May 7, 2025 • 34 mins
Welcome to the Beyond Fulfillment Podcast! In this episode, we have special guest Jim Tompkins cut through the noise to explore the impact of the trade war, Trump's presidency, and global supply chain disruptions, offering actionable advice for today’s business leaders.
Learn how to leverage cost reduction, optionality, and supply chain resilience to future-proof your business. Jim Tompkins delivers powerful knowledge on tariffs, trade negotiations, and navigating unreliable data from international partners like China. Get the scoop on innovative approaches like nearshoring, reshoring, variable labor models, and optimizing logistics to maintain your competitive edge.
Timestamps:
01:00 – Trump’s Trade Policy & Entrepreneur Mindset
09:00 – Debunking Myths: Tariffs, Experts, and Supply Chain
17:25 – Data Transparency Issues in China
22:52 – Managing Uncertainty as an Entrepreneur
29:35 – Actionable Strategies: Cost-Cutting & Optionality
32:44 – How Tompkins Ventures Can Help
If you found value in this episode, don’t forget to subscribe for more entrepreneurship tips and real-world business strategy from industry leaders.
#Entrepreneurship #SmallBusiness #Startups #SupplyChain #BusinessStrategy #TradeWar #Leadership #Optionality #CostReduction #BeyondFulfillment
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Foreign.
Hello, everyone.
Dave Gulas, Beyond Fulfillmentpodcast back with another special
edition about supply chainwith my good friend Jim Tompkins.
Welcome, Jim.
Hi, Dave.
Good to see you again.
Good to see you.
How's everything?
Awesome.
Just crazy, crazy awesome.
(00:23):
Yes, yes.
Very busy for all of us insupply chain these days, so let's
get right into it.
So, Jim, I know we want tofocus our attention on the impacts
of the trade war on the supplychain specifically, but I know also
you are a student of the Trump presidency.
So I think our listeners wouldreally be interested, and not from
(00:45):
a political point of view, butfrom a point of view from a supply
chain expert like yourself anda businessman.
Now that Trump has completedhis first 100 days, how are things
going?
Well, it's a great question, Dave.
And you know, there's like yousay there's the businessman of me
and then the supply chain ofme, and sometimes those two guys
(01:08):
get in a fight with each other.
And so it's kind of, kind of interesting.
But what Trump has done is hecame out of the gate.
I mean, like, you know, ifyou're watching the Kentucky Derby,
you'd say, oh, that horse cameout too fast.
He's not going to be able tokeep the pace.
But he just came out of thegate roaring.
(01:31):
And he, he, I believe, setvery clear first hundred days, second
hundred days, third hundreddays, and 400 days before the fourth
100 days and the first hundred days.
I think his objective was tokind of set the tone for 47 for his
(01:51):
47th presidency of the United States.
And he demonstrated his pacein the month.
He did 143 executive orders.
I mean, that's unbelievable.
That's 1.4 executive ordersper day.
No one has done anything closeto that.
(02:14):
And the subjects he picked outfor, for the first hundred days is,
number one, immigration.
This was a major campaignpromise and he focused on it like
a laser.
He had some difficulties withthe judicial branch, but removing
illegals and securing the borders.
(02:35):
And after 100 days, ourborders are secure.
And that's something thatpeople said could not be done.
So first hundred days,securing the borders, big deal.
Second thing, a big deal.
He wanted to make his pointabout reducing federal government
employees.
And so the Dodge thing withElon Musk was a interesting way to
(02:57):
do that.
Some could say it's bad, somecan say it's good.
I'm not going to take anopinion on that.
But it set the pace for makingthat happen.
And then the third thing hedid is corporate investments.
I mean, I Think he got, youknow, it was 500 million one day
and 600 million the next dayand a billion the next day of corporate
investments.
(03:18):
So those three things reallykind of set the tone for what he's
going to accomplish.
And what it is, is it'sbreakneck speed, it's impossible
speed of what he's trying to accomplish.
And he really, withimmigration, reducing the workforce
and corporate investments, Ithink had a great 100 days for him,
(03:40):
against them.
Like him, dislike him, itdoesn't matter.
A great 100 days as far assetting the tone for what his presidency
and the 47th president isgoing to be.
So great job.
47.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean no matter what youropinion, you cannot deny results.
Being productive is certainlya man of action and lots and lots
(04:01):
of results throughout thefirst hundred days.
Okay.
And you know, as a follow up.
So what do you see going forward?
Well, yeah, so he had thisplan, I mean he, he has, he's worked
full time for the last fouryears in getting this plan together.
(04:22):
So he had a plan for thesecond 100 days which in my view
it's, it's the first movementtowards the balance, a balance of
trade surplus and he reallywants to have a balance of trade
surplus.
And so we saw three bigefforts, all of them focused in on
(04:44):
this trade surplus.
The first, of course, and thebig one is the tariff deals.
And the tariff deals, theyclaim there's 200 countries what
they're working on.
I think probably there's 50 orso that are really important and
(05:05):
those 50 are really beingworked on.
Well the, the most importantof course is China and that one we
got news late last night thatthere will be meetings in Switzerland
on Saturday and Sunday withthe top people in the US Government
and not the presidents, butwe'll have the Secretary of Treasury
(05:26):
and they'll have theequivalent from China there.
And they're going to meet allday Saturday and all day Sunday.
So it's not a trivial meeting.
They're going to get down towhat's going on and I think that's
exciting.
We're going to find some peace deals.
Finally we got some Houters, apeace deal yesterday.
Certainly Gaza and Ukraine arestill hot spots.
(05:50):
We added to that the issue ofthe India and Pakistan.
We got the Iran problem.
So there's some realinteresting peace deals that he's
working on.
And then he began to take abite out of inflation and we do,
you know, eggs and gasolineare both down and that's something
(06:10):
he promised on the trail.
So I think he made asignificant impact in the second
hundred days.
His third hundred days is tobegin to get the economy into what
he calls the golden age and toget it moved there.
Certainly we're not in thegolden age today, a stock market.
Although we did have nine gooddays in a row, we've now had two
(06:33):
bad days in a row, and it'scertainly a lot of volatility.
But by the third 100 days, Ithink he's going to get greater control
over certainty.
There's going to be lessuncertainty out there, and the market
is going to look much morestable, much more normal.
He's going to have the taxcuts in place by then, and I think
(06:55):
he's going to have some reallyinteresting foreign policy deals
that wrap together some of hisviews on the world order as well
as trade.
So that's the third hundred,and then the fourth hundred days
is where he's going to reallystart working on, although he has
already started, but it'sgoing to really start focusing on
(07:17):
how do we balance the budget.
