Global transportation sourcing is not just about moving goods, it is about pricing risk, structuring contracts, and building resilience across a fragmented network of carriers, ports, customs brokers, and suppliers. Harry Davies explains how procurement leaders can diagnose transportation spend, benchmark rates lane by lane, and design supply chains that survive tariffs, capacity shocks, damage exposure, and geopolitical disruption.

He also breaks down how global logistics actually works in practice, from freighting finished vehicles out of Berlin to coordinating ocean, road, and terminal capacity across multiple countries. Along the way, he makes the case that AI can strengthen market intelligence and supplier shortlisting, but cannot replace judgment, operational execution, or contract discipline.

1. How to explain global sourcing in plain English, from supplier selection to last mile delivery
2. Why logistics and procurement have become strategic functions in a world shaped by tariffs, COVID, and geopolitical shocks
3. How finished vehicle logistics works across road, ocean, ports, terminals, and customs clearance
4. What can go wrong in transit, including delays, damage, missing shipments, insurance gaps, and dangerous goods risk
5. How to use tendering, weighted criteria, and market benchmarking to choose the right logistics partner
6. Why long-term contracts, buffer capacity, and primary plus secondary suppliers are central to continuity
7. Where AI helps in transportation sourcing, supplier shortlisting, market research, and contract standardization

Name: Harry Davies

Bio: Harry Davies is the Global Transportation Strategy and Sourcing Manager at Cisco, where he helps shape ground and parcel transportation across EMEA and the Americas. His career spans logistics, customs, transportation, and procurement roles across West Africa and Europe, including experience at Uber and Tesla. Harry’s perspective is especially valuable because he works at the intersection of sourcing, operating risk, and multinational supply chain execution, where contract design and service continuity matter.

Follow Harry on LinkedIn: Harry Davies

Subscribe to the channel for more conversations that sharpen how you think.

Follow us on social media: Business Unbound

Every week, your host, Florian Haufe, dives deep into conversations with visionary global leaders to bring you insights, inspiration, and the real stories behind success.

#BusinessUnbound #Podcast #SupplyChain #Procurement #Logistics #TransportationSourcing #GlobalSourcing

Consulting is being reshaped by AI, but the real shift is not simply automation, it is the changing consulting pyramid, the rise of smaller senior-led teams, and a sharper focus on commercial gravity at partner level. Ben Appleton, founder of Stratbridge, explains why senior hiring in strategy consulting now depends less on project pedigree and more on whether a candidate can originate work, solve a clear market problem, and bring credible client relationships with them.

He also breaks down why the market is bifurcating between global platforms that win on scale and boutiques that win on specialization, trust, and agility. From private equity capital flowing into mid-market firms to the limits of AI tools inside consulting shops, this conversation maps the forces that are redefining how firms compete, hire, and grow.

1. Why partner hiring in consulting is fundamentally a business case centered on commercial gravity, not just experience
2. How AI is changing the consulting pyramid by accelerating research, benchmarking, and early analysis while increasing pressure on senior talent
3. Why industry expertise often matters more than functional breadth when firms hire partners and directors
4. How to judge whether a consulting platform is right for your niche, ambition, and long-term partner case
5. Why the strongest partner candidates can explain a clear client problem, a credible revenue story, and a repeatable business development process

1. The future of consulting delivery as AI reshapes team size, junior roles, and the traditional apprenticeship model
2. Why the consulting market is splitting into large global platforms, deep boutiques, and PE-backed mid-market challengers
3. How firms evaluate client portability, origination history, and practice-building potential in partner searches
4. The tension between AI adoption, trust, and human judgment in C-suite advisory work
5. Why certain consulting segments, such as ESG, have cooled while AI, energy, aerospace, and defense are growing
6. The role of private equity in funding consulting firms and the capital needs created by AI transformation
7. What goes wrong when internal sponsors are misaligned or a partner move overpromises on client portability

Name: Ben Appleton

Bio: Ben Appleton is the founder of Stratbridge, a specialized executive search and advisory firm focused on the management and strategy consulting industry. Based in London, he works with consulting firms and senior leaders across the UK, Germany, Switzerland, North America, and other markets on partner, director, and team-level hiring. His perspective is especially valuable because he spent years inside professional services before building a niche practice at the intersection of talent, strategy, and consulting economics.

Follow Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bappleton/

Subscribe to the channel for more conversations that sharpen how you think.

Follow us on social media: https://linktr.ee/businessunbound

Every week, your host, Florian Haufe, dives deep into conversations with visionary global leaders to bring you insights, inspiration, and the real stories behind success.

#BusinessUnbound #Podcast #Consulting #ExecutiveSearch #PartnerHiring #ArtificialIntelligence #PrivateEquity

Biotech is a business built around uncertainty, where scientific hypotheses, capital allocation, and clinical trial execution collide.

Sara Ahmed explains why most drug candidates fail, how biotech companies actually move from discovery to first-in-human studies, and why the smartest founders start with the market and work backward.

Her perspective spans clinical operations, portfolio planning, and the practical economics of drug development, including why one asset can absorb years of runway and still never prove itself in humans. We also unpack gene therapy, RNA editing, AI in discovery, and the very different incentives behind curative versus chronic treatments.

• How to think about biotech as a capital-constrained business, not just a scientific field
• Why most of the cost in drug development sits in clinical trials, R&D, and manufacturing
• How to tell whether a biotech program deserves more capital, or should be stopped early
• Why founders should start with the disease market and work backward before pursuing a technology
• What separates scientists who can lead from those who struggle in business settings

• Sara Ahmed’s path from hospitals and private practice into CROs and biotech program management
• How the drug development value chain moves from pre-discovery to phase one, two, and three trials
• Why biotech companies outsource so much execution to CROs and specialized vendors
• The economics of clinical trials, GMP manufacturing, and capital burn in early-stage biotech
• Why 90 percent of drug candidates fail in clinical trials and what usually goes wrong
• Gene therapy, RNA editing, and the biological differences between DNA and RNA-targeted approaches
• Strategic tradeoffs between curative one-time therapies and recurring chronic treatments
• AI’s potential to reduce discovery costs and improve scientific knowledge management
• What biotech founders and investors should look for in milestones, fit, and management quality
• Why biotech rewards passion for science more than a short-term search for financial upside

Name: Sara Ahmed

Bio: Sara Ahmed works in biotech and drug development, most recently leading program development within the corporate strategy and portfolio planning team at an RNA editing therapies company focused on genetic diseases. Her career spans clinical operations, clinical trial execution, and enterprise-level program management across hospitals, CROs, and biotech firms, giving her a practical view of how scientific ideas move from hypothesis to human trials. She is currently pursuing an executive MBA at Yale University, adding a broader business lens to her deep experience in the drug development value chain.

Follow Sara on LinkedIn: LinkedIn

Subscribe to the channel for more conversations that sharpen how you think.

Follow us on social media: Linktree

Every week, your host, Florian Haufe, dives deep into conversations with visionary global leaders to bring you insights, inspiration, and the real stories behind success.

#BusinessUnbound #Podcast #Biotech #DrugDevelopment #ClinicalTrials #GeneTherapy #RNAEditing