My name is Phillip Teschemacher and I’m President for the APAC region at Kinaxis. My role is to lead the business across Asia Pacific, which includes, but is not limited to, leading the team with the right go-to-market strategies, as well as strategies on building a long-term relationship with our existing customers and engaging new prospects. I also manage the talent development strategy to recruit and retain talent to our company, and partners to help broaden the Kinaxis ecosystem. All these strategies help Kinaxis capture the market opportunities and be on top of supply chain trends, and achieve our vision of expanding our reach and operations for Asia Pacific. 

How did you end up working in the supply chain space?

For many years I’ve been working in the enterprise software industry, first focusing on infrastructure and collaboration solutions. I was then given the opportunity to move into a more business-oriented area, with the main value drivers around sustainability, environment, health and safety, product safety and compliance and recycling. 

Shortly after this solution area was embedded into the global Supply Chain Platform practice, as it already was high on the agenda 15 years ago for customers in the Nordics. From then on, I learned about all of the SCM disciplines for planning, logistics and orchestration and have been fascinated ever since about how impactful well-run supply chains can be on the customer’s business and on sustainability parameters at the same time. 

What does a typical working day look like for you? 

Not many days during a normal working week are the same, which keeps it interesting and exciting. 

Since joining Kinaxis, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to countries like Japan and India, experiencing the rich culture and diversity that Asia Pacific has to offer. I met with our team members, new prospects and existing customers to understand their business and strategies and how Kinaxis’ solutions can be the right fit for them and how the company can continue to improve our existing customers’ supply chain infrastructure. I’m amazed about the energy, diversity and high engagement levels from each and every one that I had the chance to speak with. Most of all, I’ve been learning a lot about Asia in a very short amount of time, which I’ll be forever grateful for.

Amid turbulent times, how are you and Kinaxis helping companies to prepare for future supply chain crises?

In today's global economy, supply chain disruptions have become more frequent and impactful. Traditional supply chain management methods, often characterised by a reactive and siloed approach, struggle to keep pace with these challenges.

One of the core strengths of Kinaxis in managing supply chain disruptions is our concurrent planning capability. Unlike traditional planning methods, which often work in silos and sequence, concurrent planning brings all elements of the supply chain into a single, integrated plan. This allows for instant visibility across the entire network, from supply to demand, logistics to production.

When a situation arises, our platform enables companies to see the impact across their entire supply chain immediately – not just in isolated segments. This means they can quickly understand how a delay in shipping might affect production schedules, inventory levels, and ultimately, customer fulfilment.

What sets concurrent planning apart is its ability to run multiple scenarios in real time. This lets our clients compare different strategies for handling disruptions, such as finding alternative shipping routes or adjusting production schedules, and then choose the best path forward with confidence. It's about making informed decisions quickly and efficiently.

This approach transforms how companies manage supply chain risks. With Kinaxis' concurrent planning, businesses are not just reacting to disruptions; they're proactively managing them. This agility and resilience are critical for thriving in today's fast-paced and unpredictable global market. It's what enables our clients to turn challenges into opportunities.

What technological innovations in the supply chain space are you most excited about? 

In recent months, we’ve seen multiple instances demonstrating just how fraught successfully getting goods from A to B can be in an era where consumer expectations have never been higher. Think rebel attacks in the Red Sea, freak accidents like the Baltimore bridge collapse or climate-change driven extreme weather anomalies like the drought-stricken Panama Canal.

Across all industries, AI is being sought after as a critical tool to augment human intelligence and support risk mitigation strategies around these sorts of issues and drive the most intelligent supply chains on the planet. And with businesses more vulnerable to disruptions than ever before, it’s never been more needed.  

Kinaxis uses AI to drive better results while maintaining the speed and agility required to navigate modern supply chain challenges – by generating prescriptive recommendations, predicting and surfacing insights, automating processes and enhancing productivity through its platform. This human-centred approach puts people first, augmenting their capabilities to support faster and more informed decision making.  

AI is not a panacea and, for some of the biggest supply chain challenges, it’s a question of ‘right tool, right problem, right time’. To that end, both heuristics and optimisation offer unparalleled agility. Creatively combining the strengths of each approach to achieve an equilibrium of speed, precision and elegance is ultimately the best course of action.

People often get so caught up with what AI can do, they forget what machines cannot provide: context, collaboration and conscience – the critical human factors. AI can augment humans, but it can’t replace the ability to make decisions that need to consider these three Cs.

We see many organisations positioning AI as the silver bullet – it’s not, but deployed thoughtfully, with humans at the centre, AI will have transformational impacts.  

To what extent is Kinaxis prioritising sustainability across its own supply chain and that of your clients? 

The supply chain continues to be the single largest consumer of the Earth’s natural resources – whether it’s the materials used to make something, the resources required to store something or the emissions expelled to ship something.  

We help businesses manage these processes more effectively and have specific capabilities designed with sustainability in mind, whether it’s Scope 3 emissions monitoring or our recycling planning tool. Regardless of the differing regulatory moves and standards around the world, the writing is on the wall, businesses are going to need tools that provide visibility and transparency within their supply chain in order to operationalize their sustainability goals.  

In addressing climate action, businesses can model countless 'what if' scenarios using our platform to strategically assess and mitigate the environmental impact of each with a view to adopting the most effective ones. For example, consider a 'what if' analysis that explores the outcome of switching to renewable energy sources in manufacturing processes. This could reveal not only the potential reduction in carbon emissions but also long-term cost savings. Similarly, a 'what if' scenario that evaluates the environmental and economic impacts of adopting more efficient logistics routes or packaging materials can illuminate paths to significant sustainability gains. Lastly, better planning (alignment of demand and supply) is often missed as a means of tackling sustainability challenges and can lead to things like less material waste. We forget that the greenest product is the one that wasn’t made. By exploring these scenarios, companies can identify and implement measures that yield measurable environmental benefits while also aligning with their business objectives. This approach encourages proactive, informed decision-making that goes beyond compliance and contributes meaningfully to global climate action efforts.

What are your goals, personal and professional, for the next 12-18 months?

We have defined our vision for Kinaxis’ APAC growth and sales acceleration. These are clearly defined business goals, which the entire team is engaged in pursuing. With the current momentum in the market, it looks likely we will succeed even before our set timelines. It will be another great track record achieved. 

On a personal level, my family is settling into their new life in Singapore, which has been a huge step but already rewarding in terms of learning and fantastic experiences – and we have many more exciting plans in front of us, confirming that we made the right choice.

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