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Hey Scott Luton, Ward Richmond here with you on supply chain now, welcome to today's live stream, or how are we doing?
Doing great. How are you, Scott? Good to be back in the studio. What's happening. I know,
Uh, Hey, big week, big week today, of course the Atlanta Braves kickoff, their March, hopefully to the world series. We'll see what you think.
Very cool. I'm just like rooting for whoever you're rooting for. I'm just like Dallas Cowboys is really the only sports that I pay attention to. And, um, I couldn't be happier with how we've started out the year. So go Cowboys.
Well, Hey, we get, we've got to get you connected with Jadah. Who's a member of our production team behind the scenes, big Cowboys fan, and, um, y'all can y'all can swap, uh, glory, glory tales about Troy Aikman, Emmett Smith, and the, and the, uh, the big years of days gone by, right.
They're the big years of the present moment as well. God, here in Dallas, we're fired up
Having a good time. Okay. Wait on that in a big, thanks to Jada and clay and Amanda, all behind the scenes, including Allie, uh, that's helping us with, uh, today's production. And today, by the way, ward today, we're continuing our supply chain real estate series right here on supply chain now powered by our friends at Prologis. And I'll tell you, I've gotten about 117 handwritten letters, uh, delivered to us here in Georgia. About how much folks have enjoyed this series. How about you award?
Yes, I've, I've received them closer to a thousand handwritten letters. Scott, it's just amazing. And I had to hire somebody just to go through all the mail and outrageous, right.
Um, so what you're saying is our supply chain real estate series has been creating jobs war that is a
Creating jobs out there, the labor market's tight, as we know. Um, so, but in all seriousness, it's, it's been great and, uh, I've learned more than I could've ever expected from, uh, our partners pro lodges and the wonderful guests that we've had. And I couldn't be more excited today. Um, we've talked to a lot of the real estate execs at Prologis, who I, um, really deal with on the day-to-day talking about real estate stuff. And I, I'm very excited about our guest today, um, which is a little outside of the real estate spectrum and, uh, excited to get into this.
We are too, um, I love what Prologis is doing with their, their ventures group. And we're gonna, we're gonna, that's gonna be really the focus of today's show that and really, uh, tomorrow supply chain, perhaps tomorrow supply chain today. So we're going to hear some of the things that they are seeing and really investing in that's fueling innovation and growth across industry. So stay tuned for that. We got to give a quick shout out to Peter Bo is back with us, Peter Bowly all night and all day, uh, is tuned in. He says here for some supply chain now, goodness, happy Friday afternoon, all and happy Thanksgiving weekend to the Canadian viewers. I got to tell you a ward that wasn't on my radar.
Oh yeah. It is Canadian Thanksgiving. And I should know that because we do a lot of business in Canada and, uh, happy things. Having Canadian Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and clients.
Definitely. Absolutely. And Peter, by the way, I got to put you on the spot, let us know how, how the golf game's going. Uh, he's been getting out and joined some of the weather up in his neck of the woods here lately. Okay. Well, we've got to save as much time as possible for today's conversation. So I want to welcome in our two featured guests here today Will O'Donnell managing partner with Prologis ventures and his colleague Todd Lewis. Vice-president with Prologis ventures. Hey, will Todd, how are we doing? Good.
How are you guys today? Fantastic.
Great to see you. Good to see you guys.
Well, so did y'all just know that, um, not only are, y'all probably creating jobs, um, in across global supply chain, you're creating jobs right here with Ward's team because we're getting all y'all's fan mail.
Yeah. I, I heard that and I mean, there's a couple of things to that one. I'm curious why everyone's sending handwritten notes. There's this thing called the internet, that email got him it, uh, and I also feel a little bit misled in the situation since I did not realize word was a Cowboys fan. I, uh, I grew up in Philadelphia and uh, Now I'm a diehard Eagles fan and there's, there's a long history between the two, but I promised to let bygones be bygones and, and we'll have a good conversation today, but it's just something we should have probably discussed in the
I to go to, we need to go to a game together, but it will need to be in Dallas because I, um, you know, I, I just,
I get it. I understand why that's a reasonable request.
We have real time negotiations playing out right here on supply chain now. And by the way, fly Eagles fly. Right. Uh, I think that's slightly a team motto there. Something, um, yeah. Well, Will and Todd, great to have you here today. We enjoyed pre-show, uh, talking a little bit of sports, a little bit of food. We talked about, uh, exchanging some, some dads stories. Uh, it looks like one of our hobbies for all of us is, uh, finding new and creative ways of, of not exactly embarrassing our daughters, but having a little bit of fun. Right? Yep. Yeah. All right. So on that, on that note, no, one's sharing stories now. I can't even talk about how, uh, some of my car lines story I'll save that for another, but really quick. Uh, and, and, um, we want to start by, you know, having our audience get to know y'all both a little bit better, so yeah. So Will start with you. Tell us a little about yourself.
