I’m a global entrepreneur who has spearheaded numerous ventures. I serve as President/CEO of The Atlas Network, LLC, a global supply chain enterprise offering comprehensive end-to-end services, including Consulting, Product Development, Factory Selection, Mass Production Oversight/Management, Quality Control, Documentation, Logistics, Shipping, and Storage.

I’m the Founder and CEO of The Global Crosswalk, LLC, a SaaS solutions platform that streamlines project lifecycles for the supply chain industry. I’m also the founder and co-host of the “Supply & Demand Show,” on YouTube. And the author of the best-selling book "Supply Chain Ups and Downs".

I make deals across diverse sectors - Technology, Retail, Entertainment, Real Estate, Spirits, Packaging, Sports Equipment, Medical, Import/Export, and Banking. I’ve held notable positions at NASD/FINRA (National Association of Securities Dealers), Accenture, SEC, Friedman Billings Ramsey, and 24/7 Media.

I hold a BA in Finance, International Business, and Marketing from Washington University in St. Louis, an MBA in Business Law and Finance from American University, and an Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy certification from MIT.  I’m a continuous learner pursuing equilibrium in thought, culture, business practices, and amongst people.

Your supply chain team doesn't need new tools.
They need fewer priorities and clearer ownership:

Right now, most teams are drowning in capability.

AI planning tools...
Automation platforms...
Dashboards layered on dashboards...

On paper, the tech stack looks impressive.
In practice?

The same issues keep showing up.

Not because the tools are bad- but because everything is “important” and no one truly owns the outcome.

I’ve seen teams with world-class software struggle because:

Five initiatives are competing for attention-

No one knows which metric actually matters this quarter
Ownership is shared, which usually means it’s unclear
Tools get implemented, but never fully embedded
Process bottlenecks are ignored

So leaders do what feels logical.

They add another tool.
Another workflow.
Another layer of automation.

But complexity doesn’t fix confusion.
It amplifies it.

The teams that get real value from AI and automation do something much simpler first:

They confirm what actually matters right now and kill or pause everything else.

They clean up processes before compounding them with tech.

They assign one clear owner per outcome (not per task.)

Only then do the tools start working the way they were promised.
Because technology doesn’t create clarity.

Clarity tells technology where to focus.

If your team is overwhelmed, the answer usually isn’t more software.
It’s fewer priorities.

Clearer ownership.

And the discipline to say “not yet” to everything else.

That’s how good tools turn into real leverage.

💬 Where does your team lose clarity today - priorities or ownership?

♻️ Save this as a reminder to fix what's broken first
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Kerim Kfuri

Global Supply Chain Expert | Public Speaker | Author of Supply Chain Ups and Downs | CEO, The Atlas Network | Follow for daily philosophy & leadership insights

The fastest way to kill transparency isn’t bad systems.
It’s how leaders react to bad news:

Most teams don’t stop being honest overnight.
They learn when honesty becomes unsafe.

Someone raises a risk early and gets dismissed.

A mistake gets surfaced and turns into a public interrogation.

Bad news is met with frustration, sarcasm or visible anger.

Nothing dramatic happens.
But something changes.
Next time, the issue gets softened.

Then delayed.
Then quietly worked around.

Eventually, leaders stop hearing problems early -not because teams are incompetent, but because they’re protecting themselves.

Truth doesn’t disappear because people don’t care.
It disappears when honesty starts to feel like punishment.

I’ve seen organizations with great tools, great dashboards, and great talent
operate completely blind because the culture taught people one thing:

“Bring solutions. Don’t bring problems.”

But complex systems don’t work that way.
Problems don’t vanish when they’re hidden.
They compound.

The strongest leaders I know don’t demand transparency.
They earn it.

By responding to bad news with curiosity instead of blame.

By separating accountability from emotional reactions.

By making it clear that surfacing reality early is valued not penalized.

Because the moment people believe telling the truth is risky, the system stops learning.

And once learning stops, failure is just a matter of timing.