And he's going to start makingsome major steps to getting that
done.
The federal spending cuts aregoing to be in place.
I believe you'll havesomething like 150 trade deals, which
will result in revenue andfair trade.
And then I think what we'regoing to have is a clear definition
(07:39):
of, of three branches of government.
I believe our Constitution is clear.
Judicial is separate fromlegislature, legislature is separate
from executive, and thosethree branches need to be separate.
And by golly, the guys thatwrote the Constitution, I don't know
how they had the vision to seewhere they are, but our Constitution
(08:00):
is still the best Constitutionin the world.
So I think he's going toreally highlight us doing what the
Constitution says and not allthis other stuff that starts, you
know, legislators taking overexecutive and judicials trying to
take over executive andexecutive trying to take over legislation,
and it's all messed up now.
It's not following the rule.
You and I took a civics or ahistory course once upon a time,
(08:22):
and we learned how that stuff worked.
Well, that's not how it works now.
Trump's going to get his back there.
So I believe the first 400days are going to be unbelievable.
We, we know he's not going toserve a third term, although people
talk about it's not going to happen.
And so he's really going tomake these first 400 days work.
That's going to get us intothe midterms elections, which is
(08:43):
then going to give him A roadto travel on for the second half
of his term.
So I think it's extremely wellthought out plan.
No president has ever had aplan like this before because they
didn't have the understandingthe Runway and win an election, lose
one, and then win one.
And so it really positionedthem in a really very cool way.
(09:04):
So I, I'm excited about, froma business point of view, from a
supply chain point of view,where we're heading.
Okay.
All right.
And I know from our previousdiscussions that, you know, ever
since these tariffs reallycame out and started being levied,
there's been all sorts of socalled experts could coming out,
(09:26):
you know, with opinions on thewhole thing.
And, and your opinion is manyof these people are not experts at
all.
Can you give us some examplesof that?
Oh, yeah.
You know, the, just the waythe press and this is, you know,
I'm not talking conservativeversus liberal or whatever, but the,
(09:48):
the press in general, the waythey just use the terminology about
Trump's redirecting the tariff negotiations.
And some quotes I have,haphazard rollout, Trump reversals,
(10:09):
Trump about faces, totallyinconsistent deployment.
The people that said thosethings, they don't really understand
how to negotiate.
I don't think.
I mean, you take a positionand you give and you take and you
give and you take and that'show you reach results.
But I think the one thatillustrates what you asked the best
(10:33):
is about tariffs specifically.
So one claim that executivesthat quote, experts make is that
tariffs always hurt consumers.
And I would suggest you thatwhile tariffs can result in raising
prices, they may also protectdomestic industries.
(10:55):
And when you protect domesticindustries, it leads to job creation
and that leads to wage growth,which results in the ability to offset
the higher costs.
And so I believe the expertthat says tariffs always harm consumers,
I don't think they're thinkingabout it in a holistic way.
(11:15):
Yes, that bottle of wine youjust bought might cost more than
it did before, but there'sother offsets that's going to help
you pay for that bottle ofwine that are much more significant
than the extra cost for the wine.
Another expert, and this isone quote said that tariffs destroy
(11:37):
trade relationships.
And my view on that is, yes,tariffs constrain trade relationships,
but tariffs are also used asleverage and negotiations that lead
to improving trade agreements.
If you look at those tradeagreements going on all over the
world, yesterday the UK andIndia signed a trade deal.
(11:59):
There's all sorts of tradeagreements going on in Southeast
Asia because of people saying,gee, China's not going to Be what
it used to be.
We need other agreements.
And so I think tariffs canresult in improved trade relations.
I think another example, and Ihad several, and I just boiled it
down to five, but number threesaid tariffs always cause retaliation.
(12:27):
That's what the experts said.
And I think my view on thatis, while trade are creating a risk
that might result inretaliation, there's a lot of other
countries now accepting them.
And they're saying, yes, we dothink we have a problem with this
and this and we're going toopen our borders and we do see that
(12:49):
we've had a major surplus overyou for many years, and that's not
the right way to run this.
So we will accept the 10%tariff and then the, you know, the
Department of the ExternalRevenue Service, not the Internal
Revenue Service, but theExternal Revenue Service is going
to be collecting those money.
So tariffs might, in fact,result in a stronger relationship
(13:10):
between countries, not aweaker one.
If you look at it, Trump ishaving about one president or, you
know, the leader of state,about one a day he has coming through
the White House now.
And so that's a pretty rapid pace.
Five a week.
Another expert said tariffskill economic growth.
(13:34):
And I say, well, in some casesit might, but in other cases, tariffs
will actually encouragedomestic production, using innovation
and job creation to driveeconomic growth.
And so it might be theopposite of killing economic growth.
It might be driving economic growth.
(13:56):
And then the last one, the onethat gives me the most concern, is
that tariffs are always inflationary.
That's actually been said bymany people that tariffs are an inflationary
thing.
Well, if you look at thespecific tariff, yes.
If you have a tariff that'sgoing to increase cost to the consumer,
(14:17):
okay, so that's inflationary.
However, what if at the sametime you reduce taxes, at the same
time you reduce regulations?
And what you'll find is thatthe tariffs will have a capability
of reducing inflation.
And so it's the opposite ofwhat was said.
And so these things bothers me.
(14:38):
Now, there's another level ofexpert that just drives me crazy.
Here's an article from theWall Street Journal.
I know a lot of you don'tbelieve that newspapers still exist,
but some people still read newspapers.
Here's a guy, he kind of lookslike a wild scientist to me, and
he's got the blackboard behindhim with all sorts of writing on
it, but the article is entire.
(15:00):
A dire alert on tariffs from aCEO who knows.
A dire alert on tariffs from aCEO who knows.
And the CEO who knows.
The gentleman in the pictureis a gentleman named Ryan Peterson.
He's the founder and CEO of acompany called Flexport, which is
(15:23):
the 3PL.
I know the company.
And here's a quote from the article.
Mr.
Peterson will explain toanyone who will listen.
While hefty US Tariffs onChina imports could be catastrophic
for the American small business.
(15:45):
Well, number one, he's sayingtariffs are harder on small businesses,
on big business.
And the expert that comes tothat thinking is saying that because
big business can absorb costbetter than big business.
I mean, big business canabsorb cost better than small business.
That's not true.
It depends where they are andwhat their profits are.
And so it's not about bigversus small.
(16:07):
But secondly, will be, couldbe catastrophic for American small
business.
And then he goes on, and thiswas about five minutes later in the
interview, he said, if they donot change the tariffs, it's going
to be an extension, extension extinction.