Uh, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a Philadelphia native, uh, but went to duke university, played golf college, lived in Boston for a little bit, but have actually been, uh, in the bay area since 1999. Um, been with AMB and now Prologis since 2003 and served a pretty wide variety of roles, uh, participated in a lot of our international expansion, uh, helped open up India, China, South Korea, and in Singapore and Mexico, uh, did some capital raising helped, uh, work on the merger between AMB and Prologis. Um, afterwards took over and did work outs on six private equity funds, uh, that were legacy per largest vehicles. And most recently in the last five years have really focused on innovation and colitis ventures. Uh, so obviously getting a little bit more what we're doing there. Um, but it's, it's been, it's been a very exciting journey. Um, I think when we look back in 2003, even before where industrial estate was, um, versus now where one has Prologis as a company, but two just the shift in mentality and the importance that supply chain is now playing across the board. Um, it's, I've been never, never been more excited to be part of a company, part of a journey and, and really what lies ahead in the future. So Tyler I'll turn it over to you and then we'll jump into the
So, well, wait, hang on. First off we'll you're at the intersection, it's like a perfect storm of hot, hot aspects of global business, and it's gotta be pretty exciting. Uh, I want to share a couple of quick comments and then Todd, I'm gonna come to you next and we're going to talk about growing up in Jackson, Michigan, perhaps. Um, so, uh, Peter says that, uh, he saved your ward as you welcome with your clients. I happy Thanksgiving in Canada. It's a good job. Peter says, Hey, he's been killing it. Let's stay here holding out for an Eagle on a par four from 124 yards out. Nice, nice. We got some fellow Eagles fans, Michael angels fans, actually.
Yeah, you're going to see the snowballs come out batteries.
Uh, great to see you here via LinkedIn Pfizer. Let us know where you're tuned in from Alison who we've got to show this afternoon. Um, Allison's has grown up. I was told I could be anything. I wanted to be accepted callous Cowboys fan, uh, and these
All right. So we've got a few of the comments we'll circle back to in a minute. Uh, y'all keep them coming. That's that's some of the best stuff. Uh, Todd though, we really enjoyed, uh, uh, we had an extra minute or two with you. Pre-show grew up in Jackson, Michigan, big time hockey player all-star and of course, biscuits and gravy was one of your favorite meals upbringing. Right? Tell us more about you and that's it right?
[inaudible] right. The Mitt grew up on a farm. Uh, but no, it was, uh, it was great growing up in Michigan, you know, two months out of the year. Uh, it's a fantastic place you're mixed. And then the other 10 months are kind of like, ah, get me back to the, give me back to the two. Um, but it was all, you know, it was all for not because we, we, I ended up going to school in California, down in San Diego, um, as a Midwesterner, you know, go into city and go to school was fantastic. I met my wife down there. Um, and you know, I think by way of professional background, um, I've been with prolapse ventures now for a year, almost on the dot and prior to joining Prologis, I was over at ups for eight years and I, I loved the company still bleed brown.
You know, we joke about it all the time. Cause I'm a former customer of Prologis by a quick, great story is how I ended up joining Prologis. Uh, I have known will and the team since really the ventures group was started. Um, and at, at ups I wear many different hats, but I was always working within the entrepreneurial innovation ecosystem. And in the latter part of my career at ups, I was leading their ups ventures, which we we've kind of rebranded and stood up as a more, um, innovative model for, for ups to adopt new innovation. Right? So tons of synergies between what Will's team was looking at, what we were looking at ups. And so we've, we got together all the time. And, uh, my fame story is I went in to visit a willing team and I'm parked. So if you've ever, if you know where Prologis headquarters is since San Francisco, it's not pure one, it's absolutely breathtaking.
It's fantastic. Um, and I'm parked in the parking lot, directly across the street. And I, I, uh, I get out of my truck and I, and I, I feel like I got shot and I'm like, oh my God, I'm in so much pain. And I'm rolling around in the ground in the parking lot. I put a bark Darrow across the street from this beautiful site. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. So of course I call, well, I'm like, well, you gotta take me to the hospital. And he's like, he's like, Hey, what's going on? So anyways, all of these guys and earnest sweat at the time for four plus ventures, guy comes out, drives me to the hospital. I'm in shambles right here that it was a kidney stone, never had one of my life worse than giving birth. The wife sees that she's getting so much trouble, but anyways, it's like, that was my that's. What I knew Prologis was going to be a great fit for me cause they saw me at my worst and they still wanted me to join the team.
Um, I'm not exactly sure where to take because there's so many questions I have around that story tot. But, um, you know, it reminds me of one of my favorite sayings during some of these toughest times here in recent months is, um, this too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone this too shall pass. Alright. So I got a couple other halos we'll say, uh, late Lamy uh, if I got that wrong, I apologize. Let me know. We love to get people's names right. Watching from Namibia Namibia, uh, via LinkedIn. Great to see you here. Uh, Ramzi also watching from Legos, uh, via LinkedIn. Great to see here, Ramzi, uh, Eric from Ghana. Great to see you here also via LinkedIn, uh, quite the international audience here. O K rod is with us. Oh, Hey Kara. How about that? It's no trucker hat.
You know, Kara has moved to Virginia, she's left Dallas. She got a promotion and she's, um, managing five different offices for Colliers now in the Northeast. So what's up K rod.
Awesome. Congrats on your promotion. And of course Nerf is with us. He's back with us here. Come the comments. I think he's referring to the Cowboys and the Eagles, uh, comments there earlier today w uh, nerve helps us keep a nice sense of humor, uh, throughout these global supply chain conversations. Okay. So we'll and Todd, let's get to some of the heavy lifting. Is that right? Well, we're going to learn more about, uh, there from, right.
All right. Um, so let's start out with, well, and, um, will, do you mind giving us a little, uh, I I'd love to hear just like when, uh, pro-life is decided to start pro-life ventures and then dig into the investment strategy and how you guys are bringing value to pro Andress as a whole.
Yep. Yeah. So we launched Caladrius ventures in March, 2016. Um, and really the conversation was around the fact that real estate has been able to sit in a very privileged position for a number of years where we didn't really have to worry about disruption. So the old adage is you just what's real estate it's location, location, location, right? So you buy a building in a great location and you can sit back and collect rent and it's golden. Um, what we started noticing was a couple of things is that the underlying business model of our customers is changing and it was having a direct impact on the real estate itself. So we were the beneficiary of e-commerce, right. Uh, so there's a massive tailwind, but that doesn't mean that that business isn't going to evolve and shift and have implications. Uh, someone who was, I don't know, on suburban retail would have a very different opinion on e-commerce and the impact on their real estate. We also, at that time was when you started seeing the models like in Airbnb emerge, or we work, um, now for whatever happened that we work, it's still did change how tenants thought about tenancy. Right. Right.
