Over a four-decade career, Michael Regan has earned recognition as a tireless advocate for the logistics profession and one of its most prominent, innovative—and often provocative—thinkers.
When Michael Regan, founder and chief relationship officer of the consulting company TranzAct Technologies, speaks to a gathering of shippers or carriers, he sometimes likes to test his audience, challenging commonly held assumptions or insisting that managers are missing important opportunities to improve their businesses or relationships. He often takes the same approach when he is in the audience, asking provocative questions of speakers. Unerringly polite and courteous, he relishes a good debate.
Over a four-decade career as a shrewd, inventive, and successful businessman, he has also been a passionate advocate for the logistics profession. In September, the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) recognized his long list of accomplishments by awarding him its Distinguished Service Award (DSA). CSCMP President and CEO Rick Blasgen said of Regan, "He is a champion of innovation and creativity, cares deeply about the people in our profession, and has the ability to share his knowledge in ways that positively impact our community."
The breadth of Regan's activities is a reflection of his commitment to the profession. In addition to being an active member of CSCMP, he serves on the boards of the American Society of Transportation & Logistics (AST&L), the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL), the National Shippers Strategic Transportation Council (NASSTRAC), and the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA). In addition to his leadership role at TranzAct Technologies, he is chairman of the consulting firm Supply Chain Edge and is actively engaged in community and faith-based organizations.
The DSA takes its place on a long list of other awards for Regan, including recognition as a DC Velocity Rainmaker in 2005, Delta Nu Alpha's Transportation Professional of the Year, NITL's Executive of the Year in 2005, and NASSTRAC's Member of the Year in 2008.
Regan reflected on his career and accomplishments in recent conversation with Editorial Director Peter Bradley.
Name: Michael Regan Title: Chief of Relationship Development Organization: TranzAct Technologies Inc. Education: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Business Experience: Co-founder of TranzAct Technologies. Prior to TranzAct, he worked for Bank of America, PwC, and the Union Pacific Corporation. He is a certified public accountant (CPA). CSCMP Member: Since 1984
What drives you to be as engaged as you are in both the profession and in your private volunteer efforts?
I grew up in a house with parents who encouraged a spirit of service. My dad owned an industrial catering company and was deeply involved with the Red Cross. I remember that when there were some disasters in the Chicago area, such as the McCormick Place fire in 1967 and a tornado that struck Oak Lawn in 1967, my dad took his food trucks to the sites so that he could feed the disaster-relief personnel. My mom also was a very active volunteer in numerous organizations. So growing up with parents who place a high value on engagement and serving others leaves an indelible impact on your life.
With respect to my engagement in professional and not-for-profit organizations, one cornerstone for me has been my belief that the world is a better place when people [take the initiative and try to make the biggest difference they can].
One of the ministries that my family has been involved with since 1997 is the Youth With a Mission ministry, which builds homes for families in Tijuana and Ensenada, Mexico. The first family we built a house for had nine kids, and they were literally living under a tarp. Two weeks prior to the build, they lost their youngest baby due to exposure. Seeing that family get a house—as well as many of the other families that we have built for since then—gives us a sense of satisfaction and joy. At the end of the day, our family realizes that we may not change the world, but we can make a positive difference in the lives of those individuals who cross our paths.
Do you see participation in industry and professional organizations as an obligation for yourself and for other successful logistics and supply chain professionals?
First, while I would like to think that my motivation has been altruistic, practically speaking, I have gotten more than I have given. While I have been very engaged in the leading shipper and third-party logistics organizations, this engagement has helped us build a better business because of our ability to serve our customers. And through my engagement and participation in these organizations, I have been honored and blessed by some (iconic for me) people who took an interest in my career. Whether it was the late Don Bowersox, or Bill Augello, or people like Dan Sweeney or Norm Mineta, I have been very fortunate to have met and gotten to know some wonderful people.
Second, I don't know whether participating in these organizations is an obligation, but I really do believe that as successful logistics and supply chain professionals we have a responsibility to work toward improving the supply chain and logistics world and leaving our profession in better shape than when we began our careers. Engagement in worthwhile associations facilitates this.
Finally, one of the things that upsets me is seeing people who complain but never get engaged to try and ameliorate the things they are complaining about. One of the reasons I am honored to be a DSA winner is because as a group these individuals understand the need to be engaged and to make a difference personally and professionally.
You serve in leadership roles for many organizations and are a frequent motivational speaker. What message do you try to convey through those efforts?
