Goya Foods CIO on Supply Chains, Covid, and Tech Development Priorities
Goya Foods CIO Suvajit Basu spoke with Cloud Wars founder Bob Evans in one of several fireside chats that highlighted the recent Cloud Wars Expo conference in San Francisco.
Basu touched on supply chains, setting business priorities when supply chains are disrupted, tech development and partnerships, and other topics. Basu’s discussion, as well as 40 hours of on-demand video content from Cloud Wars Expo, will be available with your Acceleration Economy Network subscription starting on July 20th.
When developing or building technology for Goya Foods, Basu’s approach is to acquire technology built by vendors and implement it as quickly as possible, rather than focusing on internal development. His emphasis is on creating partnerships with the company’s vendors. “I see them as my R and D, my brain in this extended community we are in. So I’ve tried to create great relationships with these companies.”
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the company saw four months of food supply sell out in a couple of days. “We had an incredible demand spike,” he said. “Very few supply chains can handle that.” Goya Foods has seen prices for goods in some cases increase up to 10 times.
Basu noted the importance of timely data: “Data loses value very quickly as it gets old,” as demonstrated during the pandemic.
Another troubling aspect of systems and data that was revealed by the pandemic, according to Basu, was that the hundreds of forecasting, replenishment, demand planning, and related systems deployed in previous years did not work; they did not help companies cope with the demand spikes and uncertainty prompted by the pandemic.
One of the key issues that is impeding supply chains today is the fact that supply chain activity (trains, trucks, ships) is long and slow. And because of driver shortages, high gas prices, war in Ukraine, the pandemic, congested ports, and other factors, the situation is not getting better quickly. “The global supply chain risk index is high,” he said.
The pace of progress in tech companies — in areas including ERP, cloud, and more — is electron speed, with nanosecond latency. But it’s vastly accelerated versus other industries such as the food industry that Basu works in. “A food or industrial company moves about four times slower than a tech company, so my 15-16 years at GOYA translates to about four complete years in Silicon Valley.”
Basu went into the office every day during the pandemic. “As leaders — captains of the ship — I wanted to be on board.” The things that get Basu and his team excited can be summarized in three Ps:
Purpose: the company’s ethos to feed the nation
Products: The team focused on manufacturing products for customers and to donate food to those in need.
People: Basu noted that several of the leaders who report to him directly have 30-plus years at Goya Foods, so they are all united around a common purpose and set of objectives.