And by the way, uh, there are some really intriguing documentaries own that we work story, uh, Netflix and beyond. But to your point though, still you can't deny, um, the model, you can't deny the impact that they've had.
Yep. Yeah. And it's, but it also, we were at the forefront and realizing, you know, what, like disruption can occur in our industry. And it's not like a software where overnight someone's going to come out with something better and you might be obliterated, but it could be a very long slow draw if we stick our head in the sand and look up 10 years from now and Hamid who's, the CEO is incredibly innovative, incredibly forward-thinking. And I think it's a lot why we, as a company are in the position we are, cause we're always pushing forward. But the concern here is we don't want to be the Luddites and driving the horse carriage when like 15 years an hour from now when EVs are a thing. Right. Right. So, um, there's an aspect that second data analytics, that real estate has really been an industry that's bought through intuition and relationships.
Um, and that will, can continue in, are important. But if we can figure out how to leverage data to get predictive, rather than looking and re re regressive on data, but how do we predict what's going to come? How do we leverage our platform and scale to drive value and get insights and new ways. And that was another big aspect. When we started five years ago on like, how do we really think differently? Um, there is no playbook for what we were doing in the real estate industry, but there are other industries that are taking components of it. So let's look outside our, our, our, our walls and see, how do we learn from the financial industry? How do we learn from insurance? How do we learn from our customers? How do we look at what is happening in enterprise software and take those learnings and apply them to ourselves?
The other aspect that this was probably a year in that we really started focusing on too, was real estate is actually a very odd business. When you think about it that no other industry, do you spend three months negotiating a contract and then try to ignore that customer for the next seven years? Uh, right. Like every other industry it's it's I have a captive customer, how do I bring that customer value in new ways? How do I increase the lifetime value of it? How do I find solutions? And we, as a company, recognize that we're actually sitting in a very privileged position that we have almost a billion square feet. Now we have relationships with the top players in supply chain logistics, but 80% of our customers are actually small, medium businesses. So if we think about customer centricity in a very different manner, which is actually more consistent, how will the rest of the world thinks of it, which is part of the adjacent learnings, but with our customers, how do we leverage our scale and size figure out new opportunities?
So, so where are we seeing consistent pain points across our customers and transportation and labor and sustainability, and how do we as an entity go out and find solutions for them. So that really gets into one of the major roles of, uh, the Prologis ventures team is one, can we find disruptive technologies that we as a company can use? So things that help our core business, how we interact, how we drive capital deployment decisions, how we manage our, our buildings, how we build our buildings, but where we spend a bulk of our time is really on the warehouse operations. So what goes inside the four walls, right? Sustainability and energy. And we can talk more about some of the things we're doing there. And then finally, generally supply chain and logistics. So for every dollar in rent, our customer spend, they spend six on labor.
They spend 10 on transportation and you look, can transportation example, the inefficiencies that occurs. If you ever drive around industrial park, you'll just see tractor trailers lined up. And why is that occurring? Is it because there isn't visibility? Do you need better communications? Is there ways that we, as an owner can help facilitate and create more seamless transactions between the people inside the warehouse and the trucks, and if we can solve that problem or adding value in new ways. So a lot of our thesis that are based on how do we go find disruptive technology that can solve those major pain points,
A whole different game, whole different ball game here. What is it you're describing? It will so many questions. So little time. Um, we've got some great comments here, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna wait. Cause I wanna, Todd, we'll kind of painted a very helpful picture there, but you know, warden are curious. What else would you add to that? Todd
And, oh, Hey, one more question for you, Todd, as you dig into that is how does the team size look like at Prologis ventures?
Well, yeah, so we're a lean crew, um, roughly six of us in total, but we span, we have such a broad reach within the company because we leverage just some brilliant minds at Prologis. You know, Prologis in its own, right? Is we only have 1900 people. Um, and I came from UVA 450,000 people, right. So it's a different entirely. Um, but there are absolutely brilliant people at this company and our team, um, leans into each of those when it comes to subject matter expertise, when we want to go find technology, especially when we think about our customers. So then now this is, I'm going to pivot into your, your question around what would I add? Um, we'll had touched on it, um, briefly on how customer centric we are. Well, it's, it's such a fine point of our thesis. When we do go look at investments, we build our strategies predicated on our customer's largest needs and pain points.
And so we work in many cases, we'll work with our customers to define what that means. Um, and that's such a unique way to invest capital, right? It's not this shiny penny approach where you go and you'll, you're out in the world and you're like, oh, that looks really interesting. Let's go make an investment. It's the opposite of that. It's this extremely tactical way to say you tell us what, what are your biggest concerns of the next five, 10 years? Because by all means prolapses the Switzerland of real estate, right? And again, this is new to me in that joining a company where we support some of the largest companies on the planet in e-commerce all equally, um, it gives us a privileged perspective on where the future is headed for what the modern warehouse of the future looked like, what technologies will blend with with traditional labor and, and, and new state automation.
And so as a very tactical example, one of the things we have done is actually built this automation thesis, you know, using the criteria of, of our customers to what are their largest pain points and how can we leverage technology or bring technology to those partners, um, to help better enable their business, right? So that, so that the real estate they're in today is as meaningful and as powerful as it needs to be 10 years from now. And I think that's one of the super exciting things that our team gets to do is have that type of dialogue. I love that.
