In our first episode of the Smarter Sourcing podcast, recorded at the ICR Conference, John speaks with Marc Suidan, CFO at The Beachbody Company, a health and fitness company. They discuss Marc’s career evolution to CFO, what drew him to Beachbody, and how Beachbody functions as an organization — including its centralized procurement process for its nutrition arm. They also discuss the practices that make a company agile and fast-moving, how to leverage customer data for better decision-making, and the three initiatives that are propelling Beachbody into the future.

Topics discussed:

• The fundamentals of The Beachbody Company, how it functions, and why Marc was drawn to become its CFO.
• How tracking customer behavior is easier through a streaming platform and how Beachbody uses data to drive better outcomes.
• How the centralized procurement process for Beachbody’s nutrition arm works.
• Why the threat of cyber attack keeps Marc up at night.
• The common practices that make companies more agile, fast-moving, and successful.
• The three initiatives Beachbody has focused on for its transformation.
• The challenges a connected fitness company faces in terms of manufacturing, inventory, and shipping versus one with just a streaming platform.

Guest Quotes: 

“Sourcing and procurement for our company is decentralized. We do not have a central procurement team. Where we have a central sourcing team is specifically for that half of the business that does nutrition, because they’re sourcing raw materials that meet the requirements of what an R&D team told them needs to go into the products. They work with third-party manufacturers to manufacture our products, warehouse it, and fulfillment distribution. That’s a very centralized and focused team.”

“We’re living in a world where you have an abundance of data. Those who succeed are the ones who know how to use technology to make sense of that data and guide better decisions.”

“I really got to see what makes certain companies move faster, be more agile, and produce better results. It ultimately leads to those that question everything.”

“The faster you realize you don’t have a core competency, the faster you realize, I got to go run a fair due process where I meet different vendors, see who stands out, and could be my best business partner.”

Get in touch with Marc Suidan:  

LinkedIn

Website

Get in touch with your host, John Pavia: 

LinkedIn