(16:28):
Like going out of, like dyingextinction, you'll be extinct level
of asteroid wiping out thedinosaurs kind of event.
Come on.
I mean, it's, we're not goingto be, you know, blowing up the,
the world.
It's not a nuclear war.
That's not what tariffs are about.
(16:49):
But if we do not change thetariff, it's going to be an extinction
level asteroid wiping out thedinosaur kind of event that, that
you should be put in jail formaking statements like that.
That that's not someone with aknowledge base of what's happening.
But here it says a dire alerton tariffs from a CEO who knows.
(17:11):
And I think, oh, come on, WallStreet Journal, you got to do better
than publishing those type ofpeople because that's simply not
true.
Simply not true.
Okay.
And kind of related to thattopic is the information and the
statistics that are coming outof China.
I mean, talk to us about that.
Yeah, you told me you weregoing to ask that.
(17:35):
So I went back and pulled an article.
Because the way you asked thequestion, it's interesting.
The statistics that are comingout of China, the title, this article,
I don't know if we could seeit online, but the title, the articles
is China's Official Statisticsare Disappearing.
(17:56):
Okay?
And this article ran on Tuesday.
And what they're saying isthat the data is no longer available.
The statistics, the thingsthat we're used to seeing, the statistics
we're used to seeing aren't there.
(18:17):
We don't see unemployment numbers.
We don't see foreign investment.
We don't see the businessconfidence, the equivalent of University
of Michigan data.
We don't see soy sauceProduction, I mean, they don't exist.
(18:38):
And there's no explanationfrom the government why we're not
seeing these or why they'renot being published.
They disappear.
And so we're lacking information.
How bad is the real estate issue?
How bad is the debt issue?
There's no statistics on that.
And then when they do publishnumbers, for example, they say last
(19:00):
year their GDP grew by 5%.
There's been four differentpanels that have looked at what their
GDP growth was last year.
If looking at it from allsorts of different scientific angles
and the actual number issomeplace between 2 and 3%, well,
the difference between 2 and 3and 5 is huge for an economy the
(19:21):
size of China.
That's not a rounding there.
That's not a mistake.
They're cooking the books.
There's no question they'recooking the books.
And so if they do publish thenumbers, you can't trust them.
But most of the time thesedays, they're not publishing them.
So there's a real issue withdata transparency.
There's simply not giving usthe economic data that they have
(19:44):
for years and years and years.
Their economic indicators arenot consistent.
There's experts on China thatshow that if this number goes up,
this number goes up, it always has.
But now they're showing thisnumber goes up and this number goes
down.
And they're saying that's notwhat's happened for the last 20 years.
(20:05):
What is the drop in the changeof logic of the numbers?
External observations aregiving us great concerns.
There's all sorts ofindependent organizations that are
suggesting that there's a hugeslowdown in investment, there's a
huge slowdown in manufacturing.
(20:28):
There's this real major issuewith respect to debt.
There's all these brand newbuildings that have never been lived
in that are crumbling and thatwhat we're seeing is a decline in
foreign business expansionwithin China.
And so what we're hearing fromthe Chinese as well, we're not going
(20:49):
to meet with the Americansuntil they meet our conditions.
You know, we're going to betough about it.
Well, guess what?
They're coming to the table.
None of the absolutes thatthey want have been met.
And the reason is, although,yes, there is, the Chinese, they
have a thing they talk aboutthat's called sour wine.
Chinese people can drink sourwine longer than we can.
(21:11):
In other words, Americansdon't have the fortitude to drink
the sour wine.
We just will go without the wine.
The Chinese will drink thesour wine.
So the Chinese governmentsays, the Communist Party says that
they can endure more pain inChina than we can in America.
Guess what?
I agree with them.
I think they can becausethey're used to poverty.
(21:32):
They're used to that type environment.
They're used to living in cold houses.
They're used to using charcoalfor grilling inside the house.
And so, so they can endure.
We're kind of spoiled, we'rekind of soft.
And guess what?
They're closer to collapsethan we are.
And as in they, they exportmore to us than we do to them and
therefore they need us.
(21:53):
And so I'm glad they got overtheir eagle thing and have decided
to get to the table becausethem hiding the statistics.
I mean there's some statisticsthat show 73% of the boys under 23
are unemployed from, from 16to 23.
16 to 23.
That work group, there's 73% unemployed.
(22:15):
Holy cow.
That's going to cause allsorts of problems.
And so it's, it's really ashame that they have decided to just
hide their problems and notshare them openly and let us all
work together and establish amuch more fairer trade system and
get on with it.
(22:35):
But you know, the, thenegotiation starts Saturday, so thank
goodness for that.
Okay.
And present day companies aredealing with all sorts of uncertainty
related to this trade war.
So how would you recommendcompanies deal with the uncertainty
that's out there right now?
(22:56):
Well, the first, I mean I'm in.
The only thing is certain is uncertainty.
And anybody who's not confusedby uncertainty must have been in
a Cave for 40 years taking along nap because I mean we, we don't
know what's going on.
I mean, we have no idea whatthe next catastrophe is going to
(23:19):
be.
What, what's going to occur next.
So there is a huge amount ofuncertainty sitting there.
Worrying about uncertaintyisn't going to help anything.
What we, we need to do things.
And I think there's two thingswe need to do.
The first thing we should dois we should cut cost.
Well, I mean if, you know, wedon't know what's going to happen,
(23:44):
batten down the hatches.
Okay.
And so, you know, in someone'shome, if they're saying, gee whiz,
you know, the economy is suchthat maybe mom and dad will lose
their jobs.
Well, guess what?
Don't go out and buy thatthousand dollar television.
Don't go out and buy the new sofa.
Delay the expenditures.
I mean, cut cost.
(24:05):
And I think we can do that.
There's what I call supplychain at, and I talk about supply
chain At a lot at says supplychain after tariff.
And so where are we going tosource from?
Where is.
Are we going to near source?
Are we going to friendly source?
Are we going to reshore?
(24:25):
We're going to bring it back.
All those are interesting probabilities.
And what we need to do is lookat the total cost of getting the
product delivered to the customer.
And so a portion of that costis tariffs.
Now the thing that these oneguy is talking about with it's going
to be a dinosaur extinctionevent, be like an asteroid type of
(24:49):
thing.
The tariffs that are beingpushed around it, those are negotiation.
No one's going to pay 145% tariff.
You're going to move to adifferent place where you can make
the product cheaper.
I mean, goodness sakes, ifthere's a company out there that
has enough margin, they cancharge 145% tariff and still make
it.
(25:10):
Dave, you and I are going togo start a new job, a new company.
We're going to buy a factoryand go build that stuff.
