how goods, information and decisions move through global supply chains.
These are candid conversations about what works in practice—not polished PR narratives or vague predictions. Guests explain how they are responding to supplier failures, geopolitical shocks, volatile costs, capacity constraints, changing regulations and rising pressure to improve both performance and sustainability.
The podcast examines:
Faster planning and decision-making under uncertainty
Supplier risk, sourcing strategy and business continuity
AI, automation, visibility and operational intelligence
Warehousing, logistics and fulfilment performance
Scope 3 emissions, circularity and responsible sourcing
The systems, incentives and organisational changes needed to turn data into action
The central question is simple: what helps a supply chain withstand disruption, adapt quickly and continue serving the business?
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In this episode of the Sustainable Supply Chain podcast, I had a great chat with Dan Spitale, the head of sales for UPS Digital. We delved into how UPS is leveraging technology, particularly AI and predictive analytics, to enhance sustainability in the supply chain. Dan shared insights on how the pandemic has accelerated the demand for last-mile and same-day deliveries, prompting UPS to optimise route design and load management to reduce unnecessary trips and emissions.
We discussed the role of predictive analytics in risk mitigation, especially in identifying high-risk delivery locations to prevent wasted resources. Dan explained how UPS Digital is integrating legacy insurance services with new technologies to proactively address risks and improve customer experience.
Collaboration and partnerships emerged as key themes, with Dan highlighting how UPS is working with other companies to combine expertise and drive innovation. He emphasised that technology like AI will be crucial in the future of supply chain sustainability, enabling companies to understand consumer behaviour better and meet the growing expectations for faster, more efficient deliveries.
Key takeaways from our conversation include the potential of AI and predictive analytics to drive sustainability, the significance of proactive risk management, and the possibility of achieving business growth while enhancing customer experience and sustainability efforts.
If disruption hit tomorrow, would you know where your supply chain was most exposed? In 15 minutes my free scorecard helps you assess 27 resilience statements, calculate your score, and turn the result into three priorities and a 30 day action plan. You can download the scorecard free at tomraftery.com/scorecard.
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It is possible to have exponential growth in a business to have superior CX, and drive a close, if not best in class sustainability model. Those three things are very possible. And I'm not necessarily sure that it, that it felt that way, maybe two or three years ago, because everybody was just trying to figure out things again.
Tom Raftery:
Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you are in the world. This is the Sustainable Supply Chain Podcast, the number one podcast focusing on sustainability and supply chains, and I'm your host, Tom Raftery. Hi everyone. And welcome to episode 36 of the sustainable supply chain podcast. My name is Tom Raftery, and I'm excited to be here with you today. Sharing the latest insights and trends in supply chain sustainability. Before we kick off today's show. I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to all of our amazing supporters. You are support has been instrumental in keeping this podcast going. And I'm really grateful for. Each and every one of you. If you're not already a supporter, I'd like to encourage you to consider joining our community of like-minded individuals who are passionate about sustainability and supply chains. Supporting the podcast is easy and affordable, with options starting as low as just three euros or dollars a month. That's less than the cost of a cup of coffee and your support will make a huge difference in having me keep the show going strong. To become a suborder you simply click on the support link in the show notes of this or any episode, or visit tiny url.com/ssc pod. In today's show. I'm going to be talking to Dan Spitale of UPS Capital and in upcoming episodes. I'll be talking to Krenar Komoni from Tive about IOT trackers. Julian Harris from Robobai, Spencer, Malcolm from Forsyth, And Karl McDermott from Deltatrack, where we'll be talking cold chain. But back to today's show. As I said, my guest today is Dan Spitale from UPS Capital. Dan welcome to the podcast. Would you like to introduce yourself?
Dan Spitale:
yeah. Thanks Tom. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. My name is Dan Spitale. I'm a, a long time UPSer. A few different roles along the way. I'm currently the, the head of sales for UPS digital, which is the, the risk management insurance arm of the UPS business. So I've seen the logistics supply chain from a few different ways over the years. Excited to be here and looking forward to to digging deep and seeing what kind of problems we can solve here together.