💬 Has your team ever gone quiet? What caused it?

♻️Share this to inspire open communication

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The pressure isn't just intense anymore.

It's compounding.

Faster. Better. Cheaper.
And once you get there, the bar has already moved.

Technology accelerates.
Competition accelerates.
Global forces accelerate.

And somewhere along the way, leaders stopped asking "how do I keep up?"
Because the honest answer is: you can't.

Not fully. Not sustainably.

The leaders I've watched thrive in this environment aren't the ones who respond to every Slack message on vacation.

They're not the ones checking email at dinner "just in case."

They're the ones who've accepted something most leaders resist:

You cannot control the acceleration.
You can only control your boundaries within it.

Disconnecting isn't avoidance.
It's strategy.

Because a leader running on empty doesn't make better decisions.
They make faster, worse ones.

The compounding pressure will keep compounding.
That's the reality.

But the leaders who last aren't the ones who try to outrun it.

They're the ones who know when to step away from it.

Boundaries aren't weakness.

They're the only sustainable response to a world that will never stop asking for more.

💬 How do you protect your boundaries when the pressure keeps compounding?

♻️ Repost to remind leaders that rest is strategy

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The most underrated competitive advantage in operations:
It’s not speed...

It’s not technology.
It’s not even cost.

It’s clarity.

I’ve seen teams with fewer tools outperform teams with massive budgets simply because everyone understood reality.

They knew:

-What actually mattered this week
-Where decisions lived
-What tradeoffs were being made
-And who owned what when things changed

No scrambling.
No guessing.
No constant escalation.

Clarity does something most leaders underestimate.

It reduces noise.
It lowers stress.
It speeds up decision-making without rushing it.

When clarity is high:

-Teams don’t panic when something breaks
-Problems surface earlier
-Decisions stick

And execution feels… lighter

When clarity is missing:

-Everything feels urgent
-Meetings multiply
-People hedge instead of decide
-And speed actually slows down

The strongest operations I’ve worked with weren’t the most aggressive.
They were the most aligned.

Clarity didn’t just make them faster.
It made them calmer.

And calm, in complex systems, is a massive advantage.

💬 Where does your operation lose clarity most often?

♻️  Share this to promote operational clarity
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The biggest supply chain mistake I see leaders make?

They copy & paste a strategy that worked for someone else.

Agile.
Lean.
Fast.
Green.
All great models.
Demand-driven.

All wrong if they’re misaligned with your actual business goal.

There is no “best” supply chain strategy.

There is only the right strategy for what you’re trying to optimize.

Some businesses need flexibility.
Some need cost stability.
Some need speed.
Some need resilience.
Some need consistency at scale.

Problems start when:

A cost-focused business tries to move at startup speed
A fast-growth brand optimizes for efficiency too early
A demand-driven operation is run with rigid processes
Sustainability is treated as branding instead of design

That’s when leaders say things like:

“Why is this so hard?”
“Why do we keep missing targets?”
“Why does every change create new problems?”

The answer usually isn’t execution.
It’s strategy mismatch.

Strong supply chains aren’t built by doing more.

They’re built by choosing intentionally.
This cheatsheet isn’t about complexity.
It’s about alignment.

Because once the strategy is right, execution gets a lot easier.

💬 Which supply chain model best matches what your business?

♻️ Save this for your supply chain discussions
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Tariffs don’t break supply chains.
They expose the ones that were already brittle...

Every time trade policy shifts, I see the same reaction:

Scramble for exemptions.
Rush to renegotiate.
Search for the loophole.

That’s not strategy.
That’s panic with better vocabulary.

The teams that consistently outperform during tariff changes aren’t smarter at policy.

They’re better at design.

They’ve already built optionality into sourcing.
They already understand total landed cost.
They already treat geography as a variable, not a foundation.

So when tariffs change, they adjust.
Everyone else reacts.

This Ops Note is a reminder of something uncomfortable but useful:

If a tariff forces you into bad decisions, the tariff wasn’t the real problem.

