The Matt Waller Podcast

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Michele Meyer about her impressive 30+ year career in the consumer packaged goods industry. Michele held numerous leadership positions at General Mills, culminating in roles leading major operating units. She was able to drive significant growth and transformation throughout her career.When I asked Michele what has contributed most to her success as an executive, she shared some valuable lessons from her time at General Mills. One key lesson was to "trust the process." She realized that career paths don't always follow a perfect plan, and there are opportunities to learn along the way. Another lesson was finding her strengths and gifts, excelling in those areas, and focusing less on trying to be excellent at everything. This allowed Michele and her teams to operate at their highest level.Michele also stressed the importance of humility and teamwork. It took her time to understand that the team is as important as any individual. When everyone contributes, the overall result is greater than what any one person could achieve alone. She found success by valuing diverse perspectives on her teams.As the leader of General Mills' Small Planet Foods division, Michele helped grow the business from $100 million to over $300 million in sales in a short period. A big part of her strategy was trusting and learning from acquired brand founders like Gene Kahn of Cascadian Farm. She brought their valuable perspectives into General Mills' approach. Michele realized General Mills could learn as much, if not more, from smaller companies they acquired. This helped shift General Mills' marketing approach to be more complex, intimate and relationship-driven.In our discussion, Michele provided insightful perspectives on operating in the natural/organic space from both a marketing and farming supply standpoint. She acknowledged the challenges of meeting growing demand for healthier products while maintaining organic certification requirements. Michele also offered thoughtful perspective on how price sensitivity impacts consumer decisions in this space.Post-retirement from General Mills, Michele now serves as an Operating Partner at NewRoad Capital Partners. Her experience successfully acquiring and integrating brands serves her well in private equity. Michele emphasized the ongoing value founders bring through their unique visions. She aims to support founders in achieving sustainable growth.Through our conversation, it was clear that Michele’s success stems from her willingness to learn, her focus on developing diverse teams, and valuing all perspectives - including those from smaller companies. Her career exemplifies how continual learning allows one to take on new challenges across different industries. Michele’s insights provide a great lesson for any professional seeking to maximize their own career impact and contributions.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Ladd, a seasoned private equity investor and board member. Chris shared insights from his extensive career in corporate development, M&A, and private equity. Here are some highlights:How Chris Identifies High-Potential CompaniesWhen considering investments, Chris looks for two key ingredients - a market need/gap, and a solution that can fill that gap in a way that's core to the customer. Solid management, competition, industry trends etc. matter too, but those two factors are paramount.Strategic Guidance as a Board Member In board roles, Chris focuses on bringing structure and strategic frameworks to early-stage companies. This includes testing key assumptions, making sure the right resources are in place, and that management processes align with the strategy. He notes it's a fluid process as strategies morph rapidly in early-stage companies.Technology's Impact on Business GrowthChris sees technology and innovation as crucial for driving growth and productivity gains needed in today's competitive landscape. He pointed to the huge amount of remaining manual processes and whitespace in supply chain, logistics and other sectors where there's room for efficiency gains.The Future of Private EquityChris predicts private equity will continue growing as an asset class as more retail/individual investors get exposure. Platforms are emerging to provide individuals with easier access. He sees AI and technology improving processes like deal sourcing, research and analytics on the operations side.Chris' Best Career AdviceOne professor emphasized that business is a grind, so you need to physically and mentally prepare through exercise, proper sleep etc. This has stuck with Chris as great advice for building the endurance required to perform at a high level consistently.Key Takeaways- Focus on market gaps and solutions core to the customer- Provide structure/strategy frameworks to early-stage companies - Technology will drive productivity and efficiencies- Private equity access is democratizing for individual investors- Success requires tremendous effort and lifestyle habits like fitness