And Todd, just to add on a quick point on what Todd was saying, [inaudible] we want to talk to customers on the automation example, we had customers in different sectors actually share the metrics that they would use the measure success. So we then can see across five different sectors. Here's a big customer in each, here's what they would look at to adopt automation. And then when you're going to talk to a company, it's, here's exactly what you need to hit to get adoption with these five customers. So it really changes the mentality then on higher investing. Cause it's, it's, it's very clearly defined what the opportunity is, uh, and allows us to be very thoughtful about where we put our capital and the partners that we bring in.
Uh, one thought came up, comes my mind ward, uh, is, you know, innovation centers became all the rage here in the last decade or so. Um, we've got dozens if not hundreds of them across Atlanta, but most of them tend to be internal internally staffed internal, um, internal run operations. What I love about this, what I'm hearing here is, is Prologis is going to customers, give me your problems. And then rather than, you know, only have internal talent, uh, try to come up with solutions. They're making investments with some of the best and brightest outside the four walls as it were. So this is, uh, uh, this is pretty exciting to hear about. All right. Uh, ward, give you a chance to respond. I'm gonna share a couple of comments, including some folks that want to, uh, speak Todd about his, his story earlier. Hey, sense of humor is important around here, but what word, what was something that,
Oh, I, I mean, I think that's all amazing. I mean, and there's so much that you're talking about doing here and like talking to all the customers about all this. I'm curious, I have friends that are in the VC business and it, um, especially before COVID, it was mind blowing to me and they live in San Francisco of course, cause that's just kind of the hub of all of that, but just the flights to New York and everywhere meeting with all of these entrepreneurs that have these ideas. So I mean, how, how often there are six of you that are really meeting with these, um, all of these, um, you know, entrepreneurs out there with these ideas. How, how many meetings are you taking a week with these folks and get like, how does that qualification process work?
Yeah, it's um, it's, it's busy, I guess that's the short answer. I, I think one of the things that we did very early on it is really established a comprehensive network across the different VCs, different technology companies and even our customers because VCs and interesting business, whereas in real estate, when I was buying real estate, I would never up three or four other real estate firms and be like, Hey, here's a really great building. Why don't we all partner and go in and make this a better building together? Like it's no, no, no, we're buying this and we'll compete for it. Uh, this is the opposite where you're literally, every time you're looking at a company, you're like, okay, I want my piece, but here's three or four people that I can bring in who will offer value to this company in unique ways. So we've kind of within that, that construct of recognized, here's where Prologis excels. Here's what we can bring to the table. Here's our unique perspective. And because of that, we're viewed as a really good partner, um, to be brought in the deal. So I don't know, my, my schedule is always in meetings on it. Um, but it's exciting
Earlier today, will you are closing the big deal written the minutes before the show, are you traveling again? Are you doing a lot
Starting to, I would say that that, um, one of the benefits is COVID, I think a lot of times now you realize like I don't actually need to fly to Chicago to see the PowerPoint. Like I, it is really, really valuable to meet people in person and spend time and that can never be replicated. But if you're going to look at 500 companies a year, let's spend time on the 30 to 50 that we really want to do versus having to go see PowerPoints for each of them. So, um, I think we've gotten even more efficient of time now and people are understanding of it. It's like, okay, the company themselves, if we aren't going to be a great fit, it's not worth their time to host us for a couple hours in a dinner. Uh, so I think it's made us much more efficient. Um, but you're you do? I do miss. And we're starting to get back into it, sitting down with someone and actually hearing the story and seeing how they interact and that human connection is super important. Um, we got away from it up for obvious reasons for the last year, but it's, it's coming back and people are really appreciated again, which is cool. Like you go out to work dinners now and people are like, wow, this is great. Versus before it was like, God, this is this one this week.
They're all like, man, I love it hugs. And everybody's like, well, let's, let's slow down the hugs. I want to share this from Michael says it is powerful when you take solutions to your clients based on their operational data that lets them know you were invested in their success. Excellent point there. I want to welcome Mervin Mervin. Great to have you back, uh, via Dublin, uh, and via LinkedIn. Great to see you here today. All right. So I gotta, I gotta circle back, Todd, uh, really enjoyed the front end of this conversation. So Alison, uh, says worse than giving birth rest in peace. Todd Lewis, the nurse there says that I heard, I heard it was all hearsay. Gosh, Hey, you got to have a sense of one of these days. I think we've all heard about how well, you know what, I'm not gonna go down that path going forward.
Well, Hey, uh, so what I want to do next, and I appreciate y'all sharing more about what the organization does, what the approach is, what the value is. Um, just in talking with y'all holy cow, uh, and Todd, you were talking about kind of some, some things you'd done to transform how ups did earlier, man y'all are, uh, your, your math abilities, uh, must be several pay grades above mine. You know, I have a hard enough time with public math. Y'all heard that phrase, public math. We don't do math in public around these parts. Um, but let's, let's, let's talk about to give some more context to some of the business models that, that, uh, you're investing in. And you know, some of the, some of the ways they're solving problems and driving innovation, and we'll want to start with you, and then we're gonna circle back and get Todd's, uh, color commentary as well. So will what, what the, some of those investments look like? Yeah,
I would say, um, we're very thesis driven. Um, so we talked a little bit about areas of focus. Um, I'll give an example, a couple areas that we spend time. One is labor. So if you go ask our customers right now, their biggest pain points, it's labor, labor labor. So within that, there's four key components of it, recruitment, retention, training, and safety. Um, and each of them, we have the potential to offer solutions in them. So we've invested in a company called work step, which is a V uh, database of warehouse workers that people can actively use to recruit talent on that. They've actually built a retention platform that allows people to get actual insights into what's keeping employees at a company or reasons why they're leaving, but really getting to the root cause. Um, and the common thing in, for example, in warehouses, where someone took a job because they got 15 cents or 25 cents more from warehouse across the street, when you actually look at the data, it manners your warehouse who walks around and says, Hey ward, Hey Scott, Hey Todd, how are you doing today?