Because you and I might not bereally good manufacturing people,
but come within 145% of theother guy.
We can do that.
We can make that happen.
So we need to look at thesupply chain after tariff and we
(25:30):
don't have certainty there.
So let's look at it.
Okay, if this happens, we do this.
If this happens, then we do this.
If this happens, we do this.
We need to look at ourlogistics costs, huge costs.
We got transportation costs.
We've negotiated contracts ontransportation that is totally different
now.
You know, the number ofcancellations of ships coming out
of China is huge.
(25:51):
They're going from a largevessel to a small vessel.
But we got this contract price.
Well, guess what, the spotprice now is lower than the contract
price.
So we want to throw ourcontract away and buy it on spot
because it's oftentimes cheaper.
We also want to look atconsolidating shipments.
We want to negotiate with thefreight rates because, boy, they
want the freight.
(26:11):
People want the freight.
They don't like going from a18,000 container ship to a 14,000
container ship.
That's 4,000 containers.
That's where the profit is.
And so we want to go with thebigger ships.
And so they want our look.
We want to look at differentmodes of transportation, other ways
(26:34):
where we can do it, where wemaybe travel different paths or we
go different directions.
We want to cut costs of laborby automating.
We want to use our innovation,we want to use our ingenuity.
And so we want to bring thecost of production down, want to
do good job on inventory management.
We want to look atrenegotiating our vendor contracts.
(26:57):
In fact, sometimes we don'tnecessarily go to a new supplier,
but we go to a new locationfor that same supplier.
Maybe that, that supplier ofours that we've been working with
in China, maybe they do a goodjob also out of Indonesia, or maybe
they have a factory in Vietnam.
Let's switch from one locationto another location to get around
those tariffs.
Let's not pay those tariffs.
(27:18):
Let's figure out a way to makeit happen.
And then the last way, or notthe last way, but the last way I
listed here that we can cutcost is by enhancing productivity,
by looking at how we can useour labor better.
Think about how we can takelabor and take it from a fixed cost
and make it a variable cost.
(27:39):
And so there's a company wework with called Tasks for Pros.
And what they're doing islabor on demand.
And so if you need 50 workerson Monday and 60 on Tuesday and 70
on Wednesday, Wednesday and 70on Thursday and 100 on Friday, how
many people are going to hire?
Well, you say, I can't hire100, but maybe I.
(28:03):
I gotta have 70.
So I'm gonna hire 70 and workovertime on Friday.
Why don't you just hire 50,hire 50, and then call this company
Task for Pro?
And they will send you theextra 10 people you need on Wednesday
and they'll send you another10 people on, on Thursday and, and
on Friday they'll send youanother 40 people.
And these people are trainedand able to do your job, but you're
(28:26):
only paying them as a variablecost as opposed to a fixed cost.
And so on Monday and Tuesday,your costs are going to be the same
as they are now.
Wednesday they're going to beless than they are now because you
not have to hire that 80 people.
And Thursday and Friday goingto come out better as well.
So there's those ways oflooking at your productivity and
(28:47):
your labor and to make thatreally good.
So that's, you know, a tool ofreducing cost that is really critical
in these difficult times.
And I think if we're doingthat aggressively, with some innovation
and some ingenuity, we canactually improve the productivity.
If the uncertainty goes away,we're going to even be more profitable,
(29:10):
but why not get profitable atthe level we're at?
And then the second topic Iwould mention is optionality.
And optionality is being ableto deal with uncertainty in a planned
methodical.
Way.
So if this happens, I want todo this.
If this happens, I'm going todo this.
And so I have options topursue which allow me to be successful
(29:34):
independent of which one ofthose options actually takes place.
Knew you'd mention yourfavorite word.
Optionality.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
And are companies getting this?
Well, you know, yes, yes.
There's a lot of companiesthat are not trying to tell the public
(29:59):
what we're doing.
So there's a lot of companiesthat are saying we're going to hold
back our guidance.
Okay.
And so they've always given,you know, end of year guidance and
the quarter guidance.
They're holding back theguidance because they don't want
to be wrong.
But internally they arelooking at cost reduction, they're
looking at delayinginvestments, they're looking at delaying
(30:21):
hiring people and looking atusing variable people as opposed
to fixed cost people.
And so that's very smart.
We do see people rigorously.
Now it's starting because it'sclear US and India is coming along.
It's clear the UK and Indiacame along.
(30:43):
We're starting the China negotiation.
We've got another 50 dealsthat we have going.
We've developed the tradeprofile, what a trade deal is going
to look like.
And now everyone sees that andthey know what they need to do to
fall in line.
So these trade deals are goingto get started making on a very regular
basis.
(31:03):
And as those trade deals aremade, people need to be able to say,
okay, so this has taken placeand this has taken place and this
turn the page and say, okay,so this is what I want to do now.
And I'm going to use thisshipping line and I'm going to ship
it.
It's not going to go throughthe Suez Canal.
It's going to go, it's togoing, going to go from China, it's
(31:25):
going to go east and it'sgoing to show up in la or this is
not going to be produced in Asia.
This is going to get producedfrom Brazil.
And we bring it up, I'm goingto store it in Dominican Republic
and ship it in on demand inthe United States, et cetera, et
cetera.
So we're going to have theoptions defined and people are starting
to get it.
I wish they would be a littlemore aggressive because they're starting
(31:49):
to get it, but they aren'tdoing as robust a plan as I think
they should.
So they're starting to get itis the right phraseology.
They don't totally get it yet,but this uncertainty thing at this
level is unheard of.
And so it's kind of new groundthat we're treading on.
And so people are kind oftreading methodically and not rushing
(32:12):
in, which is probably a good thing.
But I think specifically oncost cutting and specifically on
developing optionality, it'sthe right time to do it because we're
going to have this thingstraightened out in the next hundred
days and the competition isgoing to be ready.
We need to be ready too.
Okay.
And if companies are hearingthis and they don't have a solid
(32:35):
optionality plan in place orthey're looking for guidance or strategies
or the tools to really helpthem navigate these uncertain times,
let them know about TompkinsVentures and how they can reach out.
Well, Tompkins Ventures, we,we invented the word re globalization
and we invented the word optionality.
(32:57):
We really believe that theworld is re globalizing.
And that's not re as in re return.
It is in reinvention and we'recreating new supply chains.
And so that's what we havebuilt our foundation on at Tompkins
Ventures.
(33:17):
We love working withprocurement, with transportation,
with third party logistics,with manufacturing, with outsourced
manufacturing, looking atdifferent countries to do sourcing.
And we've got a team ofexperts literally around the world.