Your supply chain was never designed to flex.

💬 Where do tariffs create the most friction for you today: sourcing, pricing, or margins?

💾 Save this if you’re tired of chasing workarounds
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P.S.  I take a small number of strategy calls each month. They’re direct, practical and focused on where decisions are getting expensive. If that’s useful, reach out.

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Tariff strategy isn't about finding loopholes

Your team challenges you? Good.

It doesn’t mean they’re being difficult.
It doesn’t mean they’re not aligned.

And it definitely doesn’t mean you’re losing control.

Most of the time, it means they care.
They care enough to question assumptions.

Enough to point out risks early.
Enough to push back when something doesn’t make sense.

That only happens when people believe two things:
Their voice matters
Telling the truth won’t cost them

When teams don't feel safe:
They stop challenging.
They start nodding.

And problems get quieter… right up until they’re expensive.

The strongest leaders I know don’t surround themselves with agreement.
They build teams that feel safe enough to say:

“I don’t think this will work.”
“We’re missing something.”
“There’s a better way.”

That friction isn’t dysfunction.
It’s engagement.

And it’s often the difference between catching issues early and reacting too late.

💬 Has someone challenged your thinking lately?

♻️ Repost to encourage constructive conversation

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I asked a logistics partner where a shipment was. 
They said "let me check." 
That was the last time I used them:

I've seen this many times after years of watching ecommerce leaders get burned.

The partners who hesitate aren't being careful. 
They're being caught. 

They've built their operations on duct tape and good intentions and they're hoping you won't notice until it's too late to switch.

Real-time visibility isn't a "nice to have." 
It's how you know whether you're working with a partner or just a middleman with a tracking number. 

The difference shows up in your team's stress levels, your customer complaints, and eventually in your margins.

The leaders who scale without burning out their ops teams? 

They stopped accepting "I'll get back to you" as a normal part of doing business. 

They started treating clarity as a requirement, not a request.

Swipe through for the questions you should be asking and the standards you should STOP apologizing for.

♻️ Repost to help ecommerce teams get real answers

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If your logistics partner can answer in 30s...

Busy teams fail faster than clear ones:

Most organizations don’t lack effort. 

They lack focus. 

That’s why activity scales faster than progress...
and why teams burn out while results plateau. 

Clarity isn’t a communication problem.
It’s a leadership decision. 

💬 What would move faster if priorities were actually clear?

When founders personally manage every supplier issue, margins suffer and teams burn out...

It usually starts with good intentions.

“I’ll just jump on this call.”
“I’ll handle this one myself.”
“It’ll be faster if I do it.”

And in the early days, it often is.

But as the business scales, something quietly breaks.

Supplier conversations start routing around the team.
Decisions get delayed until the founder weighs in.

Issues escalate not because they’re critical but because that’s the habit.

What looks like involvement becomes a bottleneck.

I’ve seen founders spend hours negotiating late shipments, quality issues, and pricing disputes while margins erode elsewhere and teams wait for direction.

Here’s what actually happens when founders stay too close to supplier firefighting:

Suppliers learn who the real decision-maker is
Teams stop owning outcomes and start escalating
Negotiations become emotional instead of strategic
And every issue feels urgent because nothing is systematized

The cost isn’t just time.

It shows up in:
Inconsistent pricing decisions
Missed leverage opportunities
Burned-out leaders doing work beneath their role
Teams that don’t build supplier muscle of their own

The strongest founders I work with make a shift at some point.

They stop being the fixer and become the designer.

They design:

Clear supplier escalation paths
Decision rules teams can actually use
Boundaries around when leadership steps in
And leverage that doesn’t depend on their presence

That’s when margins stabilize.
That’s when teams grow up.
That’s when supplier relationships actually improve.

If your supply chain can’t function without you in the middle of every issue, that’s not control.

That’s fragility.

💬 Where do issues still come straight to you instead of through the system?