Versus someone who just sits in the office, there's a clear difference in retention. So the fact that, okay, the pay is impact, but there are other aspects that actually influence retention and understanding that another example company we invested in is kinetic, which does wearable devices, uh, for workers. So if I'm doing an unsafe movement, I'm bending over and properly, they'll give me a haptic ping. And so I understand like, okay, I'm putting my body at risk and putting myself in an unsafe environment. It trains workers to be able to better use and avoid workplace injuries. Uh, we've made an investment in a company called STRIVR that does, um, virtual training for warehouse workers. Um, so these are different ways. We're thinking about it on top of it. We as a company incubate businesses to, um, so I'll talk a little bit later about something we're doing with the V. It it's really exciting, but on worker training, we actually launched two years ago, maybe a little bit longer something we call community workforce initiative. And this, every time we build a building, we actually self-impose a tax and we take that money and reinvest in the local communities for worker training. So we've worked with a number of local, um, organizations, NGOs, nonprofits that can help provide training resources for the workforce in areas that we are participants. Um, our goal is by 2025 to train 25,000 workers. Wow.
Okay. Yeah. So a lot of the common themes, those examples there, you know, safety and training, investing in the workforce, as you put it, you know, labor is top of mind, seems like for everybody right now and not just here in the states. Um, so Todd, what else would you add? Those are some pretty powerful examples in particular, like how, um, you also look to invest, you know, beyond those businesses, you look to invest in the communities they're plugged into. That's got a great, uh, do good gift forward vibe to it. Todd, what else would you add about some of the investments are making some of the problems innovation that they're addressing? Uh,
Well, before I jumped too far, a fun story, kinetic was the first startup that I was ever able to get a commercial agreement, um, when I was at ups. So prior to even joining Prologis prior to knowing that Palosh said it invested, um, in kinetic, um, we had been working with, uh, with Haitham in that team to, to help bring safety, um, kind of this digital safety approach to our operations at ups, which I thought was such a fascinating, like it came full circle because then I joined the Prologis team and had a chance to go have drinks with hate them. And it was just that love it. But anyways, um, it kind of taught me the power of how, you know, these small, innovative companies, the impact it can have on thought leadership at these, you know, fortune 50 companies. Um, so it was like, it was kind of the starting point for me to really, really take off and start a plan.
Um, I would say from Prologis ventures, the other area, a couple of other companies that we've invested in that are just absolutely fantastic. Um, outrider is one that stands out to me as one that is extremely transformative. When you think, you know, we'll give an example earlier, you'll drive by a facility and you'll see just lines of trucks, right. Just waiting to get in. And part of this is, is when you try to think of what the yard looks like, what's the yard of the future mean, and what technologies will enable, you know, our customers to understand where their assets are in those parking lots and in that yard, um, well outriders and, uh, they're an automation company that's brought automation or an autonomous vehicle to moving trailers around within your yard and being able to actually act as the jockey in backing trailers up and making sure that the doors are loaded with the right the right trailers and that you can actually autonomously move and position your goods within the yard.
And, uh, I'll go to your initial question, which is around the business case around that. Well, when you think about labor and you also think about what's happening inside the four walls, so you have these challenges of distributing labor to unload these trailers as fast as possible, but you also have a challenge of making sure you have to have labor outside. That's making sure that those trailers are in the right spot at the right time and it's the right goods, right? So it just can't be any trailer that you're just pulling up to an open dock. And outrider is a fantastic example of, of how the world is starting to see or how it can capture and lean into automation to, uh, empower more streamlined efficiencies inside the four walls. So that's an interesting company they're, they're outstanding. They're going to do great things. Um, another great company along the same lines is Bhutan and Bhutan has tackled this use case where if you think about long haul trucking, right?
And you look at it from an efficiency standpoint, just purely efficiency, the front end and the backend of that, that trip are highly inefficient, right? So the last three miles and the first three miles are extremely inefficient from the drivers perspective and the drivers are gold, right. And I mean that through and through in that you're also the earth. Yep. Absolutely. And their time is so valuable because they are now mandated to be, you know, for how many hours of service they can have in a given day and in a given week. And so every minute lost in, in dwell time or whatever, you know, however they're losing those minutes is, um, is precious to the customers that are, that are reliant on that cargo. So Bhutan operates these droplets that will allow drivers to operate on a point to point. So they completely trim those tails and they'll allow you to drop trailers and hook trailers in the same lock instantly.
They can digitally coordinate when those doors are, when the door is ready to be, you know, when it's open to be for delivery, they'll coordinate with a local service to get those trailers to and from the dock door. And again, it's, it's a game changer in the sense of when you think of the broad swath of where transportation is headed and how we're starting to see efficiencies take place, um, or where the opportunities lie. Bhutan's fantastic. And they're tackling that use case. It also collides with, with all things, autonomous vehicles, which I'm a huge fan of and, and, and let an investment in two simple. Why was that ups
Love it, love it, Todd. Um, you know, going back to the trucker for a second, you know, what word you and I had a pretty eyeopening interview, Current truck driver, uh, Kelly, Lynn, uh, and her last name is [inaudible] second.
Yeah. We went to the gall and she's at Schneider. She's a truck driver there. So we, our last podcast, Scott and I did, she was our guest.