We're in 59 countries andwe're ready to help with experts
(33:39):
to get your re globalizationwork to be successful.
So the the website is tompkinsventures.
T o M P K I N S Ventures.
V E N T u r e s.com and I'mJim Tompkins.
J Tompkins.
T o M P K I n s@tompkinsventures.com.
(34:02):
write me a note and be happyto work with you and see how we can
make some really difference inthis opportune time.
This is not a bad time.
This is an opportunity timeand time to make something happen.
Amen.
Okay, well Jim, thanks so muchas always.
We'll link all that in the show.
Notes for everyone.
Till next time.
(34:22):
Have a fantastic day.
Thanks, Dave.
Foreign.
Hello, everyone.
Dave Gulas, Beyond Fulfillmentpodcast back with another special
edition about supply chainwith my good friend Jim Tompkins.
Welcome, Jim.
Hi, Dave.
Good to see you again.
Good to see you.
How's everything?
Awesome.
Just crazy, crazy awesome.
(00:23):
Yes, yes.
Very busy for all of us insupply chain these days, so let's
get right into it.
So, Jim, I know we want tofocus our attention on the impacts
of the trade war on the supplychain specifically, but I know also
you are a student of the Trump presidency.
So I think our listeners wouldreally be interested, and not from
(00:45):
a political point of view, butfrom a point of view from a supply
chain expert like yourself anda businessman.
Now that Trump has completedhis first 100 days, how are things
going?
Well, it's a great question, Dave.
And you know, there's like yousay there's the businessman of me
and then the supply chain ofme, and sometimes those two guys
(01:08):
get in a fight with each other.
And so it's kind of, kind of interesting.
But what Trump has done is hecame out of the gate.
I mean, like, you know, ifyou're watching the Kentucky Derby,
you'd say, oh, that horse cameout too fast.
He's not going to be able tokeep the pace.
But he just came out of thegate roaring.
(01:31):
And he, he, I believe, setvery clear first hundred days, second
hundred days, third hundreddays, and 400 days before the fourth
100 days and the first hundred days.
I think his objective was tokind of set the tone for 47 for his
(01:51):
47th presidency of the United States.
And he demonstrated his pacein the month.
He did 143 executive orders.
I mean, that's unbelievable.
That's 1.4 executive ordersper day.
No one has done anything closeto that.
(02:14):
And the subjects he picked outfor, for the first hundred days is,
number one, immigration.
This was a major campaignpromise and he focused on it like
a laser.
He had some difficulties withthe judicial branch, but removing
illegals and securing the borders.
(02:35):
And after 100 days, ourborders are secure.
And that's something thatpeople said could not be done.
So first hundred days,securing the borders, big deal.
Second thing, a big deal.
He wanted to make his pointabout reducing federal government
employees.
And so the Dodge thing withElon Musk was a interesting way to
(02:57):
do that.
Some could say it's bad, somecan say it's good.
I'm not going to take anopinion on that.
But it set the pace for makingthat happen.
And then the third thing hedid is corporate investments.
I mean, I Think he got, youknow, it was 500 million one day
and 600 million the next dayand a billion the next day of corporate
investments.
(03:18):
So those three things reallykind of set the tone for what he's
going to accomplish.
And what it is, is it'sbreakneck speed, it's impossible
speed of what he's trying to accomplish.
And he really, withimmigration, reducing the workforce
and corporate investments, Ithink had a great 100 days for him,
(03:40):
against them.
Like him, dislike him, itdoesn't matter.
A great 100 days as far assetting the tone for what his presidency
and the 47th president isgoing to be.
So great job.
47.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean no matter what youropinion, you cannot deny results.
Being productive is certainlya man of action and lots and lots
(04:01):
of results throughout thefirst hundred days.
Okay.
And you know, as a follow up.
So what do you see going forward?
Well, yeah, so he had thisplan, I mean he, he has, he's worked
full time for the last fouryears in getting this plan together.
(04:22):
So he had a plan for thesecond 100 days which in my view
it's, it's the first movementtowards the balance, a balance of
trade surplus and he reallywants to have a balance of trade
surplus.
And so we saw three bigefforts, all of them focused in on
(04:44):
this trade surplus.
The first, of course, and thebig one is the tariff deals.
And the tariff deals, theyclaim there's 200 countries what
they're working on.
I think probably there's 50 orso that are really important and
(05:05):
those 50 are really beingworked on.
Well the, the most importantof course is China and that one we
got news late last night thatthere will be meetings in Switzerland
on Saturday and Sunday withthe top people in the US Government
and not the presidents, butwe'll have the Secretary of Treasury
(05:26):
and they'll have theequivalent from China there.
And they're going to meet allday Saturday and all day Sunday.
So it's not a trivial meeting.
They're going to get down towhat's going on and I think that's
exciting.
We're going to find some peace deals.
Finally we got some Houters, apeace deal yesterday.
Certainly Gaza and Ukraine arestill hot spots.
(05:50):
We added to that the issue ofthe India and Pakistan.
We got the Iran problem.
So there's some realinteresting peace deals that he's
working on.
And then he began to take abite out of inflation and we do,
you know, eggs and gasolineare both down and that's something
(06:10):
he promised on the trail.
So I think he made asignificant impact in the second
hundred days.
His third hundred days is tobegin to get the economy into what
he calls the golden age and toget it moved there.
Certainly we're not in thegolden age today, a stock market.
Although we did have nine gooddays in a row, we've now had two
(06:33):
bad days in a row, and it'scertainly a lot of volatility.
But by the third 100 days, Ithink he's going to get greater control
over certainty.
There's going to be lessuncertainty out there, and the market
is going to look much morestable, much more normal.
He's going to have the taxcuts in place by then, and I think
(06:55):
he's going to have some reallyinteresting foreign policy deals
that wrap together some of hisviews on the world order as well
as trade.
So that's the third hundred,and then the fourth hundred days
is where he's going to reallystart working on, although he has
already started, but it'sgoing to really start focusing on
(07:17):
how do we balance the budget.
And he's going to start makingsome major steps to getting that
done.
The federal spending cuts aregoing to be in place.
I believe you'll havesomething like 150 trade deals, which
will result in revenue andfair trade.
And then I think what we'regoing to have is a clear definition
(07:39):
of, of three branches of government.
I believe our Constitution is clear.
Judicial is separate fromlegislature, legislature is separate
from executive, and thosethree branches need to be separate.
And by golly, the guys thatwrote the Constitution, I don't know
how they had the vision to seewhere they are, but our Constitution
(08:00):
is still the best Constitutionin the world.
