The Gartner Supply Chain Podcast

Craft Robust Decision-Making Processes With ‘Decision Shapers’

Episode Summary

Supply chain planning leaders are facing increasingly complex decisions, and many of them report feeling disconnected from how decisions impact their organizations. This episode of the Gartner Supply Chain Podcast explores how “decision shapers” create impact and expedite decision making processes.

Episode Notes

This episode explores:

• “Decision shapers,” supply chain planning leaders that leverage three personas to guide supply chain planning leaders’ decision making through informed, data-driven recommendations. (1:22)
• The skills decision shapers leverage as part of the “codebreaker” persona to analyze and capitalize on key data points. (4:25)
• How the “alchemist” persona, a combination of business acumen, adaptability and AI readiness that decision shapers use to turn data into intelligent insights. (7:56)
• Ways the “storyteller” persona packages data and insights to meet audiences where they’re at with  language that resonates with them. (13:42)
• Essential recommendations for supply chain leaders that want to become decision shapers in their own organizations. (19:35)

In this episode of the Supply Chain Podcast, host Lindsay Azim discusses the impact “decision shapers” have on supply chain planning (SCP) with guest Noha Samara, a Gartner senior director analyst. The pair explore their shared research into the current state of SCP, and how SCP leaders can evolve their approach to it through data analysis, intelligent insights and robust communication. They close the show with recommendations for SCP leaders that want to affect similar changes in their own org.

About the Guest:

Gartner Senior Director Analyst Noha Samara covers several areas of supply chain planning. She has authored and coauthored numerous research on supply chain planning processes’ evolution, supply chain planning organization design and talent, and supply chain planning transformations. She joined Gartner in 2020 after a long career at several multinational organizations such as Procter & Gamble and Microsoft where she was leading different supply chain teams. Noha has been leading the supply chain planning track agenda at Gartner Symposium for the past couple of years and currently chairs the upcoming Supply Chain Planning Summits in 2025 and 2026.