How much of the world runs on spreadsheets?

In this episode, we embark on a detective story to uncover how rows and columns became the invisible backbone of commerce—and why that's both amazing and terrifying.  We meet Natalia, a supply chain professional who shares a spreadsheet before-and-after story that’s a real glow-up. Then we meet Chris, a managing director at Accenture who's helped companies pivot from drowning in cells and formulas to making productivity gains as AI-powered innovators. As we journey from copy-paste disasters to AI-powered futures, we discover that while spreadsheets gave us the world as we know it, getting the world we want will require breaking up with static cells and evolving to intelligent systems.

Guests:

Chris McDivitt, Managing Director, Accenture

Natalia Sawka, SAP S4 HANA Venture - Process Manager of Plan to Manufacture, Infineum

Articles mentioned and additional resources:

Making Autonomous Supply Chains Real - Accenture

Spreadsheet errors can have disastrous consequences, yet we keep making the same mistakes – The Conversation

Two-thirds of companies consider Excel a supply chain system – Supply Chain Dive

Twelve dudes and a hype tunnel: Scenes from the ‘Super Bowl for Nerds’ – The New York Times

Credits:

Introductory sound clip from “Full Project in Excel | Excel Tutorials for Beginners” by Alex The Analyst is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

Production by Josh Caldwell

Additional support from Carlos Gama, Suhas Sreedhar, Stefanie Gordish

Kinaxis is a global leader in modern supply chain management. Our software is trusted by global brands in every industry to provide the agility and predictability needed to navigate today’s volatility and disruption. For more news and information, please visit kinaxis.com or follow us on LinkedIn.