Simulation is the missing layer in supply chain talent development. That is the thesis of this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, where Sheri Hinish sits down with Rada Lazarova from Inchainge, the company behind The Fresh Connection and The Blue Connection, the world's leading supply chain business simulations used by over 40% of the world's top 100 manufacturers and nearly half a million learners across more than 100 countries.

Rada, based in Utrecht in the Netherlands, brings a perspective shaped by her own journey from Bulgaria to Wisconsin to the Dutch experiential learning ecosystem. She explains why traditional supply chain education falls short: it teaches theory without context, creating professionals who understand frameworks but freeze when confronted with the cross-functional complexity of real supply chain decisions. Inchainge's simulations drop participants, whether university students or Fortune 500 executives, into virtual companies where they take on VP-level roles and discover, often painfully, that optimizing their own function can bankrupt the entire business.

Together, they explore why silos are the root cause of supply chain underperformance, how the human behaviors of students and C-suite executives are remarkably similar when placed in simulation environments, why sustainability thinking only takes hold when every decision is linked to impact metrics, and how Inchainge's new AI tutor responds like a teacher (with more questions, not answers) rather than a chatbot. Rada closes with a challenge to every supply chain leader: stop saving the day, start solving the problem.

Chapter Markers:

0:00 Introduction: simulation as the missing layer in supply chain talent

0:24 Meet Rada Lazarova: from Bulgaria to Wisconsin to Inchainge

1:29 Why traditional supply chain education falls short

2:21 Inside the simulation: VP-level roles, cross-functional decisions, and sandbox failure

3:58 The power of going bankrupt with no consequences

4:33 Context engineering in the age of AI and automation

5:08 Silos as root cause: how one client restructured their KPI system after training

5:57 40% of the world's top 100 manufacturers: students vs. executives in the simulation

8:06 Recovery in a simulation vs. recovery in the real world

8:26 New AI and circularity capabilities on the Inchainge platform

9:12 The sustainability hands-up moment: before and after the simulation

11:00 Circular metrics: return on material, circularity of inputs, alternative revenue models

11:52 The AI tutor: why it asks questions instead of giving answers

13:35 Rapid fire: the biggest misconception about supply chain talent today

14:18 What every supply chain leader should unlearn

15:29 Rotate, explore, get your hands dirty: career advice

15:39 What excites Rada most about the next five years of supply chain education

Key Topics:

Supply chain talent development, simulation-based learning, experiential learning, Inchainge, The Fresh Connection, The Blue Connection, supply chain skills gap, cross-functional KPIs, silo breaking, supply chain education, AI in education, circularity simulation, supply chain sustainability training, core skills, context engineering, supply chain gamification, workforce development

Connect and Learn More:

Rada Lazarova: linkedin.com/in/radalazarova

Inchainge: inchainge.com

The Fresh Connection (supply chain simulation): inchainge.com/learning-solutions

The Blue Connection (circular economy simulation): inchainge.com/learning-solutions

Sheri Hinish (Supply Chain Queen): supplychainqueen.com

In this special Earth Day episode of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast, Sheri Hinish sits down with Wesley Herche, Director of Energy and Sustainability Solutions at Prologis and co-founder of the Sustainability Decoded newsletter. Wesley brings one of the most unconventional career paths in the sustainability world, from civilian intelligence officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and deployment to Iraq, through BCG and Amazon, to his current role at the world's largest logistics real estate company.

Wesley's thesis is as provocative as it is precise: there is no difference between GDP and energy. Every supply chain decision that appears to be about cost, resilience, or emissions is fundamentally an energy decision. He argues that organizations must stop treating energy like a procurement line item and start treating it as the operating system on which their entire supply chain runs.

Together, they unpack why the discovery of fossil fuels created the sharpest inflection point in human development history, how Pakistan added 25 gigawatts of rooftop solar (most of it through DIY TikTok tutorials) to build energy resilience now larger than all other generation combined, and why the Strait of Hormuz crisis is revealing what has always been true: energy logistics are the invisible substrate of the global economy.

Wesley breaks down the three energy services every business actually consumes (heat, propulsion, and electricity), how to evaluate alternative generation architectures across onsite solar, battery storage, green tariffs, and offsite renewables, and why treating emissions like product specs transforms procurement from a cost function into a strategic weapon. They close with the announcement of Sustainability Decoded as a new Supply Chain Revolution community partner.

Follow Wes and Sustainability Decoded

Key Topics: Earth Day 2026, energy supply chains, energy as operating system, renewable energy strategy, Prologis, Sustainability Decoded, Strait of Hormuz, electrotech, Scope 1 2 3 emissions, supplier decarbonization, onsite solar, battery storage, energy resilience, Pakistan solar revolution, GDP and energy, supply chain sustainability, green tariffs, climate strategy