I recently had the chance to chat with Stefan Sterns, a partner at private equity firm NewRoad Capital Partners, about his extensive career in investment banking and private equity. Stefan spent over 8 years at Barclays Investment Bank in New York, working on M&A advisory assignments and debt/equity capital raises totaling over $200 billion.Some of the most valuable lessons Stefan learned during his time in banking included the importance of working with smart, motivated colleagues. He found that being surrounded by driven people who he enjoyed collaborating with helped make long hours more rewarding. Stefan also witnessed major disruptions in the media industry from trends like cord cutting and the rise of streaming services.We discussed emerging opportunities in retail media networks, an area still in its early stages. Stefan is keeping a close eye on technology solutions that could help consumer goods companies effectively manage hundreds of individual retailer partnerships. Northwest Arkansas' strong expertise in retail and supply chain positions the region well for innovations at the intersection of these industries.Now at NewRoad Capital, Stefan appreciates gaining deeper operational involvement with portfolio companies post-deal. He finds private equity work especially satisfying when leveraging the firm's retail industry experience to identify problems and potential fixes. Looking ahead, Stefan is focused on navigating current market volatility and seeing where investment opportunities may emerge from industry consolidation.The conversation offered valuable perspectives on evaluation cycles, sourcing deals, and leveraging domain expertise to generate compelling investment theses. Stefan's background spanning banking, media, and retail private equity provided unique insights into evolving industry landscapes.

Discover the transformative world of executive coaching through the eyes of Steve Graves, a seasoned mentor with over three decades of experience. Join us as Steve reveals the secrets behind his dynamic coaching approach that favors impactful, short-term partnerships over long-term commitments. From guiding CEOs of global corporations to advising small family businesses, Steve has honed a method that adapts to the unique environment of each leader. He also shares personal anecdotes, including his love for fly fishing and how he strategically aligned his career with his personal strengths by age 35. Prepare yourself for an insightful journey into the nuanced art of coaching with a man who has dedicated his life to helping leaders navigate pivotal stages in their careers.Get ready to learn how the right industry fit can make all the difference in CEO coaching. Steve sheds light on the importance of refining coaching strategies through feedback and tailoring them to meet individual needs. Hear a compelling story of adapting his style for a client who thrived outside the traditional office setting, showcasing the necessity of aligning methods with the distinct characteristics of those he works with. With a passion for writing and a knack for using personal experiences as a testing ground for innovative ideas, Steve offers a fresh perspective on shaping polished coaching concepts. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the evolving world of executive coaching and the critical role of adaptability in guiding leaders to success.

Chris Sultemeier recently sat down for an insightful interview on The Matt Waller Podcast. With nearly 30 years of experience leading supply chain and logistics at retail giant Walmart, Chris has a wealth of wisdom to share. A few key themes around leadership and innovation emerged from the conversation.Humility and TeamworkDespite his many high-level roles, including EVP of Logistics, Chris maintains a humble, team-focused approach to leadership. He believes strongly in ‘servant leadership’ – empowering others so they can accomplish more than they thought possible. As Chris puts it, “You are only as good as the team you’re leading.” He took the greatest joy in “seeing a team accomplish more than they ever thought they could.”Chris stresses that building trust is the foundation of any relationship. Team members must know you truly care about them as individuals, not just cogs in a machine. With trust and care in place, Chris found team members would go to incredible lengths for shared success.Innovation Through TestingChris credits Walmart’s continued innovation, even as a huge company, to relentless testing and trying of new concepts. He reminisces about the constant small tests underway during Sam Walton’s leadership. This experimental approach never ceased even as Walmart grew.Chris provides several examples where Walmart piloted ideas he was originally skeptical of, including order online pickup in store and automation partnerships, which both proved tremendously successful. He learned not to dismiss ideas out of hand just because the approach was counterintuitive. Walmart’s test-and-learn culture kept them innovating.Investing in the FutureSince retiring from Walmart, Chris serves on the boards of several tech startups aiming to transform retail and supply chain. He looks for companies with a compelling vision to solve real-world problems, such as inefficient ocean shipping contracts. Chris partners with founders who have the drive and humility to see their ideas through.He is particularly excited about companies leveraging AI, machine learning and generative AI to structurate unstructured data. Chris believes these emerging technologies will unlock major advancements.Throughout his long career, Chris Sultemeier has exemplified personal humility, commitment to teams, and the power of an experimental mindset. His wisdom provides lessons for leaders in any industry looking to innovate and build trusted teams for the long-term.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Tracy Black, an accomplished technology executive in the logistics industry and partner at NewRoad Capital Partners. Tracy served as Senior Vice President of Information Technology at J.B. Hunt Transport, leading major technology transformations for the company. She now serves on the boards of several early-stage companies and offers advice to founders in the logistics and supply chain technology space.In our discussion, Tracy shared insights from her impressive career journey and offered advice for developing strong IT talent.A few of the key takeaways include the following:Implementing new technologies at large companies requires alignment at the top and a clear focus on expected outcomes. Quick prototyping can help demonstrate possibilities to leadership.When evaluating startups to partner with, Tracy looks for strong leadership teams and an “unfair advantage” that differentiates the business. She advises founders to surround themselves with smart people and pay close attention to unit economics.Attracting IT talent, especially in Northwest Arkansas early in her career, required creating a culture of career growth, learning, and empowerment. Tracy invested heavily in training, mentorship, internships, and giving technologists visibility to leadership.Asking for help and collaborating with others is key for career advancement. Trying to appear like you know everything can hold you back.Tracy is passionate about leveraging data, AI, and her team of operating partners to provide added value to the startups NewRoad Capital invests in.It was fascinating to learn from Tracy’s perspectives on navigating major technology changes within large corporations and high growth startups. Her strategic mindset and focus on people clearly contributed to her success as a leader.