Tom Raftery:
Okay, great. Well, speaking of problems, what kind of problems is it that you guys are solving for your customers because you're in UPS Digital, that means you're not driving around in those little brown trucks, right? Delivering parcels. What is it you're doing?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, definitely not driving around in the brown trucks, nor would the the end consumer want me in one of those trucks. Over the years I had had some responsibility and actually filling and loading those trucks, but definitely not driving them. So. What we do here at UPS digital is we're a, we're a wholly owned business unit of UPS Inc, the parent company. We're currently in in transformation mode in, in reference to bring in through a couple of different business units. One of which is UPS Capital, which was formally what I've been part of here for the last 15 plus years. And we're basically the insurance shipping experience arm of UPS and we're currently working through a, a transformation with two upstart startups that we acquired over the last five years that are in the kind of the Airbnb of warehousing space from a three and four PL perspective. As well as really a post-sale experience, tech stack, kind of bringing all of that together to provide a customer some digital problem solving solutions.
Tom Raftery:
Okay, superb. And I mean, you mentioned sustainability there. We've seen a big shift in the priority of sustainability initiatives among merchants in the supply chain, in the supply chain in general, I think. Really since COVID, surprisingly to me, I've been involved in sustainability for a long time, but post COVID, we've definitely seen an uptick in the prioritization of sustainability. What do you think has driven this change and are there, specific customer demands or industry trends that you think have influenced this?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah. First of all, completely agree. I think the inflection point for, for a lot of what has happened in this world has, what was the COVID pandemic in relation to supply chain sustainability. You know, I think Tom, it's one of those areas that it always mattered but it was heightened during a time when people were trying to kind of figure it out. And from from a supplier to consumer perspective you kind of saw the the collision, if you will, of how sustainability can be driven by doing things smarter and better. And what I mean is, for example here at UPS, we call them route loops. We call it load management. So, how effective is the delivery route being designed? What's the difference between a 50 mile day and a 40 mile day? In conjunction of what it looks like a moving from a gas power to an electric power type vehicle, these things really started to come to height from a a supplier business perspective, but also consumer demand drove something brand new really. And that was not only same day, but that last mile delivery and it became a really nice to have to really kind of be in table stakes and need to have. So, what you had is you had that collision course of the consumer demand of last mile and same day. And then on the, on the flip side of that, from a supplier and a, and a supply chain perspective, the opportunity to better manage the loads, to better manage the routes. And you started seeing this thing happen called sustainability that almost seemed like it was an accident, but it always mattered. And that's what we've experienced here at UPS at a very high level. And to your point, it's, it's become something now that is an absolute must have a, and how the consumer buys, who they buy from, but also, you know, from a supply chain perspective, what is an organization doing to, to, to meet in that last mile for the possibility of a very, very best in class, same day delivery without driving 15 miles in between stops. So these are the things that we've experienced, you know, in particular over the last three to four years.
Tom Raftery:
And. Is that increased demand for sustainability? Is it customer led? Is it employee led? Is it led by the CFO because they want cost savings? Is it shareholder driven? Is it a mix of all of the above? Or something else
Dan Spitale:
It was actually, it is a little bit of a, I would call it like a you know, a pot of gumbo, right? Like you get a little bit of everything here that's making up the solution of, of sustainability. And I think the thing that's ironic about it, Tom, is that from a consumer perspective, I don't think, I don't think the buying habits or buying behavior is 100 percent driven by sustainability. However, as a result of what it is that they expect in the market, sustainability is a part of it. Because in order to have a best in class, last mile, same day type of delivery structure, you have got to be on your game with load management. You have got to be on your game with route design and route management. Otherwise, it becomes very, very non sustainable. In reference to how you're going to serve that consumer. So it's almost an ironic piece from the consumer perspective. They're getting that as a result of their consumer demand in the marketplace. The flip side of that from a, a business supplier perspective, there was obviously huge cost savings associated with it, if you can figure it out. Not only from a, a delivery perspective, but also from a a sheer employee headcount perspective. How are you doing things more not just with enhanced route management, but how are you doing things more with digital capabilities? And these are the things that are coming to light as it relates to decision making, you're seeing that driven by cost containment in some instances and you're also seeing them as growth plays, which is pretty cool when you start to see sustainability intersect with growth plays in a business, and that's what we're starting to experience.
