Global Business Professor’s latest Audio Interview, “Three hidden disruptors in the international automotive industry,” features Sam Yankelevitch, global supply chain expert, author, trainer and international conference speaker.

In the five-minute Audio Interview, Yankelevitch discusses and answers these questions:

• What are the three hidden factors? How is the disruption affecting our industry?
• What should we be considering to mitigate this complexity?
• Why do you think “soft skills” are not taken as seriously? What is it that keeps companies from dealing with it effectively?
• If the factors you mention, as you say, are invisible, and of high-impact to our industry, what can leaders do?

Yankelevitch is an author, trainer and international conference speaker, whose expertise is focused on the problems miscommunication is creating for teams in the growing complexity of global supply chains.

He is currently the CEO of Xpress Lingo Solutions, a leader in communication improvement workshops, adopting Lean thinking and quality concepts in support of the supply chain’s need for quality interactions, aligned teams and fast responses toward sustainable solutions.

Prior to that, Yankelevitch served as the vice president and general manager of a Germany-based automotive supplier and the president of Ideace Inc., an international manufacturer and exporter of hardware products.

He has trained numerous teams and presented at conferences such as the ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement, BMW Manufacturing Supplier Diversity Conference, the Kaizen Institute Congress and The University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business and Syracuse University Supply Chain Improvement Symposium.

His newest book is “Walking the Invisible Gemba,” which adds to his other books: “Global Lean: Seeing the New Waste Rooted in Communication, Culture and Distance” and “Lean Potion#9: Communication- The Next Lean Frontier,” where he adopts Lean thinking to reduce miscommunication in organizations. He is also the LinkedIn Learning instructor of Agreements for Success in Global Projects.

Yankelevitch is a member of the Operational Excellence Society Advisory Board and the Supply Chain Advisory Board of the Appalachian State University of North Carolina. He is an industrial engineer with an executive master’s degree in financial management. Besides English, he speaks

Spanish fluently and is well versed in German, French and Italian.

To listen to the Audio Interview, click here.