So I think he's going toreally highlight us doing what the
Constitution says and not allthis other stuff that starts, you
know, legislators taking overexecutive and judicials trying to
take over executive andexecutive trying to take over legislation,
and it's all messed up now.
It's not following the rule.
You and I took a civics or ahistory course once upon a time,
(08:22):
and we learned how that stuff worked.
Well, that's not how it works now.
Trump's going to get his back there.
So I believe the first 400days are going to be unbelievable.
We, we know he's not going toserve a third term, although people
talk about it's not going to happen.
And so he's really going tomake these first 400 days work.
That's going to get us intothe midterms elections, which is
(08:43):
then going to give him A roadto travel on for the second half
of his term.
So I think it's extremely wellthought out plan.
No president has ever had aplan like this before because they
didn't have the understandingthe Runway and win an election, lose
one, and then win one.
And so it really positionedthem in a really very cool way.
(09:04):
So I, I'm excited about, froma business point of view, from a
supply chain point of view,where we're heading.
Okay.
All right.
And I know from our previousdiscussions that, you know, ever
since these tariffs reallycame out and started being levied,
there's been all sorts of socalled experts could coming out,
(09:26):
you know, with opinions on thewhole thing.
And, and your opinion is manyof these people are not experts at
all.
Can you give us some examplesof that?
Oh, yeah.
You know, the, just the waythe press and this is, you know,
I'm not talking conservativeversus liberal or whatever, but the,
(09:48):
the press in general, the waythey just use the terminology about
Trump's redirecting the tariff negotiations.
And some quotes I have,haphazard rollout, Trump reversals,
(10:09):
Trump about faces, totallyinconsistent deployment.
The people that said thosethings, they don't really understand
how to negotiate.
I don't think.
I mean, you take a positionand you give and you take and you
give and you take and that'show you reach results.
But I think the one thatillustrates what you asked the best
(10:33):
is about tariffs specifically.
So one claim that executivesthat quote, experts make is that
tariffs always hurt consumers.
And I would suggest you thatwhile tariffs can result in raising
prices, they may also protectdomestic industries.
(10:55):
And when you protect domesticindustries, it leads to job creation
and that leads to wage growth,which results in the ability to offset
the higher costs.
And so I believe the expertthat says tariffs always harm consumers,
I don't think they're thinkingabout it in a holistic way.
(11:15):
Yes, that bottle of wine youjust bought might cost more than
it did before, but there'sother offsets that's going to help
you pay for that bottle ofwine that are much more significant
than the extra cost for the wine.
Another expert, and this isone quote said that tariffs destroy
(11:37):
trade relationships.
And my view on that is, yes,tariffs constrain trade relationships,
but tariffs are also used asleverage and negotiations that lead
to improving trade agreements.
If you look at those tradeagreements going on all over the
world, yesterday the UK andIndia signed a trade deal.
(11:59):
There's all sorts of tradeagreements going on in Southeast
Asia because of people saying,gee, China's not going to Be what
it used to be.
We need other agreements.
And so I think tariffs canresult in improved trade relations.
I think another example, and Ihad several, and I just boiled it
down to five, but number threesaid tariffs always cause retaliation.
(12:27):
That's what the experts said.
And I think my view on thatis, while trade are creating a risk
that might result inretaliation, there's a lot of other
countries now accepting them.
And they're saying, yes, we dothink we have a problem with this
and this and we're going toopen our borders and we do see that
(12:49):
we've had a major surplus overyou for many years, and that's not
the right way to run this.
So we will accept the 10%tariff and then the, you know, the
Department of the ExternalRevenue Service, not the Internal
Revenue Service, but theExternal Revenue Service is going
to be collecting those money.
So tariffs might, in fact,result in a stronger relationship
(13:10):
between countries, not aweaker one.
If you look at it, Trump ishaving about one president or, you
know, the leader of state,about one a day he has coming through
the White House now.
And so that's a pretty rapid pace.
Five a week.
Another expert said tariffskill economic growth.
(13:34):
And I say, well, in some casesit might, but in other cases, tariffs
will actually encouragedomestic production, using innovation
and job creation to driveeconomic growth.
And so it might be theopposite of killing economic growth.
It might be driving economic growth.
(13:56):
And then the last one, the onethat gives me the most concern, is
that tariffs are always inflationary.
That's actually been said bymany people that tariffs are an inflationary
thing.
Well, if you look at thespecific tariff, yes.
If you have a tariff that'sgoing to increase cost to the consumer,
(14:17):
okay, so that's inflationary.
However, what if at the sametime you reduce taxes, at the same
time you reduce regulations?
And what you'll find is thatthe tariffs will have a capability
of reducing inflation.
And so it's the opposite ofwhat was said.
And so these things bothers me.
(14:38):
Now, there's another level ofexpert that just drives me crazy.
Here's an article from theWall Street Journal.
I know a lot of you don'tbelieve that newspapers still exist,
but some people still read newspapers.
Here's a guy, he kind of lookslike a wild scientist to me, and
he's got the blackboard behindhim with all sorts of writing on
it, but the article is entire.
(15:00):
A dire alert on tariffs from aCEO who knows.
A dire alert on tariffs from aCEO who knows.
And the CEO who knows.
The gentleman in the pictureis a gentleman named Ryan Peterson.
He's the founder and CEO of acompany called Flexport, which is
(15:23):
the 3PL.
I know the company.
And here's a quote from the article.
Mr.
Peterson will explain toanyone who will listen.
While hefty US Tariffs onChina imports could be catastrophic
for the American small business.
(15:45):
Well, number one, he's sayingtariffs are harder on small businesses,
on big business.
And the expert that comes tothat thinking is saying that because
big business can absorb costbetter than big business.
I mean, big business canabsorb cost better than small business.
That's not true.
It depends where they are andwhat their profits are.
And so it's not about bigversus small.
(16:07):
But secondly, will be, couldbe catastrophic for American small
business.
And then he goes on, and thiswas about five minutes later in the
interview, he said, if they donot change the tariffs, it's going
to be an extension, extension extinction.
(16:28):
Like going out of, like dyingextinction, you'll be extinct level
of asteroid wiping out thedinosaurs kind of event.
Come on.
I mean, it's, we're not goingto be, you know, blowing up the,
the world.
It's not a nuclear war.
That's not what tariffs are about.
(16:49):
But if we do not change thetariff, it's going to be an extinction
level asteroid wiping out thedinosaur kind of event that, that
you should be put in jail formaking statements like that.
That that's not someone with aknowledge base of what's happening.
But here it says a dire alerton tariffs from a CEO who knows.
(17:11):
And I think, oh, come on, WallStreet Journal, you got to do better
than publishing those type ofpeople because that's simply not
true.