Tom Raftery:
Nice. Nice. And how is technology helping in this? Because obviously technology and sustainability are increasingly interconnected. Could you maybe explain how emerging technologies are supporting sustainability efforts within the supply chain?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, I'd be happy to. It's a, it's a great question. And what we're you know, one area is of course, AI, right? Like regardless of where you're at in the world, AI is playing a part, even if it's just in a conversation in a coffee shop, AI is it right now. And from our perspective, you look at the predictive analytics side down to the address level at the consumer, the AI driven predictive analytics is putting us in a position to better plan routes, to better determine our customer base, to better determine consumer behavior and consumer expectations from a market perspective. So what it's allowing, allowing us to do, it's an allowing us to make more concrete, tangible data driven decisions
Tom Raftery:
Right.
Dan Spitale:
that connect to what is driving you know, all businesses. It's the consumer, right? Like you take care of the customer, the rest kind of falls into place. Well, you know, you've seen this over some of the biggest brands in the world and they happen to be tech companies and that's not by mistake, they are, they are taking their customer experience to the next level as a result of the tech that they're bringing into the space up to and including AI, the things as such as chat, GPT. These, the predictive analytics it's allowing for really, really superior data driven decisions in reference to how they buy, how they sell. And then for us, how do we serve that consumer base with the same predictive analytics? So this is happening throughout our entire ecosystem.
Tom Raftery:
Nice. And you mentioned as well at the outset that you're involved with supply chain risk. So when it comes to mitigating supply chain risks, does sustainability play a role? What are kind of key factors companies should consider balancing risk with sustainability goals?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah. So, the insurance arm of our business, the now former UPS capital, we're about a 25 year old business unit. And we've been predominantly, you know, property and casualty insurance for supply chain, right? Shipping experience. So we saw the risk for a long time in that regard. So. You know, the quick answer would be not seeing sustainability come into play there. However, as we've grown as a company, as we've matured as a company as we started to integrate with some of our other now partners through acquisitions, what have you, we've started to see risk profiles change. We've started to see risk appetite change. But we've also seen the key decision makers at some of our, our customers start to change as well. And sustainability is at the table and making decisions. So, you know, now that we're bringing in more of a digital tech presence into this very, very legacy based insurance world, that is global, right? Legacy insurance has predominantly been a legacy industry for quite some time. So we're seeing now as we bring in these different tech touch points into our ecosystem, we're starting to see how customers expect for the sustainability piece, even if it's not as simple as the forms, the insurance on a package, it is the predictive analytics on the front end to look at the confidence of the address that they're going to ship to as it relates to mitigating risk. So what that does is if they get a score back that says this is a dangerous place to ship to with porch piracy, whatever you might have, you have options to a) just reject the sale, which is helping the sustainability piece for a useless move, or to, to deliver it to an alternate delivery place.
Tom Raftery:
Right.
Dan Spitale:
that could be a store that could be a building, that could just be a chosen alternate delivery address of me choosing to have it shipped to you. So what you're doing is you're not making a useless trip and or a useless stop and technology is driving that.
Tom Raftery:
Okay. Interesting. One other thing that, you know, people have been saying to me on this podcast quite a lot is the importance of collaboration and partnerships across different industries and how that can enhance sustainability and supply chains. Is that something you've come across as well? And, and if so, could you provide examples of how, how that has worked?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah. So I think, I think what we're, what I've seen is that while sustainability is always, not always, but for quite some time, even pre pandemic, and you'd know this better, better than I, it's always been important and it's always mattered. It was just really heightened during a time when again, everybody was really trying to figure out what net what's the next play? Like what's next in the playbook that we're going to run here and what's it going to look like? And I think sustainability became something that you know, it's no longer just nice to talk about it. We need to figure out how we become part of the solution. And I think partnerships have formed as a result of that, where you have a side that perhaps maybe has little to no knowledge on how to make that happen. Partnering up with a side that is actually out leading from the front. And you see these partnerships come together as a result of the, the opportunity to push and pull from a learning perspective. And an example I'll give, I'll keep, I'll call it maybe C company. We have one here. And we, we have actually, we've done that. So how do we take the risk mitigation piece with a singular package to make it more of a supply chain risk mitigation piece? And partner with somebody that has branded that way, somebody that has marketed that way, and that understands how our product could perhaps fit into that portfolio from a sustainability perspective. So it helps to put us in a better position to actually not only learn about it, but actually to do it and to help be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem. That's how we've used the partnership. And we're seeing more of that happen in the marketplace with those industry leaders that are actually out leading from the front.