There are a couple of things I work to convey through my talks. First, I want to encourage people to believe that they can be "difference makers." Candidly, I meet a lot of hard-working, dedicated logistics and supply chain professionals who are discouraged for several different reasons. Truth be told, they work in environments where their accomplishments and capabilities are taken for granted, they are continually challenged to do more with less, and they live with the reality that their position could be "downsized" at a moment's notice.
Second, in preparing my presentations, I focus on challenging the audience in a positive manner. So my presentations—such as "Invest in You, Inc." or "Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!"—have common themes that accentuate my belief that individuals have tremendous capabilities and potential, have responsibility for investing in their careers and for cultivating and developing their capabilities even further, and make choices and thus are responsible for the things that happen in their lives.
Having spoken at over 20 CSCMP annual conferences and having given 15 to 20 talks per year for the last 15 years, I am well aware that a lot of people who attend these events think that it is more important to hear about technical, tactical, or strategic stuff in our industry than to hear some motivational message or words of encouragement. They are wrong! I believe a case can be made that more people are fired because of a lack of relationship skills than for a lack of technical skills. That is why I believe everybody needs some words of encouragement and some tools that help them to develop their relational skill sets. It's a much better world when we have effective relationships where we can encourage each other.
What role do you see logistics and supply chain management serving in the broader economy?
There is no doubt in my mind that the disciplines of transportation, logistics, and supply chain management not only address fundamental business needs but also serve a higher purpose in the economy and contribute to a better standard of living for everyone! That said, it is crucial to understand the importance of what we do and how it makes a contribution to society.
I believe that a plausible argument can be made that a key ingredient in America's success is the fact that the companies in North America have more advanced and competitive supply chain capabilities. Because of these capabilities, we pay lower prices for our goods and have a wider selection of resources to choose from. Thus we have a better standard of living as well as an enhanced capability to positively impact consumers on a global basis because of the work of intelligent and dedicated logistics and supply chain professionals around the world.
Supply Chain Xchange Executive Editor Susan Lacefield moderates a panel discussion with Supply Chain Xchange's Outstanding Women in Supply Chain Award Winners (from left to right) Annette Danek-Akey, Sherry Harriman, Leslie O'Regan, and Ammie McAsey.
Supply Chain Xchange recognized four women who have made significant contributions to the supply chain management profession today with its second annual Outstanding Women in Supply Chain Award. The award winners include Annette Danek-Akey, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Barnes & Noble; Sherry Harriman, Senior Vice President of Logistics and Supply Chain for Academy Sports + Outdoors; Leslie O’Regan, Director of Product Management for DC Systems & 3PLs at American Eagle Outfitters; and Ammie McAsey, Senior Vice President of Customer Distribution Experience for McKesson’s U.S. Pharmaceutical division.
Throughout their careers, these four supply chain executive have demonstrated strategic thinking, innovative problem solving, and effective leadership as well as a commitment to giving back to the profession.
The awards were presented at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) annual EDGE Conference in Nashville, Tenn. In addition to the awards presentation, the leaders discussed their leadership philosophies and career path during a panel discussion at the EDGE conference.
The surge of “nearshoring” supply chains from China to Mexico offers obvious benefits in cost, geography, and shipping time, as long as U.S. companies are realistic about smoothing out the challenges of the burgeoning trend, according to a panel today at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)’s EDGE Conference in Nashville.
Those challenges span a list including: developing infrastructure, weak security, manual processes, and shifting regulations, speakers said in a session titled “Nearshoring: Transforming Surface Transportation in the U.S.”
For example, a recent Mexican government rail expansion added lines to tourist destinations in Cancun instead of freight capacity in the Southwest, said panelist Edward Habe, Vice President of Mexico Sales, for Averitt. Truckload cargo inspections may rely on a single person looking at paper filings on the border, instead of a 24/7 online system, said Bob McCloskey, Director for Logistics and Distribution at Clarios, LLC. And business partners inside Mexico often have undisclosed tier-two, tier-three, and tier-four relationships that are difficult to track from the U.S., said Beth Kussatz, Manager of Northern American Network Design & Implementation, Deere & Co.
Still, dedicated companies can work with Mexican authorities, regulators, and providers to overcome those bottlenecks with clever solutions, the panelists agreed. “Don’t be afraid,” Habe said. “It just makes sense in today’s world, the local regionalization of manufacturing. It’s in our interest that this works.”
A quick reaction in the first 24 hours is critical for keeping your business running after a cyberattack, according to Estes Express Lines, the less than truckload (LTL) carrier whose computer systems were struck by hackers in October, 2023.