Fantastic. She actually said will. And Todd, a rhetorical question, you know, when did, because of all the feedback she gets some because of some of the pressures not to drive and not to drive for a living. She came out and said, when did truck driving make us, you know, make
Drivers as second class citizens because of how they're treated. So you got to love on our truck drivers, uh, Amanda Clay, or Jaeda. If we could drop that episode in the comments, that'd be great. Kelly Lynn was, um, to your point, Todd, she's gold, gold, and just salt of the earth. Yeah. There, uh, Schneider's a, a partner of ours and one of our portfolio companies called platform science. Uh, and there, I mean, that's, it's, it's amazing how for thinking that company is, but it's, it's really the core is the driver and making sure that they have a good experience and that they, I mean, as we've seen the last couple years, I mean, they're so crucial the underpinnings of our supply chain and the fact that it's viewed the second class is actually detrimental to all of us because without them, I can't get anything delivered at home. Like, can you see what's happening at the ports right now? The truck drivers are an essential part of it.
I agreed with a great point. All right. So ward, um, any comment on, based on what we'll and Todd has shared on some of these great investments in some of the meaningful innovation, real innovation has become one of those cliche, you know, uh, I think a lot of times it is a lot of folks think of ideation, but what I'm hearing with will, and Todd, this is action. Bottom line, driving change, driving industry change. And in some cases we're just getting started, the impact, you know, what Todd was talking about earlier, the impact is going to be only get greater, uh, in the months ahead. But we're at, I know we won't talk about trends, but any, any comes on you're in for,
I think that it's, you're just hitting the nail on the head with a, I think the two things I hear about the most and I, we didn't really talk about it, um, earlier, but what I do with Colliers is represent tenants. So my job, um, I think in the heart of my job is to understand what the tenants want as well, which is what I think Prologis is really good at doing. And, um, we're very aligned, um, from, um, from that angle. And, um, that's the number one thing, or I guess the top two things are labor and transportation. It's, um, having the right labor and it's moving freight as fast and efficiently as possible. So that's what you guys are talking about here. So, yeah. Um, what's, what's on the horizon. I know. Um, and also on our last, um, Prologis episode that we did, Stephen Hussein was on, um, can you just talk very highly of the pro
Referenced earlier? So I know that you guys like work closely with him and he's, um, we're developing and building in Dallas right now. Um, with another one of my clients, it's a, uh, with three PL client and we're trying to really look into the green initiatives. We're trying to be as forward thinking as possible. And, uh, but like the next topic I'd like to discuss, I'll let you start will is, um, what's on the horizon. Um, I, there's no doubt, um, green initiatives are on the horizon and P and you guys are doing that, I think in your base buildings and a lot of cases, and Steven's really educated me on that, but I'd love to dig into that. And then also just like what else you're seeing on the horizon, uh, outside of what we've already discussed.
Yep. Yeah. And I'll, uh, I'll do a very brief segue just to talk on Scott's comment on innovation earlier and then bring it back to exactly what you suggested. I think innovation has become a buzzword. Um, the way we've always thought about it is innovation occurs when constraints are removed and white space opens up. And if you think about, okay, why machine learning's valuable suddenly you can process data and make decisions faster than everywhere before. So Uber had two constraints, one that trust to get into a car, and they figured out how to do that. And second, how do you suddenly process where all these vehicles are? And by removing those constraints, suddenly a way to disrupt taxis opened up. So if you think of all our businesses, there are some constraints, there are laws of physics that you can't fix, but most constraints in life are self-imposed or technology can help address over time.
So a lot of this stuff can be continual improvement on how do we just optimize? And we, as a company have done a ton of things around kaizens and looking cousins and looking at our leasing processes, our capital deployment and creating efficiencies there. And then a portion of the time spending a lot of them were transformational ideas. Um, so an area that we're really excited right up round and you were alluding to is, was sustainability. Um, and within that, we are the third largest operator of rooftop solar in the world. And less than 2% of our roofs are actually covered by solar right now. So there is a massive opportunity as you get moved to a more decentralized electric grid. Um, so centralized electric grid is what we traditionally have with PowerPoints, solar, which is on a bunch of rooftops, is a decentralized, um, network within that you get battery storage, where we are really excited also is, is electric vehicles.
So we have Amazon, for example, as publicly announced, they've ordered a hundred thousand Vivian trucks. Todd, when he was at ups, uh, led an investment in a company called arrive. Um, and I can't remember what the order was, but it was a massive order across our customer base. Everyone is really focusing on how to get to a carbon neutral supply chain, right? And these vehicles are going to be coming off the line and the next couple of years, and none of the infrastructure invest exists today to actually charge these vehicles. Um, and very rarely do you get an industry? I think 200 billion was spent last year by trucks on molecules or traditional diesel fuel. That is going to going to be completely up in the air on as these fleets transition, what infrastructure and how's that now it's going to be electrons instead of molecules how's that actually it can provide it.
So when we take a step back and look and say, all right, with a billion square feet where these vehicles likely will be charged as a component, the fact that we have a billion square feet of roofs that we can put solar on to actually produce the energy, right. Um, there is a massive opportunity for us to really be at the forefront and helping our customers shift to this transition. So we've recently hired an individual Henry Collins, um, who was at shell for 18 years to come in and lead our global Evie infrastructure mobility practice. And this is going to be creating turnkey solutions for our customers, uh, with the right ecosystem of partners, whether it's a hardware, software providers, utilities, um, and then the manufacturers themselves to be able to accelerate this adoption. And for us, when you look at the business opportunity, it's massive, but even the societal benefits that we can help bring by pushing forward a change, um, that companies are really excited about and need and are putting a lot of effort behind, but we can be a great partner to do a facilitate that happening faster, more streamlined in a more effective way.