Tom Raftery:
That makes sense. UPS offers protection solutions for in transit goods as, as you've alluded to already, how do, or do these services contribute to a more sustainable supply chain, especially in terms of reducing waste and improving, let's say, resource efficiency?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, I think this, this becomes a this becomes a topic where in the traditional legacy insurance world, the customer experience is, or was really driven by, you know, what happens when something bad happens to your package? Like, what does that claims experience look like? So you really kind of, it's ironic, right, Tom, you have, you have to wait for something bad to happen to experience the customer experience that you expect with the policy that you've decided to bind and move forward with. So what we've now experienced, and we go back to the conversation of predictive analytics, right? So now we bring, we brought in a more proactive look at the risk profile rather than waiting for a reactive piece of a claim on the backend to determine the customer experience, we're out pushing more from the front end with predictive analytics to determine where is my customer base? Where does my true risk lie? And then the ability to make decisions based on that data. So we have five addresses that are coming back as you should not ship there because something is going to happen. So then you have five, what would be accounted as useless trips, right? So we start talking about sustainability in the world of just, you know, natural fuel outside of EV. How do you take five of those a week, extrapolate them out over a year, and determine how many trips would be deemed useless because of the risk profile of that end user, or that end consumer? And you strip those out, and you start looking at sustainability as a piece of that. So we're helping to manage risk on the front end with predictive analytics in some areas that we probably shouldn't have the driver go into. So we peel that out. It's all put off to the side and the data is stored to determine here are the four or five hundred in a given year, four or five hundred different addresses that we've been able to peel out of the risk profile where we didn't send a driver for delivery. So then it tightens up the route design. It tightens up the load management of how these package cars are going out in a given day. So now it's more of a proactive look at what the risk profile looks like rather than waiting on the back end for the legacy claim to come through. And paying the claim. That's the table stakes in insurance. But what else is there when you start talking about a true insure tech?
Tom Raftery:
Fair enough. And, you know, again, as a result of the pandemic, we've seen a huge rise in e-commerce and the involvement of small and medium sized businesses, for example. How does UPS support these entities in achieving their sustainability goals while managing their shipping risks?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah. So, yeah, I'm learning about this thing in the e-commerce digital world, Tom called digital sustainability, right? Like for me, like little bit of a let's call it a C minus type of knowledge going into this space and learning about digital sustainability. So, you know, from an e-commerce perspective there's a lot of waste that can happen when you're connected with a customer on one of their platforms to service their customers, right? So this becomes more of what I would call, you know, digital sustainability rather than environmental. And this is just a very, very amateur look at this from the perspective of the difference of the two. So we talked about on the front end of how predictive analytics can keep us going from unnecessary addresses from an environmental perspective. So we're tighter in our loops. We're tighter in our designs. From an e-commerce perspective, as we're connecting with some of the biggest boxes in the, in the world, how do we quickly, efficiently with a single sign on and a single touch. How do we create less friction, more digital sustainability in an e-commerce world where you're talking about one one hundredth of a second, making a difference in their ecosystem of how quickly they move their consumer through. So latencies, we've seen digital latencies as a, as a, as a common theme, as we're connecting with some customers on platforms with some of our APIs or web hooks or whatever they may be. And one of the questions that comes up from, from quite a few of the develop development team is. How is this going to slow us down? Because we can't sustain a latency that is slower than what we have right now. So we'd look at the digital, the digital sustainability of this and how we continue to create a superior connection product in the e-com world. So we're connecting business to consumer. With a quick touch and actually working to speed them up. So environmental versus digital. Those are the things that we're trying to bring together.
Tom Raftery:
Okay. Super. Super. With consumers becoming more aware and demanding about sustainability, as again, we've alluded to already, how are the companies you're interacting with adapting their supply chains to meet these expectations? Do you have any stories to share of interesting things you've seen in this space?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, I actually will use a couple of names here because we're a publicly traded company, so this stuff is all on our prospectus anyways. You can go out and find it. And so could your listeners. So, as we talked about, you know, what was a 25 year old business unit in UPS capital, that was predominantly a property and casualty insurance firm for, you know, customer experience and package protection. Right. We have a, a best in class post Excel experience tech stack called delivery solutions. The other piece that we're working to integrate into UPS Digital, which is now, you know, that's what we're going to market or we'll go to market as we have what I'd like to call the Airbnb of warehousing, 3PLs and 4PLs. It's called Where To Go. Also looking on integrating that into the digital space so that the Where To Go piece, the Airbnb of warehousing connects directly to your question Tom. So, just wanted to create a little bit of context of how we got here.