Immediately after discovering the breach, the company cut off their internet, called in a third-party information technology (IT) support team, and then used their only remaining tools—employees’ personal email and phone contacts—to start reaching out to their shipper clients. The message on Day One: even though the company was reduced to running the business with paper and pencil instead of computers, they were still picking up loads on time with trucks.
“Customers never want to hear bad news, but they really don’t want to hear bad news from someone other than you,” the company’s president and COO, Webb Estes, said in a session today at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)’s EDGE Conference in Nashville.
After five or six painful days, Estes transitioned from paper back to computers. But they continued sending clients daily video updates from their president, and putting their chief information officer on conference calls to answer specific questions.
Although lawyers had advised them not to be so open, the strategy worked. It took 19 days to get all computer systems running again, but at the end of the first month they had returned to 85% of their original client list, and now have 99% back, Estes said in the session called “Hackers are Always Probing: Cybersecurity Recovery and Prevention Lessons Learned.”
As the final hours tick away before a potential longshoreman’s strike begins at midnight on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, experts say the ripples of that move could roll across the entire U.S. supply chains for weeks.
While some of the nation’s largest retailers were able to pull their imports forward in recent weeks to soften the blow, “the average supply chain is ill-prepared for this,” Tom Nightingale, the former CEO of AFS Logistics, said in a panel discussion today at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP)’s EDGE Conference in Nashville.
Despite that grim prognosis, a strike seems virtually unavoidable, CSCMP President & CEO Mark Baxa said from the stage. At latest report, the White House had declined to force the feuding parties back into arbitration through its executive power, and a voluntary last-minute session had failed to unite the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA)’s 45,000 union members with the United States Maritime Alliance that manages the 36 ports covered under their expiring contract.
The ultimate impact of a resulting strike will depend largely on how long it lasts, the panelists said. With a massive flow of 140,000 twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs) of shipping containers moving through the two coasts each week, each day of a strike will require 7 to 10 days of recovery for most types of goods, Nightingale said.
Shippers are desperately seeking coping mechanisms, but at this point the damage will add up fast, whether a strike lasts for an optimistic “option A” of just 48 to 72 hours, a pessimistic “Option B” of 7 to 10 days, or even longer, agreed Jon Monroe, president of Jon Monroe Consulting.
The first full day of CSCMP’s EDGE 2024 conference ended with the telling of a great American story.
Author and entrepreneur Fawn Weaver explained how she stumbled across the little-known story of Nathan “Nearest” Green and, in deciding to tell that story, launched the fastest-growing and most award-winning whiskey brand of the past five years—and how she also became the first African American woman to lead a major spirits company.
Weaver is CEO of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, a company she founded in 2016 and that is part of her larger private investment business, Grant Sidney, Inc. Weaver told the story of Uncle Nearest—as Nathan Green was known in his hometown of Lynchburg, Tenn.—to Agile Business Media & Events Chairman Mitch MacDonald, in a keynote interview Monday afternoon.
As it turns out, Green—who was born into slavery and freed after the Civil War—was the first master distiller for the Jack Daniel’s Whiskey brand. His story was well-known among the local descendants of both Daniel and Green, but a mystery in the larger world of bourbon and a missing piece of American history and culture. Through extensive research and interviews with descendants of the Daniel and Green families, Weaver discovered what she describes as a positive American story.
“I believed it was a story of love, honor, and respect,” she told MacDonald during the interview. “I believed it was a great American story.”
Weaver told the story in her best-selling book, Love & Whiskey: The Remarkable True Story of Jack Daniel, His Master Distiller Nearest Green, and the Improbable Rise of Uncle Nearest, and has channeled it into an even larger story with the founding of the brand. Today, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is made at a 323-acre distillery in Shelbyville, Tenn.—the first distillery in U.S. history to commemorate an African American and the only major distillery in the world owned and operated by a Black person.
Weaver and MacDonald's wide-ranging discussion covered the barriers Weaver encountered in bringing the brand to life, her vision for where it’s headed, and her take on the supply chain—which she said she views as both a necessary cost of doing business and an opportunity.
“[It’s] an opportunity if you can move quickly,” she said, emphasizing a recent project to fast-track a new Uncle Nearest product in which collaborating with the company’s supply chain partners was vital.
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has earned more than 600 awards, including “World’s Best” by Whisky Magazine two years in a row, the “Double Gold” by San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and Wine Enthusiast’s “Spirit Brand of the Year.”
CSCMP’s EDGE 2024 runs through Wednesday, October 2, at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center in Nashville.