The Zero100 Podcast

Should you fix broken planning processes before automating them, or does that just delay progress? When an AI agent makes a bad decision, who's actually accountable? And how do junior employees build expertise when AI handles the foundational work they used to learn from? This week, Cody Stack (VP, Research Analytics) sits down with Kelly Coutinho (VP, Research & Advisory) and Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Research & Advisory) to tackle these questions and others from Zero100’s supply chain and operations community.

At 16 years old, On has a rare advantage: young enough to be agile, mature enough to scale globally. This week, Chief Supply Chain Officer Craig Jones tells Kelly Coutinho (VP, Research & Advisory) how the company’s using this window to build supply chain as a competitive advantage, not a cost center – from the development of LightSpray’s three-minute shoe uppers to AI built on obsessively clean data. His philosophy? Automate the mundane to liberate the magnificent, finish the race together, and build the company you want to be in five years, not the one you are today.

When Carlos Ruiz joined Church & Dwight as Chief Supply Chain Officer, he realized the company's biggest asset – rigid, built-to-last manufacturing lines – was actually holding it back. His solution: stop building equipment for 15-year depreciation schedules and start building for speed and flexibility. But the real challenge isn't the technology or capital approval – it’s convincing people to let go of what worked yesterday. This week on the podcast, Carlos tells Zero100's Jenna Fink (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) how he’s tackling change management, navigating board expectations, and leading Church & Dwight's evolution from Lean foundations to end-to-end operational excellence.

Backflips and kung fu routines make great viral videos, but what's the actual business case for humanoid robots? Zero100’s Lauren Acoba (VP, Head of Research & Advisory), Kevin O'Marah (Chief Research Officer), and Jenna Fink (Senior Director, Research & Advisory) cut through the hype to explain why we predict a 1000% jump in real humanoid workflows this year. Turns out, the biggest advantage isn’t the robot itself – it’s that humanoids can drop into existing workflows without expensive facility redesigns, cutting integration costs by 80%. The team explores lessons from BMW’s approach in Spartanburg, why China's robotics lead matters, what makes a use case worth pursuing, and how to tell when a demo is operationally credible or just impressive theater.

Zero100’s Forum brought CSCOs and COOs to the Arizona desert to tackle the question keeping operations leaders up at night: how do you scale AI when insights outpace execution? Caroline Chumakov and Justin Gillebo (Senior Directors, Research & Advisory) sit down with Sophia Pouzyrev (Account Executive) to unpack the candid conversations that defined the event – from the Rt Hon Sir Tony Blair’s insights on the unwinding of 30 years of globalization to Scott Galloway's challenge on designing work for Gen Z. The verdict: leaders have moved past pilots. 2026 is about production, orchestration, and building talent that can keep pace with technology. If you're stuck between insight and action, this debrief captures what's actually working.