I’m not the biggest reader, but I figured I’d better grab a book for my trip down to Querétaro, Mexico, this week. After a quick stop at the Harvard Co-op in Cambridge, I picked up How to Be Better at Almost Everything by Pat Flynn.
In it, Pat writes:
“You don’t need to be world-class at one thing. You need to be good at many things — and combine them in a way that’s unique and useful.”
This doesn’t just apply to life or business — it’s a perfect reflection of how great supply chains work.
Too often, companies put all their energy into perfecting one thing — usually the forecast. They hire data scientists, fine-tune algorithms, and chase decimal-point precision. And yes, they often achieve something impressive. But it’s not enough.
A supply chain is an adaptive, dynamic system, and systems perform best when all the parts are good enough and well connected, not when one piece is flawless while the rest are overlooked.
The Power of Being Good at Many Things
The Demand Driven Adaptive Enterprise (DDAE) model is built on this principle. It doesn’t depend on a perfect forecast. Instead, it brings together:
- Reasonable forecasting
- Real consumption data
- Responsive buffers
- Intelligent scheduling
- Adaptive S&OP
None of these have to be perfect. But when they work well together, you get a system that’s resilient, adaptive, and high-performing.
Just as important, though, is that DDAE includes continuous feedback. An adaptive model constantly measures performance, highlights what’s working (and what’s not), and helps the business adjust quickly. It doesn’t just plan — it learns.
As Pat Flynn says, if you want to improve, record everything and obsess over the results. That’s exactly what adaptive systems do. They course-correct often, based on real signals, not just perfect theoretical plans.
So thanks, Pat, for an unexpectedly enjoyable read. Besides the reminder that discipline is freedom, your book made me think about how we build world-class supply chains — not by chasing perfection, but by being good at the things that matter. Combine them. Connect them. Make the flow. That’s where real power comes from.
Think flow,
Kevin Boake