And I mean, you talked earlier about our kids, right? If I can actually contribute and make the world a better place for my two daughters, that's something like I actually get excited, energized, right? Name of the game,
Uh, and art. So ward, you're asking about what's next, what's next? We'll painted quite a picture. Todd, what would you add?
Well, dealer's choice gentlemen. I can talk, I can talk warehouse automation. I get to,
Excited about? I'm going, let's go warehouse, uh, warehouse operations. When you think of the, the, the combination of, you know, workflow automation and traditional labor, because they are, they are tied together at this point, right? So there's two types of automation. There's the, there's the structured version of automation, which a big belt system. So your ups and Amazon's of the world. When you look inside, when you peek under the hood of, of some of their largest facilities, miles of belts, right. That, that move millions of packages. You got,
Wait a second, Todd, hang on a sec. We just got world-class sound effects. They're provided by ward Richmond. How did that go?
Well, it was in police academy, number that dude in place, it had me back in the day, That's like word you
Second career for award, uh, at the improv you can catch into Saturday night folks. All right. So, so Todd, uh, it just having a good time. Perfect humor. Right. All right. So Todd, you're talking, you're painting a picture of these, these massive fulfillment distribution centers, all these miles and millions of miles of conveyor belts. So pick it back up from there. So
It's a highly structured world and it's extremely it. Those, the more structured automation is extremely efficient. It's designed to move those million packages a day and the opposite of structured innovation or structured automation would be this more flexible approach where you think of, um, autonomous forklift company. So we have an investment in a company and Gideon, Gideon brothers, and they're out of Croatia. Um, it was one of the most brilliant companies on the planet when it comes to machine learning and robotics. And what they're solving for is the ability to load and unload trailers with, uh, with, uh, autonomous forklifts. So at ups alone, that was a, that was a multi-billion dollar problem. And if you think across our customer base, when we look at the problem sets that they face over the next five to 10 years, right? Well, every single one of our buildings has dock doors and they all have trailers that need to be loaded and unloaded.
And so this is a synonymous use case across, across all of our partners. And that was one key category that we wanted to invest in. And so when I think of what's next, I think of a world where the future state of, of warehouse operations is this combination of highly flexible automation and a traditional workforce. And that traditional workforce, they're not being displaced per se. They're being up-skilled to where now you're in a control tower and you're managing and coordinating maybe 10, 12, 20 different types of robotic automation or system automations to create a more efficient facility, something that can now produce maybe 20 to 30 times, you know, the efficiency and the power of what that, that same footprint could do before. And I think that's an incredibly attractive target for many of our, our small to medium business partners that are looking to get the most out of their operations.
And the most out of their people is, you know, forklift, automation is one category category might be, you know, put away in storage. Right, right. A fantastic example that we've also invested in would be a company named locus robotics, and locus does kind of the picking pick the goods type fulfillment movement. So they're helping, um, traditional labor manage, uh, a massive footprint of, of fulfillment orders, right? So there's a bunch of different categories that are starting to emerge and the ability to stitch those companies together so that they can work in a single, you know, operated an orchestrated by a single person. I think that's an exciting future, right? Because it's led by you and I, you know, I not PhD roboticists yet. If I could walk into a facility and, you know, pull out a tablet and just drag and drop what I want to happen and click go and have, you know, automation assist me in my task. I think that's, that's a wildly attractive outcome for, for our customers in their futures.
Sign me up tops. I mean, it's creating a whole new art of the possible, and I agree with you and you know, what, for our, um, all the, the, the incredible people that make up the global workforce is creating new opportunities for them, new opportunities, more compensation, more, uh, fulfilling careers, new, new, new skills learned, and then some, um,
And it also Scott on that creates a safer environment. So like in a traditional pick and pack environment, someone used to have to work walked nine to 12 miles a day with something like locus that individual can stay in a smaller and the robot comes to them. And so you're having less wear and tear on the body and you're making the person more efficient. The other area that we're really excited about is really the future of commerce. And that would be as a company politesse has been very, very active by an urban infill real estate for last mile distribution. The business model behind that is rapidly evolving. So how do you think about new distribution delivery methods, whether it's drones, whether it's automated vehicles, um, inventory management and placement. So if I'm going to get same day next day delivery, they have to predict that I'm going to buy something and put it in a location close to me.
Right. Um, and then think about the flow through, through the entire supply chain, where, how do I make some, how do I have that inventory in the right place at the right time, uh, and a systematic way. And we're all seeing a low, well, not a little, a lot of the pressures on supply chain right now, uh, with the trucks waiting outside, port of LA, the delays you walk into target or retail or the grocery store, and they don't have as much on the shelves right now. That is a really, really interesting area that we're digging in is how do you enable the flow of commerce? How do you enable e-commerce? Uh, but really the inventory management, the visibility and the connectivity between all these different players.
And so does Peter bullae, he says, use a Scott ism there. I didn't know. That was such a thing, great stuff here. It is great stuff. And, and Peter is also getting out he's departing early, hidden out a hidden link. So Peter hit him. Um, all right. And by the way, come on back to we'll you had a call out there and our, our, our, um, world-class research team that was Michael Winslow was the sound, uh, the sound guy from police academy, the product spoke Katz.
All right. So y'all got us excited. You got us excited about the future commerce, the future supply chain. I really, you know, I love, again, I love the prologue Jace's, uh, approach at innovating in a way that is it's, uh, customers tell us what you're struggling with and then going out there, outside the four walls, uh, to make it happen with some of the best in industry. It's a very unique model in ward. I'll tell ya. Uh, I wish I wish I could do some of this, or what are some of the, based on what some of what we'll and Todd has shared here today? What some of your, your, uh, final thoughts?