Tom Raftery:
Sure.
Dan Spitale:
So, the idea behind Where To Go is that they have warehouses in very strategic areas that bring the last mile same day delivery into motion on big projects. They work big projects with, with predominantly large SMBs and even enterprise customers. So whether it's assembly, whether it's pick, pack and shipping, these strategically placed warehouses that are essentially rented out and leased for short periods of time by companies with the idea of getting to the consumer very, very quickly and efficiently, hence sustainability, Where To Go does a great job in their space of being that, that Airbnb of warehousing in very strategic spots would allow them to get to 80 plus percent of people same day, last mile, in a very sustainable way. You, you don't have a, a truck or a package car going out that's anything less than full. Very rarely will you have deliveries being made that are farther than three to five miles from the facility. And if so, they look to disperse accordingly to other facilities. So it becomes, again, I've mentioned it a couple of times. It becomes superior load management
Tom Raftery:
Right.
Dan Spitale:
in terms of what's leaving the facility. But in addition to that and equally, if not more important superior route design. So that full package car is going out with a route design that not only does it solve for the consumer's expectation in the last mile in the same day, it's actually going out in a very sustainable way. And then coming back and doing it again. So you're running this play, you're, you're scaling it, you're replicating it. And the idea behind it is to serve the expectation of the end consumer, but it's also bringing quite a bit of sustainability to the table as well.
Tom Raftery:
Okay. And the route design has to be incredibly dynamic, right? Cause the route's going to be different every time the driver goes out.
Dan Spitale:
Yeah. Very, very dynamic. You know, and I think in the, in the simplest forms, think of the everyday user with a Google maps or whatever it might be, wherever, whatever countries we might be in. Internally that exists in, in, in most large supply chain companies that give us the opportunity to be very, very dynamic when and where necessary up to, and including when you're out on road and something just doesn't go the way that it should. It actually will point you just like a detour in, in the next direction to remain very tight with your loop, but also coming back into how companies are driving sustainability is by being smarter,
Tom Raftery:
Yep.
Dan Spitale:
trying different rather than trying harder. And this is the output of how this is starting to play itself out.
Tom Raftery:
Right. Yeah, no, I love the dynamism of the mapping applications. Just from a consumer perspective, I drive here in Spain quite often from Seville to Cadiz, which is a city on the coast. It's about an hour away, about an hour and 20 minutes away. And I was going there one day, it's a beautiful road motorway, both directions two, three lane motorway. I was going there one day and suddenly the time to get there went from one hour, 20 to two hours, 20. And I went, Uh oh, and then ahead of me, I saw on the lines on the map, it went, it turned red and realized there must've been an accident or something ahead of me on the route. And then. It said, okay, take a right here. So take this exit off the motorway. It routed me right around the, as I say, incident, whatever it was on the motorway brought me back on the motorway about, you know, 10 kilometers down the road. And I could see where I was coming, where I was reentering the motorway. As I look back to my left. There was a big backlog of traffic. It had just literally routed me around the entire thing. And, you know, I got, it was an hour 30 instead of an hour 20, but had I not taken that exit at that point in time, it would have been two hours 20. So the technology behind that blows my mind and it's such a simple use case, but it, you know, it makes a huge difference at the same time.
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, I completely agree. And what you just summarized as a, as a you know, an everyday use case, right? For you and I, and millions and millions of others across the globe, that's the very same technology at least from a UPS perspective. I'll speak from that, that we ensure is, is, is dynamic. We ensure is updated, if not daily hourly. And that's what, you know, our, our drivers you know, there's just in the, here in the US there's over 90,000 of them and dynamic. I guess it's like that for everything, even at the consumer level, dynamic pricing. Not every consumer is the same. Not every profile is the same. It's the same with, you know, state by state in the US and country by country in Europe, every road looks different. And every detour is a little different than the next one. But to your point, the dynamic nature of it puts you in a position that if you can't deliver to the front door, maybe the map tells you how to deliver to the back door. It is pretty amazing.
Tom Raftery:
Yeah. Yeah. Spectacular. Yep. What, looking into the future, if you, if we had a crystal ball, what would you predict as the next big breakthrough in supply chain sustainability? Or, or what technologies do you see evolving to meet these sustainability challenges?