♻️ Repost to help founders become designers.
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The signal that tells you scale is hurting you:
It’s not margins...
It’s not lead times...
It’s not even customer complaints.

Those show up later.

The real signal appears much earlier.
It’s when simple decisions start taking longer.

Not because the problems are harder but because everything now requires alignment.

More meetings.
More approvals.
More stakeholders “just to be safe.”

A change that used to take a conversation now needs a deck.

A decision that used to take a day now waits a week.

That’s when scale quietly turns from leverage into friction.

I’ve seen this happen across ecommerce, operations, and supply chains.

The business grows.
Complexity grows with it.
But decision rights don’t evolve.

So teams slow down to protect themselves.

They escalate instead of deciding.
They hedge instead of committing.
They optimize locally instead of acting globally.

And leadership often misreads the signal.

They think the answer is:
Better tools
More reporting
Tighter controls

But the issue isn’t visibility.
It’s clarity.

When scale is working, decisions get lighter, not heavier.

When it’s not, the organization compensates with process.

That’s the warning sign.

Because by the time performance metrics dip, the damage has already been done.

Scale doesn’t break businesses overnight.
It does it quietly...one delayed decision at a time.

💬 Where have you seen scale add friction?

♻️Repost to help others recognize the signal

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Most ecommerce founders don’t have supplier issues.
They have leverage issues:

The supplier won’t prioritize you.

Lead times keep slipping.
MOQs feel unreasonable.
Pricing keeps creeping up.

So founders do what feels logical:

Push harder
Threaten to move volume
Start shopping for replacements

But here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Suppliers don’t respond to pressure.
They respond to leverage.

And leverage rarely comes from yelling louder.
It comes from things most ecommerce brands overlook:

➡️ Optionality
You’re not their only option, but they’re not yours either

➡️Predictability 
You’re easy to plan for

➡️Volume clarity 
They know what’s coming, not just what you want

➡️Strategic importance 
You matter beyond this PO

When a brand has no leverage, every conversation feels adversarial.

When leverage is strong, problems get solved quietly.

I’ve seen founders switch factories three times chasing “better partners” only to recreate the same issues every time.

Because the problem wasn’t the supplier.

It was that the business had:
One source
One country
One production path
And no real alternatives

That’s not a supplier relationship.
That’s dependence.

The brands that win long-term don’t beg for better treatment.
They design leverage into the system:

Multiple qualified sources
Clear demand signals
Fair but firm partnerships
And the ability to walk away if needed

Once leverage exists, the dynamic changes.

Suddenly:
Calls get returned
Capacity opens up
Problems surface earlier

Not because the supplier changed.
Because the balance did.

💬 Where do you need more leverage: sourcing, production, or volume planning?

♻️ Save this to build leverage with your supplies

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Your best customers don't complain when you disappoint them. They just disappear...

Nobody sends a breakup text when their order shows up late again. 

They simply open a new tab, find someone faster, and never look back.

That's what makes silent churn so brutal. 

There's no angry email to respond to. 
No bad review to address. 

Just a slow leak of customers who expected more and quietly went somewhere that delivered it.

Here's what I've seen with ecommerce brands at every stage: 

The delays you've written off as "not that bad" are being felt on the other end. 

Every vague tracking update. 
Every extra 48 hours. 
Every "slight" fulfillment hiccup. 

Your customers experience all of it, even when they don't say a word.

And the scary part? 
Your metrics might look fine. 

Complaints are low. 
Returns are manageable. 

But buried in the data is a reorder rate that should be higher and a lifetime value that's slowly deflating.

Your supply chain isn't just operations. 
It's customer experience infrastructure. 

The brands that treat it that way are the ones building loyalty everyone else is trying to buy back with discounts.

Swipe through for how to stop normalizing the "minor" delays before they normalize leaving.

💾 Save this for the next time you silently lose a customer

➡️Follow Kerim Kfuri for philosophy & leadership insights

P.S. I take a small number of strategy calls each month. They’re direct, practical and focused on where decisions are getting expensive. If that’s useful, reach out.

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