Simply not true.
Okay.
And kind of related to thattopic is the information and the
statistics that are coming outof China.
I mean, talk to us about that.
Yeah, you told me you weregoing to ask that.
(17:35):
So I went back and pulled an article.
Because the way you asked thequestion, it's interesting.
The statistics that are comingout of China, the title, this article,
I don't know if we could seeit online, but the title, the articles
is China's Official Statisticsare Disappearing.
(17:56):
Okay?
And this article ran on Tuesday.
And what they're saying isthat the data is no longer available.
The statistics, the thingsthat we're used to seeing, the statistics
we're used to seeing aren't there.
(18:17):
We don't see unemployment numbers.
We don't see foreign investment.
We don't see the businessconfidence, the equivalent of University
of Michigan data.
We don't see soy sauceProduction, I mean, they don't exist.
(18:38):
And there's no explanationfrom the government why we're not
seeing these or why they'renot being published.
They disappear.
And so we're lacking information.
How bad is the real estate issue?
How bad is the debt issue?
There's no statistics on that.
And then when they do publishnumbers, for example, they say last
(19:00):
year their GDP grew by 5%.
There's been four differentpanels that have looked at what their
GDP growth was last year.
If looking at it from allsorts of different scientific angles
and the actual number issomeplace between 2 and 3%, well,
the difference between 2 and 3and 5 is huge for an economy the
(19:21):
size of China.
That's not a rounding there.
That's not a mistake.
They're cooking the books.
There's no question they'recooking the books.
And so if they do publish thenumbers, you can't trust them.
But most of the time thesedays, they're not publishing them.
So there's a real issue withdata transparency.
There's simply not giving usthe economic data that they have
(19:44):
for years and years and years.
Their economic indicators arenot consistent.
There's experts on China thatshow that if this number goes up,
this number goes up, it always has.
But now they're showing thisnumber goes up and this number goes
down.
And they're saying that's notwhat's happened for the last 20 years.
(20:05):
What is the drop in the changeof logic of the numbers?
External observations aregiving us great concerns.
There's all sorts ofindependent organizations that are
suggesting that there's a hugeslowdown in investment, there's a
huge slowdown in manufacturing.
(20:28):
There's this real major issuewith respect to debt.
There's all these brand newbuildings that have never been lived
in that are crumbling and thatwhat we're seeing is a decline in
foreign business expansionwithin China.
And so what we're hearing fromthe Chinese as well, we're not going
(20:49):
to meet with the Americansuntil they meet our conditions.
You know, we're going to betough about it.
Well, guess what?
They're coming to the table.
None of the absolutes thatthey want have been met.
And the reason is, although,yes, there is, the Chinese, they
have a thing they talk aboutthat's called sour wine.
Chinese people can drink sourwine longer than we can.
(21:11):
In other words, Americansdon't have the fortitude to drink
the sour wine.
We just will go without the wine.
The Chinese will drink thesour wine.
So the Chinese governmentsays, the Communist Party says that
they can endure more pain inChina than we can in America.
Guess what?
I agree with them.
I think they can becausethey're used to poverty.
(21:32):
They're used to that type environment.
They're used to living in cold houses.
They're used to using charcoalfor grilling inside the house.
And so, so they can endure.
We're kind of spoiled, we'rekind of soft.
And guess what?
They're closer to collapsethan we are.
And as in they, they exportmore to us than we do to them and
therefore they need us.
(21:53):
And so I'm glad they got overtheir eagle thing and have decided
to get to the table becausethem hiding the statistics.
I mean there's some statisticsthat show 73% of the boys under 23
are unemployed from, from 16to 23.
16 to 23.
That work group, there's 73% unemployed.
(22:15):
Holy cow.
That's going to cause allsorts of problems.
And so it's, it's really ashame that they have decided to just
hide their problems and notshare them openly and let us all
work together and establish amuch more fairer trade system and
get on with it.
(22:35):
But you know, the, thenegotiation starts Saturday, so thank
goodness for that.
Okay.
And present day companies aredealing with all sorts of uncertainty
related to this trade war.
So how would you recommendcompanies deal with the uncertainty
that's out there right now?
(22:56):
Well, the first, I mean I'm in.
The only thing is certain is uncertainty.
And anybody who's not confusedby uncertainty must have been in
a Cave for 40 years taking along nap because I mean we, we don't
know what's going on.
I mean, we have no idea whatthe next catastrophe is going to
(23:19):
be.
What, what's going to occur next.
So there is a huge amount ofuncertainty sitting there.
Worrying about uncertaintyisn't going to help anything.
What we, we need to do things.
And I think there's two thingswe need to do.
The first thing we should dois we should cut cost.
Well, I mean if, you know, wedon't know what's going to happen,
(23:44):
batten down the hatches.
Okay.
And so, you know, in someone'shome, if they're saying, gee whiz,
you know, the economy is suchthat maybe mom and dad will lose
their jobs.
Well, guess what?
Don't go out and buy thatthousand dollar television.
Don't go out and buy the new sofa.
Delay the expenditures.
I mean, cut cost.
(24:05):
And I think we can do that.
There's what I call supplychain at, and I talk about supply
chain At a lot at says supplychain after tariff.
And so where are we going tosource from?
Where is.
Are we going to near source?
Are we going to friendly source?
Are we going to reshore?
(24:25):
We're going to bring it back.
All those are interesting probabilities.
And what we need to do is lookat the total cost of getting the
product delivered to the customer.
And so a portion of that costis tariffs.
Now the thing that these oneguy is talking about with it's going
to be a dinosaur extinctionevent, be like an asteroid type of
(24:49):
thing.
The tariffs that are beingpushed around it, those are negotiation.
No one's going to pay 145% tariff.
You're going to move to adifferent place where you can make
the product cheaper.
I mean, goodness sakes, ifthere's a company out there that
has enough margin, they cancharge 145% tariff and still make
it.
(25:10):
Dave, you and I are going togo start a new job, a new company.
We're going to buy a factoryand go build that stuff.
Because you and I might not bereally good manufacturing people,
but come within 145% of theother guy.
We can do that.
We can make that happen.
So we need to look at thesupply chain after tariff and we
(25:30):
don't have certainty there.
So let's look at it.
Okay, if this happens, we do this.
If this happens, then we do this.
If this happens, we do this.
We need to look at ourlogistics costs, huge costs.
We got transportation costs.
We've negotiated contracts ontransportation that is totally different
now.
You know, the number ofcancellations of ships coming out
of China is huge.
(25:51):
They're going from a largevessel to a small vessel.
But we got this contract price.
Well, guess what, the spotprice now is lower than the contract
price.