Clete Brewer is the founder and managing partner of New Road Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on investing in and scaling companies in the supply chain logistics and retail technology sectors. He has over 30 years of experience leading and advising high-growth companies, previously serving as CEO of staffing company Staffmark and President of Sport Clips.In the interview, Brewer provides his perspective on trends in private equity investing and shares insights on how New Road identifies and partners with promising companies to help them scale.Key Takeaways:- New Road looks for companies at the "tipping point" stage, where they have an established product and early traction but need help accelerating growth. The firm leverages its operating expertise and networks to provide strategic guidance and operational support. (Listen to the podcast to gain a full understanding of this idea.)- When evaluating management teams, New Road looks for humble leaders who surround themselves with strong talent and have a focused solution that solves a real pain point for enterprise customers.- The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated adoption of supply chain technologies like track and trace, final mile delivery, and reverse logistics. New Road sees continued opportunities in modernizing legacy systems through cloud-based, specialized solutions.- Strategic corporate venture investing is on the rise, allowing large companies to support innovation and gain insights into emerging technologies in their sector. New Road partners with corporations looking to invest alongside their fund.Brewer emphasizes the importance of focus, and chemistry in building the New Road team. His passion for unleashing entrepreneurial spirit shines through. For supply chain and retail tech companies looking to scale, partnering with an operationally-focused firm like New Road can provide invaluable guidance on growth.

The balance between supply and demand has a significant impact on pricing and behavior in the trucking industry. During periods of excess capacity, known as soft markets, prices tend to fall as carriers are willing to honor existing contracts, as evidenced by high acceptance rates. However, in tight markets where demand outweighs supply, prices rise and carriers may prioritize more lucrative spot freight opportunities over contracted loads.These market dynamics and the incentives that drive carrier and shipper actions were the focus of recent research conducted through a partnership between academia and industry. Angi Acocella, who has studied trucking procurement through her research at MIT, explored how carriers respond to shippers under different conditions. Her findings indicate that while maintaining relationships is important, carriers are primarily motivated by current market conditions when deciding which loads to prioritize.While optimization models have proven useful in procurement, the assumptions made in early approaches underestimated the dynamics of real-world transportation. Deterministic frameworks that ignore variability did not translate effectively to practical applications. Newer techniques have emerged to instead impose constraints that reflect industry complexities. This enhances the strategic value of optimization beyond traditional deterministic, cost-focused objectives.Network segmentation also deserves further study, as not all freight lanes are uniform. Factors like volume consistency, carrier types, and opportunity costs must be considered to tailor solutions. Dynamic contracts that fluctuate with market conditions could provide more flexibility than annual fixed-rate agreements.To address the trucking industry’s many complexities, practitioners and academics should continue close collaboration. Analytics from such collaborations can provide insights for industry players ready to adapt to the constant changes they face. Maintaining perspective across networks while focusing on execution, not just planning, will be key to future success.