Oh, I'm just so thankful to have you guys with us here today and, uh, hope to stay in touch and, um, let's keep, uh, keep moving forward and making, you know, the life better for all of our customers and the supply chain, and then hopefully, um, improving the sustainability for the future for our kids out there, because it is, I mean, it's a real thing. And all of these, all these warehouses getting built for are going to have to do something because it can't just keep continuing the way that things have been getting done in the past. It's just not, it's not feasible. So I'm really thankful to have guys like you, um, here in this world, doing what you're doing, because, um, it's absolutely necessary. So many things
W yeah, echo what war just said there, especially the important stuff about challenging and changing the status quo, because that's not, what's going to get us to tackle some of these really important goals by the way, Jennifer, one of y'all's colleagues with Prologis, uh, thanks for all of your facilitation, Jennifer, uh, coming up on October 27th, we got to thought leadership events, midstream, globally. Folks y'all can join there if you click on that link in the comments and sky box. Thanks so much, Jennifer. Okay.
That's a quick way, but that would be a cool event. He needs going to be interviewing the CEO of ups. We have the woman who actually, uh, we're partnering with on the workforce training and initiative. Uh, we're going to have a panel on sustainability, and then, uh, I'm going to add a panel with transportation. So, um, really exciting, um, event. And it's, it's going to be really about changing innovation and thought leadership. So
Love it. Will you say is that the Carol Tomi is going to be there?
Carrollton man, one of the best interviews, uh, talk about moving the industry forward. Uh,
Yeah, she's a, she's a force. Um, I'm, I'm really looking forward to this one
At dynamo. Okay. So, uh, we'll talk, uh, it is w we don't have enough time. We need to bolt on a few more hours. I love by the way, clearly y'all are enjoying what you're doing, and there's a great comradery between you we'll have to get all six of y'all in a room at some point soon, but in the meantime, uh, beyond checking out that October 27th event, again, folks, the link is in the comments. We'll add it to the show notes of the podcast replay. We'll how can folks connect with you?
Yeah. You had asked me this question earlier, and you said people would sometimes struggle with it. I was confused like people like you could fax me or something. So the LinkedIn's obviously an easy way. Prologis ventures has a website, just there's this thing called Google type in politeness ventures and what pop up. And then my email address is w O'Donnell you can, without the apostrophe and the email@prologis.com. Um, and with this stuff, we actually love to chat with people, love to hear ideas, and we're always curious to learn more. So Todd,
Todd, how can folks track you down
Pigeon and LinkedIn, both phenomenal methods, um, but no, feel free, please tag me on LinkedIn, love to connect, um, in chat, all things, supply chain, um, and then equally, you know, head on out to our prolapse veterans website. Um, and there's, there's a, a nice way to connect with us there, but it's been fantastic. Scott Moore, thank you for having a song.
Well, Danny, on the, uh, the website, you can see the full list of the, uh the investments we've made and there's little briefings behind all of it. So wonderful.
Well, big, thanks to you both. I appreciate all three of y'all letting me hang out without any facial hair. Uh, nice to be included in the school conversations. Hey, uh, will O'Donnell Todd Lewis with Prologis ventures home stuff. We'll have to get an update on how the end of the year goods with you both really appreciate a Prologis commitment to not only address the current state, but building a much brighter future for commerce supply chain in a whole lot more big. Thanks will and Todd, thanks so much.
Thank you guys for this. Awesome fun. And we'll get together for that Dallas game. Oh, Eagles game.
Hey man. Wow. That's quite the dynamic duo and man, you see Todd? Well, both of them had tons of passion, but man, when Todd started talking about innovation, so much things, his eyes just lit up. I love that. Um, but all right. So what were, what was some of your favorite parts of the last hour or so?
Well, I mean the passion that's, there is just so, um, so evident in both of those guys and pro wives is lucky to have them both and, um, uh, I, I loved hearing about everything that's going on and um, I mean, a lot of it's a way above my pay grade. I, I love talking about, um, like learning about all of this stuff that's going on out there that I've never even heard about. And I know, I know that labor is a problem and transportation's a problem. But then when I hear about these solutions that are getting done behind the scenes out there, it's really fascinating. So yeah.
Agreed, agreed way. I appreciate your good work and facilitating these conversations. I think this was our, uh, of this season as it were of the supply chain real estate series. I think it was season three, this was the third installment and we've gotten a lot of great feedback, uh, on these, these conversations with various members of the Prologis team. But Hey, let's make sure folks know how to connect with ward Richmond. Yes,
Sir. Um, I, LinkedIn is a great way to connect with me, so you can always just search board Richmond on LinkedIn. So hit me up there, love to connect and I'm almost at 10,000 followers. I just realized, so I'm just like a couple hundred away. So, um, let me get there before the end of the year. And then, uh, I have also got my blog supply chain real estate.com and of course I'm with Colliers international, so you can go find me there as well. So, um, yeah. Thanks Scott for, um, organizing all of this with, uh, the, your great company and, uh, let me be a part of it as always. It's just such a pleasure, my man.
Well, uh, I appreciate, I appreciate the passion you bring the table. Hey folks, all the comments, uh, thanks for tuning in again, we really, we love a good sense of humor around here and, uh, you know, that was certainly one of my favorite parts, uh, between you and Todd and we'll, uh, you know, it's, it's good. Uh, it's stressful. Some of these days are it is good. Laughter is perhaps the best medicine. Uh, but what a great story, one of innovation and business and opportunities for all, including the founders of some of these companies, the teams, as soon as some of these companies, but also the global workforce. So big on behalf of Ord Richmond on behalf of our entire team, Amanda and clay and Allie and Jade, all behind scenes. Uh, this is Scotland signing off for now. Hey folks, do a good gift forward. Be the change that's needed on that note. We'll see you next time. Right back here on supply chain now,
Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain now.