Dan Spitale:
We, we talked a little bit about it early on, right? So I think I'm certainly not a, a tech guru by any stretch, but shame on shame on me and anyone that's going to work in any kind of space at all from a business perspective that they at least don't learn a little bit about it. and that leads me to my comment of, I believe it's going to be driven by another form of AI. You know, the, the predictive part of AI is kind of what everybody has, the intelligence piece has kind of what's taken things by storm. And you see the big companies out there now that are, if it's not NVIDIA, it's Microsoft, if it's not Microsoft, it's Amazon. If it's not them, it's Apple. And then there's these the second tier, right? Second tier only because they're newer and smaller doesn't mean that they're not going to be the next one coming up. And they're all putting a lot of this, a lot of the chips in the middle of the table on AI. So with them being the experts in the space and being a heck of a lot smarter than I, I believe that there's something to it. And I think the next iteration, if you will, of supply chain sustainability is going to be driven by AI. And I personally think that it will be, it will be directly connected to the consumer from the, the supply chain, let's call it supply chain company for lack of a better way to describe it, the UPSs and the FedExs and the DHLs of the world. AI is going to the, you know, direct to consumer. That's where businesses want to be. You know, channels are an option to sell through channels to market through channels, but getting to the end consumer and understanding their behavior that's the pot of gold. At least for us, it is. AI puts you a step closer to doing it. And you start thinking about the predictive nature of it. Consumer AI, think of as a, of a business that has a consumer AI. And this is, you know, hypothetical, right?
Tom Raftery:
Sure.
Dan Spitale:
The direct connection to hundreds of millions of end consumers and their consumer behavior without working through a channel is going to take supply chains to the next level. And it's going to really create a space that I'm really not quite sure that anybody's ready for because you're going to go from what was an acceptable 2 to 3 day delivery. Now, you're going to go to a very unacceptable 1 day delivery and need to figure out how to do it in the same day. And what that's going to do is it's in 2 areas that I've kind of pounded on quite a bit here today. Route design. Load management, all of that is driven by predictive analytics before it even gets to a facility. That's going to be taken to the nth degree as we get deeper into the consumer mind and the consumer behavior. From, retailer to supply chain company to end consumer. Those three dots will absolutely connect in my opinion. And it's going to come down to who can figure it out to do it in the most efficient way on the same day or the next day, because that's what's going to be acceptable only in the next three to five years, in my opinion.
Tom Raftery:
Fascinating. Yep. Yep. Yep. For people listening, Dan, what metrics or KPIs should companies focus on to measure the success of their sustainability initiatives in the supply chain and how can they ensure, you know, continuous improvement?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, that's a great question. I think one of the one of the KPIs that's very important of course is, you know, it's ties to that customer experience. When you, when you see NPS results, for example, net promoter score there's different opinions about it. There's different ways to manage it based on the, on the vertical and the space of the company. NPS is a big thing for us. That is a, that's a key driver and one of the KPIs from a sustainability perspective is, you know, what ultimately does the NPS look like. But more importantly on the front end of that, what, what are the actions and, or the plays ran to drive a best in class NPS? So it becomes more of that leading indicator to drive the key performance indicator what play will you run or plays? So for me output being NPS score in some capacity, whatever company feels is applicable for their business and what it is that they're looking to do. But for me on the front end of that, of the actions and plays, it needs to have a strong awareness. It needs to have an awareness. It needs to have a deep understanding of like, okay, well, here's the general awareness of what sustainability means to us. What does it mean to you? But here's the deeper understanding in terms of why it's important to us and why is it important to you? So as you're getting these customer surveys that so many companies send out. And they've, it's quite honestly become a little bit watered down, right? You get a survey for everything nowadays. I try to take pride in at least seven out of 10 of them, give them some feedback. But every now and again, I don't get to the other three. Right. So. It's tricky. But part of that you know, all jokes aside is that the NPS will tell you quite a bit. The actions leading to a superior NPS will tell you even more. And the, the customer output on a survey, that needs to be part of the survey. It needs to be a prominent part of the survey to determine I could tell you all day long, like, I think we're doing a good job with sustainability. And you might ask me, well, based on what? To me, there's, you know, for, for for a leader, there's no better indication of how a leader is doing than the team he or she's leading from a company perspective that's serving the end consumer, there's no better litmus test than what does the end consumer think of what you're doing? It's just that simple. Whether the output's an NPS or whatever the organization feels is best for them, but the awareness does need to be more than general and the understanding needs to be deep and it needs to be a prominent part of a customer survey from an experience perspective.
