Maria Villablanca has made a career as an effective, energetic, and visionary organizational leader in publishing, conferences, and events focusing on supply chain and manufacturing industries. Today, Maria is CEO & Co-Founder of The Future Insights Network, a fast-growing network of over 130,000 manufacturing and supply chain leaders, and the host of the Transform Talks podcast. As a firm believer in diversity and inclusion, Maria is proud to lead a women-operated business. Maria looks forward to continuing to be the driving force behind The Future Insights Network’s mission to empower supply chain leaders and their teams to benchmark, upskill and build a better future for both their company and the wider industry.
Below are highlights of the interview:
What was the idea behind joining the supply chain industry?
The supply chain industry is an exciting space with plenty of innovation and the capability to significantly impact the world economy and how we run businesses to create a better world. I was first introduced to the Supply Chain industry right out of university while working in the Chilean wine industry. It was here that I learned about inventory management, planning, and the basic principles of making a product, sourcing goods, planning, and delivering the final result to the consumer. After this, working throughout publishing and events, I had the opportunity to interact with so many interesting people in this space that I became even more passionate about it.
Tell us more about The Future Insights Network.
The Future Insights Network is a media platform for supply chain leaders to obtain valuable insight into managing transformational change while dealing with disruption and crisis. Our network of over 130,000 leaders worldwide comes together to validate their thinking, share ideas, and learn from and network with each other. In this world of constant change and information overload, our audience is in continuous search of actionable insight to help them drive change. We’re proud to play a leading role in delivering just that in a quick, convenient, and digestible way. Just recently, we launched SupplyChainTV+, an online learning channel featuring hundreds of hours of interviews, case studies, and discussions on all-things supply chain transformation. We’re super excited to use it to further serve the profession and continue driving positive change.
Who is your target audience? How do you create services that align with what they’re looking for?
Our target audience is anyone working or interested in the supply chain space. We have a strong advisory board, our coalition, that guides us on the supply chain topics that people want to learn about. Having this information from some of the leading minds in the industry, plus the surveys we do and the information we collect, helps us put together a framework of content that speaks to our audience. We are all about producing content and activity that is dictated by what the industry wants to see.
What are the major changes happening in the supply chain industry since the pandemic?
The pandemic exposed many cracks in both supply chain processes and general business models. What became evident is that companies that had not begun digital transformation projects suffered. Given that the pandemic was the first in a series of disruptive events, building agility, resilience, and visibility are business-critical issues for anyone in the supply chain. The pandemic taught us that we need to change. The latest threats from the war in Ukraine, the impending recession, scarce resources, and so many other issues have demonstrated that we need to rethink the current supply chain processes and methodologies. We must rethink business models and build purpose-driven supply chains that can withstand global fluctuations.
What gets you up in the morning? What are your responsibilities as the CEO of the company?
What gets me up? My dogs. But seriously, it’s knowing that the work I do has a genuine impact not only on the supply chain industry but on global trade. My responsibilities as the CEO are to keep my business thriving amidst all this turbulence and change. It’s to ensure our customers, employees, and shareholders derive value from their interactions with us.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
To me, success isn’t only measured through financial metrics. Success is having an impact on my industry. Success is in scaling a team and our business to ensure we touch all aspects of the global supply chain. I would say when Future Insights Network is a household name to anyone in the supply chain as a force for positive change in the industry, then I will feel that we have achieved success. And while we’re not quite there yet, we’re well on our way.
What advice would you give to the next generation of female leaders?
There is a lot of advice I wish someone had offered me when I was a young leader. Unfortunately, there have been too few mentors and success stories highlighting women in business or even leadership. Fortunately, we are seeing more of that. My first bit of advice would be to not be afraid of promoting yourself. Men are fantastic at shouting, “Look at me! I did that!” Women don’t do that very much. Therefore, be proud of what you bring to the table, and don’t be shy about telling people about it.
How will you sustain growth in your business?
In order to sustain our success, my plans are to listen more closely to our audience. It’s not rocket science, but if you deliver what your customers want, need, and love, then you will succeed. Our hope is to continue to grow our reach and influence on a global scale.
Website: www.futureinsights.org
