Straight Talk with Brian Straight • May 3, 2026

Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition of Straight Talk. Inside, we discuss:

• Redefining normal

• The AI-human talent deficit

• Grad season

• A new era for visibility

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Where did normal go?

       (Photo: Getty Images)

We’ve spent the better part of the last five years talking about disruption in supply chains. Frankly, I’m tired of doing so. Perhaps it’s better that we just accept that we operate in a world of constant disruption and that is normal so we can move on.

But, can we do that? Some companies have done so. Others are still waiting for things to calm down. I had a conversation recently with Bob Daymon, head of client services at Uber Freight for my Talking Supply Chain podcast, and one thing dominated the conversation: the playbook has fundamentally changed.

The old model of careful planning, slowly executing and optimizing over time doesn’t work in an environment where conditions shift weekly, sometimes daily.

“They can’t come back with a three- to four- or five-month strategy to change planning,” he told me. “There’s a hyper focus on what can we do now within 30 to 45 days, not over six to 12 months.”

(You can listen to our full conversation on this episode of my Talking Supply Chain podcast)

The problem isn’t data anymore

For years, supply chain leaders had a built-in excuse to use: the data needed to make faster decisions wasn’t available. Whether it was true or not, it served as a justification for a multitude of operational challenges. Missed margin? We didn’t know spot rates were going to rise so quickly. Logistics costs exceeded budget? How could we have planned for a sudden rise in diesel fuel prices. The list goes on, but in each case, an argument could be made that there wasn’t enough data to plan contingencies.

That excuse is gone. Data is everywhere. And while you still may not be able to control the price of fuel, or a sudden jump in spot rates, there is no longer any reason why you can’t be prepared for that scenario. Most organizations are swimming in real-time data and they can see what’s happening in their networks, with their rates and with their capacity constraints.

And yet many still can’t move fast enough to act on it. So I asked Daymon why.

“Most of the shippers, if not all, have access to great real-time data, but their internal silos or bottlenecks are blockers to enacting some of the strategies,” he said.

Visibility, while still a conversation point, should be expected. What we need to do act on it. We need faster decision velocity. If it takes your organization five weeks to act on something you knew five weeks ago, you’re not making decisions. You are justifying a missed opportunity.

Speed is now a core capability

What separates companies right now isn’t who can predict the market best, but who can respond fastest to it. I’ve written about this a couple of times in recent months, but Daymon reiterated the point.

“We see customers that have driven agility into their supply chain,” he said. “We see them making quick decisions and then others that are in a wait-and-see [mode].”

That wait and see mindset might feel safe to many, but in today’s market, it is driving indecision and costing money. The companies that are performing better aren’t necessarily smarter or better resourced, they’re just faster at turning data into action. SCMR Columnist Karin Bursa noted as much in a March article for our print edition called “Decision velocity: The new operating advantage for supply chain leaders,” In the piece, Bursa wrote that, “some leaders talk about speed as if it is simply a mindset shift to move faster, be agile, or make quicker decisions. That sounds good in a town hall, but it doesn’t change what happens the moment demand spikes, a supplier misses a commitment, or a port delay ripples across your network. Decision velocity is a capability you build. It is the repeatable ability to move from signals to decisions to actions quickly, without increasing risk.”

(SCMR subscribers can read her full article here)

Speed is now showing up in everything from planning cycles to day-to-day procurement execution. The problem is that traditional supply chain planning cycles were never built for this kind of environment.

Planning cycles are collapsing

Our current model of annual strategies, quarterly adjustments and multi-month procurement timelines worked great. Until it didn’t. What we’re seeing now is compressed planning horizons and continuous adjustment. Leading organizations are making smaller, faster changes that drive impact in weeks, not quarters.

That doesn’t mean strategy has gone away. It just means strategy has become more flexible, more iterative, and more connected to execution. Or, at least it should.

The real risk is hesitation

We talk a lot about the risks facing supply chains (war, cyber, etc.), but we rarely talk about forecasting disruption. One of the more interesting parts of my conversation with Daymon was when we talked about was forecasting disruption.

Forecasting disruption is easy to dismiss. Try asking your CFO for funding as you “plan” for a disruption that hasn’t happened yet. Yet, the best companies are actively doing this. Do they know what disruption is coming? No, they don’t. But, what they do know is how to be prepared. They’re not predicting outcomes, but they are watching leading indicators so they can act early and decisively.

Daymon said watching for indicators can help an organization respond quicker. Doing so, he said, helps your organization “weather the storm better than if you’re on the trailing edge.”

It is not response time as much as it is decision time. Are you ready to make a decision?

The companies that win will look very similar

During the conversation, the topic of what a company that is winning looks like? Can any company win in 2026? In reality, Daymon identified some common profiles of those organizations that are navigating this environment well. They are those that:

• Move quickly

• Act on imperfect data

• Continuously improve instead of waiting for big transformations

• Build flexibility into their operations and relationships

“The differentiator isn’t the one that had the market pegged perfectly,” Daymon noted. “It’s the one that’s got the ability to create agility.”

There’s a temptation right now to wait for clarity. In fact, we have heard this for years. Who remembers the idea that you should wait for perfect data before implementing a transformation? Those companies that did are either no longer in existence, or are struggling to survive. Perfect should not the barrier to change. There is no such thing as perfect in anything supply chains do.

So, don’t want for normal to return. That’s not happening. Instead, it’s time to start understanding the best approach moving forward. In 2026, that is decision velocity. And the company that are prepared to act now on the data they have available today are the ones that will be left standing in 2027 and beyond.

Talent deficit

       (Photo: Getty Images)

AI may be the top priority in supply chain right now, but most organizations still can’t scale it. Not because they don’t want to, but because they lack the talent to do so. A new Gartner survey finds the biggest barriers aren’t the technology itself, but integrating AI into legacy systems and finding people who know how to use it correctly. In fact, 56% of those surveyed cited integration challenges and 50% pointed to talent gaps as major obstacles. We have talked about an execution problem related to AI. An MIT survey last year found that 95% of AI projects were failures. AI is about the right fit and the right people. As an industry, we are starting to get the right fit component, but we are still behind the curve when it comes to the right people.

The real education begins

       (Photo: Getty Images)

Graduation season is here, and with it comes a new class of supply chain professionals entering the workforce. To those graduates: welcome. This is an industry that will challenge you, frustrate you, and, if you let it, teach you more than any classroom ever could. If I can offer one piece of advice from someone that has covered the industry for years, focus on execution, not theory. Your education has taught you the frameworks to be successful. But you need to adapt those frameworks. No two companies operate the same. The real work is figuring out how to move freight when capacity tightens, how to fix a process that’s breaking in real time, or solve a constraint no one fully understands. You may have just completed your “education,” but your real education is about to begin. Congratulations on your achievements and welcome to the best job in the world. You will not be bored. You will learn. And, if you enter with that mindset, you will amaze. In the famous words of that great philosopher Dr. Seuss, “And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.) Kid, you’ll move mountains!”

What I read this week

While forecast accuracy metrics have improved incrementally over five decades, bias and dysfunction persist. … Infios has found its footing after rebrand, and is now focused on execution. … UPS is rolling out RFID across its network, ushering in a new era of visibility. … Some big names, and not-so-well-known names have made TIME’s list of the top supply chains. … IT is advising most companies on AI adoption, but few are addressing governance concerns. … Men continue to outperform their female counterparts when it comes to logistics salary and total compensation. … An industry coalition is asking the Department of Justice for more help to combat cargo theft. … The national average for diesel fuel has dropped, providing at least some short-term relief for transportation.