Tom Raftery:
Okay, cool. Cool. Dan, we're coming towards the end of the podcast now. Is there any question I haven't asked that you wish I had or any aspect of this we haven't touched on that you think it's important for people to be aware of?
Dan Spitale:
I think it's a, first of all, I appreciate the opportunity of being here, Tom. This is great. I love the, I love the, I love the platform. I love the topic. Like I mentioned, I think it's it's something that has always mattered. It's just, you know, back to that two to three year great unknown called the pandemic globally. It became not only did it always matter. It's nice to talk about, but now it must happen. Like everything else, it was pulled forward probably three or five years. So I appreciate the opportunity to talk about that. I guess the, the, the one comment, not, not necessarily a question. The one comment I would make is that this is possible to do a couple of things. I certainly don't have all the answers on how to do it, to be honest. However it is possible to have exponential growth in a business to have superior CX, and drive a close, if not best in class sustainability model. Those three things are very possible. And I'm not necessarily sure that it, that it felt that way, maybe two or three years ago, because everybody was just trying to figure out things again.
Tom Raftery:
Yeah.
Dan Spitale:
And as this has started to kind of play itself out through 23 and now here, halfway through 24 in particular, that period of 2021 and a little bit of 22, you almost have to take it and place it aside, except for the lessons that you learn. Because everything is different. Growth, growth goals were wildly different results and execution were wildly different. Plays that you never thought you'd run, you ran and they worked. And then 1 day they didn't because things started to kind of level off, right? It wasn't normal. I don't know what that means anymore, but it, it was back to something that we were at least somewhat familiar with. So mid 22 to mid 24, I think we've gotten to the point where you understand why sustainability is important. You know, that you're coming to work to grow and hopefully exponentially, right? That's what everybody envisions. Everybody dreams of exponential growth. And then the biggest one to make both of them happen is understanding consumer behavior and driving the customer experience. Those three things are possible to happen altogether. And there are some companies that are figuring it out a little faster than others, and those happen to be the ones that are really embracing technology to do it. You know, here at UPS, again, publicly traded company we have 400,000 employees and 250,000 of them are, are union Teamsters.
Tom Raftery:
Right.
Dan Spitale:
And, you know, that is a huge, huge piece of, of a cost model of a company. And, you know, so you look at like, how does technology and how does digital help that part? But it also helps the sustainability model because you're able to work smarter, not harder.
Tom Raftery:
Yeah.
Dan Spitale:
With how you load, when you load, where you load, how you design a route. So you start serving the customer from a CX perspective, you start looking at sustainability. Well, the piece that now you hope comes with that is some, some pretty nice growth, right? So I think we're in a place and that's where I would leave, you know, my comments, Tom, is it's possible to do those three things. It's not easy to do them. And I'm not sure that there's one place that just has it mastered. But it's possible.
Tom Raftery:
Cool. Cool. Great. Dan, if people would like to know more about yourself or any of the things we discussed on the podcast today, where would you have me direct them?
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, I think the best place would probably be LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn just Dan Spitali probably a Dan Spitali UPS search. I'll pop right up. Also my business email is associated to that as well. So I'm pretty active active user on LinkedIn for sure. In many different areas. And then, you know, if someone decides that they want it to push over an email I'm usually pretty good about getting back pretty quick and take this stuff pretty serious. And while it's not, you know, who I am, it is what I do for the last 20 plus years and hopefully a few more after that. So I'm happy to help any way I can.
Tom Raftery:
Super. Super. I'll put a link to your LinkedIn profile in the show notes of this episode so people can find it there too. Great. Dan, that's been fascinating. Thanks a million for coming on the podcast today.
Dan Spitale:
Yeah, thanks, Tom. I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to touching base in the future.
Tom Raftery:
Okay. Thank you all for tuning into this episode of the Sustainable Supply Chain Podcast with me, Tom Raftery. Each week, thousands of supply chain professionals listen to this show. If you or your organization want to connect with this dedicated audience, consider becoming a sponsor. You can opt for exclusive episode branding where you choose the guests or a personalized 30 second ad roll. It's a unique opportunity to reach industry experts and influencers. For more details, hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn, or drop me an email to tomraftery at outlook. com. Together, let's shape the future of sustainable supply chains. Thanks. Catch you all next time.