I interviewed Gordon Downes, the founder and CEO of NYSHEX, an innovative company providing technology solutions to address major challenges in the ocean container shipping industry. With 80% of the top 10 ocean container carriers and many shippers already using the NYSHEX platform, it has significant implications for reducing expected lead times, lead time variance, safety stock, and out-of-stocks for shippers, while also enabling carriers to utilize their equipment more efficiently.What impressed me about Gordon is how his 12 years of experience at Maersk, the world's largest ocean container carrier, combined with his time at SABMiller/AB InBev, the world's largest beer shipper, gave him unique insight into the problems facing both carriers and shippers. From the carrier side, he saw how no-show bookings and overbooking led to vessels sailing underutilized. From the shipper perspective, he witnessed the costly consequences of containers arriving late.Eight years ago, recognizing that other industries had solved similar problems using technology, Gordon founded NYSHEX to collect, cleanse and harmonize data from various supply chain partners to provide a shared system of record. This enables carriers, shippers, NVOCCs and 3PLs to all have the same set of facts to identify the root causes of problems, rather than relying on incomplete information and engaging in blame games that strain relationships.Some of the key problems NYSHEX addresses include determining what went wrong when a container doesn't show up as planned - was the container not loaded, picked up late, or documentation not produced on time? The platform captures data on all the steps prior to container movement, not just basic visibility, to provide a complete picture. It then generates alerts and workflows to flag at-risk containers while there is still time to take corrective action.By improving planning, execution and communication across the supply chain, NYSHEX reduces waste that negatively impacts both carriers and shippers, such as vessels sailing light and shippers facing production delays. Carriers benefit from better vessel utilization, reduced workload dealing with exceptions, and strengthened customer relationships. Shippers gain the ability to provide carriers with more reliable volume forecasts to secure space and equipment allocations.I see huge potential for shippers to leverage the rich data and analytics from NYSHEX to optimize inventory, similar to what happened in the quality management era when businesses redesigned processes to eliminate sources of defects. With granular data on transit time distributions and delay patterns that were never available before, shippers can reduce safety stock while improving service levels. This can free up significant amounts of capital, especially important in the current high interest rate environment.While change is hard in an industry that operates on processes largely unchanged for decades, Gordon emphasized how the value NYSHEX delivers is a true win-win. By focusing first on tactical, tangible problems to demonstrate results, then expanding to more strategic issues over time, the company has steadily grown to processing 2% of global container volume, with ample room for further growth.I'm excited by the potential of neutral, third-party platforms like NYSHEX to foster trust, transparency and collaboration that lifts performance for all supply chain participants. With the industry's structural challenges not going away, I believe we will see accelerating adoption of such solutions to enable the responsive, resilient and efficient supply chains required for success in today's turbulent business environment.

The venture capital industry in the United States is a crucial driver of innovation and economic growth, providing early-stage funding and guidance to transform ideas into groundbreaking technologies and companies. Recent years have seen record levels of investment and dealmaking, fueling a wave of innovation across the country. However, the industry faces challenges from a complex policy environment and uncertainties arising from shifts in regulations and economic conditions.Bobby Franklin of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) highlighted the historical growth of venture capital, emphasizing key policy shifts in the 1970s that spurred its significant expansion. Venture-backed companies have demonstrated outsized economic impact, with over 50% of public companies since the 1970s having venture capital backing. Despite this, there remains a disconnect between policymakers and the unique needs of venture-backed companies, particularly regarding regulatory challenges such as mergers and acquisitions and antitrust regulations.The NVCA's mission is to foster rational policy discussions to preserve and enhance the nation's innovative capacity. Franklin emphasized the importance of engagement with venture-backed companies and highlighted the significance of seed and pre-seed investments as indicators of the entrepreneurial ecosystem's health. Despite short-term fluctuations in investment stages and sectors, long-term indicators remain positive, indicating continued confidence in high-potential ventures. Rational public policy, including targeted programs like startup visas, will be crucial in maintaining U.S. leadership in innovation and ensuring the growth of the venture capital industry well into the future.