So we want to throw ourcontract away and buy it on spot
because it's oftentimes cheaper.
We also want to look atconsolidating shipments.
We want to negotiate with thefreight rates because, boy, they
want the freight.
(26:11):
People want the freight.
They don't like going from a18,000 container ship to a 14,000
container ship.
That's 4,000 containers.
That's where the profit is.
And so we want to go with thebigger ships.
And so they want our look.
We want to look at differentmodes of transportation, other ways
(26:34):
where we can do it, where wemaybe travel different paths or we
go different directions.
We want to cut costs of laborby automating.
We want to use our innovation,we want to use our ingenuity.
And so we want to bring thecost of production down, want to
do good job on inventory management.
We want to look atrenegotiating our vendor contracts.
(26:57):
In fact, sometimes we don'tnecessarily go to a new supplier,
but we go to a new locationfor that same supplier.
Maybe that, that supplier ofours that we've been working with
in China, maybe they do a goodjob also out of Indonesia, or maybe
they have a factory in Vietnam.
Let's switch from one locationto another location to get around
those tariffs.
Let's not pay those tariffs.
(27:18):
Let's figure out a way to makeit happen.
And then the last way, or notthe last way, but the last way I
listed here that we can cutcost is by enhancing productivity,
by looking at how we can useour labor better.
Think about how we can takelabor and take it from a fixed cost
and make it a variable cost.
(27:39):
And so there's a company wework with called Tasks for Pros.
And what they're doing islabor on demand.
And so if you need 50 workerson Monday and 60 on Tuesday and 70
on Wednesday, Wednesday and 70on Thursday and 100 on Friday, how
many people are going to hire?
Well, you say, I can't hire100, but maybe I.
(28:03):
I gotta have 70.
So I'm gonna hire 70 and workovertime on Friday.
Why don't you just hire 50,hire 50, and then call this company
Task for Pro?
And they will send you theextra 10 people you need on Wednesday
and they'll send you another10 people on, on Thursday and, and
on Friday they'll send youanother 40 people.
And these people are trainedand able to do your job, but you're
(28:26):
only paying them as a variablecost as opposed to a fixed cost.
And so on Monday and Tuesday,your costs are going to be the same
as they are now.
Wednesday they're going to beless than they are now because you
not have to hire that 80 people.
And Thursday and Friday goingto come out better as well.
So there's those ways oflooking at your productivity and
(28:47):
your labor and to make thatreally good.
So that's, you know, a tool ofreducing cost that is really critical
in these difficult times.
And I think if we're doingthat aggressively, with some innovation
and some ingenuity, we canactually improve the productivity.
If the uncertainty goes away,we're going to even be more profitable,
(29:10):
but why not get profitable atthe level we're at?
And then the second topic Iwould mention is optionality.
And optionality is being ableto deal with uncertainty in a planned
methodical.
Way.
So if this happens, I want todo this.
If this happens, I'm going todo this.
And so I have options topursue which allow me to be successful
(29:34):
independent of which one ofthose options actually takes place.
Knew you'd mention yourfavorite word.
Optionality.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
And are companies getting this?
Well, you know, yes, yes.
There's a lot of companiesthat are not trying to tell the public
(29:59):
what we're doing.
So there's a lot of companiesthat are saying we're going to hold
back our guidance.
Okay.
And so they've always given,you know, end of year guidance and
the quarter guidance.
They're holding back theguidance because they don't want
to be wrong.
But internally they arelooking at cost reduction, they're
looking at delayinginvestments, they're looking at delaying
(30:21):
hiring people and looking atusing variable people as opposed
to fixed cost people.
And so that's very smart.
We do see people rigorously.
Now it's starting because it'sclear US and India is coming along.
It's clear the UK and Indiacame along.
(30:43):
We're starting the China negotiation.
We've got another 50 dealsthat we have going.
We've developed the tradeprofile, what a trade deal is going
to look like.
And now everyone sees that andthey know what they need to do to
fall in line.
So these trade deals are goingto get started making on a very regular
basis.
(31:03):
And as those trade deals aremade, people need to be able to say,
okay, so this has taken placeand this has taken place and this
turn the page and say, okay,so this is what I want to do now.
And I'm going to use thisshipping line and I'm going to ship
it.
It's not going to go throughthe Suez Canal.
It's going to go, it's togoing, going to go from China, it's
(31:25):
going to go east and it'sgoing to show up in la or this is
not going to be produced in Asia.
This is going to get producedfrom Brazil.
And we bring it up, I'm goingto store it in Dominican Republic
and ship it in on demand inthe United States, et cetera, et
cetera.
So we're going to have theoptions defined and people are starting
to get it.
I wish they would be a littlemore aggressive because they're starting
(31:49):
to get it, but they aren'tdoing as robust a plan as I think
they should.
So they're starting to get itis the right phraseology.
They don't totally get it yet,but this uncertainty thing at this
level is unheard of.
And so it's kind of new groundthat we're treading on.
And so people are kind oftreading methodically and not rushing
(32:12):
in, which is probably a good thing.
But I think specifically oncost cutting and specifically on
developing optionality, it'sthe right time to do it because we're
going to have this thingstraightened out in the next hundred
days and the competition isgoing to be ready.
We need to be ready too.
Okay.
And if companies are hearingthis and they don't have a solid
(32:35):
optionality plan in place orthey're looking for guidance or strategies
or the tools to really helpthem navigate these uncertain times,
let them know about TompkinsVentures and how they can reach out.
Well, Tompkins Ventures, we,we invented the word re globalization
and we invented the word optionality.
(32:57):
We really believe that theworld is re globalizing.
And that's not re as in re return.
It is in reinvention and we'recreating new supply chains.
And so that's what we havebuilt our foundation on at Tompkins
Ventures.
(33:17):
We love working withprocurement, with transportation,
with third party logistics,with manufacturing, with outsourced
manufacturing, looking atdifferent countries to do sourcing.
And we've got a team ofexperts literally around the world.
We're in 59 countries andwe're ready to help with experts
(33:39):
to get your re globalizationwork to be successful.
So the the website is tompkinsventures.
T o M P K I N S Ventures.
V E N T u r e s.com and I'mJim Tompkins.
J Tompkins.
T o M P K I n s@tompkinsventures.com.
(34:02):
write me a note and be happyto work with you and see how we can
make some really difference inthis opportune time.
This is not a bad time.
This is an opportunity timeand time to make something happen.
Amen.
Okay, well Jim, thanks so muchas always.
We'll link all that in the show.
Notes for everyone.
Till next time.
(34:22):
Have a fantastic day.
Thanks, Dave.
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