In the Season 4 finale, recorded live at CSCMP EDGE in Nashville, Tennessee, co-hosts Ted Stank and Tom Goldsby welcome Kate Vitasek, a faculty member at the University of Tennessee, creator of the Vested® business model, and one of supply chain’s leading voices on strategic partnerships. This is Vitasek’s third appearance—the most of any guest on the podcast.

At the conference, Vitasek was honored with CSCMP’s Distinguished Service Award, recognizing a career of research, teaching, and industry impact and granting her entry into the Supply Chain Hall of Fame. The hosts celebrate that achievement while exploring the work that has made her a trusted advisor to organizations seeking to get more from their most important trading relationships.

Vitasek explains the five rules of the Vested Way. She also shares why companies too often call suppliers “strategic partners” while contracting with them transactionally, and how that disconnect leaves innovation, flexibility, and value on the table.

The conversation covers the practical work of building trust, designing contracts that reward value creation, bringing legal teams in early, and using governance to turn difficult or merely typical supplier relationships into collaborative ones. Vitasek also discusses where AI can help: automating transactions, improving shared visibility, and reducing contract-development friction so people can focus on co-creating value.

The episode was recorded live at CSCMP EDGE in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 5, 2026.

Related links:

• Learn more about Kate Vitasek and the Vested Way.
• Learn more about CSCMP and its Distinguished Service Award.
• Learn more about the Annual Third-Party Logistics Study and download past reports.
• Save the date for the Fall Supply Chain Forum, Nov. 10–12
• Download free white papers from UT experts
• Become a GSCI partner to learn, network, and recruit with the top supply chain education institution in North America
• Join the Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative to explore advanced concepts in SCM with top industry experts and scholars
• Follow GSCI on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to GSCI’s monthly newsletter
• Read the latest news and insights from GSCI

Text the Tennessee on Supply Chain Management team!

In this episode, co-hosts Ted Stank and Tom Goldsby welcome John Langley, professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee, founder of the Annual Third-Party Logistics Study, and a leader who helped establish the UT Supply Chain Forum in 1998.

As the 31st Annual 3PL Study enters its next chapter with GSCI as an official partner, Langley reflects on what more than three decades of research reveal about the evolution of logistics outsourcing and the relationships that make it work. From an era when companies bought transportation and warehousing separately to today’s end-to-end logistics providers, he explains why the most effective shipper-3PL relationships are built on shared information, honest dialogue, aligned incentives, and a mutual understanding of each other’s business.

The conversation also examines the risks reshaping supply chains in 2026: freight fraud, AI-enabled threats, geopolitical disruption, changing trade lanes, and rising transportation costs. Langley shares why preparation, education, and the ability to change quickly separate resilient organizations from the rest, as well as why strategic partnerships cannot be strategic in name only when providers are rebid solely on lowest cost.

Along the way, Langley discusses the legacy and future of the Annual 3PL Study, the role of UT faculty and students in its next phase, and his long connection to the Supply Chain Forum.

The episode was recorded virtually on September 14, 2026.

Related links:

• Learn more about the Annual Third-Party Logistics Study and download past reports.
• Save the date for the Fall Supply Chain Forum, Nov. 10–12
• Download free white papers from UT experts
• Become a GSCI partner to learn, network, and recruit with the top supply chain education institution in North America
• Join the Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative to explore advanced concepts in SCM with top industry experts and scholars
• Follow GSCI on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to GSCI’s monthly newsletter
• Read the latest news and insights from GSCI

Text the Tennessee on Supply Chain Management team!

In this episode, Ted Stank is joined by favorite fill-in co-host Lance Saunders to welcome Heather Kettelhohn, executive director of global supply chain planning and logistics at Cummins and a member of the GSCI Advisory Board.

Drawing on a recent two-and-a-half-year planning system implementation, Kettelhohn dismantles the caterpillar-to-butterfly fantasy that surrounds big supply chain initiatives. Going live, she argues, isn't the finish line—it's the starting point of a journey that never truly ends. She and the hosts dig into why "buy, not build" and "configure, not customize" kept Cummins out of the "we're different" trap, why bad processes only get faster (not better) when you layer technology or AI on top, and why customer value—not premium freight savings or inventory reduction—is the ROI that actually matters.

The conversation gets honest about the human side of change and why leaders have to ask new questions—and celebrate quick wins and change champions—to drive real adoption. Along the way, the trio look at today's volatility—shifting tariffs, closed and reopened shipping lanes, scarce metals and helium, softening jobs numbers, and stubbornly high prices—and manage to squeeze in a running debate over Seinfeld, The Office, Ted Lasso, and Friends.

The episode was recorded in person at GSCI's summer Advisory Board meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 13, 2026.

Related links:

• Learn more about Cummins at cummins.com
• Register for Early Access Recruiting Night for GSCI Partners, September 21
• Attend the Fall SCM Career Fair, September 22
• Register for virtual SCM Academies in Finance, Procurement, and Technology
• Save the date for the Fall Supply Chain Forum, Nov. 10–12
• Download free white papers from UT experts
• Become a GSCI partner to learn, network, and recruit with the top supply chain education institution in North America
• Join the Advanced Supply Chain Collaborative to explore advanced concepts in SCM with top industry experts and scholars
• Follow GSCI on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to GSCI’s monthly newsletter
• Read the latest news and insights from GSCI.

Text the Tennessee on Supply Chain Management team!