In this episode of Smarter Sourcing, John speaks with Carlos Maceda, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Mount Sinai Health System. They discuss the evolution of leadership in a post-pandemic landscape, with Carlos emphasizing the importance of mentorship and maintaining team morale, while also holding teams accountable.

Carlos shares his personal journey to his current role, highlighting key lessons learned in supply chain management and contingency planning, including the need for proactive, quick decision-making when potential issues loom on the horizon.

Topics discussed:

• How leadership styles must adapt in a post-pandemic world to maintain team morale and productivity.
• The significance of mentorship in guiding junior team members and fostering a supportive work environment.
• The challenges of managing a remote workforce, including strategies for effective communication and collaboration.
• The need for proactive resource planning and quick decision-making, especially when potential issues loom on the horizon.
• Tight budgets in healthcare and how they impact supply chain decisions and job security.
• The importance of analyzing large data sets to drive decisions and improve supply chain efficiency.
• The significance of building strong relationships with vendors and the benefits of mentoring them into fields they might not have seen.
• The challenge of maintaining work-life balance in a demanding industry, particularly in remote settings.

Guest Quotes: 

“We’re not in the business of supply chain. We’re not in the business of selling goods. We’re in the business of providing healthcare. And so there are because of that, it does add another level of complexity and another level of just difference in the sense of the same emphasis is not paid to supply chain in a healthcare setting as it is in a, again, automobile industry.”

“So whether our costs go up by 50% or our costs go up by 10%, there is nothing that we could do to charge folks more, right? And then the rest of the payers, the rest of that mix is insurance carriers, which those are contracts that are set as well. So we can’t pass on our any increases to anyone regardless of what that increases, whether it’s paper, whether it’s the shipping costs, it doesn’t matter.”

“I continuously try to remind myself that everybody doesn’t get motivated the same way, that everybody doesn’t have that ‘grab yourself by the bootstraps’ mentality and that, And quite frankly, every situation doesn’t require grab yourself by the bootstraps, right? Sometimes, sometimes you do have to be a little bit more empathetic and a little bit more understanding of folks. And so I try really hard.”

“And we’re also, to us, not only is diversity important to us, sustainability is also very important to us. So if we could reduce the amount of trucks that we get into the city every single day, that’s very helpful, not only to us, but to the community at large. So being able to just analyze that data for us is extremely important.”

Get in touch with Carlos Maceda:  

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Website

Get in touch with your host, John Pavia: 

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